PART 1: THE SHORT STORY

1) The way in which a story is told affects our reading of the story and our understanding of the main characters. In literature, we call the narrative perspective, or the eyes through which we learn about what happens in a story, ___________________________. The main character is commonly referred to as the _______________________________.

2) In class, we looked at a number of different short stories. In the following, I would like you to consider three of them. In John ___________’s The Country Husband, in Raymond Carver’s ______________, and in Charlotte Gilman Perkins’ The _______ Wallpaper, we are confronted with three different narrative perspectives, or ways in which the stories are told. In The Country Husband, we find a ___________________________ narrator, in Carver a _________________________ narrator, and in Perkins a _________________________narrator (your choices here are: 3^rd person omniscient, 1^st person limited, and 3^rd person limited omniscient—choose the one that fits the story best and place it in the corresponding blank).

3) Briefly describe how our understanding and perception of the main characters is affected by the narrative perspective in each story. What do we learn and what remains hidden from us? And why do you think the writer chose this specific narrative technique to relate his story?

PART 2: POETRY

In the second part of the exam you are asked to consider the attached poem. Please, read the text of the poem carefully and answer a few questions in response to your reading.