Terms & Conditions for Buying the Online Soft Copy

• The User must Read & Accept the Terms and Conditions (T&C) carefully before clicking on the
accept option for Buying the Online Soft Copy of E-books / Assignment Solution Guides / Sample
Question Papers (Question Bank) / Projects etc. based on IGNOU and other Universities / Boards
/ Institutes. Under this Particular Facility you may buy only the Online Soft Copy of E-books /
Assignment Solution Guides / Sample Question Papers (Question Bank) / Projects based on
IGNOU and other Universities / Boards / Institutes, no Hard Copy or Printed Copy shall be
provided under this facility.
• The products which are for Online Reading i.e. E-Books, Sample Papers, Projects etc. are valid for
limited time period only (From the Date of Purchase) and no kind of Downloading, Printing,
Copying etc. are allowed in this facility as these products are just for Online Reading and
References in your Mobile / Tablet / Computers.
• The complaints will be entertained only within 48 hours of placing the order.
• The Downloading facility may only be available for purchase made regarding Assignment Solution
Guide (Solved Assignment) on a Special Request under special scheme offered by
studybadshah.com time to time and all the other purchases made are just for Online Reading and
no kind of Downloading, Printing, Copying etc. are allowed in this facility as these products are
just for Online Reading and References in your Mobile / Tablet / Computers.
• All the online soft copy products E-books / Assignment Solution Guides / Sample Question Papers
(Question Bank) / Projects etc. given in this website shall contain a diffused watermark on nearly
every page to protect the material from being pirated / copy / misused etc.
• In these E-books / Assignment Solution Guides / Sample Question Papers (Question Bank) /
Projects based on IGNOU and other Universities / Boards, Solutions of Only the Selected
Questions are provided, the answers of all the Questions are not Provided.
• In these E-Books / Sample Assignment Solution Guides / Sample Question Papers (Question Bank)
/ Projects based on IGNOU and other Universities / Boards / Institutes, only Minimum
Requirement of the Assignments Questions / Sample Papers have been answered, Like if 5
Questions are given and it has been asked that Answer any 3 out of them, then only 3 selected
questions answers shall be given, each & every question shall not been answered.
• This is a Chargeable Facility / Provision to Buy the Online Soft Copy of E-books / Assignment
Solution Guides / Sample Question Papers (Question Bank) / Projects based on IGNOU and other
Universities / Boards / Institutes available online through our Website Which a Subscriber / Buyer
may Read Online (whichever facility is offered by the website time to time) on his or her Mobile
/ Tablet / Computer. The E-books / Assignment Solution Guides / Sample Question Papers
(Question Bank) / Projects based on IGNOU and other Universities / Boards and their answer
given in these Soft Copy provides you just the approximate pattern of the actual Answer.
However, the actual Content / Study Material / Assignments / Question Papers / Projects might
somewhat vary in its contents, distribution of marks and their level of difficulty.
• These Sample Answers/Solutions are prepared by the author for the help, guidance and
reference of the student to get an idea of how he/she can answer the questions. Sample answers
may be Seen as the Guide/Reference Material only. Neither the publisher nor the author or seller
 will be responsible for any damage or loss due to any mistake, error or discrepancy as we do not
claim the Accuracy of these solution / Answers. Any Omission or Error is highly regretted though
every care has been taken while preparing these Sample Answers/Solutions. Any mistake, error
or discrepancy noted may be brought to the publishers notice which shall be taken care of in the
next edition. Please consult your Teacher/Tutor or refer to the prescribed & recommended study
material of the university / board / institute / Govt of India Publication or notification if you have
any doubts or confusions before you appear in the exam or Prepare your Assignments before
submitting to the University/Board/Institute.
• Study Badshah shall remain the custodian of the Contents right / Copy Right of the Content of
these reference E-books / Assignment Solution Guides / Sample Question Papers (Question Bank)
/ Projects based on IGNOU and other Universities / Boards / Institutes given / being offered at
the website www.studybadshah.com.
• The User agrees Not to reproduce, duplicate, copy, sell, resell or exploit for any commercial
purposes, any portion of these Services / Facilities, use of the Service / Facility, or access to the
Service / Facility.
• The Price of these E-books / Assignment Solution Guides / Sample Question Papers (Question
Bank) / Projects based on IGNOU and other Universities / Boards may be Revised / Changed
without any Prior Notice.
• The time duration of providing this online reading facility for limited time period may alter or
change by studybadshah.com without any Prior Notice.
• The Right to accept the order or reject the order of any E-books / Assignment Solution Guides /
Sample Question Papers (Question Bank) / Projects made by any customer is reserved with
www.studybadshah.com only.
• All material prewritten or custom written is intended for the sole purpose of research and
exemplary purposes only. We encourage you to use our material as a research and study aid only.
Plagiarism is a crime, and we condone such behaviour. Please use our material responsibly.
• In any Dispute What so ever Maximum Anyone can Claim is the Cost of a particular E-book /
Assignment Solution Guides / Sample Question Papers (Question Bank) / Projects based on
IGNOU and other Universities / Boards which he had paid to Study Badshah company / website.
• If In case any Reader/Student has paid for any E-Book/ Sample Papers/ Project / Assignment etc
and is unable to Access the same at our Website for Online Reading Due to any Technical Error/
Web Admin Issue / Server Blockage at our Website www.studybadshah.com then He will be send
a New Link for that Particular E-Book/ Sample Papers/ Project / Assignment to Access the same
and if Still the Issue is Not Resolved Because of Technical Error/ Web Admin Issue / Server
Blockage at our website then His Amount for that Particular Purchase will be refunded by our
website via PayTM.
• All the Terms, Matters & Disputes are Subjected to "Delhi" Jurisdiction Only.
1
 M.E.G.-6
American Literature
Disclaimer/Special Note: These are just the sample of the Answers/Solutions to some of the Questions given in the
Assignments. These Sample Answers/Solutions are prepared by Private Teacher/Tutors/Authors for the help and guidance
of the student to get an idea of how he/she can answer the Questions given the Assignments. We do not claim 100%
accuracy of these sample answers as these are based on the knowledge and capability of Private Teacher/Tutor. Sample
answers may be seen as the Guide/Help for the reference to prepare the answers of the Questions given in the assignment.
As these solutions and answers are prepared by the Private Teacher/Tutor so the chances of error or mistake cannot be
denied. Any Omission or Error is highly regretted though every care has been taken while preparing these Sample Answers/
Solutions. Please consult your own Teacher/Tutor before you prepare a Particular Answer and for up-to-date and exact
information, data and solution. Student should must read and refer the official study material provided by the university.

Attempt all questions. All questions carry equal marks.

Q. 1. Analyse Death of a Salesman as a realistic tragedy.
Ans. The tragedy of ‘Death of a Salesman’ emerges partly from the audience’s critical recognition that the myths cherished
by Loman hold no more good in mid–20th century America. In its totality of audience response, critical as-well-as empathic, Death
of a Salesman generates powerful tragic feelings and sorrow. It is a realistic tragedy unlike that of the Greeks and the Elizabethans.
It perfects the realistic tragedy that began with Eugene O’ Neil. It appeared more like a cultural appraisal of the society it was
assessing.
The salesman stands for the burden of the aspirations and possibly much more, for the price one has to pay for the failure of
the aspirations. It was the time when the American environment was characteristically of American aspirations, convictions,
individualism, struggle and achievement through honesty, enterprise and hard work. Family acquired a primacy and it was a
major pre-occupation both culturally and economically and more significantly a forceful determinant of the individual’s socio-
economic goals. In its basic premise, “The American Dream” a popular cultural idea in the family as-well-as the society, goes back
to the early Puritan settlers who considered themselves “As God’s emissaries on a mission into the wilderness.”
It was Eugene O’Neill who prophesied that the cost of successful capitalism and materialism would be tragedy and too
American tragedy. Clifford Odets drew a dismal picture of the American family and the capitalist economy. Perhaps even more
important aspect of the new changes was the Darwinian emphasis on environment as a shaping force in life. The implications of
such a deterministic view was the formulation of a concept of a social play and the problems such a social play presents for a
notion of tragedy.
In his introduction to ‘The Collected Plays’, Miller sets out to explain the ideas that went into the making of the Death of a
Salesman. He claims, “He did not set out to write a tragedy, but to show the truth as he saw it.” He meant the play was ‘less a
play than a fact’.
Miller believes that modern drama can explore just as profoundly the themes and issues that Marlowe or Shakespeare could
but with the added punch of doing so through the lives of ordinary people.

2
 Willy’s suicide provides the unhappy ending so essential in classical tragedy. Its roots, however, lie deep in the past. It has
been argued that Willy’s nomadic childhood has left him feeling ‘kind of temporary’ about himself. Never having known a secure
home, he is obsessed with providing one for Linda and his sons, and increasingly aware of his own failings as a husband and
father. A deep-seated need for affection and reassurance leads him to seek the companionship of other women when he is away
on business. He is also known to inflate his achievements in order to gain approval from Linda, his sons, and older brother and
father-substitute, Ben. This, in turn, leads to the self-deception that is his fatal flaw. The stories he tells, the lies and half-truths,
become more reassuring to him than reality. Reality is so harsh and painful that he escapes into illusion. (Unfortunately, his
example prompts his sons to do the same).
Willy’s habit of exaggerating and inventing is addictive: Once he starts, he soon finds that he cannot stop himself. When life
becomes unbearable, Willy conjures Ben and memories of the golden times when his sons were young and innocent and full of
promise. His distortion of the past helps him to survive the present and, in the end, provides the courage he needs to kill himself.
If Death of a Salesman is to qualify as a tragedy, it needs to show how Willy’s fatal flaw impels him from happiness to misery
and death. Miller’s treatment of this theme has much in common with the Jacobean concept of the Wheel of Fortune. Stated
simply, this concept dictates that happiness (like all other forms of human success) is fleeting and in that happiness are the seeds
of tragedy. When everything seems achieved the ‘hero’ is at the top of the wheel. However, a flaw in his own character means that
the situation is doomed, the moment passes and a slide into misery and, ultimately, death is inevitable.
In Death of a Salesman, it is at the very moment when the Loman family seems most secure and united that the seeds of the
tragedy are sown. Miller presents us with an almost idyllic portrait of Willy, Linda, and their two sons.
The proud father revels in the popularity and athletic prowess of his eldest son, the son worships his father. Their relationship
could not be closer, but it is founded on illusion. Willy is neither the successful salesman nor the perfect husband he appears to
be. Biff, despite his supreme confidence that he is destined for University, has been so inflated by his father’s estimate of him, so
convinced by his father that personal attractiveness will carry him through, that he does not do enough work and flunks Math.
Where Bernard can refer to his father, Charley, as soon as a problem arises, Biff has to travel to Boston at his moment of crisis.
His total faith in Willy’s ability to fix things impels him disastrously to his father’s hotel room and the realisation that Willy
is unfaithful to Linda. Suddenly, in his boyish idealism, his father and all he stands for is fraudulent. From now on, the illusion is
preserved only by Biff’s silence. He turns his back on all Willy has taught him but, despite the hurt of betrayal, cannot stop loving
him and is torn between his instinctive need for the freedom of the open air and the dream of material success that has been
drummed into him since birth. The tension drives him away but keeps him coming back to the family home. For Willy, this is the
start of the decline that leads to the realisation, at last, that his dreams have let him down, that he is on the scrap-heap or, in his
own terms, has not got ‘a story left in his head.’
The slide from happiness to misery begins in Boston and has immediate impact; Willy’s orders are ignored, his pleas fall on
deaf ears, and Biff’s accusation hits home: ‘You fake! You phony little fake! You fake!’ This statement haunts Willy. He shies
away from it, blames Biff’s life thereafter on anyone but himself, but it never leaves him. Their relationship is broken and Willy
attempts, in the only way he knows, to make amends. He tries to cajole Biff into going to Summer School and retaking Math. When
that fails, he pays for correspondence courses for him, selling the diamond tie-pin Ben gave him as a present in order to finance
one of them. It is all in vain. The accusation stands between them like an impenetrable wall. Whereas before the visit to Boston
they laughed and joked, afterwards they are constantly fighting.
Willy keeps up the illusion with Linda and Hap but it is the loss of Biff, apparently forever, that gnaws at him, that is at the
heart of his misery. Reconciliation seems impossible. All that Willy hears in Biff’s voice is hatred and ‘spite’ and all that Biff can
see in his father’s face is ‘...a twist of mockery…I can’t get near him.’ The misery is deepened by the fact that neither man can
acknowledge the love he feels. By the time Biff opens up, it is too late. Willy is described as [astonished, elevated] by the fact that
his son cries to him and is seen to be [choking] with his love in response. Yet this moment, instead of effecting a reconciliation,
confirms Willy’s decision to kill himself as the only way he can do something practical to show how much he loves his family.

3
 With supreme tragic irony, Biff tries to end the hostility as a way of preventing the very outcome his outburst precipitates:
‘Will you take that phony dream and burn it before something happens?’ The catharsis achieved at this moment in the play
enables Biff to walk away, finally, from the false dream he has been following. As he says at Willy’s funeral, ‘I know who I am,
kid.’ This is something he could not say before then. It also helps Willy to realise, as he tells Ben, that Biff: ‘Always loved me.
Isn’t that a remarkable thing?’ The moment comes after his realisation that his life has amounted to very little. His question to
Ben: ’Does it take more guts to stand here the rest of my life ringing up a zero?’ is the point at which, finally, he sees the reality
behind all his lies and illusions. In a sense, we can see how empty Willy’s future is and, although we’re sad at his passing, we
cannot help but breathe a sigh of relief that all his struggles are over.
The tragic irony is that it is his last dream, for Biff to see that: ‘I am known, Ben, and he’ll see it with his eyes once and for
all. He’ll see what I am, Ben! He’s in for a shock, that boy!’ This last dream is to turn dust, like all the others. At the funeral he had
hoped would be a vindication, Linda asks, ‘But where are all the people he knew?’ Her lack of understanding highlights the
difference between Willy and the rest of the characters in the play. Where he is obsessed with what Miller calls his self-conceived
role, the others are more moderate in their demands on themselves: Charley advises him to ‘Forget about him (Biff)’; Bernard
that, ‘sometimes…it’s better for a man just to walk away.’ Neither they, nor members of his own family, have the intensity that, in
Miller’s terms, makes Willy a tragic hero. He is always isolated or, as the Woman in Boston describes him: ‘…the saddest, self-
centredest soul I ever did see-saw.’ Willy’s obsession with his sense of himself marks him out as capable of tragedy in a way that
is both fascinating and challenging to a modern audience. In an age of conformism, Miller infers, only the Willy Lomans of this
world are worthy of the term ‘hero’. In Death of a Salesman, he has fulfilled all the criteria of the classical form but made of them
a drama of human proportions with which an audience can readily identify. It is because Willy is like us, a Common Man, that the
lessons of the tragedy are more difficult to ignore than if he were some remote figure from history or myth. We could leave the
theatre and bump into his equivalent in the street. In a sense, his story adds dignity to our own lives and challenges us to either
fight for self-realisation or to walk away and, in Miller’s terms, fail as human beings.
Q. 2. Write a critical note on the dramatic form in the 20th Century.
Ans. The 20th century witnessed the development of many new forms of drama such as Modernism, Expressionism,
Impressionism, Naturalism and Realism. Influenced by the ideas of Sigmund Freud, many artists began to find a psychological
approach to theatre that emphasized the inner dimensions of the characters onstage. This was carried out both on the stage in
acting styles and outside of the stage in play writing. Modernism was a predominantly European movement that developed as
a self-conscious break from traditional artistic forms. It represents a significant shift in cultural sensibilities, often attributed to
the fallout of World War I. At first, modernist theatre was in large part an attempt to realize the reformed stage on naturalistic
principles as advocated by Émile Zola in the 1880s. However, a simultaneous reaction against naturalism urged the theatre in a
much different direction.
At the beginning of the 20th century, many viewed theatre as an “All-too-popular affair”. Frequently, the true reformers of
the early part of the century called for increasingly smaller theatres, where their techniques could register on a select audience.
Still, these same practitioners often dreamed that their art would be a true people’s theatre: A theatre for the people. Inspired by
an understanding of the Greek theatre and heavily influenced by Nietzsche, they sought a profound or ecstatic ritual event that
involved music and movement, in a space without a proscenium arch. Later, dramatists like Bertolt Brecht started an attempt to
bridge the gulf between modernism and the people.
Significant figures and some landmark theories and movements of the period include: Constantin Stanislavski (1863-1938)
and his system: A “naturalistic” method of drawing on the actor’s own emotional memories to convey a character’s thoughts and
emotions. Antonin Artaud (1896-1948) and the Theatre of Cruelty: A plan to force the audience to shed their illusions. The
Theatre of Cruelty can be seen as break with traditional Western theatre, and a means by which artists assault the senses of the
audience, and allow them to feel the unexpressed emotions of the subconscious. While Artaud was only able to produce one

4
play in his lifetime that reflected the tenets of the Theatre of Cruelty, the works of many theatre artists reflect his theories. These
artists include Jean Genet, Jerzy Grotowski, and Peter Brook.
Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) and Epic theatre: A reaction against Stanislavski’s naturalistic method, Epic theatre makes clear
that the audience is watching a play and an artifice.
Epic theatre was a reaction against popular forms of theatre, particularly the naturalistic approach pioneered by Constantin
Stanislavski. Like Stanislavski, Brecht disliked the shallow spectacle, manipulative plots, and heightened emotion of melodrama;
but where Stanislavski attempted to engender real human behaviour in acting through the techniques of Stanislavski’s system
and to absorb the audience completely in the fictional world of the play, Brecht saw Stanislavski’s methodology as producing
escapism. Brecht’s own social and political focus departed also from surrealism and the Theatre of Cruelty, as developed in the
writings and dramaturgy of Antonin Artaud, who sought to affect audiences viscerally, psychologically, physically, and irrationally.
Lee Strasberg (1901-1982) and Method acting: Which trains actors to draw upon their own emotions and memories, to convincingly
portray a part. Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) and Theatre of the Absurd: In a modern world without meaning or purpose, a play’s
dialog, plot and characters give up the threads of logic or message. Hans-Thies Lehmann’s theory of Postdramatic theatre:
focused more on effect on the audience than on the original text.
Q. 3. Discuss the development of the revolutionary prose in America.
Ans. It was in 1760s that American started to resist the domination of British Empire over the English colonies in North
America. This resistance was actually and ironically initiated by the British acts of omission and commission. At first the attempt
was made to stop the colonials to move westward into the interiors. The reason for this attempt was to stop burdensome Indian
wars, which would become more probable with their migration. During this period, England controlled, through the royal official,
the fur trade within the Indian territoryat different centralized location. Indians did not like the authoritarian way of British.
Angered by the autocratic dealings of British, an Indian leader Pontiac waged war against the colonials. His idea was to oust the
British and win the comeback of French. The British officials established the proclamation Line of 1763 after the defeat of
Pontiac. This line was established along the crest of the Appalachians and was declared that the colonials must not cross it until
there was an effective Indian program in action.
In 1764, Parliament passed the Sugar Act to counter smuggling of foreign sugar and to establish a British monopoly in the
American sugar market. The act also allowed royal officials to seize colonial cargo with little or no legal cause. Unlike previous
acts, which had regulated trade to boost the entire British imperial economy, the Sugar Act was designed to benefit England at the
expense of the American colonists.
As a further measure to force the colonies to help pay off the war debt, Prime Minister Grenville pushed the Stamp Act
through Parliament in March 1765. This act required Americans to buy special watermarked paper for newspapers, playing
cards, and legal documents such as wills and marriage licenses. Violators faced juryless trials in Nova Scotian vice-admiralty
courts, where guilt was presumed until innocence was proven.
Like the Sugar Act, the Stamp Act was aimed at raising revenue from the colonists. As such, it elicited fierce colonial
resistance. In the colonies, legal pamphlets circulated condemning the act on the grounds that it was “taxation without
representation.” Colonists believed they should not have to pay Parliamentary taxes because they did not elect any members of
Parliament. They argued that they should be able to determine their own taxes independent of Parliament. The Stamp Act
generated the first wave of significant colonial resistance to British rule. In late May 1765, the Virginia House of Burgesses
passed the Virginia Resolves, which denied Parliament’s right to tax the colonies under the Stamp Act. By the end of the year,
eight other colonial legislatures had adopted similar positions.
As dissent spread through the colonies, it quickly became more organized. Radical groups calling themselves the Sons of
Liberty formed throughout the colonies to channel the widespread violence, often burning stamps and threatening British officials.
Merchants in New York began a boycott of British goods and merchants in other cities soon joined in. Representatives of nine
colonial assemblies met in New York City at the Stamp Act Congress, where they prepared a petition asking Parliament to repeal

5
the Stamp Act on the grounds that it violated the principle of “no taxation without representation.” The congress argued that
Parliament could not tax anyone outside of Great Britain and could not deny anyone a fair trial, both of which had been consequences
of the Stamp Act. Under strong pressure from the colonies, and with their economy slumping because of the American boycott of
British goods, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act in March 1766. But, at the same time, Parliament passed the Declaratory Act
to solidify British rule in the colonies. The Declaratory Act stated that Parliament had the power to tax and legislate for the
colonies “in all cases whatsoever,” denying the colonists’ desire to set-up their own legislature. This however was ignored by the
colonials.
All these upheavals in the colonies were beginning of something much bigger than British had in mind. They were still under
a false impression concerning their relationship with the colonies, for they thought of the colonies like a dependent child who
could be forced or convinced to obey. But something different was boiling deep down in the colonies, of which the British were
completely unaware of.
The people of colonies had a problem of considering themselves as an extension of English identity. This feeling was
growing stronger everyday. During the course of patriotic movements in the North America colonies, people in America realised
that they were so not like the British and that they were quite different. During the third and fourth decades of eighteenth century
this growing self-consciousness started to appear on the colonial newspapers in the forms of names and symbols. There was a
huge acceleration in this self-consciousness after the 1760s.
With the growing gulf between colonies and the British, all the thirteen colonies in north America, realised that they had a
common enemy. This helped them to realize for the first time that they share something and that there was a sense of common
identity and common purpose.
But there was a problem that these people in the colonies faced. The problem was that if they were fighting against the British
then what should they call themselves? Earlier, of course, they had called themselves British, but now the use of this term was
losing popularity. Sometimes these people have considered themselves livening in what they called ‘America’. During the time
when all the thirteen colonies shared the same sense of self-awareness, this name became more popular and cropped in Magazines
like The American Magazine (first came out in 1741).
Something similar happened in British as well. Even English had problem calling these people in the colonies British.
Therefore they too requited a name to address this crowd of irritating and troublesome people. They started referring to these
people as “Americans’. Back then this meant disdain and disgust for the British. During 1760s, people in colonies in their attempt
to distinguish themselves from the English started to call themselves ‘American’, for this name meant disgust for the British.
Many periodicals, journals and literature saw the use of this name. The frequency increased everyday and very soon became the
lasting name for the people living in the North American colonies.
The evolution of Revolutionary prose happened under the same circumstances described above. In The History of American
Revolution (1789), David Ramsay talks about the importance of Revolutionary prose in recounting the saga of American Revolution.
It says “in establishing American independence the pen and the press had merit equal to that of the sword”. This statement can
be looked at from two different perspectives. Looking from the first perspective it appears that the writing about the historical
events are as important as the events themselves, as far as the representation of the events are concerned. And different writings
about American Revolution were not at all an exception to this. Looking from the second perspective it seems that events are
inspired by the writings. The revolutionary sensibility of Americans was expressed in their writings much before than the
revolution happened. In this regard Robert A. Ferguson says:
“Viking the sort and scribes the conception, which, in time, blurs the line of distinction between thought and act. Somewhere,
a legitimate rhetoric of opposition grows into the outrageous possibility of revolution.”
In this regards Jeremiah Dummer’s Defence of the new England charters (1721) is imperative. He was a British-American
colonial agent, author and benefactor of Yale College. Dummer has been considered one of the best colonial agents prior to

6
Benjamin Franklin. He laboured diligently to promote and protect the interests of the colonies he represented before the British
Government. His most notable action was his A Defence of the New-England Charters, a work written in 1715. This pamphlet used
Lockean precepts to argue against any alterations of existing New England charter rights, after they had been attacked in
Parliament. The work was later praised by John Adams, who called it “one of our most classical American productions.” Adam
also said in 1818 that “the feelings, the manners and principles which produced the revolution, appear in as vast abundance in this
work as any that I have read.”
It is interesting to note that while Dummer called the idea of colonial revolt as “ludicrous” Adam on the other hand round his
work is important handbook of the revolution. The idea of revolution is raced by Dummer only to be dismissed. He says: “it
would not be more absurd to place two of his Majesty’s beef eaters to watch an infant in this cradle, that it don’t rise and cut its
fathers wrote, and then to guard these weak infant colonies, to prevent there are shaking off the British Yoke”. Dummer’s concern
in his book was about the arbitrary power of the Crown, the unnatural insult to colonial rights, and the oppression of Royal
Governors.
What Adam sees as the voice of revolution in this book is the interstices of repudiation and anticipation. The voice itself was
not aware of the fact of it being a revolutionary discourse. During the 1760s and 1770s a great deal was made of the facility of the
colonial Revolutionary writers. Many of the great figures in America by John Dickinson, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson
as great an intellectual as they were in Britain, and the reader in Britain noticed this fact. In their writings, even the most diehard
British fan to see the influences and analogies in the various different arguments proposed by the colonials. All these arguments
asserted and emphasized the enthusiasm about the revolution rather than the hesitation the protest and it was not the enthusiasm
but the hesitations which charted the evolutionary growth of colonial protest.
Q. 4. Write a not on imagism in Ezra Pound’s poetry. Cite instances from his poems prescribed in your course.
Ans. Around 1912 Pound helped to create the movement he called “Imagisme,” which marked the end of his early poetic style. In
remarks first recorded in the March. 1913 Poetry and later collected in his Literary Essays as “A Retrospect”, Pound explained his new
literary direction. Imagism combined the creation of an “image”–what he defined as “an intellectual and emotional complex in an
instant of time” or an “interpretative metaphor”–with rigorous requirements for writing. About these requirements, Pound was concise
but insistent:” (1) Direct treatment of the ‘thing’ whether subjective or objective (2) To use absolutely no word that did not contribute
to the presentation (3) As regarding rhythm: To compose in sequence of the musical phrase, not in sequence of a metronome.” These
criteria meant (1) To carefully observe and describe phenomena, whether emotions, sensations, or concrete entities, and to avoid vague
generalities or abstractions. Pound wanted “explicit rendering, be it of external nature of of emotion” and proclaimed “a strong
disbelief in abstract and general statement as a means of conveying one’s thought to others.” (2) To avoid poetic diction in favour of the
spoken language and to condense content, expressing it as concisely and precisely as possible. (3) To reject conventional metrical
forms in favour of individualized cadence. Each poem, Pound declared, should have a rhythm “which corresponds exactly to the
emotion or shade of emotion to be expressed.”
The original Imagist group included just Pound, H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), Richard Aldington, F.S. Flint and later William Carlos
Williams. American poet Amy Lowell also adopted the term, contributing one poem to the 1914 anthology Des Imagistes, edited by
Pound. In following years, Lowell sponsored her own anthologies that Pound thought did not meet his Imagist standards; and wishing
to dissociate himself from what he derisively called “Amygism,” he changed term “Image” to “Vortex,” and “Imagism” to “Vorticism.”
Writing in the Fortnightly Review of September 1, 1914, Pound expanded his definition of the image: “a radiant node or cluster, it is
what I can and must perforce call a VORTEX, from which and through which and into whcih ideas are constantly rushing.” As a much
more comprehensive aesthetic principle, Vorticism also extendd into he visual arts and music, thus, including such artists as the
Engishman Whyndham Lewis and Henri Gaudier-Breska, a French sculptor.
Q. 5. Write a critical note on the ideology of Puritanism reflected in American literature.
Ans. While writing about the Puritan migration, the historian Francis Jennings has written: “so-called settlement of America
was a resettlement, reoccupation of land made waste by the diseases and demoralization introduced by the newcomers.” However,

7
the emergence of Puritanism as the hegemonic American ideology is only partially explained by the destruction and obliteration
of the old cultures of the newly world by the new émigrés from the old world.
The puritans took joy and pleasure inviting their experiences and recording the adventures in the New World. Certainly John
Winthrop was not the only one making notes of his every adventure and experience on the alien land the puritans considered the
ability to write as a symbol of civilised European traveller. These writings either includes Indians, slates, Africans, and aboriginals
and treats them harshly or they do not include them at all. The puritans treatment of these people can be very well understood by
the following paragraph taken from William Bradford’s “Of Plymouth Plantation” written in 1638 – 46; published, 1857:
Those that escaped the fire were slain with so; some hewed to peeces, others run throu’ with their rapiers, so as they were
quickly dispatchte, very few escaped. It was a fearful sights to see them thus, frying in the fyer, and the streams of blood
quenching the same, and horrible was the stincke and sente thereof, but the victory seemed the sweete sacrifice, and they gave
the players thereof to God, who had rocked so wonderfully for them, thus to enclose their enemies in their hands, and give them
so speedy a victory over so proud and insulting and enemy.
What’s clear from the passage is that in spite of his protestations about sordid nest of the massacre, Bradford applauds the
slaying of the native Indians. But this is not that, the real shock comes from the candidness of Puritan theologian Cotton Mathers
writing of the genocide. He writes, “It was supposed that no less than 600 Pequot souls were brought down to hell that they.”
In Bradford’s writing and all other such writings, there are two motifs which flow throughout the text. The first motif is that
when puritans came to America, the America was a thoroughly savage. That’s the place was entirely uninhabitable and therefore
uninhibited. And the second motif is that the America had nothing to do with Europe, whatever it was to become depended
completely on the wishes of the puritans.
While writing the America Bradford says that before the puritans arrived in America the landscape was so wild that no
civilised person would have ever encountered such wildness, he continues, “if they looked upon them, there was the mighty
ocean which they passed and (which) was now a main bar engulfed a separate them from all the civil parts of the world.” While
talking to his first readers, that is, the children of the next generation, he says: “our fathers were Englishman, which came over
this great ocean, and were ready to perish in this wilderness; but they cried unto the Lord, and he heard the voice and looked on
their adversity.”
What Bradford is actually doing is that he is consciously inventing a historical tradition in his book. According to Myra
Jehlen, “It proposes are some fundamental terms for organising the experience of colonisation.” Some of these terms proposed
by Bradford’s book are re-definition of wilderness and civilisation and the opposition between them. There is an ambiguity in the
explanation and the definition of both these terms. Wilderness on one hand is something which is without any trace of cultivation
and on the other hand is as because of its untouched character that has the potential, great potential for exceptional construction.
In the same way the civilisation, which had been left by the Puritans forever was suggestive of great compositions but at the same
time it was also an adobe of destructive of viciousness.
The final impression of the Bradford’s book is not that of a contrast between the polarities of civilisation and wilderness.
There is a curious resemblance in the situation where. They are not like antithetical emblems rather they are more like mirror
images. Puritans did not leave mind and antithetical good when they first step onto the new world, rather they left another kind of
evil. And the complaints they made about absence of towns, inns or houses in the New World does not advance any solution
rather it only measures their problem.
The emergence of Puritanism as the hegemonic American ideology is the result of the assertion of the plate and elite that it
was they who found America as inscribed in their numerous chronicles (such as that search).