Exploring the Text

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  1. What do you think is Theodore Dreiser’s purpose in this piece?

    Question

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    Exploring the Text: - What do you think is Theodore Dreiser’s purpose in this piece?
  2. Do you consider “A Certain Oil Refinery” a sketch or an exposé? Explain your answer, keeping Dreiser’s purpose in mind.

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - Do you consider “A Certain Oil Refinery” a sketch or an exposé? Explain your answer, keeping Dreiser’s purpose in mind.
  3. Examine the way Dreiser uses contrasts in “A Certain Oil Refinery.” What is the effect of the contrasts?

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - Examine the way Dreiser uses contrasts in “A Certain Oil Refinery.” What is the effect of the contrasts?
  4. What do you make of the aesthetic considerations in this piece? Why do you think Dreiser suggests that artists, such as James McNeill Whistler, Everett Shinn, and Daniel Vierge, might have been inspired by the setting to create works of art? Do you think those suggestions are appropriate to the purpose of the piece? Explain why or why not.

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - What do you make of the aesthetic considerations in this piece? Why do you think Dreiser suggests that artists, such as James McNeill Whistler, Everett Shinn, and Daniel Vierge, might have been inspired by the setting to create works of art? Do you think those suggestions are appropriate to the purpose of the piece? Explain why or why not.
  5. What picture does Dreiser paint of the refinery workers? Where does he place them on the social scale? What suggestions or hope for improving their conditions does Dreiser offer?

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - What picture does Dreiser paint of the refinery workers? Where does he place them on the social scale? What suggestions or hope for improving their conditions does Dreiser offer?
  6. Dreiser was what we might call a social Darwinist, someone who applied Charles Darwin’s ideas about evolution to human behavior and interaction. What evidence do you see in this piece of Dreiser’s ideas about the “survival of the fittest”?

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - Dreiser was what we might call a social Darwinist, someone who applied Charles Darwin’s ideas about evolution to human behavior and interaction. What evidence do you see in this piece of Dreiser’s ideas about the “survival of the fittest”?