Deck 14: Life-Affirmation

Question 1

The novel Sophie's Choice is about

A) finding forgiveness.
B) reinventing one's life.
C) attempting to stay young.
D) experiencing survivor's guilt.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Greek mythology and Tolkien's Lord of the Rings both

A) medicalize death.
B) beautify death.
C) deny death.
D) address death with humor.

Answer 2

B

Question 3

A work concerned with the effect of death on children is

A) the television show House.
B) Agee's A Death in the Family.
C) Styron's Sophie's Choice.
D) Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

An example of a long symphonic poem that tells a story through sound is

A) Donne's "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning."
B) Strauss's Death and Transfiguration.
C) Milton's Samson Agonistes.
D) Agee's A Death in the Family.

Question 5

John Donne's "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" addresses

A) the speaker's fear of losing his wife.
B) the horrible suffering of war.
C) living in the eternal now.
D) the link between rebirth and spring.

Question 6

Moksha is the concept of the afterlife in

A) the Hindu tradition.
B) the Muslim tradition.
C) the Christian tradition.
D) poetry.

Question 7

Disaster films are popular because

A) the audience knows the events could not happen.
B) they are based somewhat in reality.
C) they show that death can be overcome.
D) they show that death comes to both good and bad.

Question 8

An ancient figure of life-affirmation is

A) a zombie.
B) the phoenix.
C) the Grim Reaper.
D) a vampire.

Question 9

The Picture of Dorian Gray is about

A) reinventing one's life.
B) experiencing survivor's guilt.
C) attempting to stay young forever.
D) finding forgiveness.

Question 10

A figure whose death embodies selflessness is

A) Socrates.
B) Dorian Gray.
C) Sylvia Plath.
D) John Donne.

Question 11

Christopher Hitchens's view is that

A) death holds no lessons.
B) we should defy death by affirming life daily.
C) we should take comfort in an afterlife.
D) disease, not death, is the enemy.

Question 12

The British press called pulp fiction involving lurid tales of haunted houses and bodies found in closets

A) disaster stories.
B) penny dreadfuls.
C) zombie literature.
D) vampire tales.

Question 13

The idea that the events of life are predetermined is known as

A) life-affirmation.
B) a humorous response to death.
C) an instance of depression.
D) fatalism.

Question 14

Which of the following literary works details the suffering of war?

A) Henry V
B) Samson Agonistes
C) Faust
D) "Dulce et Decorum Est"

Question 15

The celebration in which cakes and candies in the shape of skeletons are eaten at a feast honoring the dead is called

A) All Saints Day.
B) Dulce et Decorum.
C) St. Crispin's Day.
D) Día de los Muertos.

Question 16

New Orleans traditionally commemorates death through

A) Richard Strauss's funeral marches.
B) recitations of speeches from Henry V.
C) jazz funerals.
D) skeleton cakes and candies.

Question 17

In Faust, the hero's fate shows the

A) folly of making a pact with Mephistopheles.
B) hope of life after death.
C) need to reconquer freedom and existence daily.
D) danger of wanting to live forever.

Question 18

A work that links death to the rebirth of life in spring is

A) Keats's "After Dark Vapours."
B) Donne's "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning".
C) Milton's Samson Agonistes.
D) Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est."

Question 19

A famous work in which a boy must deal with the death of his best friend is

A) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
B) Where the Wild Things Are.
C) Bridge to Terabithia.
D) The Hunger Games.

Question 20

A god who descends into the underworld, then rises again renewed is an example of

A) the phoenix model.
B) the belief that death can be overcome.
C) the glorification of the undead.
D) a human's limited concept of the afterlife.

Question 21

Choose a work of art (film, play, novel, song, etc.) that you consider to be life-affirming and, using the definition from the chapter, give examples from the work that support your stance.
I. Identify a work of art that is life-affirming.
II. Defend stance using the definition from the chapter and details from the chosen piece.

Question 22

What is program music, and what is an example of it?

Question 23

What is life-affirmation?

Question 24

Choose a popular feature of modern life. Explain whether you believe this experience is life-affirming or life-denying.
I. Identify a popular feature of living today.
II. Explain why this feature is life-affirming or life-denying.

Question 25

Consider William Wordsworth's poem "My Heart Leaps Up." Explain what the ideas of the speaker and the images and details in the poem suggest about the meaning of living and life.
I. Identify what the speaker and poem suggest about living and life.
II. Name specific details, claims, and images from the poem.
III. Explain how they support the poem's meaning.

Question 26

What does "medicalizing death" mean?

Question 27

How do Buddhists view death?

Question 28

Name three of the six strategies for dealing with death that are discussed in the chapter.

Question 29

Choose a work of art (film, play, novel, song, etc.) that deals directly with death. Explain how death is imagined or celebrated in the work.
I. Identify an artwork dealing with death.
II. Explain how the work imagines or celebrates death using examples from it.

Question 30

Choose the strategy for dealing with death that you find to be most life-affirming and contrast it with the one you think is least life-affirming. Explain why for each.
I. Name the most life-affirming strategy.
II. Name the least life-affirming strategy.
III. Explain each response thoroughly.