Please print your name:_____________________________________

Humanities 221 (Western Humanities II),  Professor Easton

Final Exam         May 13, 2002

Write your SHORT ANSWERS in blue books and both LONG ESSAYS on notebook paper.  When you hand in your exam you will staple this sheet to the top of the long essays.

The manner in which you express yourself affects our response to your essays.  If we must figure out what you are trying to say, you haven't effectively answered the question.  Remember to cite CONCRETE EXAMPLES, making your response as DETAILED as possible.  Explain context, even when you are not explicitly requested to do so.  Your ability to assimilate information from the background lectures into your discussion of the texts will enhance your answers.

Part I.  Choose a total of five of the following short answer questions, and write a FULL answer for each in clear, understandable prose.  Each answer is worth 10 points (50 points total). Length=a long paragraph or page (in small bluebook), depending on the size of your handwriting.  Remember, answer everything that is IMPLIED by the question. DO NOT REWRITE THE QUESTIONS WHEN YOU WRITE YOUR ANSWERS.

CHOOSE one or two of the following:

1.      What is Clarissa Dalloway's relationship with Septimus Warren Smith?

2.      What are the characteristics of modern fiction exemplified by Mrs. Dalloway?

3.      Why are Peter Walsh and Sally Seton important to Clarissa Dalloway?

CHOOSE one or two of the following:

1.      How does Freud's explanation of the "oceanic feeling" contrast with the explanation given by his friend?

2.      According to Freud, how does the agency of guilt develop in the individual, and what role does it play?

3.      Why would Freud claim that women are antagonistic to civilization?

CHOOSE one or two of the following:

1.      Explain the difference between the "Nurenberg Laws" and the "Nurenberg Trials."

2.      Discuss three reasons for Primo Levi's "survival" in Auschwitz.

3.      In what way is Dante's Inferno a commentary on Auschwitz in Levi's memoir?

Part II.  This essay is based on books read since the last exam.  Explore this question thoroughly in a complete essay.  (30 points).

Hobbes declared that humans are inherently evil by nature.  The philosophes, in contrast, viewed humans as naturally good but corrupted by social institutions.  What does Freud think of human nature?  Would Primo Levi and Virginia Woolf agree with Freud's views on human nature?  Be certain to support your arguments with specific examples from the relevant books.

Part III.  This essay is a cumulative essay that requires you to reflect on the books studied throughout the semester. (20 points)

Aliens have landed in Geneseo and enrolled in Humanities 221.  Assuming that their only experience of our civilization is their time in Humanities class and that their most cherished values are liberty, equality, and fraternity, what opinions would they form about Western Civilization?  Remember to base your arguments solely on the materials from this course (as aliens would have to).  Make reference to at least five of the course readings.

Grading: PART I: 9-10=A; 8=B; 7=C; 6=D; 5 and below=failing.

PART II: 27-30=A; 24-26=B; 21-23=C; 18-20=D; 17 and below=failing

PART III: 18-20=A; 16-17=B; 14-15=C; 12-13=D, 11 and below=failing