LITR 4232:
American Renaissance
Sample Answers from Student Midterms, Spring 2001
Identify & Signify
Passage #3.
Under a government which
imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison . . . .
When I came out of prison,--for some one interfered, and paid the tax,--
. . . a change had to my eyes come over the scene,--the town, and State, and
country,--greater than any that mere time could effect. I saw yet more
distinctly the State in which I lived. . . .
My neighbors first looked at me, and then at one another, as if I had
returned from a long journey. I was put into jail as I was going to the
shoemaker's to get a shoe which was mended. When I was let out the next morning,
I proceeded to finish my errand, and, having put on my mended shoe, joined a
huckleberry party who were impatient to put themselves under my conduct; and in
half an hour,--for the horse was soon tackled [harnessed], I was in the midst of
a huckleberry field, on one of our highest hills, two miles off, and then the
State was nowhere to be seen.
Sample student responses to passage #3.
[complete
answer from email exam]
The passage was written in "Resistance
to Civil Government" by Henry David Thoreau. Thoreau has been hailed
for his Walden book and its call for a return to nature through transcendalism
but "Resistance" was written in response to his growing dislike of
government’s increasing role in the lives of men. The essay has been
read and used by all types of political leaders such as Gandhi and Martin Luther
King for peaceful resistance to government to effect change against a social
wrong. In the passage Thoreau makes the comparison in romantic terms for the
contrast between the prison state he had been in to the huckleberry fields. He
is the hero of the piece who seeks only to live in nature without the
interference of the government. One could make the comparison to Uncas the hero
of the "Last of the Mohicans" who lives similarly in nature not
seeking any trouble with the white man but will resist any attempt to change his
culture. Both Thoreau and Uncas seek to transcend their plights, one by not
paying his taxes through his moral beliefs in the unfairness to pay for a right
that is inherently his and Uncas by attempting to save Cora from Magua for the
moral good. In a romance there is always an obstacle presented in Thoreau’s
case is his imprisonment. The bad guy is the government imposing its will over
him. A rescue is made by the someone who paid against his wishes the tax. The
transcendence is the huckleberry field he goes to upon his release from jail. In
Uncas there is the many rescues of the women against Magua the bad guy who wants
Cora as his own. The transcendence is his death and Cora’s which places beyond
the constraints of the earthly world to rise beyond to a place without barriers
placed between them for the possibility of a love shared. [anonymous blue 2001]
[complete
answer from in-class exam]
Passage 3:
This passage is from Henry David Thoreau’s
"Resistance to Civil Government." Thoreau had just spent the night in
prison for his refusal to pay a poll tax. Thoreau was a believer in what he
called civil disobedience. In civil disobedience a person passively resists
authority. This passage has both romantic elements and elements of nature.
Thoreau can be viewed as a Romantic hero. The night in prison was a journey for
Thoreau. This journey for him was a learning experience. When he came out of
jail the following day he had transcended. He no longer viewed his world in the
same way.
Nature comes in when Thoreau is released and
goes into the huckleberry field. Thoreau’s point at the end of the passage is
that the State cannot exist in nature. Nature is above governmental affairs. [LQ
2001]
[excerpt
from email exam]
This passage is from Thoreau’s Resistance
to Civil Government. In an effort to exert his independence and protest,
Thoreau refused to pay poll taxes. Consequently, he was jailed for this
exertion. Somewhat similar to Rip Van Winkle’s new vision after being
separated from society, Thoreau sees "the State" through enlightened
eyes. . . . [JT 2001]
[excerpt
from in-class exam]
[Thoreau’s] time of reflection cleared his
vision/mind so that he could see where he had been and better understand his
natural state. Additionally, Irving explores in Rip Van Winkle the idea
that isolation provides a new perspective. However, in Rip’s case he went back
to his "old walks and old habits." Thoreau would argue that Rip missed
the point: one escapes only if one does not go back to the trappings of social
conformity. [SN 2001]
[excerpt
from in-class exam]
From Passage #3 on Thoreau’s "Civil
Disobedience"--
This passage comes from Thoreau’s
"Civil Disobedience" and concerns the time he was thrown into jail for
refusing to pay taxes. Thoreau believes that cooperating with a government that
tries to interfere with individual morality is like participating and accepting
the government’s crimes. Therefore, doing the right thing may cause one
discomfort, such as being jailed, for standing up for themselves and their
rights. Once Thoreau is out of jail, he notices how things really look. It is
similar to being away from your usual surroundings -- once you return, things
look different, maybe clearer to you as though seeing it for the first time.
Thoreau heads for the "huckleberry fields," or rather nature, because
it is here that government cannot interfere, and we get to go back to when
things were simple, uncomplicated by society’s influences. [LL 2001]
[excerpt
from in-class exam]
This is a great passage because Thoreau is
saying even when you are not in a physical prison, by simply being a member of
society, and under the rules of government, you are still in prison. At no time
are you free to do what you please to do, so you must find a way (journey or
quest) that appeals to you, yet complies with the rules of being governed. [KF
2001]