Old Questions Flashcards
Fiction and some biography
neighbour real name? TGG
Jimmy Gatz TGG
Daisy’s sin? TGG
materialism TGG
Lolita antagonist? Presented as?
Clare Quilty. Playwright. Deviant. Corrupting.
Key date motif? TGS
4th August TGS (Britain declares war on Germany in 1914)
Lolita - contemptuous name for wife? Her setting?
Charlotte Haze. Haze woman. Mama. New England
OFO Narrator’s name for authority? Frequent analogy?
OFO The combine. Technology / machinery
Two poor leaders? BD
Chamberlain, Daladier
LITOC Florentino Ariza
The illegitimate son of Tránsito Ariza and Pius V Loayza
Why was Braithwaite irritated by the film version of his novel?
He felt that the interracial love affair was underplayed.
Btw…
Sydney Poitier was the lead.
Lulu sang the theme!
Was 60s, not 50s so music presented differently.
What mountains might have inspired Buzzati?
The Dolomites
TGS Nancy’s fate? SH GI
sacrifices herself goes insane TGS
S5 What happens to Roland Weary?
dies of gangrene
Narrator’s wife? TGS
Florence Hurlbird Dowell
Fitzgerald died? TGG
1940 TGG
LITOC How does Dr. Juvenal Urbino die?
He falls to his death from the mango tree
whiteness represents? TGG
purity / absence TGG
Education secretary? BD
Rust BD
When do the other guests arrive at Zverkov’s dinner?
an hour after he arrives due to a communication failure UM
With what imagined tale does UM torment Liza?
The imagined funeral of a prostitute (like her)
Important place in Berlin? BD
Nuremberg BD
When does UM visit Anton Antonych at home?
to borrow money UM
Disturbing ‘high culture’ observation? BD
theatre opera still good despite purging BD
The Girl’? TGS
Nancy Rufford
OFO Protagonist? Six Christ parallels?
OFO Randale McMurphy. Shaking all hands. Miracles / crown of thorns / apostles / sacrifice / fishing / last supper
Food parcels? BD
sent from soldiers to families BD
OFO Published? Setting? Reaction?
OFO 1962 mental institution. Oregan 1950s Banned
The ‘good soldier’?
Captain Edward Ashburnham
This is the s_ s_ th_ I h_ e_ h_… TGS
saddest story that I have ever heard
LITOC What is Florentia responsible for x3?
death of young girl, death of lover, destruction of environment and river
colour association? TGG
white TGG
When was ‘To Sir with Love’ published and set? Genre? Where set?
Autobiographical novel, set 1945, published 1959
Tough East-End school.
Lolita - how is USA presented?
as ‘new money’. Shabby
Name the protagonist TTS
Giovanni Drogo
OFO Key control metaphor?
OFO controlled fog
Published? TGG
1925 TGG
form? TTS
magical realism TTS
Lolita Published / set / protagonist / places?
1955 pub. 1947 - 52 set. Humbert H. France. USA
LITOC. What is Jeremiah Saint Armour’s biggest secret?
LITOC He has kept a secret mistress for over half of his life
This is the m_ a_ t_ y_ h_ d_ i_ y_ a_ l_ … TGS
most attrocious thing you have done in your attrocious life
Dates covered? BD
Jan 1934 - Dec 1940 BD
Maisie’s fate? (FIS HC) TGS
falls into suitcase (heart condition)
Aspects of POW ‘fantasy’? SH5
Porn star, well endowed, fertile SH5
exploited representatives of working classes? TGG
Myrtle … Myrtle’s fate is among the most tragic, as she is a victim of both her husband as well as people she’s never met. Myrtle is a constant prisoner. In the beginning of the book she’s stuck in the figurative prison of her social class and her depressing marriage. Midway through, however, this immaterial prison becomes literal when George, suspicious that she’s cheating on him, locks her in their rooms above the garage. This situation only amplifies her desperation to escape, which leads to her death in Chapter 7. When she escapes and runs out in front of Gatsby’s car, she does so because she saw Tom driving it earlier in the day; she thinks he’s behind the wheel. Daisy, who doesn’t know Myrtle, is driving the car when it strikes Myrtle down; Daisy doesn’t even stop to see what happened, and escapes without consequences.
OFO “What do … ….. … ..? C…. .. ………? Well…’.. …! Y..’.. …! Y..’.. .. ……. …. … ……. ……. ……. …… … … ……. … ….’s ..!”
OFO “What do you think you are? Crazy or something? Well you’re not! You’re not! Upu’re no crazier than the average *** walking out on the street and that’s it!”
Lolita’s real name? Irony?
Dolores Haze. Doll - objectified. Haze = blurred connection to reality.
LITOC Ofelia tells her mother that love among elderly people is:
Disgusting like Last Tango LITOC
Job? BD
CBS correspondent
Tom’s prejudice? TGG
fear of inter-marriage TGG
Unusual form? SH5
anti-bildungsroman SH5
Revealing moment? TGG
Daisy sobbing at shirts TGG
Trafalmadorian concept of time? (ATES)
all time exists simultaneously SH5
LITOC Author first published what language?
1985 Spanish LITOC
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
What workplace inspired the novel? ANRNS (TTS)
A newspaper room night shift
LITOC Fermina agrees to marry Florentino on the condition that
His mother will not make her eat eggplant LITOC
Why does UM dislike the idea of the Crystal Palace?
He would not be able to stick his tongue out at it
Name of aliens? SH5
Trafalmadorians
LITOC What is the name of the ship aboard which Florentino and Fermina travel?
The New Fidelity LITOC
Key sporting motif? TGS
badminton Nancy’s word
LITOC.How long does Florentino wait to profess his love for Fermina?
Fifty-one years
Why does UM sleep with Liza at his apartment?
to reassert his power UM
UM Why does Apollon not get paid?
UM wants to exert power
LITOC América Vicuña
América Vicuña child lover
Why is Florence deceitful?
heart condition TGS
What has he lost? TGS
moral certitude sense of right and wrong TGS
What does UM put in Liza’s hand before she leaves? Why?
money. Humiliation UM
Describe ‘white privilege’ in ‘To Sir with Love’.
Whiteness more significant than class. His education is irrelevant - he can’t find work despite being brilliantly qualified. He has had to work ‘twice as hard’ to achieve the same result in the past, but after the context of war old prejudices reassert themselves. Although no one calls themselves prejudiced and it isn’t explicit in law, it’s all around him.
LITOC Jeremiah de Saint Armour
Dr. Juvenal Urbino’s Antillean friend
Lolita - HH expresses L’s perspective “He ….. .. ….. . You …… ….. .. …. . “
He broke my heart. You merely broke my life.
When was the novel sent for publication? TTS
1939 TTS
Lacking? BD
hindsight BD
What does Liza show UM before he leaves the brothel
a love letter from a medical student UM
Refrain linked to death? SH5
so it goes
Lolita - HH’s other lovers? x3 AL / V / R?
Annabel Leigh (from Poe) ‘original nymphet’ - Valeria - wife leaves for taxi driver - Rita - drunk
With which philosophical idea does NFU engage?
rational utilitarianism … what we should / ought to seek to maximise
scene of horror TGG
gas station TGG
What comment of Liza’s exposes the artificiality of UM’s words?
you speak somehow … like a book
OFO How does narrator’s mother affect him?
OFO Allows government to take tribe’s land. Damaging.
Why did UM’s one close friendship fail?
he demanded total subservience and hated the friend once he submitted
Name of protagonist? SH5
Billy Pilgrim
Why would Underground Man be pleased if people called him ‘Lazy Bones’?
It would be something by which to define himself UM
LITOC What is the reason for Dr. Urbino and Fermina’s first meeting?
Dr. Urbino makes a housecall to examine Fermina for symptoms of cholera LITOC
LITOC Fermina Daza
The only daughter of Lorenzo Daza and the deceased Fermina Sánchez
OFO Sweetly named prostitute? Similarly named friend?
OFO. Candy. Sandy.
Form? BD
diary BD
Businessman who becomes Nazi Foreign Minister? BD
Ribbentrop BD
How does the setting seem to challenge the content? TTS
Heroic setting
Narrator’s name? TGS
John Dowell
Wife’s first lover? Role? TGS
Jimmy: A cabin boy who travels with the Hurlbirds on their trip around the world, Jimmy becomes Florence’s first lover. Jimmy is of a much lower class than either the Hurlbirds or the Dowells and he continues his affair with Florence by lying to Dowell about Florence’s heart condition. It is an embarrassment that Florence could have an affair with someone so low and ill-mannered.
Set? TGG
NYC West Egg tasteless East Egg old money TGG
Alternative title? SH5
The Children’s Crusade was an event in 1212 when a large group of children attempted to make their way to Jerusalem in order to “reclaim the Holy Land”. It was an enormous disaster as most of the children either perished or were sold into slavery. The alternate title of Slaughterhouse-Five is an allusion to this event, and suggests that all wars end in tragedy, no matter the initial intentions.
The romanticization of war is a major theme in Slaughterhouse-Five, and Vonnegut draws attention to this primarily through the actions of several of his characters.
Mary O’Hare
“You’ll pretend you were men instead of babies, and you’ll be played in the movies by Frank Sinatra and John Wayne or some of those other glamorous, war-loving, dirty old men. And war will look just wonderful, so we’ll have a lot more of them. And they’ll be fought by babies just like the babies upstairs”- Page 14
Lolita - how does language mirror plight?
its oppressive detail mirrors Lolita’s prison - HH considers every detail and utterly controls L’s life
Gatsby’s flaw? TGG
fatally idealistic
Lolita - Deaths of key characters? Reasons?
Nov / Dec 52 - heart failure / child birth
a o f m … s w b o (TGG)
and one fine morning … so we beat on TGG
t w w r f s o o a f (TGG)
tomorrow we will run faster stretch out our arms further TGG
idealised girl? TGG
Daisy Buchanan TGG
Lolita’s first sexual experience?
with Charlie - normal childish experience - not same as repeated rape by HH
Lolita - Most painful word in the novel?
dad (Lolita)
Lolita alternative title? Text format (conceit)?
Confessions of a white widowed male.’ Jail manuscript.
‘To Sir with Love’ … challenge to modern reader’s ability to empathise?
Interesting that casual sexualisation of girls and constant references to their breasts challenge the modern reader’s ability to easily empathise with narrator.
Dream began? TGG
5 year ago TGG
LITOC. Why does Jeremiah Saint Armour kill himself?
LITOC He suffers from fear of aging
OFO Previous leader? ‘Poetish’. Secret? Wife?
OFO Dale Harding. Gay. Nasty.
How does the idea of ‘good people’ link to a theme? TGS
appearance and reality TGS
new money = (TGG)
The Great Gatsby portrays three different social classes: “old money” (Tom and Daisy Buchanan); “new money” (Gatsby); and a class that might be called “no money” (George and Myrtle Wilson). “Old money” families have fortunes dating from the 19th century or before, have built up powerful and influential social connections, and tend to hide their wealth and superiority behind a veneer of civility. The “new money” class made their fortunes in the 1920s boom and therefore have no social connections and tend to overcompensate for this lack with lavish displays of wealth.
The Great Gatsby shows the newly developing class rivalry between “old” and “new” money in the struggle between Gatsby and Tom over Daisy. As usual, the “no money” class gets overlooked by the struggle at the top, leaving middle and lower class people like George Wilson forgotten or ignored.
Key description? SH5
like the surface of the moon
Leonora’s hopes? N EL TGS
normality Edward’s love
Why can’t Germans destroy RAF? BD
GB never commits enough planes BD
Repeated simile linked to inability to describe? “t_ l_ l_ a s_ f_ o_ a b_ q_”
they looked like a silent film of a barbershop quartet
LITOC Keith Booker compares Ariza’s position to that of Humbert Humbert in Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita saying that…
reader seduced into forgiving unforgiveable LITOC
What does UM think of ‘the progress of civilisation’?
an illusion that fails to take into account increasing levels of violence and horror in the previous century UM
Belgians on May 9th 1940? BD
bed in peace, military invade
Education secretary quote BD
God created the world for work and battle BD
Name the fort TTS
Fort Bastiani
With what does Dowell associate ‘normality’? CTABSR
content to abide by society’s rules TGS
Key medical motif? TGS
heart condition TGS
paradox? TGG
outsider on the inside TGG
T w w r f, s o o a f … A t o f m - S w b o, b a t c b b c, i t p. (TGG)
boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
“Tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . And then one fine morning— So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
Gatsby’s singular purpose examples? TGG
As the story unfolds, however, the reader learns more and more what precipitates the mystery: that everything he has done in his adult life has been with the sole purpose of fulfilling the most unrealistic of dreams — to recapture the past.
In one sense, Gatsby’s rags-to-riches success story makes him an embodiment of the American dream. He started life with little, as the son of fairly unsuccessful farmers. By the time he was a young man he had even less, having voluntarily estranged himself from his family, unable to come to terms with the lot he had been dealt in life. While on his own, he had the opportunity to reinvent himself, and due solely to his own ingenuity, Jimmy Gatz evolved into Jay Gatsby. As such, life became much different (although he was missing one key ingredient: money). He was no longer tied to his early years, but could imagine whatever past for himself he desired. And then he fell in love, a fateful incident that would change the course of his life forever. After meeting Daisy, everything he did was for the singular purpose of winning her. Money was, essentially, the issue that prevented their being together, and so Gatsby made sure he would never again be without it. Gatsby’s drive and perseverance in obtaining his goal is, in many senses, commendable. He is a self-made man (in all respects) and as such, is admirable.
However, all positive traits aside, there are aspects of Jay Gatsby that call into question that admiration. Gatsby’s money did not come from inheritance, as he would like people to believe, but from organized crime.
Narrator’s love interest? Profession? TGG
Jordan Baker. Tennis TGG
Year of publication? SH5
1969 SH5
Why does UM follow Simonov and the others to the brothel?
He feels he must encounter reality UM
OFO Female antagonist? Linked motif?
OFO Nurse Ratchett. Castration
OFO Narrator? Style? Reason? Metaphor for esteem?
OFO Chief Bromden. 1st person - past / present. Mixture of realism and surrealism. Reflects paranoia. Size
What are Edward’s weaknesses? TGS
good intentions sentimentality passion TGS
How is Slaughterhouse 5 like Trafalmadorian literature?
simultaneous events - ‘all at once’
Why does UM claim to address his reader?
So he can pretend to himself he has a reason for expressing thoughts and ideas UM
Lolita - theme of doubles?
Quilty / Humbert - Annabel / Lolita - people as dehumanised symbols
What is Florence’s fate? SBP
suicide by poison TGS
Key event? SH5
bombing of Dresden
Daisy’s husband? TGG
Tom Buchanan TGG
Why ends? BD
too much censorship, job impossible BD
LITOC. Dr. Urbino and Fermina Daza’s most serious fight is over
Whether or not there is soap in the bathroom
OFO Almost all women are?
OFO demons or whores
Girl struck by Leonora?
Maisie Maidan
LITOC Setting
Colombia 1800s - 1920s LITOC
Trafalmadorian link to freewill? (NFNMR)
no freewill, no moral responsibility
values? TGG
mid-west hard work
Lolita - how is grief presented? “She .. … .. .. .. “
It’s ignored. “she had nowhere else to go.” / grief for mother also ignored “storm. lightning.”
Roland Weary’s two jobs? (CA O)
chaplin’s assistant opthalmologist
Lolita - Q’s writing partner?
Vivian Darkbloom. anagram. writer. complicity?
Style? TTS
Magic realism TTS
Link to key emotion in novel? SH5
guilt at survival SH5
LITOC How does Jeremiah Saint Amour reveal his secrets to Dr. Juvenal Urbino? -
He divulges them in a suicide note LITOC
OFO BB? Fears? Gospel parallel? Seeking? Disability?
OFO Billy Bibbit. Mother. Judas / suicide. Sexual intimacy. Stutter.
For what does UM say Liza will pay dearly for?
seeing him humiliated UM
Partner? BD
Tess BD
What does UM do after Liza leaves?
Runs out onto the street after her.
Lolita Who is HH really trying to seduce?
the read - horror / abuse made beautiful
‘To Sir with Love’ … link to Heart of Darkness?
Ironically, the narrator is the ‘civilised’ explorer here, looking curiously at the primitive but dignified English. Again ironically, the first apparently racial prejudice described is from middle classes (not these working women). Although they do objectify and sexually harass him!
Tom’s qualities? TGG
brutish puncher
OFO “He who ……. … .. …. ….. ………. ….”
OFO “He who marches out of step
Unusual ‘bookending’? SH5
authorial narration framing narrative SH5
Why does Billy Pilgrim long for time travel? LFP-ES
longs for pre-educated state SH5
narrator? TGG
Nick Carraway TGG
OFO Book might be anti ..? amrhcytrai
OFO anti-feminist. Matriarchy.
LITOC Dr. Juvenal Urbino
Fermina Daza’s husband
Soldier’s wife? TGS
Leonora Ashburnham
What is moral significance of adultery? TGS
destabilising force contract violation TGS
Lolita’s language according to Pratt? “A 242 w… a… of the most common p…….. s….. f….. in by a number of E……. s…….. “ Suggesting?
a 242 word area of the commonest pubescent slang fenced in by a number of European syllabics (metaphor)
What happens to Edgar Derby?
shot for tea-pot theft
