美国文学复习资料

美国文学复习资料 Early American Literature (17th - 18th centuries) The Puritans and Puritanism Most of the early settlers were Puritans, a group of serious, religious people who advocated strict religious and moral principles. They wanted to purify the English Church and to restore church worship to the "pure and unspotted" condition of its earlier days. They opposed the elaborate rituals of the English Church. They believed that the Bible was the revealed word of God, therefore, people should guide their daily behavior with the Bible. The Puritans brought with them a philosophy of life, which is popularly known as American Puritanism. A dominant factor in American life, Puritanism was one of the most enduring and shaping influences in American thought and American literature. Without true understanding of Puritanism, there would be no real understanding of American literature and American culture. “Puritanism had spoken for the preeminence of the individual, for freedom from oppressive governments, and for the value of learning and education. It led Americans to examine their beliefs, their world, and each other. It gave ordinary men and women a sense of purpose. It encouraged them to scrutinize issues in religion and in government and to speak out. It helped to create in Americans a sense of duty to their God, their nation, and their fellow men. It taught men and women to labor to be good and to judge others by their lives, not by their birth. At its height, Puritanism served as the dominant force in the creating of American literature.” (McMichael, ed. AAL, 11-12) American Puritanism is a two-fold cultural heritage, one being religious and the other practical. Puritans were therefore called "practical idealist" or "doctrinaire opportunist". On the one hand, Puritanism is a highly strict religious doctrine. The Puritans were determined to find a place on the new continent where they could worship God in the way they thought true Christians should. When they arrived on the continent, they saw virgin land, virgin forests, vast expanses of wilderness, and therefore believed that they were sent by God for a definite purpose. Contending that there is only one God who rules everything on the earth, these Puritans thought they were "the selected few", chosen by God to reestablish a Commonwealth based on the teachings of the Bible, to restore the lost paradise and to build the wilderness into a new Garden of Eden. "Therefore the journey to the New World was not just a migration. It was a new Exodus, ordained by God and foretold in the Bible, just as the Bible promised the creation of a New Jerusalem, in America."(McMichael, ed. AAL, 8) On the other hand, Puritanism also has its practical aspect. When the Puritans first landed on the continent, what they were faced with was wilderness—no shelter, no food and no clothes. Their struggle for survival and the movement of pushing the frontier with them as they moved further and further westward made them more and more preoccupied with business and profits. They had to work hard in order to make a living and be ready for any misfortunes and tragic failures that might lie in wait for them. As far as this respect is concerned, the Puritans learned a lot from the native Indians who helped them through the severe winters. The impact of Puritanism on American literature can be summarized into the following three categories: American literature, in a sense, is a literary expression of the pious idealism of the Puritan request. The Puritans dreamed of living under a perfect order and worked with hope and courage toward building a new Garden of Eden. Therefore, they tended to look everything with a big amount of optimism. This went into the works of Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, and even James. No wonder there appeared a mood of frustration or despair in later periods, because as the old saying goes, "always at the latter end of weal stands woe". When the dream did not materialize, when a "Gilded Age" came instead of the Golden one they dreamed of, how could anyone feel? The Puritans' metaphorical mode of perception brought American literary symbolism into being. To the pious Puritans, the physical world was spiritual, nothing but a symbol of God. The world, therefore, was one of multiple meanings. This idea was distinguishable in the works of such early writers as William Bradford, Cotton Mather, Jonathan Edwards and Emerson. In the works of Hawthorne, Melville and Poe, this developed itself into symbolism. The Puritan style of writing is characterized by simplicity. The Puritans have been "abhorred for their austerity and rigidity in matters of taste". They formed distaste for art and for any manifestations of sensual beauty, therefore, the style of their writing was fresh, simple and direst, the rhetoric plain and honest, words simple and spare (not fancy). The use of metaphors was only to explain their opinions rather than to decorate. They wrote non-fictional prose instead of novels. They were good at writing history, too, and biography was once a popular form of literature. Literary Scene Almost all literatures come from humble origins—diaries, journals, letters, sermons, travel books, etc. So did American literature. In the Colonial Period, personal literature occupied a major position in the literary scene. In contend, they served either God or the expansion or both. In form, they were mainly the imitations of the English tradition. Some important writers in this period include: Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672), the first notable poet in America whose lyrics remained unsurpassed by any American women writers for 200 years until the appearance of Emily Dickinson. Her The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) was the first published book of poetry written by a settler in the English colonies. Most of her poems were imitative in form. Edward Taylor (c. 1642-1729), a conservative Puritan minister. He wrote in the tradition of metaphysical poets, expressing divine and elevated ideas in unrelated, homely terms. His poems revealed his efforts to obtain union with God. His manuscripts were discovered in 1930s. Cotton Mather (1663-1728), the author of over 400 works. His works were filled with classical allusions and aimed at reinvigorating the waning Puritanism of his day. He was the symbol of Puritan decline, an emblem of an orthodox doomed to fail. His representative work was Wonders of the Invisible World. Michael-Guillaume-Jean de Crèvecœur (1735-1813), also known as J. Hector St. John. His Letters from an American Farmer (1782) and Journey Into Northern Pennsylvania and the State of New York (1801) served as major contribution to the European interpretation of American society. His essay "What is an American" became one of the most influential single reports on America ever written. Phillis Wheatley (1754-1784), the first important Afro-American poet. Born in Africa, sold as a slave, she was luckily well-treated by her masters and later set free. Her Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773), a collection of 39 poems, was concerned with abstract liberty. Philip Freneau (1752-1832), the father of American poetry. His poetry was a fusion of neoclassicism and romanticism. He was famous for his poem, "The Rising Glory of America", collaborated with Brackenridge. He also founded the National Gazette, a semi-weekly newspaper that became the voice of liberal democracy in American politics. Jonathan Edwards (1703 - 1758) Jonathan Edwards was born in Connecticut, the only son of a religious family of eleven children. A very precocious child, he was educated at home by his minister father and strong-minded mother. He entered Yale at the age of 13, during which time he underwent the experience of religious conversation. He was determined "never to lose one moment of time, but to improve it in the most profitable way." Appointed assistant minister to his grandfather, he later became chief minister to the congregation会众, a position he held for 20 years. His last position was the President of Princeton, but he died unexpectedly from a smallpox inoculation two months after the appointment. Edwards believed in the inward communication of the soul with God. He dedicated himself to God on Jan. 12, 1723, going to converse with God in a solitary place more often. He believed that God is immanent and man can regenerate. Edwards had a metaphorical mode of perception, i.e., a symbolic way of looking at things. He believed that God created the world out of Himself by diffusing Himself into time and space. Therefore, everything is an image or shadow of the divine. Edwards was the last medieval man as a relic of Puritanism and also the first modern American for his knowledge of the new science lighted by Newton. He remains one of the most penetrating minds ever produced in America. At least, he was one of the two most influential persons in Colonial America, the other being Benjamin Franklin. Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790) “If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead & rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth the writing.” Franklin would never be forgotten by the Americans or even by the people of the world because he did both these things. Franklin was born in Boston, the tenth son of a family of 15 children. His father earned a living by making candles and soaps. He despised his father’s career and became an apprentice to his printer brother, with whose help he began to publish under the pseudonym of “Silence Dogood”. Franklin seemed to have a golden touch, a Jack of all trades. D. H. Lawrence agreed that Franklin was everything but a poet. Thomas Carlyle called him the father of all Yankees. Herman Melville said of him “master of each and mastered by none”. He was a scientist, remembered for the invention of bifocal glasses, effective street lighting and lighting rod. He was a printer, issuing Poor Richard’s Almanac, a calendar filled with ads, weather forecasts, recipes, jokes and proverbs. He was a public serviceman, helping to organize the American Philosophical Society and the University of Pennsylvania. He was a statesman, being made a delegate to the Continental Congress. He was the only American who signed the four documents that created the U.S., therefore, he was considered one of the makers of the nation. He was a literary man. Apart from the many foreign languages he knew, his The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin established biography as a mature literary genre in American literary history. Test Study Jonathan Edwards' "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" Features a sermon, taking a line from the Bible and explain it in oral form daily examples and visual images It terrorized his listeners with visions of unregenerate men helplessly dangled over the pit of hell by a wrathful God. His purpose is to awaken a new sense of sin and to prepare them to receive God’s grace. Images or Shadows of Divine Things roses growing upon briars, which is to symbolize temporal sweets mixed with bitter silk-worm, a representation of Jesus Christ, yielding a lot after death sunrise, a representation of the resurrection of Jesus Christ dirty streets, worldly objects trying to defile our soul This later developed into literary symbolism. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin was first started in 1771, beginning as a long letter to his son, telling his own life stories to his son and telling him how to become successful in America, the land of opportunities. Urged by his friend, he began to write the rest of the autobiography to all the young people in the world. The second part was finished in 1784, the third in 1788 and the fourth in 1790. Franklin ’s idea was basically Puritan. The autobiography was a record of self-examination and self-improvement. Franklin believed that “God will help those who help themselves”, “every calling is a service to God”. Interesting enough, “piety” was not among the 13 virtues on Franklin’s list. Franklin believed in Deism, i.e., God created everything and let it go. It is up to the human beings themselves to take care of themselves and to run the world. In order to get on in the world, one has to be industrious, frugal and prudent. Therefore, Franklin confidently believed that America was a land full of opportunities, which might be met through hard work and wise management. The autobiography celebrates the fulfillment of the American dream. American dream began with the settlement of the continent because the wilderness filled the Puritans with the hope of restoring the Garden of Eden. This hope kept them happy and optimistic about the future. The style of the autobiography was simple, direct and concise. The work also gave autobiography an official position in the literary field. However, Franklin’s emphasis on material wealth and material success rather than spiritual satisfaction also met with criticism and challenges from critics. American Romanticism (1800 - 1850s) Historical Background The American Revolution ended in 1783, and on April 30, 1789, George Washington stood on the balcony of Federal Hall in Wall Street to take the oath of office as the first president of the United States. The following years witnessed a series of wars and a period of rapid growth. 1812, war with Britain 1830s, a series of wars against native Americans 1846—1848, war against Mexico 1848, discovery of gold in California, thus the Gold Rush 1859, first oil well drilled in Pennsylvania 1861—1865, Civil War 1869, the first transcontinental railway constructed This is a period of rapid growth and rapid expansion In 1810, the population totaled 7,000,000. Fifty-years later, at the beginning of Civil War, the population reached 31,000,000. A new nationalism emerged as a result of this sudden influx of immigration. The spread of industrialization filled people with optimism. The invention and practice of the sewing machine, the flour mill, the cotton grin, the telegraph and the assembly line greatly increased the production. The discovery of gold in California in 1848 brought about a Gold Rush, which further pushed the frontier to the end. As a result, an unprecedented optimistic attitude was prevailing among people. This is also a period of the discussion of social issues The woman’s issue. By the mid-century, the bread lines and soup kitchens of public aid societies had become an important part of American urban life. Some women thus asked for their rights to vote and to own property. In 1837, the first women’s college was established in Massachusetts. The slavery issue. Slavery existed together with the anti-slavery conceptions. It was with the help of thousands of slaves that the expansion of the economy became possible. In 1831, William Lioyd Garrison set up an abolition journal, The Liberator. In 1833, the American Anti-Slavery Society was established. However, the enactment of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850 showed the strong hold of many people on slavery. American Romanticism Against such a historical and social background did American Romanticism emerge. Coming 20 years later than its British counterpart, American Romanticism was regarded as a period of Renaissance in art and literature in the United States. “… romanticism remained one of the glories of the age. It accelerated the spread of democracy to the downtrodden and the poor. It revitalized art and established new ways of perceiving humanity and the universe. And it remained evident today…” (AAL 1:565). Reasons for flourishment The spread of industrialization, the influx of immigration and the westward movement produced an economic boom and a strong sense of optimism and hope among people. The desire for intellectual independence brought about the fertilization of literary milieu. Magazines increased in number, which included The North American Review, The American Quarterly Review, The New England Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, etc. The appearance of these magazines provided a media for people to express their opinions. European romanticism reached the Continent when young people who traveled to Europe to educate themselves came back to America. With their help, the spirit of romanticism was spread. Such philosophers as Immanuel Kant (German idealism 德国唯心主义 ) and Auguste Comte (French positivism 法国实证 主义 ) were introduced to America, whose works were widely read among intellectuals. As far as literature is concerned, influences are also obvious. , Sir Walter Scott, with his border tales, helped toward the development of American Indian romance and the romantic description of landscape in America literature. , The Gothic tradition and the graveyard tradition came to America and found their way into the works of Poe. , Burns, Byron, Wordsworth, with their lyric poems of love and passion and their concern for nature, added to the nation’s singing strength. Characteristics of Romanticism an innate and intuitive perception of man, nature and society—reliance on the subconscious, the inner life, the abnormal psychology an emphasis on freedom, individualism and imagination—rebellion against neoclassicism which stressed formality, order and authority a profound love for nature—nature as a source of knowledge, nature as a refuge from the present, nature as a revelation of the holy spirit the quest for beauty—pure beauty the use of antique and fanciful subject matters—sense of terror, Gothic, grotesque, odd and queer Uniqueness of American Romanticism The Westward Movement, the pioneering into the West, provided the American writers with the best subject and materials. The wilderness always filled them with hope and drove them to look for an ideal world. The newness as a nation, with people’s ideals of individualism and freedom, their dream that America was to be built into a new Garden of Eden, was strong enough to inspire romantic imagination. American moral values were basically Puritan. As a result, many writers tend to moralize more than their English counterpart. They intended to edify rather than to entertain. Subjects like sex and love were particularly shunned. The immigration in large numbers brought in mingling of races, which made American literature take on a variety in subject matter. American Romanticism was both imitative and innovative. On the one hand, it is derivative. Writers such as Washington Irving, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Bryant, Whittier and Lowell treated traditional literary themes by using traditional techniques. On the other hand, it is also independent. James Fenimore Cooper was one of the earliest writers to deal with American subject matter—the Westward Movement. In writers like Emerson and Whitman, we do hear voices different from those in the European tradition. They not only treated American subject matter but also used innovative techniques. Thus, Robert Spiller pointed out, “a vigorous literary independence” could be seen “in the process of emerging” in the first half of the 19 th century. It is therefore generally held that true American literature was born in this period. New England Transcendentalism New England Transcendentalism was the summit of American Romanticism. A group of New Englanders, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and Margaret Fuller, about 30 people, mostly teachers and clergymen, formed a Transcendentalist Club and met regularly to discuss matters of interest and published a journal, The Dial (《日晷》) to express their opinions. The word Transcendentalism, meaning that knowledge can be obtained through mental process apart from experiences, was a Kantian term, denoting, as Emerson put it, “whatever belongs to the class of intuitive thought.” Emerson also said, Transcendentalism means idealism. The appearance of Transcendentalism was the result of a combination of foreign influences and native Puritan tradition. German and French idealism (唯心主义) , originating from Schelling, Fichte, Kant (1724—1804) and Thomas Carlyle, believing that ideas are the most important thing and that which we can know anything of. French eclecticism (折衷主义) , especially that of Cousin (古沾 , 1792—1867 ) , Collard, Gerando and Jouffroy, advocating the absorption of various sources and ideas. Oriental mysticism (神秘主义) , represented by Hindu works, those of Confucius and Mencius. American Puritanism, represented by Jonathan Edwards and Benjamin Franklin, arguing that the knowledge of God and truth can be obtained only through meditation or spiritual insight. Therefore, Transcendentalism was Romanticism on the Puritan soil. Transcendentalism has the following salient doctrines or features: The most important thing in the universe is spirit, or the Oversoul. The Oversoul (God) is an all-pervading power, omnipotent and omnipresent, existing in nature and man alike. This offers a new way of looking at the world instead of the Newtonian concept of the universe (18 th-centurey, the world made up of matter). The Transcendentalists stress the importance of the individual. The ideal type of man is the self-reliant individual through the perfection of whom the regeneration of society can be achieved. This offers a new way of looking at man. It is a reaction against Calvinist concept that man is depraved, sinful, and can only be saved through the grace of God. It is also a reaction against dehumanization, coming at the wake of capitalism. The Transcendentalists have a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of God. Nature is the garment of the Oversoul. Things in nature tend to become symbolic. The physical world is a symbol of the spiritual. This adds to the tradition of literary symbolism. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882) Emerson’s ideas coincide with the major doctrines of Transcendentalism: The transcendence of the Oversoul. Emerson advocated a direct intuition of a spiritual and immanent God in nature. In his opinion, man is made in the image of God and is just a little less than Him. His Nature, which is generally regarded as the Bible of Transcendentalism, records his “moment of ecstasy” (妙悟时刻) , the moment of losing one’s individuality. The infinitude of man and human perfectibility. Emerson believes that the possibilities for man to develop and improve himself are infinite. Man should and could be self-reliant. Everyone makes himself by making his world, and he makes the world by making himself. The world exists for the individual and man should decide upon their own destinies. The regeneration of the individual leads to the regeneration of society. Emerson’s idea was an expression of the spirit of his time, the hope that man can become the best person he could hope to be. Nature as symbolic of God. In the eyes of Emerson, “nature is the vehicle of thought,” and “particular natural facts are symbols of particular spiritual facts”. Thus everything bears a secondary and an ulterior sense. A flowing river indicates the ceaseless motion of the universe. The seasons correspond to the life span of man. The ant is the image of man himself, small in body but mighty in heart. This is why Emerson called his most important work Nature rather than anything else. His mode of perception decides his aesthetics. Emerson believes that good poetry and true art should teach, serve as a moral purification. Emerson emphasizes ideas, symbols and imaginative words. Emerson advocates that American writers should write about America here and now. America itself is a long poem that is worthy of celebrating. Emerson possesses a cheerful optimism. He believes that there is force that can make the bad good and the good better. Good is a good doctor, and Bad is a better doctor. Angels must always be stronger than demons. Emerson’s importance in the intellectual history of America lies in the fact that he embodied a new nation’s desire and struggle to assert its own identity in its formative period. His aesthetics brought about a revolution in American literature. It marked the birth of true American poetry. He called for an independent culture, which represented the desire of the whole nation to develop a culture of its own. His reputation declined somewhat in recent years because of the cheerful optimism impregnated in his works. Emerson's Works Nature , the Bible of Transcendentalism “The American Scholar”, regarded as “Declaration of Intellectual Independence” “The Poet”, the job of a poet to the seer, the sayer and the namer “Self-Reliance”, the importance of cultivating oneself “Each and All”, a poem in celebration of the wholeness. “Each is part of all, and all is in each.” “Rhodora”, a poem that argues that beauty is its own excuse of being Text Study: Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Self-Reliance" In this essay, Emerson conveys his transcendentalist philosophy and belief in self-reliance, an essential part of which is to trust in one's present thoughts and impressions rather than those of other people or of one's past self. This philosophy is exemplified in the quote: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." Emerson also stresses originality, believing in one's own genius and living from within. From this springs the quote: "Envy is ignorance, imitation is suicide." Edgar Allan Poe (1809 - 1849) Poe remained the most misunderstood and the most controversial writer in American literary history. Rufus Griswold, Poe’s literary executor and whom Poe took as a friend, betrayed him and described as demonic, “with scarcely any virtue”. This has ruined Poe’s reputation. Henry James said, admiration of his work was the mark of a “primitive stage of development”. Mark Twain said that he would only read him “on salary”. However, Poe’s achievement as a poet, a short story writer and a literary critic cannot be neglected. Poe enjoys a higher reputation in Europe. Only in recent years, he begins to be accepted at home. Poe’s poetics influenced the devotees of “art for art’s sake”. He was the father of psychoanalytic criticism and detective story. His position in world literature nowadays was secure. As a Short Story Writer “The Masque of the Red Death” “The Purloined Letter” “MS Found in the Bottle” “The Fall of the House of Usher” -- Gothic tradition, marked by terror and horror -- detective story Poe probes into the subconscious condition of the mind and believes that every mind is half mad or capable of slipping into insanity. As a result, his characters are mostly neurotics, having no sense of their identity, no name, no place nor parentage, wandering from place to place and alienated from society. Horror comes form the workings of an irrational mind, driven to insanity by a perverse, irrational force—an elementary impulse in man. Poe believes that meaning exists under the surface of the word. Therefore, we see everything in Poe’s works with symbolic meanings. secluded and decaying building represents the isolation of the visionary mind falling from consciousness to reverie and unconscious; winding passages represent the wandering movement of the mind; richly-furnished houses represent the richness of imagination, timelessness and placelessness. As a Literary Critic Poe was one of the earliest literary theorists in American literary history. His theories on writing can be summarized as follows. For a short story, , It must be brief, readable at one sitting, in order to ensure the totality of impression. , The first sentence should bring out the single effect of the story. , No word should be wasted. , It must reveal some logical truth. , It should end with the last sentence, leaving a sense of finality with the reader. For a poem, , It should be short, readable at one sitting. , Its chief aim is to produce a feeling of beauty. “… the death … of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world.” , “Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears. Melancholy is thus the most legitimate of all the poetic tones.” , The artistry of the poem lies in the way it is said. , Poe defines poetry as “the rhythmical creation of beauty”. “The Philosophy of Composition”: , Poe gives the theory of writing poetry and sums up his theoretical approach so as to show that the great piece of work should be written this way. , Poe’s fist consideration would be the effect upon the reader. Beauty is the sole aim of his art. As a Poet "Annabel Lee" “To Helen” “Sonnet—To Science” Text Study: The Raven Analysis It took Poe four years to complete this poem. It was first published in 1845 and revised several times in later editions. Poe cited this poem as an example in “The Philosophy of Composition” to show how a poem should be composed. This poem corresponds to Poe’s basic principles of poetry writing. It is an elegy, expressing the sorrow or grief over somebody’s sudden death. It is not long, 108 lines, readable at one sitting. The poetic theme is the lamentation over the death of a beautiful woman. The general tone of the poem is melancholy. It reads very rhythmical, with different varieties of rhymes. The poem is composed of 18 six-line stanzas, the first five lines being trochaic octameter, and the sixth line a trochaic tetrameter. The repetition of the / / sound at the end of different rhymes and the refrain (lines repeated at the end of stanzas or a poem for expressive effect), “nevermore”, suggest mourning and grief. The rhyming scheme of the poem is abcbbb. Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804 - 1864) His first collection of short stories, Twice Told Tales (1837), brought him critical acclaim, but he was unable to make a living. Moving to Concord, he made neighbors with Emerson and Thoreau, but his second collection, Mosses from an Old Manse (1846), brought him little money. It was The Scarlet Letter (1850) that brought him wide recognition. On a vacation tour of New Hampshire with Pierce, he died and later buried in Concord. His other works include: , The House of the Seven Gables (1851) , The Blithedale Romance (1852), a satirical dissection of the Brook Farm Colony (a Utopian Commune) , The Life of Franklin Pierce (1852), a presidential campaign biography , The Marble Faun (1860), about Americans in Europe Hawthorne's literary theory runs as follows: He repeatedly complained about "the poverty of materials", therefore he tried to create "a neutral territory, somewhat between the real world and fairy-land where the Actual and the Imaginary may meet". He believed that romance was the predestined form of American narrative. He made distinction between novel and romance in his Preface to "The House of the Seven Gables". , romance: breaking the probabilities; abstract and high-born characters; place and time to distance; symbolism, myth and allegory , novel: realistic; fully developed characters of middle-class genre; realistic reference to time and place He was haunted by his sense of sin and evil in life, therefore we see "black vision" in his works (the power of blackness, vision of blackness). Evil exists in the core of human heart and will come out although it may take many generations. Sin will get punished one way or another. Text Study: The Minister's Black Veil Analysis Parable: allegory; everything symbolizes other things; a short story aimed to teach a lesson Mr. Hooper: a Christ figure , He has messages form God for human beings; he is responsible for all the sins of mankind. , He is good in the sense that he confessed his sin; he is evil in the sense that he was concerned with the death of the maiden. The veil: , sin, secret evil within the clergyman , the minister’s bravery to confess his sin , limitation of one’s knowledge of death—people go but never return to tell the meaning of death , Everyone has a secret and everybody is born a sinner. What the town’s people see is actually themselves. , a sign of the town’s people probing into others secret—unpardonable sin Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892) Leaves of Grass , 1855, 1 st edition, 12 poems, printed at his own expense , 1856, 1860, 2 nd edition and 3 rd edition , 1867, 4 th edition, Civil War poems , 1871, 5 th edition, recognition in England and America , 1876, 1881, 1889, 6 th edition, 7 th edition and 8 th edition , 1892, 9 th edition, deathbed edition, containing all 400-odd poems Whitman's thematic concerns were many. Everything can go into his poetry. He even talks about sex little sexual inhibition (Section XI). Therefore, his Leaves of Grass was regarded as "noxious weeds" or "a stupid mass of filth" when it appeared for the first time. Whitman was a child of his age: His poetry is a happy medium for communicating his views on the cosmos and on man (Section XXI). Whitman extols the ideals of equality and democracy, the spirit of the New Time (Section XXIV). Whitman celebrates the dignity, the self-reliant spirit of the common man. Whitman responds enthusiastically to the expansion of America. In his later years, he sees the failure of democracy and the social and moral corruption in America, but he still holds a firm belief in individuals. Whitman writes free verse almost the first time in American history; and his long catalogue makes his works prose-poetic. His language is exotic (foreign), vulgar (daily), sometimes obscene (filthy). No wonder he met with severe criticism from people around him. He was a daring experimentalist: free from the traditional iambic pentameter and writes free verse parallelism phonetic recurrencesystematic repetition of words and phrases or sounds long catalogs, giving free rein to poetic imagination Whittier threw his gift copy into the fireplace. However, Emerson said, "I find it the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed." Whitman himself said, "I was simmering, simmering, Emerson brought me to a boil." epic a journey, a self-conscious journey into the poet's experience the hero is representative of America cover everything that is coverable a conscious process of gathering up materials. Whitman celebrates not only what he sees, but also the seer who sees and the process of seeing. a comic epic, looking at the dark side less, with different shades grass (Section VI) common, can be seen everywhere, democratic world sturdy, vital; a sense of vitality of nature and America Whitman's position in American literature and Western culture is secure. Many poets are in his debt. His optimism makes his reputation liable. He is compared to a mountain: You can go around him, but he is there. Whitman has an oceanic vision, a desire to incorporate the entire American experience into his poetry. He becomes at last a national figure, America's whiskery sage. Test Study "Cavalry Crossing a Ford" , The central image: cavalry crossing a ford. , 1) The first picture is that of a cavalry unit winding its way to the river. , 2) the splashing horses loitering stop to drink+ the brown faced men resting negligently on the saddles , 3)The second picture, is that of the men entering and emerging from the river , 4) the guidon flags flutter gay in the wind , The poet’s response to war here is less romantic , The poet is face-to-face with the reality of war on the battlefront now. , “The splashing horses loitering stop to drink” , “the negligent rest on the saddles” Vs. the guidon flags flutter gaily in the wind” , Contrasting Images Functions: , 1)Establish the context and mood for the poem; 2)Provides structural organization of the poem; 3) Contribute to the movement & action of the poem. "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer" "Com Up from the Fields, Father" Change of Speakers: , Suspense: Stanza 1 to Stanza 2 , Stanza 1: the daughter; , Stanza 2,3: Third-person narrator; , Stanza 4: shift between the 2 , Stanza 5: Third-person, commenting on the mother Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886) Dickinson ’s poetry is a reflection of her experience, education, society and her age. • She had a tendency to look inwardly (Calvinistic). • She had an uneasy balance of faith and skepticism. Although she believes in immortality, she is ambivalent about the possibility of achieving it. • She has a sense of both the inherent beauty and the frightening coldness of the world (Calvinistic). • She believes in the unity of beauty, truth and goodness (Emersonian). Dickinson ’s poetry has its outstanding characteristics: • telling images, suggestive and connotative, sometimes incomprehensible • a severe economy of expression • direct and plain words (Anglo-Saxon origin), simple syntax • faulty grammar • no regular rhythm, at most off or slant rhymes • meters common to Protestant hymn books • unusual capitalization • unusual use of punctuation marks Dickinson did not title her poems, and the editors numbered them approximately according to the time sequence in which they were written. Her poetry is a clear illustration of her religious-ethical and political-social ideas. Poems , • A great potion of her poems concern death and immortality. Dickinson’s view of nature a. Nature full of dangers b, distance between men and nature. c. The beauty of nature is elusive; , We see this only when it is disappearing. , We can not hold this beauty. o 712, “Because I could not stop for Death” immortality: endlessness of the journey; death is the only beginning To die is to go on another journey. toward eternity, the end of miseries “Every image extends and intensifies every other. The 3 rd stanza especially shows Dickinson’s power to fuse, into a single order of perception, a heterogeneous series. She has presented a typical Christian theme in its final irresolution, without making any final statement about it. We are not told what to think; we are told to look at the situation.” –Allen Tate o 328, “A Bird came down the Walk—” the beauty of nature and the natural objects comparison of the bird’s hopping along as swimming o 449, “I died for Beauty—but was scarce” Emersonian belief slant (approximate) rhymes “Themself”: plural or singular? Both and neither. “kinsmen”, “bretheren”, religious terms ambiguous capitalization , • other subjects 1) Nature (contemplation over nature) 2) Death & Immortality (one third of her poetry) 3) Unity of Goodness, Truth & Beauty 4)The “agonies and ecstasies of love, 5)sexuality, 6)the horrors of war, 7)God and religious belief, 8)the importance of humor, 9)musings on the significance of literature, music, and art.” Text Study American Realism (1860s - 1880s) Historical Background The American Civil War, which cost US$ 8 billion and claimed 600,000 lives, exerted a great influence on American society, an influence which no one could ignore. In fact, the War marked a tremendous change in American moral values. "The industrial North had triumphed over the agrarian South, and from that victory came a society based on mass labor and mass consumption" (AAL 2:1). The growth of population (doubled from 1870 to 1890) brought forth large cities and towns. At the same time, the national income quadrupled. By mid-1890s, about 4,000 millionaires appeared, which included Rockefeller, Carnegie and Morgan who dominated the American industry in a large extent in the early half of the 20 th century. The gulf between the rich and the poor was widened as a result of the growth of industry. The frontier was about to close. People began to feel a sense of suffering and unhappiness. "The Gilded Age" came instead of the golden one which people expected. This is "an age of extremes": "of decline and progress, of poverty and dazzling wealth, of gloom and buoyant hope" (AAL 2: 2). Disillusionment and frustration were widely felt. The national spirit changed to admiration for driving ambition, a lust for money and power. The railroad changed how Americans worked and lived. It transported products from west to east, and from north to south. People became mobile, too. Stealmaking became the dominant industry in America. This was an age of steam and steel, oil and electricity. The age was still in an optimistic atmosphere. Such a rapid growth demanded widespread education. New York replaced Boston as the nation's literary center. Women became a dominating voice in American cultural force. Realism became the dominating trend in literary writing. American Realism Realism originated in France as reálisme, a literary doctrine that called for "reality and truth" in the depiction of ordinary life. Zola, Flaubert, Balzac and Dostoyevsky were some representatives. Realism first appeared in America in the literature of local color, "an amalgam of romantic plots and realistic descriptions of things immediately observable: the dialects, customs, sights, and sounds of regional America"(AAL 2: 5). Some representative local colorists include: Bret Harte (1836—1902), the first American writer of local color to achieve wide popularity. "The Outcasts of Poker Flat", "Tennessee's Partner" Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin Mary E. W. Freeman, "A New England Nun" Kate Chopin, The Awakening Mark Twain Realism reacted against romanticism and sentimentalism. It expressed the concern for the commonplace, and for the familiar and the low. In style, it moved between gentility and graceful prose on the one hand and vernacular diction, rough and ready frontier humor on the other. Realistic writers sought to portray American life as it really was, insisting that the ordinary and the local were as suitable for artistic portrayal as the magnificent and the remote. William Dean Howells defined Realism as "nothing more and nothing less than the truthful treatment of material." American Realism has its salient features: verisimilitude of details derived from observation representative in plot, setting and character an objective rather than an idealized view of human experience American Realism produced three great masters: William Dean Howells (1837-1920), the arbiter of American literary realism, found his subject matter in the experiences of the middle class by sustaining an objective point of view. He worked as the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic Monthly for more than 10 years. His works include: The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885) and Criticism and Fiction. As the “dean” of American literature for many decades, he naturally became the first president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Henry James (1843-1916) probed deeply into the individual psychology of his characters, writing in a rich and intricate style which corresponds with the complex human experience he described. His works include: Daisy Miller (1878), The Ambassadors (1903), The Wings of the Dove (1902) and The Art of Fiction. His major concern was American innocence in contact and contrast with European sophistication and decadence. For the Americans, this was a process of growth from innocence to maturity. Mark Twain (1835-1910), beginning as a local colorist, later broke the limit and described the breadth of American experience as no one had ever done before or since. His works include: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), Life on the Mississippi (1883), and The Gilded Age (1873). Mark Twain ( Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835-1910 ) Mark Twain was born and grew up in Hannibal, Missouri. He had to leave school after his father's death and be apprenticed to a printer. Later, he worked as a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi, fought in the Civil War as a Confederate volunteer, went to the silver fields of Nevada, hoping to strike rich. Then he joined the staff of the Virginia CityTerritorial Enterprise and changed his name and began his career as a frontier humorist. He began his trip to every corner of the Continent. The death of his wide and two daughters and his financial difficulty brought about his change to a despairing determinist. Mark Twain's major works: Innocents Abroad (1869) Roughing it (1872) The Gilded Age (1873) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) Life on the Mississippi (1883), in which he celebrated the frontier civilization Mark Twain's works sum up the tradition of Western humor and frontier realism. He writes about his people and his own life. He loves them and at the same time depicts the dark side of the society bitterly. His greatest achievement on literature was his use of the dialect and his portrayal of the locale. It was mark Twain who made colloquial speech an accepted, respectable literary medium in the literary history of the country. The Chinese people are familiar with this writer because he was merciless in depicting the dark side of the American society and because he stood firmly on the side of the Chinese in their struggle against foreign invasions. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) a sequel to Tom Sawyer, but much deeper and more mature in theme and technique a realistic picture of the Southern society—revenge, murder, indifference journey down the river: an epic journey, a journey of growth and maturity. Huck was innocent at first and we found him naked; later he changed clothes all the time and found his own identity at last. The novel is also about how Huck changed his prejudice against the Black people. women: a symbol of civilization; life on the raft (man's world) in contrast with life on land (woman's world) dramatic irony: We look through the eyes of Huck, but we see things which Huck cannot see or understand. Huck never sees the evil of slavery. dialect: Huck is regarded as the first vernacular hero. Mark Twain uses different dialect forms for different characters. the popularity of the book: , an easy book to read, stylistically , the theme of self-realization and of seeking one's identity , the growth of a child and the relationship between human beings are universal theme, treated with humor in this novel , colloquial style Anglo-Saxon words short and simple sentence structures repetition of many words and connectives ungrammatical dialect Hemingway says, "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn 'it's the best book we've had. There was nothing before.' There has been nothing so good since." Text Study: "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" by Mark Twain Features also called “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” a story that brought Mark Twain fame a comic frontier/western tale, together with many tall tales, which Mark Twain heard in the western mining camps where he had been in 1861. theme: competition between the pioneers, selfishness and mercilessness of capitalism colloquial style: in the general standard speech of the uneducated Americans. American Naturalism (1890s) Historical Background The spread of industrialization created extremes of wealth and poverty. Slums areas like Bowery, New York appeared where poor people lived and where there were crimes, murder, diseases, violence and all the worst things in the world. Life became a struggle for survival. Farmers were still going westward, but frontiers were about the close. People were doomed to have no more land. They had to depend on the transcontinental railway to transport their products, therefore, railway became their master. Farmers were caught in the grip of the railway company. The spread of Darwin's theory of evolution changed people's ideology "the theories of 'survival by social selection' and 'survival of the fittest'". Living in an indifferent, cold and Godless world, man was no longer free. People's outlook toward life became pessimistic. American Naturalism Naturalism was a new and harsher realism. It developed on the basis of realism but went a step further than it in portraying social reality. Thematically, naturalistic writers wrote detailed descriptions of the lives of the downtrodden and of the abnormal had frank treatment of human passion and sexuality were concerned about how men and women were overwhelmed by the forces of environment and by the forces of heredity Technically, naturalistic writers made detailed documentation of life: nothing but the truth, more naked and wicked than realis created gloomy and pessimistic atmosphere American Naturalism first came into existence in Maggie, a Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane, then had its manifesto in McTeague by Frank Norris, and later came to its maturity in Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser. Stephen Crane (1871-1900) The Red Badge of Courage (1895), bringing him to an international acclaim. War ceased to be a symbol of courage and heroism, instead, it turned out to be a slaughter house, a ruthless machine. Maggie, a Girl of the Streets (1893), the first naturalistic novel by an American, based on the writer’s observation of the Bowery life. Environment is a tremendous thing for an insignificant human being to battle against. Frank Norris (1870-1902) McTeague (1899), a textbook and manifesto of American naturalism, the forces of environment controlling the destiny of human beings A trilogy, comprising of The Octopus (1901), The Pit (1903) and The Wolf (never written), is about the fate of the American farmers. Norris exerted general influences on such later writers as Faulkner and Steinbeck, but he is not much read today for his excessive sentiment and philosophical inconsistencies. Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945) He was the ninth child of a family of 13 children, his parents being German immigrants. Living in great poverty and misery and being humiliated by the misbehavior of his brothers and sisters, Dreiser fled to Chicago at the age of 15, where he began a series of menial jobs. Finally he got a job on a newspaper and began a career as a free-lance journalist and a magazine editor. Dreiser was left-oriented. He visited Russia and had a strong sympathy for communism, for those people haunted by poverty, for the weak and the oppressed. He joined the American Communist Party before he died. He believed that "man was merely a mechanism moved by chemical and physical forces beyond his control", that man was "merely an animal driven by greed and lust in a struggle for existence". Dreiser was the greatest literary naturalist. His works are powerful in the portrayal of the American life, but the style is crude with inexact expressions and cliches. Nevertheless, it is in Dreiser's works that American naturalism is said to have come of age. His Works: Sister Carrie (1900), first rejected by publishers for its honesty in depicting American society, but enjoyed fame later on. He was so depressed by the rejection that he walked by the East River, seriously contemplating death. An American Tragedy (1925), autobiographical Dreiser Looks at Russia (1928) "Old Rogaum and His Theresa": , theme: generation gap: the severe control and strict demand of the parents vs. the rebellion and asking for freedom of the child , social problem: juvenile delinquency, prostitutes and problems concerning foreign immigrants , writing technique: detailed descriptions of the streets, shops, houses and so on, together with the psychological analysis , In a metropolis like New York, a girl like Theresa is very easy to fall. The forces of environment are in effect here. O. Henry (1862-1910, William Sidney Porter) He was born in North Carolina where he had but a brief schooling. He was put into prison for alleged embezzlement of funds at the bank for which he worked, a technical mismanagement in fact. He might have been acquitted had he not fled to Honduras. This began his career as a writer. He had a fine sense of humour and was adept at depicting social life, especially of ironic circumstances. His characters were often plain and simple and the plots usually depend on the surprise ending. His Works: "The Gift of the Magi" "The Whirligig of Life" Jack London He was born as illegitimate son and wandered and roamed around the country when he grew up, but he managed to read extensively. Writing more than 50 books and earning a million dollars, he was never satisfied, indulging himself in alcoholism and mental disintegration. He used to work 19 hours a day, but he spent the money as quickly as he earned it. He finally committed suicide. His Works: The Sea Wolf (1904), super man image, influence of Nietzche Martin Eden (1909), autobiographical Text Study: Jack London's "The Law of Life " The story is about how an old man is left alone to die in the woods while his tribesmen continue their journey to survive the severe winter. "To perpetuate was the task of life, its law was death." "The law of life" is to die for the continuation of the species. The influence of Darwin’s evolution theory is very obvious in the story. Imagism (1900-1910s) Historical Background The 20th century did not begin until the second decade, the first being just a continuation of the last century. Two things made 1910s and 1920s different from other periods: WWI and the sense of life being dislocated and fragmented. WWI was the biggest event of the time. People went into it with extreme enthusiasm, inspired by the ideal of making the world safe for democracy. The War really made US richer, a sense of finding money everywhere. There appeared an economic boom and a sudden jump in technology. People’s horizons were widened to increase their knowledge. At the same time, old moral values were breaking down—bobbed hair, short skirts, women drinking and smoking. On the other hand, there was a tremendous disillusionment because nothing had changed. There was a popular contempt for the law—the prohibition of alcohol, bootleggers, etc. The dream had failed and the country was building up economic troubles toward disaster. A loss of faith began with Darwin’s theories of evolution. Without faith man could no longer keep his feeling and thought whole; hence a sense of life being fragmented and chaotic. Without faith, man no longer felt secure and happy; hence the feeling of gloom and despair. One of the influential philosophers at the beginning of the century, Bertrand Russell, commented on the spirit of the period—Man must not expect any help from a beneficent God. Man must recognize that he is of no importance in such a world ---- Nothing can preserve an individual life beyond the grave. Death will doom all human endeavors and achievements to ultimate extinction. He advises man to believe in himself, to face life with “a despairing courage”. Imagism The Imagist Movement began in London and later spread to the US. It underwent three major phases in its development: 1908—1909 An Englishman, T. E. Hulme, founded a Poets’ Club in 1908, which met in Soho every Wednesday evening to discuss poetry. He believed that the most effective means to express the momentary impressions is through “the use of one dominant image”. 1912—1914 Ezra Pound took over the movement. In 1912, they published a collection of poems, entitled Des Imagistes, in which a manifesto came into being. a. Direct treatment of the “thing”, whether subjective or objective; b. To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation; c. As regarding rhythm, to compose in the sequence of the musical phrase, not in the sequence of a metronome. 1914—1917 Amy Lowell took over the movement and developed it into “Amygism”. In 1915, 1916, 1917, three volumes of Some Imagist Poets came out, containing six principles based on the original three. After 1917, Imagism ceased to be a movement. What is an image? T. E. Hulme: The image must enable one “to dwell and linger upon a point of excitement, to achieve the impossible and convert a point into a line”. Ezra Pound: An image is “that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time”. Richard Aldington: The exact word must bring the effect of the object before the reader as it had presented itself to the poet’s mind at the time of writing. Literary Sources of Imagism The Imagist Movement drew from a variety of poetic traditions—Greek, Provencal, Japanese and Chinese poetry. The ideographic and pictographic nature of Chinese language, and virile laconism and austere pregnancy which characterize ancient Chinese poetry fascinated the Imagists. Evaluation However, a dominant image is incapable of sustaining a longer poetic effort. Thus no great poetry came out. Nevertheless, it was a rebellion against the tradition and offered a new way of writing. Besides, Imagism has become a training school for many young poets. Representatives of Imagism T. E. Hulme: “Autumn” F. S. Flint: “The Swan” Richard Aldington Hilda Doolittle: “Oread” Amy Lowell: “Wind and Silver” William Carlos Williams: “The Red Wheelbarrow” Ezra Pound, “In a Station of the Metro” William Carlos Williams (1883-1963) He was born in New Jersey and studied medicine. He practiced as a physician for 40 years until he retired in 1951. He published his first volume of poetry, Poems (1909), at his own expense (US$50, sold only 4 copies at 35 cents each). His other collections include: Spring and All (1923) Paterson (1946-1963), a six-part epic, a montage of images and themes mixed with the details of American history. Williams strongly disapproved of internationalism, but believed that “localism alone can led to culture”, trying to reach the universal plane of meaning through the representation of the local. He argued that poetry must be grounded in everyday experience and in the speech of the common man. “Say it! No ideas but in things.” A poet’s business was to write particularly, specifically, to discover the universal in the particular, as a physician works upon a patient. He lived long in the shadow of Pound and Eliot, but he was the major influence after 1960s. Ezra Pound (1885-1972) Ezra Pound was born in Hailey, Idaho and brought up in Pennsylvania. Widely read, especially in Latin works, he received his MA in Pennsylvania in 1906, associating himself with W. C. Williams and H. D. He mastered 9 languages and became a professor at 22. Unfortunately he was dismissed after 4 months for having a woman in his room, and he sailed to Europe where he spent the rest of his life. With T. E. Hulme, he started Imagism. With Wyndham Lewis, he promoted Vorticism. He was acquainted with many literary men, helping them to reputation. He bluepenciled T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land and especially helped Robert Frost and earnest Hemingway. In 1924, he moved to Italy where he became preoccupied with economic theory. After the breakout of WWII, he began broadcasting pro-Fascist propaganda to England and America. He was arrested after the War and charged with treason. Held in an American prison camp near Pisa, he then was tried again and declared insane and interned at St. Elizabeths Hospital, a mental institution near Washington, D. C. He was released and allowed to return to Italy where he retired to silence. Pound had many literary sources. He owed heavily to Homer, his hero being Odysseus-figure. Provence was the country of Pound’s dreams. Dante and Divine Comedy also offered him enthusiasm. The greatest influence was from ancient China. He believed that the wisdom of the Confucian classics was not yet exhausted and inexhaustible. Order and tranquility were the core and he discovered Chinese characters an ideal medium for poetry. Cantos (1948), a total of 117 poems, an amalgam of heterogeneous cultures and languages. He traces the rise and fall of western and eastern empires, the destruction caused by greed and materialization. Cathay , a collection of Chinese translations, based on the manuscripts of Ernest Fennellosa Pound was the father of modern poetry. No one has contributed more than he has. He was remembered not only as a poet, but also a prose writer and a literary critic. Text Study: Ezra Pound's "In a Station of the Metro" Analysis a classic specimen of Imagist poetry the use of one dominant image to represent what he was experiencing apparition: , appearance, something which shows up , something which is not real and which cannot be clearly observed influence from ancient Chinese poetry (《长恨歌》:“玉容寂寞泪阑干，梨花一枝春带雨.") American Literature between the Wars (1910s-1940s) Historical Background WWI was a dividing line between the 19th century and modern America, and WWII was another dividing line separating America from the contemporary period. However, the 1920s and 1930s, blocked off from other periods in American history by a world war at either end, were very different from each other. They possessed distinguished features and produced writers of different styles. 1920s This is a time of carefree prosperity, isolated from the world’s problems, bewildering social change, a feverish pursuit of pleasure, selfish frivolity, abandonment of social customs. Important things happened in this period that have brought about these changes. Industrialization and urbanization. People moved into cities in great numbers. By 1925, half of the American population lived in cities and suburbs. Women’s liberation. Women had won the right to vote and many started working by themselves. Mass media and luxuries. The appearance of cars, radios, movies, advertising, etc. changed people’s life. A sense of disillusionment. Young people took part in the War with great enthusiasm, believing this war will end all wars. However, they saw at last their ideals for a better world was bargained away for power and profit. People began to question politics and government. All these helped to turn the US into a greedily consuming society. People lived beyond their means, gambling and making profits illegally. By 1920s, modernism became part of everyday vocabulary of the Americans. T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land (1922), disclosing the spiritual wasteland of modern people, established the modern tradition in the American literary scene. “The Lost Generation”: Disillusioned by the War and disgusted about the society, many intellectuals and young people fled to Europe, standing aside and writing about what they saw—the failure of communication among Americans and the failure of the American society. They believed that the American bourgeois society was hypocritical, vulgar and crude, concerning only with making money. It was a society where individual thought and individual expression were crushed. They were looking forward for a complete change. These people include Fitzgerald, Hemingway, e. e. cummings, Sinclair Lewis, H. L. Mencken, Sherwood Anderson, Eugene O’Neill. Gertrude Stein called them “The Lost Generation”. 1930s This is a time of poverty, unemployment, bleakness, important social movements, a new social consciousness and social upheaval. Some important things happened in history included: The Crash. The collapse of the Stock Market in 1929 brought about an abrupt end to the prosperity in the previous decade. Workers were unemployed, thinking of organizing and wresting power away from the bosses; whereas the farmers were driven off the land by drought and debts. By 1933, America was close to economic collapse. The New Deal. Thanks to Franklin Roosevelt who launched the New Deal, improvements were seen again and a lot of changes to benefit people were discovered. The Leftists. The expatriates came back from Paris, taking an active part in political agitation and social improvements. They spoke on behalf of the oppressed and the suffering people, looking to Russia as an example of a better, more secure social system. They hoped that their writing would play a decisive role in bringing about social changes. Therefore, they advocated new ways of writing and reforms in language. Unfortunately, after the joint Russo-German invasion of Poland, the country was soon swept into WWII. It is said that people in the 1920s believed in everything, people in the 1930s believed in one thing, and people in the 1940s believed in nothing. Robert Frost ( 1874-1963 ) Robert Frost was born in San Francisco, but known as a New England poet. At the age of 10, his father died of T. B. and the family carried his body to be buried in New England, and they were too poor to go back to San Francisco. Frost entered Dartmouth College, but soon left; later on he tried college again at Harvard, but left at the end of two years, bearing an enduring dislike for academic convention. Then he lived by farming, at the same time writing poetry. He got T. B., and began to live in the countryside at the suggestion of a doctor. He used to say he was one and a half men—a half teacher, a half farmer, and a half poet. It took 20 years for him to get recognition. His first volume of poetry was published in England in 1913, with the help of Ezra Pound, which was entitled A Boy's Will. When he went back to his home country, he found himself famous. He later received honorary degrees from 44 colleges and universities, won the Pulitzer Prize four times, and was invited to read his poem at the inauguration of President J. F. Kennedy in 1961. His other collections of poems are: North of Boston Mountain Interval , 1916 New Hampshire , 1923, Pulitzer Prize winner Collected Poems , 1930, Pulitzer Prize winner A Further Range , 1937, Pulitzer Prize winner A Witness Tree , 1942, Pulitzer Prize winner Complete Poems , 1949 In the Clearing , 1962 Frost depicts mostly New England landscape, but his poetry reflects the fragmentation of modern experience and alienation among modern men. The world of Frost can be appalling and terrifying. However, Frost had a lover's quarrel with the world. He is concerned with constructing "a momentary stay against confusion". He wrote in Wordsworthian style plain speech of rural New Englanders, short traditional forms of lyric and narrative. He used symbols from everyday country life to express his deep ideas. He had a lot of Emerson in him, seeing nature as a storehouse of analogy and symbol. In his probing into the mysteries of darkness and the indifferent universe, we see a great moral uncertainty. What he was doing was to explore the complexity of human existence through treating seemingly trivial subjects. Text Study "Mending Wall" "The Road Not Taken" a choice in life rather than a mere choice of roads; important decisions which one must make in life; one must accept the consequences, for he will not have a chance to go back. his bravery to go a road less traveled by; an unusual solitary life; a poet rather than others “abaab” "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" juxtaposition of the physical and the metaphysical The woods is separated from the village. The owner represents human order from which the speaker is separated. the horse: a foil, a character to support the major character “abba bbcb ccdc dddd” Ernest Hemingway ( 1899-1961 ) Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak park, Illinois. His father was a doctor who liked hunting and fishing. Hemingway began his writing career at an early age. After he left school, he tried to join the Army, but was rejected because of his bad eye which was injured when he learned boxing. Then he volunteered as an ambulance driver in France, then a soldier in the Italian infantry. He was badly wounded and fell in love with a Red Cross nurse who refused his proposal. Returning to Chicago where he married his first wife, he then sailed to France, working as a correspondent for the Canadian Toronto Star. There he was introduced by Sherwood Anderson to Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound. During these years he wrote a lot and became a chief spokesman for the Lost Generation. While he took part in the Spanish Civil War, he met and later married his second wife. They came to China, then to London where he met and then married his third wife. They survived three automobile accidents and two aircrashes. About 237 steel fragments have been taken out of his body. He was depressed and tormented by fears and anxieties. He committed suicide by shooting himself with his hunting gun. In 1954, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature for “his powerful style-forming mastery of the art”. Hemingway’s important works include: The Sun Also Rises , 1926 A Farewell to Arms , 1929 For Whom the Bell Tolls , 1940 The Old Man and the Sea , 1952 “The Snows of the Kilimajaro” “The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber” , Hemingway situation: characterized by chaos and brutality and violence, by crime and death, by sports and sex , Hemingway theme: “grace under pressure” , Hemingway hero: wounded but strong, enjoying the pleasures of life in the face of disasters and death; “despairing courage”; “Man is not born to be defeated.” , Hemingway style: simplicity and economy of expression; short, uncomplicated sentences; colloquial style Text Study: "A Clean, Well-lighted Place" Theme: loneliness, the principal tragedy of modern life Two contrasting attitudes of life , the young waiter: in his 30s, energetic, no more satisfaction than his wife and his job; no questions, no worries , the old waiter: old enough to sympathize with the old man; ready to help other lonely people although what he could do was only to offer them a decent place to drink, a clean, well-lighted place as a refuge from the meaningless world. Characterization: no names, indicating the universal nature of his characters. Hemingway sees them as everyone. The waiters are not given names, but we can distinguish them from their conversations because there are minute distinctions resulted from their different experiences. “Nada”, meaning “nothing”, no hope, no close, loving friendship, no truth, no meaning in life. This is exactly the reason for the old man’s attempted suicide. Even religion could give him no consolation. The old man, finding meaninglessness in life, still behaves in an honorable and dignified way. William Faulkner ( 1897-1962 ) William Faulkner was born in the Deep South where he set most of his writings. His father was the business manager for the State University in Oxford, Mississippi. He was brought up by a black nurse who told him many stories of the slavery time. He hated school, had only two years of high school education. A neighbor called Philip Stone introduced famous writers to him and later helped publish his novels. He loved Estella who went to Asia after her marriage. Heartbroken, Faulkner enlisted himself in the Air Force, but the War ended before he finished training. In 1929, Estella came back and married Faulkner and they settled in a deserted mansion where he worked as a full-time author. Faulkner’s works include: The Sound and the Fury , 1929, about the decay and downfall of an old Southern aristocratic family; written in the form of stream-of-consciousness and multiple point of view; an imaginative place called Yoknapatawpha County which closely resembled his hometown As I Lay Dying , 1930 Go Down, Moses , 1942 “A Rose for Emily” “Barn Burning” “That Evening Sun” Faulkner sought to explain the present by examining the past and especially the relationship between blacks and whites. He employed two literary techniques: multiple point of view: how characters react differently to the same person or situation stream-of-consciousness: telling a story by recording the thoughts of a character In 1950, Faulkner received the Nobel Prize for literature. He ranks with Hemingway. His acceptance speech talks about the task of a writer. Text Study: "A Rose for Emily" Eugene O'Neill ( 1888-1953 ) Eugene O'Neill was born in New York, the son of a celebrated romantic actor, and spent his boyhood traveling with his father. He quitted college education and made friends with the lowest of society, experiencing life. In the winter of 1912, he spent 5 months in a hospital suffering from T. B., during which time he seriously thought about the meaning of life and read a lot. After recovery, he began to write one-act plays, and his first full-length play was produced in 1916 on Broadway. His own life was full of tragedy. He married three times, the first two ending in divorces. His eldest son committed suicide, the second suffered from mental illness. His beloved daughter Oona, when 18, insisted on marrying Charlie Chaplin who was then 54 and had already married three times. O’Neill never spoke to her again. O’Neill himself spent the last years of his life in a Boston hospital, utterly frustrated with life and suffering from palsy. O’Neill never ceased his attempt to improve his art in step with the spirit of the times. He tried naturalism, then symbolism and expressionism and then back to naturalism He wrote on many subjects and in a variety of styles. In 1936, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. With the 45 plays that he wrote, O’Neill is remembered as American Shakespeare. He was the first American playwright to regard drama as serious literature and the first one to write tragedies consistently. He exerted great influence on later American playwrights and those of other countries. O’Neill’s important plays include: Emperor Jones , 1920 The Hairy Ape , 1922, about the helplessness and impotence of modern man trying to seek an identity All God’s Chillun Got Wings , 1924, problems of interracial marriage Desire Under the Elms , 1924 Strange Interlude , 1928 Marco Millions , 1928 Mourning Becomes Electra , 1931, a trilogy about the fate of women Ah, Wilderness! , 1933, the only comedy The Iceman Cometh , 1946, a group of man living on illusions and the only way out being death Long Day’s Journey into Night , 1956, autobiographical, people suffering from frustrations and trying to escape from the harsh reality O’Neill was a constant experimentalist—sometimes a single actor on stage, using offstage drums to express the inner mind of characters, characters speaking all their thoughts aloud to the audience, or characters wearing masks, and other experiments. Expressionism, first started in Germany in the field of painting and reached its heyday in the early years of the 20 th century. It was a reaction against Realism which advocated a real representation of life. It emphasized mood, therefore symbolic. Thematically, expressionistic works often depict “conflict between individuals and society, struggles between generations, and evolution of the new man.” Technically, expressionism is marked by unreal atmosphere, a nightmarish quality of action, distortion and over-simplification, etc. Other characteristics are: focus on people’s psychological struggles rather than plot or characterization fantasy symmetrical or circular structure puppet characters representing all human beings interior monologues and telegraphic dialogues instead of ordinary speech over-act behavior, unrealistic Text Study: Desire Under the Elms Desire Under the Elms is a tragedy in three parts by Eugene O'Neill, produced in 1924 and published in 1925. The last of O'Neill's naturalistic plays and the first in which he re-created the starkness of Greek tragedy, Desire Under the Elms draws from Euripides' Hippolytus and Jean Racine's Phèdre, both of which feature a father returning home with a new wife who falls in love with her stepson. In this play Ephraim Cabot abandons his farm and his three sons, who hate him. The youngest son, Eben, resents his father for destroying his mother's life; he buys out his brothers, who head off to California. Shortly after this, Ephraim returns with his young new wife, Abbie. Abbie becomes pregnant by Eben; she lets Ephraim believe that the child is his, thinking the child will secure her hold on the farm, but she later kills the infant when she sees it as an obstacle between herself and Eben. Eben, enraged, turns Abbie over to the sheriff, but not before he realizes his love for her and confesses his complicity. One of O'Neill's most admired works, Desire Under the Elms invokes the playwright's own family conflicts and Freudian treatment of sexual themes. According to O'Neill's stage directions, the elms of the title are supposed to dominate the set with "a sinister maternity." Although the play is now considered a classic of 20th-century American drama, it scandalized some early audiences for its treatment of infanticide, alcoholism, vengeance, and incest; the first Los Angeles cast was arrested for performing an obscene work. Questions What is the central conflict in the play? What does the big elm tree symbolize? What is the relationship between the characters in application of Freudian psychoanalysis? Why does Abbie marry Ephraim? Why does she kill the baby? What is the relationship between Abbie and Eben in the first half of the play? How does this relationship change in the second half? How is the subject of “desire” represented in the play? “Desire” over what? Does each character have a different desire? Does this play remind you of any Chinese play? In what ways are they similar? Post-war American Literature (1940s - ) Historical Background 1950s 1950s was marked by a feeling of uneasiness. The dropping of the atom bomb on Japan caused great fear. The Cold War added the uneasiness between capitalist and communist countries. Senator Joseph McCarthy began an official persecution of Communists and those left-wingers. Many books were published introducing new ideas, which led toward a growing emphasis on individuality and discontent with the society. The gulf between the American government and the American people grew wider. 1960s 1960s was marked by disturbance. J. F. Kennedy brought a new era to the generation, but the following events changed the political atmosphere at home and made 1960s a time of widespread social disturbances. the assassination of J. F. Kennedy in 1963; Civil Rights Movement led by Martin Luther King in the South; Vietnam War; As a result, there appeared black humor and counterculture in literature. Black humor: a way to criticize the Army, the bureaucracy and government. , humor—deep, strong, melancholy, self-mocking; to express the most helpless feeling by using seemingly light-hearted treatment; “humor under the gallows” , characters—anti-heroes, either self-centered minor and unimportant persons or reflections of an aspect of society , structure—anti-novel, no time and space limit, no logical time order, repetitions, emphasis on the inner world of characters , theme—scientific concern or other obscure subject matters (seemingly one thing but another) counterculture: characterized by a rejection of all authority, a dislike and distrust of all national leaders; represented by the Beat Generation writers 1970s The bad effect of Nixon’s policy brought about a disgust with social affairs. Nixon’s failure to win the confidence of the people (the Watergate scandal in 1972) the Feminist or the Women’s Lib Me Generation, an emphasis on selfish individualism Poetry Poetry in the postwar era is marked by a diversity of styles. Academy poets: They thought while writing, mainly following the tradition set up by Whitman, T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound. , Richard Wilbur , Elizabeth Bishop , Howard Nemerov Poets Outside the Academy: late 50s, 60s , Black Mountain School , associated with the Black Mountain College of North Carolina , also known as “Projective Verse”, advocating a free verse style of Williams, believing that poetry is the projection of energy , experimental in form, emphasis on the importance of the moments of awareness, breaking down the barrier between the writer and writer , Charles Olson (1910—1970), The Distances, The Maximus Poems , Robert Duncan (1919-- ) , Robert Creeley (1926-- ) , Confessional Poets: , They wrote about themselves, cultivating the inner world of each private individual and challenging the traditional values. , They describe personal experience and family problems. , Robert Lowell (1917—1977), a descendant of the distinguished Lowell family in New England, suffering form mental disturbances and therefore trying to relieve of the pressure by writing about his emotional agonies. “Skunk Hour”, “Waking in the Blue”, “For the Union dead”, all from his collection Life Studies , Anne Sexton (1928—1974) , Sylvia Plath (1932—1963) , John Berryman (1914—1972) , Beat Generation Poets , They gathered together in San Francesco, reading poems in public places. , free verse, vulgar words to expose the dark side of society , Allen Ginsberg (1926—1997), son of a lyric poet, 8 months in a hospital undergoing through psychiatric therapy. His “Howl” and “ America” contain obscene ideas expressed by obscene words, rebellious attitude toward conventional values regarding sex, religion and American way of life. , Laurence Ferlinghetti , New York School , indifferent to society and social problems , marked by complex imagery and stimulating elements , John Ashbery (1927-- ) , Kenneth Koch (1925-- ) , American Surrealism , a return to nature , Writing is unconscious, writing to record what has come to your mind , James Dickey , Robert Bly , Donald Hall Novel Novel in the postwar period is also marked by a diversity of trends. Writers form interest groups and write about the subjects of their common concern. Southern writers , extremes of abnormal behavior, grotesque characters, violence as symbols of the twisted time , mostly women writers , Flannery O’Connor, A Good Man is Hard to Find , Katherine Anne Porter, Ship of Fools , Eudora Welty , Carson McCullers , Truman Capote, In Cold Blood Jewish writers , city life, Jewish subjects , Saul Bellow (1915-- ), winner of Nobel Prize in 1976, writing about modern man going through frustrations, a combination of realism and existentialism. The Dangling Man, Seize the Day, Herzog , Isaac Bashevis Singer, The Magician of Lublin , Philip Roth, Portnoy’s Complaint , Bernard Malamud, The Assistant Black writers , the anger and independence of the Blacks , Afro-American writers , James Baldwin (1924—1986), concerned with homosexuality, interracial love and racial conflict. Go Tell it on the Mountain (1953), Notes of a Native Son (1955), “Sonny’s Blues” , Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man , Alex Haley, Roots , Alice Walker, The Color Purple , Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, Sue Beat Generation writers , free from all formalities , impromptu creation, automatic creation, especially after taking hallucination medicines , anti-reason, everything going into writing, full of repetitions and pornography , breaking down the limitations between poetry and prose , They shock their listeners by reading their works aloud in coffee houses and bars. , They lived in a wild way, anti-traditional and rebellious. , They cherished a rebellious attitude toward sex, living in groups and engaging themselves in homosexual activities. , Jack Kerouac, On the Road, the manuscript of which is a piece of 100-metre long computer paper typed continuously for three weeks Asian Writers , generation gaps , culture conflicts , identity crisis , Maxine Hong Kinston, Woman Warrior, Tripmaster Monkey , Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club other writers , concern with war, violence, crime , absurdity of existence , black humor , postmodernism , Norman Mailer (1923-- ), multi-faceted talent, calling himself “a chameleon”. The Naked and the Dead is a war novel , Key Kesey, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest , John Barth, The Floating Opera , J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye , Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (1922-- ), stream-of-consciousness, Slaughter-House Five , Joseph Heller, Catch-22 (1961), a good example of protest literature and black humor, dehumanizing all human institutions. , Thomas Pynchon, V , Vladimir Nabokov (1899—1977), Lolita (1955), Pale Fire (1962) , John Cheever, short story writer , John Updike (1932-- ), Rabbit, Run (1960), Rabbit Redux (1971), Rabbit is Rich (1981), Rabbit at Rest (1990). , Joyce Carol Oates, Wonderland, Them , William Styron, Sophie’s Choice Drama Tennessee Williams (1911—1983), writing about the loneliness and isolation of modern man, revealing themes such as violence, frustrations, sex, even homosexuality. The Glass Menagerie (1945), A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955). Arthur Miller (1915-- ), his hero often finding himself under pressure from society, trying in vain to extricate himself from the physical and spiritual quandary and finding release only in death, often in the form of suicide. Death of a Salesman (1947), All My Sons (91947), The Crucible (1953). Edward Albee (1928-- ), influenced by the Theatre of the Absurd and Theatre of Cruelty, focusing on the absurdity of human life, illusions and spiritual emptiness. Zoo Story (1958), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962) Such is American literature, going from the Colonial Period, coming to its first culmination in the Romantic Period, going through Realism and Naturalism, reaching its second peak in the 20 th century, especially after WWII. Nowadays, it is developing in diversified trends. To conclude, let me quote Professor Chang Yaoxin: “In the three hundred-odd years since the first Americans set foot in the New World, the American writers of the successive generations have tried, each of them in their own way, … ceaselessly exploring and experimenting, never content to sit on the inheritance their ancestors bequeathed them, and always managing to improve on and add to it with their new discoveries.” (Survey, 442) J.D. Salinger ( 1919 - ) and The Catcher in the Rye Cover of Salinger's daughter's memoir, featuring a rare photo of J.D. Jerome David Salinger (born January 1, 1919) is an American author best known for The Catcher in the Rye, a classic coming-of-age novel that has enjoyed enduring popularity since its publication in 1951. A major theme in Salinger's work is the agile and powerful mind of disturbed young men, and the redemptive capacity of children in the lives of such men. Salinger is also known for his reclusive nature because he has not given an interview since 1974, and has not made a public appearance, nor published any new work since 1965. Several years ago there was a flurry of excitement when a small publisher announced a deal with Salinger to bring out the first book version of his final published story, "Hapworth 16, 1924" but amid the ensuing publicity, Salinger quickly withdrew from the arrangement. The Catcher in the Rye The Catcher in the Rye is a novel by J. D. Salinger. First published in serial form in the United States in 1945-46 and in book form in the U.S. and Britain in 1951, the novel remains controversial to this day. It has long been considered "inappropriate" and "immoral" in more conservative areas of the United States. It was the 13th most frequently challenged book of the 1990s, according to the American Library Association. Its protagonist, Holden Caulfield, has become an icon for teenage angst. The book, written in the first person, relates Holden's experiences in the days following expulsion from his University-preparatory school. Synopsis Holden Caulfield narrates this story. He recounts the few days in his life after he has been expelled from his school. At the beginning of the novel, he has just been expelled from Pencey Prep, a boarding school, just before Christmas vacation. Expelled from school before, rather than returning home he explores the New York City area on his own. The story opens at Pencey, with Holden and two of his dormmates. Stradlater, his roommate, is good-looking and fairly experienced with girls. Holden, however, sees a very different side of him, and describes him as the sort of person who shaves and grooms himself for women, but doesn't bother to clean the dirty, rusty razor he uses to do so. When Stradlater returns home late from a date with Jane Gallagher, one of Holden's childhood friends, and implies that he has had sex with her, Holden snaps and tries to hit him. However, Holden is not particularly strong, and Stradlater quickly wins the fight. Stradlater does not understand what provoked Holden's attack; even Holden may not know why he takes offense at Stradlater dating a former friend and perhaps using her. The other Pencey character introduced is Ackley, a pimply loser whose relationship with Holden is fairly complex. On the one hand, Holden criticizes this character by calling him a "phoney" (as was Stradlater), and expresses disgust at his hygiene, acne, and personality. Yet, the time Holden spends with him is not forced; rather, he is drawn to Ackley because there is nobody else. Holden loiters around New York City, drinking heavily and meeting various people. He becomes increasingly depressed as he spends more time there. Holden repeatedly observes that people around him are phonies because of their actions. Holden encounters a prostitute and her pimp at his hotel. He hires the woman, but when she comes to his room, Holden cannot bring himself to have sex with her. He pays anyway and she leaves -- but returns with the pimp, who extorts another $5 from him. Later, he has a date with one of his previous girlfriends, Sally Hayes. They head to the theater and go ice skating. The experience leaves him more depressed, as he realizes that they do not have much in common. Through his depression, Holden finally decides to go home and sneak into his house to see his kid sister Phoebe. He has a short conversation with her, during which Holden reveals the meaning of the novel's title: he has a fantasy (based on a misunderstanding of the song "Comin' Thro' the Rye," by Robert Burns) in which children play a game in a field of rye near a cliff and it is his role to catch anyone who goes too near the edge (which marks the border between childhood and adulthood), a role he says would make him truly happy. Phoebe lends him some of the money she got for Christmas, but Holden is forced to flee when his parents come home. Holden goes to a former teacher's House, Mr. Antonlini, where his teacher gives him a speech about life and how, in order to live happily, Holden has to be prepared. After Mr. Antonlini becomes drunk, Holden and Antonlini part to go to bed. Holden awakes to find Mr. Antonlini patting and rubbing his head. (The question of whether Antonlini is gay, drunk, or just a really caring man was never answered by the author.) Holden leaves confused and even more depressed after Antonlini says he was just admiring him. Holden sleeps in the train station; in the morning, he decides to hitchhike West and build a cabin for himself away from the people he knows. He plans to pretend he is a deaf mute, and get an ordinary job. However, he can't leave without saying goodbye to Phoebe, even more so because he still has her Christmas money. He tells her to meet him at lunchtime at the art museum. When Phoebe arrives, she is carrying a suitcase full of clothes and asks Holden to take her with him. He refuses angrily, realizing he is influencing her badly because she wants to go with him instead of behaving in school. She cries and refuses to speak to him. Knowing that she will follow him, Holden walks to the zoo, letting her anger lift. After walking through the zoo, with a short distance between them, they visit a park across the street. Phoebe starts talking to Holden again, and Holden promises to go back home. He buys her a ticket for the carousel in the park and watches her ride an old horse on it. As Holden watches her ride the carousel, his own mood lifts. Soon, he is so happy that he is almost moved to tears. Holden ends his narration by explaining that he has visited a psychoanalyst, and that he is now feeling well again and will probably re-apply for school. Characters Protagonist Holden Caulfield. The protagonist and narrator of the story. Holden is a sixteen-year-old junior who has just been expelled (for academic failure) from a school called Pencey Prep. Although he is intelligent and sensitive, Holden narrates in a cynical and jaded voice. He finds the hypocrisy and ugliness of the world around him almost unbearable, and through his cynicism he tries to protect himself from the pain and disappointment of the adult world. However, the criticisms that Holden aims at people around him are also aimed at himself. He is uncomfortable with his own weaknesses, and at times displays as much phoniness, meanness, and superficiality as anyone else in the book. As the novel opens, Holden stands poised, metaphorically, on the cliff separating childhood and adulthood. His inability to successfully negotiate the chasm leaves him on the verge of emotional collapse. Holden's Siblings Phoebe Caulfield. Phoebe is Holden's younger sister, whom Holden adores. She is in the 4th grade at the time Holden leaves Pencey Prep. Holden holds her as a paragon of innocence, and gets furious at the sight of bits of "fuck you" graffiti in her school, for fear that she'd try and find out what it meant. In some ways, she can be even more mature than he, even criticizing him for childishness. Allie Caulfield. Allie is Holden's brother, two years Holden's junior, who died of leukemia when Holden was thirteen. Allie was mild, considerate, and intelligent. Allie and Holden were very close, and Holden smashed all the windows in the garage of the family's summer home with his fist the night he died, permanently damaging his hand. His death is presumably a major cause of Holden's turbulent maturation process. D.B. Caulfield. D.B. is Holden's older brother, an author who has become a successful screenwriter in Hollywood. Although Holden enjoys his brother's books and stories, he thinks D.B.'s Hollywood career is phony because he hates movies. During Caulfield's narration of the events following his expulsion of Pencey, Holden and D.B. never meet, but D.B. is mentioned frequently. D.B. is only seen in person at the very end of the novel, in the present day, after Holden has finished his story. Major supporting characters Robert Ackley. Ackley occupies the room adjacent to Holden's at Pencey Prep. Ackley is a "pimply" social outcast with poor personal hygiene and an annoying personality. Though Holden finds him irritating, he does feel pangs of sympathy for Ackley on occasion. Ward Stradlater. Stradlater is Holden's popular roommate, and one of the few sexually active boys at Pencey Prep. Holden is infuriated by his date with Jane Gallagher and provokes a violent encounter with him. Jane Gallagher. Jane does not appear in the novel, but Holden thinks of her frequently as one of the few girls he had felt truly intimate with, albeit not physically. Several times, he plans on calling her, but he always backs out at the last minute, saying he wasn't in the mood or he didn't feel right. Mr. Spencer. Mr. Spencer was Holden's History teacher at Pencey. He feels guilty for failing Holden, and he unsuccessfully attempts to make Holden understand the "game of life". Mr. Antolini. Antolini was Holden's English teacher at Elkton Hills, another school he attended before, who Holden seeks for guidance and a place to stay for the night. Like Mr. Spencer, he too tries to make Holden understand maturity and perhaps even succeeds; but, later, Holden catches him patting him on the head while he's sleeping. He fears that Mr. Antolini may be making homosexual advances, and flees his apartment. Carl Luce. Carl is a student at Columbia University that Holden knows from Whooton, a school he once attended. Carl may be a closet homosexual. Holden meets up with him at a bar and is anxious to discuss sex, but his childish and irritating behavior causes Carl to leave. Sally Hayes. Sally is a girl that Holden has known for years. He asks her out on a date, and even asks her to run away with him, but he eventually drives her away by calling her a "pain in the ass" in frustration. He later phoned her house while intoxicated. Maurice. Maurice is the elevator operator at the Edmont Hotel. He asks Holden if he wants a little "tail" tonight, and Holden agrees. Later on, he barges into Holden's hotel room, forcing Holden to pay more than was agreed upon. Sunny. Sunny is the young prostitute Holden hires through Maurice, but he loses his nerve. He pays Sunny, even though they didn't do anything, but Sunny disputes the price. Holden refuses to pay her anymore, and she later returns with Maurice. Mrs. Morrow. Holden meets Mrs. Morrow, mother of a boy named Ernest who attends Pency Prep, on a train to New York. Mrs. Morrow spots Holden's Pencey sticker, and asks if he knows Ernest. Holden holds a conversation with her, describing Ernest as kind, sensitive, shy, smart, and popular. To the reader, however, Holden calls Ernest one of the biggest jerks he's ever met. Faith Cavendish. Holden is told that Faith Cavendish gives up sex to anyone very easily, and therefore decides to call her in New York City, while he is bored and aroused. They have a phone conversation, but she tells Holden that she cannot go out on a date that night, so Holden gives up on her. Themes Given that J.D. Salinger never commented on the work and its true meanings, interpretations are fractured and vary from reader to reader. However, there are certainly a few themes which are discussed in the book - it is what Salinger was meaning to say that is under contention. A major theme is what Holden calls "phoniness." He feels surrounded by dishonesty and false pretenses, and throughout the book is frequently picking out the "phonies" he sees around him. Many of the people that Holden sees as phony are seemingly happy or successful people, though this may or may not be significant. Some readers feel that Holden exhibits the same "phoniness" he denounces. For example, at the start of the novel, the character Ackley barges in on Holden's privacy, and asks intrusive questions. Later, when Holden's roommate Stradlater is getting ready for a date, Holden follows him into the bathroom, asks Stradlater personal questions, and then tackles him while he is shaving. Holden also puts on pretenses, lies, and makes irrational and contradictory assumptions and generally masks his feelings from other people, which alienate him from society, thus questioning if he is a phony himself. However, others say that this is a misinterpretation of Holden's use of "phoniness", and that while he lies and exhibits other flaws, he doesn't fall into his own category. Another theme is Holden's conflicted, obviously strong desire to be an adult and live in the adult world, though he is not yet ready and doesn't succeed, to his immense frustration. He repeatedly tries to fit into adult society, but in nearly each situation, he says something wrong, or is simply seen as a physical adolescent by the adults around him. After being rejected, Holden's response is an even stronger rejection of the people he was trying to fit in with a few seconds ago. This resentment, combined with his observations of "phoniness" in many of the people around him, cause him to be repelled by adult society and to sometimes view himself as a loner with outsider status — though this attitude does not prevent him from trying to fit into adult society again. Another theme in the book is whether or not Holden's education is important. Holden has failed out of quite a few schools in his career, and exhibits no signs of remorse or promise to improve. In the final chapters of the book, his former teacher, Mr. Antolini, gives a short monologue to the effect that it is imperative to Holden's future that he apply himself at school. He tells Holden that he believes that education helps to organize the thoughts of brilliant and creative people - a group whom he presumably believes Holden to belong to. Whether this speech is intended to be considered to be true is convoluted by the ambiguous actions of Mr. Antolini shortly after Holden goes to sleep. At the end of the book, Holden states that he thinks he will apply himself in the next school he's going to, but that he isn't sure and that he won't be until he gets there. Style Sarcasm Though the tone of the novel is gloomy, Holden's sarcastic comments add humor. When Holden watches some men unloading a Christmas tree while taking God's name in vain, he comments: "It certainly was a gorgeous way to talk about a Christmas tree." Stream of consciousness This style, used throughout the novel, refers to the use of seemingly disjointed ideas and episodes used in a pseudorandom and highly structured way that is used to illustrate a theme. Memorable and Significant Quotes "If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth." "I'm the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life. It's awful. If I'm on my way to the store to buy a magazine, even, and somebody asks me where I'm going, I'm liable to say I'm going to the opera." "I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes. That way I wouldn't have to have any goddam stupid useless conversations with anybody." "Anyway, I'm sort of glad they've got the atomic bomb invented. If there's ever another war I'm going to sit right the hell on top of it. I'll volunteer for it, I swear to God I will." "I think, even, if I ever die, and they stick me in a cemetery, and I have a tombstone and all, it'll say "Holden Caulfield" on it, and then what year I was born and what year I died, and then right under that it'll say "Fuck you." I'm positive." "Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules." Recurrent: "No kidding.", "I'm a madman.", "That killed me.", "Goddamn.", "I did. I really did.".Very big deal. "Girls. Jesus Christ." "If you had a million years to do it, you couldn't rub out even half the "Fuck you" signs in the world." "What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff- I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be. I know it's crazy." "Who wants flowers when you're dead? Nobody." The last sentences of the book: "If you want to know the truth, I don't know what I think about it....Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody."