Your responses should be a minimum of 200 words per question, MS Word format with a 12-point font, Arial or Times New Roman. In each of the questions, you need to defend your response and cite the page(s) that you derived your answers from. 1. In Alcott’s story, Little Women, Alcott’s greatest strength is said to be her power to create realistic dialogue and interesting characters. Comment and compare the language Alcott uses to portray the speech of the four March girls. Are their individual characters evident in their speech? Can each sister be distinguished by the language she uses? Clearly define your answer with examples, page numbers, and references to the story. Explain how you are able to detect each sister by the language and mannerisms she exhibits. 2. Little Women is said to be subversive of traditional ideas about the proper roles for women in the 19th century, for the March sisters often depart from 19th century ideals of sweet femininity. Discuss at least three instances in which one or more of the March girls exhibit words or actions destructive of the 19th century’s ideas of the need for differentiated sex roles for women and expectations about the proper role to be played by women. Give references, line numbers, and page numbers to support your answers. 3. In Whitman’s poem, Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, Whitman often uses syntactic repetition, repetition of grammatical patterns. Such repetition substitutes for the patterns produced in conventional poetry by repeated terminal rhyme and by a constant number of syllables per line. Identify the syntactic repetition in this poem. Be sure to give line numbers and your explanation thereof. 4. In When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d, the idea is to help the writer and the reader come to terms with death, in this case the death of Lincoln. First, describe the symbolic function of the lilac, the star, and the bird. Secondly, the last three sections of the poem are Whitman’s attempt at consolation, at reconciling himself and the reader with the fact of death. What ideas and feelings does Whitman call upon to achieve this reconciliation? Are those ideas and feelings, as Whitman presents them, likely to succeed in reconciling a modern reader to the fact of death? Describe what those ideas and feelings are and, as usual, give references, line numbers, and page numbers to support your answers. 5. Emily Dickinson wrote poems about God, prayer, salvation, immortality, damnation, heaven, and hell. Discuss and give at least two examples for each of the expressions listed below. Give reference to which poem, line number and page number. Be sure to support your answer with how it relates. a. A sense of loss b. The idea of nature as both a threat and a source of joy and comfort c. The ecstasy and the dangers of love d. The tension between faith and doubt e. A fascination with death