 |
ILT511S - INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE 1A - 1ST OPP - JUNE 2025 |
|
|
1 Page 1 |
▲back to top |
nArnlBIA UnlVERSITY
OF SCIEnCE Ano TECHnOLOGY
FACULTY OF COMMERCE, HUMAN SCIENCESAND EDUCATION
DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION AND LANGUAGES
QUALIFICATION:BACHELOROF ENGLISHAND LINGUISTICS
QUALIFICATIONCODE: 07BENL
LEVEL: 5
COURSECODE: ILTSllS
COURSENAME: INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURElA
SESSION:
JUNE 2025
PAPER:
THEORY
DURATION: 3 HOURS
MARKS:
100
FIRST OPPORTUNITY EXAMINATION QUESTION PAPER
EXAMINER(S) Dr E. =l=Gawas
Mr F. Salomo
MODERATOR: Dr A. Nghikembua
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Answer ALL three (3) questions.
2. Write clearly and neatly.
3. Number the answers clearly.
4. Indicate whether you are a FM, PM or DI student on the cover of your
answer booklet.
PERMISSIBLE MATERIALS
1. Examination paper
2. Examination script
THIS QUESTION PAPERCONSISTSOF _S_ PAGES(Including this cover page)
|
|
2 Page 2 |
▲back to top |
Read The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin and answer the questions that follow:
QUESTION 1
[30)
Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her
as gently as possible the news of her husband's death.
It was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken sentences; veiled hints that revealed in half-
concealing. Her husband's friend Richards was there, too, near her. It was he who had been in
the newspaper office when intelligence of the railroad disaster was received, with Brently
Mallard's name leading the list of "killed." He had only taken the time to assure himself of its
truth by a second telegram, and had hastened to forestall any less careful, less tender friend in
bearing the sad message.
She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to
accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister's arms.
When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would have no
one follow her.
There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she sank,
pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her
soul.
She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with
the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was
crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which someone was singing reached her faintly,
and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves.
There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and
piled one above the other in the west facing her window.
She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair, quite motionless, except when
a sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who has cried itself to sleep continues
to sob in its dreams.
She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain
strength. But now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on
one of those patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a
suspension of intelligent thought.
2
|
|
3 Page 3 |
▲back to top |
There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did
not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching
toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air.
Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously. She was beginning to recognize this thing that was
approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will-as powerless as
her two white slender hands would have been.
When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said
it over and over under her breath: "free, free, free!" The vacant stare and the look of terror that
had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her pulse beat fast, and the
coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.
She did not stop to ask if it were or were not a monstrous joy that held her. A clear and exalted
perception enabled her to dismiss the suggestion as trivial.
She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the
face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead. But she saw
beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her
absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome.
There would be no one to live for her during those coming years; she would live for herself.
There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and
women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow creature. A kind intention
or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment
of illumination.
And yet she had loved him-sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What could
love, the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-assertion which she
suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!
"Free! Body and soul free!" she kept whispering.
Josephine was kneeling before the closed door with her lips to the keyhole, imploring for
admission. "Louise, open the door! I beg; open the door-you will make yourself ill. What are
you doing, Louise? For heaven's sake open the door."
"Go away. I am not making myself ill." No; she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that
open window.
3
|
|
4 Page 4 |
▲back to top |
I
Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her. Spring days, and summer days, and
all sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It
was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long.
She arose at length and opened the door to her sister's importunities. There was a feverish
triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory. She clasped
her sister's waist, and together they descended the stairs. Richards stood waiting for them at
the bottom.
Someone was opening the front door with a latchkey. It was Brently Mallard who entered, a
little travel-stained, composedly carrying his grip-sack and umbrella. He had been far from the
scene of the accident, and did not even know there had been one. He stood amazed at
Josephine's piercing cry; at Richards' quick motion to screen him from the view of his wife.
But Richards was too late.
When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease-of joy that kills.
https://www.katechopin.org/story-hour/
1.1 What is the central conflict in the story?
{2}
1.2 What is the climax of the story?
{2}
1.3 Where does most of the story take place?
(2)
1.4 Characters
(5)
1.4.1 Who is the main character in the story?
1.4.2 Is the main character static or dynamic? Motivate your answer.
1.4.3 What role does Josephine play in the story?
1.4.4 "Richards' quick motion to screen him from the view of his wife" is an indication that
Richards was protective of Louise Mallard. True or False.
{1}
1.5 What point of view is used in the story? Motivate your answer.
{2}
1.6 What is one major theme in the story? Motivate your answer.
{2}
1.7 What does the open window symbolize?
(2)
1.8 The following metaphor represents Louise's renewal and rebirth as she begins to
{2}
embrace her independence. True or False
4
|
|
5 Page 5 |
▲back to top |
1.9 Identify a correctly quote a simile from the story.
(2)
1.10 Which word or phrase is repeated in the story and why?
(2)
1.11 What is ironic about what the doctors say about Louise's death?
(2)
1.12 Identify and correctly quote an example of parallelism from the story.
(2)
1.13 What in your opinion is the significance of the title of the story?
(2)
QUESTION 2
[35)
The statement "Oedipus is responsible for his own downfall" is an important idea in Sophocles'
play Oedipus Rex. The story of Oedipus shows how both fate and personal choices can lead to a
tragic end. While fate plays a big role in his life, Oedipus's own decisions and personality also
contribute to his downfall.
Write a well-structured essay of 350-400 words in which you discuss how Oedipus' personality,
fate and choices contribute to his downfall. Motivate your discussion with references to the
story.
QUESTION 3
[35)
Write a well-structured essay of 350-400 words in which you analyse how Wale Soyinka
advocates for tradition in his play The Lionand the Jewel. Provide examples from the text.
END OF QUESTION PAPER
5