American Literature Until 1900 apuntes.docx

American Literature Until 1900

GENERAL INTRODUCTION: The Transformation of a Nation

The push Westward 1848 California Gold PushPush westwards was mostly northern european ancestry involved displacement of native people, Spanish settlements...more and more whites Anglos west of the Mississippi. Civil War (1861-65)Economic, political, social and cultural differences between North and South.Labor issues including slavery.The Union of the USA (Lincoln's obsession with maintaining the Union) The Union (Yankees) in blue uniforms. The Confederate States of America = attempt an independence. The Confederates (Rebels) grey uniforms. Cost: approx. 88$ and 600.000 slain.Transportation of goods 1869 first transcontinental railroad = expansion and economic development.Train vs. covered wagon. Invention of refrigeration helped meat-packing industry. (Oscar Wilde: A nation of meat-packers) Arrival of telegraph, electricityMany new states admitted into the Union.Massive influx of rural people into cities 1860s lived in country 1890s NYC population of 250,000 by 1900 3.5 Million US population figures1870 38.5 M; 1910 92 M; 1920 123 M ( population growth)1870s - 1880s The Gilded Age Age of Robber Barons Age of the Great Barbeque American society takes on major characters of industrial capitalism. Large scale concentration of wealth in a few hands. Growth of tremendous personal fortunes. Use of science and technology for industrial development.Bitter clashes between corporations and newly organized unions (Lincoln himself had predicted a similar thing would occur) Steel industry, mass manufacturing of clothes, the traditional factory systemA new class of millionaires: Carnegie, Rockefeller, Frick, Vanderbilt 1860s a mere handful by 1890s over 4,000 millionaires. Philanthropists.The Theory of The Leisure Class by Thorstein Veblen The idea of conspicuous consumption Intelectual Reaction A depressing time, Many years for an older, gentler, Jeffersonian, agrarian America that was receding quickly. (A constant is much of American literature...the yearning for a more golden pastoral past) Open disgust and silent dismay by writers like Twain and MelvilleThe Whitman approach = a vision of The People a sublime and serious religious democracy Against so much individualism he spoke of the adhesiveness of love Beginning of the estrangement of the artist from commercial society.

Literary Marketplace Development of a national literature of great abundance and variety, New themes, forms, subjects, regions, authors, audiences, etc. Main forms: Realism, Naturalism, Regionalism The notion of just what defines an American: Industrial markers, rural poor, business leaders, middle and upper class urban dwellers, vagrants, prostitutes, unheroic soldiersOther social groups wanted to be heard included African Americans, Native Americans, Immigrant groups...

The rise in newspaper two magnates: Joseph Pulitzer William Randolph Hearst Writers who started out as journalists include: Whitman, Bierce, Twain, Crane. Became authors after. Magazine Harpers New Monthly Magazine (1851)Scribners Monthly (1870)Atlantic Monthly (1857)Many writers published in these journals and magazines. Written press not only interested in international, political and economic issued but also note some published translations of European authors like Tolstoy, Ibsen, Chejv and Zola. The realistic international art story = the interplay between historical forces and aesthetic developments. Case work: Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert.American writers in this vein include Twain, Wharton, James and Howells. Americans mixed in the vernacular, ordinary discourse and impressionistic subjectivity. American characters created or depicted include: The vernacular boy hero (Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn) the American girl , the middle-class family, the businessman.These writers charted the course for whats still referred to as modern

Forms of Realism European, English and American from roughly 1830-1900 Aim: record life as it was and not as it ought to be. Most famous theoretician on realism at the time was William Dean Howells (1837-1929)Nothing more and nothing less than the truthful treatment of material Characters as representative of ordinary people Henry James and Edith Wharton = works are less about middle-class people than about characters psychological and moral interiors. Twain and James = an interpretation of the real rather than the real thing itself.Twain = the vernacular tradition, people from ordinary walks of life.Huckleberry Finn = the beginning of a truly American Style. James later moves from realistic fiction to more metaphorical representations. Naturalism Similar to realism but introduces characters from the fringes and depths of society. A characters fate is determined by heredity, a sordid environment and just plain bad luck. American naturalistic include: Crane, Dreiser, London and Frank Norris. Philosophical and scientific background: Darwin: On the Origin of Species (1859) and The Descent of man (1871) Humans evolve from lower forms of life. Turns into social Darwinism (human ability to adapt. Herbert Spencer. Determinism and Zola: Heredity, environmentFrank Norris characters must be common but what happens to them is anything but commonNaturalism = a depiction of lower classes under the pressures of biology, environment and other material forces.

Regionalism Another expression of the realist impulse, the desire to preserve a record of distinctive lifestyles before industrialization. A response to the rapid growth of magazines and press bringing a larger, mostly female reading public springboard for many women writers of the age. Local color the urge to immortalize a places natural social linguistic features. capture a particular time and place. The western started out as regional style

1. THE CREATION OF AMERICAN POETRY

Summary of the period: Literature engaged in coming to terms with the society of the times: the closing of the frontiers with the urbanization, unprecedented immigration , the rise in the unequally distributed national wealth, revised concepts of human nature and destiny, the pervasive spread of mechanical and organizational technologies

Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

A powerful voice for democracy and bold innovator in verse form - the poet of the body Individualist voice I celebrate Myself

Life Central event = Leaves of Grass ( 1855) constantly revised throughout lifetime ( 6 times) Book identified also with US history and American people. A language experiment that paralleled the Us experiment in democracy. Youth and literary apprenticeship

Long Island father avid reader and patriot, Mother Quaker. 1830 Leaves school to work 1835 apprentice printer 1836-38 school teacher but unhappy1842-45 journalist in NYC publishes novels, involved in politics.1845-48 editor in Brooklyn 1848 goes to New Orleans, opens his mind and horizons. 1848 joins free soils movement (anti-slavery) 1855 self-publication of Leaves of Grass in July (July 4th) includes Song of Myself I sing the Body Electric and The Sleepers 10 page introduction on poetic and political principles.grass is grass but it also slang for print samples that printers wrote themselves but then threw away. Leaves are leaves but also stand for pages and/or bundles of paper: Leaves of Grass.Influence of the Bible (always constant in Whitman) All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the fieldsurely the people are grass (Isaiah 40:6)Whitman = poet prophet The beauty of the body, the fleshiness of human life = the root experience of democracy and humanity. Poet of the body and poet of the soul (mixture of the material body and the common people, the grass previously neglected by poets)Writes three anonymous reviews of the book praising it. Book praised by Emerson in a private letter the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed I greet you at the beginning of a great career 1856 publishes book again using Emersons quote (without permission) blurb 1857 back to journalism, poetry wont pay bills but keeps up self-image as poet of democracy Doubts about sexuality, deep and disturbing affair with another man. Whitman was gay. 1860 3rd edition visits Emerson, still full of doubts and despair (see As I ebb'd with the Ocean of Life) 1861-65 = Civil War = Spiritual and moral center of Whitmans life. Returns to journalism, visits wounded brother George in 1862, marks with Lincoln Administration as a wound dresser in Washington D.C. at a war hospital 1862-641865 Death of Lincoln, extremely upsetting for Whitman ( see When Lilacs last in the Dooryard Bloomed)1867 4th edition of Leaves 1870 5th edition1873 suffers stroke, death of mother, has to live with brother, no more original writing, constantly making friends with young men, never fully recovers, physical and creative strength diminishing.. (Camden new house) 1874-1880 travels around America and Canada, 1881 Final meeting with Emerson 1882 visited by Oscar Wilde, 1888 paralytic stroke. 1891 final edition (6th) of Leaves 1892 death in Camden on March 26 A backward glance o'er travel'd roads...articulate and faithfully express in literary or poetic form...my own physical, emotional, moral, intellectual and aesthetic personality in the midst of the...momentous spirit and facts of current America

About the book:

A historical and poetic identity, history and culture= influences rivulets (arroyo) that infused the poetry (democracy, the body, the land and the culture)

Democracy

Individualism personalism mixed with faith in the American people. How to reconcile individualism with the cause of union land community? Attachment to the laboring classes, commitment to artisanal republicanism (mechanics, skilled laborers, farmers, etc, early objection to slavery)

The Body

The body politic has it foundation in the politicized body. If life and soul are sacred, the human body is sacred Slaves, prostitutes, dullfaced inmigrants are all equally spaced. Sexual electricity the body electric constant references to sexuality (the urge to procreate)

The Land

Early influences of Long Island, the sea informative stamps, on his characterBrooklyn and NYC America's first urban poetA sort of combination of the rural coast line and the big city Humanity = distinct from natureHumanity= continues with nature

Culture

The city, the Bible, Emerson, (self-reliance, the American scholar, the poet) OperaA secular priest and prophet, mystical experience of oneness with nature. Whitman also fascinated by photography (new upcoming art form)

LEAVES OF GRASS

Changed the face of poetry Free verse, repetition of words and sounds to create a web-like form.Abandons traditional diction, uses the languages of everyday life.Subject matter normally outside the traditional scope of poetry including low topics like the human body, sexuality, life in the streets.

Song of Myself

Masterpiece and longest poemExperimentation in form and style, development of a fluid persona embodying the self within a democratic union. Celebration of a mystical experience that emerges spirituality with the experience of sexuality and the body. Use of catalogues of images and expanded vignettes (the web-like forms)Exploration of the limits of human knowledge and language Experiment at all levels: Level of phrase, me and stanza = no limits, phrase itself determines length and indicate shifts in topic, perspective or voice. Reads almost like prose. Whole text = blends genres of epic and lyric

1. Fuses the function of bardic poet and the hero who is I. The personal involvement characteristic of lyric poetry. The bard = the bearer of culture. Involved in everyday things.Epic poetry of arms and the man I sing (Virgil)...Sing Muse... (Milton)I celebrate myself and sing myself (Whitman)

2. The Me Myself = stands apart from the I and observes the world with an amused smile 3. The soul that represents his deepest and most universal essence I and you interplay with each other throughout the poemThe boundaries of time, place, language and social distinction dissolve merging with visions of the personal, political and metaphysical.

WHEN LILACS LAST IN THE DOORYARD BLOOMD

14 April 1685 President Lincoln is shot, dies next day20 April Body is in state in Washington D.C. 21 April, body is taken by train to Springfield, Illinois (Lincolns birthplace) 1,600 miles for burial on May 4Poem written and published Autumn 1865 Poem = traditional style of the elegy (more formal than used for Whitman) A poem constantly circling back upon itself. (It repeats three man motifs the Walls, the Star (Venus) and the Thrush) Whitman always said that he remembered getting the news about Lincolns assassination. Lilacs were in bloom and Venus (Star) was also clearly visible. The start (Venus)The lilacs notice both sight and scent (color and smell) The hermit thrush Alliteration, metaphor, personificationMetonymy Something that stands for the part of the whole (Lincoln = the entire nation) The particular to the whole or the personal to the impersonal

Emily Dickinson ( 1830 - 1886)

Life

Dec 10, 1830 Emily Elizabeth Dickinson is born in Amherst, Massachusetts. She is the second of three children of Edward and Emily Norcross Dickinson. She was a year younger than her brother William Austin and two years older than her sister Lavinia. Father appointed Treasurer at Amherst College. 1840. Emily and her sister Lavinia begin classes at Amherst Academy. In her seven years of schooling there, she is frequently absent due to illness.Apr.1844 Dickinsons second cousin and good friend Sophia Holland dies of typhus. thirteen-year-old Emily is deeply shaken by the girls death. 1846. Leonard Humphrey, an educator in his early twenties, takes over as principal of Amherst Academy. Dickinson grows close to him as a friend and mentor. He is one of several older men she refers to throughout her life as a masterAug 10, 1847. Dickinson completes her studies at Amherst Academy and enrolls at the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (later Mount Holyoke College). Mount Holyoke classifies its students into three religious categories: women who were established Christians, women who expressed hope, and those without hope. Dickinson is No Hoper. Mar 25, 1848. Less than a year into college. Dickinson quits her studies for reasons that remain unclear - possibly poor health, homesickness, her parents wishes or her dislike of the school. her brother Austin arrives at Mount Holyoke to escort her home. 1850. Dickinsons friend and former principal, Leonard Humphrey, dies unexpectedly at the age of 25. The tears come, and I cannot brush them away; I would not if I could, for they are the only tribute I can pay the departed Humphrey, Dickinson writes to her friend Abiah Root. begins reading Emersons Poems (1847 Edition)1852. Father is elected Representative to congress. 1855. For the first and only time in her life, Dickinson travels outside the borders of her home state. With her mother and sister, she spends three weeks in Washington, D.C. visiting her Congressman father; she then spends two weeks with relatives in Philadelphia. After their return, Dickinsons mother falls ill. meets Reverend Charles Wadsworth. 1856. Dickinsons brother, William, marries Emilys friend, Susan Gilbert. The new sisters-in-law have an intense, tempestuous relationship. Though Dickinson craves Gilberts approval, the aloof, brooding Gilbert frequently hurts her delicate sister-in laws feelings. 1857. Emerson speaks in Amherst and meets several members of the family. 1858. Dickinson starts making formal copies of her poems. Some of her appear in the Springfield Republican, a paper edited by her friend, Samuel Bowles. 1860. Wadsworth visits Emily Dickinson in Amherst. Apr. 1862. After reading an essay by literary critic and abolitionist Thomas Wentworth Higginson in The Atlantic Monthly, Dickinson writes him to ask him to review her poetry. They strike up a correspondence that lasts for years. 1864. Poems appear in Drum Beat to raise money for Union soldiers medical expenses. Dickinson also publishes poems in the Brooklyn Daily Union. 1867. Dickinson begins to voluntarily withdraw from social life, preferring to speak with visitors through a door rather than face-to-face. It is her most productive period of writing. She stays active by sending numerous letters to favorite correspondents. 1870. After repeatedly declining his requests for a meeting or photograph. Dickinson meets Thomas Wentworth Higginson, her pen pal of eight years. She came toward me with two daylilies, which she put in a childlike way into my hand, saying softly, under her breath, These are my introduction, Higginson recalled of their unusual meeting.1872. In 1872 (or possibly in 1873), Dickinson makes the acquaintance of Massachusetts Supreme Court Judge Otis Phillips Lord. They exchange numerous letters over the years. scholars speculate that the two may have become romantically involved after the death of Otiss wife in 1877. Jun 16, 1874. Dickinsons father, Edward, dies of a stroke in Boston at the age of 71. he is buried in Amherst. Emily Dickinson does not attend her fathers services, listening to the funeral instead from her room upstairs. Nov 14, 1882. Dickinsons mother, Emily Norcross Dickinson, dies. Her death relieves Emily, who had spent much of the last 30 years caring for her bedridden mother. 1883. Gilbert Dickinson, William and Susans son and Emilys favorite nephew, dies of typhoid fever. Mar. 1884. Dickinsons most important attachment, Judge Otis Phillips Lord, dies. May 15, 1886. Emily Dickinson dies of Brights Disease - a kidney ailment now known as nephritis. After her coffin is carried - per her instructions- through fields of buttercups, she is buried in West Cemetery in Amherst.1890. Dickinsons sister, Lavinia, discovers hundreds of Emilys unpublished poems in her desk after her death. they are published together for the first time four years after Emilys death and become wildly successful, going through eleven printings in two years.

Poetry

Poetry very compact, generally written in quatrains. (Many church hymns were written in the same style)Punctuation? As many theories as scholars studying it. Syntax is totally free (compactness)A dash (-) generally indicates something is missingCapital letters? Your theory may be as good as anotherSlant rhyme (not exact) but sometimes

Wild nights - Wild nights! paraphrase: two lovers who are apart and wish they were together. The pain of being apart.

My life closed twice before its closeTalks about his/her life, which has been closed twice before its close. What would happen a third time? The person maybe is saying I wonder if it will happen again? This event was huge, hopeless to conceive. Then the person says: Parting leave or separating : Death. Someone close to him/her who has died. Heaven and hell: pain would be taken as hell and heaven as death not to feel. Paraphrase: pain of the loss of someone dear.

Tell all the Truth but tell it slantTalks about Truth. Is talking to the reader. Be careful with the Truth. Dont hear people. Truth = hurts. So be careful how you tell it. Or every man be blind : dont go to the past.Tell the truth gradually, because it can blind.

I died for Beauty, but was scarce The speaker, 1st person, very clear. This I is narrating something. Two death people are talking. Tomb They said they died. Why they died? Beauty and Truth. Truth is Beauty? Beauty is Truth? The same? They put this person in the tomb, this person who dies for truth and asked a question. Why I failed? Why failed? Why this use of failed? Time's passing. Everything is ridiculous. Everything is in vain.

This is my letter to the world And I who the poet is talking to? To everyone. To The world countrymen. Once again a good place to start here. Ending. We have a judge verb. To judge her the speaking of the poem. tenderly. It seems the people she wants to judge are countrymen. What is supposed to be judge? A letter. She has written to the world. About something of the world. The world didnt write a letter to her. Nature is the one that intended her to write the letter in a tender Majesty. Is a simple new message of the letter and gives the letter to someone. This person, this letter dictated by nature give the letter to someone to hands I cannot see, and dont judge me. Poem about her own poetry. Spiritual message. Death? God?

I heard a Fly buzz- when I died - Death people talking again.Who is the speaker? A dead person. The main event here is the moment of death. There is a kind of ghost story. The 1st line is exactly what happened. A Fly buzz what the rest of the poem with the moment of dying he heard a fly buzz. No sound. No movement. Very still. This person is dying. The eyes around had wrung them dry expecting death = KINGThis person knows she is going to die. The death is not unexpected and he has given his things away. But Here goes the Fly. Fly= Blue. The very moment of death. The fly is between the light and him. la mosca no le deja ver la luz. Death supposed to be peaceful, but something spoked spoiled it up, the fly. KING? = Death or God. If its God and light can see the light because of the light. Fly= Satan / doubts behind that window.

My life had stood - a loaded Gun - Talks about her life (narrator) my life = loaded Gun. The owner passed by carried it away. The Gun is the Corner. Second stanza. We = gun and her. Gun talking echo. The gun is talking. I fire I speak

2. AMERICAN HUMOR AND THE RISE OF THE WEST

Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)

Life

1835 Samuel Clemens was born prematurely on November 30 in at Florida, Missouri. (Halleys Comet was visible.)1839 The family moved to Hannibal, Missouri.1847 His father died on March 24.1848 He became a printer's apprentice.1850 He began working for his brother, Orion, who had purchased the "Western Union" newspaper,1852 Several of his sketches were published, including "The Dandy Frightening the Squatter."1853He moved to St. Louis, New York and Philadelphia.1854 He visited Washington, DC in February.1857 He became a cub-pilot for Horace Bixby, learning the river by day and night.1858 Sam's youngest brother, Henry Clemens, died from injuries he incurred in a steamboat accident.1859 He became a fully licensed riverboat pilot.1861 The Civil War broke out, ending riverboat travel. After a brief stint as a soldier, he journeyed to Carson City, Nevada with his brother, Orion.1862 He explored Nevada and California.1865 "Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog"was published, and brought him recognition.1866 He was sent to Hawaii as a correspondent. He wrote travel letters, and lectured on his experiences when he returned to California.1867 He traveled through Europe and the Holy Land, sending travel letters along the way. His journey also provided material for "The Innocents Abroad," which would become his first published book.1869 He became engaged to Olivia Langdon of Elmira, New York on February 4. His first book, "The Innocents Abroad," was published.1870 He married Olivia Langdon on February 2, 1870. A son, Langdon, was born November 7, but he died in infancy.1872 A daughter, Susy, was born on March 19. "Roughing It" was published.1873 "The Guilded Age" was published.1874 A daughter, Clara, was born on June 8.1876 "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" was published.1878 He traveled through Europe with his family.1880 A daughter, Jean, was born on July 26. "A Tramp Abroad" was published.1882 "The Prince and the Pauper" was published.1883 "Life on the Mississippi" was published.1885 "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" was published.1889 "Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" was published.1890 His mother died.1891 He traveled through Europe with his family.1892 "Extracts from Adam's Diary" was published.1894 "Pudd'nhead Wilson" was published.1895 He filed for bankruptcy. His daughter, Susy, died of meningitis on August 18.1896 "Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc" was published.1897 "Following the Equator" was published.1900 "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories" was published.1901 He received an honorary doctorate from Yale University.1902 He received an honorary doctorate from University of Missouri.1903 He sailed for Florence, Italy with Olivia.1904 His wife, Olivia, died in Florence on June 5, and he returned to New York.1905 "Extracts from Eve's Diary" was published.906 "What is Man" was published.1907 He received an honorary degree from Oxford.1909 His daughter, Clara, married Ossip Gabrilowitsch at Stormfield, on October 6. His daughter, Jean, died on December 24.1910 He died on April 21. He was buried in his wifes familys plot, in Woodlawn Cemetery, in Elmira, New York.1962 "Letters from Earth" was published. THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN Comprehension questions

CHAPTER 1 1. What point of view is the story written in? In 1st person narrator = Huck is the narrator 2. How did Huck become wealthy and how much money does he have?Tom and Huck found the money that the robbers hid in the cave, and it make them rich. Theyve get six thousand dollars apiece - all gold. 3. Is Huck superstitious? Explain.Yes, but not a lot ( see notes on the book) 4. Who does Huck live with?The widow Douglas and her sister Miss Watson CHAPTER 2 1. Who is Jim? Mis Watsons nigger = a slave 2. What trick does Tom play on Jim? What does this say about Tom?He slipped Jims hat off his head and hug it on a limb right over him, and jim stirred a little. Tom is a prankster and a bit of a scoundrel. 3. What story does Jim tell to explain Toms trick?It was the witches 4. What is Tom Sawyers Gang?A group of boys who want to rob people on the road and killed then. Tom says everything must be done according to the book of rules. (Tom has read every boys book in the world it seems) CHAPTER 3 1. How does Huck feel about prayer?The Widow Douglas and Miss Watson are trying to sivilize Huck. One thing is with prayer There ain't nothing in it something about providence that Huck doesnt understand but he does understand about being good to people. 2. What kind of father was Pap Finn?Pap is drunk and abusive3. How effective is Tom Sawyers Gang?Not really effective at all. They dont really hurt anybody. Huck finds it rather silly in the end. CHAPTER 4 1. How does Huck know he will have a bad day?He spilt some salt2. What does Huck think about school? At first he hated it but then he could stand it. 3. What does Huck do with his property? Why?He gives the money to Judge Thatcher for safekeeping. He thinks his father will steal it. 4. Who does Huck go to in order to ask about his future?Jim 5. What is Hucks fortune and who foretells it?The hair ball / Jim . (See notes on the book) 6. Who is sitting in Hucks room when he gets home?Pap CHAPTER 5 1. What does Pap look like? (See notes on the book) 2. Why is Pap upset with Huck?Huck goes to school and knows how to read. Pap hates that

3. What does Pap want from Huck? Can Huck give it to him?His money. No, he gave it to judge Thatcher4. What is the new judges decision about Huck?The new judge thinks that Huck must live with his father5. Is Pap a reformed man?Obviously, no CHAPTER 6 1. Where does Pap take Huck?To an old log cabin 2. Does Huck like living with Pap? Why or why not?Yeas and no, because he is abused and yes because the father doesnt force him to be cultured well-dressed, etc sivilize3. Does Huck want to be civilized?No4. What does Pap complain about?The government not letting him have his sons money and letting niggers vite in some states. Pap is a bigot (racist) 5. What happens after Pap gets drunk?He suffers delirium tremens

CHAPTER 7 1. What does Huck find?A canoe2. How does Huck escape?He stages his own murder and disappearance An elaborate a plan as Tom Sawyer might think of 3. Where does Huck go?Jacksons Island CHAPTER 8 1. Who else is on the island? Why?Jim. He thinks that Miss Watson is going to sell him for $ 800 2. What other superstitions are we introduced to?(See notes on the book) CHAPTER 9 1. Where do Huck and Jim find shelter?A cavern 2. What are some of the things they find that are useful?A raft CHAPTER 10 1. What does Huck do that brings bad luck? What happens?Huck wanted to tease Jim with a snakeskin and leaves the skin next to Jim while he sleeps. Another snake comes (attracted the skin) and bites Jim. Bad luck. 2. What does Huck decide to do when he gets bored?To visit the shore and see what he can find out3. What does Huck wear?A girls dress 4. Who does Huck see?A forty year old woman CHAPTER 11 1. What information does the woman provide?(See notes on the book) 2. Who is suspected of killing Huck?Huck is dead and they think that Jim has escaped because hes the murder 3. Does Huck fool the woman?No, she realizes he is a boy4. What advice does the woman give?If you are going to pretend to be a girl do it right. If you get into trouble ask for Mrs Judith Loftus and Ill help you CHAPTER 12 1. What do Jim and Huck do to modify the raft?They leave the island. They hide the raft, then Jim builds a wigwam (type of Native AMerican Shelter) on it 2. What do they see on the river? How do Huck and Jims opinions differ?Towns, other boats, etc Stealing or borrowing. They see a wreck. Huck wants to explore it. Jim doesnt 3. What does Huck witness?On the wreck two men are going to kill another one but how? 4. What happens to the raft?The raft is gone. It breaks lose and disappears CHAPTER 13 1. How do Huck and Jim get off the steamboat?They steal it 2. What do Huck and Jim find?The raft3. What story does Huck tell the watchman? Why?(See notes on the book) Because he wants to save the men on the steamboat. Otherwise, they will drown. Now was the 1st time that I began to worry 4. What happens to the crashed steamboat? How does Huck feel about this?It sinks away. he feels bad but only a little. His conscience is clean. CHAPTER 14 1. Jim and Huck argue about King Solomon. Who is King Solomon? What are Jim and Hucks differing opinions?(See notes on the book)2. Jim and Huck also argue about languages. What is each of their positions on language?(See notes on the book) CHAPTER 15 1. What is the weather like? Why is this problematic?Foggy. They had an accident and they get separated. They cannot see they are trying to find the Ohio River. 2. What lie does Huck tell Jim?The separation never happened. Jim dreamed it. 3. What happens after Jim realizes that Huck lied to him?Huck feels terrible and swears to never play tricks on Jim again.

CHAPTER 16 1. As Huck and Jim get closer to Cairo, Huck starts to think. What is his problem?That he should turn Jim in 2. What does Jim say he will do when he is free?Buy his family 3. Why wont the two men help Huck?They think his father got the smallpox 4. What is the conflict of Hucks conscience?The ambiguous nature of right and wrong...when it is a he? are they necessary? 5. What happens to the raft?It gets smashed by a boat CHAPTER 17 1. Who does Huck stay with? The Grangerfords 2. Who do they dislike?the Shepherdsons3. Who is Buck?The Grangerfords son 4. Who is Emmeline Grangerford? What did she do that Huck finds interesting? The dead daughter of this family. She wrote poetry about all the dead people when she was alive but none is writing to her death.

CHAPTER 18 1. What is Col. Grangerford like?(See notes on the book)2. How would you describe the Grangerfords?(See notes on the book) 3. What is a feud? (*) Argument or hostility within a family 4. What does Miss Sophia ask Huck to do for her?She wants Huck to fetch her testament forgotten at the Church 5. What has Jim been doing while Huck lived with the Grangerfords?(See notes on the book) 6. What happened to Miss Sophia? What happens to the Grangerfords because of this? CHAPTER 19 1. What is life like on the raft?(See notes on the book) 2. Who do Jim and Huck meet? How and why?The King (Dauphin) and the Duke 3. What are these men like?Friendly, strange and liars. They are professional conmen (estafador) Rapscallions4. Does Huck believe them?No.

CHAPTER 20 1. How does Huck explain Jim to the men?(See notes on the book) 2. Where are the towns people?Listening to the preacher 3. What does the King do involving the townspeople? What is the result of this?The king tells them hes a poor pirate. The town shallows his story and they take up a collection4. What does the Duke do to protect Jim and allow daytime travel?They make up a phony bill ( a paper that says hes a fugitive slave and that they are returning him to New Orleans for the recompense. CHAPTER 21 1. Why do Huck, the King, and the Duke go into town?To perform ROmeo and Juliet and Hamlets soliloquy 2. Who is Boggs? Sherburn? What does Sherburn do to upset the townspeople?A drunken man of the town. A colonel. He kills Boggs. CHAPTER 22 1. What does Sherburn say to the mob? How do they react?That they are cowards. The crowd washed back and broke all apart and went tearing off every which way 2. What trick is played at the circus?(See notes on the book)

3. What statement does the Duke put on the sign to draw a crowd to the show?Ladies and Children not admitted (See also notes on the book) CHAPTER 23 1. Is the statement successful in drawing a crowd?Yes. 2. What is ironic about the outcome of the show?the men are angry because they think its too short and they consider it comedy not tragedy 3. What happens on the third night of the show?They dont appear and just take the money and run 4. What is Jims opinion of the King and Duke?That they are rapscallions 5. What story does Jim tell about his daughter?How she died. CHAPTER 24 1. What is the Dukes solution to leaving Jim tied up on the raft?Dressed him like King Lear 2. Who are the King and Duke pretending to be? Why?Peter Wilks brothers. To inherit the mans state. CHAPTER 25 1. Are they successful in their deception of the townspeople?Yes. 2. What is wrong with the sack of money? How do the King and Duke react and what is their solution to this problem?3. What do they decide to do with the money?They hid the money 4. Who does not believe them?The doctor 5. What does Mary Jane do with the money?She give it to them

CHAPTER 26 1. Why does Huck begin to feel bad for deceiving the sisters?2. What does Huck decide to do?To steal the money 3. What is the King and Dukes plan?

CHAPTER 27 1. Where does the money end up? Inside the deaths man coffin2. Is it discovered?No3. What does Huck tell the King he saw? What is the result of this?That he has saw a nigger going in Kings room CHAPTER 28 1. What out-of-character thing does Huck do?He is going to tell the Truth2. Why must Mary Jane leave?3. Who shows up during the auction?The real brothers CHAPTER 29 1. How does the lawyer attempt to determine who the real brothers are? Does it work?2. How does the real brother try to expose the frauds? Is he successful?What was tattooed on Peter Wilks breast CHAPTER 30 1. Is Huck able to escape the King and Duke?Not yet2. What happens between the King and Duke?

CHAPTER 31 ( * one of the most important chapters) 1. How is business for the two scammers?2. What do Huck and Jim decide to do?To run away3. What goes wrong with their plan?Jim is gone4. Huck has two choices. What are they and what does he decide to do?To leave the paper that he wrote to guide Miss Watson where Jim is or broke it . He broke it. CHAPTER 32 1. Where does Huck go?Phelps house2. Who does he pretend to be?Tom Sawyer CHAPTER 33 1. Who does Huck meet on the road?Tom Sawyer2. Who does Tom pretend to be?His brother, Sid Sawyer3. What happens to the King and Duke? How does Huck feel about this?To be tarred and feathered and rode out of town on a rail Basically a type of lynching by a vigilante mob. CHAPTER 34 1. Where is Jim being held?2. What is Toms plan for freeing Jim? CHAPTER 35 1. What is escaping properly?2. What do you think about this?

CHAPTER 36 1. Does Toms plan work?2. What adjustments are made to the plan? CHAPTER 37 1. How do Aunt Sally and Uncle Silas explain the missing items?Rat-holes? 2. What do Tom and Huck do to antagonize Aunt Sally? CHAPTER 38 1. What else does Jim need to properly escape?2. What do Tom and Huck steal?a rock 3. What dos Tom think will give Jim glory?To have a rattlesnake as a pet4. How would you describe Toms personality?Romantic CHAPTER 39 1. What do tom and Huck collect to put in Jims shack?Spiders, bugs, frogs, caterpillars ...1. What does Tom write? Why?nonnanous letters To aware people of the danger2. How do the boys actions affect the family?They got very scared CHAPTER 40 1. What is the result of the letters?Farmers all armed 2. How do Huck, Tom, and Jim escape?3. What happens to Tom?He got shot in the calf of his leg

CHAPTER 41 1. Who does Huck accidentally run into? What does he tell him?The doctor. Another story 2. What is the scene at the house? How does Aunt Sally react to Huck?Sally very worried, chaos. 3. How does Huck feel about Aunt Sally?he wished he could do something for her and swears that he would never do nothing to grieve her any more. CHAPTER 42 1. Who shows up at the house?Tom Sawyer, the doctor, jim 2. What does the doctor think of Jim?That Jim is not a bad nigger3. What surprise does Tom reveal?That Miss Watson got free Jim in his testament 4. Who shows up to reveal the boys true identities?Aunt Polly CHAPTER 43 1. What happens to Jim?He gets free 2. What does Tom give Jim and why?Tom gives Jim 40 dollars for being prisoner for us so patient and doing it so good. 3. What happened to Pap Finn?Hes dead. Is the dead man that the found in the house. 4. What will happen to Huck?He is going to be adopted and sivilize by Aunt Sally.

Other things to think about while reading Huckleberry Finn (Look at the questions on the handout) 1. Why does Twain explain his use of dialects at the beginning of the book? What attitudes about language is he satirizing? How does the use of dialects contribute to the characterization and tone of the book?2. What are the different influences Huck wants to escape at the beginning of the novel?3. Why is this novel considered the greatest coming of age story in American literature? What makes Huck an archetypal, or almost mythic, American hero? Would you classify the novel as a children's book? Why or why not?4. How do Tom Sawyer's attitudes and methods compare with Huck's? How is Tom an influence on Huck all through the middle of the novel when he is not present?5. What are Huck's experiences of and attitudes toward superstitions, the supernatural, and established religion?6. What do the towns along the Mississippi have in common? How do Huck's town experiences compare with life on the raft?7. How does Huck perceive and relate to nature?8. What is the significance of Huck's response to the beautiful women, the mother figures, and the various families he encounters? Consider his responses to individuals in relation to the examples of exaggerated and false sentimentality in the novel. How is he affected by his drunken and neglectful father?9. How do you perceive Huck as a storyteller? What kinds of stories does he tell people in the novel and why? What is the effect of hearing the story entirely from his point of view and in his language? What ideas does Twain seem to convey toward the relationship between storytelling and lying? Why does Huck sometimes lie during his adventures?10. How many burlesques or parodies can you find of different character types, social institutions, traditional beliefs and attitudes, literary and historical traditions, etc.?11. Why does Huck think he'll go to hell for helping Jim escape? What are his attitudes toward slavery, slave-stealing, and crimes such as stealing? What different moral forces within Huck are struggling with each other?12. Why is Huckleberry Finn usually near the top of lists of books that have been banned or censored in America? What do you think about the content that some people consider objectionable? 13. Why does Huck go along with the frauds of the King and Duke, and the Evasion plans devised by Tom? What does he learn from these experiences? What do we learn from watching Huck experience them?14. Is the ending of the novel (the "rescue" of Jim from the Phelpses) appropriate? Is it plausible? Is it anticlimactic? Does it fit the rest of the book? Do Huck and Jim lose dignity by their participation in Tom's schemes? Why has the ending created such controversy among readers and critics of this novel?15. In what ways is this novel particularly American? What attitudes toward Europe, European civilization, and the past does Twain express?

Was Twain himself ambivalent about aspects in the novel?

There is a satiric treatment of life along the Mississippi but does he show acceptance toward cruelty with Toms influence on Huck at the end?

History

Started 1876 in Connecticut Finished 1884 (not such an easy book to write, was writing other things at the same time)Also pertains to Twains richest period as a writer and celebrity. Controversial novel from the beginnings. Enthusiastic reception later on but in England was praised as The Great American NovelFirst banking: a library in Concord , Massachusetts. unhealthy because of its language, rejection of sivilization etc the banning boosted sales. 1900 = very popular work in America 1990 -1925 = gradually became more popular than Tom Sawyer as Twains best work: Not only the great American novel it is America Three controversies (Ending, Race and Gender Issues)I .The Ending:Did Twain botch (ruin, screw up) the book in the final 11 chapters? Are the last chapters anti-climactic? Do they betray the moral theme about slavery?1935 Ernest Hemingway wrote All modern American literature comes from H.F. but if you read the novel you must stop where the nigger Jim is stolen from the boys. This is the real end. The rest is cheating.

Arguments in favor of the ending:Lionel Trilling (1948). A formal aptness allows Huck to return to anonymity and give up his role as hero and fall into the background he prepares.A picaresque novel, a novel of the road with a beginning, a middle and an end. (Based on the Spanish Picaresque Novel).T.S. ElliotH.F. = masterpiece. Huck gives the book style, a novel about a boy and the river, the river gives the book its form it controls Jim and Huck, constant references to the river and its power. Huck = the spirit of the river. The reader experiences the river.Ending = same mood as the beginning. No unhappy or tragic ending. Huck comes from nowhere and is going nowhere. Like the river Huck has no beginning and no end. Needs another performer (Tom) to obscure his disappearance. Last paragraph = a brilliant ending

Against the ending: Leo Marx (1953)Ending = feeble. Also cites some of the other criticism of the novel classified as vulgar, trashy, rough, inelegant, coarse, semi-obscene, vicious.The contrivance to free Jim is flimsy and does not do justice to the moral view of the issue (slavery). Miss Watsons freeing of Jim is:1 a sin against realism and out of character. Miss Watson would have never freed his nigger just because she was dying.2 Ending = burlesque comedy, slapstick out of keeping with the prior struggle for freedom.3 conclusion = a farce4 the humiliation of Jim who becomes a flat stereotype. Also shows the submissive stage-negro. (See later issue on racism in the novel).5 Twain shows he is unable to abandon the genteel tradition. (Good deeds and actions. Books should display morals. The idea here is the critic believes that Twain sanctions the slavery issue)Huck and Jim seek freedom from social constraint not the burden of individual sin and guilt. Their creed = secular. Through the symbols (the raft, the South, steamboats) we reach a truth the ending obscures: the quest cannot succeed due to a failure of nerve.

Counter attack on Marx by James Cox (1966)1 Hucks rebellion against slavery is not the main issue of the novel. The real target of satire = all forms of pretentious morality.2 Huck journey is a flight from tyranny, not a quest toward freedom.3 Huck is not a rebel but just a boy looking for an easy way out of a tight place.4 In the end, even Tom comes off as bad as the King and the Duke.5 The real rebellion of the book = an attack upon the conscience. (Think of all the references Huck makes to his conscience). Conscience does make cowards of us allAnother view: Richard Hill (1991). Critics against the novel have a moral and political agenda.Tom = an unpopular figure in modern academia but is an unchallenged authority on literature that boys enjoy.A book for children should not be over interpreted or over-intellectualized.

II. Controversy over Race:Does H.F. reinforce racist attitudes?

Yes. Julius Lester (1984)

Huck Finn evokes something poignant and real in the American psyche, something dangerously, fatally seductive.The novel is immoral in its major premises. It demeans blacks and insults history.Hucks mistreatment and abuse by Pap is not the same as the abuse of the system of slavery.Jim = no integrity of his own, childlike person, similar to Tom and the rest of the gang. Why doesnt he just escape to Illinois? Why do they keep going further and further south into slave territory?Story is not credible at all. More of a fantasy for white people. See the doctor scene at the end of chapter 42.Shows the archetypal good nigger, faithful not speaking, not causing trouble. A character who lacks dignity and respect.Tom only agrees to free Jim because he already knows that Jim has been freed.Miss Watsons freeing of Jim = a fairy tale for whites.Jim is mistreated at the end and not shown the respect he deserves.Does this mean the book should be banned? No but the racist and antiracist message should be studied as well.The book is also a study in the psyche of the White American male:Civilization and decency = womenFreedom = old clothes, doing what one wants.Novel = puerile, the eternal boy for whom growth, maturity and responsibility are enemies. The eternal adolescent.Novel = fails as moral literatureFreedom? The only freedom in the novel is freedom from restraint and responsibility. An adolescent view of life with a nostalgia for paradise that never was. (Constant in American literature). American Adam who has lost paradiseNovel shows Twains contempt for humanity disguised as satire, as humorNovel is not racist. Justin Kaplan (1984).Book constantly banned for the N (nigger) word and another reasons.Twain also said he wrote for the masses. Translated into many languages. Millions of copies in existence.Book shaped the style and vision of virtually every American writer: Anderson, Dreiser, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Salinger, Bellow, HemingwayIn other words its a book for the cultivated or Head as well as a book for the uncultivated or the Belly ad Members.

Why constantly banned?1 Goes against genteel tradition by using unrefined language, a shiftless (sin recursos) low-class boy for narrator and subject matter.Twain on the novel in 1904 A sound heart and a doomed conscience come into collision and conscience suffers defeat.Huck and Jim show mutual respect and love. It is an affront to ban this book on moral purposes.Novel = a matchless satire on racism, bigotry and property rights in human beings.Huck displays more truthfulness than any adult in his society. You cant pray a lie.Truth telling = frequently brutal and painful realism.Society = a nightmare of bigotry, violence, exploitation, greed and ignorance.White population of the Mississippi valley is portrayed critically = swindlers (timadores), drunkards (borrachos), rapscallions (sinvergenzas) etc.Only weapon for human race against this = laughter but this requires sense and courage.Kaplan suggests that perhaps the entire controversy regarding the novel is the very nature of humor as defined and used by Twain.

Peaches Henry 1992 Race and Censorship (African American woman)Book as a racial problemThe enormous emotional freight attached to the word nigger is horrible for African Americans.Nigger = racist terror, degradation, slavery, etcThe novel shows perpetuation of racial stereotypes and the use of black minstrelsy (19th century) shows about blacks but with white actors in blackface imitating blacks.)Jim = stereotypical, superstitious darky.But others disagree.Ralph Ellison (African American writer of the 1950s Jims humanity transcends the mask.Jim is not used to poke fun at whites. Twains depiction of Jim is an ironic attempt to transcend the very prejudices that dissidents accuse him of portraying.Regarding the debate on its aptness as a book to be studied in schools, it should be banned. Why? Because Jr. High School and early High School students do not possess the critical perception to successfully negotiate the satire present in the novel. A better book for 11th and 12th graders.Earl F. Biden talks about Kembles original illustrations for H.F., which were sanctioned by Twain himself. Book = RacistsShelley Fisher Fishkin was Huck Black? Hucks language as the crowning achievement of Twain but where did it come from? Twain said Huck was based on Tom Blankenship, poor white son of town drunk and general pariah. He was the envy of all respectable boys for freedom. But was he really the model for Hucks voice? 1874 Sociable Jimmy 1874, short sketch by Twain of a young black boy that he had met. Maybe the true source of Hucks voiceIII. The Controversy over gender and Sexuality

Are Twains politics progressive, regressive or beside the point? Remember what Twain himself says at the beginning of H.F. Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be presented person find a frond in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be slot

Nancy A. Walker Women and Virtue in H. F.

Secondary role of women, generally not allowed much participation. American literature is basically male. The dream of the escape to freedom= peculiarly American and identifiably masculine Resistance to sivilizing and heading out for the territory = masculine desires. I Toms most well now, and got his bullet around his neck on a watch-guard for a match, and is always seeing what time it is (...)

The exploitation of the land = the exploitation of women Huck Finn embodies a basic tension between male and female values and roles. Women are portrayed as stereotypes. Hucks maturity at the end of the novel = limited. Why? Honesty, compassion, sense of duty and sivilization are female virtues not male. Huck reflects them to light out for the territoryAccording to Mary Ellen Good , Mark Twain = incapable of creating realistic female characters. All are wooden and unrealisticWomen are portrayed as reformersRank of women: The Widow Douglas= widow (previously married)Aunt Sally Phelps = marriedMiss Watson = unmarried Miss Watson seems to get the worst treatment in the book due to her marital status. Portrayed as a spinster/old maid (both old derogatory terms) Huck refers to her as poor old woman but does feel guilty about stealing her nigger Jim.

The Widow Douglas = a more gentle reformer. huck does not resent her. Responds well to her kindness. Learns from her how to respect Jim.

Hucks male role models are Tom and Pap . When Huck flees it is from Pap and not Widow DouglasAunt Sally Phelps = 3rd reformer but basically ineffective in causing Huck to change his behaviour. Hard to take seriously Hucks feel of being sivilized by her. She is more a comic figure. Mrs Judith Loftus and Mary Jane Wilks = better formed characters, more than just stereotypes. Huck admires their courage and intelligence. After meeting Mrs. Judith Loftus Huck will never try to be a girl again will only take on the roles of masculinity. Mary jane Wilks = a bit of the damsel in distress and is a romantic figure but Huck admires her greatly and would pray for her if he could. Huck kerans the idea of self-sacrifice from her. She seems to lack the sentimentality of some of the other female characters. At the end Huck rejects the female virtues he has struggled so hard to obtain.

Reading Gender in H. F. Myra Jehlen

Culture, society, and history, define gender, not nature. H.F. = a mans book about a boy. The story of an adolescent who undergoes a series of trials on the rocky road to adulthood (Bildungsroman of coming of age stroy) Book= central work i the American tradition A work that articulates and helps to define dominant values and ways of seeing the world. Greatness of the book = champions the autonomy of the individual Hucks way of overcoming the particularities of class and generation. But the novel also reaffirms category and role. huck becomes a man of integrity, but by not being feminine and being anti-feminine. The scene with Mrs. Judith Loftus may use the disguise of femininity? Why does Huck call himself Sarah Williams? scene is there only to ridicule femininity.

At the end of the chapter, when Huck says they are after us Huck is able to identify with Jim (uses us mistreated slave like mistreated female. (women in general) and says us Huck sees in the displacement of his gender identity a new social identity in which he questions the other conventions of his culture for more radically than before

Frederick Crews on walker

Ok, but the virtues that Huck begins to develop like honesty, compassion, a sense of duty identified as female virtues. Arent they the same virtues that Huck learns from Jim as well? Does this mean that slave like Jim is Socially feminine and Huck is fleeing from female virtues only?

Leslie Fiedler Come back to the Raft Ag in, Huck, Honey (1984)

The Negro and the homosexual

Male camaraderie of the locker room, the baseball park, the poker game, the fishing trip have homoerotic overtones. The regressiveness of American life, the nostalgia for the infantile. Mythic America = boyhood. Book that are juvenile classics include H.F. books by James Fenimore Cooper and Moby Dick. Often referred to as boys books Why? the idea of chaste male love as the ultimate emotional experience. Natty Bumppo and ChingachgookIsmael and QueequegHuck and JimA fall into carnal love has not yet been discovered. These three also clearly celebrate the mutual love of a white man a colored)Ideal love= a national myth of masculine love The negro as homoerotic lover blends in with the myth of running the great river down to the sea. The dark-skinned beloved will take us, we reassure ourselves, when we have been cut off, or have cut ourselves off from others, without rancor or the insult of forgiveness, he will fold us in his arms, saying Honey, he will comfort us as if our offense to him were long ago remitted , were never truly real Colored man = victim but the outrage is meaningless in the fall of loveThe white man always dreams of his acceptance at the breast of he has most utterly offendedA dream so sentimental, so outrageous, so desperate that in redeems our concept of boyhood from nostalgia to tragedyChristopher Looby on Innocent Homosexuality H.F. shows a type of innocent homosexuality that displays the archetypal image of a loving male interracial couple.

3. THE AMERICAN REALISM

Henry James (1843 - 1916)

Life

1843. Henry James was born on 15 April at Washington Place, New York City. His grandfather was one of the first American millionaires. Father a theologian and philosopher. Js brother William became psychologist and author of Varieties of Religious Experience.1845-55. Childhood in Albany (State capital) and New York City, plus travelling in Europe.1855-58. Attends schools in Geneva, London, and Paris, and is privately tutored.1858. Family settles in Newport, Rhode Island.1859. At scientific school in Geneva. Studies German in Bonn.1861. American civil war begins James develops a bad back. Studies art briefly.1862-63. Spends a year studying Law at Harvard.1864. Family settles in Boston, then Cambridge. James starts writing and publishing short stories and reviews.1865. His first story in Atlantic Monthly prestigious journal which went on to publish more of his work.1869-70. Travels in England, France, and Italy. Death of his beloved cousin, Minny Temple.1870. Back in Cambridge (MA). Published first novel, Watch and Ward.1872-74. Travels with his sister Alice and aunt in Europe greater part in Paris and Rome. Begins Roderick Hudson.1874-75. Returns to New York City, writing literary journalism for the Nation. Three books published Transatlantic Sketches, A Passionate Pilgrim, andRoderick Hudson.1875-76. Spends a year in Paris friendships with Flaubert, Turgenev, Zola, Daudet, and Edmund de Goncourt. Writes The American.1876-77. Settles in London at Bolton Street, Picadilly. Visits Paris, Florence, and Rome.1878. His story Daisy Miller establishes his fame on both sides of the Atlantic. Writes critical essays French Poets and Novelists.1879-82. Writes the great novels of his early to middle periods The Europeans, Washington Square, Confidence, The Portrait of a Lady.1882-83. Revisits America the death of his parents.1884-86. Resumes residence in London. His sister Alice comes to live near him. Publishes fourteen-volume collection of his novels and tales.1886. Takes flat in De Vere Gardens. Publishes The Bostonians and The Princess Cassamassima.1887. Long stay in Italy, mainly in Florence and Venice. The Aspern Papers,The Reverberator, A London Life. Friendship with Constance Fenimore Woolson (grand-niece of Fenimore Cooper) but remains a bachelor.1888. Partial Portraits and various volumes of tales1889. James begins to take an interest in the theatre publishes The Tragic Muse.1890-01. The Dramatic Years James seeks to gain a reputation in the theatre. Dramatises The American, which has a short run. Writes four comedies, which are rejected by producers.1892. Death of sister Alice James.1894. Miss Woolson commits suicide in Venice. James journeys to Italy and visits her grave in Rome (c.f. The Beast in the Jungle).1895. His play Guy Domville is booed off stage on first night. James deeply depressed, abandons writing for the theatre and returns to novels.1897. Settles at Lamb House in Rye, Sussex. Friendly with Joseph Conrad. Writes The Turn of the Screw and What Masie Knew.1899-1900. The Late Period. Begins composing by dictation. The Awkward Age, The Sacred Fount.1902-1904. Writes The Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove, and The Golden Bowl.1905. Revisits United States after an absence of twenty-five years. Lectures on Balzac.1906-10. The American Scene. Edits the twenty-four volume New York Edition of his selected works and writes the prefaces which give an account of the genesis of the stories.1910. Death of brother William James.1913. Writes the autobiographical accounts A Small Boy and Others, and Notes of a Son and Brother.1914. Notes on Novelists. Begins war work, visiting wounded in hospitals.1915. Becomes a British subject.1916. Given Order of Merit. Falls in love with a Swedish sailor, and dies thinking he is Napoleon. Ashes buried in Cambridge (MA).1976. Commemorative tablet unveiled in Poets Corner of Westminster Abbey. DAISY MILLER

Comprehension questions

PART I

1. Where does the story take place and what kinds of people go there?Vevey, in Switzerland. The place is full of American travellers, German waiters, Russian princess 2. Who is Winterbourne and how would you describe him?Winterbourne is an American, a student, amigable fellow and universally liked. 3. What is the nature of the conversation with the little urchin?The himp of sugar and difference between Europe and America 4. Describe the American girl. Describe her from Winterbournes point of view.American girl = strikingly , admirably pretty. Ladys face not exactly expressive she had a spirit of her own. Disposed towards conversation. Coquette. 5. What is her attitude towards Europe?Daisys attitude = Europe hotels very good, Europe is perfectly sweet towards Europe 6. What is she particularly fond of?Fond of Society 7. How does Winterbourne react to her?Winterbourne was amused perplexe. Dishabituated to the American tone. 8. What is his opinion of American girls?That American girls = exceedingly innocent and others were not Daisy = American flirt 9. Where do he and Daisy decide to go?Castle of Chillon / Chteau de Chillon

PART II

10. What does Mrs. Costello think of the Miller family? Why?They are very common She doesnt like them, because the Millers treat their countries as a gentleman, another remember of the family. 11. What is her advice regarding Daisy Miller?Not middle with little American girls that are uncultivated 12. How does Daisy react to when she discovers Winterbournes aunt doe not want to meet herLaughing 13. How does Mrs. Miller surprise Winterbourne?She used a different type of maternity. 14. Why is he so puzzled by Daisys behavior?

15. Why does she say he is horrid?Because Winterbourne says he cant go with her to Rome and that he would go back to Geneva16. What does Winterbournes aunt tell him about Rome?That she has taken an apartment in Rome for the winter and asked him to go to see her.

PART III

17. What is the Miller family doing in Rome? Do they like it there?Because of the fathers business. Yes 18. What does a cynical compatriot think of American women?That American women - the pretty ones, and this gave a happened to the axion - were at one the most exciting in the world 19. Who does Daisy wish to invite to the party and why?Mr. Giovanelli. He wants to meet some Americans 20. Is she happy in Rome?Yes, she is 21. What is said about gentlemen?Winterbourne states that she sometimes must listen to gentleman, then Daisy answers that she does nothing but listen to gentlemen. 22. According to Winterbourne, how does Daisy present herself?Daisy presents herself as an inscrutable combination of AUDACITY and INNOCENCE23. What do Winterbourne and Mrs. Walker speak about?The attitude of Daisy towards people. She is not allow to walk with two men.24. What is Daisys attitude toward her reputation and the idea of being improper?That is improper all herself is improper and that Winterbourne must give her up.25. Why do Mrs. Walker and Winterbourne disagree about Daisy?About if Daisy is innocent or indecent

PART IV

26. What does Daisy thing of Italian ladies? The ladies of this country have a dreadful poky time of it 27. What does Winterbourne tell her about flirting?He wished that Daisy just flirt with him 28. What does Mrs. Costello tell Winterbourne about Mr. Giovanelli?That he is just looking for someone to get married with and get rich with the fortune.29. Why does Winterbourne begin feeling sorry for Daisy?He thinks she has lost her head. That she is crazy. 30. What does he think about her eccentricities?31. Is Daisy engaged?No, she is not32. What happens to Winterbourne at the Colosseum?He sees Daisy and Giovanelli on the Colosseum. Daisy and he fight. (Byrons Manfred)33. What happens to Daisy after her visit to the Colosseum?She gets very ill. Got the Roman Fever = Malaria 34. What does Mr. Giovanelli confide to Winterbourne?That she would never married him and that she was the most innocent creature that existed35. Does Winterbourne learn anything in the end?Yes. he has lived too long in foreign parts

Additional Reading Questions on Daisy Miller

1. Discuss these two contemporary views of Daisy Miller.

Harper's Magazine, December 1878: Daisy Miller is an impossible daughter, who regards her mother as a cipher, and who, besides, is an inscrutable combination of audacity and innocence, elegance and vulgarity. A young person of bad manners.HJ himself in an August 1880 letter: Poor little Daisy Miller was, as I understand her, above all things innocent. It was not to make a scandal, or because she took pleasure in a scandal, that she went on with Giovanelli. She never took the measure really of the scandal she produced, and had no means of doing so: she was too ignorant, too irreflective, too little versed in the proportions of things. She was a flirt, a perfectly superficial and unmalicious one....I did not mean to suggest that she was playing off Giovanelli against Winterbourne--for she was too innocent for that.

1. In what ways does James use his international theme (see p. 466) in this novel? What contrasts or oppositions does he draw between European and American characters and ideals? What rules are implied here for the behavior of young girls and married women in each culture?2. To what extent is Daisy responsible for her own fate, and to what extent is she an innocent crushed beneath a corrupt civilization? Discuss Daisys character in detail. Did you find her a sympathetic character or an irritating one? What points of European civilization does she fail to understand?3. James uses language carefully in this novella as in all his works; certain words (pretty) and images (flowers, for example) are repeated with variations throughout. Choose a few of the most important examples that you have seen in this work and present them to the class.4. In what way might it be said that this is Winterbournes story rather than Daisys? What do we learn about him in the course of the story? Is he responsible for her death? Look closely at the ways in which he assesses her and interpretsor misinterpretsher language and behavior.5. James uses places and place names carefully in this work. Discuss the significance of the various places alluded to here, such as the gardens, the Castle of Chillon, the Palace of the Caesars, the Colosseum, St. Peters, and so on.6. Two of the most crucial words in this story are innocent and intimate, especially because the characters define them in various ways and apply them to Daisys relations with others. Find the places in which these words are used and discuss the ways in which these loaded terms help to create tension (and misunderstandings) in the story.7. Several of the secondary characters play an important role in Daisy Miller, among them Randolph, Mr. Giovanelli, and three American ladies: Mrs. Costello, Mrs. Miller, and Mrs. Walker. Explain the function of each character in the story.8. The theme of illness is significant here; explain its function in the story.9. In Daisy Miller: A Study, Does James follow the precepts of realism and of art as he describes them in The Art of Fiction?10. What does it mean to be an American in this story?

The names :

* Daisy Innocent, audacity, whimsical, childish, reckless, vulgar, flirt, silly A beautiful flower that blossoms but soon dies

* Winterbourne Stiff, hypocritical, earnest, prudent, misogynist, well-educated, frozen, dead-like, wintertime, arrogant

* Mr. Costello (the Chillon Castle scene) Insufferable, haughty, a social snob, arrogant

* Mrs Walker = always sitting snobbish, social butterfly, whimsical arrogant

* Mr. Giovanelli Fortune hunter, very polite, very well-dressed not very wealthy, an artist,

*Mrs. MillerStupid, blind, doesnt seem to realize what is going on A careless mother

*Randolph = spoiled kidAmerica is the best, Europe is horrible ( He is 9 years old!)Some other cases of symbolism

Roman fever = malaria but also the reputation for fast and loose attraction felt sometimes by American ( ?) women for Roman men as well as the romantic appeal of the city itself. fever = to go crazy The Collosseum = place of sacrifice, slowdown death (confrontation between winterbourne and Giovanelli)Winterbourne = old world (though American he is tainted by too many years in Europe) Daisy = New World Mrs Walkers Victoria (carriage) = wealth and security? Daisy rejects it Parasol = flimsy like Daisy herself, also hides Daisy from Winterbournes gaze..Daisy Miller as A study but of what? James of the CHaracters?Winterbourne of Daisy?Mrs Walker studies European societyEuropeans study AmericansWinterbourne is studying in Geneva studying a euphemism for courting???Who is the victim? Winterbourne or Daisy?Level of reading: social,moral, psychologicalWinterbourne = unreliable narrator, confused about Daisy. Daisy is confused about EuropeEveryone is confused about Daisy and misjudge her..

Some Romantic ideas ( Jeffrey Meyers)

Byron, Shelley, Keats: Protestants who died young in Mediterranean countries and who were opposed to conventional standards of morality.Daisys grave is the Protestant cemetery in ROme ( so are the tombs of Shelley and Keats) Keats died in 1821, Shelley (1822) and Byron ( 1824) Shelleys ode to Keats ( Adonais) speaks of youth, beauty.Byron died of malaria...wrote a poem about Chillon Castle and about the prisoner of Chillon who was a Swiss patriot and historian imprisoned there. Daisy Miller = an elegy for Daisy and a lament for Winterbournes wasted life and lost youth

Ihab Hassan (Famous literary critic in the US)

Radical innocence 3 American characters

Huck Finn, Daisy Miller and Henry Fleming ( protagonists of Cranes The Reed Badge of Courage ) All young protagonist faced with their first existentialist order crisis or encounter with experience.

Henry James and the International theme : America vs Europe

Comparison and clash between the two culturesThe Millers = Americans, in attitude, manners and language.Randolph = candid, forward, opinionated,, Mrs Miller crudity. Americans disdain for appearance and society.Winterbournes comments...remember the comment by the cynical compatriot Mrs. Walker attempts to study Europeans so as to learn how to behaveEuropeanized AmericansWinterbourne, Mrs. Costello, and Mrs Walker = more European than the Europeans. Overreacting?Winterbournes = concerned by Millers attitude claims to be a gentleman but to what extent is he really a gentleman with Daisy (in comparison to Giovanelli)?

The idea of innocence

Is innocence a virtue or wilful ignorance?James on ambiguity...later to become a major themeInnocence as a child of nature as opposed to a child of history (Europe) Now world innocence that condemns old world prejudice Natty Bumpo ( Cooper) Huck Finn, Billy Budd ( Melville) = The myth or archetypal figure of purityRemember the two readings of Dasy Miller Daisy Miller = the prototype of the International Theme that James explored in later novels like Portrait of a Lady , The Ambassadors, The Golden Bonel (Leon Edel)

James and the International Theme

The identification with the High Renaissance and the presence of Italy in many early novels James = first American cosmopolitan writer. The New World = morality healthier than the old but the tension between the two is constant.Daisy Miller is involved in this theme in a deep and tragic manner cynical attitude about the relations between European men and American women: seems that both systems of morality are fatal. The classic story of innocence and experience. James himself got his morality from New England but his aesthetic condition (true culture, true civilization) from Europe.

The American Girl

Constant figure in James work. A complex character, eager for experience but unable by fear or anxiousness for selfhood to achieve it. Art = feminine American men have little to do with civilization James = artist, James is an embroiderer, the American girl is the embroideryJames had an early identification with the feminine mind. Comes from childhood relationship with mother.

James = many feminine portraits. Considered the great feminine novelist. Women are not a distinct species from men and have peculiar problems and are capable of all human possibilities. The American Girl = shows the struggle of the individual to protect own integrity and freedom against violation by the world and in conflict with an establish order. A moral spontaneity as the primary symbol of the positive aspects of the American characterAmerica = innocenceEurope= experience

Sexlessness

Does Daisy ever recognize the sexual implications of her flirtatious behaviour? Does she perceive her own sexuality?The American girl whose free spirit brings her into trouble in the old world.. (some see the influence of James's cousin Minny Temple who died of TB at the age of 25)

Lisa Johnson Daisy Miller as Comboy Feminist

Debate on good or bad, innocent or wild? Daisy is a contrary girl according to Winterbourne. Feminist embrace the notion of contrariness Daisy = a counter - narrative of American womanhood as defined by freedom despite social restraints. Daisy = hold and good and also self-reliant (also part of being American) She breaks social demands rather than bending to them. The important thing is not the strain encountered in the clash between America and Europe but the resistance to it. Daisy = part of a gradual transformation of American literature from object to subject position of piety, party, submissiveness and domesticityKey quote= There never allowed a gentleman to dictate to me, or to interfere with anything I do

Henry James and The Art of Fiction Thanks to Dr. Donna M. Campbell, Washington State University Henry James'sThe Art of Fiction

Why is it revolutionary?

1. Choice of subject belongs to the artist without restriction. We must grant the artist his subject, his idea, his donne; our criticism is applied only to what he makes of it. (561)2. Conscious artistry and treatment of the subject is the key. Art is essentially selection. (563). Questions of art are questions (in the widest sense) of execution. (655)3. Organic structure is important. A novel is a living thing, all one and continuous, like any other organism, and in proportion as it lives will be found, I think, that in each of the parts there is something of each of the other parts. (560) (Note: This idea dates back to Romantics such as Wordsworth and Coleridge in poetry, but James here asserts the principle on behalf of the novel.)

4. Artistry, not morality, should be the criterion. "Bad" novels and "good" novels are a matter of taste, not morality or choice of subject matter. Nothing, of course, will ever take the place of the good old fashion of "liking" a work or not liking it. (562). [Note: This also encompasses the high culture/low culture issue we discussed the other day.] There are bad novels and good novels, as there are bad pictures and good pictures; but that is the only distinction in which I can see any meaning. (560)5. Faithfulness to life (realism) is the important factor. The only reason for the existence of a novel is that it does attempt to represent life. (554). The air of reality (solidity of specification) seems to me to be the supreme virtue of a novel (559).6. The expertise of the writer, like that of the painter, depends upon an artistic sensibility and openness to impressions. Experience is never limited, and it is never complete; it is an immense sensibility, a kind of huge spiderweb of the finest silk threads suspended in the chamber of consciousness. (559). A novel is in its broadest definition a personal, a direct impression of life. (557) It goes without saying that you will not write a good novel unless you possess the sense of reality; but it will be difficult to give you a recipe for calling that sense into being. (558). Try to be one of the people on whom nothing is lost! (559)7. Critics must judge works by the standards the artists have established. Moreover, it isnt till I have accepted your data that I can begin to measure you. I have the standard, the pitch; I have no right to tamper with your flute and then criticize your music. (562)8. Too many critics have drawn false distinctions, such as that between novels of action and novels of character. Novels representing reality ultimately address character. The novel and the romance, the novel of incident and that of characterthese clumsy separations appear to me to have been made by critics and readers for their own convenience. (561)9. Although it was formerly held in disrepute, the novel is a true art form and expresses legitimate truths, as do painting and history. The old superstition about fiction being "wicked" has certainly died out in England; but the spirit of it lingers in a certain oblique regard directed toward any story which does not more or less admit that it is only a joke. (554) It is not expected of the picture that it will make itself humble in order to be forgiven; and the analogy between the art of the painter and the art of the novelist is, so far as I am able to see, complete. (5550 History also is allowed to represent life . . . [T]he subject-matter of fiction is stored up likewise in documents and records, and if it will not give itself away, as they say in California, it must speak with assurance, with the tone of the historian. (555)10. Accordingly, the author should take his obligation seriously and keep himself out of the text, or at least treat his subject matter seriously. [James speaks of being shocked that Anthony Trollope acknowledges to his readers that "he and this trusting friend are only 'making believe.'"] Such a betrayal of a sacred office seems to me, I confess, a terrible crime. (555)

4. REGIONALISM AND LOCAL-COLOR WRITING

Kate Chopin (1851 - 1904)

1851February 8--Katherine O'Flaherty was born to Thomas O'Flaherty, an Irish immigrant, and Eliza Faris, a Creole.

1855Kate's father dies in a train accident.Kate begins school at Academy of the Sacred Heart.

1863Kate's great-grandmother, Victoire Verdon Charlesville, dies.Kate's half-brother, George O'Flaherty, a Confederate soldier, dies of typhoid fever.

1868Kate graduates from the Academy of the Sacred Heart.

1869Kate visits New Orleans in the spring.

1870June 9--Kate marries Oscar Chopin on in St. Louis. Their honeymoon in Europe is cut short by the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War. October--The couple moves to New Orleans.

1871May 22--Jean Chopin is born.

1873Oscar Chopin Jr. is born.

1874The Chopins move to the Garden District of New Orleans, and visit Grand Isle in the summer.

1879Oscar's cotton business fails, and the Chopins move to Cloutierville, Louisiana.Lelia Chopin born.

1882December 10--Oscar dies.

1884Kate moves to St. Louis.

1885June--Eliza O'Flaherty, Kate's mother, dies.

1888Kate writes her poem, "If it Might Be," and begins the story, "Euphraisie."

1889"If It Might Be" is published in the literary and political journal America. Two stories, "Wiser than a God" and "A Point at Issue" are published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

1890Kate's first novel, At Fault, is published privately.

1891Kate unsuccessfully submits the novel Young Dr. Gosse to several publishers. She later destroys the manuscript.

1893"Dsire's Baby" is published in Vogue.

1894Bayou Folk is published. Kate writes "Story of an Hour."

1895"Athnaise" is written.

1896"Athnaise" is published.

1897A Night in Acadie is published. June--Kate begins work on The Awakening.

1898January--Kate completes The Awakening.

1899The Awakening is published, and is met with scathing reviews.

1900Kate writes "The Gentleman from New Orleans."She is listed in the first edition of Who's Who in USA.

1904August 18--Kate visits the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, and suffers from a stroke. She dies two days later.

THE AWAKENING

Comprehension questions

CHAPTER 1

Describe Lonce Pontellier.He could speak a little Spanish. Had the privilege of quitting their society when they ceased to be entertaining. Wore eye-glasses. A man of forty, of medium height and rather slender build. His hair was brown and straight, parted on one side. His beard was neatly and closely trimmed. What does he think of his wife? How do you know?A valuable piece of personal property.Who is his wife with? Who is he?Robert Lebrun. He is Madame Lebruns son Is there any indication that there are problems between Lonce and his wife? Yes, the reaction of Mr. Pontellier CHAPTER 2

Describe Edna Pontellier.Her eyes were quick and bright; they were yellowish brown, about the color of her hair. She had a way of turning them swiftly upon an object and holding them there as if lost in some inward maze of contemplation or thought. She was rather handsome than beautiful- Her manner was engaging. What kind of person is Robert Lebrun?Is a merchant in mercantile house of New OrleansWhat do we learn about the two of them?They are good position in social status

CHAPTER 3

Does Lonces arrival tell us anything about the type of person he is?Yes, he is selfish What is the effect of this on Edna? Why? What does she hear in the background?Terrible, she is sad, crying. An old owl hooting and the voice of the sea.What kind of gift does she receive from her husband? What do you think it might mean?Money and a box with delicious food and fruits. Gift = power

CHAPTER 4

How is Edna different from other women?She is not a mother-woman Describe Adle Ratignolle. How is she different from Edna?She is beautiful, she is said to be the embodiment of everywomaly grace and charm What are creoles? Is Edna comfortable with them? Why/why not?From colonies of France . No, they felt like a large family absence of prudery What kind of book was being read? How does Edna behave with it?Sexual book? Kamasutra? . She felt to read it in secret and solitude

CHAPTER 5

What type of man does Robert Lebrun seem to be?Womanizer / skirt chaser How does he behave with Edna?Without respect seeing her life an object something to conquest / possess What does Edna do in her spare time?SketchingWhat do she and Robert decide to do?To go bathing to the beach

CHAPTER 6

What is Edna thinking and why?Why did she accepted to go to the beach with Robert What does she think about the sea?Effects of nature on her (metaphors) The voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation. The voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace. ( most famous quote) Lover Seductive SEA = Whispering Speaks to the soul Freedom escape

CHAPTER 7

What differences do you notice between Edna and Adle?Not confident, introspective , reserve from other women How do they get to the beach?Arm in arm, under the huge white sunshade Who else is at the beach?The two young lovers and the Lady in Black reading What does the sea remind Edna of? What does her memory tell us about her?Kentucky memories What do we learn about her marriage?That it was an accident How does Edna feel toward her children?She loves them, but she likes to be away from them, because there is no responsability.How does she feel while talking with Madame Ratignolle? Why?Free, she needs to talk all this silence that she has deep as a secret.

CHAPTER 8

Why does Madame Ratignolle tell Robert to leave Edna alone?Because she might get the flirting serious What is his reply?Why shouldnt she take him seriously? Who are the two lovers and the lady in black? Is this the first time they appear?Vacationers. No, they were at the beachWhat kind of sound is repeated in this chapter? Why?clatter, clatter, bang!

CHAPTER 9

Who is Mademoiselle Reisz? How is she different?An old woman who plays the piano. She is not married and she is an artist. How does her playing affect Edna?She feels passion, longing

CHAPTER 10

What is Edna thinking about Robert?She becomes obsessed with this man The sea is mentioned once again. What is said about it?The sea was quiet now, and swelled lazily in broad billows that melted into one another and did not break except upon the beach in little foamy crests that coiled back like slow, white serpents:How does Edna feel while swimming?Metaphor. A feeling of exultation overtook her, as if some power of significant import had been given her to control the working of her body and her soul. She grew daring and reckless, overestimating her strength. She wanted to swim far out, where no woman had swum before. ( To sink or swim) What is mentioned about the date?Twenty-eighth of August. At the hour of midnight, and if the moon is shining a spirit that has haunted these shores for ages rises up from the Gulf. The spirit seeks some one mortal worthy to hold him company, worthy of being exalted for a few hours into realms of the semi-celestials. CHAPTER 11

Describe what happens between Edna and her husband? How does she feel?She does not want to go to bed and her husband just stands there smoking a cigar. She feels like she is awakening gradually from a dream CHAPTER 12 (*) important

Do you notice any difference in Ednas attitude?Yes, What does she do regarding Robert?She sent for Robert. She never had did that before How does she feel when they are together?Free Who else is constantly in the background?The lovers and the lady in black What does Robert propose?To go to Grande Terre the next day

CHAPTER 13

How does Edna feel while at church?Drowsiness, her head began to ache Where does she go to rest?Madame Antoines cot How does she feel when she wakes up?Hungry

CHAPTER 14

How does Lonce react to Ednas absence?IndifferentWhy is she happy?Because she spent the whole day with Robert

CHAPTER 15

Why does Robert leave at this point?He is getting very nervous about this woman and goes to Mexico to do some business How does Edna react?Freaks out

CHAPTER 16

How does Edna spend her time after Robert leaves?Swimming and going out with Madame Ratingnolle What does she tell Madame Ratingnolle?That she would never sacrifice herself for her children What does Mademoiselle Reiz tell her?Robert flriting with a Spanish girl with Margarita

CHAPTER 17

How does the setting change?Back in the city , South Louisiana How does Lonce feel about his home?Very fond of his home, possession How does Edna change her old activities?She was not wearing the usual Tuesday reception gown, ordinary house dress. She went out.How does her husband react to her new attitude?He leaves. What does Edna do after her husband leaves?She rips off her wedding ring and breaks a vase

CHAPTER 18

Why does Edna go to Madame Ratinnolles?She feels depress How does she feel when she leaves? Why?Depressed rather than soothed. Lifes delirium

CHAPTER 19

What does her husband think of her painting?Noneses How does she feel about her own work?She is becoming a different self

CHAPTER 20

Why does she go to the Lebruns home?She wants to know the new address of Mademoiselle Reiz Why does she get upset with the visit?Because robert enclosed no message for her

CHAPTER 21

Describe Mademoiselles Reiszs apartment.What she tell Edna about being an artist?To be an artist includes much; one must possess many gifts - aabsolute gifts - which have not been acquired by ones own effort. And, moreover, to succeed, the artist must possess the courageous soul. (...) The soul that dares and defies What does Roberts letter talk about and how does it make Edna feel?Sobbing

CHAPTER 22

What do Lonce and the doctor say about women?Woman, my dear friend, is a very peculiar and delicate organism - a sensitive and highly organized woman, such as I know Mrs. Pontellier to be, is especially peculiar. It would require an inspired psychologist to deal successfully with them. (...) Most women are moody and whimsical. This is some passing whim of your wife, due to some cause of causes which you and I neednt try to fathom. But it will pass happily over, especially if you let her alone. Send her around to see meWhat advice does he give Lonce?Let her alone What does he suspect?That there is another man

CHAPTER 23

How would you describe Ednas relationship with her father?Not a good relationship with her father How does Adle treat her father?What does the doctor think of Edna once he sees her?That there was no trace of that morbid condition which her husband had reported to him

What story does Edna tell at the end of the chapter? What does the doctor think about it?She tells the story of a woman who paddled away with her lover one night and never come back. The doctor hopes that this man who had made Edna fell in love with is not Arobin

CHAPTER 24

How does Edna react to her sisters wedding?She does not want to go to the wedding Are there any similarities between Lonce and Ednas father?Yes, authority = patriarchal How does she feel about her husband? Why do you think she acts this way?Sentimental Where are her children and how does she feel about this?In Iberville. Self- reliance ( Emerson)

CHAPTER 25 Describe Alce Arobin.How does the relationship between Alce and Edna develop?What does she think about Robert and her husband?

CHAPTER 26

Does Edna change her feelings toward Arobin?What is the nature of her conversation with