American Literature Essays (Examples)

American Literature discussion topics: 1. Discuss Sarah Orne Jewett Charles Chesnutt contributed local color fiction nineteenth century stories respective regions (Jewett writing New England Chesnutt South).
Sarah Orne Jewett and Charles Chesnutt played essential roles in promoting concepts and thinking in general in the regions of New England, and, respectively, the American South. The fact that these people's writings provide suggestive sketches of village life in the U.S. makes it possible for readers to gain a complex understanding of conditions in the country in the late nineteenth century. Their texts demonstrate that there is much more to the American background during the period than meets the eye. Both Jewett and Chesnutt adopted regionalism as one of the principal ideas in their texts and virtually created texts that have become an active part of American traditionalism.

Jewett's "The Country of the Pointed Firs" focuses on presenting readers with a metropolitan traveler's…

American Literature and the Great Depression
hen one considers how the Great Depression affected American Literature, John Steinbeck tends to stick out, if only because his fiction generally discusses the same themes and anxieties that has come to define the Great Depression in the public consciousness. Indeed, Steinbeck's Grapes Of rath, a realist novel which follows the Joad family as they travel west after they losing their farm to the Dust Bowl, is frequently considered the quintessential encapsulation of the thematic and stylistic effects the Great Depression had on American Literature. Somewhat less considered, though no less crucial to understanding the effects of the Great Depression on American Literature, is the influence the Great Depression had on the careers of black writers, and particularly those who were a part of the Federal riter's Project, the New Deal program support writers during the Depression. By considering Steinbeck's The Grapes of rath…

The stories are moving for the dominant cultural reader as well as for future generations of subjugated immigrant groups.
This is not to say that all subjugated groups are immigrants, as the experience of the indigenous Native American population must also be seen as expressive of the American literary experience. The transition from an oral tradition to a written tradition has proved a struggle which was shadowed in extreme only by the difficulty this population faced in attempting to be included in the literature of the nation and even more so in the fabric of the social order. In fact a great deal of the Native American literary body is detailing the aspect of transition from the oral tradition to the written tradition, as a marked part of the Native American experience of identity.

The oral tradition is not just speaking and listening, because what it means to me and…

Writers such as Poe, Herman Melville, and Nathaniel Hawthorne became known as the key figures in the Dark Romantic sub-genre that emerged out of Transcendentalism.
American literature also found its voice through poetry during the 19th century, particularly in the works of Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson. The two poets produced remarkably dissimilar bodies of work. Whitman rose to prominence during the American Civil War with his free verse extolling the virtues of democracy and the freedom of finding oneself in the world. Dickinson, on the other hand, lived a sheltered, introverted life, and her verse reflects this. She was more obsessed by morbid, unusual themes than Whitman, and she utilized a distinctive style of punctuation that continues to beguile critics and scholars to this day.

The late 19th century would give rise to Realism, a style of fiction writing that intended to capture the way people in America actually…

Ginsberg in fact spent some time in a psychiatric ward and his poem Howel makes the implication that his and his contemporaries madness is caused by the madness of society which, due to its infatuation with technology, has become a demon far worse than any found in humanity's collective mythology.
Jung argues that in modern society, mythology has not actually disappeared, it has just taken a less noticeable form in terms of such concepts as "human willpower." In order to deal with these internal demons, humans now turn to alcohol and tobacco, which is another major theme in Howl. Essentially, instead of embracing our collective myths, humans have internalized them and casts them out by suppressing their meanings and hiding from them through new technology, drugs and alcohol, to such a point that we feel trapped by these demons we no longer recognize and therefore continue to run from blindly.…

Although his wife was really upset, and very mean to him, his patience with her and about the severity of the situation, makes him a model person. Not many people actually have this attribute, and although many would wish to attain it, very few do. This adds on to the mythic American persona. Rip Van Winkle was liked by everyone. His sweet, nice characteristics made him a likeable person, despite the troubles that he was having with his wife. He went on with his life as if nothing was too severe to dwell on, and this makes him a person that everyone wants to be like. The Romanticism that exists in living in a world where everything seems peaceful and where nothing gets to anyone is very overwhelming, and that is exactly how Rip Van Winkle lived. He never let anything get to him. He was also very helpful to…

mployers are typically accustomed to hiring employees on account of their experience, as a diploma is worthless as long as the person looking for a job has no experience in the field. People are typically unaware of the complexity of a particular act until they actually come to perform the respective act. The main character in Stephen Crane's "A Mystery of Heroism," Fred Collins, is initially unaware of the gravity related to warfare and childishly expresses his desire to drink some water. ven with the fact that he experiences war firsthand and that he is on the frontline, his lack of experience in warfare prevents him from understanding that his life is at risk.
A person who reads regarding war-related matters or is subjected to intense drills before reaching the battlefield is definitely better prepared than someone who has no information whatsoever concerning conflicts. Despite that, the former is likely…

3.4B: Collage Description

Lines 118 & 119: "Home is the place where, when you go there, / They have to take you in."

These two lines are by far the most compelling lines of the entire poem. It is here that the importance of what home is, truly comes out. Home is the one place that seems to be the safe haven regardless of the adventures that one chooses to partake in. It is welcoming, safe, secure, and always present. Despite the many twists and turns that may be taken by someone, it is at home that one can always go back to without the fear of being judged.

The collage would be designed as follows:

Cut out from felt fabric, the center of the collage would be a house. The house itself would be a red square with little yellow squares for windows and a gray triangular roof top.…

In a society that no longer views education as one of its most important virtues, and no longer sees the beauty and power in knowledge, teachers break through those barriers and offer what ever it is that they can to a world of students that seem to be lost. They are the headlights of a car, the steersmen to a ship; without them, darkness would consume whoever it is that needs guidance. May the power that teachers bring to everyday society be a testament to the power that they have over the minds and influence of today's youth and society.
Exercise 5.6B: Creative Writing

I wait for this life altering event

Every day of the year

Counting down the hours

As the time gets oh so near

My shiny green coat

Slowly gets lighter

My beautiful color

Meticulously gets brighter

The branch that holds on to me

Slowly lets go…

Use two examples from the letter to support your arguments.

Throughout the letter written by Melville to Hawthorne, in A Letter to Nathaniel Hawthorne, one gets a sense that Melville feels a sort of connection to Hawthorne because of their radical views for the time. It is Melville that feels a warm, affectionate bond with Hawthorne because they both want to write about so many more things that were currently banned at the time, and it was their belief in going against societal expectations that connected them. He describes their relationship as being one where they share in the same views, the same radical views that neither one of them could actually express because of the times that they live in.

Melville desires to spend some time with Hawthorne in a way where they could both exchange ideas and talk about what it is that they believe together. His affection…

American literature 1820 -- 1865 Analyze the Last the Mohicans Volume I Chapter III James Fenimore Cooper. Write a minimum 500 words. Write minimum 4-5 paragraphs. Write a controlled thesis - central idea - sentence
European encounters with the natives:

A close reading of Chapter III of The Last of The Mohicans

James Fenimore Cooper's famous novel The Last of The Mohicans reflects but also complicates the Romantic view of the 'natural' primitive savage as closer to nature. The Romantics often characterized Native Americans as more 'pure' than representatives of white civilization. Chapter III dramatically unfolds as a dialogue between characters identified as 'the white man' and 'the Indian' more than their actual names .The Indian chief Chingachgook explains how his culture was irrevocable changed by whites, and the pure, natural idyll of his life was destroyed by the coming of the white man. "Then, Hawkeye, we were one people,…

" The crumb evidently symbolizes the feeding of hope. The author thus hints that she does not feed her hopes, emphasizing thus her pessimism. In another poem, a Bird Came down the alk, the protagonist is a real bird. This time, Dickinson does not use the figure of the bird allegorically but rather as a symbol: the bird descends and kills a worm without being aware that somebody is watching it. The common element that links the poems is again the crumb: the poet offers the bird a crumb and is again refused, as it flies swiftly away. The theme however is very different: the bird refuses the crumb because it is satisfied in its own world, from which the poet is excluded. Thus, the two poems use the figure of the bird in very different ways, to represent different poetical themes.
Rip Van inkle

Rip Van inkle's wife is…

American Literature
Early American Literature Comparison

American literature is truly a literature of change. As the nation became independent of England, this new independence reflected in the ideals and philosophies of writers. Whereas early American literature was dominated by puritan forms, which contemplated the power of God and often were written copies of sermons or journals used by puritans, some stories still arose. These stories, filled with ideas of sin and repentance directly reflect the social limitations which puritans placed on early American society. Once the nation was founded, however, and the Constitution separated the power of the church from the government, new forms of literature were created that questioned the puritan authors and their principles. These literary styles included the romantics, transcendentalists, and abolitionists whose works stemmed from new sources of the mind and the new free nation around them. egardless of these new forms, another type of literature…

Emerson would have commended Douglass for his achievements. Emerson decried the evils of social hierarchy as when he stated, "A great man is coming to eat at my house. I do not wish to please him; I wish that he should wish to please me." Frederick Douglass was directly rebelling against white supremacy and the institution of slavery. Moreover, Douglass noted the role that social conformity and peer pressure played in creating the plantation culture of the south. When he first goes to Baltimore, Douglass is suprised by the kindness of Sophia Auld. Yet Douglass notes the effect of social conformity on Sophia in Chapter 7 of the narrative: "Slavery proved as injurious to her as it did to me. When I went there, she was a pious, warm, and tender-hearted woman. There was no sorrow or suffering for which she had not a tear...Slavery soon proved its ability to…

Through letters, she expressed her feelings to her husband and grandchildren, just as I use letters to express my feelings to other people. She uses poems to warn her child and gives life instructions to her child.
Discuss the readings, what I think of each of the stories

Bradstreet is well recognized in the American history of poetry work. Each of her stories shows her intimate perception of life like "If ever man were lov'd by wife, then thee; if ever wife was happy in a man." In her works, she writes about women focusing on their capability to reason, but she also recognizes the traditional assumptions of gender roles. This has been well illustrated with use of statements such as, "Men can do best, and women know it well." Each of the readings is written in a positive and hopeful tone.

Did it have any meaning in my life?…

..in its original atoms" -- that is, humanity shall return to its most natural state, a condition wherein human mind and behavior has no limits, wherein death and insanity is preferred over life and sanity. This kind of preoccupation about the humanity's natural return to do and be evil is reflected in Melville's essay, wherein he contends, "...this black conceit pervades him (Hawthorne)...You may be witched by his sunlight...but there is the blackness of darkness beyond..." That is, beyond the laws of morality lurks behind the evilness of human nature.
Melville subscribes to Hawthorne's implicit portrayal and depiction of humanity's natural and evil nature in his novel, "Moby Dick." Through the character of Ahab, readers witness that his preoccupation to capture Moby Dick is actually his desire to divest himself of his own evil thoughts and feelings. This is illustrated in Chapter 132, wherein Ahab himself questions his real motives…

" Discrimination was either in the form of cruelty or just plain sympathy, which was worse since it seemed that there was a consensus in the society that to be in relations with a colored individual would result to a disadvantaged life.
Robert Frost is a modern poet in the sense that he tackled themes that centered on individualism and self-improvement, two important life principles that prevailed and dominated society as it moved towards the 20th century and modernization. These principles of individualism and self-improvement, in fact, were questioned and contemplated in the poem, "After Apple-Picking." In this poem, Frost contemplated through imagery the lack of purpose the Voice's life had been, and "apple-picking" was a symbol for his continued need to achieve success and improvement in life. However, as was later discussed in the poem, his failures in life led him to prefer life over death, hence the phrase,…

But the parent whose voice is heard in Clifton's "Wishes for Sons" does not wish a progressively hopeful parenting relationship on her sons. Instead, she wishes for them the pains of womanhood. Thus, Clifton shows how the parenting relationship is a mixture of traditions and progressivism in a different way. In this poem, Clifton comically says that she wishes her sons "one week early wearing a white skirt," although she adds a seriousness to her poem when she writes: "let them think they have accepted / arrogance in the universe, / then bring them to gynecologists / not unlike themselves" (Plath). When reading this last line, readers can understand that Clifton's wish for her sons is a sort of gift, a new kin of progressivism. Instead of raising them the way she was raised, she wants them to understand woman and women's plight in order to bring about a new…

/ I stroke through air, / I fly through water, / I send my mother home."(Song, 54) Thus, it can be said that the author dismisses the figure of her mother only after it had served its purpose, namely to create the connection with the past. The conclusion that everything is "as it should be" ironically points to the reversal of notions and roles in the text.
The narrator's desire to be one and the same with her mother springs obviously from her need to define herself in a meaningful way. Her mother represents not only her genetic code but also her cultural one. The representations of the mother and the daughter thus begin to coincide, as in Song's poem the Youngest Daughter: "My skin has become as damp / and pale as rice paper / and feels the way / mother's used to before the drying sun / parched…

..There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name. Come, devil; for thee is this world given...come Indian powwow...here comes Goodman Brown...You may as well fear him as he fear you." This exclamation of subtle doubt and manifest fear demonstrated the fear of the White Man of the American Indian; that the White Man's oppression of the latter is the result of the fear that he has in encountering resistance as they controlled and eventually conquered the New World.
Like Hawthorne, Irving in the short story "The Devil and Tom Walker" showed that the annihilation of the American Indian race to gain power over the New World is an action that is both unwise and detrimental to the progress of the New World society. The New World is represented by Tom Walker, who, at the expense of giving his life to the Devil and sacrificing his wife's…

Even during the time that the buzzard was supposedly helping the rabbit and the other animals were inquiring about the well being of the rabbit, the buzzard lied to them in order to continue the pursuit of his own wants. He was tricking the others the entire time in order to have what he wanted.
A third lesson that can be taken from this tale is that revenge is not the best plan of attack for a wrong that has been done. Once the animals had figured out that they buzzard has indeed eaten the rabbit instead of helping him, they decided to punish him by shooting arrows at him. In the end though they did no damage to the buzzard but instead benefited him. By shooting the arrows at him they shot one through his nose that gave him a good place to breathe through. Instead of suffering any…

Trying to get his girl back, Charles clumsily promises her material benefits once more, indicating thus that he is not accustomed to offer anything else but money. As Fitzgerald hints, the luxurious Twenties with their economical boom brought material comfort but at the same time a lot of unhappiness caused by a reversal of values in society. Making and spending money had thus become the true coordinates of life, replacing the traditional values, like spirituality or family. I think that the themes that Fitzgerald expounds on are still valid in our present-day life. For instance, consumerism has affected my life as well as that of the people around me, and I feel that the material pursuits sometimes stand in the way of healthy human relationships.
Modernism in Babylon Revisited

Fitzgerald's works always bear the imprint of modernism. The protagonist of Babylon Revisited, Charles, is a successful business man and a…

As Sally Law points out, literature opens up a window on the world for students. That window presents them with them numerous opportunities because “gaining a broad view of society, through the eyes of another, fosters understanding, tolerance and empathy” (Law). Moreover, obtaining understanding, tolerance and empathy are values that “cannot be underestimated in today’s world” (Law). In short, American Literature has value because it can help people to be more human, which can in turn help people to make good decisions, know themselves better, and develop a basis for comprehending human nature that can be applied in the real world. That is something that people should consider when talking about literature—it’s real world applicability. The fact that literature can be useful in shaping perspectives, enriching one’s sense of how dynamic and complex situations and environments can be, and creating a view of life that gives context to the here…

One of his major works was a long poem written in three cantos about the horrors he experienced while being held prisoner on a ritish prison. ship. There we see a much edgier, angry Freneau who is willing to write about real life in real terms:
Here, generous ritain, generous, as you say,

To my parch'd tongue one cooling drop convey;

Hell has no mischief like a thirsty throat,

Nor one tormentor like your David Sproat."

All of these influences eventually came together, resulting later in the 19th century in Transcendentalism. This time when American writers reached to the past, they combined the best higher ideals of both the Puritans and the Enlightenment, and the love of nature from neoclassicism, and produced bodies of work that transcended all its previous influences. The roots for the literary movement that would bring us "Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry…

Further, I believe the best American (and other) literature, has always done that, and does that now, within any age.
However, I also do not feel that American literature should do anything different from other national literatures (except to spring, which it would and does naturally) from the distinct environment in which it was or is written). It should definitely not be confined, either, to focusing only on American topics (another category difficult to actually limit or define). If American literature anthologies or collections are any guide to what the term "American literature" may actually mean, John Winthrop's "A Model of Christian Charity," composed as sermon to be read at sea to the author's fundamentalist flock of Puritan Dissenters sailing toward an unknown New World; and the 20th century ussian emigre Vladimir Nabokov's novel Pnin (about a ussian emigre professor and writer in America), qualify equally well (and is included,…

Also, the experiences he underwent in prison offered him the chance to survive in a cruel world, both inside and outside the walls of prison. Inside, as he states "language gave me a way to keep the chaos of prison at bay and prevent it from devouring me; it was a resource that allowed me to confront and understand my past" (Baca, 2001, p4). From this point-of-view, the time spent in prison represented a moment of reflections and of understanding.

The author placed his energy and belief in poetry and writing for a single reason which was that of transforming himself in the messenger of the ones who cannot express themselves. As a comparison with the person he was in his early teen years when he was unable to express himself, his needs, his creeds, or his culture, the prison time helped him understand that a connection with the others…

American literature has become much more diverse as authors of different cultures that now in live in the United States write about their heritage or life in this country. One of these authors is Amy Tan.
Both of Tan's parents were Chinese immigrants. One of her first successful books, the Kitchen God's Wife, told of the traumatic early life of her mother, Daisy. She had divorced an abusive husband, had lost custody of her three daughters and was forced to leave them behind when escaping Shanghai before the Communist takeover in 1949. Tan's mother also witnessed Tan's grandmother committing suicide. When Tan's mother reached America, she married John Tan. They had three children, Amy and her two brothers. John Tan had earlier left China when the Chinese evolution became too harrowing (Academy of Achievement).

Tragedy struck when Tan's father and oldest brother both died of brain tumors within a year…

The Evolution of American Identity Through Literature The diversity within the American experience, and as well within the canon of American literature, precludes the possibility of singling out two or even ten of the novels, poems, or short stories that best encapsulate what it means to be American. From the colonial and early national era and the fledgling formation of national identity through the struggles of emancipation from slavery and transcendentalism, onwards to the industrial and capitalist eras, American literature has provided an accurate reflection of the lives of individuals and communities that comprise life in different regions of the country. Geographic and cultural differentiations also help to expand what it means to be American, taking into account race, class, gender, and generation. Threads that tie together Americans throughout time and in spite of radical differences in worldview include staunch independence and self-reliance, coupled with a profound optimism. Trust in…

Symbolism in "The Origin of Stories"
In "The Origin of All Stories" we can see an example of the importance that the Seneca -- a Native American tribe -- placed in their oral tradition, stories, as well as symbolism. Symbolism, especially, figures prominently in "The Origin of All Stories." It is the figurative device through which this story impresses upon readers the importance of storytelling to the Seneca people. Literally, storytelling formed the basis of the sense of history that the Seneca possessed. ithout it, vital cultural information could not have been passed down from generation to generation. The purpose of this essay is to examine some of the usage of symbolism in "The Origin of All Stories" and detail how those examples of symbolism demonstrate the centrality of the oral tradition to the Seneca people.

To begin, I should make it clear what it means that the Seneca had…

American and European Literature
Suggesting that there is a fundamental difference between American and European literature means much more than acknowledging that the culture produced by geographically distinct regions is similarly distinct, because it suggests that there are much deeper underlying symbols and tropes which mark these cultural productions as distinctly American or European regardless of the wide variety of genres and themes present in the literature of either region. hile the claim of an identifiable distinction between American and European literature feels accurate due to the clear differences between American and European culture, this claim requires critical examination because of the potential for stereotype and condescension inherent in it. Examining some of the more important factors which might produce a recognizable difference between these two canons, as well as the processes responsible for the formation of literary canons in the first place, reveals that the differences between American and…

American Literature
The development of the major ideas and attitudes expressed in Modern American literatures since 1900 can start with the realist school of literature, which focused on representing in naturalistic terms and concepts the life of the world around. Thus, Theodore Dreiser wrote Sister Carrie about a bumpkin country girl who moves to the big city and becomes a mistress. Stehpen Crane also portrayed the street life and Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle about what it was like to work in the meat packing plants at the time and how difficult it was for immigrant life. The ideas here were focused on revealing real American life -- not in broad comedy like a Mark Twain novel -- but in serious terms.

F. Scott Fitzgerald reflected the concept of "wasted youth" and the obsession with riches and power that was all so meaningless in the greater scheme of things in…

American Literature-Marge Piercy's poem "What's That Smell in the Kitchen?"
How figurative language is used in the poem to evoke vivid images.

In the poem "What's That Smell in the Kitchen?" Piercy analyzes her mundane routine duties as an exhausted housewife; how women sometimes feel unworthy due to the behavior of men. Though in this poem, speaker does not introduce herself as a homemaker, but tells the reader about one specific woman as an example on behalf of the feelings of all women. In the beginning of "What's That Smell in the Kitchen?" author points out that dinners are being burnt all over America. This not only gives a reader the central idea of the poem but also creates curiosity to read further to know the reason. in the next four lines the author explains foods that are usually cooked in the particular cities of United States. This paints a…

American Literature: The Black Woman Poem by Georgia Douglas Johnson
American Literature

The Black Woman poem by Georgia Douglas Johnson

What points or themes emerged from the poem?

Fight against nature

The main theme in the Black Woman is the struggle against a literal and natural desire to give birth. This theme is seen in a line where the woman poet states that she must not give birth. Giving birth for a black woman in such an environment where blacks are discriminated against would not be a joyous thing for any mother. In this poem, Georgia Douglas, depicts a world that is anti-black and would not take kindly to more black people being born into this world. The poem depicts a worst case scenario in which racism had spiraled out of control leading to a prevalence of blatantly open discriminatory practices (Papke, 2010). Thus, the poet depicts a world which…

Regional Differences in American Literature
In American literature, the region of the country that the author was from had an impact on their writing and the kind of story they were telling to the audience. This is because each area had its own unique culture and tastes. The combination of these factors, were integrated together to create works that are a reflection of these attitudes.

Evidence of this can be seen by looking no further than observations from atts (2007). She found that regional factors had an impact on the author and their writings. This is because these ideas would have an effect on their beliefs. Over the course of time, these views were integrated into various forms of literature with different styles (depending upon the area of the country). (atts 382 -- 285) This is illustrating how these ideas have been used throughout American literature to influence the audience.…

Humor in Literature
American literature is unique in that the attitudes of the works tend to reflect the spirit of the nation and of her citizens. One of the trademarks of American literature is that authors display a tone that can be very serious, but that also can be interpreted as humorous. hereas texts from other cultures are usually more concerned with message and in presenting that message in a dry, even stoic manner, American literature is uniquely capable of mixing the honest and the humorous. Even in the most serious and earnest stories, the sensibility of American humor can be detected. Of course, there are different types of humor. Some stories are flat-out ridiculous and make the reader laugh. Other stories are more sarcastic in their approach to humor and the funny moments have to be analyzed to be better understood. Still other tales are anecdotal and function as…

Southwestern Humor in American Literature
Southwestern Humor in 19th Century American Literature

During the period of 1830-1860, a new genre in America literature has emerged, which is called the Southwestern Humor genre. This new form of literature illustrates and discusses issues and themes that are depicted effectively through humor and exaggeration. Technically defined, Southwestern Humor is identified as "a name given to a tradition of regional sketches and tales based in the 'old South-West': Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Arkansas." This genre is also characterized by its use of the following thematic elements: "tall tales, thick regional dialect, ironic humor, and a tradition of tricksterism in... stories and sketches" (Campbell 2003).

Aside from the characteristics enumerated above, Southwestern Humor is also remarkable in its ability to effectively mirror the social landscape of the Southwestern region of the United States. In the study and analysis of Southwestern Humor genre, important themes that…

Sylvia Plath explores ambiguity from the perspective of a woman living in a man's world in The Bell Jar. Esther receives different messages about who she is and who she wants to be. Society tells her to be the good wife and mother but she never adapts well to this notion. She feels ambivalence toward most of the women she meets and ultimately feels pulled in different directions when it comes to expectations and desires. The conflict Esther experiences results from what society expects from "good girls." The article Mrs. Greenwood sends her exposes the hypocrisy she cannot ignore. The article explains how a "man's world was different than a woman's world and a man's emotions are different than a woman's emotions" (Plath 65). The notion of women being pure as the wind-driven snow and submitting to the will of their husbands becomes more of a burden than anything else…

Bedford Anthology American Literature Susan
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hitman, Harper, Alcott
American literature in the nineteenth century is necessarily concerned with democracy: by the time of the U.S. Civil ar the American democratic experiment was not even a century old, and as a result writers remained extremely sensitive until the end of the century toward questions of whether America was capable of living up to the high ideals that it had set for itself in its founding documents. An examination of some representative nineteenth century American works -- hitman's "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry," Harper's "A Double Standard" and "The Deliverance," and Louisa May Alcott's story "ork" -- will demonstrate that the failings of American democracy were a subject all these writers had in common.

hitman is commonly thought of as the poet who champions American democracy, but "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" is a poem that contains grave doubts. e note this most obviously as hitman's long flowing stanzas suddenly dry…

The mere fact that these people interact as much as they do is a sign of the blurring of class signs. Also, the image of Gatsby as essentially nouveau riche, is itself a statement indicating interclass mobility. Unlike Steinbeck's story, Fitzgerald's is much more concerned with individual prejudices and stereotypes. In Gatsby, the prejudgments are of the working class against the leisured class. The work also speaks to the utter aimlessness of someone like Gatsby - a man who lives it seems, just for the sake of inoffensive pleasure, but who, at the same time, contributes nothing to the overall society. The unbelievable disconnect between Gatsby's set, and the rest of humanity is captured in an offhand remark of one of his guests, who just happened to find himself in the library, "I've been drunk for about a week now, and I thought it might sober me up to sit…

American Ethnic Literature
Analyzing the Nature of American Ethnic Literature

America has a distinct history: like ancient ome, its inhabitants have come from all over and few of them can truly say to be natives of the place. This fact alone makes American Literature a compelling label: what makes American Literature American? This paper will attempt to answer the question by showing how many ethnicities have converged in one nation allowing various writers with different ethnic, social, political, economical, and social perspectives to define and/or illustrate a time and place.

As Morris Dickstein states, "When America was merely a remote province of world culture, its educated elites were Anglophile, Francophile, or broadly cosmopolitan. Education was grounded in classical learning, a respect for the ancients over the moderns, and a deeply ingrained respect for old Europe's artistic heritage" (p. 155). This type of background made American letters similar to European. What…

American Ethnic Literature
There are so many different voices within the context of the United States. This country is one which is built on cultural differences. Yet, for generations the only voices expressed in literature or from the white majority. Contemporary American ethnic literature is important in that it reflects the multifaceted nature of life in the United States. It is not pressured by the white majority anymore, but is rather influenced by the extremely varying experiences of vastly different individuals, as seen in the works of alph Ellison's Invisible Man, Gloria Anzaldua's "How to Tame a Wild Tongue," and Cathy Song's poem "Lost Sister." American ethnic literature speaks for minority voices, which have long been excluded in earlier generations of American society.

American ethnic literature has developed enormously over the last few centuries, and especially within the context of just the last few decades. In today's literary world, it…

American Lit
Definition of Modernism and Three Examples

Indeed, creating a true and solid definition of modernism is exceptionally difficult, and even most of the more scholarly critical accounts of the so-called modernist movement tend to divide the category into more or less two different movements, being what is known as "high modernism," which reflected the erudition and scholarly experimentalism of Eliot, Joyce, and Pound, and the so-called "low modernism" of later American practitioners, such as William Carlos Williams. Nonetheless, despite the problems of reification involved with such a task, I will attempt to invoke a definitions of at least some traits of modernism, as culled from the Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics:

First, [in modernism] "realization" had to replace description, so that instead of copying the external world the work could render it in an image insisting on its own forms of reality... [and] Second, the poets develop…

American poet Walt Whitman, "One's-Self I Sing," "Song of Myself" #s 1,6,9,10,12,14,15,31,33, and 52, and "Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field one Night." Specifically, it will reflect on three pieces of work and show what is going on in historical context, information about the author, what period he wrote these works, and how these works reflect personal experience.
Walt Whitman wrote during the Civil War, and he wrote much about the horrors of battle, and losing one's family, which clearly shows in "Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field one Night." In this poem, the narrator keeps vigil over his dead son, and then buries him, which thousands of Americans were doing as the Civil War wore on. The language of the poem is rich and emotional, "Vigil final for you brave boy, (I could not save you, swift was your death, / I faithfully loved you and cared…

American Modernism and the Edenic Themes
Langston Hughes and Jay Gatsby: Different Strokes for Different Folks in the Search for an Edenic orld

The search for Eden has always had an eternal quality since the development of primordial man. At times, this search has manifested itself as a quest for a promised land full of natural resources, while at others, it has taken the form of a journey seeking social acceptance and harmony. Either which way, man's search for Eden has always been motivated by a desire to secure material and emotional well-being. Though this search is not unique to the people of America, the promise held out by a vast, virgin continent and new beginnings led to the belief that a life in the pursuit of wealth and happiness was possible here. This great 'American Dream,' however, soon proved as susceptible to human greed, bigotry, and the struggle for…

Shannon, Jr.
"Outsiders" in a Multicultural Society

The United States is generally recognized for the multitude of cultural values present in the country as a result of the wide range of ideas that have been introduced here across the years. hile the majority of individuals in the country have often discriminated against people that they considered "outsiders," many notable non-white persons in the country's history have managed to emphasize the fact that they too are an active part of its culture and that they are able to contribute to making society as a whole acknowledge its complex nature. Langston Hughes and Jhumpa Lahiri are two of the most prominent artists responsible for making the American community accept its multicultural character and for influencing Americans to adopt less discriminatory attitudes concerning non-white individuals. Hughes got actively involved in changing the way that the masses and African-Americans in particular saw discriminated groups…

Country of the Pointed Firs," by Sarah Orne Jewett, "The Awakening," by Kate Chopin and "My Antonia," by Willa Cather. Specifically, it will show the development of the complexity, or the straightforwardness, of the point-of-view. Point-of-view is often as difficult to pinpoint as the characters of great novels. Sometimes, the point-of-view in a novel can shift and change, but the bottom line is -- point-of-view is a compelling way to keep the reader interested in the story, while telling more about the characters. Thus, point-of-view is a central part of the telling of a tale, and that is one of the most important techniques a writer can use to get their point across to the reader.
Point-of-View in Three Works

Point-of-view is one of the devices used to make or break a novel, and these three pieces all use point-of-view effectively and quite differently to set the stage, tell the…

American Landscape and Social Attitudes and Values
The relationship between American society and its natural environment has not only been one of rapid social change, it has also been subjected to radical and complex changes in attitudes towards nature. The extent of the this evolutionary change emanates from an earlier view of nature as a Garden of Eden to the contemporary view of nature as a servant of human technological growth

In the comparatively short span of our civilization the cycle of primitivism to industrialism has been compressed and laid bare for study. Less than a century divides the era when America was looked upon as a Garden of Eden or savage wilderness and the time when it took first place as the world's industrial giant. Probably no people have ever so quickly subdued their natural environment. www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=77844365" (Ekirch 6)

American attitudes towards nature have undergone a complex change in…

Yank in "Hairy Ape" by Eugene O'Neill
In the play, "Hairy Ape," by Eugene O'Neill, the character of Yank portrays the individual who seeks to conform in his society and is always in need to belong with other people. Robert Smith, or Yank, is illustrated as an individual who personifies anything that is deviant in the society: O'Neill portrays him as "broader, fiercer, more truculent, more powerful, and surer of himself than the rest. They respect his superior strength -- the grudging respect of fear. Then, too, he represents to them a self-expression, the very last word in what they are, their most highly developed individual." This passage from the play shows how, because of both his physical appearance and personality, Yank is immediately identified as 'distinct' and 'different' from other people.

Looking into his portrayal in the play, Yank also shows apparent dislike for conformity, deviating from all the…

Union Dead" by obert Lowell is a historical poem written in free verse style. The poet details several events in American history, mingling the different eras of history as with a montage. The resulting effect is chaotic, as if Lowell means to draw attention to the inherent chaos, disharmony, and discomfort of war. War shapes history, as the poet suggests, and yet war brings with it complete devastation and always entails death.
In "For the Union Dead," Lowell eventually focuses on the Civil War to draw attention to the way racism continues to tear apart the nation. Whereas earlier stanzas mention Boston Common and other evolutionary War era landmarks and symbols, later imagery clearly connotes the graphic and gruesome Civil War, in which an officer "leads his black soldiers to death." People in power possess a "peculiar power to choose life and die," showing how wars are fought by those…

Obviously, Sal Paradise, much like Kerouac himself, loves American jazz music, especially played on the acoustic guitar by an African-American jazz/blues giant like Huddie Ledbetter, better known as Leadbelly.
As Mark Richardson sees it, writing in "Peasant Dreams: Reading On The Road," "The strain of the basic primitive," in this case jazz, ". . . is what Sal and Dean listen to in order to hear" what they call "wailing humanity" (Texas Studies in Literature and Language, Internet) or, in other words, the vocals of someone like Leadbelly wailing out the blues, another original form of American music with roots sunk deep in the elements of jazz. For Richardson, it seems that Kerouac's application of jazz in the text of On The Road serves not only as a theme but also as the basic framework for the personalities of Sal and Dean, two rebels "on the road" and "on the…

Frost's Poetry And Landscape
The Rise of Modernist Poetry

Between the years of 1912 and 1914 the entire temper of the American arts changed. America's cultural coming-of-age occurred and writing in the U.S. moved from a period entitled traditional to modernized. It seems as though everywhere, in that Year of 1913, barriers went down and People reached each other who had never been in touch before; there were all sorts of new ways to communicate as well as new communications. The new spirit was abroad and swept us all together. These changes engaged an America of rising intellectual opportunities and intensifying artistic preoccupation.

With the changing of the century, the old styles were considered increasingly obsolete, and the greatest impact was on American arts. The changes went deep, suggesting ending the narrowness that had seemed to limit the free development of American culture for so long. That mood was not…

America: A nation of paradoxes
America is a nation of paradoxes. On one hand, it is a nation that has symbolized freedom to many immigrants, as poignantly illustrated in Emma Lazarus' poem "The New Colossus," a poem included on the famed Statue of Liberty that greeted so many refugees as they strove to escape from Europe and avoid intolerable situations. The Lazarus poem proclaims the dawning a new America, free of class restrictions, which can offer prosperity even to the poorest new arrival. Yet federal policies in regards to African-Americans and Native Americans have been marked by injustice and prejudice. The American Dream of egalitarianism exists next to an ugly strain of racism that has run through the thread of American history since its inception.

Emma Lazarus' poem is perhaps the most explicit, famous rendition of the American dream: "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp... / Give me your tired,…

American history [...] changes that have occurred in African-American history over time between 1865 to the present. African-Americans initially came to this country against their will. They were imported to work as slaves primarily in the Southern United States, and they have evolved to become a force of change and growth in this country. African-Americans have faced numerous challenges throughout their history in this country, and they still face challenges today.
After the Civil War ended in 1865, African-Americans were freed from slavery. However, that did not end their struggle for freedom. In fact, in many ways, it only made their situation worse. Many slaves who were in fairly decent situations were thrust out to fend for themselves, or they became sharecroppers for their former masters, barely making enough money to stay alive. This was the time of "reconstruction" in the South, and it was recovering both politically and economically…

tomorrow / Bright before us / Like a flame. (Alain Locke, "Enter the New Negro," 1925)
rom the 1920's Alain Leroy Locke has been known as a prominent figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Through his writings, his actions and his education, Locke worked to educate not only White America, but also the Negro, about the beauty of the Negro heritage. He emphasized the idea that no single culture is more important than another. Yet it was also important to give sufficient attention to one's own culture and its beauty. This was Locke's philosophy of cultural pluralism.

The White heritage has enjoyed prominence for a large part of American history. During the colonization period, the Whites have emphasized their own superiority while at the same time ensuring that people of other ethnic heritages knew in no uncertain terms their own inferiority. This gave rise to a nearly monocultural America, where all…

Blurring the Gap Between Fiction and eal Life
This is a paper that outlines how modern literature integrates personal experiences of the writers into works of fiction. It has 5 sources.

It is quite interesting to note the means by which eminent writers attract attention to their ideas and literary content. On closer examination, we may come to the conclusion that the means by which public attention may be grabbed has followed a definite pattern through the years. While writers like Shakespeare and his contemporaries used fiction to project their literary geniuses, modern day writers strive to catch the attention of the masses by presenting their own personal conflicts and tragedies to the public. The modern writer has lessened the gap between a literary piece of work and real life. However, literature in the classical period is known for its often unnatural and over-dramatized perspectives on life. Today, the stories…

Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane details the life and experiences of Henry Fleming, who encounters great conflict between overcoming his fear of war and death and becoming a glorious fighter for his country in the battlefield. Published in the 19th century, Crane's novel evokes an idealist picture of nationalism, patriotism, and loyalty in America, especially in its war efforts. Fleming's character can be considered as the epitome of an individual who experiences internal conflict between following his heart or mind. Henry's mind tells him that he should give up fighting in the war because it only results to numerous deaths, wherein soldiers fighting for their country end up getting wounded, or worse, killed. However, eventually, as he was overcome with guilt over his cowardice and fear of death and war, Henry followed his mother's advice, following his heart. By being true to himself, he won and survived the…

American Dream
Defining the American Dream

People have talked about a concept called the American Dream for many years, but the definition is difficult to pin down. The reason for this is that as the situations in the country change, so does the view people have of what the American Dream represents. The purpose of this paper is to define what the American Dream is from history, the generally accepted meaning of the term, and how that definition may have changed over the past couple of years.

History shows that the concept of the American Dream began with the "discovery" of the Americas. hether the explorer was Leif Erickson or Christopher Columbus, all of the people who have come to these shores have dreamed of something better. As a matter of fact;

"The idea of an American Dream is older than the United States, dating back to the 1600s, when…

Flushing Remonstrance, Early American Lit
Freedom comes under various prerogatives and religious freedom is something America has prided itself with for a long time now. The right to exercise religious rituals without having to consent to governmental tolerance in this respect is an important feature of the Flushing Remonstrance. ritten and presented in 1657 to the infamous Peter Stuyvesant, the Dutch Director-General of the colony of New Netherland, the petition was aimed at "disarming" The governor whose intention was to ban Quakers and to prevent their community from expanding. Today, it is common for the Flushing Remonstrance to be referred to as either ?the forerunner to the First Amendment? Or the ?precursor of the Constitution, ? The terminology marking the document's significant role in having foregrounded advocation for religious rights.

It was written and signed by 31 inhabitants of Flashing in response to Stuyvesant's persecution toward Quakers. Stuyvesant was known…

American Psycho
In his seminal work American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis uses the character of the yuppie serial killer Patrick Bateman in order to criticize American consumer culture while simultaneously challenging the reader to confront his or her own responses to that culture, responses that Ellis seems to suggest are only removed from the sociopathic actions of Bateman in a manner of degree, rather than kind. To see how Ellis uses the character of Patrick Bateman to explore the dual role of the serial killer as liberated individual and microcosmic representation of society, one may compare Bateman to the real life serial killer John ayne Gacy, who managed to keep his multiple murders a secret for the better part of the 1970s. Examining Bateman's characterization alongside the history of Gacy's murders and seemingly normal civilian life will help to demonstrate how the fascination with the two-faced killer ultimately stems from…