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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 effect does Marx say Emerson foresaw for industrialism?

2. What does Marx say Thoreau wanted people to do in nature?

3. What 'sealed the fate' of American industrialism, according to Marx?

4. What role has literature played in the formation of the culture Marx describes in 'The Machine in the Garden'?

5. What structures does Marx use as examples of how modern man mistreats nature?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was the dark side of industrialism, in most writers' eyes?

2. What is the 'Garden of Ashes' a reference to?

3. How would you describe the genre shift at the end of 'The Machine in the Garden'?

4. How does Marx categorize modern man's attitude toward the pastoral ideal in terms of the authors he has analyzed?

5. What is complex pastoral ideology, and where does Marx see it in evidence?

6. What critique did Carlyle make of industrialism?

7. What was America's first response to steam power in England?

8. What is the role of industry in Melville's Moby Dick?

9. What does fire symbolize in Hawthorne's 'The Unpardonable Sin'?

10. What is the purpose of an epilogue?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the value of farming today? What ideological value does the small farm have? What is the reality of farming--is it agribusiness, or are small farms making a comeback? What forces are affecting the shape of farms in America? Is this a result of shifts in American pastoral ideology, or is it driving a new kind of pastoral ideology?

Essay Topic 2

Some writers describe pastoralism as a contradiction or paradox, between the good life and civilization on one hand and savagery on the other. How do authors strike this paradox, without falling off into a fixed idea, or stable definition, on one hand, or all-encompassing overreach on the other? How do authors keep the paradox alive?

Essay Topic 3

How does Marx define the term pastoral ideology, and how does he describe the terms' uses? What uses does the term have, if it can be used for everything from social activities to government policies to literary themes? Is pastoralism always the same phenomena, or is it different depending on its application?

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