Here is the prompt assigned by the instructor for you to get prepared before we start the exam. Please follow it carefully.

You will be asked to respond as a Reader Response critic to a passage or moment from the novel that will be randomly selected for you once you begin the exam.
To be adequately prepared for the exam, you’ll of course need to have read and studied the entire novel so that you’ll be able to respond appropriately to any section of the story you’re asked to examine. (You can assume that I won’t be preselecting obscure passages from the novel: the scenes or whole chapters in some cases that I will choose from will, generally speaking, all be major turning points or iconic moments throughout the novel. You would be wise to study those in particular – things like Mazie’s experience with Sheen McEvoy at the mine shaft in Chapter 1 or the final tableaux of the family gathered in the kitchen at the end of the final chapter, for example, and other important scenes similar to those in each chapter.)
Here’s a short list of key scenes I’m likely to draw from for my essay prompts – I would focus my attention on these scenes in particular as you review the novel prior to taking the exam:
Chapter 1, pp 11-22 only
Chapter 2, pp 23-32 only
Chapter 3, pp 33-40 only
Chapter 4, pp 45-50 only
Chapter 5, pp 107-113 only
Chapter 6, pp 115-130 only
Chapter 7, pp 131-147 only
Chapter 8, pp 184-191 only
For a detailed description of the overall goals of the essay assignment, please reread the Olsen Essay Assignment Description posted in this unit.
Please also study the sample student Reader Response essay to get a sense of what I’m looking for (although in a more abbreviated form here, of course, as that sample is again a full out-of-class standard essay). Finally, you should take a look at the sample in-class essay exam I’ve posted in the unit as well: although it’s written in response to a prompt about Shakespeare and Feminist Criticism (foreshadowing the final unit of our class, by the way), it will give you a good sense of the length and scope of writing work I’ll be expecting to see you create for your midterm here, as it was created by a previous 110 student for an in-class writing exam of the same length and breadth as this midterm event.
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Exam Instructions:
Your essay should be 6-8 fully developed paragraphs in length. In it, you will need to be sure to devote one of your early paragraphs to a full summary of Reader Response theory, and then the rest of the essay should focus on your subjective response and critical analysis of the passage from the novel I assign to you when you begin the exam. As you compose your essay, you can (and should) use any and all of the resources within the unit to help you create this response essay. You may also import into your essay any of the discussion forum entries you’ve created during the unit you think are applicable to the work at hand.