Analyzing Literary Elements and Themes in American Literature Quiz

Test your knowledge of American literature with questions on authors, themes, and literary movements. From Southern Gothic to the Harlem Renaissance.

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In which novel by Herman Melville does the character Captain Ahab pursue the elusive white whale, Moby-Dick?

Billy Budd

Typee

Bartleby, the Scrivener

Moby-Dick

Who wrote the novel 'The Catcher in the Rye'?

J.D. Salinger

John Steinbeck

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Ernest Hemingway

Which literary device is used to give human characteristics to non-human entities?

Irony

Metaphor

Personification

Alliteration

Who is the author of 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'?

Mark Twain

John Steinbeck

William Faulkner

Harper Lee

Who wrote the novel 'Their Eyes Were Watching God'?

Toni Morrison

Zora Neale Hurston

Maya Angelou

Alice Walker

Who is considered one of the leading figures of the American Renaissance in literature?

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Edgar Allan Poe

Mark Twain

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Which American novel is often considered a quintessential work of the Southern Gothic genre?

The Great Gatsby

Beloved

To Kill a Mockingbird

The Sound and the Fury

Which literary movement emerged in the 1950s and was characterized by disillusionment and existential themes?

Transcendentalism

Naturalism

Beat Generation

Harlem Renaissance

In which novel does the character Atticus Finch defend a black man accused of raping a white woman?

Gone with the Wind

The Grapes of Wrath

To Kill a Mockingbird

Invisible Man

#10

Who is the author of the short story 'The Lottery'?

Shirley Jackson

Flannery O'Connor

Ray Bradbury

Kurt Vonnegut

#11

What is the central theme of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby'?

The corruption of the American Dream

The pursuit of happiness

The power of love

The importance of wealth