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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does the narrator of "The Piazza" travel to the spot in the mountains that he wants to see?

2. On what holiday does John Gentian converse with passers-by?

3. What causes Captain Delano to suspect Benito Cereno is an impostor?

4. What does the narrator decide to give the apple-tree table when he first discovers it?

5. To what did Captain Delano attribute Benito Cereno's ineffectiveness as captain?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why is the narrator despondent at the beginning of "The Fiddler"?

2. Why doesn't the narrator in "The Piazza" grant Marianna's wish and tell her that he is the resident of the house that she believes contains happiness?

3. What is unusual about the bug that emerges from the apple-tree table in the story of that name?

4. Why does the narrator of "The Lightning Rod Man" compare the salesman to a worm?

5. What does Melville say is the difference between boarding a strange ship and entering a strange house?

6. In "The Lightning Rod Man," why does the narrator pretend to mistake the salesman for the god Jupiter Tonans?

7. What does the bug in the apple-tree table teach the narrator's daughter, Julia?

8. What does the narrator of "The Fiddler" first admire about Hautboy?

9. Why did the Spanish naval board of inquiry at first reject parts of Benito Cereno's deposition?

10. According to the deposition in "Benito Cereno," what would have happened to Captain Delano if he had suspected a mutiny aboard the San Dominick?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Melville often uses a distinctive double negative in description. For example, Captain Delano is described as "undistrustful." Later, he is said to be "not unbewildered," and "not uninfluenced." What is to be gained by using these terms instead of "trusting," "bewildered," and "influenced"? Is there a difference between being undistrustful and trusting? If so, what is it? Find other examples of this peculiarity and analyze its use.

Essay Topic 2

Melville's elegaic pieces about the Marquis de Grandvin and others make clear the qualities he most admires. In your essay, use examples from these writings to show what qualities Melville thinks make for human greatness.

Essay Topic 3

Melville states that Moby Dick operates to do the work of God by killing Radney. A Deus ex Machina (god out of the machine), where an outside source ends the conflict between characters, is a literary device often disparaged. In your essay, consider its effectiveness in this instance and in other Melville short stories where this method is employed.

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