Stephen Crane Essays (Examples)

Stephen Crane: A Great Writer of American Naturalist Fiction and Non-Fiction, and of Local Color

Stephen Crane (1871-1900) was an American author of the late 19th century, whose work, in terms of style and sub-genre, was somewhere between American Romanticism and American Naturalism (with some American Realism added). Crane wrote at the end of a century (the 19th), a time when several literary styles and genres are typically blended together until a new century finds its voice (which became, in the first decades of the 20th century, at least from a broad perspective, American Modernism, of the sort expressed by Faulkner, Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Sherwood Anderson and others, with its emphasis on fragmented narratives, stream-of-consciousness writing, and other narrative-related experimentation). Stephen Crane, given his creativity and thirst for experimentation (he was an early American Naturalist when Romanticism remained in vogue) no doubt would have loved being alive to write at…

The Swede may have been a trouble maker, but he was right about his accusations. He had to grab the gambler at the saloon, because the gambler was already destined to act. They were all part of an 'act' in a play that was already rehearsed and going to be performed like it or not.

The other passage in the story that is very telling is:

One viewed the existence of man then as a marvel, and conceded a glamour of wonder to these lice which were caused to cling to a whirling, fire-smitten, ice-locked, disease-stricken, space-lost bulb.

Here, in one sentence is Crane's understanding of the world in which humans live. As the naturalist, he observed and wrote about the world around him from the Darwinian "survival of the fittest" perspective. He perceived the world and everything on it prescribed by these uncaring natural laws, which could be very…

"The Open Boat" may have been based on Crane's real-life experience but it also functions as symbolic "of man's battle against the malevolent, indifferent, and unpredictable forces of nature…This reading is confirmed by the final irony of the death of the oiler, physically the strongest man on the scene and the one most favored to withstand the ordeal" (Rath & Shaw 97). The futility of resisting the power nature with human strength is illustrated by his death. "To some critics such a battle offers a growth experience: it either allows us existentially to know our place in the universe as we realize 'the absurdity of [our] experience' and of 'the human condition,' or it forces us to acknowledge the 'impossibility of man's knowledge'" of his fate (Rath & Shaw 97).

Crane's journalistic bent primarily reveals itself in what has been called an 'intense pressure to see,' as he fights to…

The proprietor, Scully, is unable to calm the Swede down, unsuccessfully, and the Swede makes an ominous prediction. "I know I won't get out of here alive," he says.

Scully attempts to lay the blame at his son Johnnie's feet, but the Swede will not be swayed. "I will leave this house. I will go away, because I do not wish to be killed. Yes, of course, I am crazy -- yes." The Swede goes upstairs to retrieve his luggage and the men pondered the situation. Johnnie insists, correctly, that the men didn't do anything to provoke the Swede. The Easterner supports the boy, saying, "I didn't see anything at all." Scully follows the Swede upstairs in an attempt to get him to stay, and succeeds. They share a drink and return downstairs. They sit by the stove, ate dinner together and, despite the Swede's increasingly bizarre behavior, end up…

He knows that introducing his wife into this setting may be uncomfortable. Marriage seems to symbolize a settling down of the wildness in his nature. By marrying, Potter fears that he has "committed an extraordinary crime" (970). For fear of his two worlds colliding too suddenly, Potter rushes his bride off the train and to his home so that he can more subtly introduce this bit of civilization into Yellow Sky.

Unknown to Potter, the representation of Texas' past is on the loose at the same time in his town. Scratchy ilson as described by the bartender is "the last one of the old gang that used to hang out along the river here. He's a terror when he's drunk" (974). In stereotypical western fashion, ilson wears dark clothing and plays the part of the wild outlaw who randomly terrorizes the town and its inhabitants. Crane provides ample evidence to…

Long streamers of garments fluttered from fire-escapes. In all unhandy places there were buckets, brooms, rags and bottles. In the street infants played or fought with other infants or sat stupidly in the way of vehicles. Formidable women, with uncombed hair and disordered dress, gossiped while leaning on railings, or screamed in frantic quarrels. Withered persons, in curious postures of submission to something, sat smoking pipes in obscure corners. thousand odors of cooking food came forth to the street. The building quivered and creaked from the weight of humanity stamping about in its bowels.

Their working conditions seem equally filthy. Jimmie eventually finds work as a teamster, driving a team of horses through the dirty streets of New York. Maggie finds work as a seamstress in a sweatshop. They can literally find no respite from the physical filth permeating their lives.

Nor can they find respite from the violence that…

Thus, the town symbolizes the death of the Old West and the birth of a more civilized society.

Along with the symbols in the story, Crane uses a central them to tie the work together. One literary critic notes, "The central movement of 'The Blue Hotel' traces the development and eventual outcome of the Swede's isolation from other men, his retreat away from the world into a world of his own making" (Gibson 113). Another critic believes woven into this theme is the idea of alienation and solitude (Dooley 14). The town is a solitary sentinel on the prairie, and the Swede feels alienated from the other characters in the story, because he does not understand them and makes them into something they are not. The Swede is afraid, but he cannot confront his fear effectively. Instead, he isolates himself from men who have nothing against him, and turns them…

In a fighting scene, we see how he is filled with an "intense hate" (111) and when he "was firing, when all those near him had ceased. He was so engrossed in his occupation that he was not aware of a lull" (111). After this incident, Henry throws himself down "like a man who had been thrashed" (111). Those around him saw him as "a war devil" (112).

Here we see how Henry has an animal instinct to fighting and it makes him look like a madman. Here we get an example of how we are aware of Henry's thoughts and feelings as well as what is going on around him. Crane also allows us to see the reactions of those around him to emphasize what it is that Henry is experiencing. By leaving the narrative to Henry's experiences alone, we are more apt to believe that it really happened…

The arrival of Jake's wife and son some three years after him, rather than being a happy occasion, represents to Jake the diminishing of the exciting, new life he has tried to build for himself in New York. After the arrival of his wife, Jake "thought himself a martyr, an innocent exile from a world to which he belonged by right and he frequently felt the sobs of self-pity mounting to his throat" (Cahan 93-94). Like Maggie, Jake works in a sweatshop making clothes, and like Maggie, he uses his time working to day dream about other things. However, where Maggie thinks of Pete while he is working as a means of escape from the drudgery of her factory job, Jake actually enjoys his job, because it represents such a stark contrast to his life on a farm in Russia.

Thus, Jake's thoughts while working are not of escape from…

Settings: Dulce et Decorum Est and the Open Boat

The two pieces of literature chosen for comparison for this essay both reflect the insignificance of life and the arbitrary nature of the universe. Both works are set to reflect man's struggle to survive under extraordinary circumstances. Dulce Et Decorum Est by ilfred Owen is a poem set on the battle fields of the First orld ar. The Open Boat by Stephen Crane is set on a life boat on a raging sea. In Owen's poem it is society that is indifferent to the significance of a man's life, while in Crane's short story it is nature that is indifferent to the significance of a man's life. Both works take place in the early twentieth century. In each case men are thrown together because of circumstance and are faced with life and death situations.

Discussion

Owen's poem speaks of the horrific…

knew the color of the sky," is the opening line of Stephen Crane's short story "The Open Boat." Jack London's short story "To Build a Fire" also opens with a reference to the impenetrability of the "exceedingly cold and gray" skies. Nature is an integral part of the setting of any work of literature, and sometimes features prominently enough to become like a character with features that directly challenge the protagonist. Both "Open Boat" by Stephen Crane and "To Build a Fire" by Jack London are short stories that feature nature prominently enough to fuse the elements of setting and characterization as the protagonists struggle for their own survival. Nature in these short stories is depicted as being a dichotomous force. It is a neutral element, in that nature has no egotistical motives like those of human beings. Yet nature is a formidable force that can seem cruel because it…

Twilight" by Louise Gluck and Stephen Crane's "Four Poems" on the Theme of Futility

The poem "Twilight" by Louise Gluck describes a specific moment in time of the subject's life, the only point during his day when he can experience any sense of freedom in his otherwise futile existence. This is highlighted in the first words of the poem "All day he works at his cousin's mill, / so when he gets home at night, he always sits at this one window, / sees one time of day, twilight." During the day he is a prisoner of his office and all he can observe of nature is the window showcasing "a squared-off landscape / representing the world." The word "representing" is significant, given that Gluck is suggesting by implication that the landscape in the window merely represents reality and is not reality itself, It is through this window that the…

"Tiempos Amargos" (Bitter Times), with its ironic lamentation on the passage of time, criticizes life under the exploitive Mexican president Porfirio Diaz:

These are no longer the times of Porfirio (D'az), when they cried for the master when they'd meet him, they'd shake his hand, and button his pants.

If one day the steward became angry with a worker it was because there was another one closer to the snaps of his pants.

If someone had pretty daughters he'd get a job as a night watchman, or else he'd land a good job, at least as a payroll clerk.

If someone had a pretty wife they didn't let him rest, they'd get them up very early to work just like the oxen.

El Corrido de Gregorio Cortez" tells the tale of a Mexican outlaw who refuses to give up, even when he is cornered at the very end:

And in…

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…

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is perhaps the best example of Realism in literature because of how Twain presents it to us. Morality becomes something that Huck must be consider and think out as opposed to something forced down his throat. He knows the moral thing to do would be to report Jim, noting, " "People would call me a low down abolitionist and despise me for keeping mum -- but that don't make no difference. I ain't agoing to tell" (Twain 269). Furthermore, he cannot send Miss atson his letter he because his friendship with Jim trumps the morality he knows. Similarly, Jim wrestles with issues of good vs. bad. This is evident because of they way he decides to escape. He even begins to understand what Huck is going through when Huck does not turn him in. His revelation forces him to realize that Huck is "de bes'…

Humanity has worth only when they struggle for survival. Otherwise they can be seen as no more than over bred lice. In terms of my own views, I have a somewhat more positive outlook. While it is true that overpopulation and disease are problems created by the carelessness of humanity, there are also many cases of charity and caring that places many human beings above the harsh perception as mere conceited lice who have survived a storm or two. The technological, economic, and humanitarian developments over only the last century shows the great potential of the human heart. While it is therefore certainly not to be denied that humanity has inherent evils, there are also many contrasting cases of excellence that should not be overlooked. As a member of the human race, I prefer to concentrate on the excellence in others and myself. I find that this makes life far…

For example, a fact was discovered by an anonymous source at the White House would have to be corroborated with other sources. In this particular case, while this is a direct source, it must treated with caution. This means that you want to corroborate the information with other direct sources or secondary / third level sources. Normally, if the information can be verified with at least three different sources, it would be considered to be credible information.

However, when you are analyzing any of the different kinds of sources you must use flexibility and common sense. This is because some sources can appear to be legitimate, while at the same time they are not. An example of this can be seen in the book, the Red adge of Courage, where it is a depiction of Civil War battles. Yet, when you look at little deeper, the author (Stephen Crane) wrote…

When Pete betrayed her by leaving her for Nellie, that was when Maggie could no longer continue to tell herself (and believe herself) that things were going to get better. Her judgmental, hypocritical family would not take her back in after she left Pete's home and she basically had no choice but to feel completely abandoned and alone.

Crane uses a great deal of imagery to portray the mood he is trying to set, and to foreshadow coming events. For example, when describing Pete's bar he mentions that "Upon its shelves rested pyramids of shimmering glasses that were never disturbed. Mirrors set in the face of the sideboard multiplied them" (p. 87). The fragile nature of glass represents Maggie and Pete's fragile relationship and the mirrors represent the reflection of all that she longs for. The fact that Crane mentions that the glasses and mirrors are undisturbed gives the reader…

He is more interested in "things," than what those things will bring. "Nick went over to the pack and found, with his fingers, a long nail in a paper sack of nails, in the bottom of the pack. He drove it into the pine tree, holding it close and hitting it gently with the flat of the axe. He hung the pack up on the nail. All his supplies were in the pack. They were off the ground and sheltered now" (as quoted in Vernon)

However, with time Nick is able to find some semblance of his early self. He overcomes challenges and moves forward the best he can. Despite the fact that he is walking uphill through burned land with a backpack that is too heavy, he is now in a familiar place and happy to be here:

Nick slipped off his pack and lay down in the shade.…

The rise of the middle class and the Industrial Revolution brought forth a demand to render this emerging class in fiction, and not simply relegate it to the sidelines of prose narratives in the United States. Realism in the United States is often said to stretch from the Civil ar to the end of the 19th century. The interest in Realism was also spawned by the crisis of national confidence that occurred after that bloody battle. Mark Twain, Stephen Crane, and later Henry James are all classified as Realistic writers who "wrote fiction devoted to accurate representation and an exploration of American lives in various contexts" (Campbell 2008). Also as the United States grew rapidly after the Civil ar, "the increasing rates of democracy and literacy, the rapid growth in industrialism and urbanization, an expanding population base due to immigration, and a relative rise in middle-class affluence provided a fertile…

"The upper lip and gum and teeth were gone. The man's head was cocked at a wrong angle..." (O'rien 126).

At the same time, the author juxtaposes the image of war and horror with symbols and images of beauty.

The young man's head was wrenched sideways, not quite facing the flowers" (O'rien 128) the author also couples " sunlight " with " ammunition belt" (O'rien 128).

These contrasts reflect on the gentle life that the dead soldier once led and his reluctance to be a part of the war. However, he was obliged to become involved because of the pressure for his family and society. This again refers to themes in the other works discussed, where the social views of 'glory' and patriotism are sharply and ironically contrasted with the gruesome realities of war.

In this story, the writer uses descriptive images to achieve his critique of war. This is…

The fact that a novel in the sentimental and seduction genre attained such heights of popularity is, in the first instance, evidence its impact and effect on the psyche and minds of the female readers of the novel. As one critic cogently notes:

hy a book which barely climbs above the lower limits of literacy, and which handles, without psychological acuteness or dramatic power, a handful of stereotyped characters in a situation already hopelessly banal by 1790, should have had more than two hundred editions and have survived among certain readers for a hundred and fifty years is a question that cannot be ignored.

(Fiedler 94)

The initial question that obviously arises therefore is what made this book so popular and in what way does this novel speak to the feelings and aspirations of the readers to make it such a perennial favorite. As Fudge ( 1996) notes,

It is…

(Eliot, 1971).

The Subjective over the Objective

Modernism was a reaction against Realism and its focus on objective depiction of life as it was actually lived. Modernist writers derived little artistic pleasure from describing the concrete details of the material world and the various human doings in it. They derived only a little more pleasure from describing the thoughts of those humans inhabiting the material world. Their greatest pleasure, however, was in expressing the angst, confusion, and frustration of the individual who has to live in that world. (Merriam-Webster, p. 1236).

Modernist writers used novel means for expressing these newly intense emotions. They did not always express the individual's confusion and frustration by relating the inner discourse of the individual. Instead, they manipulated the structure, style, and content of their works to cultivate a certain effect on the reader. (aym, Vol. D, p. 17). They wanted to convey the experience…

Simile -- A common device in poetry is the use of comparisons, often comparing something unusual or uncommon with something that is more familiar to the reader or audience. One kind of comparison is the simile, which uses the words like or as and compares two things that are dissimilar in order to bring about a fresh view and new meaning.

An example of a simile that does this is found in Margaret Atwood's "You fit into me," in which she describes the fit of two lovers to each other as "like a hook into an eye." The reader imagines a hook and eye on the band of a skirt or the back of a bra, but then Atwood changes the significance of the simile by becoming more specific. She adds the explanation "A fish hook ... An open eye." The extended simile creates a very painful image of being…

Domestic Prison

Gender oles and Marriage

The Domestic Prison: James Thurber's "Secret Life of Walter Mitty" and Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour"

James Thurber's "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" (1939) and "The Story of an Hour" (1894) by Kate Chopin depict marriage as a prison for both men and women from which the main characters fantasize about escaping. Louise Mallard is similar to the unnamed narrator in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" is that they are literally imprisoned in a domestic world from which there is no escape but death or insanity. As in all of this early feminist fiction, the women characters are defined as 'sick', either physically or mentally, for even imaging a situation on which they might be free, for they are allowed no lives of their own. Louise Mallard was overjoyed when she heard that her husband was killed in an accident,…

Martin Luther King believed intelligence strengthened character. My life experiences have added to my intelligence and my intelligence has strengthened my ability to handle situations more effectively by applying critical thinking into my objectives. To begin, I will say where I am from. I was born in Kuwait, situated in the Middle East. Moving to the United States was a difficult time because I had to readjust to a new culture, a new people, and a different way of life. While it took some time to adapt to my new surroundings, I managed to learn several things along the way.

The first was my deep appreciation of nature. Kuwait exists within one of the least hospitable and driest deserts on earth. While the Kuwait Bay has a deep harbor located on the Persian Gulf, other parts have extended views of the sands. Coming to the United States the shift of…

Good Man is Hard to Find

For the purposes of this essay, I chose Flannery O'Connor's short story "A Good Man is Hard to Find." "A Good Man is Had to Find" is an apt topic for research such as this, because the ambiguity of the story's position regarding a grandmother ultimately responsible for the death of her entire family leads to a wide variety of possible readings, each with its own adherents and defenders. Upon reading this story, I immediately questioned the grandmother's role in the story, and especially whether or not the story portrayed her in a positive or negative light, because although at points in the story she appears positive in contrast to the other characters, she is ultimately shown to be reactive, shortsighted, and altogether incapable of protecting either her family or herself. Using Google Scholar, I searched for academic essays and books discussing "A Good…

The research, methods will seek to establish a common basement of the U.S. President Foreign Policy Decision Making Process. Equitable regard will be accorded to the state of affairs that exist between the U.S.A. And Iran

Questionnaires

Questionnaires are samples of structured questions that will seek directive responses from the respondents in the field of study. In order to arrive at making decisions, there are several considerations that the president of the U.S.A. needs to know from the public and the secretary of state. Such questions will be included in the questionnaires. The questionnaires will be supplied to various respondents. These respondents are thought to have consistent information as regards the U.S. President Foreign Policy Decision Making Process matters in the world. Questionnaires are relevant when it comes to exhausting on the exiting trends of management in the country.

Interviews

Interviews refer to face-to-face approaches of seeking to elicit information…

Huck has been raised to treat African-Americans one way but his instinct tells him something different. He does not quite understand the idea of slavery because he is young and he can still see the cruelty behind it. He does not see class as the adults around him do. hen he struggles with turning in Jim, he finally decides he cannot do it. He states, "People would call me a low down abolitionist and despise me for keeping mum -- but that don't make no difference. I ain't agoing to tell" (Twain 269). Here we see that he knows the language and knows what others have told him to do based on Jim's class but he decides that he knows better than the grown-ups around him. In Maggie, A Girl of the Streets, class becomes an important issue for Crane in that it becomes what separates Maggie from the rest…

political scenario illustrated that governments all over the globe are making their immigration rules more stringent because of the rise in terrorism; the implication of this phenomenon is a decrease in international traveling, which endangers continuance of a number of airlines, including Nigeria's Arik Air (Eze, 2010). Hofstede's power distance dimension denotes the degree to which unequal distribution of power is anticipated and accepted by the lower ranking members (in terms of authority), of organizations and institutions in the nation under consideration. UA's score on this dimension is relatively low (40). Power distance deals with members of a society not being on an equal footing with one another; the dimension conveys a particular culture's outlook towards power imbalances among countries, as well. Furthermore, the inequality that prevails in a given society is equally approved of by its leaders and followers. Nigeria demonstrates a high power distance score (80), signifying its…

The First Nuclear Test

Of course, the first nuclear test occurred before the 1950s and was part of the United States' effort to develop an atomic weapon during World War II. This test occurred at 5:30 A.M. On July 16, 1945, at a missile range outside of Alamogordo, New Mexico. Even that test was enough to convince a large group of scientists that the atomic weapon was a dangerous and powerful weapon. "The Franck Report," a petition issued by Leo Szilard and 68 other scientists urged President Truman to first demonstrate the capabilities of the atomic bomb before using it as a weapon against the Japanese, because of the mass destruction that came with the bomb.

This test, known as the Trinity Test, was a tremendous success. "The energy developed in the test was several times greater than that expected by scientific group. The cloud column mass and top reached…

programs have taken hold of many university programs because they offer a "common intellectual experience to stimulate discussion, critical thinking, and encourage a sense of community among students, faculty and staff" (University of Florida). Most of the programs are for first-year students because there is a need to indoctrinate these students into the university experience. Also, students learn to appreciate literature on an entirely new level as they see how one written work can encompass many different subjects. The two books offered, The Red Badge of Courage and The Tempest, offer different experiences for the students, but they both encourage further reading in great literature. However, there is an obvious choice among the two because the potential for discussion ad integration is greater. The Red Badge of Courage is a work that can be understood in a contemporary context and is easily adaptable to multiple subjects.

Students entering college for…

Although the absolute magnitude of group differences on measures such as the BDI may appear moderate, the finding that 22% of troops deployed to the Persian Gulf reported at least mild levels of depression on the BDI compared to 9% of those who served stateside within the first year of such military duty is of clinical significance (p. 422)."

Amy B. Adler (1996), writing for Military Psychology, points out that soldiers experiencing the highest levels of combat stress were those exposed to dead troops and civilians, but exposure to their own fallen comrades, people with whom they had bonded, resulted in the highest levels of stress (p. 2).

The goals of the study were to identify the extent of PTS symptomatology following redeployment and to identify the relation between such symptoms and rank and type of traumatic exposure. It was hypothesized that soldiers who had been exposed to the most…

From the point-of-view of the variation and flexibility of the species such cultivated woody crops rank as no more than cornfields. While the tree farms are conveniently be stretched on the private lands, national forests those are considered priceless reservoirs of most of the biological diversity of the nation cannot expand so easily. The commercial logging is considered as the greatest danger for survival of the national forest system. The timber sales are growingly concealed beneath the post fire recovery and fire prevention missions, forest health initiatives and restoration programs. (Endangered Forests: Endangered Freedoms)

Wetlands disappearing

Declining wetlands and reservoir construction are having spectacular influences on a global scale. (the Importance of Wetlands and the Impacts of eservoir Development) the data of USF & WS reveals that the United States added 2.3 million acres in ponds and inland mudflats during the period of mid 1950s and mid1970s. The country added…

Psycho

Alfred Hitchcok's Psycho was released in 1960, and encapsulates the social, psychological, and political tensions of the Cold ar era. As Raubicheck and Serebnick point out, Psycho could have been a bridge to the 1960s but the film is "less linked to and reflective of the so-called radical sixties than they are of the more controlled fifties and possess more cultural texture of this earlier era," (17). The issues related to gender, sexuality, and sexual repression in the film are likewise reflective of the interest in Freudian psychoanalysis that prevailed during the 1950s. Rebello points out that the popularity of Freudian psychology and theories like the Oedipus complex are played out on the screen in Psycho. Anthony Perkins's character Norman Bates is "connected with a much larger discussion, in the early Cold ar, of political and sexual deviance," (Genter 134). In Psycho, Bates becomes the archetype of the psychopath,…

Grandmaster and Gong Er: Wong Kar Wai's Ip Man and the Women of Kung Fu

Wong Kar Wai's Grandmaster begins with a stylish kung fu action sequence set in the rain. Ip Man battles a dozen or so no-names before doing a one-on-one show with another combatant who appears to be at equal skill and strength. Ip Man handily defeats him and walks away unscathed. Thanks to fight choreography by Chinese director and martial arts choreographer Yuen Woo-ping (The Matrix, Kill Bill, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), the sequence would seem to set up a different sort of movie than what follows, which is a mostly soulful, introspective look at period in the life of Ip Man. Wong Kar Wai gravitates towards dramatic license in many places -- especially with the fictional character of Gong Er, who repeatedly enters and re-enters Ip Man's life in the film (even though no such…

The choice cannot be repudiated or duplicated, but one makes the choice without foreknowledge, almost as if blindly. After making the selection, the traveler in Frost's poem says, "Yet knowing how way leads on to way/I doubted if I should ever come back" (14-15). And at the end, as one continues to encounter different forks along the way, the endless paths have slim chance of ever giving the traveler a second choice. One can see this as similar to Mrs. Mallard's change. As she looks out into the future, she sees endless possibilities for choice and nothing feels like she would ever return to the determinate state of marriage.

The final two lines of "The Road Not Taken" say, "I took the one less traveled by / and that has made all the difference" (19-20). Unlike in Chopin, the traveler determines to take the path. In Chopin, the path forces…

" But he did not stayed longer and started on with his journey the animal hesitantly followed him knowing the man was in for a big trouble with that, as he was traveling the harsh weather also began making its mark on the man's body but he wanted to ignore it and in his heart he was also terming the people who tried to stop him from the journey as weak and not brave enough to undertake such adventure "Any man who was a man could travel alone." With the passage of time and journey man realized that he was fighting a losing battle against the nature and admitted the sage's saying "Perhaps the old-timer on Sulphur Creek was right." As one starts reading the story the reader dislikes the man's arrogance and sheer disrespect for nature but also hope for the safe journey of the person and also appreciate…

1080). Editha wants to turn George into someone just like herself, who shares her same passion, beliefs, and patriotism -- someone who wouldn't hesitate to go off to war. As Bellamy (1979) states, Editha's commitment to marry him is "contingent upon his enlistment" (p. 283). Unless George becomes like her, she intends to cut of her engagement to him, exhibiting power over the relationship and expressing and asserting her own ideals. Once George commits and enlists, he becomes someone Editha can idolize: "I've been thinking, and worshipping you….I've followed you every step from your old theories and opinions'" (p. 1085). In her letters she includes what "she imagined he could have wished, glorifying and supporting him" (p. 1086). What she imagines are the things she would want to hear about herself. George has become someone she would like to be.

After George's death in battle, his mother tells Editha directly…

"I cry at nothing, and cry most of the time… I lie here on this great immovable bed -- it is nailed down, I believe -- and follow that pattern about by the hour. It is as good as gymnastics, I assure you. I start, we'll say, at the bottom, down in the corner over there where it has not been touched, and I determine for the thousandth time that I will follow that pointless pattern to some sort of a conclusion." She does not think of her child, and only occasionally of her husband. The wallpaper and the imaginary woman command her focus. Forced into a pointless existence, and denied the mobility and the intellectual excitement that make life meaningful, the woman's mind turns to other intellectual and imaginary pursuits, Gilman suggests.

Eventually, rather than describing herself as looking at the pattern of the wallpaper, Gilman's heroine disassociates and…

. . "

"I don't recall having sold the house," Ned said, "and the girls are at home."

(Cheever)

In the narration Ned continues on his journey home. Once he is home it is revealed that his house is indeed empty and his wife and daughters are gone. This is just one example of the conflict that exist in this narration between was is reality and what is illusion.

In addition to this aspect of conflict in The Swimmer, there is also a great deal of conflict associated with Ned's ability to swim across the county. This conflict exist because Ned also drank strong alcoholic beverages throughout his journey. It would have been next to impossible for him to swim after he had consumed just a few of these drinks. This is an obvious conflict that would have hindered his journey but the author presents it as fact and not…

Modernist literature refers to a literary period from the first half of the 20th century, one that reacted to the external influences of an increasingly industrialized society, and one that was becoming more and more globalized. This was a population of people who had been hardened and drained by two world wars. This was a population of people who were pondering the future of humanity, human existence, the human condition and their place in the world. When compared to the romantic period, modernism appears edgier and less serene. The romantic period had more of a focus on the natural world and the experience of being; modernism focused more on the inner self, seeing more of a decline and fraught fragmentation with the external world. From a literary perspective, the period meant a subversion of typical norms: modernist prose and poetry played with structure and form in ways that readers weren’t…

They went into a spending frenzy that would carry them though the next decade. They bought houses, started families and settled down to a life of normalcy after a decade of chaos. Illustrations began to return to resemble that of fine are of earlier times.

The Invitation. Ben Stahl. Date unknown magazine photo. Al Parker. Date unknown

ise of the Atomic Age (1950-1960)

The prosperity that came with the end of the war continued into the new decade. Americans attempted to settle into a life or normalcy. There was a significant return to traditional gender roles, as many women were forced back into the household and the men went off to work as usual. Women, now used to providing for themselves represented a new target market. To fill their days they read the "seven sisters" (McCall's, Ladies Home Journal, Cosmopolitan, edbook, Good Housekeeping, Seventeen, and Women's Day). These magazines began…