English 201 Exam Spring 2004
In all the works we have read so far, identity is a central subject:
characters want to
be sure they know who they are and that the world recognizes that true
self. Characters
have two major sets of skills with which to protect and preserve
identity: A) analysis
(which includes acts of interpretation, reading signs, figuring things
out) and B)
expression (which includes speech, physical appearance, taking action).
Focusing on either analysis or expression, write an organized essay
exploring identity in
Electra, Arabian Nights, and Tears of the Giraffe. Refer to at least
one of the passages
below from each of these three works, being careful to identify the
characters and the
situation in each case (do not just say "in passage 4 someone says . .
. ").
1. ELECTRA. What, is this the man
Whom only I found faithful out of many--
When our sire perished?
ORESTES. Once for all, 'tis he.
ELECTRA. O happy day! O only savior
Of Agamemnon's house! How art thou come hither!
Art thou the man who out of many woes
Dids't save both him and me? O hands most dear!
O feet, most grateful for your ministry!
How could'st thou so long hide thee in my presence,
And kill me with false words, and shew me not,
Knowing all the while, the sweet reality?
O welcome, father! in thee I seem to see
A father! Welcome! Surely of all men thee
Within one day I have hated most--and love!
2. GUARDIAN: Then the whole host, that saw him
Precipitated from the driving-board,
Lifted their voices to bewail the youth
Who did such feats, and met with such hard fate,
Now dashed upon the ground, now seen with limbs
All upward flung to heaven; till chariot-men
Hardly restrained the steeds in their career,
And loosed him, bathed in blood, so that no friend,
Seeing the poor body, could have known 'twas he.
Then certain Phocians, ordered for the task,
Straightway consumed it on a funeral pile,
And hither in a little urn they bring
That mighty stature, in poor embers now,
To win a tomb in his own father's land.
Such is my tale; right piteous in the telling;
But in the sight of us, who witnessed it,
The saddest thing of all I ever saw.
3. "I must not allow this villain advantage over my lord, but by some
means I must make
void his project and at once put an end to the life of him."
Accordingly, the trusty
slave-girl changed her dress with all haste and donned such clothes as
dancers wear; she
veiled her face with a costly kerchief; around her head she bound a
fine turband, and
about her middle she tied a waist-cloth worked with gold and silver
wherein she stuck a
dagger, whose hilt was rich in filigree and jewelry. Thus disguised she
said to the
slave-boy Abdullah, "Take now thy tambourine that we may play and sing
and dance in honor
of our master's guest." So he did her bidding and the twain went into
the room, the lad
playing and the lass following.
4. Accordingly I hope that thy highness will deign be mild and merciful
and pardon this
boldness on the part of me and my child and refrain to punish us
therefore." . . . And
she seeing the Sultan laugh in lieu of waxing wroth at her words,
forthright opened the
wrapper and set before him the bowl of jewels, whereby the
audience-hall was illumined as
it were by lustres and candelabra; and he was dazed and amazed at the
radiance of the
rare gems, and he fell to marveling at their size and beauty and
excellence and cried,
"Never at all until this day saw I anything like these jewels for size
and beauty and
excellence: nor deem I that there be found in my treasury a single one
like them." Then
he turned to his Minster and asked, "What sayest thou, O Wazir? Tell
me, hast thou seen
in thy time such mighty fine jewels as these?
5. The girl picked up Setswana quite quickly. She found ways of making
a few pula by
collecting empty bottles from the edge of the road and taking them back
to the bottle
store for the deposit. She carried the baby on her back, tied in a
sling, and never let
him leave her sight. I spoke to the nurse about her, and I understand
that although she
was a child herself, she was a good mother to the boy. She made his
clothes out of scraps
that she found here and there, and she kept him clean by washing him
under the tap in the
nurse's backyard. Sometimes she would go and beg outside the railway
station, and I think
that people sometimes took pity on them and gave them money, but she
preferred to earn it
if she could.
6. "Was he from the village?" asked Mma Ramotswe.
Mma Potsane laughed. "No, he wasn't one of us. He was from Francistown.
His father was
headmaster there and he was a very clever man. This one too, the son;
he was very clever.
He knew many things. That was why the American was always talking to
him. The German
didn't like him, though. Those two were not friends."
Mma Ramotswe studied the photograph, and then gently took it off the
wall and tucked it
into her pocket. Mma Potsane had moved away, and she joined her,
peering into the next
room. Here, on the floor, there lay the skeleton of a large bird,
trapped in the house,
and unable to get out. The bones lay where the bird must have fallen,
picked clean by
ants.