Four short answered questions based on 4 short story works

There are four essay questions that ALL need to be answered. Provide short answers of no less than ½ page typed and double spaced.

1. Based on the excerpt provided from Upton Sinclair’s book, The Jungle (1906), we learned that The Jungle was responsible for laws being passed that changed how things were done in slaughterhouses. Sandburg’s poem “Chicago” (1914) supports ideas about unfair labor practices of the early 20th century that Sinclair presents in The Jungle. Write a short answer of at least ½ page typed and double-spaced that discusses the terrible labor practices in The Jungle and how Sandburg’s poem “Chicago” supports Sinclair’s claims.

2. Fitzgerald came to regard “Babylon Revisited” as one of his most important stories. He gave it pride of place as the last story in his 1935 collection Taps at Reveille; he called it a “magnificent story” in a 1940 letter to his daughter; and to another correspondent he described it as one of the benchmarks in his evolution as a writer: “You see, I not only announced the birth of my young illusions in ‘This Side of Paradise,’ but pretty much the death of them in some of my last Post stories like ‘Babylon Revisited’.” It is my own belief that Fitzgerald was also writing about the whole American modernist movement in Paris of the 1920s, as the story was written/published in 1931, two years after the beginning of the Great Depression. Write a short answer of least ½ page typed and double-spaced discussing how this story could present the death of Fitzgerald’s illusions. You may have to do a little research.

3. With the entry of the Beats into the American writer/poet scene in the mid-20th Century, we also begin to visualize the American travel narrative (road trip) that is so intricately woven into American ideology. Connections are forged between the American Dream and the ability to be free and go wherever Americans please. From the earliest days in American literature, the road trip has been part of the scene, but at no time more so during the 20th century with the advent of the automobile. Jack Kerouac’s On the Road is representative of the love affair Americans had and still have with the Road Trip. Write a short answer of least ½ page typed and double-spaced discussing how On the Road is representative of the Road Narrative (Road Trip).

4. Consider Ernest Hemingway’s short story “Hills Like White Elephants.” I consider this an amazing story because of the content. The modernists were unafraid of tackling touchy subjects such as relationships, abortion, and the lack of consideration for another person. Write a short answer of least ½ page typed and double-spaced discussing your own reaction to Hemingway’s story.