American Literature: Early Voices Quiz

Grade 9 · English · Quiz

Test your knowledge of Indigenous oral tradition, Puritan literature, and early American writing.

Questions

Which of the following is a characteristic of Puritan plain style?
1. Elaborate, flowery language
2. Classical allusions to Greek gods
3. Clear, direct, unadorned prose
4. Stream-of-consciousness narration
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Answer: Clear, direct, unadorned prose
Puritan plain style rejected elaborate language as vain — clarity and simplicity reflected spiritual honesty and humility before God.
Indigenous oral traditions are considered valid literary traditions despite not being written.
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Answer: True
Literature encompasses all forms of artistic language — oral stories, songs, and ceremonial speech are legitimate literary forms with sophisticated techniques and traditions.
Anne Bradstreet was the first published ___ in colonial America.
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Answer: poet
Anne Bradstreet's The Tenth Muse (1650) was the first book of poetry published by an American — making her the first published poet of colonial America.
Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography contributed to which enduring American cultural myth?
1. The tragic hero
2. The self-made man
3. The noble savage
4. The reluctant hero
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Answer: The self-made man
Franklin's Autobiography is the archetype of American self-improvement — a boy with minimal schooling who becomes a philosopher, inventor, diplomat, and statesman through wit and effort.
Puritan writers typically saw God's hand in:
1. Only major biblical events
2. Government and politics only
3. Every aspect of daily life
4. Nature but not human affairs
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Answer: Every aspect of daily life
Puritans practiced 'typology' — reading God's meaning into daily events. A house fire, an illness, a good harvest — all were messages from God to be interpreted.
Thomas Paine was a Puritan writer known for his religious devotion.
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Answer: False
Thomas Paine was an Enlightenment writer and Revolutionary pamphleteer — author of Common Sense (1776) — focused on reason and political liberty, not Puritan religious devotion.
A comparison developed at length across an entire poem or passage is called an ___ metaphor.
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Answer: extended
An extended metaphor develops a single comparison throughout a sustained passage — Bradstreet uses the extended metaphor of her burning house to explore her theological acceptance of loss.
Which literary period in early America focused on reason, liberty, and individual rights?
1. Puritan
2. Enlightenment
3. Romantic
4. Transcendentalist
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Answer: Enlightenment
The American Enlightenment (18th century) emphasized reason over faith, individual rights, scientific inquiry, and democratic principles — ideas that shaped the Declaration of Independence.
Early American literature reflects tensions between European literary traditions and the new American experience.
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Answer: True
Early American writers constantly negotiated between inherited European forms and the new American experience — frontier life, democratic ideals, and diverse cultural backgrounds required new literary approaches.
Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper were part of which early American literary period?
1. Colonial / Puritan
2. Enlightenment
3. Early National
4. Transcendentalist
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Answer: Early National
Irving (The Legend of Sleepy Hollow) and Cooper (The Last of the Mohicans) wrote in the early 19th century, focusing on American landscapes, frontier life, and national identity.

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