American Literature

The American Renaissance (1828–1865)

o also known as the Romantic Period in America and the Age of Transcendentalism
o this period is commonly accepted to be the greatest of American literature
o main genres – poetry (romantic and nature inspired), short stories (E. A. Poe),
humorous stories (about American frontier)
o Literary movements – Transcendentalism and Anti-Transcendentalism
o Transcendentalism→ transcentadal idealism
→ belief in sth supernatural and spiritual (sth above us)
→ people didn’t trust the politics
→ beliefs in individuality – everybody is unique
→ connections with nature (nature around creates the harmony)
→ people are born as good spiritual individual beings
o Anti-Transcendentalism→ dark romanticism
→ everybody is the same, very strict, follow certain rules
→ no more spiritualism – believes that people are born as
evils and sinfuls (the triumphs of evil over good)

 Nathaniel Hawthrone
o born in 1804 in the city of Salem, Massachusets
o changed his name from Hathorne to Hawthrone to dissociate from his relatives
o 1st work publish in 1828 (anonymously)
o many works feature moral allegories with a Puritan inspiration
o he pursue sin and punishment – have moral messages
o writes – novels, short stories and biographies (novelist, dark romantic)
o his works often focus on history, morality, and religion
o in transcendentalist community
o other writings – Grandfather’s Chair, The Gray Champion, The Marble Fun…
o best known work The Scarlet Letter
 the 1st American symbolic novel.
 It takes place in a Puritan village. A young woman, named Hester Prynne, comes to America
to settle down. She is waiting for her husband, but she falls in love with a puritan priest. She thinks that her husband
died and she gets pregnant with a priest, but she does not want to tell who the father of the baby is. As a punishment,
she has to wear a big scarlet letter on her bosom (A for Adultery) and she is ignored by the village. Her husband is killed
and she marries the priest.
 The Scarlet Letter opens with a long preamble about how the book came to be written. The
nameless narrator was the surveyor of the customhouse in Salem, Massachusetts. In the customhouse’s attic, he
discovered a number of documents, among them a manuscript that was bundled with a scarlet, gold-embroidered patch
of cloth in the shape of an “A.” The manuscript, the work of a past surveyor, detailed events that occurred some two
hundred years before the narrator’s time. When the narrator lost his customs post, he decided to write a fictional
account of the events recorded in the manuscript. The Scarlet Letter is the final product. The story begins in
seventeenth-century Boston, then a Puritan settlement. A young woman, Hester Prynne, is led from the town prison
with her infant daughter, Pearl, in her arms and the scarlet letter “A” on her breast. A man in the crowd tells an elderly
onlooker that Hester is being punished for adultery. Hester’s husband, a scholar much older than she is, sent her ahead
to America, but he never arrived in Boston. The consensus is that he has been lost at sea. While waiting for her husband,
Hester has apparently had an affair, as she has given birth to a child. She will not reveal her lover’s identity, however,
and the scarlet letter, along with her public shaming, is her punishment for her sin and her secrecy. On this day Hester is
led to the town scaffold and harangued by the town fathers, but she again refuses to identify her child’s father. The
elderly onlooker is Hester’s missing husband, who is now practicing medicine and calling himself Roger Chillingworth. He
settles in Boston, intent on revenge. He reveals his true identity to no one but Hester, whom he has sworn to secrecy.
Several years pass. Hester supports herself by working as a seamstress, and Pearl grows into a willful, impish child.
Shunned by the community, they live in a small cottage on the outskirts of Boston. Community officials attempt to take
Pearl away from Hester, but, with the help of Arthur Dimmesdale, a young and eloquent minister, the mother and
daughter manage to stay together. Dimmesdale, however, appears to be wasting away and suffers from mysterious
heart trouble, seemingly caused by psychological distress. Chillingworth attaches himself to the ailing minister and
eventually moves in with him so that he can provide his patient with round-the-clock care. Chillingworth also suspects
that there may be a connection between the minister’s torments and Hester’s secret, and he begins to test Dimmesdale
to see what he can learn. One afternoon, while the minister sleeps, Chillingworth discovers a mark on the man’s breast
(the details of which are kept from the reader), which convinces him that his suspicions are correct. Dimmesdale’s
psychological anguish deepens, and he invents new tortures for himself. In the meantime, Hester’s charitable deeds and
quiet humility have earned her a reprieve from the scorn of the community. One night, when Pearl is about seven years
old, she and her mother are returning home from a visit to a deathbed when they encounter Dimmesdale atop the town
scaffold, trying to punish himself for his sins. Hester and Pearl join him, and the three link hands. Dimmesdale refuses
Pearl’s request that he acknowledge her publicly the next day, and a meteor marks a dull red “A” in the night sky. Hester
can see that the minister’s condition is worsening, and she resolves to intervene. She goes to Chillingworth and asks him
to stop adding to Dimmesdale’s self-torment. Chillingworth refuses. Hester arranges an encounter with Dimmesdale in
the forest because she is aware that Chillingworth has probably guessed that she plans to reveal his identity to
Dimmesdale. The former lovers decide to flee to Europe, where they can live with Pearl as a family. They will take a ship
sailing from Boston in four days. Both feel a sense of release, and Hester removes her scarlet letter and lets down her
hair. Pearl, playing nearby, does not recognize her mother without the letter. The day before the ship is to sail, the
townspeople gather for a holiday and Dimmesdale preaches his most eloquent sermon ever. Meanwhile, Hester has
learned that Chillingworth knows of their plan and has booked passage on the same ship. Dimmesdale, leaving the
church after his sermon, sees Hester and Pearl standing before the town scaffold. He impulsively mounts the scaffold
with his lover and his daughter, and confesses publicly, exposing a scarlet letter seared into the flesh of his chest. He
falls dead, as Pearl kisses him. Frustrated in his revenge, Chillingworth dies a year later. Hester and Pearl leave Boston,
and no one knows what has happened to them. Many years later, Hester returns alone, still wearing the scarlet letter, to
live in her old cottage and resume her charitable work. She receives occasional letters from Pearl, who has married a
European aristocrat and established a family of her own. When Hester dies, she is buried next to Dimmesdale. The two
share a single tombstone, which bears a scarlet “A.”
 The Realistic Period (1865–1900)
 Mark Twain
o Period – realism
 was a style in art, music and literature that depicted contemporary social
realities and the lives and everyday activities of ordinary people.
 the movement began in literature in the mid-19th century, and became an
important tendency in visual art in the early 20th century.
 American writers tended to be flowery, sentimental, or ostentatious—partially
because they were still trying to prove that they could write as elegantly as the
English
 based on vigorous, realistic, colloquial American speech , gave American writers
a new appreciation of their national voice
o Twain was the first major author who captured its distinctive, humorous slang and
iconoclasm
o Writing in this peiod, it was a way of speaking truth and exploding worn-out
conventions
o born in 1835 in Florida, Missouri
o never finished the elementary school
o affluent family that owned a number of household slaves
o death of his father- hard times - left school, worked for a printer, then worked on
riverboats on the Mississippi
o in his works he combines rich humour, sturdy narrative and social criticism
o other writings – The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Innocents Abroad,  The
Prince and the Pauper, Life on Mississippi, Old times on the Mississippi...
o best known work Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
 The story is about a young boy, Huck, in search of freedom and adventure. The shores of
the Mississippi River provide the backdrop for the entire book.
 Both novels (Tom Sawyer and Finn) are set in the town of St. Petersburg, Missouri, which
lies on the banks of the Mississippi River.
 Huck is kidnapped by Pap, his drunken father. Pap kidnaps Huck because he wants Huck's
$6000. Huck was awarded $6000 from the treasure he and Tom Sawyer found in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.  Huck
finally escapes from the deserted house in the woods and finds a canoe to shove off down the river. Instead of going
back to the widow's house, he decides to run away. He is sick of all of the confinement and civilization that the window
enforces upon him. He comes across Jim, Miss Watson's slave, and together, they spend nights and days journeying
down the river, both in search of freedom.

 While traveling on a raft down the river, Huck and Jim have many adventures and during
many long talks, become best of friends. They find a house with a dead man. They end up stealing many things from the
house. They find a wrecked ship, and go on it, only to be mixed up with murderers. They get away with money and some
other goods. They get separated from each other in the heavy fog, but eventually find each other. A steamboat crashes
into their raft and Jim and Huck are separated again. Huck has a run-in with the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons,
two families at war with each other. He is reunited with Jim shortly after this. Then, they meet the King and the Duke,
and get into a good deal of trouble performing plays. The King and the Duke pretend to be Peter Wilks' long lost
brothers from England and try to steal all of the money left behind in his will. They escape before they are caught. Huck
finally gets rid of them, but is left to search for Jim, who gets sold by the King. He ends up at Tom Sawyer's Aunt Sally's
house, where Tom and Huck rescue Jim.
 Through all of the adventures down the river, Huck learns a variety of life lessons and
improves as a person. He develops a conscience and truly feels for humanity. The complexity of his character is
enhanced by his ability to relate so easily with nature and the river.
 The Modern Period (1910–1945)
 F. Scott Fitzgerald
o born in 1896 in Minnesota
o writer of novels and short stories about wealthy people for whom everything is
possible - American novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and Short story writer
o from middle-class, was very gifted but his schoolmates were much richer then
he was, he decided to earn money -> start writing, became one of the best
young writers of the time
o was the most famous chronicler during The Jazz Age
o he was influenced by WWI (he fought there) and he joined the Lost Generation
 writings of lost generation - literary figures often pertained to the
writers' experiences in World War I and the years following it
 themes – decadence and the frivolous lifestyle of the wealthy,
the death of the American dream
o lost his illusions and ideals; he wasn’t able to find a suitable place in society
o led bohemian life became an alcoholic, died as a poor homeless in Hollywood
o other writings – The Side of Paradise, Tender is the Night, May Day, Rich Boy…
o best known work The Great Gatsby
 Nick Carraway, a young man from Minnesota, moves to New York in the summer of 1922
to learn about the bond business. He rents a house in the West Egg district of Long Island, a wealthy but unfashionable
area populated by the new rich, a group who have made their fortunes too recently to have established social
connections and who are prone to garish displays of wealth. Nick’s next-door neighbor in West Egg is a mysterious man
named Jay Gatsby, who lives in a gigantic Gothic mansion and throws extravagant parties every Saturday night.

Nick is unlike the other inhabitants of West Egg—he was educated at Yale and has social connections in East Egg, a
fashionable area of Long Island home to the established upper class. Nick drives out to East Egg one evening for dinner
with his cousin, Daisy Buchanan, and her husband, Tom, an erstwhile classmate of Nick’s at Yale. Daisy and Tom
introduce Nick to Jordan Baker, a beautiful, cynical young woman with whom Nick begins a romantic relationship. Nick
also learns a bit about Daisy and Tom’s marriage: Jordan tells him that Tom has a lover, Myrtle Wilson, who lives in the
valley of ashes, a gray industrial dumping ground between West Egg and New York City. Not long after this revelation,
Nick travels to New York City with Tom and Myrtle. At a vulgar, gaudy party in the apartment that Tom keeps for the
affair, Myrtle begins to taunt Tom about Daisy, and Tom responds by breaking her nose.

As the summer progresses, Nick eventually garners an invitation to one of Gatsby’s legendary parties. He encounters
Jordan Baker at the party, and they meet Gatsby himself, a surprisingly young man who affects an English accent, has a
remarkable smile, and calls everyone “old sport.” Gatsby asks to speak to Jordan alone, and, through Jordan, Nick later
learns more about his mysterious neighbor. Gatsby tells Jordan that he knew Daisy in Louisville in 1917 and is deeply in
love with her. He spends many nights staring at the green light at the end of her dock, across the bay from his mansion.
Gatsby’s extravagant lifestyle and wild parties are simply an attempt to impress Daisy. Gatsby now wants Nick to
arrange a reunion between himself and Daisy, but he is afraid that Daisy will refuse to see him if she knows that he still
loves her. Nick invites Daisy to have tea at his house, without telling her that Gatsby will also be there. After an initially
awkward reunion, Gatsby and Daisy reestablish their connection. Their love rekindled, they begin an affair.

After a short time, Tom grows increasingly suspicious of his wife’s relationship with Gatsby. At a luncheon at the
Buchanans’ house, Gatsby stares at Daisy with such undisguised passion that Tom realizes Gatsby is in love with her.
Though Tom is himself involved in an extramarital affair, he is deeply outraged by the thought that his wife could be
unfaithful to him. He forces the group to drive into New York City, where he confronts Gatsby in a suite at the Plaza
Hotel. Tom asserts that he and Daisy have a history that Gatsby could never understand, and he announces to his wife
that Gatsby is a criminal—his fortune comes from bootlegging alcohol and other illegal activities. Daisy realizes that
her allegiance is to Tom, and Tom contemptuously sends her back to East Egg with Gatsby, attempting to prove that
Gatsby cannot hurt him.

When Nick, Jordan, and Tom drive through the valley of ashes, however, they discover that Gatsby’s car has struck and
killed Myrtle, Tom’s lover. They rush back to Long Island, where Nick learns from Gatsby that Daisy was driving the car
when it struck Myrtle, but that Gatsby intends to take the blame. The next day, Tom tells Myrtle’s husband, George,
that Gatsby was the driver of the car. George, who has leapt to the conclusion that the driver of the car that killed
Myrtle must have been her lover, finds Gatsby in the pool at his mansion and shoots him dead. He then fatally shoots
himself.

Nick stages a small funeral for Gatsby, ends his relationship with Jordan, and moves back to the Midwest to escape the
disgust he feels for the people surrounding Gatsby’s life and for the emptiness and moral decay of life among the
wealthy on the East Coast. Nick reflects that just as Gatsby’s dream of Daisy was corrupted by money and dishonesty,
the American dream of happiness and individualism has disintegrated into the mere pursuit of wealth. Though
Gatsby’s power to transform his dreams into reality is what makes him “great,” Nick reflects that the era of dreaming
—both Gatsby’s dream and the American dream—is over.

 John Steinbeck
o born in 1902 in California
o regionalist, naturalist, proletarian writer
o wrote in natural style
o Themes: on side of working men/poor working-class people, The Great
Depression
o other writings – The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, The Pearl…
o best known work Of Mice and Men
 Two migrant workers, George and Lennie, have been let off a bus miles away from the
California farm where they are due to start work. George is a small, dark man with “sharp, strong features.” Lennie, his
companion, is his opposite, a giant of a man with a “shapeless” face. Overcome with thirst, the two stop in a clearing
by a pool and decide to camp for the night. As the two converse, it becomes clear that Lennie has a mild mental
disability, and is deeply devoted to George and dependent upon him for protection and guidance. George finds that
Lennie, who loves petting soft things but often accidentally kills them, has been carrying and stroking a dead mouse.
George angrily throws it away, fearing that Lennie might catch a disease from the dead animal. George complains
loudly that his life would be easier without having to care for Lennie, but the reader senses that their friendship and
devotion is mutual. He and Lennie share a dream of buying their own piece of land, farming it, and, much to Lennie’s
delight, keeping rabbits. George ends the night by treating Lennie to the story he often tells him about what life will be
like in such an idyllic place.
The next day, the men report to the nearby ranch. George, fearing how the boss will react to Lennie, insists that he’ll
do all the talking. He lies, explaining that they travel together because they are cousins and that a horse kicked
Lennie in the head when he was a child. They are hired. They meet Candy, an old “swamper,” or handyman, with a
missing hand and an ancient dog, and Curley, the boss’s mean-spirited son. Curley is newly married, possessive of his
flirtatious wife, and full of jealous suspicion. Once George and Lennie are alone in the bunkhouse, Curley’s wife
appears and flirts with them. Lennie thinks she is “purty,” but George, sensing the trouble that could come from
tangling with this woman and her husband, warns Lennie to stay away from her. Soon, the ranch-hands return from
the fields for lunch, and George and Lennie meet Slim, the skilled mule driver who wields great authority on the
ranch. Slim comments on the rarity of friendship like that between George and Lennie. Carlson, another ranch-hand,
suggests that since Slim’s dog has just given birth, they should offer a puppy to Candy and shoot Candy’s old, good-
for-nothing dog.

The next day, George confides in Slim that he and Lennie are not cousins, but have been friends since childhood. He
tells how Lennie has often gotten them into trouble. For instance, they were forced to flee their last job because
Lennie tried to touch a woman’s dress and was accused of rape. Slim agrees to give Lennie one of his puppies, and
Carlson continues to badger Candy to kill his old dog. When Slim agrees with Carlson, saying that death would be a
welcome relief to the suffering animal, Candy gives in. Carlson, before leading the dog outside, promises to do the
job painlessly.

Slim goes to the barn to do some work, and Curley, who is maniacally searching for his wife, heads to the barn to
accost Slim. Candy overhears George and Lennie discussing their plans to buy land, and offers his life’s savings if they
will let him live there too. The three make a pact to let no one else know of their plan. Slim returns to the bunkhouse,
berating Curley for his suspicions. Curley, searching for an easy target for his anger, finds Lennie and picks a fight
with him. Lennie crushes Curley’s hand in the altercation. Slim warns Curley that if he tries to get George and Lennie
fired, he will be the laughingstock of the farm.

The next night, most of the men go to the local brothel. Lennie is left with Crooks, the lonely, black stable-hand, and
Candy. Curley’s wife flirts with them, refusing to leave until the other men come home. She notices the cuts on
Lennie’s face and suspects that he, and not a piece of machinery as Curley claimed, is responsible for hurting her
husband. This thought amuses her. The next day, Lennie accidentally kills his puppy in the barn. Curley’s wife enters
and consoles him. She admits that life with Curley is a disappointment, and wishes that she had followed her dream
of becoming a movie star. Lennie tells her that he loves petting soft things, and she offers to let him feel her hair.
When he grabs too tightly, she cries out. In his attempt to silence her, he accidentally breaks her neck.

Lennie flees back to a pool of the Salinas River that George had designated as a meeting place should either of them
get into trouble. As the men back at the ranch discover what has happened and gather together a lynch party,
George joins Lennie. Much to Lennie’s surprise, George is not mad at him for doing “a bad thing.” George begins to
tell Lennie the story of the farm they will have together. As he describes the rabbits that Lennie will tend, the sound
of the approaching lynch party grows louder. George shoots his friend in the back of the head.

When the other men arrive, George lets them believe that Lennie had the gun, and George wrestled it away from
him and shot him. Only Slim understands what has really happened, that George has killed his friend out of mercy.
Slim consolingly leads him away, and the other men, completely puzzled, watch them leave.

 Ernest Hemingway
 o born in 1899 in Illinois
o writer of novels and short stories
o participated in both world wars and in Spanish civil war
o lived in Paris, Cuba and Key West, Florida
o committed a suicide (shot himself)
o by his writing, society feels fractured, the individual feels unmoored and
alienated
o Themes: man in a world of war, difficult life situations, relations between men
and women, suicide
o Style: short and simple sentences, minimum of narrator’s commentary and
interpretation
o best known works – The Sun also Rises, From Whom the Bell Tolls, The Old Man
and the Sea, The Cat in the rain…
 The Sun also Rises – Tells the story of a group of disillusioned expatriates living in post–
World War I Europe, searching for meaning as they travel, drink, and engage in romances during a Spanish fiesta. The
narrator is Jake Barnes, a war veteran who sustained an injury that made him impotent. As the novel opens, Jake
describes his fellow writer and companion Robert Cohn, who was a top boxer in college. Jake does not really like Cohn,
but he tolerates him—even after Cohn falls for Jake's great love, Lady Brett Ashley. Lady Brett, a divorced socialite, was a
nurse during the war and cared for Jake after his injury.

Although Jake is a journalist, he spends little time working, preferring to party and drink with Cohn and the American
writer Bill Gorton. While at a dance club one evening, Jake runs into Brett. The two sneak away to drink privately, and
Brett reveals she loves Jake but is unwilling to give up sex to be with him. The two kiss and then part ways. The next
morning Cohn claims to be in love with Brett; Jake rudely insists Brett will marry  Mike Campbell, an alcoholic Scotsman
whom she also nursed back to health during the war. Cohn asks Jake to travel to South America with him, but Jake
declines; instead, he plans a fishing trip with Bill in southern France. Later Mike and Brett ask if they can join the fishing
trip, and Jake agrees. They also decide to attend the fiesta in Pamplona, Spain, and watch the bullfighting. When Jake
and Brett are alone, she reveals she had an affair with Cohn a few weeks earlier and now he will not leave her alone.
Jake knows Brett is prone to affairs, but this one secretly angers him. The group parts ways.

Jake and Bill pass a peaceful five days in southern France, fishing and playing cards. The rest of their friends never show
up. Brett and Mike are running late, as usual, and Cohn has decided to stay behind in Bayonne, France, to wait for Brett.
They are all reunited in Pamplona, where they stay at Montoya's hotel. Over the years, Montoya has come to respect
Jake as a passionate fan of bullfighting; Jake has now joined Montoya's inner circle of bullfighters and critics. Montoya
introduces Jake to a promising new bullfighter, Pedro Romero. Although he is only 19 years old, Romero is a real
bullfighter; he does not need to resort to tricks or illusions to entertain the crowd. Jake notes Romero's charm and good
looks. The rest take notice of Romero during the first day of bullfighting. Romero excels, and Brett claims she is in love
with him. At a party that night, Brett asks Jake to introduce her to Romero, which he does. Montoya worries Romero will
become distracted during the fiesta and his talent will suffer. He feels personally offended when Romero begins drinking
and flirting with Brett. With Jake's help, Brett and Romero spend the night together. When Cohn learns of this, he snaps;
he calls Jake a pimp and knocks him out. He also punches Mike and beats Romero nearly senseless. After the fight, Jake
finds Cohn lying face down and crying in his hotel room. Ashamed of his behavior, Cohn asks to shake Jake's hand, and
Jake accepts.
The next day Romero performs brilliantly at the bullfights, expertly killing a bull that had gored a man during the running
of the bulls. He cuts off one of the bull's ears and gives it to Brett without looking at anyone else in the crowd. Romero's
face is bruised from Cohn's attack, which deeply embarrasses Jake. Cohn left early in the morning, too embarrassed to
say goodbye and too heartbroken to face Brett. After the bullfights end, Brett and Romero leave for Madrid; Mike, Jake,
and Bill go their separate ways. Jake intends to pass time in the quiet town of San Sebastian, but shortly after arriving,
he receives an urgent telegram from Brett asking him to meet her in Madrid. He takes the earliest train to race to her
side. Romero has left, she says, at her request. She claims he wanted to marry her, but she has never been interested in
a domestic life. Alone and penniless, she once again wants Jake to save her. She claims she will return to Mike, but she
notes she and Jake could have had a wonderful life together. Jake bitterly responds, "Yes, isn't it pretty to think so?"

 From Whom the Bell Tolls – anti-war love story, tragic; describes love between
American ambulance driver Frederick and English Nurse Catherine, Catherine dies in Switzerland

− The novel is set in Spain, in 1937 and tells the story of

American teacher Robert Jordan, who has joined the antifascist Loyalist army. Jordan has been sent to make contact
with a guerrilla band and blow up a bridge to advance a Loyalist offensive. The action takes place during Jordan’s 72
hours at the guerrilla camp. During this period, he falls in love with María, who has been raped by fascist soldiers, and
befriends the shrewd but cowardly guerrilla leader Pablo and his courageous wife, Pilar. Jordan manages to destroy the
bridge; Pablo, Pilar, María, and two other guerrillas escape, but Jordan is injured. Proclaiming his love to María once
more, he awaits the fascist troops and certain death.
 The Old Man and the Sea - The central character is an old Cuban fisherman named
Santiago, who has not caught a fish for 84 days. The family of his apprentice, Manolin, has forced the boy to leave the
old fisherman, though Manolin continues to support him with food and bait. Santiago is a mentor to the boy, who
cherishes the old man and the life lessons he imparts. Convinced that his luck must change, Santiago takes his skiff far
out into the deep waters of the Gulf Stream, where he soon hooks a giant marlin. With all his great experience and
strength, he struggles with the fish for three days, admiring its strength, dignity, and faithfulness to its identity; its
destiny is as true as Santiago’s as a fisherman. He finally reels the marlin in and lashes it to his boat.

However, Santiago’s exhausting effort goes for naught. Sharks are drawn to the tethered marlin, and, although Santiago
manages to kill a few, the sharks eat the fish, leaving behind only its skeleton. After returning to the harbour, the
discouraged Santiago goes to his home to sleep. In the meantime, others see the skeleton tied to his boat and are
amazed. A concerned Manolin is relieved to find Santiago alive, and the two agree to go fishing together.
 The Contemporary Period (1945–Present)
 Tennessee Williams
o born in 1911 in Mississippi New Orleans
o was gay
o an american playwright
o Social realism
o topics: social class-poverty, non-traditional relationships, relationships issues
Shown realistically
o Expressionism- no sugar coat, to express feelings and emotions
often considered a revolt against realism and naturalism, seeking to achieve a
psychological or spiritual reality rather than record external events in logical
sequence. In the novel, the term is closely allied to the writing of Franz Kafka
and James Joyce (see stream of consciousness)
o focused on disturbed emotions and sexuality
o many of his plays are autobiographical
o other writings – Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Sweet Birth of Youth...
o best known work A Streetcar Named Desire
 themes – slavery, manners such as unimportant, no slavery, truth, sexual
relations, class structure is no more...
 Blanche DuBois, a schoolteacher from Laurel, Mississippi, arrives at the New Orleans
apartment of her sister, Stella Kowalski. Despite the fact that Blanche seems to have fallen out of close contact with
Stella, she intends to stay at Stella’s apartment for an unspecified but likely lengthy period of time, given the large trunk
she has with her. Blanche tells Stella that she lost Belle Reve, their ancestral home, following the death of all their
remaining relatives. She also mentions that she has been given a leave of absence from her teaching position because of
her bad nerves.

Though Blanche does not seem to have enough money to afford a hotel, she is disdainful of the cramped quarters of the
Kowalskis’ two-room apartment and of the apartment’s location in a noisy, diverse, working-class neighborhood.
Blanche’s social condescension wins her the instant dislike of Stella’s husband, an auto-parts supply man of Polish descent
named Stanley Kowalski. It is clear that Stella was happy to leave behind her the social pretensions of her background in
exchange for the sexual gratification she gets from her husband; she even is pregnant with his baby. Stanley immediately
distrusts Blanche to the extent that he suspects her of having cheated Stella out of her share of the family inheritance. In
the process of defending herself to Stanley, Blanche reveals that Belle Reve was lost due to a foreclosed mortgage, a
disclosure that signifies the dire nature of Blanche’s financial circumstances. Blanche’s heavy drinking, which she attempts
to conceal from her sister and brother-in-law, is another sign that all is not well with Blanche.
The unhappiness that accompanies the animal magnetism of Stella and Stanley’s marriage reveals itself when Stanley
hosts a drunken poker game with his male friends at the apartment. Blanche gets under Stanley’s skin, especially when
she starts to win the affections of his close friend Mitch. After Mitch has been absent for a while, speaking with Blanche
in the bedroom, Stanley erupts, storms into the bedroom, and throws the radio out of the window. When Stella yells at
Stanley and defends Blanche, Stanley beats her. The men pull him off, the poker game breaks up, and Blanche and Stella
escape to their upstairs neighbor Eunice’s apartment. A short while later, Stanley is remorseful and cries up to Stella to
forgive him. To Blanche’s alarm, Stella returns to Stanley and embraces him passionately. Mitch meets Blanche outside
of the Kowalski flat and comforts her in her distress.

The next day, Blanche tries to convince Stella to leave Stanley for a better man whose social status equals Stella’s.
Blanche suggests that she and Stella contact a millionaire named Shep Huntleigh for help escaping from New Orleans;
when Stella laughs at her, Blanche reveals that she is completely broke. Stanley walks in as Blanche is making fun of him
and secretly overhears Blanche and Stella’s conversation. Later, he threatens Blanche with hints that he has heard
rumors of her disreputable past. She is visibly dismayed.

While Blanche is alone in the apartment one evening, waiting for Mitch to pick her up for a date, a teenage boy comes
by to collect money for the newspaper. Blanche doesn’t have any money for him, but she hits on him and gives him a
lustful kiss. Soon after the boy departs, Mitch arrives, and they go on their date. When Blanche returns, she is exhausted
and clearly has been uneasy for the entire night about the rumors Stanley mentioned earlier. In a surprisingly sincere
heart-to-heart discussion with Mitch, Blanche reveals the greatest tragedy of her past. Years ago, her young husband
committed suicide after she discovered and chastised him for his homosexuality. Mitch describes his own loss of a
former love, and he tells Blanche that they need each other.

When the next scene begins, about one month has passed. It is the afternoon of Blanche’s birthday. Stella is preparing a
dinner for Blanche, Mitch, Stanley, and herself, when Stanley comes in to tell her that he has learned news of Blanche’s
sordid past. He says that after losing the DuBois mansion, Blanche moved into a fleabag motel from which she was
eventually evicted because of her numerous sexual liaisons. Also, she was fired from her job as a schoolteacher because
the principal discovered that she was having an affair with a teenage student. Stella is horrified to learn that Stanley has
told Mitch these stories about Blanche.

The birthday dinner comes and goes, but Mitch never arrives. Stanley indicates to Blanche that he is aware of her past.
For a birthday present, he gives her a one-way bus ticket back to Laurel. Stanley’s cruelty so disturbs Stella that it
appears the Kowalski household is about to break up, but the onset of Stella’s labor prevents the imminent fight.

Several hours later, Blanche, drunk, sits alone in the apartment. Mitch, also drunk, arrives and repeats all he’s learned
from Stanley. Eventually Blanche confesses that the stories are true, but she also reveals the need for human affection
she felt after her husband’s death. Mitch tells Blanche that he can never marry her, saying she isn’t fit to live in the same
house as his mother. Having learned that Blanche is not the chaste lady she pretended to be, Mitch tries to have sex
with Blanche, but she forces him to leave by yelling “Fire!” to attract the attention of passersby outside.

Later, Stanley returns from the hospital to find Blanche even more drunk. She tells him that she will soon be leaving
New Orleans with her former suitor Shep Huntleigh, who is now a millionaire. Stanley knows that Blanche’s story is
entirely in her imagination, but he is so happy about his baby that he proposes they each celebrate their good fortune.
Blanche spurns Stanley, and things grow contentious. When she tries to step past him, he refuses to move out of her
way. Blanche becomes terrified to the point that she smashes a bottle on the table and threatens to smash Stanley in
the face. Stanley grabs her arm and says that it’s time for the “date” they’ve had set up since Blanche’s arrival. Blanche
resists, but Stanley uses his physical strength to overcome her, and he carries her to bed. The pulsing music indicates
that Stanley rapes Blanche.

The next scene takes place weeks later, as Stella and her neighbor Eunice pack Blanche’s bags. Blanche is in the bath,
and Stanley plays poker with his buddies in the front room. A doctor will arrive soon to take Blanche to an insane
asylum, but Blanche believes she is leaving to join her millionaire. Stella confesses to Eunice that she simply cannot
allow herself to believe Blanche’s assertion that Stanley raped her. When Blanche emerges from the bathroom, her
deluded talk makes it clear that she has lost her grip on reality.

The doctor arrives with a nurse, and Blanche initially panics and struggles against them when they try to take her away.
Stanley and his friends fight to subdue Blanche, while Eunice holds Stella back to keep her from interfering. Mitch begins
to cry. Finally, the doctor approaches Blanche in a gentle manner and convinces her to leave with him. She allows him to
lead her away and does not look back or say goodbye as she goes. Stella sobs with her child in her arms, and Stanley
comforts her with loving words and caresses.

 Arthur Miller
o born in 1915 in NY
o playwright, essayist, dramatist
o married to Marylin Monroe
o Pulitzer prize for drama
o Postmodernism - although difficult to define, is a post-World War II (late 1940s to present)
literary movement often referred to as simply the descendant of modernism.
Postmodernism, however, is frequently viewed as possessing the opposite (or broader)
characteristics of modernism, for instance, while modernism is generally rational and
organized, postmodernism is generally irrational and fragmented
o other writings – All my Sons, A View from the Bridge, The Misfits, The Crucible...
o best known work Death of a Salesman
 themes – american dream - critical, truth/lying - critical
 Willy Loman, a traveling salesman, returns home to Brooklyn early from a sales trip. At
the age of 63, he has lost his salary and is working only on commission, and on this trip has failed to sell anything. His
son Biff, who has been laboring on farms and ranches throughout the West for more than a decade, has recently arrived
home to figure out a new direction for his life. Willy thinks Biff has not lived up to his potential. But as Biff reveals to his
younger brother Happy—an assistant to the assistant buyer at a department store—he feels more fulfilled by outdoor
work than by his earlier attempts to work in an office.
Alone in his kitchen, Willy remembers an earlier return from a business trip, when Biff and Happy were young boys and
looked up to him as a hero. He contrasts himself and his sons with his next door neighbor  Charley, a successful
businessman, and Charley's son Bernard, a serious student. Charley and Bernard, in his view, lack the natural charisma
that the Loman men possess, which Willy believes is the real determinant of success. But under the questioning of his
wife Linda, Willy admits that his commission from the trip was so small that they will hardly be able to pay all their bills,
and that he is full of self-doubt. Even as Linda reassures him, he hears the laughter of The Woman, his mistress in
Boston.
Charley comes over to see if Willy is okay. While they are playing cards, Willy begins talking with the recently deceased
figure of his brother Ben, who left home at the age of seventeen and made a diamond fortune in Africa and Alaska.
Charley offers Willy a job but Willy refuses out of pride, even though he has been borrowing money from Charley every
week to cover household expenses. Full of regrets, Willy compares himself to Ben and their equally adventurous,
mysterious father, who abandoned them when they were young. He wanders into his back yard, trying to see the stars.
Linda discusses Willy's deteriorating mental state with the boys. She reveals that he has tried to commit suicide, both in
a car crash and by inhaling gas through a rubber hose on the heater. Biff, chagrined, agrees to stay home and try to
borrow money from his previous employer, Bill Oliver, in order to start a sporting goods business with Happy, which will
please their father. Willy is thrilled about this idea, and gives Biff some conflicting, incoherent advice about how to ask
for the loan.
The next morning, at Linda's urging, Willy goes to his boss Howard Wagner and asks for a job in the New York office,
close to home. Though Willy has been with the company longer than Howard has been alive, Howard refuses Willy's
request. Willy continues to beg Howard, with increasing urgency, until Howard suspends Willy from work. Willy,
humiliated, goes to borrow money from Charley at his office. There he encounters Bernard, who is now a successful
lawyer, while the greatest thing Willy's son Biff ever achieved was playing high school football.
Biff and Happy have made arrangements to meet Willy for dinner at Frank's Chop House. Before Willy arrives, Biff
confesses to Happy that Oliver gave him the cold shoulder when he tried to ask for the loan, and he responded by
stealing Oliver's pen. Happy advises him to lie to Willy in order to keep his hope alive. Willy sits down at the table and
immediately confesses that he has been fired, so Biff had better give him some good news to bring home to Linda. Biff
and Willy argue, as distressing memories from the past overwhelm Willy. Willy staggers to the washroom and recalls the
end of Biff's high school career, when Biff failed a math course and went to Boston in order to tell his father. He found
Willy in a hotel room with The Woman, and became so disillusioned about his former hero that he abandoned his
dreams for college and following in Willy's footsteps. As Willy is lost in this reverie, Biff and Happy leave the restaurant
with two call girls.
When Biff and Happy return home, Linda is furious at them for abandoning their father. Biff, ashamed of his behavior,
finds Willy in the back yard. He is trying to plant seeds in the middle of the night, and conversing with the ghost of his
brother Ben about a plan to leave his family with $20,000 in life insurance money. Biff announces that he is finally going
to be true to himself, that neither he nor Willy will ever be great men, and that Willy should accept this and give up his
distorted version of the American Dream. Biff is moved to tears at the end of this argument, which deepens Willy's
resolve to kill himself out of love for his son and family. He drives away to his death.
Only his family, Charley, and Bernard attend Willy's funeral. Biff is adamant that Willy died for nothing, while Charley
elegizes Willy as a salesman who, by necessity, had nothing to trade on but his dreams. Linda says goodbye to Willy,
telling him that the house has been paid off—that they are finally free of their obligations—but now there will be
nobody to live in it.

 Harper Lee
o born in 1926 in Alabama
o father was an attorney, mother was mentally ill, died when Lee was 25
o studied law in Alabama, left before graduating
o moved to NY, worked at a bookstore and as an airline reservation agent
o other writings – Go set a Watchman (same characters but older, not finished)
o best known work To Kill a Mockingbird
 Scout Finch lives with her brother, Jem, and their widowed father, Atticus, in the sleepy
Alabama town of Maycomb. Maycomb is suffering through the Great Depression, but Atticus is a prominent lawyer and
the Finch family is reasonably well off in comparison to the rest of society. One summer, Jem and Scout befriend a boy
named Dill, who has come to live in their neighborhood for the summer, and the trio acts out stories together. Eventually,
Dill becomes fascinated with the spooky house on their street called the Radley Place. The house is owned by Mr. Nathan
Radley, whose brother, Arthur (nicknamed Boo), has lived there for years without venturing outside.

Scout goes to school for the first time that fall and detests it. She and Jem find gifts apparently left for them in a knothole
of a tree on the Radley property. Dill returns the following summer, and he, Scout, and Jem begin to act out the story of
Boo Radley. Atticus puts a stop to their antics, urging the children to try to see life from another person’s perspective
before making judgments. But, on Dill’s last night in Maycomb for the summer, the three sneak onto the Radley property,
where Nathan Radley shoots at them. Jem loses his pants in the ensuing escape. When he returns for them, he finds them
mended and hung over the fence. The next winter, Jem and Scout find more presents in the tree, presumably left by the
mysterious Boo. Nathan Radley eventually plugs the knothole with cement. Shortly thereafter, a fire breaks out in another
neighbor’s house, and during the fire someone slips a blanket on Scout’s shoulders as she watches the blaze. Convinced
that Boo did it, Jem tells Atticus about the mended pants and the presents.

To the consternation of Maycomb’s racist white community, Atticus agrees to defend a black man named Tom Robinson,
who has been accused of raping a white woman. Because of Atticus’s decision, Jem and Scout are subjected to abuse
from other children, even when they celebrate Christmas at the family compound on Finch’s Landing. Calpurnia, the
Finches’ black cook, takes them to the local black church, where the warm and close-knit community largely embraces the
children.

Atticus’s sister, Alexandra, comes to live with the Finches the next summer. Dill, who is supposed to live with his “new
father” in another town, runs away and comes to Maycomb. Tom Robinson’s trial begins, and when the accused man is
placed in the local jail, a mob gathers to lynch him. Atticus faces the mob down the night before the trial. Jem and Scout,
who have sneaked out of the house, soon join him. Scout recognizes one of the men, and her polite questioning about his
son shames him into dispersing the mob.

At the trial itself, the children sit in the “colored balcony” with the town’s black citizens. Atticus provides clear evidence
that the accusers, Mayella Ewell and her father, Bob, are lying: in fact, Mayella propositioned Tom Robinson, was caught
by her father, and then accused Tom of rape to cover her shame and guilt. Atticus provides impressive evidence that the
marks on Mayella’s face are from wounds that her father inflicted; upon discovering her with Tom, he called her a whore
and beat her. Yet, despite the significant evidence pointing to Tom’s innocence, the all-white jury convicts him. The
innocent Tom later tries to escape from prison and is shot to death. In the aftermath of the trial, Jem’s faith in justice is
badly shaken, and he lapses into despondency and doubt.

Despite the verdict, Bob Ewell feels that Atticus and the judge have made a fool out of him, and he vows revenge. He
menaces Tom Robinson’s widow, tries to break into the judge’s house, and finally attacks Jem and Scout as they walk
home from a Halloween party. Boo Radley intervenes, however, saving the children and stabbing Ewell fatally during the
struggle. Boo carries the wounded Jem back to Atticus’s house, where the sheriff, in order to protect Boo, insists that
Ewell tripped over a tree root and fell on his own knife. After sitting with Scout for a while, Boo disappears once more into
the Radley house.

Later, Scout feels as though she can finally imagine what life is like for Boo. He has become a human being to her at last.
With this realization, Scout embraces her father’s advice to practice sympathy and understanding and demonstrates that
her experiences with hatred and prejudice will not sully her faith in human goodness.