danajohnhill.org | Hard Times Come Again No More

The first day of May is the last day of the spring semester at the University of Florida.  This morning between ten o’clock and noon, I was sitting at a desk in a windowless classroom in Turlington Hall–the worst building at UF, and, lamentably, home of the English Department–taking the final exam in Professor White’s “First U.S. Novels” course.  It was brutal.

Here’s how it worked.  We got five different excerpts taken from the five novels we’ve read since spring break.  We were to identify and contextualize the excerpts (easy enough), then explain how they related to or differed from at least two other novels we’ve read since spring break.  We had to respond to two prompts, meaning that we would need to address each novel we read at least once.  This format requires a tremendous amount of planning, since you must first pick the two prompts you wish to address, then decide to which of the other novels you wish to compare or contrast them.  I sat thinking about it for a half hour before writing a word.  The five novels or novellas we read since spring break were Ormond, or The Secret Witness by Charles Brockden Brown; The Asylum by Isaac Mitchell; The Secret History and Laura by Leonora Sansay; and The Champions of Freedom by Samuel Woodworth.  I chose a passage from The Secret History and compared it to Champions of Freedom and Laura; and another passage from The Asylum and compared it to Laura and Ormond.  It was incredibly difficult, and I was one of the last two people to finish.  I felt the need to apologize to my teacher when I gave it to him.  I wasn’t the only one, though: I heard several other students tell him how hard it was, and how they were mentally exhausted this last day of finals.  I’m just going to cross my fingers and hope everything works out.

Tomorrow I’ll write about my three other finals.

Filed under: Literature and Books, School on May 1st, 2009