Essay Questions

On a 3” by 5” index card or paper, prepare an outline for each of these possible essay questions. Be sure to include brief quotes to use as evidence in your essay. We will select one of these questions at random just before the test. You may use only your index card for reference during the test.

1. Compare and contrast the character Dexter from Fitzgerald’s “Winter Dreams” with the character George from Anderson’s “Sophistication.” You may consider their actions, thoughts, speech, and/or physical descriptions. You may also consider how each character is perceived by others.

2. One common theme in modern fiction is the realization that isolation and loneliness are typical of the human condition. Explore how Anderson develops this theme in “Sophistication.”

3. As above, but explore how Hemingway develops the same theme in “In Another Country.”

Ernest Hemingway Notes

Stay tuned for essay questions.

Ernest Hemingway was a handsome young man.



Early life
b. 1899, Oak Park, IL (near Chicago)
Father was a doctor
Grew up athletic, outdoorsy
Loved boxing

Young Adulthood
School newspaper and literary magazine
WWI, 1917, tried to enlist, rejected (boxing injury)
Became a reporter, Kansas City Star

Europe
1918, joined the Red Cross ambulance corps
Severely wounded on Italian front
Hospital in Milan
Returned to U.S. and reporting
Sherwood Anderson

Return to Europe
1921, became foreign correspondent
American ex-patriates in Paris
Gertrude Stein, simplicity in writing

Success and fame
Won the Nobel Prize for Literature (1954)
Hunting, deep-sea fishing, boxing, bullfighting
Lived in Cuba, later moved to Idaho

Behind the scenes
Big persona, depression, alcoholism
d. 1961, self-inflicted gunshot

Notable Works
In Our Time
The Sun Also Rises
A Farewell to Arms
For Whom the Bell Tolls
The Old Man and the Sea
A Movable Feast (posthumous)