Paragraph Responses

by

Humanities

All questions can be answered correctly in a paragraph of about 100 words.

you may consult your notes, but please do not consult any other sources or copy things from the internet (or anywhere else).

1.In The Last Wave, Chris tells David that “We are nothing but the law we learn from our forefathers.” This statement has both comforting and horrifying implications. Explain.（100 words）（Film: The Last Wave (dir. Peter Weir) ）


2. Harold Pinter’s play The Dumb Waiter is about two hit men who find themselves in a featureless basement apartment awaiting instructions on who to kill next. They spend the time discussing various people they have killed in the past and reading the newspaper. Why are hit men appropriate postmodern characters? （100 words）


3.In the following poem, Margaret Atwood, who is best known these days for the television version of her novel The Handmaid’s Tale, offers an interpretation of the sirens from Homer’s Odyssey. Describe how the poem demonstrates postmodern traits. (100 words)

Siren Song

by Margaret Atwood

This is the one song everyone

would like to learn: the song

that is irresistible:

the song that forces men

to leap overboard in squadrons

even though they see the beached skulls

the song nobody knows

because anyone who has heard it

is dead, and the others can’t remember.

Shall I tell you the secret

and if I do, will you get me

out of this bird suit?

I don’t enjoy it here

squatting on this island

looking picturesque and mythical

with these two feathery maniacs,

I don’t enjoy singing

this trio, fatal and valuable.

I will tell the secret to you,

to you, only to you.

Come closer. This song

is a cry for help: Help me!

Only you, only you can,

you are unique

at last. Alas

it is a boring song

but it works every time.

4.What would Wordsworth have thought of the portrayal of nature and technology in Alien? （100 words） （Film: Alien (dir Ridley Scott)）

5. Ted Hughes and D.H. Lawrence both portray animals as violent, strange and charismatic. What makes Hughes’ portrayal more clearly postmodern?（ 100 words）


6.Are cats or dogs more Postmodern? Explain (100 words)