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MIDTERM EXAM QUOTE GUIDE
English 211: American Literature I (Summer 2009)
Your mid-term exam will take place during class on Tuesday, June 9, 2009. You will have to identify five quotes for
the exam (selected from the quotations submitted by you and redistributed in class by me). You will need to give the
title of the piece, the author of the piece, and give two or three thoughtful sentences on the quote explaining its
importance in the context of the course. In addition, you will need to prepare an essay exam prep card using the
following specifications:
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The card may be no bigger than 5" x 8".
Your name must appear in the upper right corner of the card (with a horizontal orientation so that the
longest side is at top).
A clear space at the top left corner should be left blank for stapling.
You may record quotes on the card, but each quote on the card needs to appear in the essay. Listing other
quotes in an attempt to have the answers to the ID section is not allowed. Quotes are expected in the essay
since you can prepare ahead of time. Record the page numbers on the card and in the essay, but a works
cited is not required.
You may not write out the essay on the card, but you may outline the key points.
Failure to follow these directions will result in the card not being allowed during the exam.
I will inspect the card before the exam starts. You may wish to show up early to get my approval.
You may choose from one of the following questions for your essay:
Essay Option 1:
Early American Literature is often described as “first contact” literature: descriptions of what happens when two
cultures meet for the very first time. Pick a particular first contact experience and analyze how one side of the
encounter attempts to deal with the other group. What cultural knowledge or standards do they use to evaluate the
behavior or cultural position of the other? How do they attempt to interact with the other group? What justifications
do they use to explain this kind of interactions? What does this suggest about that particular colonial encounter? You
may use several texts or focus on one text closely.
Essay Option 2:
We’ve read a lot of the traditional “founding literature” of the United States—and a lot that you may never have
heard of. Using several key texts, I would like for you to engage in an activity that is as old as the United States
itself: attempt to describe the American character as envisioned by the founding fathers and mothers. What qualities
do our earliest writers idealize—and how do those ideas agree with or differ from their actions? What do these
observations suggest about the American character?
Essay Option 3:
The role of religion in the development of the American character is one of the timeless debates that various factions
argue, even today. Given the scope of the readings in the course, how have religious philosophies helped shape
American culture?
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Quote Options:
On the exam, I will give 10+ quotes. You will need to identify 5 of the quotes, giving the author, title, and several
sentences detailing the significance of the quotes. Below are the quotes you submitted as a class for consideration.
The exam quotes will come from this list.
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QUOTE: Then a person emerged from the sea foam and crawled out upon the log. He was sitting there. Another
person crawled up, on the other side of the log. It was a woman. They were whites. Soon the Indians saw them,
and at first thought, that they were sea-gulls, and they said among themselves, “Are they not white people?” Then
they made a boat and went out to look at the strangers more closely.
SOURCE: Yuchi myth. Creation of the Whites. Vol. A. Pg. 65
QUOTE: The Indians agreed to it, the whites came to the shore, and they have lived there ever since
SOURCE: Yuchi. Creation of the Whites. Vol A. Pg.65
QUOTE: Then the chief of Awatovi sent word by this boy that all priests would be killed on the fourth day after the
full moon. They had no calendar and that was the best way they had of setting the day. In order to make sure that
everyone would rise up and this on the fourth day they boy was given a cotton string with knots in it and each day he
was to untie one of these knots until they were all out and that would be the day of the attack.
SOURCE: Hopi myth. The Coming of the Spanish and the Pueblo Revolt.Vol. A. Pg 203
QUOTE: They were so sacred that they could do nothing but allow themselves to be made slaves
SOURCE: Hopi. The Coming of the Spanish and the Pueblo Revolt. Vol A. Pg.204
QUOTE: Any man in power that was in this position the Hopi called Tota-achi, which means a grouchy person that
will not do anything himself, like a child. They couldn’t refuse, or they would be slashed to death or punished in
some way.
SOURCE: Hopi The Coming of the Spanish and the Pueblo Revolt (Hopi). Vol. A. Pg. 205
QUOTE: For they so bring the matter about by their laws that the ground which before was neither good nor
profitable for the one nor the other is now sufficient and fruitful enough for them both.
SOURCE: Thomas More. Utopia. Vol. A pg. 109
QUOTE: For they count this the most just cause of war, when any people, holdeth a piece of ground void and
vacant, to no good or profitable use, keeping others from the use and possession of it, which notwithstanding by the
law of nature ought thereof to be nourished and relieved
SOURCE: Thomas Moore. (from) Utopia. Vol A. Pg.109
QUOTE: But if the inhabitants of that land will not dwell with them, to be ordered by their laws, then they drive
them out of those bounds which they have limited and appointed out for themselves.
SOURCE: Thomas More, Of Utopia. Vol A. Pg. 109
QUOTE: These nations then, seem to me barbarous in this sense that they have been fashioned very little by the
human mind, and are still very close to their original naturalness.
SOURCE: Michel de Montaigne. Of Cannibals. Vol A. Pg.109
QUOTE: Here the men could not stand it; they complained of the long voyage. But the Admiral encouraged them as
best he could, giving them good hope of the benefits that they would be able to secure. And he added that it was
useless to complain since he had come to find the Indies and thus had to continue the voyage until he found them,
with the help of Our Lord.
SOURCE: Christopher Colombus. The Diario of Christopher Colombus’s First Voyage to America 1492-1493. Pg.
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57.
QUOTE: Of all these nations God our lord gave charge to one man called St. Peter, that he should be lord and
superior to all the men in the world, that all should obey him, and that he should be the head of the whole human
race, wherever men should live, and under whatever law, sec, or belief they should be; and he gave him the world
for his jurisdiction.
SOURCE: Palacios Rubios. Requerimento. Vol A. Pg.115
QUOTE: And also they received and obeyed the priests whom their highnesses sent to preach to them and to teach
them our holy faith; and all these, of their own free will, without any reward or condition have become Christians,
and are so, and the highnesses have joyfully and graciously received them, and have also commanded them to be
treated as their subjects and vassals; and you too are held and obliged to do the same.”
SOURCE: Palacios Rubios. Requermiento. Vol A. Pg. 115.
QUOTE: Wherefore, as best we can, we ask and require that you consider what we have said to you, and that you
take the time that shall be necessary to understand and deliberate upon it, and that you acknowledge the Church as
the ruler and superior of the whole world, and the high priest called Pope, and in his name the king and queen Doña
Juana our lords, in his place, as superiors and lords and kings of these islands and this mainland by virtue of the said
donation, and that you consent and permit that these religious fathers declare and preach to you the aforesaid.
SOURCE: Palacios Rubios. Requerimiento. Vol. A pg. 115
QUOTE: “shall leave you your wives and your children and your lands free without servitude, that you may do with
them and yourselves freely what you like and think best, and they shall not compel you to turn Christians unless you
yourselves, when informed of the truth”
SOURCE: Palacios Rubios. Requerimiento. Vol. A pg. 115
QUOTE: But if you do not do this or if you maliciously delay in doing it, I certify to you that with the help of God
we shall forcefully enter into your country and shall make war against you in all way and manners that we can, and
shall subject you to the toke and obedience of the Church and of their highnesses; we shall take you and your wives
and your children and shall make slaves of them, and shall sell and dispose of them as their highnesses may
command; and we shall take away your goods and shall do to you all the harm and damage that we can, as to cassals
who do not obey and refuse to receive their lord and resist and contradict him; and we protest that the deaths and
losses which shall accrue from this are your fault, and not that of their highnesses, or our, or of these soldiers who
come with us.
SOURCE: Palacios Rubios. Requerimiento. Vol. A pg. 115
QUOTE: We told the natives that we were going in search of that people, to order them not to kill nor make slaves
of them, nor take them from their lands, nor do other injustice. Of this the Indians were very glad.
SOURCE: Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca. Relation. Vol A. Pg.149
QUOTE: Our countrymen became jealous at this, and caused their interpreter to tell the Indians that we were of
them, and for a long time we had been lost; that they were lords of the land who must be obeyed and served.
SOURCE: Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca. Relation. Vol A. Pg.151
QUOTE: After this we had many high words with them; for they wished to make slaves of the Indians we brought.
SOURCE: Cabeza de Vaca. Relation of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca. Vol A. Pg. 151.
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QUOTE: For Gentlemen, what excersise should more delight them, then ranging dayly those unknown pars, using
fowling and fishing, for hunting and hawking?
SOURCE: John Smith, A Description of New England. Vol A. Pg. 265
QUOTE: And I have nothing to comfort me, nor there is nothing to be gotten here but sickness and death, except
that one had money to lay out in some things for profit. But I have nothing at all- no, not a shirt to my back but two
rags (2), nor no clothes but one poor suit, not but one pair of shoes…
SOURCE: Richard Frethorne. to His Parents (Virginia, 1623.) Vol A. Pg 270.
QUOTE: saith if you love me you will redeem me suddenly, for which I do entreat and beg. And if you cannot get
the merchants to redeem me for some little money, then for God’s sake get a gathering or entreat some good folks to
lay out some little sum of money in meal and cheese and butter and beef.
SOURCE: Richard Frethorne. Richard Frethorne, to His Parents. Vol A. Pg. 271.
QUOTE: “And he said he is not able to keep us all. Then we shall be turned up to the land and eat barks of trees or
molds of the ground; therefore with the weeping tears I beg of you to help me.
SOURCE: Richard Frethorne. Richard Frethorne to his Parents. Vol A 273
QUOTE: But this is certain; I never felt the want of father and mother till now; but now, dear friends, full well I
know and rue it, although it were too late before I knew it…
SOURCE: Richard Frethorne, Richard Frethorne, to His Parents. Vol A. Pg. 273
QUOTE: There was a proud and very profane young man, one of the seamen, of a lusty, able body, which made him
the more haughty; he would alway be contemning the poor people in their sickness and cursing them daily with
grievous execrations; and did not let to tell them that he hoped to help cast half of them overboard before they came
to their journey’s end, and to make merry with what they had; and if he were by any gently reproved, he would curse
and swear, most bitterly. But it pleased God before they came half seas over, to smite this young man with a
grievous disease, of which he died in a desperate manner, and so was himself the first that was thrown overboard.
Thus curses light on his own head, and it was an astonishment to all his fellows for they noted it to be the just hand
of God upon him
SOURCE: William Bradford. Of Plymouth Plantation. Vol A. Pg.326
QUOTE: “Our fathers were Englishmen which came over this great ocean, and were ready to perish in the
wilderness; but they cried unto the Lord, and He heard their voice and looked on their adversity”
SOURCE: William Bradford. Of Plymouth Plantation. Vol. A Pg 329
QUOTE: That when they came ashore they would use their own liberty, for none had power to command them, the
patent they had being for Virginia and not for New England, which belonged to another government, with which the
Virginia Company had nothing to do. And partly that such an act by them done, this their condition considered,
might be as firm as any patent, and in some respects more sure.
SOURCE: William Bradford. Of Plymouth Plantation. Vol A. Pg. 329.
QUOTE: Having undertaken, for the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith and Honour of our King
and Country, a Voyage to plant the First Colony in the Northern Parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and
mutually in the presence of God and one of another, Covenant and Combine ourselves together into a Civil Body
Public, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid
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SOURCE: William Bradford. The Mayflower Compact, (from) Of Plymouth Plantation. Vol A. Pg330
QUOTE: But this Morton abovesaid, having more craft than honesty (who had been kind of a pettifogger of
Furnival’s Inn) in the others’ absence watches and opportunity (commons being but hard amongst them) and got
some strong drink and other junkets and made them a feats; and after they were merry, he began to tell them he
would give them good counsel.
SOURCE: William Bradford. Of Plymouth Planation. Vol A. Pg.334.
QUOTE: They also set up a maypole, drinking and dancing about it many days together, inviting the Indian women
for their consorts, dancing and frisking together like so many fairies, or furies, rather; and worse practices.
SOURCE: William Bradford. Of Plymouth Plantation. Vol A. Pg. 335.
QUOTE: So powerful is the mighty hand of the Lord, as to make both the earth and sea to shake and the mountains
to tremble before Him, when He pleases. And who can stay His hand?
SOURCE: William Bradford. Of Plymouth Plantation. Vol. A pg. 340
QUOTE: Every male, after hee attaines unto the age which they call Pubes, wereth a belt about his middell, and a
broad peece of lether that goeth betweene his leggs and is tuckt up both before and behinde under that belt; and this
they weare to hide their secreats of nature, which by no means they will suffer to be seene, so much modesty they
use in that particular….
SOURCE: Thomas Morton. New England. Vol. A. Pg. 296
QUOTE: It is a thing to be admitted , and indeed made a president, that a Nation yet uncivilized should more respect
age then some nations civilized, since there are so many precepts both of divine and humane writers extant to
instruct more Civil Nations:…
SOURCE: Thomas Morton. New English Canaan. Vol. A. Pg. 297
QUOTE: [They] prepared to sett up a Maypole upon the festival day of Philip and Jacob, and therefore brewed a
barrel of excellent beare and provided a case of bottles, to be spent, with other good cheare, for all comers that day.
And because they would have it in a compleat forme, they had prepared a song fitting to the time and present
occasion.
SOURCE: Thomas Morton. (from) New English Canaan” from Chapter XIV: Of the Revells of New Canaan. Vol A.
Pg 301
QUOTE: Cropt by th’ Almighty’s hand; yet is He good./ With dreadful awe before Him let’s be mute / Such was
His will, but why, let’s not dispute,/ With humble hearts and mouths put in the dust,/ Let’s say He’s merciful as well
as just.
SOURCE: Anne Bradstreet. "On My Dear Grandchild Simon Bradstreet, Who Died on 16 November, 1669, being
but a Month, and One Day Old." Vol. A pg. 408
QUOTE: I blest His name that gave and took,/ That laid my goods now in the dust./Yea, so it was, and so ‘twas
just./ It was His own, it was not mine,
SOURCE: Anne Bradstreet. "Upon the Burning of Our House July 10th, 1666." Vol A. Pg. 409.
QUOTE: The consideration of these things and mane the like would soon turn me to my own religion again.
SOURCE: Anne Bradstreet, To My Dear Children. Vol A. Pg. 412
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QUOTE: My love is such that rivers cannot quench / Nor ought but love from thee, give recompense./ Thy love is
such I can no way repay.
SOURCE: Anne Bradstreet. To My Dear and Loving Husband. Vol A. Pg.406
QUOTE: The Devil Attacks the People of God
SOURCE: Cotton Mather. The Wonders of the Invisible World. Vol A. Pg.509
QUOTE: You deny your Master in Heaven, if you do nothing to being your Servants unto the Knowledge and
Service of that glorious Master.
SOURCE: Cotton Mather. The Negro Christianized. Vol. A pg. 528
QUOTE: The vast improvement that Education has made upon some of them, argues that there is a Reasonable Soul
in all of them.
SOURCE: Cotton Mather. The Negro Christianized. Vol A. Pg. 529
QUOTE: Christianity will be the best cure for barbarity.
SOURCE: Cotton Mather. The Negro Christianized. Vol A. Pg.530.
QUOTE: The Babtised then are not thereby entitled unto their Liberty.
SOURCE: Cotton Mather. The Negro Christianized. Vol A. Pg.531
QUOTE: people enter the world in a state of total depravity and carry no disposition to good or bad action.
SOURCE: Jonathan Edwards Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God Vol A. Pg. 646
QUOTE: That they were always exposed to destruction; as one that stands or walks in slippery places is always
exposed to fall.
SOURCE: John Edwards. Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. Vol. A Pg. 667.
QUOTE: The wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the present; they increase more and more, and
rise higher and higher, till an outlet is given and the longer the stream is stopped, the more rapid and might is its
course when once it is let loose.
SOURCE: Jonathan Edwards. Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. Vol. A pg. 671
QUOTE: “Europeans settlers and those of the Africans they enslaved, the “Indians” they slaughtered, and the Asians
they indentured were not, even situations of the most extreme brutality, sealed off hermetically from each other,
then so be it.”
SOURCE: Paul Gilroy: The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness. Vol A. pg 137
QUOTE: One coinage that recurs throughout the book is the term “contact zone,” which I use to refer to the space of
colonial encounters, the space in which people geographically and historically separated some into contact with each
other and establish ongoing relations, usually involving conditions of coercion, radical inequality, and intractable
conflict.
SOURCE: Mary Louise Pratt. (from) Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturatio.n Vol A. Pg136