21st Century Anglo-American Literature

Written Report in 21st Century Literature

Presented to:
Ms. Marevel B. Caburnay
Of the Department of English
Senior High School
Lala National High School
Maramding, Lala, Lanao del Norte

In Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for the Subject
21st Century Literature
S.Y. 2019-2020

By:
Cellona, Andrew John D.
Lumosad, Ashley
July 1, 2019
 Introduction

Anglo – American Literature is not new to us since this is our topic for the whole
English subject when we were in Grade 9. Anglo – American Literature dates back to 450
– 1066 AD where few texts with little in common survive , language closer to modern
German than modern English and where Beowulf, “The Wanderer” was born.

Anglo is a prefix indicating a relation to the Angles, England, the English people,
or the English language, such as in the term Anglo-Saxon language. It is often used alone,
somewhat loosely, to refer to people of British Isles descent in The Americas, New
Zealand and Australia. Anglo is a Late Latin prefix used to denote English. The word is
derived from Anglia, the Latin name for England, and still the modern name of its eastern
region. Anglia and England both mean land of the Angles, a Germanic people originating
in the north German peninsula of Angeln.
Anglo-Americans are people who are English-speaking inhabitants of Anglo-
America. It typically refers to the nations and ethnic groups in the Americas that speak
English as a native language who comprise the majority of people who speak English as
a first language like United State of America, Canada, Iceland, and United Kingdom.
And now let us explore again the world of Anglo – American Literature and meet
some of the greatest authors in the 21st century .
 Unlocking of Difficulties

The following are terms that are used in the lesson. It is intended to assist in
understanding uncommon used terms in this lesson.

Voyage- a long journey to a distant or unknown place especially over water or through
outer space.

Acre- a measure of land area in the U.S. and Britain that equals 4,840 square yards
(about 4,047 square meters)

Fissure- a narrow opening or crack of considerable length and depth usually occurring
from some breaking or parting.
 Discussion

American Authors

Jeffrey Kent Eugenides

Jeffrey Kent Eugenides (born March 8, 1960) is an American novelist and short
story writer. He has written numerous short stories and essays, as well as three
novels: The Virgin Suicides (1993), Middlesex (2002), and The Marriage
Plot (2011). The Virgin Suicides served as the basis of a feature film,
while Middlesex received the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in addition to being a finalist
for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the International Dublin Literary Award, and
France's Prix Médicis.
Awards:
 2000–2001 Berlin Prize Fellow (American Academy in Berlin)
 2002 National Book Critics Circle Award finalist (for Middlesex)
 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (for Middlesex)
 2003 Welt-Literaturpreis
 2004 International Dublin Literary Award shortlist (for Middlesex)
 2011 Salon Book Award (for The Marriage Plot)
 2011 New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2011 list (for The Marriage Plot)
 2012 National Book Critics Circle Award finalist (for The Marriage Plot)
 2013 International Dublin Literary Award longlist (for The Marriage Plot)
 2013 Named a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
 2013 Fitzgerald Prize (for "The Marriage Plot") - French prize rewards a novel,
or a new French-language or translated in English reflecting the elegance, wit,
style and taste of the lifestyle of the American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald.
  2014 Awarded honorary Doctorate of Letters from Brown University
 2018 Inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters 2018 Inducted
into the American Academy of Arts and Letters

Jonathan Earl Franzen

Jonathan Earl Franzen (born August 17, 1959) is an

American novelist and essayist. His 2001 novel The Corrections, a sprawling, satirical
family drama, drew widespread critical acclaim, earned Franzen a National Book
Award, was a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction finalist, earned a James Tait Black Memorial
Prize and was shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. His
novel Freedom (2010) garnered similar praise and led to an appearance on the cover
of Time magazine alongside the headline "Great American Novelist".
Franzen has contributed to The New Yorker magazine since 1994. His
1996 Harper's essay Perchance to Dream bemoaned the state of contemporary
literature. Oprah Winfrey's book club selection in 2001 of The Corrections led to a much
publicized feud with the talk show host. In recent years, Franzen has become
recognized for his opinions on everything from social networking services such
as Twitter ("What happens to the people who want to communicate in depth, individual
to individual, in the quiet and permanence of the printed word?"; "the actual substance
of our daily lives is total electronic distraction") to the impermanence of e-books ("All
the real things, the authentic things, the honest things, are dying off.") and the self-
destruction of America.
Awards:

 2000 Berlin Prize (American Academy in Berlin)

 2001 National Book Award (Fiction) for The Corrections
  2001 Salon Book Award (Fiction) for The Corrections
 2002 James Tait Black Memorial Prize winner (Fiction) for The Corrections
 2010 Salon Book Award (Fiction) for Freedom
 2010 Galaxy National Book Awards, International Author of the Year, Freedom
 2011 Heartland Prize for Freedom
 2011 John Gardner Award (Fiction) for Freedom
 2012 Carlos Fuentes Medal (Inaugural award)
 2013 Welt-Literaturpreis
 2015 Budapest Grand Prize
 2015 Euronatur Award for outstanding commitment to nature conservation in
Europe
 2017 Frank Schirrmacher Preis

Rick Riordan

Richard Russell Riordan Jr. (/ˈraɪərdən/; born June 5, 1964) is an American

author. He is known for writing the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, about a
twelve-year-old Percy Jackson who discovers he is a son of Greek God Poseidon. His
books have been translated into 42 languages and sold more than 30 million copies in
the US. 20th Century Fox has adapted the first two books of his Percy Jackson series
as part of a series of films. His books have spawned related media, such as graphic
novels and short story collections.
Riordan's first full-length novel was Big Red Tequila, which became the first book
in the Tres Navarre series. His big breakthrough was The Lightning Thief (2005), the
first novel in the five-volume Percy Jackson series, which placed a group of adolescents
in a Greco-Roman mythological setting. Since then, Riordan has written The Kane
Chronicles trilogy and The Heroes of Olympus series. The Kane Chronicles (2010-
2012) focused on Egyptian mythology; The Heroes of Olympus was the sequel to the
Percy Jackson series. Riordan also helped Scholastic Press develop The 39
Clues series and its spinoffs, and penned its first book, The Maze of Bones (2008). His
most recent publications are three books in the Magnus Chase and the Gods of
Asgard series, based on Norse mythology. The first book of his The Trials of
Apollo series based on Greek mythology, The Hidden Oracle, was released in May
2016.
Awards:

 2008 Mark Twain Award for The Lightning Thief

 2009 Mark Twain Award for The Sea of Monsters
 2009 Rebecca Caudill Award for The Lightning Thief
 2010 School Library Journal's Best Book for The Red Pyramid
 2011 Children's Choice Book Awards: Author of the Year
 2011 Children's Choice Book Awards: Fifth Grade to Sixth Grade Book of the
Year for The Red Pyramid
 2011 Wyoming Soaring Eagle Book Award for The Last Olympian
 2011 Milner Award for Percy Jackson and the Olympians series
 2012 Indian Paintbrush Award for The Red Pyramid
 2013 Best Fiction Book for Children in Bulgaria for The Mark of Athena
 2017 Stonewall Book Award for Children's literature for The Hammer of Thor
 Canadian Authors

Margaret Atwood

Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian poet,

novelist, literary critic, essayist, inventor, teacher, and environmental activist. Since
1961, she has published seventeen books of poetry, sixteen novels, ten books of non-
fiction, eight collections of short fiction, eight children's books, and one graphic novel,
as well as a number of small press editions in poetry and fiction. Atwood and her writing
have won numerous awards and honors including the Man Booker Prize, Arthur C.
Clarke Award, Governor General's Award, Franz Kafka Prize, and the National Book
Critics and PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Awards.
Atwood is also the inventor and developer of the LongPen and associated
technologies that facilitate the remote robotic writing of documents. A number of her
works have been adapted to film and television, which has only served to increase her
exposure and audience.
As a novelist and poet, Atwood's works encompass a variety of themes including
gender and identity, religion and myth, the power of language, climate change, and
"power politics". Many of her poems are inspired by myths and fairy tales which
interested her from a very early age. Among her contributions to Canadian literature,
Atwood is a founder of the Griffin Poetry Prize and Writers' Trust of Canada.
Awards:

 Booker Prize, 2000

 Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement, 2007
 Prince of Asturias Award for Literature, 2008
 Nelly Sachs Prize, Germany, 2010
 Dan David Prize, Israel, 2010
  Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, Canada, 2012
 Los Angeles Times Book Prize "Innovator's Award", 2012
 Gold medal of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, 2015
 Golden Wreath of Struga Poetry Evenings, Macedonia, 2016
 Franz Kafka Prize, Czech Republic, 2017
 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, Germany, 2017
 Companion of Honour, 2019

Kelley Armstrong

Kelley Armstrong (born 14 December 1968) is a Canadian writer, primarily

of fantasy novels since 2001.
She has published thirty-one fantasy novels to date, thirteen in her Women of
the Otherworld series, five in her Cainsville series, four in her Rockton series, three in
her Darkest Powers series, three in her Darkness Rising trilogy and three in the Age of
Legends series, and three stand-alone teen thrillers. She has also published three
middle-grade fantasy novels in the Blackwell Pages trilogy, with co-author Melissa
Marr. As well, she is the author of three crime novels, the Nadia Stafford trilogy.[2] She
has also written several serial novellas and short stories for the Otherworld series,
some of which are available free from her website.
Awards:
Aurora Awards — for Canadian SF/F in English and in French, voted by members of
annual convention
(3 nominations; 1 win)

2015:
Sea of Shadows (Doubleday Canada) — YA novel — nomination
2014:
The Rising (Doubleday Canada) — YA novel in English — winner

2013:
The Calling (HarperTeen) — YA novel in English — nomination

International Horror Guild Awards — for horror works, juried

(1 nomination)

2002:
Bitten (Viking) — first novel — nomination

Sunburst Award — for novel or book-length collection by a Canadian, juried

(2 nominations)

2009:
The Summoning (Doubleday Canada) — Young Adult — nomination

Alice Munro

Alice Ann Munro (born 10 July 1931) is a Canadian short-story writer who won
the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013. Munro's work has been described as having
revolutionized the architecture of short stories, especially in its tendency to move
forward and backward in time. Her stories have been said to "embed more than
announce, reveal more than parade."
Munro's fiction is most often set in her native Huron County in southwestern
Ontario. Her stories explore human complexities in an uncomplicated prose
style. Munro's writing has established her as "one of our greatest contemporary writers
of fiction", or, as Cynthia Ozick put it, "our Chekhov." Munro is the recipient of many
literary accolades, including the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature for her work as "master
of the contemporary short story", and the 2009 Man Booker International Prize for her
lifetime body of work. She is also a three-time winner of Canada's Governor General's
Award for fiction and was the recipient of the Writers' Trust of Canada's 1996 Marian
Engel Award, as well as the 2004 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize for Runaway.
Awards:

 Governor General's Literary Award for English language fiction (1968, 1978,
1986)
 Canadian Booksellers Award for Lives of Girls and women (1971)
 Shortlisted for the annual (UK) Booker Prize for Fiction (now the Man Booker
Prize) (1980) for The Beggar Maid
 The Writers' Trust of Canada's Marian Engel Award (1986) for her body of
work
 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize (2004) for Runaway
 Trillium Book Award for Friend of My Youth (1991), The Love of a Good
Woman (1999) and Dear Life (2013)
 WH Smith Literary Award (1995, UK) for Open Secrets
 Lannan Literary Award for Fiction (1995)
 PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction (1997)
 National Book Critics Circle Award (1998, U.S.) For The Love of a Good
Woman
 Giller Prize (1998 and 2004)
 Rea Award for the Short Story (2001) given to a living American or Canadian
author.
 Libris Award
 Edward MacDowell Medal for outstanding contribution to the arts by
the MacDowell Colony (2006).
 O. Henry Award for continuing achievement in short fiction in the U.S. for
"Passion" (2006), "What Do You Want To Know For" (2008) and "Corrie"
(2012)
 Man Booker International Prize (2009, UK)
 Canada-Australia Literary Prize
 Commonwealth Writers Prize Regional Award for Canada and the Caribbean.
 Nobel Prize in Literature (2013) as a "master of the contemporary short story".
 British Authors

Neil Richard MacKinnon

Gaiman

Neil Richard MacKinnon Gaiman (born 10 November 1960) is an English

author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, nonfiction, audio theatre,
and films. His works include the comic book series The Sandman and
novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book. He has won
numerous awards, including the Hugo, Nebula, and Bram Stoker awards, as well as
the Newbery and Carnegie medals. He is the first author to win both the Newbery and
the Carnegie medals for the same work, The Graveyard Book (2008). In 2013, The
Ocean at the End of the Lane was voted Book of the Year in the British National Book
Awards.
Awards:

 2001 Best Novel for American Gods

 2003 Best Work for Young Readers for Coraline
 2004 Best Illustrated Narrative for The Sandman: Endless Nights
 From 2002 to 2016, Gaiman won Hugo Awards in the following categories:
 2002 Best Novel for American Gods
 2003 Best Novella for Coraline
 2004 Best Story A Study in Emerald (in a ceremony the author presided over
himself, having volunteered for the job before his story was nominated)
 2009 Best Novel for The Graveyard Book presented at the 2009 Worldcon in
Montreal where he was also the Professional Guest of Honor.
 2012 Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form) for "The Doctor's Wife"
 2016 Best Graphic Story for The Sandman: Overture
 From 2002 to 2003, Gaiman won Nebula Awards in the following categories:
 2002 Best Novel for American Gods
 2003 Best Novella for Coraline
 From 2006 to 2010, Gaiman won British Fantasy Awards in the following
categories:
 2006 Best Novel for Anansi Boys
 2007 British Fantasy Award, collection, for Fragile Things
 2009 British Fantasy Award for Best Novel shortlist for The Graveyard Book
 2010 British Fantasy Award, comic/graphic novel, Whatever Happened to the
Caped Crusader?, by Gaiman and Andy Kubert
 In 2010, Gaiman won Shirley Jackson Awards in the following categories:
 2010 Best Novelette for "The Truth Is A Cave In The Black Mountains"
 2010 Best Edited Anthology for Stories: All New Tales, edited by Neil Gaiman
and Al Sarrantonio (William Morrow)
 2003 British Science Fiction Association Award, short fiction, for Coraline
 2004 Angoulême International Comics Festival Prize for Scenario for The
Sandman: Season of Mists
 2005 The William Shatner Golden Groundhog Award for Best Underground
Movie, nomination for MirrorMask The other nominated films were Green
Street Hooligans, Nine Lives, Up for Grabs and Opie Gets Laid.
 2005 Quill Book Award for Graphic Novels for Marvel 1602
 2006 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature for Anansi Boys
 2007 Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award
 2007 Comic-Con Icon award presented at the Scream Awards.
 2009 Newbery Medal for The Graveyard Book
 2009 Audie Award: Children's 8–12 and Audiobook of the year for the audio
version of The Graveyard Book.
 2009 The Booktrust Teenage Prize for The Graveyard Book
 2010 Gaiman was selected as the Honorary Chair of National Library Week by
the American Library Association.
 2010 Carnegie Medal for The Graveyard Book, becoming the first author to
have won both the Carnegie and Newbery Medals for the same work.
 2011 Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation (with
Richard Clark) for The Doctor's Wife
 2012 Honorary Doctorate of Arts from the University of the Arts
  2013 National Book Awards (British), Book of the Year winner for The Ocean
at the End of the Lane
 2016 University of St Andrews Honorary degree of Doctor of Letters
 2018 Nomination for the New Academy Prize in Literature.
 2019 Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award, “celebrat[ing] authors who
have given generously to other writers or to the broader literary community.”
Gaiman was given the award “for advocating for freedom of expression
worldwide and inspiring countless writers.”

J.K Rowling

Joanne Rowling (born 31 July 1965), better known by her pen names J. K.
Rowling and Robert Galbraith, is a British novelist, screenwriter, producer, and
philanthropist. She is best known for writing the Harry Potter fantasy series, which has
won multiple awards and sold more than 500 million copies, becoming the best-selling
book sries in history. The Harry Potter books have also been the basis for the popular
film series of the same name, over which Rowling had overall approval on the
scripts and was a producer on the final films.

Awards:

 2000: British Book Awards, Author of the Year

 2000: Officer of the Order of the British Empire, for services to Children's
Literature
 2000: Locus Award, winner Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
 2001: Hugo Award for Best Novel, winner Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
 2003: Premio Príncipe de Asturias, Concord
  2003: Bram Stoker Award for Best Work for Young Readers, winner Harry
Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
 2006: British Book of the Year, winner for Harry Potter and the Half Blood
Prince
 2007: Blue Peter Badge, Gold
 2007: Named Barbara Walters' Most Fascinating Person of the year
 2008: British Book Awards, Outstanding Achievement
 2008: The Edinburgh Award
 2010: Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award, inaugural award winner
 2011: British Academy Film Awards, Outstanding British Contribution to
Cinema for the Harry Potter film series, shared with David Heyman, cast and
crew
 2012: Freedom of the City of London
 2012: Rowling was among the British cultural icons selected by artist Sir Peter
Blake to appear in a new version of his most famous artwork – the Beatles'
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover – to celebrate the British
cultural figures of his life.
 2019: For their first match of March 2019, the women of the United States
women's national soccer team each wore a jersey with the name of a woman
they were honoring on the back; Rose Lavelle chose the name of Rowling.

Kazuo Ishigu

Sir Kazuo Ishiguro (born 8 November 1954) is a British novelist, screenwriter,

and short-story writer. He was born in Nagasaki, Japan, but his family moved to the UK
in 1960 when he was five. Ishiguro graduated from the University of Kent with a
bachelor's degree in English and Philosophy in 1978 and gained his master's from
the University of East Anglia's creative writing coursein 1980.
Ishiguro is considered one of the most celebrated contemporary fiction authors
in the English-speaking world, having received four Man Booker Prize nominations,
and having won the award in 1989 for his novel The Remains of the Day. Ishiguro's
2005 novel, Never Let Me Go, was named by Time as the best novel of the year, and
was included in the magazine's list of the 100 best English-language novels published
between 1923 and 2005. Growing up in a Japanese family in the UK was crucial to his
writing, as it enabled him, he says, to see things from a different perspective to that of
many of his English peers.
In 2017, the Swedish Academy awarded Ishiguro the Nobel Prize in Literature,
describing him in its citation as a writer "who, in novels of great emotional force, has
uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the
world". Ishiguro was knighted in the 2018 Queen's Birthday Honours List.

Awards:

 2005: Never Let Me Go named on Time magazine's list of the 100 greatest
English language novels since the magazine's formation in 1923.
 2008: The Times ranked Ishiguro 32nd on their list of "The 50 Greatest British
Writers Since 1945".
 2017: Nobel Prize in Literature.
 2017: American Academy of Achievement's Golden Plate Award
 2018: Order of the Rising Sun, 2nd Class, Gold and Silver Star
A famous poem from a Canadian Author:

The Moment
By: Margaret Atwood

The moment when, after many years

of hard work and a long voyage
you stand in the centre of your room,
house, half-acre, square mile, island, country,
knowing at last how you got there,
and say, I own this,

is the same moment when the trees unloose

their soft arms from around you,
the birds take back their language,
the cliffs fissure and collapse,
the air moves back from you like a wave
and you can't breathe.

No, they whisper. You own nothing.

You were a visitor, time after time
climbing the hill, planting the flag, proclaiming.
We never belonged to you.
You never found us.
It was always the other way round.
 Analysis

The poem explores the way humans treat the Earth as a resource which we can
plunder. It reverses the power balance, reminding humans that we belong to the Earth
rather than the other way around.

Structure
The poem comprises three stanzas of six lines each, known as a sestet. It is in
free verse and there is no regular rhyme scheme.

Voice
The voice is that of a second person narrator addressing the reader. The tone is
sophisticated and intelligent. The aim is to make the reader feel uncomfortable and guilty
about the damage done by humans to the planet.

Theme
The theme of this poem is man against nature. It conveys a powerful message
through this theme, that nature is more important than humanity’s greed for power. The
poet, Margaret Atwood, points out that as man’s power grows through globalization,
nature’s habitability for man starts to diminish. When man creates a mentality that he
“owns this,” then that is the same moment when nature will have also become “unloose.”
By the last stanza, nature is portrayed as a soft, and wise existence that tries to persuade
the better for man and nature.
Poetic Devices

Simile --- Imagery --- Personification --- Repetition --- Symbolism

The moment when, after many years

of hard work and a long voyage
you stand in the centre of your room,
house, half-acre, square mile, island, country,
knowing at last how you got there,
and say, I own this,

is the same moment when the trees unloose

their soft arms from around you,
the birds take back their language,
the cliffs fissure and collapse,
the air moves back from you like a wave
and you can't breathe.

No, they whisper. You own nothing.

You were a visitor, time after time
climbing the hill, planting the flag, proclaiming.
We never belonged to you.
You never found us.
It was always the other way round.

In the second stanza, Atwood uses a simile, making a comparison of air to a

wave and how easily it can move away from man. She emphasizes how man’s power can
cause nature’s downfall and, in turn, also harm man. This shows the importance of nature
and stands as a warning to man from Mother Nature. Not only does this simile create
imagery, but it helps to flourish the deeper meaning of this poem.
This poem is universal and applies to the entire human race. Imagery is prominent
throughout this entire poem, each stanza contains at least some sort of imagery. She
uses sensory elements in her imagery to help the reader picture the amount of
globalization/industrialization all around us and make the poem seem more realistic. She
uses the sensory elements sight (room, island, country, house), touch (trees, flags), and
hear (whisper).This especially helps the reader sense the message and feel the pressure
of man’s power over nature.
Furthermore, personification in this poem is really important. It helps build the
connection between man and nature, which is a significant aspect that also helps to
portray the message to readers. She uses this personification along with the imagery and
similes in this poem.
Through personification, nature makes it clear that man never owned nature, it was
always the other way around and due to man taking advantage of the care provided by
the planet, he will suffer the consequences. She presents nature as a living being, giving
out a warning to man.
The poem also uses repetition. Atwood consistently repeats “you” throughout the
poem. She also repeats “the moment when,” wanting the reader to recall memories of the
person in the artificial environment and the instance of the person when nature cuts loose
of ties with mankind.
The last literary device in this poem is symbolism. Atwood uses the word “long
voyage” a symbol to show it took a long time to get to that place of ownership.

The Moment Analysis

Stanza 1

The moment when, after many years

of hard work and a long voyage
you stand in the centre of your room,
house, half-acre, square mile, island, country,
knowing at last how you got there,
and say, I own this,

As is typical of Atwood’s style, the poem, which you can read in full here, reads
more as a sentence than a verse. The grammar of the poem is exactly correct for a typical
sentence structure, and as a result there is no particular rhyme to the story. The lines are
chosen with evident care, however, divided in such a way as to create halting,
suspenseful storytelling that is most evident when the poem is read aloud.
The story itself is fairly self-explanatory so far; the narrator describes a person who
has travelled far and worked hard to create something they can call their own. They can
say that this is an island in their country; that they own a half-acre of land on this square
mile, where they have built a house that includes a room in which they stand, and that it
all belongs to them in some way, shape, or form. The house and a large piece of the land
likely belongs to them legally, while the larger land masses can be called theirs in the
same way they might describe their homeland as being “their” country. And there is a
moment, after all of the work has been finished, in which this person is standing in the
room that they created and feels that all of their hard work has been worth it so they can
say that this is something they can call their own.
Stanza 2
is the same moment when the trees unloose
their soft arms from around you,
the birds take back their language,
the cliffs fissure and collapse,
the air moves back from you like a wave
and you can't breathe.

Throughout the second stanza, the nature that surrounds this person is personified
into an entity that is withdrawing. The trees, once such a comforting sight, are withdrawing
their affections; the birds, once clear friends and confidents, now seem to speak a foreign
language; the cliffs, once a source of stability, now unpredictable and collapsing; and the
air that once sustained life for this person is now fleeing. None of this is literal, but rather
is an exaggeration of reality. When a person first walks onto land that has not been walked
on before, nature is all there is. When the subject of the poem first stepped upon “their”
land, they could take comfort from trees and birds and cliffs. But they immediately sought
to distance themselves; the moment they declared themselves the owner of any of it, it
all went away. This person does not own trees or birds or cliffs, any more than the trees,
birds, and cliffs want to be owned. Now that the house is constructed and “ownership”
established, they have withdrawn from nature, and nature has withdrawn from them.

Stanza 3

No, they whisper. You own nothing.

You were a visitor, time after time
climbing the hill, planting the flag, proclaiming.
We never belonged to you.
You never found us.
It was always the other way round.

As far as the natural world is concerned, ownership is meaningless. The third

stanza bridges the first two by giving the reader the perspective of the personified natural
world. It describes the process of claiming ownership — “climbing the hill, planting the
flag, proclaiming” — as meaningless. The trees don’t belong to people because the
person planted a flag and shouted something out, and the trees will never belong to that
person. According to the whispers of nature, humans are owned by the world — the world
is not owned by humans at all, but that’s not what they believe.
Historical Context

The Moment makes a number of references to the European style of claiming

ownership. During the fifteenth to twentieth centuries, the process of owning land was
often established through a number of things — the primary two of which were “flag in the
ground” ownership, which worked as a kind of “first come, first served” system (where the
first to come jabs the flag of their country in the ground they wish to claim), and there was
the simple principle that stated that land belong to anyone who regularly farmed and used
it (which is also how land ownership could conveniently be denied to nomadic Indigenous
groups who lived on those same lands). The poem’s reference to “a long voyage,” as well
as Atwood’s Canadian heritage, suggest that the story is in reference to the original
settlement of Canada by British and French colonizers. For those settlers who initially
entered Canada, land belonged to whoever reached it first (the claims of Indigenous
peoples notwithstanding); the Hudson’s Bay Company, for example, held millions of
dollars in land on the basis of foreign grants and of their agents claiming ownership, which
eventually was sold to the Canadian government, much to the anger of the people who
lived on the land being sold. The Moment challenges this basis, suggesting that the very
idea of land as of nature as a thing that can be owned and sold is wrong. The final stanza
describes the human as being a “visitor,” and historically, this is an accurate term. In a
similar sense, there are a lot of species of animal on the planet that have come and gone
as “visitors,” in a sense, and so there is no reason not to regard humans in the same way.
Throughout the course of history, ownership over land has been a strong and important
topic, but The Moment challenges that topic in a thought-provoking way. In a sense, it
gives the “other side” of the story by personifying the natural world that has observed
countless species attempt to create a home within its embrace, as The Moment so well
describes it.
 References

Alice Munro. (2019, June 30). Retrieved July 4, 2019, from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Munro

Analysis of The Moment by Margaret Atwood. (2017, June 13). Retrieved July 4, 2019,
from https://poemanalysis.com/the-moment-by-margaret-atwood-poem-analysis/

J. K. Rowling. (2019, July 02). Retrieved July 4, 2019, from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._K._Rowling

Jeffrey Eugenides. (2019, June 09). Retrieved July 4, 2019, from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Eugenides
Jonathan Franzen. (2019, June 28). Retrieved July 4, 2019, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Franzen

Kazuo Ishiguro. (2019, June 26). Retrieved July 4, 2019, from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazuo_Ishiguro

Kelley Armstrong. (2019, May 24). Retrieved July 4, 2019, from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelley_Armstrong

Literature in the 21st Century. (n.d.). Retrieved July 4, 2019, from

http://singteach.nie.edu.sg/issue47-people01/

Margaret Atwood. (2019, July 03). Retrieved July 4, 2019, from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Atwood

Margaret Atwood – The Moment. (n.d.). Retrieved July 4, 2019, from

https://genius.com/Margaret-atwood-the-moment-annotated
Merriam Webster Dictionary
Neil Gaiman. (2019, June 25). Retrieved July 4, 2019, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Gaiman

Rick Riordan. (2019, June 04). Retrieved July 4, 2019, from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Riordan
 Conclusion

The Moment is about the relationship between humans and the world in which we
live. It begins by seeming to celebrate human ownership of a room, house or piece of
land but then subverts this concept. Nature rebels at the idea that humans own a piece
of the planet, even though the planet looks after its people. Humans may believe they
own the world, but nature can readily withdraw its gifts.

According to Professor Jeffrey Low, “21st century literature develop students’

critical thinking skills in the quest for the ubiquitous 21st century competencies.
Linguistically, it gives students the opportunity to analyze and appreciate good language
use by highly regarded wordsmiths. It helps students gain a better understanding of the
societies which produce the literature to foster greater empathy for others. To me, above
all that, Literature education is about teaching young people to appreciate what it means
to be human. It is about what it means to care for someone or something and what it
means if we lose it. It is asking what is important to us as a person as we relate to the
world around us. Through the novel, the poem, the short story, the dramatic text, we
explore with students different contexts which all deal with what it means to live and to
live well.”

In our discussion we have explored some parts of the wide Anglo –American
Literature in this present century. We also analyze and give interpretation on Margaret
Atwood’s “The Moment” making us realize the current situation, ideology, philosophy, and
principles of the modern world.

“Reading literature helps you to think clearly, write clearly and speak clearly. Clarity
of thought and expression is a virtue which should be cultivated. Literature also gives one
a better understanding of human nature and the complexity of the human condition. It
makes one less judgemental and more sympathetic.” – Professor Tommy Koh