Professional Documents
Culture Documents
“Young Goodman
cd Brown” [1835]
the warning of “presumption”. -Journey into the forest, both physical and psychological.
Has an- unconscious desire : Adventure
/ to learn about story.
evil, finds it in
-This is about shattered faith.
He’s the hero. Proud.
his inner self refuses to accept it
-Considered his best work but he did not include it in his Twice-
Told Collection. : Description
-Hermeneutic gap (pieces of inforeport. (Actions)
withheld from theNo
direct/indirect
reader to createspeech.
suspense) -> The final question “was it a
st
--> He used archaisms to give a colonial flavor. 5 dream” /is an example of it. : Time of the 1 settlers
st
-Plain style. Sentences not very long. Direct speech -> dynamic. Creation of the Virginia Company and 1 English
--> Young Goodman Brown: Protagonist.
-Style. Easy to understand. Allegory and symbolism not so easy. establishment @ therd beginning of the 17th century.
rd
Declining religion. 3 generation of Puritans. Very naïve,
-3 person limited omniscient. Authorial intrusion some times. : Latin & Greek quotations.
immature, overconfident
rd and presumptuous.
-Purity of style. Rhetoric, paradox and archaism. (Seneca) Uses 3 person narrative.
-Faith: Stability and domestic sphere in Puritan world.
*Setting: Supernatural dark forest with a path that closes behind Pure-hearted. Religious :feeling.
Savages, devils, beastly and
him. Forests are territories of the devil. Anything can happen. threatening. But he is fascinated.
-Old Man/Devil: Appears to be an ordinary man. Devil
-Plot is circular. Begin and ends with Faith and her pink ribbon. could be any man. Can appear in: any Complex relationship
context.
-Didactic framework of traditional allegory turned against Puritans history and rhetoric -> Blends facts and fiction.
*Flat characters: Faith=faith, Goody Cloyse=goodness,
6
Traveler=evil, Y. G. B.= Every man, Brown) Color of the earth. Forest=Eden/Evil The Bible-Genesis Good/Evil
-Predestination. Faith=Purity Pilgrim’s Progress Past changes present
Path= evil or good Salem Witch Trials Religion
-Lack of final closure. Reader must decide dream or not?
Serpent staff= The King Philip’s War Nature is evil
devil Protestant Persecution Fire/Light
Herman Melville (1819-1891)
“Moby Dick” [1851]
symbols--> Pequod and its polyglot Foreshadowing--> Ishmael tells us Characterization of Ahab--> He is
crew=ship of the world. that water has magical powers. presented as an old sailor. Grey hair,
-The mean on the sea= sea of -Fates have drawn him to this trip. robust and heavy. One of his less cut off
unpredictability (anything can happen) -He sets out on a “forbidden” sea. by Moby Dick.
-Light (whale)/dark (sea). -Captain Ahab surrounded by mystery. -His major wish is to kill the whale not
-Coffin-> Life (as a lifeboat) and death. -Owner of the Inn -> Peter Coffin. only for cutting off his leg. He also sees is
-Moby Dick-> Human’s inability to -Talks of Cato’s suicide. as the embodiment of evil.
6 7 8
understand the World.
“A Psalm of
cd
Life” [1838]
6
-Purpose of life and significance of death is a heroic and confident tone and informal diction.
-Uses funeral imagery: mournful, empty, dead, grave, sorrow, end, fleeting, funeral, battle, dumb, sublime, departing, leave behind,
solemn and fate. “Muffled drums are beating funeral marches to the graves”.
-Material life is finite.
-Interested in living, NOT dying. Living= doing/creating. We should not conform to mournful passivity.
-Optimism/joy/faith/our lives on earth have meaning
-Inner world of human nature. Now ridiculed and parodied for his FAULTY IMAGERY.
-Cattle not to partake in battles. Battles not fought on bivouacs.
-Sands of time -> Footprints in the sand do NOT show immortality (get washed away).
7
-The central Transcendental concepts in “A Psalm of life” are basically nonconformity and Carpe Diem.
-Longfellow rejects the nation that life is an “empty dream” to be endured or wasted until death and expresses that people should
appreciate their life on earth as precious and deal and act to make a spiritual, moral or intellectual mark on the world.
“The masque
cd of the Red Death” [1842]
“The Raven” [1844]
Characters
“Uncle Tom’s Cabin” 2 -Character description is direct.
-Eliza’s son Harry and Tom get separated. After Tom’s death Eliza -St. Clare slaves to be sold. Tom, Adolph, Susan, Emmeline.
and Harry are reunited in Canada. -Evil character: Simon Legree. Stiff hair, coarse mouth, dirty,
Breakdown spitting tobacco juice…
-When Lincoln met Stowe said: “So you are the little lady that
Literary strategies
wrote the book that has started this great war”. -Wrote a key to justify the attacks that her writings produced.
-She didn’t see black as inferior. Blacks were more docile, -Veracity (asked for info from Douglass)
childlike, simple and affectionate. -Characters defined by the color of their skin.
-3rd person omniscient narrator -Characters are revealed by their speech.
-Excellent for idioms/dialect/black vernacular. *Mr. Skeggs (loving kindness, speech lively and pleasant),
-Puritan background, treats evil->slavery->sin. Moral duty to Sambo (black, happy and carefree), Adolph (speaks like a
write and speak out against slavery. white), Emmeline and Susan (soft spoken, speak like whites,
Compares treatment of slaves to those of animals speak of the Bible), Mr. Legree (quick, mean harsh…)
-Slaves come to market fed and cleaned, sleek and shiny.
-They are kept merry so they have no time for reflection. Irony in her work 4
-Buyers examine and comment on them *Slaves inclined to pine and forced to be merry.
-Pushed and pulled, told to jump, to show their muscles. *Susan and Emmeline were sold for trading in slaves was
-Men at the auction talk about how they get rid of “nigger airs”. “rather too much money to be lost on principle”.
Religion *Calls traders connoissereurs. Auctioneers brilliant and
-Quotes from the Bible. talented men.
-Susan and Emmeline sing a song to Mary. *Benevolent man tries to bid on Emmeline and loses.
-Susan reminds her daughter that no matter what, she should be How she deals with families
faithful to the Lord. *Wants whites to see that blacks have feelings. Same as
-Slaves’ faith in God helps them to go on. whites.
-Sees civil laws in conflict. Wants to justify civil disobedience. *Wants readers to identify with these families.
-Slavery is destroying society.
-Simon Legree is evil, not a good Christian.
-Tom is tortured and killed -> Christ. Martyr.
-She doesn’t use lots of figurative language but uses parallelism,
allusions and quotes.
“Song of myself” [1881]
cd
4 5 6
-States what he’s going to do in the -Describes people according to their -Present fades away. What’s next?
poem. Celebrate himself (all humanity) vocation. Particular role in society. -One of his most famous poems/lines.
-Ground rules. We believe whatever he -Optimistic attitude. He is not naïve, tho. -He embraces contradiction.
believes and we take on whatever roles -Limb amputated, it drops in a pail.
the speaker takes on. -Beautiful memorable explanations of -He sees a hawk and feels humbled.
-Offers the atoms of his body. the roles people play. -The ending day=metaphor for death.
-His soul another character. Speaker -He only judges the judgers. -His hair is white, he dissolves into the
and soul, 2 slightly different things. -Claims to be like all those people. air. Very powerful imagery. To find him
-Describes the air as perfume. we have to look at the ground under
-Wants to get naked and go to the -He’s the union of opposites: Old/young, our boots. He gives good health to
riverbank. He is in love w/ the air. foolish/wise, south/north, mother/father those who walk over him.
-He is aware of the fault lines of the -Ends the poem: we shouldn’t be
-Grass. Green is the color of hope. cultural battle. Danger of civil war. discouraged if we can’t find him.
-It’s God’s handkerchief or the child of -Nature is fine the way it is.
all the other plants or a hieroglyphic. -Identity, visions of America, friendship
-The grass grows. People buried. He -His words, the grass he walks, the air he (and democracy), spirituality (body and
decides that they don’t fully disappear breathes are ours too. soul), nature.
bc we belong to the same web of life. -Grass=Leaves/pages of the poem.
Several Works: Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
“This is my letter to the world” “Safe in their Alabaster chambers”
“I taste acdliquor never browed” “I felt a Funeral in my Brain”
“I heard a Fly buzz – when I died” “My Life had stood – a loaded Gun”
st th
-Compared w/ W.W. 1 rank of 19 century poets. Original and
innovative style anticipated the modernist movement. 1
-Refused to become a Christian. Listened to sermons and studied “Safe in their Alabaster chambers” 1859 3
-Epistolary exchange between the writer and her sis-in-law.
the Bible but felt spiritual apathy.
-Poems short and compact. Extraordinary sharpness. -Susan praised the first stanza and advised her to treat it as
a complete poem.
-Compressed language response to the Civil War period and the
Golden Age that followed. -To Susan’s criticism of the second stanza, the poet
responded with an entirely new only. Then she wrote two
Themes: Nature, death, immortality. In her poems: Alliteration,
more versions. There are 5 manuscripts of the poem.
assonance and consonance, simile, metaphor and analogy. -Marked contrast between the somnolence of the ideas and
-Multifaceted sensibility. Beautifully suggestive Language. the vitality of the birds and bees. Later versions emphasized
-Parataxis: Placing related phrases in a series w/o the use of how the universe remains in never ending motion while the
connecting words. dead are motionless in their graves.
-Capitalization: 18th century. Common to use capital letters for -The opening unvoiced “S” strikes again in “sleep”, “satin”
the initials of nouns. She capitalized various words. and “stone”.
-Elliptical style: It leaves room for endless speculation about -Check Nacho’s notes on the 2 versions of the poem.
meanings and intentions.
“This is my letter to the world” 1863 “I taste a liquor never browed” 1861 4
2
-It was first published anonymously. Titled: The May-Wine.
-Presented as introduction to all of her work. -Innocent mature poem about the intoxicating joy she
-Traditional hymn meter. Quatrains of alternating iambic experiences when she’s overwhelmed by the beauty of the
tetrameter and iambic trimester lines. Stanzas in 4 lines in spring scenery. Air compared to liquor. Bird drinking nectar.
alternate lines of 8 syllables (4 metrical feet) and 6 syllables (3 -Nature as a source of delight.
metrical feet). Occasionally she changed the meter. -Literary sources can be found in Emerson.
-Symbolism: Letter->Her own isolation to the world. -She wittily plays with the language of alcohol and
-Personification: Nature told with tender majesty. Her message inebriation to create an extended metaphor with humor.
is commited to hands I cannot see. -Quatrains, iambic tetrameter and trimester. Rhymes of
-Emily is trying to say she is secluded and the world doesn’t various styles.
reach out to her. She doesn’t want to be judged harshly for -Drunk on air=nature. She’ll be drunk forever. Image
separating herself from the world, she just wants to belong. drinking at an inn.
“I felt a Funeral in my Brain” 5 “I heard a Fly buzz – when I died” My Life had stood – a loaded Gun”
-Death of consciousness <- depression –Experience of death by capturing the -One of her most discussed poems.
-Semantic oddness. Figurative level. last thoughts of the speaker 6
-Feminist interpretations. Female creation
-Extended metaphor (funeral). Mental surrounded by mourners. is perceived as a form of aggression.
process. Mourners are a metaphor. -Imagery emphasizes connection of the -Gun: Symbolizes the power and violence
-Sequence of mental events. When senses. Links sound and color. -Lines 1,6,17,23: The gun becomes and
she wrote the poem she was in perfect -Vision fails. Imagery and buzzing fly extended metaphor throughout the poem
control of her mind. has been traced to Elizabeth as it becomes representative of the
-Last 2 lines: Alienation and inability to Browning’s Aurora Leigh. speaker’s power.
communicate. Speaker’s descent into -Tone: Calm, even flat, her narrative is -Themes: violence, power, gender,
irrationality. concise and factual. morality.
-Poem doesn’t finish. “Then” last -Iambic tetrameter/iambic -Extended metaphor. The speaker is
word. Nightmare – horror of madness. trimester/pauses -> dashes. closely connected to the gun and it
-Lines 6,9,12,14,15 auditory imagery. eventually becomes the loaded gun. 7
“The Adventures or Huckleberry Finn” [1884]
Mark Twain (1835-1910)
Breakdown 1
1st person -> 13 year old unreliable narrator. Provides humor.
Innocent eye perspective. Everything is filtered through him. He -Lots of talk of death. Many references to death.
2
is naïve and ignorant.
-From the very beginning a comic tone is set. There is -Religion: We can see cynicism and mockery. Huck’s
seriousness below the surface. There is also irony. encounters with Miss Watson and the Widow Douglas,
-When Huck expresses himself as a narrator he uses American Twain satirizes the religion sensibility of the day.
English. When he quotes his own direct speech he uses his *Huck finds the widow’s story of Moses boring and
vernacular language. Ordinary “Pike County”. unrelated to everyday life.
-Jim uses another dialect. Missouri Negro. *Twain satirizes the pious Christians who professed
-He wrote it as is would be spoken. Twain read it aloud to see if kindness and civility but bought and sold slaves.
it was accurate. Huck is the illiterate son of the town drunkard. *Huck bases his decisions on his experiences, his own
-Breaks grammar rules: sense of logic. He doesn’t worry about going to hell.
*Wrong subjects verbs agreement *Double negatives *Twain criticizes the overly emotional people of the
*Analogous use of irregular past tenses *Ain’t/Waren’t. revival meetings and the hypocrisy of the Christian
*Sivilize/civilize believers.
Theme
*Unconventional behavior of non-conforming American (how Americans behave abroad)-
*Sophisticated European society VS unconventional American behavior.
*Unlived lives. How lives would have been different under different circumstances.
*Concerned with “international theme”, drew from his travel experiences.
“Désirée’s Baby” [1892]
cd
*The short story opens with four men, stranded in the ocean in a
small boat and limits itself to their ordeal for there is not a single
*Life as a struggle against nature’s Indifference
reference to any of the circumstances leading to the sinking to
*Brotherhood
Cuba or to the filibustering expedition.
*Courage
*Unlike the newspaper report, which is written in 1st person, The
Open Boat is written from the 3rd person point of view, although
the narrator concentrates on the correspondent’s consciousness *Alliteration
and expresses a privileged knowledge of his thoughts and *Metaphor (Comparison of the boat to a colt)
feelings. *Onomatopoeia
*The other three characters reveal themselves through their *Oxymoron (terrible grace, sinister hospitality)
words and actions. *Simile (Comparison of sea foam to snow)
* of work: Short story
* : Takes place between January 2nd and January 4th 1897
*Black, white, gray: World of the mean in boat takes on
off the eastern coast of Florida, near Mosquito Inlet (now known
cheerless hues. Sense of foreboding.
as the Ponce de León Inlet) about twelve miles south of the *Fate
present-day Daytona Beach.
: Centers on four men in a lifeboat who had
abandoned a sinking steamship off the coast of Florida. They are *Drowning. Refrain that suggests that the men’s fear of
attempting to reach shore against an ocean that becomes death is exacerbated by the unconcern of nature.
increasingly violent whenever they row toward land. *Waves: Ceaseless presence. Forces of nature and
*
rd
: 3 person through a narrator who occasionally uncontrollability of life.
reveals the thoughts of the men in the boat.
*Boat -> Human life among the universe’s uncertainties.
Impressionism: Aesthetic movement. Attempt to accurately and *Oiler’s death -> Indifference of nature.
objectively record visual reality. Effects of light and color. *Poem -> Correspondent’s understanding of his plight.
Proto-existentialist -> Fiction. Focuses on the nature of humans *Cigars -> 4 wet cigars and 4 dry. Complex symbol of
in the universe. Realism predominates in the story. hope for spiritual salvation.