Use Inference and Extrapolation to Answer Questions about a Text on Literature

Being able to make inferences based on available information is an
invaluable skill and part of thinking critically. Follow the link below
to a text and series of questions that require you to use inference and
extrapolation to provide answers. For each question, identify the most
correct answer and provide a brief explanation (1-3 sentences)
explaining why. Provide your answers in a separate document.

Module
08 Written Assignment – Use Inference and Extrapolation to Answer
Questions about a Text on Literature

Smiley,
Jane. (2005). In Continuum Encyclopedia of American Literature. Retrieved
from Credo Reference Database.

Jane Smiley goes straight to Middle America in its geographical,
economic, and familial landscape. Nearly all of her novels are set in the
Midwest in middle-upper-class rural communities in which she renders more often
than not a discontented vision. What is evocative about her work is her love
and knowledge of the land and her piercing portraits of the families that
inhabit it; what is absent from her work is all traces of race and poverty
issues. Nevertheless, she is a writer who with each turn unravels the
cataclysmic within the so-called ordinary human life. Her academic background
in medieval literature-seen in her epic novel, The Green-landers (1988),
of 14th-c. Scandinavian frontiers people, affixes a brutality to her
characters’ worlds, depicting personal and everyday adversity-lack of
communication, unmet desire, and ambivalence within the family unit-as a force
that shapes morality. In Barn Blind (1980), it is a mother’s unnerving
control over her children that leads to disaster; in The Age of Grief
(1987), it is a husband trying to accept his wife’s infidelity; in Ordinary
Love (1989), it is a mother knowing that she has reshaped her children’s
lives by following her passion; in At Paradise Gate (1981), it is a woman
reassessing the sacrifices she has made as a mother; in A Thousand Acres
(1991), it is a family falling apart after the father gives his land to his
three daughters. S.’s other work, Duplicate Keys (1984), set in New
York, is a suspense story; her novel Moo (1995) is a dark comedy
exposing the hypocrisy of academic life.

Instructions: In a separate
document, answer each of the following questions based on the above provided
text. For each question, identify the most correct answer and provide a brief
explanation (1-3 sentences) of why it is the most correct.

1. 
How would you identify Jane Smiley?

a. 
A scholar of medieval literature and author of
short stories concerned with uncovering the trials and drama of medieval
Scandinavian life.

b. 
An author deeply concerned with the Midwestern
family

c. 
Writer concerned with chronicling the underlying
tensions and morality of rural, upper-middle-class families of middle America.

d. 
Writer with a deep love for the geography of the
Midwest who uses rural, upper-middle-class characters to explore place.

2. 
What is the common thread connecting her body of
non-period literature?

a. 
Familial dysfunction that manifests itself in
physical abuse.

b. 
The shaping of everyday morality through failures
in addressing adversity.

c. 
Adversity and hypocrisy as the defining
influences of the human experience.

d. 
The cataclysmic effect of the geography of
middle America upon the each novels main characters.

3. 
Which statement most agrees with what is said in
the excerpt about Jane Smiley?

a. 
S., a writer and scholar, has a greater concern
with the internal struggles of people than the external struggles that might
arise from issues of diversity.

b. 
Though her body of work primarily encompasses
the upper-middle-class of middle America, S.’s greatest works are to be found in
her period novel Green-landers and
the novels Duplicate Keys and Moo.

c. 
Though a writer by trade, S.’s true passion lies
with investigating the relationship of the hero and community within Medieval
Scandinavian Literature.

d. 
Has made it her life’s work to expose for
consideration the dysfunctions and difficulties inherent in moral thinking
within the modern American family.

4. 
An academic who studied medieval literature, how
is this reflected in Smiley’s work?

a. 
This is reflected through the depictions of
numerous manifestations of brutality within the worlds of S.’s characters that
influences how they address challenges.

b. 
It is best depicted in her representation of
Scandinavian peoples as they manifest throughout her novels.

c. 
S.’s deep knowledge of the places her characters
inhabits is a direct result of her study of medieval literature, which is
deeply tied to place and geography.

d. 
The internal distress of relationships resulting
in the disintegration of the family unit is representative of a similar trend
in medieval literature and the failure of frontier settlements.

5. 
What does Smiley reveal about the lives of her
characters that is of interest to readers?

a. 
The effect of place on people’s actions is
greater than that of morality or family.

b. 
She reveals that too much control on the part of
the mother will lead to disaster for her children.

c. 
S. shows the moral complexity and peril present
in every day life.

d. 
Ambivalence an un-met desire held by one or more
of the members of a family will always result in disaster.