Oral Exam Questions

Class, here are the questions to prepare for the oral exam. Take these, review your texts and come up with articulate and thorough answers to the questions. Each question will be worth 30 points. Good luck and email with any questions.

Prep Questions Summer Oral Exam

The Count of Monte Cristo:
• Is Edmond’s vengeance justified? Consider this question within the contexts of just retribution and the theological implications of a man assuming God’s vengeance.
• Describe the role of Honor in the novel. How do the demands of honor dictate the flow of the novel and the plot? Cite specific characters and their obligations to the code of honor.
• Discuss Edmonds vengeance and how he implements it, with a particular focus on his feelings of justification as the text progresses. In the end, do you think he feels justified in what he did?
The Great Gatsby:
1. Discuss the failure to achieve the American Dream of at least two of the characters in The Great Gatsby. What were these characters striving for, why were they striving for it, and were they successful.
2. Many characters aspire to success in the novel and fail. How can this be read as a commentary by Fitzgerald on the aspiration to worldly success?
3. Describe the character of at least three characters in the text. Is there a relationship between their character and their ends in the novel? If so, describe the connection.
Huck Finn:
• Drawing on many examples from the text, describe how Twain criticizes the south at the time of the novel.
• How does Huck grow as the novel carries on. He is a character who often lets on to be stupider than he actually is, but his fresh outlook on life leads to many insights along his journey. What are these insights and how do these experiences help Huck to grow.
• Compare and contrast a set of characters in the text. What do they have in common and what separates them. Consider their upbringing, the society they live in, and how they act.