american lit

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sentimentalism:

background: focus on emotions, allows women to have a voice in literature, still exists today.

Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe:

the Shelby's own slaves, but they are nice

the slaves free to go to Canada; Eliza has to find her son

Uncle Tom sacrifices himself to pay off debt and help the other slaves.

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transcendentalism:

things happening in america at the time: civil war, mexican-american war, the gold rush, women's rights convention at Seneca Falls, influx of immigrants.

philosophical/spiritual movement as a result to puritanism

focus on individualism and self-reliance

optimistic: many reform movements at the time.

Emerson's maxims:

my life is for itself and not a spectacle

speak your latent conviction and it shall be the universal truth

nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind

society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of its neighbors

a foolish conspiracy is the hobgoblin of the minds, worshipped by little statesmen and philosophers and divines

an institution is the lengthened shadow of one man

insist on yourself; never imitate

the civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet

Nature by Emerson:

showing a sacredness to nature and its connection to our own lives; our view of nature is affected by our emotions

we should not rely on tradition

focus on individualism: we shouldn't rely solely on tradition

iconoclastic: attacks cherished beliefs (in this case, the reliance on technology)

as part of nature, we are also a part of god

Self-Reliance by Emerson:

non-conformist: he wants to live his own truth

indifference to doing works of charity, but he isn't criticizing social justice acts, he is criticizing those done for show

individualism matters above all: "speak the truth in all ways" and "whim"

he acknowledges the possibility of flaws and challenges social complacency

traveling: he doesn't like the idea of traveling as an escape or passtime

he wants people to travel to learn new things

he is critical of those who view the world as a playground and he wants people to seek knowledge within themselves instead of externally doing so

reliance on property: he does not like that people are viewed by the things they own

different parties can corrupt this view by competing

some things come by inheritance, not personal wealth

critique of the growing materialism and consumerism in America in the 19th century

The American Scholar by Emerson:

a graduate is addressing Harvard scholars (mostly white men, protestant, well off) in 1837

he explains that each person has a role, but they should not get lost in it

he wants them to be individuals instead of turning into what society will make them

everyone should be a scholar, but not everyone is: telling them that they are lucky

difference btwn mere thinker and man thinking: man thinking shows individuality

Days by Emerson:

the speaker is experiencing nature and its gifts: Days is personified by "Daughters of Time" who are marching in an "endless file"

his time marches on and the daughters are hypocritical because they, too eventually stop

the day departs with "silent" and "scorn" to show that it leaves, but is wasted; he did not live up to the potential of the day

tone: regretful (he is not making the most of his days)

Fable by Emerson:

everyone has a role: the mountains hold the trees that provide a home for the squirrel, and the squirrel can crack a nut

characters: mountain, which is big and thinks it is more important, and squirrel, who is puny and known for quickness

The Snowstorm by Emerson:

nature is personified as an artist: has the power to bring human activity to a halt (powerful)

nature can be messy/destructive, but interrupting our daily routines can be beneficial

creates quiet, but not isolation

diction: use of consonants to display the quietness and destructiveness of nature

theme: nature's power to transform (we are subordinate)

Walden by Henry David Thoreau:

theme: our lives are too complicated

context: speaker goes into the woods to live simply and get away from society (to find himself in nature), but he leaves because he finds that even in nature, he falls into a routine

we live mindlessly, but he wants to live deliberately

find your purpose and devote yourself to it

"rather than love, than fame, than money, give me truth"

we should cherish time and not focus on others

"I wanted to live deep and suck all the marrow out of life"

Civil Disobedience by Thoreau:

he takes a somewhat anti-government stance because the American experiment is still new

he sees limitations as a democratic republic because of tensions building up

less government is more

he sees the nameless, faceless government as an institution, which can be inefficient, unjust, and less powerful than individuals

wants men and women to be prepared to govern

he is jailed for not paying his poll tax, but believes that it is dumb because his mind is still free

wants people to act on their beliefs and not what violates their conscience

anaphora: "it" is in the beginning of sentences to show the uniformity of the government

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Emily Dickinson:

To Make a Prairie it Takes a Clover:

centrality of nature and the power of simple things to transform

keywords: clover, bee, prairie

imagination is a creative force (reverie)

I Taste A Liquor Never Brewed:

central metaphor: speaker is intoxicated by nature

unsavory metaphor for a 19th century woman

diction and imagery show a kind of innocence:

stanza one: tankards, vats, alcohol

stanza two: inebriate, debauchee, reeling from inns

stanza three: drunken bee is kicked out, drams, drink

stanza four: repetition of "s" which mimic slurring, leaning, they are swinging their snowing hats, tippler

dream-like sensibility, use of diminutive properties

the speaker describes the pleasure of a summer's day

A Narrow Fellow in the Grass:

focus is on a snake (symbolic of evil; Biblical reference)

the speaker hates the snake, but has cordiality for other animals (feels alienation from the snake)

speaker does not have completely negative feelings about the snake, calls it fellow

Some Keep the Sabbath Going to Church:

speaker rejects human institutions out of rebelliousness

believes she does not need to worship God in a building, but rather outside in nature with the birds as the choir and the orchard as her dome

believes that worshipping that way will allow her to end up in the same place as church people (she will have wings: symbolic of freedom and heaven)

her views transform into a feeling of superiority

believes that she is continually going to heaven, instead of getting there eventually

I Like to See it Lap the Miles:

metaphor of a horse, but also represents a train (spread of railroads)

trains = iron horses

trains can go very far distances over different landscapes, which is powerful

personification of the train: licks the valley, punctual as a star, docile, crawls

contrasts the power by saying that it is disruptive

description is paradoxical: docile and omnipotent

Hope is the Thing With Feathers:

central metaphor: hope is a bird

freedom in flight, fragility, strong voices, strength, omnipresent

hope is universal and unceasing, with us in all circumstances

comes without asking: "perches in the soul"

christian allusion: bird comes back with brach after the flood to show hope and the Holy Spirit is depicted as a bird

If I Can Stop One Hearth From Breaking:

theme: the ability to change things

searching, spiritual element

christian allusion: hope as an early sign of spring and as a bird

the robin can lead people to doing something for someone else, the power of one person to make a change, reflected in repetition of "I" and "one"

doesn't need to be public displays

There is No Frigate Like a Book:

simile: book as a ship that can be used for transport and escape

books can move us in space and time, but they also move our souls

they are available to all

connect us to other people and places

represent the progression of knowledge

Death:

death pulls over in his chariot and the speaker gets in

representation of death as a familiar face

depiction of death suggests a feeling of relief

revelation: the speaker has been dead for centuries

positive view of death is unusual, but it is part of the natural cycle

death takes the speaker through life stages: school (youth), field of grain (maturity), the setting un (coming darkness, cold ending, old age)

journey that we must all take alone

last word is eternity, so death is not the last thing, it is an occasion

I Years Had Been From Home:

tone: stressed, afraid to return home

speaker is isolated instead of feeling welcome in a place that would feel like home

fear of anonymity: not being recognized in a familiar place, displacement and not belonging

context: speaker has been away for years and is now on the doorstep, hesitant of taking action, but she tries to overcome the fear

by the last stanza, it is no longer a home, it is a house

speakers fears are in her head

she flees instead of opening the door

I Felt a Funeral In My Brain:

metaphor suggests the speaker feels dead inside

tone: unease, fear

context: speaker is imagining a funeral, but is in a bad mental state (confused, chaotic)

describing the experience of a mental breakdown

speaker imagines being in a coffin: wrecked, solitary, strange, silence

poem ends on an incomplete though

I'm Nobody! Who Are You?:

the speakers statement seems belittling, but she is rejecting the idea of being a somebody

theme: pride in individuality, rebellious

metaphor of a frog suggests that something croaks

a statement of her rejection of fame

speaker also expresses a sense of solitary with a kindred spirit

the speaker is not alone

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Walt Whitman:

I Hear American Singing:

diverse people coming together in harmony, just as different voices join to make a unified song

tone: hopeful, joyous

highlighting individuals who are working to build a nation

focus on working class, including women

sound devices such as repetition, consonance, and internal rhyme create unity

final lines present a picture of after the work is over, there is a communal recreation

each person sings "what belongs to him or her" which shows a sense of acknowledgement of the importance of individuals

Miracles:

the word is associated with the divine, but the speaker praises the everyday

there is beauty in everything around us

positive diction

blends the praise of natural and human-made splendor

some observations might seem bad, but he finds order and unity and serenity in the universe

we have some measure of control and choice

poem engages the people by asking questions

celebration of life

I Sit and Look Out:

speaker is seeing oppression, secrets, sorrows, shame, and treachery

emphasizes his own passivity and silence

poem is a voice that speaks: he is taking action by writing about this sorrow

repetition of "I" suggests feeling of responsibility

shines the light on invisible victims

progressive sensibility: calling out the mistreatment of those who might be socially marginalized

There Was a Child Went Forth:

child symbolizes innocence and lack of experience

suggests power and a sense of purpose

focus on the changing of seasons (verbs are past, present, and future) which metaphorically represents the cycle of human life

nature is combined with industry

theme: we are the sum of our experiences, both good and bad

negative imagery increases as child gets older and wiser; losing innocence and gaining experience

we are born with curiosity that helps us to learn and grow

Sparkles From the Wheel:

context: the speaker stops to observe a knife grinder at his task and uses a whetstone to sharpen knives and other metal tools

children are with him

the knife grinder is quite ordinary

speaker is an outsider, stepping out of ordinary life, which shows a moment of transcendent beauty as the friction causes sparkles

metaphor for artists: labor is sometimes intensive, but it can produce something beautiful

When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer:

context: the speaker cannot appreciate the glory of the stars by listening to a lecture, he does so by leaving and observing it for himself

he uses a passive tone

speaker is presented with facts, but he cannot understand them until he observes the glory of the stars

contrast the noise of the lecturer with the "perfect silence" the speaker experiences in nature

transcendent power of nature goes beyond words

monotonous repetition ends when the speaker leaves the lecture

A Noiseless Patient Spider:

poem tries to connect the spider to the human experience: spider web is a person's home, patience is rewarded, webs grow in patterns, knowledge is innate

adjectives suggest waiting, isolated, persevering, resilient

the web is a practical item but also a thing of beauty

allegory of writing: seems simple but is so complex

O Captain! My Captain!:

eulogy for the assassinated Lincoln right as the civil war came to a close

"Our fearful trip is done"

three stanza poem, which fits a solemn occasion, but may be trying to impose order into a time of chaos

repetition of "cold and dead" at the end of each stanza emphasizes horror and sock

captain dies just as the ship comes into the port

captain is like the father, the death is unexpected, perhaps a reminder of the immigrant journey for most Americans

hint of hope because the speaker has to move on just like the country

Song of Myself:

section one: he is part of nature

recurring image of grass, solidarity btwn him and the natural world

begins with a joyous celebratory tone and focus is on the poet/speaker

the poem addresses the audience

he understands his place in the universe

section six: builds on the metaphor of grass

features a questioning child and an image of unity

there is no definitive answer to what the grass is, but is is described as the "handkerchief of the Lord," "uncut hair," and "uniform hieroglyphics"

nature is cyclical

anaphora: it may be

section fifty-two: referencing future and the universal experience of death

tone is not despairing, he is also carefree/playful/defiant

he doesn't take himself too seriously: he will sound his "barbaric yawp over the roof of the world"

death isn't an ending

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Robert Frost:

Acquainted with the Night:

tone: uncertainty, loneliness, unsettling, disquieting

opening and closing lines are the same: "I have been one acquainted with the night" which suggests familiarity with darkness

context: a man is walking alone in the night and doesn't connect with anyone

travels farther away from light

doesn't make eye contact when he encounters someone and he hears someone cry, but does not help

night is a metaphor for despair, threatening, and the unknown

hope: the moon brings light to the sky

Birches:

has a tripartite structure

lines 1-20: reality, sense of past, present, and future

the trees may be bent permanently

focus on nature's destructive power, but some of the imagery is beautiful

meditation of life; blend of suffering, destruction, and beauty

life is a journey from innocence to experience

we are resilient: some trees are bowed but not broken

trees were bent by a boy playing on them

lines 21-40: fantasy, rejection of the truth (female)

he pictures the boy as a solitary type, too far away from town to play baseball with the other kids

suggestive imagery is sexual (everything is a phallic symbol)

sexual maturation is part of the journey from innocence to experience

ends with an image of birth: the boy is launching from the tree

lines 41-59: back to reality, speaker wishes to escape

adulthood is wearying, sometimes painful, he wants to return to childhood instead of dying, appreciation for life

confusing: life is a pathless wood, we lack control

context: speaker is looking and birch trees damaged by an ice storm

Mending Wall:

context: in early spring, the speaker and his neighbor meet along their joined, rural property line to carry out a yearly task: repairing the damage to the wall that divides their land due to erosion of winter or damage by hunters

theme: the speaker challenges the convention

tone: philosophical, playful

he wants to know why the fence is necessary

literal: to keep things off of each other's property

metaphorical: keeping people apart

the speaker has apple trees, so he doesn't get why the apple trees can't share the property

the neighbor clings to tradition: he does not question it

represented as a dult

moves in darkness like an old stone savage

he repeated the saying twice as if he has nothing left to say

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Short Stories: Mid-Late 20th Century Writers:

growing nationalism

the nation must bind itself together after the civil war: nation building, immense wealth, but also great inequality

imperialism? (Spanish-American War)

biggest influx of immigrants

literary innovations: realism (focus on everyday life, featuring local settings, folk speech, and ordinary characters) and naturalism (an attempt to expose life as grim, the individual in battle against indifferent nature and a victim of society)

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce:

part one: opens with a sense of mystery; a man is about to be hanged from a railroad bridge in Alabama by military troops

tone: clinical, dispassionate, surreal

victim is a middle-aged planter (southerner), but he is a civilian

he is focusing himself inwards in his final moments

as the rope and apparatus are being fixed, he hears the tick of his watch, symbolic of his heartbeat, and thinks it is his wife and kids

we sympathize with him as humans, we root for his escape

part two: flashback to explain how he ended up on the bridge

a "confederate" shows up at the plantation and discusses the strategic importance of a union-held railroad bridge, giving Peyton Farquhar the idea to sabotage it because he wants to serve the confederate, but he is set up

part three: he drops, the rope breaks and he escapes (not actually) and flees heroically by swimming away, dodging bullets

clues that this isn't real: his ability to free his neck and arms while underwater, he gets away from a cannon charge, he can see the color of the shooter's eyes, the fall itself, he wanders for hours and then arrives home, he regains consciousness underwater, chronology is inconsistent, he notices the details of the weaponry, he sees the veins of insects on the shoreline and the leaves of trees

he arrives home to his wife, but she disappears as his hallucination ends and he dies

A White Heron by Sarah Orne Jewett:

context: a young girl encounters a man in the woods who is searching for a white heron he wishes to hunt/ass to his collection -- she knows where the bird nests and considers telling him, but ultimately does not

she is rapt by the man

she spends most of her time in nature (sylvia = forest in Latin) and is a loner

he disrupts the serenity: he whistles and carries a gun (phallic)

he pretends to be interested in her family, but only cares about the bird

he represents manhood and her future

he offers her money for the bird, and she considers it, but ultimately does not because she is not ready to give up her childhood

white heron: innocence, purity, freedom, escape, representation of Sylvia

Sylvia faces adulthood: marriage, motherhood, but she is bold and adventurous

he has more power, but she has more knowledge

tone: quiet but triumphant

A New England Nun by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

context: Louisa Ellis, a placid woman who enjoys her domestic comforts, is supposed to marry Joe Dagger, who has been in Australia for 14 years trying to raise money to provide for her, but he falls in love with Lily Dyer, a young woman who looks after his mom, and Louisa finds out, so she breaks the engagement

Louisa wants to be in control and keep the life she has, she likes routine and order, but Joe knocked over her books

Joe disrupts her serenity without trying to

Louisa has socio-economic stability, so she can break the engagement

Caesar the dog: symbolizes Louisa, chained up for years

as a puppy, he was a menace, so he ate a meat-free diet to stop his blood lust

Joe plans to release him

could represent the unleashing of marriage and sexuality

the caged canary: represents Louisa

becomes flustered by Joe's presence

A Pair of Silk Stockings by Kate Chopin

context: Mrs. Sommers unexpectedly comes into a small sum of money, which she initially plans to spend on her children, but she ends up blowing it all on treats for herself

she buys silk stockings, gloves, boots, magazines, and theater tickets

she wanted to buy practical items for her children because she is poor, but she wasn't always poor, so she might be a widow

she wishes to escape from the drudgery and dullness of her everyday life

she is faint because she forgot to eat

the stockings represent a touch of luxury and temptation

An Episode of War by Stephen Crane:

context: the lieutenant is dividing the coffee ration among his men when he is struck by the sniper's bullet (not heroic), and once wounded, he is powerless and taken out of action (embarrassing), so he is alone in the chaos of battle and his own travails seem trivial

when getting helped by the doctor, the doctor is scornful and despite his desire to keep his arm, the lieutenant has is amputated

he goes home and his female family members weep for his loss, but he is abashed and detached

naturalism: he is powerless

A Love Story From the Rice Fields of China by Sui Sin Far:

context: Ah Sue is a Chinese woman who shows autonomy but she chooses her husband, until she may be with him, she chooses to remain single and supports herself by running a flower shop

an example of sentimentalist literature domestic focus, privacy of women

blend of Chinese and American culture: she is inspired by an American woman who urges her to marry only for love

love is powerful; it helps her maintain her independence even thought she would have to be married

Chow Han is a worker for her father: shows a gender dynamic reversal and socio-economic difference

he goes to the US for an opportunity to earn money, but Ah Sue learns that he has been killed in a railroad accident

geranium is used as a symbol of their love and when Chow Han returns disguised and tries to buy the plant, she will not sell it (or herself) for any price

they host a Christmas dinner for friends of different cultural backgrounds, their home features Chinese art and decor

Life on the Mississippi by Samuel Clemens:

the young boys have an optimistic/hopeful sensibility about what they can become

they want to be steamboat captains to escape and see other people and places

tone: humorous, they see all jobs as acceptable

narrative point of view: the older, wiser narrator looks back on his younger self

the anecdote about the boys who are jealous about a peer who gets a job on a boat and shows off, but is then blown up, making the other boys happy, shows comedic bloodthirstiness

irony: he is still alive, shaking the narrator's religious faith

realism: local color, use of dialect

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Modern and Contemporary Writers:

modernism: hopes for the new century, shattered by the Great Depression

postmodernism: a time of conformity, social upheaval with civil rights movements and the cold war, industries failing, AIDS

growing cynicism, the marginalized claiming their voiced

Barn Burner by William Faulkner:

context: a local sharecropper is accused of trying to burn a barn and is expelled from the county with his family, so he gets a job working another landowner's crops, but he gets in trouble for spoiling a valuable rug, and when he is taken to court again, he decides to get revenge.

Snopes' son, Sarty, warns the landowner, shots are fired, Sarty runs away

he is 10 years old and has a strong sense of justice

he has to decide what kind of man he wants to be: coming of age

torn btwn his love for his father and doing the right thing

he decides to betray his father because he will burn the DeSpain barn

theme: duty to family vs doing the right thing

Snopes is physically and emotionally abusive because he feels powerless

he is enraged by the perceived superiority of DeSpain's black butler, which is why he ruins the rug he was told to clean

A Good Man is Hard to find by Flannery O'Connor:

her work is characterized by her dark humor

context: a family goes on a road trip to Florida, but they take a detour and run into an escaped convict (the Misfit), who shoots them all

why is it funny?

irony: the grandmother is the one who knows about the Misfit, but is also the one who leads them astray

grandmother makes absurd mistakes: the house she is directing them to is in a different state, she tells the Misfit she recognizes him, she causes the accident by bringing her cat

Bailey's shirt is tropical

the Misfit is a menacing character, but is also understated and polite

grandmother is concerned with appearances, but it also racist

theme: life as a blend of tragedy of comedy, people are a mixture of good and evil

foreshadowing: forbidding woods, chained monkey at Red Sammy's Barbecue joint, Red Sammy talks to the grandmother about the Misfit

Red Sammy thinks the world is a terrible place

Cat is hidden and precipitates the accident

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Langston Hughes:

Dream Deferred:

the poem has a series of questions and similes

way for the writer to reach out to the readers

questions reinforce that it is hypothetical

African-Americans are victimized by unrealized dreams

does it dry up like a raisin in the sun: missing opportunities

or fester like a sore: the dream will remain but is becoming infected

and stink like rotten meat: uses consonance to illustrate rough sounds

or crust and sugar over like a syrupy sweet: the dream can become a burden and transform into something else

or does it explode: abrupt after a series of gradual steps

ending has a sense of power and ominousness: explosions can destroy

I, Too:

alludes to "I Hear America Singing"

the speaker is the darker brother who is sent to eat in the kitchen when company comes

tone: defiant but hopeful

he is marginalized, the kitchen is an allusion to the work done in slave times

progression to future tense

he asserts that he is beautiful but he is also realistic because the time has not arrived yet

last line: he claims his right to citizenship

Little Old Letter:

influenced by the blues

central conflict remains unanswered: "a little old letter / can take a person's life"

death, bad test result, something related to a loss

theme: the transformative power of words

title is ironic: the adjectives are dismissive

although it covers the universal experience of despair, he explicitly references the pain of racial marginalization: "I never felt so lonesome since I was born black"

note the colloquial voice of the speaker: informal grammar/dialect

Mother to Son:

speaker speaks in non-standard english, suggesting little formal education

extended metaphor of the staircase

the mother's life has apparently been hard

note her descriptions of the stairs: tacks, splinters

theme: resistance and resilience -- she continues to climb and make progress

her journey is long, but she wants to impart a lesson on her son that he needs to keep going

tone: inspiring

why is it a mother?

one generation passing knowledge onto the next

she faces more challenges

a symbol of protection

she is realistic

The Negro Speaks of Rivers:

symbolism of water: the idea of ever-flowing water reflects the continuity of the past, present, and future

"my soul has grown deep like the rivers:" allusion to suffering/transcendence

a sign of change and renewal (like Baptisms)

rivers represent life

theme: speaker uses rivers in Africa and the ancient world, and connects them to US

alludes to experience of Israelites enslaved in Egypt

american experience in the US

allusion to the middle passage

rebirth and connection/unity

focus on individuality in the repetition of "I"

Still Here:

tone: speaker is defiant and hopeful; direct reference to suffering

uses colloquial diction and grammar

the speaker has an ability to laugh, love, and live

reference to nature: it freezes and bakes him

can allude to slave experience toiling in the fields

interesting that he doesn't directly reference people who were oppressed

last lines are forceful: "but I don't care! I'm still here!"