LET Exam: World Literature Analysis

Analyzing Test Items: Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET)

• Rabindranath Tagore was the first Asian to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature, winning in 1913.
• Filial piety, respect and devotion to parents, is a basic tenet of Confucianism.
• The Rigveda reveals the Hindu belief that Purusha is the primal source of all creation.
• A haiku by Bashō suggests the insight that nature has a soothing effect on the human spirit.
• Soyinka's "Telephone Conversation" indicates the universal issue of racial discrimination.
• Maya is the Hindu belief that life is an illusion.
• Varnas, the theoretical basis for the Hindu caste system, rests on one's birthright.
• Rigveda is a collection of non-speculative hymns.
• Alliteration is used in the line "Dearly, loved, devoted Sita! daughter of a royal line." from the Ramayana
• Dushyanta's thoughts "A tranquil spot! Why should I thrill?/ Love cannot enter there -" reveal his ambivalent character.
• The Analects are a collection of sayings between Confucius and his students.
• Lao-Tzu is credited as the founder of Taoism.
• Lu-shih is a Chinese poem sung to the tunes of popular melodies.

Injustice Done to Tou Ngo Dialogue Analysis

• Donkey Chang's attitude shows that he regards women as objects.
• Line 9 reflects that Tou Ngo is unafraid of suffering.

Literary Works and Figures

• The Pillow Book, written by Sei Shōnagon, records her reflections on life at the Imperial Court during the Heian dynasty.
• Giri suggests a sense of obligation or indebtedness which explains the sense of patriotism and nationalism of the Japanese.
• Nō, a form of Japanese drama, is performed by actors wearing masks.
• Atsumori compares warriors to images from nature, revealing that war is hateful because warriors have no control over their lives.
• Bashō's haiku "So soon to die, / And no sign of it showing - / locust cry" expresses the transitoriness of life.
• Repetition and parallel structure are characteristic of African oral literature.
• Trickster is an important kind of African moral tale intended for listeners to discuss and debate usually with an open ending.
• Leopold Senghor is the leading figure of the Negritude movement.
• The persona's perception of Africa in the excerpt from Diop's "Africa" is old and defeated.
• The dominant tone of the poem is regretful and frustrated.

Enhancing Test-Taking Skills

• The plot development of the Ramayana is circular.
• A Sanskrit play like Shakuntala typically begins with a benediction upon the audience
• The epic Ramayana is attributed to the poet Valmiki.
• The theme of the excerpt from Tagore's Gitanjali is that attachment to material wealth becomes a source of burden.
• The emotion that describes how the persona feels in the excerpt from The Taj Mahal is appreciative.
• Fine arts and literature flourished during the T'ang dynasty, viewed as the Golden Age of Chinese civilization.
• Chou-Shu-Jen is better known as Lu Shun, and is called the 'father of the modern Chinese short story'.
• The novel "Record of a Journey to the West" is based on the pilgrimage of the Buddhist monk Xuanzang to India in search of sacred texts.
• "To yield is to be preserved whole" - a paradox from the Tao Te Cheng
• The falling of the plums in the excerpt from the Book of Songs means getting older.
• Visual is the dominant imagery in the poem "On an Autumn Evening in the Mountains"
• The person expresses a feeling of regret in the question at the end of the poem.
• Confessions of a Mask is not written by Yasunuri Kawabata
• One of the oldest and most popular genre of expression and communication in the Japanese culture is poetry
• Ryunusuke Akutagawa's In the Grove is distinct for its unique narrative technique.
• Sundiata is the best-preserved and best-known African epic
• Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart" is a lament over the disintegration of Nigerian society
• Bessie Head is a South African novelist and short story writer whose major themes are on exile and alienation.
• "Real love knows no boundaries" - theme of "On the way to one's beloved there are no hills"

Conflicts and Literary Devices

• The main conflict of the story is "individual vs. another."
• Panchatantra is a frame story.
• Cao Zhan's Dream of the Red Chamber is a satire.
• The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy is developed developed in a form of a recit
• The indigenous literature of China features the light entertainment of oral story telling.
• Japan is where of many country's writers committed suicide at the height of their careers.
• "My heart leaps up when I behold / A rainbow in the sky" - celebrates reverence for nature in Wordsworth's poem.
• In Shakespeare's Hamlet: "What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason!" – the tone is of amazement
• Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess" exemplifies the poetic strategy of monologue.

Summaries

• To see a World in a Grain of Sand" from William Blake exhorts to appreciate even the smallest of things
• Edward Taylor's "Huswifery" asks God to mold him into what God wants him to be
• Assonance and consonance are sound devices that did Alexander Pope use to express the sound.
• Onomatopoeia figure of speech exemplified by "The wind stood up and gave a shout. He whistled on his two fingers."
• Petrarchan is the type of sonnet exemplified by "When I consider how my light is spent
• Best describes the Holy Sonnet X by John Donne in relation to death, is that Death should not be proud since it is not mighty.
• "Swell'st" as stated in the Holy Sonnet X means boast
• In "To the Virgins to Make Much of Time" that is the reason’s main message is to marry now, or you may never have another chance.
• Honorable is the word to describe the speaker in "To Lucasta, on Going to the Wars"

Literary Perceptions

• The lines from James Joyce's Araby appeal to the olfactory sensory perception.
• The lamb in "The Lamb" symbolizes innocence and purity.
• Ozymandias, power and arrogance are both destructive.
• Rabbi Ben Ezra, carpe diem.
• In 'When I Was One-and-Twenty', the speaker has experienced the folly and pain of youthful love.

Poetic Techniques

• Shelley regards the west wind in Ode to the West Wind as destroyer and preserver.
• In "The God that holds you over the pit of hell...", God seen as abominable
• The basis for Milton’s “Paradise Lost” is on the fall from God's grace
• "Let's so persevere," means lets be true to our love.
• "Lord of the Rings" NOT an example of Gothic literature. Speaker’s description of Chicago as Wicked, Amusing.
• "summer soldier and sunshine patriot" are cowards who love their country less.
• Name being a rose will always be roses despite the different name.
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American and British Literature

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Old English Literature

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