...Brittnie Dean Randy Rambo ENG-1001-100 5 June 2013 Questions Within Our Eyes A man of many years dressed in nineteenth century clothing is shown standing with a much younger woman. The three most common questions most people would ask are, “Who are the man and women in the painting?” also “What’s the relationship between the young woman and the gentleman?” and last “What does their life portray?” The man in the painting is a town dentist from Wood’s hometown and the woman is Wood’s sister, Nan. Many characteristics about this painting are unique and questionable. This painting will allow viewers to expand their imagination. The American Gothic painted by Grant Wood in August of 1930 demonstrates expressionism used in the man and woman’s face, the house shown in the background, and the way of life they portray. When looking at this painting, we see a man and woman carrying the same non-expressive facial expression. As the man is starring directly at the viewer, his expression in his eyes show he is stern. As opposed to the woman, she is not looking directly at the viewer but somewhere off the distance to the left. She appears to be furrowing her eyebrows when looking in the distance, presenting herself as distracted, uninterested, or annoyed. In the early nineteenth century, having to paint a picture consumed a great amount of time; therefore they kept a neutral face to make it easier on themselves and for the artists as well. Their neutral expressions can also...
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...Grant Wood, American Gothic English Assignment American Gothic American Gothic is a classic American painting by Wood Grant. The traditional painting was created in the year 1930. Wood paints an image of two farmers in the Midwest. Due to time period that the painting was created in (1930s), American Gothic refers to the Great Depression. Wood paints the two farmers expressions with much importance. The man looks right at the viewer with strong determined eyes. He is holding his pitchfork with strength. The woman looks of to the left of the painting. Her expression portrays fear and sadness. Behind the two subjects is a house lit up by the afternoon sun. American Gothic is a very simple painting; two people and a house. The viewers eyes looks first at the man’s intense stare and then continues to wander around the painting. Wood's choice of clothing, hairstyle, color all play important rolls in determining the time setting and to give the painting an overall mood. First of all, the color scheme is very muted one. This gives the painting a depressing mood and a one- dimensional feeling. The many vertical and horizontal lines generate eye movement from pitchfork to the coat of the man on up to the faces of both figures to the window between them; then, as the roof angles, the viewer's eye is led toward the left and right with the roofs of the house and barn. The repetition of shape with the pitchfork and the window helps the viewer to see the...
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...Grant Wood’s American Gothic painting is a portrayal of traditional American values throughout the 1930’s with its’ main emphasis on the need for a hard working labor force. The painting depicts a stern-faced farmer and his daughter in front of their house, with a Gothic-style window in the background. It is representative of traditional American rural values, where women were considered subservient to men and men made a huge commitment to their labor. The thesis of the painting can be interpreted in many different ways, however, in my opinion, Grant’s main meaning depicted in the painting is of what characterized American rural life during the 1930’s; a hardworking middle class where women, while respected, were still submissive to men. The “New Enterprise Family” is made up of a couple and their children, commonly known as the nuclear family. The family seems to be selfish in choices they make economically as they throw their grandmother out of the house when she is no longer a sensible financial decision. The picture, in my opinion, depicts the typical American family today, who is more focused on making a profit then taking care of their family members. Free enterprise is an economic system where private businesses operate free of state controls and as we can see in the “Free Enterprise Family” the family when operating without moral conduct will throw their grandmother out to help themselves advance. The “Free Enterprise Family” seems to operate with a lack of moral control...
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...NORTH AMERICAN FICTION BRIEF INTRODUCTION: Before starting our study of American Fiction we must understand what American Literature is in itself and which pieces of writing we can include within this label. It is believed that when a piece is written in North America, more precisely in the USA, it would automatically be given this epithet. But it should be taken into account that this idea is quite broad and doesn’t reflect the real essence of the term. However, there is also another definition that gathers this essence: American Literature is the one that represents the Americanism, the singularity of the USA philosophy and culture. This way, instead of focusing on who the author is, it is focused on the content of the writing. In that which concerns Fiction, the following documents are the ones considered as narrative: Speeches Letters Short Stories Essays Political Documents Sermons Novels Diaries 1 FIRST LITERARY EXPRESSIONS The first documents in which the idea of Americanism is very present are the Sermons. They respond to the strict Protestantism settled in the New Continent after the arrival of the Pilgrim Fathers and Puritans in the Mayflower (1620) and the Arabella (1630). They established a theocratic community whose main and only point of reference was the Bible. That is why the idea of the ‘city upon a hill’ is still very present in American mentality. As we all know...
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...1. Literature of the 17th century. John Milton. “Paradise Lost”. John Bunyan. “Pilgrim’s Progress”. The peculiarities of the English literature of the 17th century are determined by the events of the Engl. Bourgeois Revolution, which took place in 1640-60. King Charles I was beheaded in 1649& General Oliver Cromwell became the leader of the new government. In 1660, shortly after Cro-ll’s death, the dynasty of the Stuarts was restored. The establishment of new social&eco-ic relations, the change from feudal to bourgeois ownership, escalating class-struggle, liberation movement and contradictions of the bourgeois society found their reflection in lit-re. The main representatives of this period is: John Milton: was born in London&educated at Christ’s College. He lived a pure life believing that he had a great purpose to complete. At college he was known as the The Lady of Christ’s. he Got master’s degree at Cambridge. It’s convenient to consider his works in 3 divisions. At first he wrote his short poems at Horton. (The Passion, Song on May Morning, L’Allegro). Then he wrote mainly prose. His 3 greatest poems belong to his last group. At the age of 23 he had still done little in life&he admits this in one of his sonnets. (On his 23d B-day) In his another sonnet he wrote on his own blindness. (On his Blindness) Milton wrote diff. kinds of works. His prose works were mainly concerned with church, affairs, divorce & freedom. The English civil war between Charles...
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...Essay One: What is an American? Gregory Coryell American Literature I Dr. Joseph Walker January 19, 2011 What is an American? America has always been based on the precept that it was formed as a melting pot. This term means that different religions, cultures, traditions and countries were blended together to create the “New America.” Europeans from various areas have fled their countries for many reasons and settled on American soil, “the land of the free.” Religious persecution, war, famine, and the hope for economic prosperity have enticed individuals to pull up their tent poles in their native lands and move to a bold new world, known as America. This new world, America would be a starting point and a birth of a new civilization and a new breed of people who all share one common goal. What does it actually mean to be an American? There are many definitions that have existed and that have helped us understand and shape our interpretation of this term. This paper will compare and contrast two separate views of what the new American is and what it means to be called an American citizen. In William Bradford’s, “Of Plymouth Plantation,” he accounts for his journey to the new world by describing the intent of his voyage, his first impression of his surroundings, and the things and people he encounters. Our text verifies Bradford’s hopeful spirit and passion for his beliefs when Bradford uses the term, “Pilgrims” to describe the “community of believers who...
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...Ernest Miller Hemingway was born at 8 o'clock in the morning on July 21st 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois. In nearly 62 years of his lifetime, his literary reputation was unsurpassed. The Characters that he created were not only captive the literary critics but also the average men as well. It can be said that Ernest Hemingway was a greatest American Writer in the twentieth century. His experience as a soldier in Italy during World War 1 inspired him to write many of his later masterpieces. One of which is the story “In Another Country” in the book “Men Without Women”. “In Another Country” is a short story about wounded soldiers who are recuperating after being injured on the front line. The main theme of the story is about the isolation feeling that the American soldier, or the narrator, has to confront. The first thing I would like to mention is the isolation of the narrator in his emotion. The setting of the story is in a military hospital in Milan, Italy during World War 1. As an American soldier, the narrator always feels homesick at a certain when being out of his homeland. Moreover, at the first glance, the title of the story, In Another Country”, Ernest Hemingway implies that the narrator himself is just a tourist in a foreign country rather than a real soldier who really fights for justice. This is the reason why he feels that he is undeserved for the medals. By describing his visiting to The Cova Café, the narrator lets the reader capture his tourist characterization...
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...train station in Spain, somewhere between Madrid and Barcelona by the Ebro River. It is during the Summer, since it is described as being unbearably hot. The American man and a younger female he calls Jig, are sitting at a bar by the station, waiting for the next train to Madrid drinking beer and talking. It is a very simple plot, it all takes place on one day at one location. The famous American writer Ernest Hemingway wrote the short story in 1927. Hemingway’s writing is very simple, as he doesn’t use many descriptive words and the sentences are very short. He has written this short story in the 3rd person, and so he doesn’t express thoughts nor feelings. Since his style is so easy and simple, he usually complicates his stories by keeping the reader guessing and not giving many clues to what the theme could be. I believe that the couple in the short story are discussing, whether Jig should have an abortion or not. The American is 100 procent up for it, but she doesn’t seem so keen on the idea, and she finds it difficult to say it directly to him. She keeps changing the subject, and she is possibly hiding hints in the things she says. After changing the subject, they keep jumping in and out of the conversation. There are clues earlier in the text, which confirm that she has a hard time doing things without the American man’s permission “Could we have another beer?” (p.4, l.10) ‘Could we try it?’ (p.1, l.26) He seems to be in control of her and her actions, but this time she...
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...Slavery in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: A Metaphor Over the past three centuries, only a handful of American authors have achieved such success that their work continues to be read and studied decades, even hundreds of years after their deaths. Mark Twain achieved this success by writing some of the greatest novels American literature has ever seen. Arguably his most famous work, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn essentially revolutionized American literature. One might say that Twain initiated the transition from romantic epics to more realistic-based tales. A second profound American author, Ernest Hemingway, even said, “All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn,” (Hemingway). Within this work, Twain uses some topics that were very controversial at the time to present an even more insightful idea. While one of the main issues in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is slavery, Twain uses it as an allegory for the struggle, that still exists today, between an individual’s conscience and society’s norms and ideals. In this novel, the setting and time period during which it takes place plays a significant part in the overall plot. Though Twain wrote this novel in the 1880s, several years after the Emancipation Proclamation, he chose to set the novel a few decades before the Emancipation Proclamation. In choosing this, he enabled himself to highlight slavery as one of the main issues of the novel. During the time when the...
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...Ernest Hemingway vs. William Faulkner Unlike any other author the style of writing Ernest Hemingway uses in his stories are short and long sentences, but when a sentence is long it is joined with conjunctions such as and’s, but’s, and because. For example, “In the day time the street was dusty, but at night the dew settled the dust and the old man liked to sit because he was deaf and now at night it was quiet and he felt the difference.” (Hemingway, pg 165) Hemingway’s stories are like reading a speech. In addition, Hemingway does not use any emotions into his writing; his stories are simply and have little meaning to it. His writing is similar to life because in life, you often find yourself given little information and must read between the lines to understand something to figure out what to do next. William Faulkner writing is very different from Hemingway’s way of writing; he uses longer complex sentences in his stories. For example, He could not see the table where the justice sat and before which his father and his father’s enemy (our enemy he thought in that despair: ourn! mine and hisn both! He’s my father) stood, but he could not hear them, the two of them that is, because his father had said no word yet.” (Faulkner, pg 169) Additionally, Faulkner’s sentences interrupts with parenthesis. Unlike Hemingway, Faulkner uses emotions in his writing. A writer might learn from Faulkner’s writing because it has sentence...
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...Mark Twain: Writer of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn There are many great authors in the world, and the United States of America has certainly produced its fair share. American literature has had a lasting impact on the world. One great American writer that many readers admire and respect is Mark Twain. Mark twain is one of the most famous american authors. He wrote at least 30 books in his lifetime and a lot of them were very inspirational. Of his most famous books was The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Mark Twain was born november 30, 1835. He lived for 74 years and spent most of his life writing books. He was born in florida missouri and died in redding connecticut. First of all, Mark twain spent his childhood in his birthplace...
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...Jake Barnes of “The Sun Also Rises” is the protagonist of the book, known precisely for his wound from WWI that proves to leave him impotent in his experiences throughout the course of novel. The setting of the novel takes place in Paris,France during the exposition.Jake is young and from America but now lives in Paris working in a newspaper office. Barnes leads an almost simple life, doesn’t find interest in traveling. He has a small group of friends he normally hangs out with as well as always drunk with. He plays tennis with one of his closest friend Robert Cohn. He finds his life empty after World War I, in which he was injured in the state of losing his genitals. Lady Brett, a woman he met during the war, is the love of his life though he’ll never be able to fulfill his desires with her because of his injury.Barnes is somewhat selfless, especially when it comes to Lady Brett.He is constantly running away from his problems or drinking them away. He has a strong passion for bullfighting and he is considered a true aficionado of the sport. As the novel goes on it reveals his love for and relationship with Lady Brett, his involvement with excessive amounts of alcohol and using it to solve all of his problems, and the effect of being in WWI. Lady Brett was introduced into the book during chapter three, he arrives in the bar Jake was at with a prostitute that tagged along with him.Brett is known for her dangerous seductive looks and personality. She’s practically irresistible...
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...In The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway makes an attempt to shed light upon the issue of manhood. More specifically, he calls into question what masculinity truly is. Hemingway challenges stereotypical preconceptions of what it means to be a man through the character juxtaposition of Jake Barnes with Robert Cohn. Cohn is emblematic of the general view of masculinity, but Jake turns these notions on their head and gives a much different picture of what it means to be a man. Robert Cohn’s character is that of the prototypical “manly man.” He is truly an “alpha male” by the standards of the public eye, especially of his generation. He possesses all of the qualities that a truly masculine character should have. He is physically strong and an excellent athlete, as evidenced by his middleweight boxing championship at Princeton. He has lots of money and prestige, as he was “a member, through his father, of one of the richest Jewish families of New York, and through his mother of one of the oldest” (Hemingway 12). Cohn is most concerned with the needs of the most important person in his life – himself. He is so convinced of his own greatness that he is blind to his faults. When his relationship with his first wife begins to become rocky, Cohn contemplates leaving her, but does not do it because “it would be too cruel to deprive her of himself” (12). Ironically, his wife ends up leaving him to run off with a painter. Cohn is also quick to fight and exert his strength upon those who challenge...
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...The novel The Sun Also Rises is a novel about a man's life in Paris. The Sun Also Rises is a novel written by Ernest Hemingway. The book is written in the time period around the 1920s. The protagonists are Jake Barnes and Brett Ashley. Brett and Jake’s relationship is tragic even though fate is what brought them together. Fate is a predetermined course of events. In the novel Brett and Jake are trapped by their fate. At one part Jake takes Brett to her hotel and they kiss but Brett won’t let him in the hotel room and pushes him away. In another area of the novel Jake gets unhappy with Brett because he is tired of her going out with other guys. Their fate says they should be together because they can’t stay off the each other. Some...
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...Unfortunately, the days of going to the library to take out books, and speaking with a librarian for help on research rarely happens anymore. That’s why studying literature, and researching topics is essential for us students. Literature can be described as a language. It has been expressed for centuries and throughout different countries and cultures. Literature is a work of art, which has been spoken in different structures and also for many diverse reasons. I believe that literature is another way to view our historical past as well. Throughout history, society has been grateful exposed to different styles of literature; non-fiction, fiction, poems, plays, etc. Literature has a variety of styles; American literature, Irish literature, African American literature, and also Women’s literature are only a few examples. I am charmed by Women’s literature, everything from Annie Bradstreet to Judy Blume. My focus is to show how women portray a major role in the making of great literature, and also their existence in the works of art themselves. Distressingly, for years we women didn’t have a voice and our ideas were pushed aside. An American Editor Joan Goulianos wrote, “There exists a rich and complex literature by women that goes back to the Middle Ages, a literature that consists of diaries, of autobiographies…of stories- a literature in which women wrote about their lives and from which women and men today can draw insight about theirs.” I want to examine literary works and extract examples...
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