Paragraph Responses
All questions can be answered correctly in a paragraph of about 100 words.
you may consult your notes, but please do not consult any other sources or copy things from the internet (or anywhere else).
1.In The Last Wave, Chris tells David that “We are nothing but the law we learn from our forefathers.” This statement has both comforting and horrifying implications. Explain.（100 words）（Film: The Last Wave (dir. Peter Weir) ）
2. Harold Pinter’s play The Dumb Waiter is about two hit men who find themselves in a featureless basement apartment awaiting instructions on who to kill next. They spend the time discussing various people they have killed in the past and reading the newspaper. Why are hit men appropriate postmodern characters? （100 words）
3.In the following poem, Margaret Atwood, who is best known these days for the television version of her novel The Handmaid’s Tale, offers an interpretation of the sirens from Homer’s Odyssey. Describe how the poem demonstrates postmodern traits. (100 words)
Siren Song
by Margaret Atwood
This is the one song everyone
would like to learn: the song
that is irresistible:
the song that forces men
to leap overboard in squadrons
even though they see the beached skulls
the song nobody knows
because anyone who has heard it
is dead, and the others can’t remember.
Shall I tell you the secret
and if I do, will you get me
out of this bird suit?
I don’t enjoy it here
squatting on this island
looking picturesque and mythical
with these two feathery maniacs,
I don’t enjoy singing
this trio, fatal and valuable.
I will tell the secret to you,
to you, only to you.
Come closer. This song
is a cry for help: Help me!
Only you, only you can,
you are unique
at last. Alas
it is a boring song
but it works every time.
4.What would Wordsworth have thought of the portrayal of nature and technology in Alien? （100 words） （Film: Alien (dir Ridley Scott)）
5. Ted Hughes and D.H. Lawrence both portray animals as violent, strange and charismatic. What makes Hughes’ portrayal more clearly postmodern?（ 100 words）
6.Are cats or dogs more Postmodern? Explain (100 words)