American Literature II ~ LIT 210—(Revised for spring 2013)
Dr. Jonathan Alexander
Office,
609-894-9311 or 856-222-9311 (x1123)
E-mail: jalexand@bcc.edu
Online syllabus: http://staff.bcc.edu/faculty_websites/jalexand/210syl.htm
_____________________________________________________________________
A. TEXT:
Custom Text ISBN# 0-390-150231; additional readings
are linked within the online version of this syllabus.
B. COURSE OVERVIEW: American Literature II is a survey course which continues from the Civil War
period where American Lit I concluded, covering the periods of Realism,
Naturalism, Modernism, and Post-Modernism. The course will assign primary
emphasis to the major literary trends found in early
C. LEARNING OBJECTIVES ~ At the end of LIT 210, you should be able to:
Attendance: If the student is to profit from any course, he or
she must attend class on a consistent basis.
Students
must attend all classes for the full duration of each session. Should you need to miss a class for observance of
religious holidays, jury duty, military duty, bereavement, or illness, you must
notify the instructor by telephone or e-mail prior to or within 24 hours after
the class. Without such communication, students forfeit the right to make up
missed work. If such communication is made, students will be permitted to make
up missed work at the beginning of the following class meeting. It is,
therefore, the student’s responsibility to read the syllabus and be prepared
for current as well as missed assignments.
Entering
class late or leaving class early
(without prior authorization) is considered disrespectful and will not be
tolerated.
Academic Etiquette: Students will respect themselves, their peers and their
instructors by considering the following:
Cell
phones must be kept on silent. No
calls are to be made or received during class. If you are expecting an
important call during the class meeting time, notify me prior to class and
quietly excuse yourself if the call is received. No text-messaging or
game-playing will be tolerated.
Students
who wish to use the restrooms may do so by quietly leaving and
re-entering the room. If a student believes he or she will require an absence
of more than a few minutes, it is his responsibility to notify me accordingly.
Communication: Many means of communication are available to the
student including telephone, e-mail and mailbox.
If
you leave a message on my office voice-mail, please remember to speak
clearly and provide your name, course information, and phone number if you
request a return call.
If
you contact me via e-mail, always include your FULL NAME AND CLASS
SECTION in the subject line. Too often students forget to sign e-mail or have
e-mail addresses without obvious identifiers. If you do not include your name
and class in the subject line, I will not open the message.
Students
who send me e-mail and do not receive a reply of any kind within 48
hours should assume it was never received. Such e-mails should be resent. I do
not mind receiving redundant messages if you are unsure whether your message
was transmitted (though I may only reply to one). If your message doesn’t
present itself as urgent, I may reply quickly and briefly and ask to get back
to you before long.
Students
who send e-mails containing attachments must save these documents with
one of the following extensions: DOC, DOCX, TXT, RTF or PDF. If the previous
extensions are not available to you, copy and paste the text of your assignment
into the e-mail message itself.
Class Assignments:
All
work written and submitted should utilize standard rules of grammar, sentence
organization, paragraph organization, and diction.
All
formal papers are to be typed, titled, double spaced, stapled, and carefully
proofread.
All
assignments are due on the date specified on the syllabus without exception.
Assignments which are not submitted during the class session they are due will
be penalized 15% for each subsequent day they are late.
If
a student presents reasonable justification for an absence, such an absence
does not allow for more time to complete assignments. When a student is absent
the day an assignment is due, he or she must submit the assignment as an
attachment via e-mail on or before the date it is due.
Since
students are provided with all assignments and deadlines on the first day of
the semester, excuses such as “crashed computers,” “misplaced data,” “misplaced
disks,” or “empty printer ink cartridges” will not be accepted. All computer
work should be saved twice (hard drive and floppy/flash).
Plagiarism will not be tolerated under any circumstances. Be
aware that plagiarism includes (but is not limited to) copying someone else’s
words without crediting the source; paraphrasing someone else’s words without
crediting the source; using someone else’s ideas without crediting the source
(even if rephrased in your own words); using facts not universally known which
are obtained from a source without crediting the source; asking someone else to
write your paper, either in whole or in part; or obtaining a paper or portion
thereof by any means and submitting it as an original document. The penalty
for plagiarism is failure of the assignment and potentially failure of the
course (at the instructor’s discretion), and it may result in suspension or
expulsion from the College (at the discretion of the Student Affairs
Committee). Please refer to the BCC Student Handbook for additional
information regarding College regulations and the handling of plagiarism.
E. ASSIGNMENTS: Visit the grading rubric (http://staff.bcc.edu/faculty_websites/jalexand/rubric.htm)
to see how writing is evaluated.
F. MAKE-UP EXAM POLICY: Because all assignment deadlines and scheduled exam
dates are provided at the beginning of the semester, little latitude is given
to those students who are not considerate of themselves or respectful of course
expectations. The schedule of assignments and activities is a contract and,
therefore, not open to negotiation. In the event that you must be absent the
day an assignment is due (though it is strongly discouraged if preventable),
utilize a form of electronic submission to turn in journal entries or other
assignments the day they are due.
G. GRADING POLICY: All assignments have a specific point value. There are
200 total points worth of assignments and examinations.
|
Total
Course |
Final
Percentages |
Letter
Grade |
|
177-200 |
88.5
- 100 |
A |
|
175-176 |
87.5
- 88 |
B+ |
|
159-174 |
79.5
- 87 |
B |
|
155-158 |
77.5
- 79 |
C+ |
|
149-154 |
74.5
- 77 |
C |
|
139-148 |
69.5
- 74 |
D |
|
0-138 |
0
- 69 |
F |
H. LIST OF ASSIGNMENTS:
|
ASSIGNMENT
/ ACTIVITY |
DUE
DATE |
VALUE |
GRADE |
|
Literary Response Journal |
Daily |
40
pts |
|
|
Midterm Exam |
Session
9 |
40
pts |
|
|
Biographical Presentation |
Session
13/14 |
20
pts |
|
|
1500-word Research Essay (Options listed
above) |
Session
14 |
40
pts |
|
|
Final Exam |
Session
15 (TBD) |
40
pts |
|
|
Participation and Attendance |
N/A |
20
pts |
|
|
TOTAL |
|
200
pts |
|
I. PROJECTED
SCHEDULE OF ASSIGNMENTS:
►All readings and responses
must be completed before the date scheduled.
SESSION 1: __________
Discussion of syllabus and general course expectations
Discussion of Literary Time Periods
WALT WHITMAN
►I Hear
America Singing, syllabus: What do these individuals seem to
have in common? What, if anything, distinguishes them one from the next? Do you
think the speaker wants these men and women to be seen as a homogenous group
with little distinction or a heterogeneous mixture of vastly different people?
How is the balance between work and play handled? Do you think the speaker
favors one over the other
►Oh Captain,
My Captain, syllabus: What makes the
style of this poem different from the previous? How has the speaker managed to
capture both the thrilling triumph of
►Whoever You Are Holding Me Now in Hand, syllabus: How can the speaker expect his readers to have an appreciation of his work if he is constantly reminding them of the futility of understanding it? Do you sense sincerity in the speaker’s claims that the reader may never fully reconcile the work, or do you believe his tone is more often playful or sarcastic?
____________________________________________________________
SESSION 2:__________
MARK TWAIN
►How to Tell a Story, 171: What does the author propose as the difference between knowledge and action? Which seems to be favored more and why? What makes humorous stories the “only one difficult kind”? How does he differentiate among that which is “humorous, comic, and witty”? How does he distinguish between the manner (or process) through which a story is told and the matter (or substance) of the story itself? What makes the comic story and its teller a “pathetic” thing to see? What value does the author place on the “pause”?
FRANK NORRIS
►A Plea for Romantic Fiction, 175: How does Norris distinguish between Romance and Romantic? How does he effectively argue his point of literary criticism while still asking so many questions? What arguments does Norris make against Realism? How does he promote Romance as an equally effective “teacher” as any style of expression?
RED CLOUD
►[All I Want Is Peace and Justice], 178: How does the speaker handle the fact that the white men seem to have an unfortunately incorrect view of the natives? How might this speech be viewed as a desperate plea of a man who thinks he has nothing more to lose?
ZITKALA-SA
►The School Days of an Indian Girl, 180: How does this piece illustrate the condition of being caught between two drastically different worlds? How does she use the education of native children as a metaphor for the unfortunate perceptions felt by the white race? What is the most striking passage of the piece for you?
____________________________________________________________
SESSION 3: __________
SARAH ORNE JEWETT
►A White Heron, 183: By refusing to betray the heron’s secret, what is Sylvia rejecting (and in favor of what)? What is the hunter’s goal (and is it achieved)? What role does the narrative voice play in our understanding of Sylvia’s choices? Why do you believe Sylvia made the right or wrong decision? What does the heron’s pine tree represent for Sylvia? What makes this tale Romantic (according to Norris)? What makes it Realistic? What makes it Naturalistic?
STEPHEN CRANE
►A Man Said to the Universe, 190: How does this very short poem represent Crane’s view of a “universe essentially indifferent to man?” What relationship is established between the “man” and the “universe”?
►The Open Boat, 191: What does the story tell us about perceptions and observations of people in a crisis? What is the effect of our being told early in the story that the men are not near a rescue station? Why does Crane deliberately place the dinghy’s crew in sight of land? How does Crane’s view of the human community arise out of his view of the natural forces surrounding and working upon humans?
____________________________________________________________
SESSION 4: __________
PAUL LAURENCE
►We Wear The Mask, 209: How does the poem differentiate between public and private personae? What is the speaker’s attitude toward his public? From what inspiration do you think this may have arisen? What might this poem have in common with John Lennon’s lyric about Eleanor Rigby, who is “wearing a face that she keeps in a jar by the door”?
►Life’s Tragedy, 210: What does this poem say about missed opportunities and failed expectations? How does the speaker feel about seeking perfection or an ideal end? What role (if any) does regret play in our lives?
►Sympathy, 211: How does the speaker express his familiarity with suffering? How are missed opportunities treated similarly or differently than they are in “Life’s Tragedy”? What makes the bird an effective or ineffective metaphor in this poem? How are freedom and salvation represented?
EDWIN
►The Mill,
212: What role does denial of truth play in this poem? How are unconscious
fears and concerns represented? How does memory become an unwelcome liability?
How might the miller and his wife have escaped from similar burdens but through
different gestures? How does this relate to
►Variations of Greek Things: A Happy Man, syllabus: What is the power of memory and legacy expressed in this poem? Do you sense sincerity in the speaker’s reminiscing, or is there stylistic evidence of sarcasm? Is the speaker’s sentiment ideally Romantic or plausibly Realistic?
►Mr. Flood’s Party, 213: How has Flood found a way to manage his feelings of loneliness and isolation? Is he ultimately successful? What elements of the poem make it Naturalistic in its moral? What does the road (and Flood’s spatial orientation on it) represent within his life? How are Flood’s past and future represented, and what does each seem to have to offer him now?
____________________________________________________________
SESSION 5: __________
ROBERT FROST
►After Apple-Picking, 215: What is the speaker looking forward to? What does he seem to feel guilty about? How does he attempt (and perhaps fail) to escape these responsibilities that he knows are his? How does the illustration of fallen apples relate to the speaker himself? How does this relate to Dunbar’s and Robinson’s suggestions about achieved or failed expectations?
►The Wood-Pile, 216: What role does (in)decision play for the speaker? How does the poem represent spaces both familiar and foreign? What commentary does this poem make about the sense of incompleteness of tasks which Frost represented in “After Apple-Picking”? What positive message can be brought from this poem whose final word is “decay”?
►Birches, 217: How does this poem represent the relationship between the real and the ideal? How does the speaker maintain this balance? How is the boy “too far from town” represented as extremely resourceful and self-sufficient? What does this contribute to the poem’s message? How is the sense of being “alone” characterized differently in this poem than in “Mr. Flood’s Party”? What message is proposed by the act of filling a cup “even above the brim”? What does this have to do with swinging on birches (literally) and life (figuratively)? How does the speaker eventually remain true to his romantic side while maintaining a pragmatic view of life?
►The Need of Being Versed in Country Things, syllabus: How does this poem express equal amounts of idyllic Romanticism while emphasizing the harshness of Modern times? What is the speaker’s attitude about feelings of regret? What role does Nature itself play in its own preservation? How is the power of individual perspective valued in this piece?
____________________________________________________________
SESSION 6: __________
CARL SANDBURG
►Chicago,
syllabus: How is the speaker able to enumerate seemingly horrible truths about
his hometown while remaining proud to call it his? Which of the speaker’s
descriptive examples do you think is the most damning to the city of
►I am the People,
the Mob, syllabus: What does this poem
have in common with George Santayana’s quote, “Those who cannot learn from
history are doomed to repeat it”? Is “not learning” (as Santayana claims) the
same as “forgetting” (as Sandburg claims)? How can the speaker somehow remain
hopeful for the future when the present appears so bleak? How is this poem (and
“
►Government, syllabus: What role does first-hand observation play for the speaker? How are concepts of “criminality” and “corruption” illustrated through this poem? Is it a good thing or bad thing that the “government” is represented as something dynamic, alive, moving, changeable? What is the effect of ritual, patterned behavior as expressed in the final stanza?
SUSAN GLASPELL
►Trifles, 219: How are the “letter of the law” and the “spirit of the law” interpreted differently by Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale? Does one win out over the other? How are the two “characters” of Minnie Foster and Minnie Wright characterized differently? What textual evidence illustrates why the men are logical, arrogant, and stupid? How are Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale each motivated for their own reasons to conspire against the men? What do you learn of the character of John Wright that might mitigate the charge against Minnie? Explain the significance of each of the following symbols: the bird, the cage with the broken hinge, the cold house and broken jelly jars, the unevenly sewn quilt block, the fresh bread on the counter, the half-clean table top, the rope.
____________________________________________________________
SESSION 7: __________
T. S. ELIOT
►The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, (in-class exercise) 229
WALLACE STEVENS
►The Snow Man, 233: What does it mean to have a “mind of” something, and how does that prove important to the speaker here? What elements in this poem are loosely associated with a lingering Romanticism? On the other hand, what makes this poem purely Modern in its approach?
JOHN CROWE RANSOM
►Winter Remembered, syllabus: How does this speaker’s reference to “absence” relate to Robinson’s “The Mill”? How does “feeling” and the desire for painlessness relate to Prufrock? What message is the speaker proposing about love and loss?
____________________________________________________________
SESSION 8: __________
CLAUDE MCKAY
►America, 234: How does the speaker express a love for something that doesn’t always seem to have his best interest in mind? What role does loyalty play for the speaker? Does he seem more certain or uncertain about the future?
►If We Must Die, 235: What role does dignity and self-respect play in this poem? Do you perceive the “fighting back” at the end as more literal or figurative? How might it be both?
►Outcast, 236: Is there a positive message within this poem which seems laden with negative imagery (“dim,” “forgotten,” “alien,” “ghost,” “apart”)?
COUNTEE CULLEN
►Yet Do I Marvel, 237: How does this poem express the equal concerns about God’s benevolence and the speaker’s futility of existence? What role does temptation play? How do you interpret the act of “marveling” (as opposed to “knowing,” “understanding,” or even “appreciating”)?
____________________________________________________________
SESSION 9: __________
MIDTERM EXAM
O. HENRY (William Sydney Porter)
►The Gift of the Magi, (click here for reading) (Video): What symbolic value does the number three have in this story? How can Della and Jim possibly appreciate the gifts from each other if they had to give up their most precious possession in order to receive it? Can a story based on coincidence, irony and surprise still be readable today? What makes this a timeless story?
ERNEST HEMINGWAY
►A Clean, Well-Lighted Place, (click here for reading): What are some of the contrasts present in the story? What are the major differences between the young waiter and the old waiter, particularly in terms of how they view the old man and working in the café? What is the meaning of the old waiter’s “prayer”? Given the view of human existence that is expressed, what is the role and significance of the café? What do you consider to be the overall meaning of the story?
WILLIAM FAULKNER
►A Rose For Emily, (click here for reading): Why is Miss Emily Grierson described as “a fallen monument”? What does it mean that “Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town…”? How does the narrator describe Homer Barron? What does he come to represent for Emily? What is the community’s attitude towards Homer and Emily’s relationship? After Miss Emily’s death, what is discovered in the room “which no one had seen in forty years”? What do you believe to be Miss Emily’s motive for her actions?
____________________________________________________________
SESSION 10: __________
LANGSTON HUGHES
►Theme for English B, syllabus (in-class exercise)
RICHARD WRIGHT
►From “Black Boy, A Five-Dollar Fight,” (click here for reading): How do you come to understand that the narrator of the story has to think “double,” that is, think about himself as himself and at the same time think about himself as the white men see him? Do you get the impression that this is a no-win situation for the narrator (or can something be gained by this experience)? Why or why not? What does this story say about the corrupting influence of racism on the two young African American men? What does the comparison to the fighting dogs or roosters say about the white men’s attitudes? Richard Wright labels himself both a realist and a naturalist writer who wrote stories to convey a message about social injustice. Identify two elements of this story (one for realism and one for naturalism) which illustrate both of these tendencies.
AMIRI BARAKA
►An Agony As Now, 238: Considering the other works discussed this semester which illustrate positive and/or negative views of self worth or identity (including Robinson, Frost, Eliot, Stevens, Hemingway, Wright, etc.), select three works and identify how Baraka’s poem “An Agony, As Now” is similar to or different from each.
____________________________________________________________
SESSION 11:__________
SAM SHEPARD
►True West, (Video): What symbolic role does the desert play for each of the two characters? Identify two ways that the “switch” in the brothers’ roles can be seen in the play? What distinction does the playwright make in the play between “art” and “business”? How can True West be defined as a naturalistic work of drama? Give examples as they can be associated with Crane’s “Open Boat” and other elements of Naturalism. How does Lee (and, eventually, Austin) display qualities of the loner, alienated and detached from society? What other characters have we read who can be related to these two men (directly or indirectly)? How is Lee’s final monologue at the end of Act One indicative of these two men and their relationships with each other and the world? Does the end of the play seem resolved to you? If not, what else did you expect to learn about these men? If so, what does the end (as it appears) tell us about how we’re supposed to feel about these men?
____________________________________________________________
SESSION 12: __________
BETTY FRIEDAN, ►The Problem That Has No Name, (click here for reading): Why did “the problem lay buried, unspoken” for so long? What seems to be the speaker’s greatest disappointment regarding the treatment of women by men? Why is it significant that women weren’t being defined as “inferior,” rather “simply different” from men? What impact might it have had on women through the years if they knew others felt the same way as they?
DENISE LEVERTOV
►Wedding Ring, 240: What does this poem express about the opportunities that lie ahead and of the potential futility of hope? What significance does each of the other “items” which lie in the basket have? How does this relate to the ring itself and what it represents now for the speaker? Does the speaker seem hopeful of being able to recover a lost past? Does she think change is possible? Is it effective for her to end with questions she doesn’t seem to answer? (Or does she?)
CAROLYN FORCHE
►Taking Off My Clothes, syllabus: What is the tone of voice of this poem? How does the speaker illustrate what she thinks is pain and compromise that she has undergone for the listener? How does the conversational tone at the end display a very different tone than Levertov’s “questions”?
ADRIENNE RICH
►Living in Sin, syllabus: How does the speaker differentiate (through examples) between what she “thought” and what she “knows”? Where in the poem does she seem to hold herself in contempt for behaving the way she is? If she seems to loathe her own behavior, why does she apparently continue it? How do you think the speaker would define being “back in love again”(l. 23)? What might the “sin” in the title be a reference to (if not conventional “pre-marital intimacy”)?
MARGE PIERCY
►Always Unsuitable, syllabus: How does the speaker seem to express both a concern for pleasing the “mothers” and a contempt for them at the same time? How is Piercy’s compromising for a cause similar to or different from Forche’s? Where does Piercy’s speaker present details to suggest she is neither perfect nor always appropriate? On the other hand, (as opposed to Rich’s sense of self-loathing) where does Piercy represent a speaker who has a greater sense of self-respect?
►Barbie Doll, syllabus: How does the “girlchild” attempt to make herself something she is not? What motivates her? What is the outcome? How is her portrayal in death ironically triumphant? What is the difference between this girl’s efforts to be someone she wasn’t and those of the speaker in the previous poem? Do you think the same “happy ending” could be applied to the speaker of “Always Unsuitable”? How about to Forche’s speaker?
JANICE MIRIKITANI
►Suicide Note, syllabus: What roles do age, gender, intelligence, and public opinion play in this poem? How might the concerns of this female speaker be an updated representation of the sort of sentiments expressed years earlier by Friedan? What do you think is the key difference between this speaker’s inability to please (and her subsequent suicide) and the inability to please expressed in “Always Unsuitable”?
ALICE WALKER
►Everyday Use, 241
____________________________________________________________
SESSION 13: __________
Presentations Group 1
____________________________________________________________
SESSION 14: __________
Presentations Group 2
1500-word Research
Essay
Journals Checked
____________________________________________________________
SESSION 15: __________
FINAL EXAM
____________________________________________________________
Directions for PPT
Presentations
Spoken presentation:
·
6-10 minutes
·
Notes permitted
·
Consistent with PPT slides
·
Coherent, unified, smooth
Powerpoint:
·
6-10 slides
·
Minimum 24pt font
·
Bulleted outline of information with key details
(approx. 1/3 of speech)
·
Incorporate images as appropriate
·
Emphasize contrast between text and background
·
Minimize graphic creativity (i.e. animation)
·
Bibliography slide at end
Handout:
·
Bulleted outline of PPT info (approx. 1/3 of PPT
info)
·
Half-sheet acceptable
·
Copies for instructor and all members of the
class
20-point grade
(delivery + PPT design + PPT information + handout)
TOPIC OPTIONS
____________________________________________________________
How to Analyze a Novel or Play
I. Characters
1. In a sentence or two sum up the appearance and important
characteristics of each major character.
2. Which characters change as the story proceeds? Do they change for the
better or the worse?
3. Which characters are distinct
individuals (round) and which types (flat)?
4. Does every character have a function in the story? What are the
functions of the minor characters? Any foils? Are these minor
characters interesting in themselves?
5. How are the principal characters
presented? By the author’s description and comment?
By representation of the thoughts and actions of the
characters themselves? By observations
and comments of the other characters?
6. Are the characters at once
realistically consistent and sufficiently motivated for whatever change occurs
in them?
7. Toward which characters does the
author show sympathy? Toward which antipathy?
II. Plot
1. In 250-300 words, give a synopsis of the story. Is there a well unified beginning, middle,
and end?
2. If there is more than one action in
the story, show which is the main and which the subordinate plots (subplots);
is anything irrelevant to the main plot?
3. What is the nature of the
conflicts? Are there complications to the main problem? Identify
the protagonist and antagonist.
4. Is our curiosity aroused? How?
Are there significant dilemmas, ironies
or foreshadowing?
5. Is the conclusion of the story
satisfactory?
III. Setting
1. What is the historic time, place, and social
background of the story? How
much time does the action cover? How does the author treat time gaps?
2. Which are
the most interesting, striking, or important scenes? Refer to them
specifically, describe them briefly, and give your reasons for selecting them.
3. For a novel, how is the setting
presented? With photographic detail? Impressionistically through a few suggestive details? Indirectly through thoughts and actions?
IV. Theme
1. What is the moral significance of the story? Does it have universal
significance through its theme, plot, and characters? Does it stimulate
thoughts about any important problems of life? Does it supply answers by
implication or direct statement?
2. Does the story clearly reveal any
overall view of the universe on the part of the author? Is this view
sentimental, romantic, cynical, etc.? Does the author content himself
with showing evil and leave the conclusions up to the reader, or does he use
devices to help form the reader’s conclusions?
V. Style
1. How would you describe the author’s style? Simple
and clear-cut, complex and involved? Smooth and
grateful, abrupt and harsh? Richly suggestive and implying much,
lean and direct?
2. Does the author’s style have
individuality? Could a story of his be recognized by the style alone?
3. Is there any humor in the
story? Is it quiet or broad? Is the dialogue appropriate to the speakers?
4. How frequent are dramatic situations?
How are they reached, by anticipation or surprise? How treated, by
suggestion or in detail? How rendered, by
dialogue or by description?
5. Are there any different rates of
movement in the narrative? Where and why?
6. For a novel, from what point of view is it written? In
the point of view consistent? Could it have been changed for the
better?
7. Copy some of the striking passages
that you consider full of meaning or particularly remarkable for their
freshness of statement.
VI. Historical background
1. When was the story written? What relation and/or significance does
this date have to preceding, contemporary, and /or succeeding events—literary
publications and important political, economic, or social occurrences?
2. What place does the story hold in
the author’s total work?
3. Are any circumstances of special
interest associated with the composition of the story? Do these
circumstances in any way aid in the better understanding of the story itself?
VII.
Classification of the Story
1. On what levels can the story profitably be read? (Plot,
characters, emotional effect, theme.) Is this a story of character
with the primary interest in events? Of setting,
primary interest in environment? Of idea, primary interest in
thesis or ethical significance?
2. In what general literary tradition was the story written? Realistic, attempting to see life photographically with emphasis on
the difficulties, absurdities, animosities and ironies? Romantic,
attempting to see life idealistically with emphasis on the might-be or
ought-to-be and avoiding the unpleasant? Naturalistic,
fantastic?
REALISM AND THE LOCAL COLOR MOVEMENT (1865-1880)
The second half of the 19th c. saw America becoming
increasingly self-conscious at the very time regional writers began to write
about its various aspects. American wanted to know what their country looked
like, and how the varied races which made up their growing population lived and
talked.
The East asked what kinds of people leading
what kinds of life are at the end of those bands of iron?
The Western regionalists answered: Men and
women like yourselves, but dressed differently, speaking differently, with
different social ways: fantastic deserts, mile deep canyons, mountains high
enough to bear snow the year round, forests with trees as wide as man can
stretch and wider, villages where the only woman was the town whore, camps
where the only currency was gold-dust.
Writers of the South told of swamps where
cypress grew out the green-scummed water and the moss
grew down into it; of the cities where obsessive blood-consciousness of its
inhabitants told of the mingling of races.
Mid-western
authors narrated the tales of the plains where a man could be lost in the dust
or ruined by hailstorm; of cities where fortunes were made or lost in a day’s
trading on the beef or grain exchanges.
Principles Of Realism
1. Insistence upon and
defense of “the experienced commonplace.”
2. Character more important
than plot.
3. Attack upon romanticism
and romantic writers.
4. Emphasis upon morality
often self-realized and upon an examination of idealism.
5. Concept of realism as a
realization of democracy.
Identifying Characteristics Of
Realistic Writing
1. The philosophy of Realism
is known as “descendental” or non-transcendental
(non-romantic). The purpose is to instruct and to entertain. Realists
were pragmatic, relativistic, democratic, and experimental.
2. The subject matter of
Realism is drawn from “our experience”; it treated the common, the average, the
non-extreme, the representative, the probable.
3. The morality of Realism is
intrinsic and relativistic; relations between people and society are explored.
4. The style of Realism is
the vehicle which carries realistic philosophy, subject matter, and morality.
Emphasis is placed upon scenic presentation, de-emphasizing authorial comment
and evaluation. There is an objection towards the omniscient point of view.
5. There is the belief among
the Realists that humans control their destinies; characters act on their environment
rather than simply reacting to it. Character is superior to circumstance. (Naturalism
will later refocus on and refute this concept)
6. The Realists reject the
kind of symbolism suggested by Emerson (a Romantic) when he said “Every
natural fact is a symbol of some spiritual fact.” Their use of symbolism is
controlled and limited, depending more on the
use of images.
Realistic Techniques
1. Settings are thoroughly
familiar to the writer.
2. Plots emphasize the norm
of daily experience.
3. Ordinary characters are
studied in depth.
4. Complete authorial
objectivity
5. Responsible morality; a
world truly reported.
NATURALISM: Two Approaches (1880-1914)
1. Naturalism is an extension or continuation of
Realism with the addition of pessimistic determinism.
2. Naturalism is different from Realism.
Subject Matter & Characterization in Naturalistic
Fiction
1. The subject matter:
a. The subject matter
deals with those raw and unpleasant experiences which reduce characters to
“degrading” behavior in their struggle to survive (including prostitution and
seduction, exposure to social conditions and social evils). These characters
are mostly from the lower middle or the lower classes; they are poor,
uneducated, and unsophisticated.
b. The atmosphere is the
commonplace and the unheroic; life is usually the
dull round of daily existence. The naturalist tries to discover those qualities
in such characters usually associated with the heroic or adventurous—acts of
violence and passion leading to desperate moments and violent death. The
suggestion is that life on its lowest levels is not so
simple as it seems to be.
c. There is discussion
of fate and “hubris” (excessive pride, arrogance) that affect a character;
generally the controlling force is society and the surrounding environment.
2. The concept of a naturalistic character:
a. In Naturalism, characters
do not have free will. External and internal forces, environment, or heredity
control their behaviors:
Charles Darwin’s Origin
of Species, 1859, concept of natural selection (biological determinism),
“survival of the fittest” threatened establish religious beliefs;
Karl Marx’s Communiest Manifesto, 1867, concept of
economic determinism, civilization thrives on the struggle of the social
classes;
Sigmund Freud, Interpretation
of Dreams, 1899, concept of “pleasure
principle” (psychological determinism); human actions guided by repressed fears
and desires (wish-fulfiillment).
All determinists believe in the
existence of the will, but the will is often enslaved on account of different
reasons. characters are conditioned and controlled by
environment, heredity, chance, or instinct; but they have compensating
humanistic values which affirm their individuality and life—their struggle for
life becomes heroic and they maintain human dignity.
b. the Naturalists attempt to represent the
intermingling in life of the controlling forces and individual worth. They do
not dehumanize their characters.
AMERICAN MODERNISM (1914-1945)
The Centers of Modernism
1. Stylistic innovations—disruption of traditional syntax and
form.
2. Artist’s self-consciousness about questions of form and
structure.
3. Obsession with primitive material and attitudes.
4. International perspective on cultural matters.
Modern Attitudes
1. The artist is generally less appreciated but more
sensitive, even more heroic, than the average person.
2. The artist challenges tradition and reinvigorates it.
3. A breaking away from patterned responses and predictable
forms.
Contradictory Elements
1. Democratic and elitist.
2. Traditionalism and anti-tradition.
3. National provinciality versus the celebration of
international culture.
4. Puritanical and repressive elements versus freer
expression in sexual and political matters.
Literary Achievements
1. Dramatization of the plight of women.
2. Creation of a literature of the urban experience.
3. Continuation of the pastoral or rural spirit.
4. Continuation of regionalism and local color.
Modern Themes
1. Collectivism versus the authority of the individual.
2. The impact of the 1918 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia.
3. The Jazz Age.
4. The Harlem Renaissance
5. The passage of 19th Amendment in 1920 giving women the
right to vote.
6. Prohibition of the production, sale, and consumption of
alcoholic beverages, 1920-33.
7. The stock-market crash of 1929 and the Depression of the
1930s and their impact.
Modernism and the Self
1. In this period, the chief characteristic of the
self is one of alienation. The character belongs to a “lost generation”
(Gertrude Stein), suffers from a “dissociation of sensibility” (T. S. Eliot),
and who has “a Dream deferred” (Langston Hughes).
2. Alienation led to an awareness
about one’s inner life.
HARLEM RENAISSANCE (1919-1939)
1. Harlem Renaissance (HR) is the name given to the
period from the end of World War I and through the middle of the 1930s
Depression, during which a group of talented African-American writers produced
a sizable body of literature in the four prominent genres of poetry, fiction,
drama, and essay.
2. The notion of “twoness,” a divided awareness of
one’s identity, was introduced by W.E.B. Du Bois, one of the founders of the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the
author of the influential book The Souls of Black Folks (1903): “One
ever feels his two-ness - an American, a Negro; two
souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled stirrings: two
warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from
being torn asunder.”
3. Common themes: alienation, marginality, the use of folk material, the use of
the blues tradition, the problems of writing for an elite audience.
4. HR was more than just a literary movement: it included racial consciousness,
“the back to Africa” movement led by Marcus Garvey, racial integration, the
explosion of music (particularly jazz), spirituals and blues, painting,
dramatic revues, and others.
LATE-TWENTIETH CENTURY (1945- )
Significant Events
The Decades
The 1950s, referred
by poet Robert Lowell as “the tranquilized fifties,” has been ridiculed as a
smug, irresponsible, and materialistic decade.
The 1960s, in literary
terms, is marked by the loosening of censorship and the discussion of “taboo”
topics. Sexual fantasies, extremes of adventure, and “black humor” (humorous
satire using shock or cruelty) are commonly used as subjects of literary works.
The journalistic essay becomes a popular style of writing. A vigorous
anti-establishment, and anti-traditional literary movement emerged called the
Beat Movement (or Counterculture Movement). This decade is also marked by
freedom movements such as Black power, women’s liberation, and gay rights.
The 1970s mark the emergence of the women’s
movement and the “sexual revolution.”
The 1980s and 1990s are too recent and
contemporary for evaluations of literary trends. Appearing on the literary
scene are the so-called multicultural writers like Maxine Hong Kingston, Amy
Tan, James Welch, Bharati Mukherjee,
and Sandra Cisneros.
Walt Whitman
I Hear America Singing
I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,
Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,
The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,
The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,
The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand
singing on the steamboat deck,
The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands,
The wood-cutter’s song, the ploughboy’s on his way in the morning, or
at noon intermission or at sundown,
The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of
the girl sewing or washing,
Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,
The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young fellows, robust, friendly
Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.
Walt
Whitman
O Captain! My Captain!
O
CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we
sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where
on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and
dead.
O
Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills;
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the
shores a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the
deck,
You’ve
fallen cold and dead.
My
Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage
closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;
Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk
the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and
dead.
Walt Whitman
Whoever You Are Holding Me Now In Your Hand
Whoever
you are, holding me now in hand,
Without one thing, all will be useless,
I give you fair warning, before you attempt me further,
I am not what you supposed, but far different.
Who
is he that would become my follower?
Who would sign himself a candidate for my affections?
The way is suspicious—the result
uncertain, perhaps destructive;
You would have to give up all else—I alone would expect to be your God, sole
and exclusive,
Your novitiate would even then be long and exhausting,
The whole past theory of your life, and all conformity to the lives around you,
would have to be abandon’d;
Therefore release me now, before troubling yourself any further—Let go your
hand from my shoulders,
Put me down, and depart on your way.
Or
else, by stealth, in some
wood, for trial,
Or back of a rock, in the open air,
(For in any roof’d room of a house I emerge not—nor
in company,
And in libraries I lie as one dumb, a gawk, or unborn, or dead,)
But just possibly with you on a high hill—first watching lest any person, for
miles around, approach unawares,
Or possibly with you sailing at sea, or on the beach of the sea, or some quiet
island,
Here to put your lips upon mine I permit you,
With the comrade’s long-dwelling kiss, or the new husband’s kiss,
For I am the new husband, and I am the comrade.
Or,
if you will, thrusting me beneath your clothing,
Where I may feel the throbs of your heart, or rest upon your hip,
Carry me when you go forth over land or sea;
For thus, merely touching you, is enough—is best,
And thus, touching you, would I silently sleep and be carried eternally.
But
these leaves conning, you con at peril,
For these leaves, and me, you will not understand,
They will elude you at first, and still more afterward—I will certainly elude
you,
Even while you should think you had unquestionably caught me, behold!
Already you see I have escaped from you.
For
it is not for what I have put into it that I have written this book,
Nor is it by reading it you will acquire it,
Nor do those know me best who admire me, and vauntingly
praise me,
Nor will the candidates for my love, (unless at most a very few,) prove
victorious,
Nor will my poems do good only—they will do just as much evil, perhaps more;
For all is useless without that which you may guess at many times and not hit—that
which I hinted at;
Therefore release me, and depart on your way.
E.A. Robinson
Variations of Greek Themes: A Happy Man (1902)
When these graven lines you see,
Traveler, do not pity me;
Though I be among the dead,
Let no mournful word be said.
Children that I leave behind,
And their children, all were kind;
Near to them and to my wife,
I was happy all my life.
My three sons I married right,
And their sons I rocked at night;
Death nor sorrow ever brought
Cause for one unhappy thought.
Now, and with no need of tears,
Here they leave me, full of years,--
Leave me to my quiet rest
In the region of the blest.
Robert Frost
The Need of Being Versed in Country Things (1920)
The house had gone to bring again
To the midnight sky a sunset glow.
Now the chimney was all of the house that stood,
Like a pistil after the petals go.
The barn opposed across the way,
That would have joined the house in flame
Had it been the will of the wind, was left
To bear forsaken the place’s name.
No more it opened with all one end
For teams that came by the stony road
To drum on the floor with scurrying hoofs
And brush the mow with the summer load.
The birds that came to it through the air
At broken windows flew out and in,
Their murmur more like the sigh we sigh
From too much dwelling on what has been.
Yet for them the lilac renewed its leaf,
And the aged elm, though touched with fire;
And the dry pump flung up an awkward arm;
And the fence post carried a strand of wire.
For them there was really nothing sad.
But though they rejoiced in the nest they kept,
One had to be versed in country things
Not to believe the phoebes wept.
Carl Sandburg
Chicago (1916)
Hog Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation’s Freight
Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders:
They tell me you are wicked
and I believe them, for I
have seen
your painted women under the gas lamps
luring the
farm boys.
And they tell me you are crooked
and I answer: Yes, it
is true I
have seen the gunman kill and go free to
kill again.
And they tell me you are
brutal and my reply is: On the
faces of women and
children I have seen the marks
of wanton hunger.
And having answered so I turn
once more to those who
sneer at this my
city, and I give them back the sneer
and say to them:
Come and show me another city
with lifted head singing
so proud to be
alive and coarse and strong and cunning.
Flinging magnetic curses amid
the toil of piling job on
job, here is a
tall bold slugger set vivid against the
little soft cities;
Fierce as a dog with tongue
lapping for action, cunning
as a savage pitted
against the wilderness,
Bareheaded,
Shoveling,
Wrecking,
Planning,
Building,
breaking, rebuilding,
Under the smoke, dust
all over his mouth, laughing with
white teeth,
Under the terrible burden of
destiny laughing as a young
man laughs,
Laughing even as an ignorant
fighter laughs who has
never lost a battle,
Bragging and laughing that
under his wrist is the pulse,
and under his ribs the heart
of the people,
Laughing!
Laughing the stormy, husky,
brawling laughter of
Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog
Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker
of Wheat, Player with
Railroads and Freight
Handler to the Nation.
Carl Sandburg
I am the People, the Mob (1916)
I am the people -- the mob--the crowd--the mass.
Do you know that all the great work of the world is done through me?
I am the workingman, the inventor, the maker of the
world’s food and clothes.
I am the audience that witnesses history. The Napoleons
come from me and the Lincolns.
I am the seed ground. I am a prairie that will stand
for much plowing. Terrible storms pass over me.
I forget. The best of me is sucked out and wasted.
I forget. Everything but death comes to me and
makes me work and give up what I have. And I
forget.
Sometimes I growl, shake myself and spatter a few red
drops for history to remember. Then--I forget.
When I, the People, learn to remember, when I, the
People, use the lessons of yesterday and no longer
forget who robbed me last year, who played me for
a fool--then there will be no speaker in all the world
say the name: “The People,” with any fleck of a
sneer in his voice or any far-off smile of derision.
The mob--the crowd--the mass--will arrive then.
Carl Sandburg
Government (1916)
The Government--I heard about the Government and
I went out to find it. I said I would look closely at
it when I saw it.
Then I saw a policeman dragging a drunken man to
the callaboose. It was the
Government in action.
I saw a ward alderman slip into an office one morning
and talk with a judge. Later in the day the judge
dismissed a case against a pickpocket who was a
live ward worker for the alderman. Again I saw
this was the Government, doing things.
I saw militiamen level their rifles at a crowd of work-
ingmen who were trying to
get other workingmen
to stay away from a shop where there was a strike
on. Government in action.
Everywhere I saw that Government is a thing made of
men, that Government has blood and bones, it is
many mouths whispering into many ears, sending
telegrams, aiming rifles, writing orders, saying
“yes” and “no.”
Government dies as the men who form it die and are laid
away in their graves and the new Government that
comes after is human, made of heartbeats of blood,
ambitions, lusts, and money running through it all,
money paid and money taken,
and money covered
up and spoken of with hushed voices.
A Government is just as secret and mysterious and sensi-
tive as any human sinner
carrying a load of germs,
traditions and corpuscles handed down from
fathers and mothers away back.
John Crowe Ransom
Winter Remembered
Two
evils, monstrous either one apart,
Possessed me, and were long and loath at going:
A cry of Absence, Absence, in the heart,
And in the wood the furious winter blowing.
Think not, when fire was bright upon my bricks,
And past the tight boards hardly a wind could enter,
I glowed like them, the simple burning sticks,
Far from my cause, my proper heat and center.
Better to walk forth in the frozen air
And wash my wound in the snows; that would be healing;
Because my heart would throb less painful there,
Being caked with cold, and past the smart of feeling.
And where I walked, the murderous winter blast
Would have this body bowed, these eyeballs streaming,
And though I think this heart’s blood froze not fast
It ran too small to spare one drop for dreaming.
Dear love, these fingers that had known your touch,
And tied our separate forces first together,
Were ten poor idiot fingers not worth much,
Ten frozen parsnips hanging in the weather.
Langston
Hughes
Theme for English B (1951)
The instructor said,
Go home and write
a page tonight.
And let that page come out of you--
Then, it will be true.
I wonder if it's that simple?
I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem.
I went to school there, then Durham, then here
to this college on the hill above
I am the only colored student in my class.
The steps from the hill lead down into Harlem
through a park, then I cross St. Nicholas,
Eighth Avenue, Seventh, and I come to the Y,
the Harlem Branch Y, where I take the elevator
up to my room, sit down, and write this page:
It's not easy to know what is true for you or me
at twenty-two, my age. But I guess I'm what
I feel and see and hear, Harlem, I hear you:
hear you, hear me--we two--you, me, talk on this page.
(I hear New York too.) Me--who?
Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love.
I like to work, read, learn, and understand life.
I like a pipe for a Christmas present,
or records--Bessie, bop, or Bach.
I guess being colored doesn't make me not like
the same things other folks like who are other races.
So will my page be colored that I write?
Being me, it will not be white.
But it will be
a part of you, instructor.
You are white--
yet a part of me, as I am a part of you.
That's American.
Sometimes perhaps you don't want to be a part of me.
Nor do I often want to be a part of you.
But we are, that's true!
As I learn from you,
I guess you learn from me--
although you're older--and white--
and somewhat more free.
This is my page for English B.
Carolyn Forché
Taking Off My Clothes (1976)
I take off my shirt, I show
you.
I shaved the hair out under my arms.
I roll up my pants, I scraped off the hair
on my legs with a knife, getting white.
My hair is the color of
chopped maples
My eyes dark as beans cooked in the south.
(Coal fields in the moon on torn-up hills)
Skin polished as a Ming bowl
showing its blood-cracks, its age, I have hundreds
of names for the snow, for this, all of them quiet.
In the night I come to you
and it seems a shame
to waste my deepest shudders on a wall of a man.
You recognize strangers,
think you lived through destruction.
You can’t explain this night, my face, your memory.
You want to know what I know?
Your own hands are lying.
Adrienne
Rich
Living In Sin
She had thought the studio would keep itself;
no dust upon the furniture of love.
Half heresy, to wish the
taps less vocal,
the panes relieved of grime. A plate of pears,
a piano
with a Persian shawl, a cat
stalking
the picturesque amusing mouse
had risen
at his urging.
Not
that at five each separate stair would writhe
under the
milkman's tramp; that morning light
so coldly
would delineate the scraps
of last
night's cheese and three sepulchral bottles;
that on
the kitchen shelf among the saucers
a pair of
beetle-eyes would fix her own--
envoy
from some village in the moldings...
Meanwhile,
he, with a yawn,
sounded a
dozen notes upon the keyboard,
declared
it out of tune, shrugged at the mirror,
rubbed at
his beard, went out for cigarettes;
while
she, jeered by the minor demons,
pulled
back the sheets and made the bed and found
a towel
to dust the table-top,
and let
the coffee-pot boil over on the stove.
By
evening she was back in love again,
though not so wholly but throughout the night
she woke sometimes to feel the daylight coming
like a relentless milkman up the stairs.
Marge
Piercy
Always Unsuitable (1969)
She wore little teeth of pearls around her neck.
They were grinning politely and evenly at me.
Unsuitable they smirked. It is true
I look a stuffed turkey in a suit. Breasts
too big for the silhouette. She knew
at once that we had sex, lots of it
as if I had strolled into her dining-room
in a dirty negligee smelling gamy
smelling fishy and sporting a strawberry
on my neck. I could never charm
the mothers, although the fathers ogled
me. I was exactly what mothers had warned
their sons against. I was quicksand
I was trouble in the afternoon. I was
the alley cat you don't bring home.
I was the dirty book you don't leave out
for your mother to see. I was the center-
fold you masturbate with then discard.
Where I came from, the nights I had wandered
and survived, scared them, and where
I would go they never imagined.
Ah, what you wanted for your sons
were little ladies hatched from the eggs
of pearls like pink and silver lizards
cool, well behaved and impervious
to desire and weather alike. Mostly
that's who they married and left.
Oh, mamas, I would have been your friend.
I would have cooked for you and held you.
I might have rattled the windows
of your sorry marriages, but I would
have loved you better than you know
how to love yourselves, bitter sisters.
Marge
Piercy
Barbie Doll
This girlchild was born as usual
and presented dolls that did pee-pee
and miniature GE stoves and irons
and wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy.
Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said:
You have a great big nose and fat legs.
She was healthy, tested intelligent,
possessed strong arms and back,
abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity.
She went to and fro apologizing.
Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs.
She was advised to play coy,
exhorted to come on hearty,
exercise, diet, smile and wheedle.
Her good nature wore out
like a fan belt.
So she cut off her nose and her legs
and offered them up.
In the casket displayed on satin she lay
with the undertaker’s cosmetics painted on,
a turned-up putty nose,
dressed in a pink and white nightie.
Doesn’t she look pretty? everyone said.
Consummation at last.
To every woman a happy ending.
Suicide Note
Janice Mirikitani
How many notes written . . .
ink smeared like birdprints in snow.
not good enough not pretty enough not smart enough
dear mother and father.
I apologize
for disappointing you.
I've worked very hard,
not good enough
harder, perhaps to please you.
If only I were a son, shoulders broad
as the sunset threading through pine,
I would see the light in my mother's
eyes, or the golden pride reflected
in my father's dream
of my wide, male hands worthy of work
and comfort.
I would swagger through life
muscled and bold and assured,
drawing praises to me
like currents in the bed of wind, virile
with confidence.
not good enough not strong enough not good enough
I apologize.
Tasks do not come easily.
Each failure, a glacier.
Each disapproval, a bootprint.
Each disappointment,
ice above my river.
So I have worked hard.
not good enough.
My sacrifice I will drop
bone by bone, perched
on the ledge of my womanhood,
fragile as wings.
not strong enough
It is snowing steadily
surely not good weather
for flying - this sparrow
sillied and dizzied by the wind
on the edge.
not smart enough.
I make this ledge my altar
to offer penance.
This air will not hold me,
the snow burdens my crippled wings,
my tears drop like bitter cloth
softly into the gutter below.
not good enough not strong enough not smart enough
Choices thin as shaved
ice. Notes shredded
drift like snow
on my broken body,
covers me like whispers
of sorries.
Perhaps when they find me
they will bury
my bird bones beneath
a sturdy pine
and scatter my feathers like
unspoken song
over this white and cold and silent
breast of earth.
American
History II
NAME_______________________ SCORE _______
Identify the “decade” during which each event occurred (i.e. 1880-1889 =
“1880’s”)
|
1. ______ |
13th Amendment abolishes slavery. |
|
2. ______ |
18th Amendment prohibits the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages; 19th Amendment gives women the vote. |
|
3. ______ |
|
|
4. ______ |
Bay of Pigs Invasion: Armed Cuban refugees invade Cuba with U.S. support |
|
5. ______ |
Brown v. Board of Education declares segregated schools unconstitutional |
|
6. ______ |
Citizen Cane released, considered by many the greatest film ever made |
|
7. ______ |
Completion of |
|
8. ______ |
Congress passes Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, protecting Native human remains and sacred objects |
|
9. ______ |
Cuban Missile Crisis: United States and Soviet Union close to war over Russian missiles based in Cuba; missiles withdrawn. |
|
10. ______ |
D Day invasion of western Europe from |
|
11. ______ |
Daylight Savings Time instituted to allow more daylight for war production |
|
12. ______ |
Ellis Island Immigration Station opens. |
|
13. ______ |
Federal building in |
|
14. ______ |
First circus produced by P.T. Barnum |
|
15. ______ |
First Mickey Mouse cartoon “Steamboat Willie” |
|
16. ______ |
Formation of Federal Bureau of Investigation |
|
17. ______ |
Frozen “O”-ring causes Space Shuttle Challenger to explode after take-off |
|
18. ______ |
Jackie Robinson becomes the first black major-league ballplayer |
|
19. ______ |
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) founded |
|
20. ______ |
National Guard kills four students at antiwar demonstration, Kent State U., Ohio |
|
21. ______ |
Panama Canal opens |
|
22. ______ |
President John F. Kennedy assassinated. |
|
23. ______ |
President Richard Nixon resigns in wake of Watergate, avoiding impeachment |
|
24. ______ |
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain), The Adventures of Tom Sawyer |
|
25. ______ |
Scopes trial of Darwinian theory of evolution |
|
26. ______ |
Sniper kills ten and wounds two in DC metropolitan area |
|
27. ______ |
Statue of |
|
28. ______ |
U.S. drops atomic bombs on |
|
29. ______ |
United States purchases |
|
30. ______ |
Wright brothers make the first successful airplane flight
at |