...and the native people of America have contributed a good collection of books which constitute the body of American Literature. Any book written will register the life style of people, their food habits, culture, beliefs, system of education followed, the nature of children and their history. The books written by the writers from the United States of America have registered the expectations, hopes, future predictions along with warnings their fear for degeneration of moralities and the impacts of Industrial revolutions. American Literature was acutely carved by the history of the United Nations of America. In the beginning after a great revolution for more than a century and half America became the United States. Though at first...
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...Native American Culture Amanda Thaden-Fidjeland December 21, 2015 ENG 301 Marc Bonanni Storytelling is the writing of the past, living the present and preserving the future. As storytelling is changing due to changes in the tribal communities of the native people, the traditional form is threatened. Storytelling has been passed down from generation to generation and remains their main form of communication even after written word was commonly accepted. The Native Americans were divided in several groups and possessed their own customs and language. These tribes lived in regional groups and shared common culture and history. Storytelling was one of the most significant practices of the Native Americans; though their stories can be classified, still many similar aspects have been observed. The storytelling was an oral practice which had revealed the tales of their past. The Native American culture was diverse and had traditional values and came with the rich and insightful past. Storytelling has been a prominent practice among the Native Americans; this practice has passed from one generation to another and has been a way of communicating wisdom. These indigenous people believed in the art of communication to explore and explain their past and therefore the stories were narrated orally by one to another. They depended upon unwritten art to share their customs, history, legends and rituals and held the feeling of pride in doing so. The powerful tales that were narrated by...
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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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...LITR221 January 26, 2014 All Good Things Must Come to an End A Course Review of 2013-2014 Winter Semester of LITR 221 The amazing thing about literature is that it can be interrupted differently by each person who reads it. Which means that while one piece of writing is amazing, creative, and witty to one person to another person it could be the most boring, uninteresting, and redundant piece of literature they have ever read. In this semester of Literature 221, I was given the opportunity to read works from many different genres, time periods, and styles of writing. Some of which, like Emily Dickinson’s Life I and Life XLIII, Joyce Carol Oates’ Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?, and Sherman Alexie’s What You Pawn I Will Redeem I thoroughly enjoyed and learned from. While others such as Ernest Hemingway’s Big Two-Hearted River, Mark Twain’s excerpt When The Buffalo Climbed a Tree from Roughing It, and the excerpt from Sula by Toni Morrison weren’t exactly my cup of tea. Emily Dickinson is a remarkable poet who often writes from a very emotional and self-examining perspective. This is why I really enjoyed the two selections of her work we had to read this semester. In her first poem Life I, the very first two lines make you stop and think, “I’M nobody! Who are you? Are you nobody, too?” (Dickinson 2) Bam! I was hit in the face with self-reflection. Am I somebody? Or am I a nobody? Emily Dickinson continues by saying “how dreary to be somebody!” (Dickinson2...
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...THE BIBLE’S INFLUENCE ON ENGLISH-AMERICAN LITERATURE by Zhang Lanlan June, 2007 Xiaogan University Abstract As the sutra of the Christianity, the Bible has a great influence on both English and American literature and offers an eternal theme of their literary creation .English and American writers use stories of the Bible by three main methods. First, they quote person's names or stories of the Bible as the characters' names or plots of the creations from the Bible directly. Sometimes they make some changes on the original stories. Sometimes they quote stories directly from the Bible as the writing materials. Second, they make use of symbolic meaning of the Bible by some technical such as simile, metaphor and symbolism, so that the stories could exert a great influence on contrasting with the new products. Third, they merge the plots of the Bible to give connotative efforts to the readers. Exploring the methods helps us know the western culture and consciousness, have a good appreciation and study for the English-American literature. key words: English-American literature ; the Bible; methods 《圣经》在英美文学作品中的影响 摘要 作为基督教的经典，《圣经》对英美文化影响深远，为英美文化创作提供了永恒的母题。英美作家化用《圣经》故事的主要方法有：直接引用《圣经》中的人名作为作品的人物名称，或直接引用《圣经》故事或对原型故事进行变形或处理，作为创作素材；通过比喻，隐喻或象征等手法，把《圣经》故事的寓意融汇到作品情节中或人物性格里，使这些故事发挥有力的陪衬作用；使作品中的人物，故事和情节与《圣经》故事大体对应，让《圣经》能穿越时空的限制，从而发挥隐含的参照作用。 探讨英美作家化用《圣经》的方法，有助于我们了解英美文化的思想意识，更好的学习，欣赏乃至研究英美文学作品。 关键词：英美文学；《圣经》；方式 ...
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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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...The Search for Self and Space by Indian Dalit Joseph Macwan and African American Richard Wright Vaseemahmed G Qureshi Assistant Professor, Vishwakarma Government Engineering College, Chandkheda A B S T R A C T The subjugation of Dalits in India and Blacks in America is the result of slavery imposed on them in the name of castism in India and racism in America. Writers from these marginalized groups express their revolt against slavery through words. This presentation focuses on one black and one Dalit novel as a manifestation of the quest for self and space. Joseph Macwan comes forward as a prophet of Dalits’ welfare in Gujarat with his Angaliyat (1987) which is a representation of the emerging genre of the Dalit novel. It criticizes systems of internal colonization that exist within the Hindu caste system. Today, Dalits are both asserting their identity and challenging a society that had earlier excluded them, by writing about their lives themselves. Through the protagonist Teeha, the novel succeeds in demystifying ‘dalitness’ and redefining the real freedom of his fellow people. Richard Wright is one of the most acclaimed African American authors of the twentieth century. His Outsider (1953) depicts racial discrimination and the quest for identity. He creates a compelling story with his protagonist Cross Damon, a man of superior intellect who craves for peace and searches for his identity. In this quest, Cross Damon attempts to escape his past and start anew in a...
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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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