Extensive Study Assignment Part A

3 short stories, 5 poems, 3 essays

Theme A: Beyond Personal Goals Individual and Societal Responsibility

Poetry: Richard Cory E.G. Robinson - USA

Short Story: How much Land does a Man Need Leo Tolstoy - Russia
Short Story: Cat in the Rain Hemmingway USA
Short Story: A Certain Night Ting Ling China

Theme B: Dealing with Eternal Issues Truth and Justice

Essay: The Allegory of the Cave Plato Greece

Essay: Young Goodman Brown nathaniel USA
Poetry: Dover Beach Matthew Arnold England

Theme C: Joys, Doubts and Fears

Poetry: The Garden of Love William Blake England

Poetry: Song Heinrich Heine Germany
Poetry: Chess Roserio Mexico
Essay: Indian Talk Are You Listening Raven Hail - USA

Richard Cory:

The poem is written from the perspective of the lower-class American people who observe a man

named Richard Cory. Cory is considerably richer than everyone else, though still polite and friendly.

The poorer citizens envy him very much for his wealth and attitude, until one day Cory commits

suicide due to depression and loneliness.

How Much Land does a Man Need:

This short story begins with two sisters talking about whether they prefer the city or the peasant life.

One mentions that though poor, they like that they will always be free and will not be tempted to

pursue materialistic things. The husband of the other sister ridicules this and is tempted by the devil to

try and obtain as much land as he can after he is eventually offered as much land as he can walk

around in one day, he dies from heat exhaustion due to his greed and is buried, his servant ironically
remarking about the amount of land he ended up needing for his burial.

Cat in the Rain:

This story contrasts the American and Italian tourists of the area. An American couple lives in a hotel

facing a garden, sea and war monument, that many Italians come to visit in respect for the men killed in

war. The Americans are spending the day inside, and the wife sees a cat outside, but when she goes to

pick it up it isn't there anymore. When she goes back and talks with her husband, he gets bothered by

her, telling her to shut up and read. This shows the difference of how the American couple is

vacationing and not getting along well and how the Italians mentioned in the story visit for.

A Certain Night:

This story talks about the seemingly wrongful execution of men and women by Communists. The

adjectives used in the story depict the Communists as brutal, ruthless, and disrespectful whereas the

Nationalists are shown as young, brave and resolute. The Nationalists are executed singing and

resisting their captors for as long as they possibly could.

The Allegory of the Cave:

This metaphor by Socrates is how he believes education should be taught, and the story shows the

different levels of education. At the most basic level, the prisoners are shown only manipulated

shadows, and since this is all they see, they began to imagine what these shadows could be. Next, one

sees the statues and fire, but his knowledge is still very limited eventually he is released outside and

is able to experience the entire world and everything that is real, and education should be this attempt

to pull everyone out of the cave so they can and will want to discover stuff for themselves.
Young Goodman Brown:

Dover Beach:

(Both of these are too confusing)

The Garden of Love:

This short poem talks about the speaker's return to the Garden of Love he visited in his youth. When

he visits it again, he finds a chapel built with the words Thou shalt not inscribed. He also finds graves

and black-clad priests binding with briars, my joys & desires replacing the flowers from his youth.

This represents the author's frustration with how some religion is somewhat against man's natural

instincts and desires, and also with their treatment of the Garden of Love in the poem.

Song:

The speaker of this laments being rejected by a loved one in this poem. He compares her rejection with

scenes that do not ideally go together, such as withering flowers, molding earth, and birds singing

sadly.

Chess:

The female speaker of this poem talks about a chess game she played with a lover of hers. She

mentions specifically how it's a game of the mind, and also their wills to annihilate the other one

forever in their last move, describing it as ferocious. This seems to indicate how the competition is

more than just friendly; she also intends to say how women can compete in battles of the mind with

men, which wasn't a common opinion at the time of writing.