Deck 41: Daniel Boone: Building the Myth Around the Man, Richard Slotkin

Question 1

Myths are true stories because they _______________________.

A) represent actual events that can be documented
B) embody the principles and values of individuals and societies
C) teach a society what its leaders want it to know
D) have been handed down through generations of believers

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Because he __________________, Filson's Daniel Boone can be compared with Romulus, Cyrus, and Sargon.

A) distinguished himself as a family man and trailblazer
B) lived among people of his own and other cultures
C) is the subject of many historical documents
D) undertook a heroic quest to establish a nation

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Because her husband was away from home so long, Rebecca Boone can be compared to _____________, Odysseus' wife.

A) Penelope
B) Clytemnestra
C) Dejaneira
D) Hecuba

Answer 3

A

Question 4

It is thought that Filson did not include the ___________________ in his biography of Daniel Boone because the idea was alien to his European audience.

A) description of Kentucky
B) fire-hunt legend
C) hardships of the Boone family
D) history of Rebecca Boone

Question 5

The stories that the early European settlers told about their settling in America __________________________.

A) emphasized peaceful interactions with the Native Americans
B) gave an accurate picture of life with the Indians
C) praised pioneer women for their independence
D) demonstrated that they had done the right thing

Question 6

Although Daniel Boone's exploits were often violent, colonists accepted them because ___________________.

A) they found everything in the New World violent
B) his motive was to open up new land for farmers
C) Boone was a well-known national hero
D) they considered adventure a thrilling pastime

Question 7

Support for Filson's Boone narrative relied on the view that Indians __________________________________.

A) were a great resource to the colonists
B) were keepers of the earth and nature
C) were to be removed so colonists could farm
D) and colonists could benefit from one another

Question 8

The Filson narrative is actually a ________________, not a folk legend.

A) literary myth
B) historical account
C) fairy tale
D) popular novel

Question 9

Victor Turner's concept of __________________ can help us understand how Boone's first excursion deep into the wilderness fits into the mythological aspect of the story.

A) leaving home
B) crossing the threshold
C) the initiation ritual
D) reconnaissance

Question 10

Filson's portrait of Rebecca Boone does NOT emphasize __________________________________________.

A) her conformity to the conventional idea of woman in her time
B) that she is wild and free and at home in nature
C) that she is morally strong but physically weak, in need of protection
D) that she has no identity independent of her role as wife and mother

Question 11

One reason Daniel Boone knew so many Indian ways is that he had been adopted by the _____________________ tribe and lived with them for a while.

Question 12

____________________ helped to shape the way that Americans tell the story of the founding of their nation in his Leatherstocking Tales.

Question 13

The early European settlers called _____________ saw themselves as "children of Jehovah" whose destiny was to bring Christian civilization to the wilderness.

Question 14

Slotkin says that because Filson wanted to mythologize _________________, he had to present a story that would allow the audience to identify with the hero and his work.

Question 15

"The Adventures of Col. Daniel Boon" is a chapter in a larger book called Discovery, Settlement and Present State of ________________.

Question 16

In order to mythologize Daniel Boone, Filson carefully altered facts so he would fit into the necessary mold of hunter-_________________-philosopher.

Question 17

As a hero, Boone represented the idea of the French philosopher ________________ that nature is a better teacher than civilization.

Question 18

Filson refers to _____________as "the first white woman to stand beside the Kentucky river."

Question 19

In Slotkin's view, Filson's version of the Daniel Boone myth represents the tension described by Levi-Strauss between two conflicting forces: ______________ and ______________.

Question 20

For the Puritans, the ___________________ was "the realm of chaos . . . somehow outside the world protected by God."