1.

Robert Frost  American poet, was published in England before he was published
in US. Realistic depiction or rural life. MODERNIST

a) „Mending Wall” - It is about a wall between two neighbors. One day one of them
decides that the wall doesn’t have any particular purpose so he tells the other that they
should get rid of the wall, but he doesn’t want to do it. Wall that has gaps, two
neighbors come to repair it. The speaker initiates the mending of the wall. Some force
“doesn’t like the wall” and keeps on ruining it, making big gaps. Other thing that can
destroy the wall are hunters. The gaps appear but no one sees it. The speaker
incorporates “the unknown” into the poem. Wall can do things beyond the human
control. Then the speaker says that they do not need the wall, because they are so
much different. At first, he uses the pronoun “we”, but then it changes to “I” and “he”.
He almost calls his neighbor a “savage”. The neighbor doesn’t think himself, but only
repeats what his father thought him. Speaker: playful, mischievous, open, proactive,
complex, contradictory the neighbor: serious, quiet, relentless, simple-minded,
traditional.
“Good fences make good neighbors.”

b) “The Road Not Taken” - Road in woods, in Fall, the speaker is trying to figure out
which way to take on the crossroad. He doesn’t know much about the paths; he thinks
for a long time before deciding. He doesn’t know where the road will take him. One
road was walked more often than the other. Both roads were the same, both weren’t
walked on. Taking the road not taken before  American approach (moving away
from British influences, strong need to be an individual) Minor decision might change
your entire life. Robert frost written is as a joke for Edward Thompson, with whom he
was taking the strolls in the woods. Rhythmical.

2. Edgar Lee Masters  lived in St. Louis, he came with the idea to write a collection
of stories, he’d collect the names from the graves and write about them. These poems
were banned for some time because people got mad about it. Was an attorney.
MODERNIST

a) “Doc Hill” - Doc Hill – saw people at his funeral, he was happy that so many
people came, but also, he saw someone hiding. It possibly is a woman, possibly
his lover. The speaker used to be a dedicated doctor, available at all times for
people. His wife hated him, and his son also didn’t care for him, that’s why he got
so involved in his work. He wanted to help people, so they didn’t have to suffer as
he suffered.

b) “Margaret Fuller Slack” - Margaret Fuller Slack – she wanted to be a writer, she
married a rich man John Slack, became a mother and that’s why she didn’t pursue
writing. Money made her chose marriage over carrier. She regrets it. The marriage
and children can’t be an excuse for not writing anything her entire life.

c) “Lucinda Matlock” - Lucinda Matlock – a woman that had 12 children and

doesn’t see it as a curse. She is happy because she lived her life, even though that
her life wasn’t easy at all. Her life was composed of everyday chores, she was too
busy to think about the sadness of life. She views her death as a natural next step.
 3. Jack London  worked as a journalist, he was reporting war in Japan, was believed
to have committed suicide (morphine overdose), alcohol problems, his father left his
mother before he was born, he’s taken his stepfather’s name. When he was in his 20,
he went to Yukon (gold rush). He did not find gold. NATURALISM, REALISM

a) “To Build a Fire” - It’s cold, it’s repeated many times. Set in Yukon. Almost -60
degrees Celsius. He’s not scared of the cold. He measures distance and time.
“But all this—the mysterious, far-reaching hairline trail, the absence of sun from the sky, the
tremendous cold, and the strangeness and weirdness of it all—made no impression on the
man.”
Dog on the other hand relies on the instincts. The dog is right about the temperature.
„The animal was depressed by the tremendous cold. It knew that it was no time for
travelling. Its instinct told it a truer tale than was told to the man by the man’s judgment. In
reality, it was not merely colder than fifty below zero; it was colder than sixty below, than
seventy below. It was seventy-five below zero.”
The man starts to panic, when an avalanche comes down on him, he decides to kill the dog to
prevent himself from freezing. But the dog senses it and runs away. After that the man
realises that either way, he wouldn’t be able to kill the dog.
At the end he wanted to meet death with dignity.

b) “The Law of Life” - A man left behind by his tribe, they left him because he was too
old to travel, so he’s just left with his own thoughts. The man is not sad about that, he
accepts the fact as the natural way of life. His son and granddaughter are not upset as
well. Dying man tells a story about how the life has been and explains what life
means to him. He remembers times when there was a famine and children, women
and old died, but also, he remembers the times when there was too much food, and it
was wasted.

4. Stephen Crane  did not live long, self-educated, reporter, he was in a boat that
sunk, he had to publish his first novel under different name, because it contained
alcoholism, prostitution etc. NATURALISM, REALISM

a) “Open Boat” - Portraying nature as powerful. Showing the sea as uncaring  A

singular disadvantage of the sea lies in the fact that after successfully surmounting
one wave you discover that there is another behind it just as important and just as
nervously anxious to do something effective in the way of swamping boats. Making
use of natural things as animals and birds as metaphors and similes. Fate of four men
is pre-determined by nature, he says that they have no control over their own lives,
they can’t navigate the ship to their desires. They can’t even count for some help from
God, because according to naturalism people must rely on themselves to survive. The
waves seen against the horizon appear like jagged rocks. The bucking broncho
comparison compares the ride in the boat to a wild ride on a horse. The snarling
waves suggest a land animal of any kind that snarls. The crest of each wave is a hill.
The sea gulls are like prairie chickens, and “it is easier to steal eggs from under a hen
than it was to change seats in the dinghy” Captain – upper class, The rest – lower
class. The current and the waves stop them before going to the shore. They think that
someone from the lighthouse or from the shore will help them, but they are wrong.
The tourists on the shore think that the crew is just waving friendly and that’s why
they don’t help them. They keep rowing and it gives the text the rhythm. Repetition.
While they are on the boat, the men feel like they can be interpreters, they think that
 they became wisemen. Oiler dies. He was the most hardworking, he was rowing the
most.

5. Ezra Fitzgerald  MODERNIST

a) “The Great Gatsby” –

6. Ezra Pound  imagist, made the movement. MODERNIST

a) “In a Station of the Metro” - Metro brings many people together for the first time. He
appreciates every face he meets there. He’s struck with their beauty. Metro is located in the
underworld. Petals symbolize something beautiful but really fragile, something that is here
now, but is going to disappear very soon. Life is beautiful but short.

b) “Canto XLV, With Usura” - Usura – interest paid on borrowed money (lichwa). Everything
is getting worse, capitalism, traditional lifestyle disappears. Usura kills personal relationship
with people, it kills romanticism. People become walking dead.

7. William Carlos Williams  MODERNIST, IMAGISM

a) “The Young Housewife” - The speaker is interested in the woman; he appreciates

smallest things about her. The woman has a husband. She doesn’t mind talking to
other man, despite the fact she has a husband. They’re both lonely, the wall of the
house separates them. She might feel trapped in the role of the housewife.

b) “The Red Wheelbarrow” – we learn that some of the most crucial elements in our
life can go overlooked. So much depends on the wheelbarrow (taczki), but people
tend not to see it because they have other things that might be considered as more
important. Sometimes we don’t see the things or people that are good for us and we
don’t appreciate them.

c) “This is Just to Say” –

8. E. E. Cummings  MODERNIST

a) “Anyone Lived in Pretty How Town” - The poem is about anyone, who is different from
everyone. The “anyone” lived different life than everybody else. No one cared about him,
bout one person. “Anyone” was everything to her. No one and anyone die at the same time
because they couldn’t live without one another.

9. William Faulkner  MODERNIST, NATURALISM

a) “Barn Burning” - The beginning is shown from 10 years old boy’s perspective. The
boy’s father is accused of burning the barn. The boy knows that it’s the truth. The
father is burning barns, because they are poor, they are a family of farmers. The father
is flustered, gets angry a lot and burns the barns.

b) “A Rose for Emily” - Gothic elements, detective story elements, thriller elements,
love story elements. Main character of the story is the town not Emily. The house was
 giving the impression of stopping in time. It once was white, but now it’s dirty. Much
more modern buildings were built around Emily’s house. The interior of the house I
unpleasant to look at, not to mention unpleasant to live in. Emily herself looks as if
she was already dead, it seems like she’s decaying with the house. She doesn’t admit
to the present world. Homer Barron comes from lower class than Emily. While
courting Homer, Emily went to the shop to buy arsenic. The town thinks that she is
buying the arsenic to kill herself. After that Homer Barron disappears. When her
father died, she denied him dying. After Emily’s death town’s people come into the
locked room and see Homer’s dead body wearing wedding clothes. They also found a
gray hair on the second pillow. It turned out that Emily killed Homer and had been
sleeping with him for many years. Emily, in a way, is a victim of town and history.

10. John Steinbeck  was a loner, didn’t have many friends, he was picky and didn’t
follow the curriculum at the university, he did not finish it. He didn’t want to be
politically involved. MODERNIST, REALIST

a) “Of Mice and Men” - slightly based on facts. N O V E L L A. Setting: Salinas Valley,
it starts on Thursday evening and ends on Sunday. The plot starts on the road leading
to the plantation, there’s a river nearby. George and Lenny are the main characters.
George is small, he’s very intelligent, bad-tempered at times, because he can’t stand
the burden of taking care of Lenny. He takes care of Lenny because he doesn’t want to
be alone. Lenny is dumb, he has too much strength, he likes to pet animals and
because he is so strong, he often kills them by accident. He is sensitive and innocent.
Another connection that is presented is between Candy and the dog. Everyone else is
alone, not having any connections with anyone. He is compared to the bear and horse.
River at the beginning is giving a sense of hope and freedom.

MODERNISM – a conscious desire to overturn traditional modes of representation and

express the new sensibilities of the time.
NATURALISM – rejects romanticism, emphasizes observation and the scientific method
in the fictional portrayal of reality.
IMAGISM – clear, sharp language, rejected the sentiment and discursiveness.
REALISM – an attempt to represent subject-matter truthfully, avoiding speculative fiction
and supernatural elements. Attempts to represent familiar things as they are. Realist
author chose to depict every day and banal activities and experiences.