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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. What does the following sentence mean? "Rather the ice than their way: to take what is mine by single strength, theirs by the crookedness of their law."

2. What pet is Ponce de Leon especially attached to?

3. Who is Freydis?

4. Why does Cortez finally burn the city?

5. Why is Ponce de Leon free to go exploring in Florida?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was Montezuma's life like in the capital?

2. What does Williams think about Lincoln's assassin?

3. What role does Williams say that Edgar Allen Poe plays in American literature?

4. How is Morton treated by his captors?

5. What happens to Columbus' sailors when the weather is bad and the ships go through violent storms?

6. What were some of the dangers faced by sailors on ships during a battle at sea?

7. What is the one moral failing that Williams mentions that George Washington has? How does this failing affect Washington?

8. How do Columbus' voyages east, returning to Spain, differ from his voyages west, heading to the New World?

9. Why was Eric the Red exiled from Iceland?

10. Why does George Washington not especially want to be President?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Are the American Grain and the character of the New World identical, or are they different? Write an essay in which you explain how William Carlos Williams might answer this question. Support your answer with evidence from In the American Grain.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay in which you compare and contrast the characters of Thomas Morton and Cotton Mather. How are the two men similar? How are they different? Could they have gotten along if they had lived in the same community? Why or why not? Use evidence from In the American Grain to support your answer.

Essay Topic 3

In "Descent," Williams remarks, "There is nothing for a man but genius or despair." At the time, Williams was writing about Sam Houston. However, he makes the remark more generally. Consider the other historical figures who are included in this book. Can it be said of each of them that there was nothing for them but genius or despair? Pick three historical figures from In the American Grain. Write an essay reflecting on whether or not Williams' statement about genius and despair is true for each of the people you choose. Support your arguments with evidence from In the American Grain.

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