Use specific examples from the assigned texts (texts include assigned readings, films, and videos). Unpack those examples in your own words. Explain thoroughly how you are thinking about those examples in the context of the class.

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American Studies Question

Formatting: 3 pg minimum, 12pt, Times New Roman, 1″ margins, double spaced. Note: 3 pages is approx. 750 words. Write more if you’d like.

Process Papers [5 pts each]

Submit a 3 page process/response paper (12pt, Times New Roman, double-spaced, 1” margins) that responds to at least 3 readings, films, or other assigned texts across the designated period (Weeks 4 through Week 8) — and explores the ideas, themes, or topics from those texts that made you curious in some way. You should always try be specific and precise — that is, name the idea/concept/topic, explain or contextualize it with quotations (and explanations in your own words) and examples (and explanations in your own words) from the class readings/texts (to show me you did the reading or watched/listened to the texts), and share any insights, examples, or reflections you may have.

Use specific examples from the assigned texts (texts include assigned readings, films, and videos). Unpack those examples in your own words. Explain thoroughly how you are thinking about those examples in the context of the class.

 

Discuss where you see examples of Regionalism in the works of 2 writers you’ve looked at so far. What makes these good examples? Why so? Explain in 350 words minimum using examples from the works as support.

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EH 232 Discussion Board questions 300 words:

  1. Discuss where you see examples of Regionalism in the works of 2 writers you’ve looked at so far. What makes these good examples? Why so? Explain in 350 words minimum using examples from the works as support.
  • Read Emily Dickinson’s bio and poems (pages 82-100).
  • Read lecture on Emily Dickinson.
  • Read “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce (page 327).
  • Read “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” lecture.
  • Read “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” by Mark Twain (page 104).
  • Read “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” lecture.

 

  1. Discuss which work you feel best exemplifies the movement of Realism? Why so? Explain in 350 words minimum using examples from the works as support.
  • Read “The Luck of the Roaring Camp” by Bret Harte (page 307).
  • Read “The Luck of the Roaring Camp” lecture.
  • Read “Editha” by William Dean Howells (316).
  • Read “Editha” lecture.
  • Read “The Real Thing” by Henry James (page 382).
  • Read “The Real Thing” lecture.
  • Read “The Beast in the Jungle” by Henry James (page 399).
  • Read “The Beast in the Jungle” lecture.

 

  1. Discuss which work you feel best exemplifies the movement of Naturalism. Why so? Explain in 350 words minimum using examples from the works as support. 
  • Read the following by Wallace Stevens:

“The Snow Man” (page 777)

“A High-Toned Old Christian Woman” (page 777)

“The Emperor of Ice-Cream” (page 778)

“Disillusionment of Ten O’Clock” (page 778)

“Sunday Morning” (page 779)

“Anecdote of the Jar” (page 782)

“Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” (page 782)

“The Ideas of Order at Key West” (page 784)

“Of Modern Poetry” (page 785).

 

  • Read Part One and Part Two of Wallace Stevens lectures.
  • Read “The Red Wheelbarrow” by William Carlos Williams (page 793).
  • Read “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot (page 830).
  • Read Part One and Part Two of T.S. Eliot lectures.
  • Read the following by E.E. Cummings:

“in Just-” (page 962)

O sweet spontaneous” (page 963)

“Buffalo Bill’s” (964)

“i sing of Olaf glad and big” (page 965) “somewhere i have never traveled, gladly beyond” (page 966)

“anyone lived in a pretty how town” (page 966)

  • Read the E.E. Cummings lecture.

 

  1. Discuss what American written work from the last 50 years will one day be considered great American literature, perhaps the kind that is even studied in future American Lit II courses. What makes your chosen work worthy of that? Why so? Explain/defend your choice in 350 words minimum using examples from the work as support. 

Explain how Franklin uses SATIRE in : “Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America” and “The Speech of Polly Baker, Provide at least two specific examples from each work.

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Lit- Essay 2

Answer the question below:
Explain how Franklin uses SATIRE in : “Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America” and “The Speech of Polly Baker, Provide at least two specific examples from each work.

How does designing 1600s houses deepen my understanding of Arthur Millers play the crucible? How does focusing on a specific theme when designing or being creative help the overall project?

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Research Essay Paper

How does designing 1600s houses deepen my understanding of Arthur Millers play the crucible?
How does focusing on a specific theme when designing or being creative help the overall project?

How is “The Speech of Polly Baker” a satire? What is satirized in the speech and how does Franklin satirize it?

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“The Speech of Miss Polly Baker” written by Benjamin Franklin

How is “The Speech of Polly Baker” a satire? What is satirized in the speech and how does Franklin satirize it? Remember to include specific quotes in your response.

Analyze the passage(s) from Beowulf that either contain or refer indirectly to this expression. In addition, research 2 print sources that also deal with this word.

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The True Meaning of Fate

The task behind this paper is to immerse yourself in the word you have chosen.

Analyze the passage(s) from Beowulf that either contain or refer indirectly to this expression. In addition, research 2 print sources that also deal with this word. You may also relate the word to society today. The paper should be a synthesis of your findings and reflections. Three definitive parts in the paper should be easily noted: an introduction, body, and conclusion. First and second person pronouns are not permissible.

Discuss at least three Enlightenment principles and apply these ideas to issues that our society is facing today. Are we still in the Enlightenment? Have we wandered away from Enlightenment ideals? How or why?

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Lit Assignment 5

Discuss at least three Enlightenment principles and apply these ideas to issues that our society is facing today. Are we still in the Enlightenment? Have we wandered away from Enlightenment ideals? How or why?

Click on the following link, read and watch the video https://sullivan-county.com/deism/eng_rat.htm

Also use the information in the attached link. NO OUTSIDE SOURCES ALLOWED. Using only the info provided answer the above questions.

What do the first four stanzas describe? List some of the pleasant images in these stanzas (greenest of valleys, radiant palace, etc.). How do the “spirits” move in stanza III? b. What happens to the kingdom in stanzas V and VI? How do the “vast forms” move now?

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Edgar Allan Poe – “The Fall of the House of Usher”

FYI: The bold text provides explanation/notes to help you as you move through the story. For this assignment, you might want to write answers in a new document. If you write in this document, you will need to remove both the questions and this extra information.

1. What two meanings can the word “house” have in the title of the story?

Poe has been called “the father of the modern short story” because he was the first to define it as a distinct literary form. He developed a theory of the construction of a tale. Poe wrote:

A skillful literary artist has constructed a tale. If wise, he has not fashioned
his thoughts to accommodate his incidents; but having conceived, with
deliberate care, a certain unique or single effect to be wrought out, he then
invents such incidents – he then combines such events as may best aid him
in establishing this preconceived effect. If his very initial sentence tend not
to the out bringing of this effect, then he has failed in his first step. In the
whole composition there should be no word written, of which the tendency,
direct or indirect, is not to the one pre-established design.

Keep this idea of Poe’s in mind as you read this story. Poe believed that the author of a well-crafted story should first determine the effect he wants his story to have. Poe was the master at the creation of a singular effect – usually one of horror, fear, or the fantastic.

2. The first paragraph of the story immediately establishes the tone, or mood, of the tale which he is about to relate. What physical details accomplish this? I have begun a list of sensory details he uses in this first paragraph. Add seven or more details from the paragraph to the list.

~ dull, dark, soundless day
~ clouds hung oppressively low
~ a singularly dreary tract of country
~ sense of insufferable gloom

3. The next two paragraphs describe Roderick Usher, and Poe gives an even more detailed description on pp. 751-752 as the narrator meets Roderick (paragraph beginning, “Upon my entrance, Usher arose . . . .”). Write a brief physical description of Roderick. What is his malady? To what is he “a bounden slave”? (p. 752) What is the purpose of the narrator’s visit?

Back in the fifth paragraph, Poe describes the house of Usher. The house is decaying, yet free from “any extraordinary dilapidation.” The individual stones are crumbling, becoming discolored, etc., yet the building is holding together. HOWEVER, the narrator notes that there is a “barely perceptible fissure” which runs from the foundation to the roof. This small crack will be important later.

If you gave question #1 some thought, you probably see that there is some connection between Roderick Usher and the house of Usher. The two will decay together, just as they will fall together. In fact, on p. 753 in the paragraph beginning “I learned, moreover, . . . ,” the narrator tells us that Roderick was “enchained by certain superstitious impressions in regard to the dwelling which he tenanted, and whence, for many years, he had never ventured forth . . . .” Roderick believes himself united to the house, which has laid claim to him. Its influence over his spirit not only makes it impossible for him to leave the house, it has also brought about his malady. The description of the interior of the Usher mansion intensifies the impression of gloom and decay given by the outside. Roderick’s studio is reached “through many dark and intricate passages”; this fact indicates that his mind and personality are dark and complex – not easily understood. Roderick and the mansion are directly tied together. Keep this in mind as you read.

4. At this point in the story, we meet Madeline Usher. Describe her. Please do not write that she is just like her brother. Describe her from your honest thoughts based on what you see in the text.

The next few paragraphs summarize Roderick’s pastimes. He plays “long improvised dirges,” his paintings are described as “phantasmagoric conceptions,” and the books he reads are occult and fantastic. Notice how consistent Poe is in his crafting of this protagonist.

The one poem that is shared in the story indicates Roderick’s fear of madness.

5. The poem “The Haunted Palace” is one that we could explore in detail, but the meaning behind it is fairly simple.

a. What do the first four stanzas describe? List some of the pleasant images in these stanzas (greenest of valleys, radiant palace, etc.). How do the “spirits” move in stanza III?
b. What happens to the kingdom in stanzas V and VI? How do the “vast forms” move now?
c. If the palace stands for the human mind, what does the poem mean?

Immediately after the descriptions of Roderick’s pastimes, we find out in a very matter of fact way that Madeline Usher is “no more,” and Roderick enlists the narrator’s help in entombing the body in a vault within the Usher home. This leads us to the horrifying ending.

6. What is Roderick’s manner in the days following Madeline’s burial?

7. The night of “the fall of the house of Usher” has sometimes been described by students as “a dark and stormy night.” Yes, the night is definitely dark and quite stormy. However, visions of the many cartoons in which Snoopy struggles with writer’s block come to mind when I read those descriptions.

My one new question for this assignment is to ask you to carefully read the paragraph that begins “The impetuous fury of the entering gust . . . .” and to enjoy Poe’s beautiful language in that paragraph. What one image stands out to you and why? An image is simply a sight or sound expressed in writing. Feel free to look up words to help you write a good interpretation.

8. At this point, Poe places a story within the story. In my opinion, Poe’s crafting of the story is brilliant here. To comfort Roderick, the narrator reads to him from The Mad Trist, a story Poe invented for his purposes here in the story. Notice how the events of the story correspond to the actual events in the Usher mansion on this particular night. Also, describe Roderick’s state of mind and his reactions at each point in the story.

Mad Trist: Ethelred breaks into the home of the hermit – he “crack, and ripped, and tore all asunder” the door of the dwelling.

Usher mansion / Roderick’s reaction: ___________________________________

Mad Trist: Ethelred finds a dragon within and strikes it with his mace. The dragon makes “a shriek so horrid and harsh, and withal so piercing,” that Ethelred has to cover his ears from the dreadful noise.

Usher mansion / Roderick’s reaction: ___________________________________

Mad Trist: Ethelred, who has killed the dragon, reaches for the shield, which falls at his feet on the floor, “with a mighty great and terrible ringing sound.”

Usher mansion / Roderick’s reaction: ___________________________________

9. What does the reader discover that Roderick has done to Madeline?

10. The final two paragraphs describe the two “falls” of the Usher house. Write a brief description of the fall of Roderick and the fall of the mansion.

Write a paragraph that begins with your answer to the question and gives at least three specific reasons from the text that support your analysis of Brown as sympathetic or unsympathetic.

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Nathaniel Hawthorne

“Young Goodman Brown” and “My Kinsman, Major Molineux” are stories of young men on journeys that are both real and allegorical. I have found that studying the two together can be helpful in gaining a better understanding of Hawthorne. To lighten your writing load, I am only requiring that you answer written questions about “My Kinsman, Major Molineux” and then to write a short paragraph on Goodman Brown. This paragraph is a new part of the assignment. I used to assign a comparison/contrast of the two stories, but I was not seeing original thought in those paragraphs.

“My Kinsman, Major Molineux”

To be honest, this story is like so many of Hawthorne’s stories. We could delve deeply into symbolism and hidden meanings; however, I plan to stay more “on the surface” with this one. That does not mean that this will be a simple and easy analysis of the story, though. I have taught this several times in earlier years and decided to add it back into the mix of Hawthorne stories because I have always liked it, I think it is easy to read, and it is great for helping you understand Hawthorne.

Before you read, review the themes found in Hawthorne, specifically the subconscious, loss of innocence, and ambiguity. You can find these themes in Content.

Robin Molineux is on a quest – a “real” one and an allegorical one. That will be the focus of the questions. Also, note that the first paragraph of the story describes the local unpopularity of the royally appointed Colonial governors in the American Colonies during the seventeenth century. This information serves as an important “preface” to the story. As you read on, you will understand why.

1. The first scene of the story shows Robin crossing the river on a ferry boat. What details do we learn in this scene about his situation and his character? (Think of his name – What does the name “Robin” bring to mind? Notice his dress, his physical features, age, etc. READ CLOSELY.)

2. Robin’s town adventures as he searches for his kinsman teach him something about life and the world. Briefly describe the experiences he has in the three successive scenes, commenting on my questions below.
a. The barber shop – Notice the laughter as he leaves the barber shop. How does he interpret this laughter? Is he really the “shrewd youth” he thinks he is?
b. The tavern – Again he encounters laughter, and again, “with his usual shrewdness,” he thinks he knows why they are laughing. Comment on this.
c. The house with the “pretty mistress” – What does this scene tell you about his kinsman? Does Robin understand the temptation he is facing?

Again, as he rounds the corner, he seems “to hear the sound of drowsy laughter stealing along the solitary street.” Why do you think Hawthorne continues to include laughter? What is the irony here? Think of how Robin sees himself (as shrewd) vs. the reality of the situation.

3. Robin is now determined to find his kinsman. He asks the watchman, who does not answer him, and then wanders until he finds himself outside a church. He demands of a stranger an answer to his question, “Whereabouts is the dwelling of my kinsman, Major Molineux?” What is the man’s answer? Describe the man and comment on what Hawthorne might be symbolizing in such a man. This one is tough; just think about the fact that he is two-faced, and neither face represents “good.”

4. If you think of this journey allegorically, Robin is an innocent country youth who about to “come of age.” The scene of Robin waiting outside the church is turning point in this journey. First, notice the dreamlike qualities of the scene; Hawthorne uses phrases like “beautiful strangeness,” “ghostly indistinctness,” “sleep-inspiring sound,” “low, dull, dreamy sound,” “drowsy influence,” etc.
a. How does his view of the church’s interior affect him?
b. What happens in his imaginative re-creation of the evening in his father’s house?
Notice the question he asks himself, “Am I here, or there?” As his mind keeps “vibrating between fancy and reality,” he finds himself between the innocence of his youth and the realities of life.

5. Shortly after this scene, Robin has his first friendly encounter, a man who joins him in his wait and listens to him talk about his adventures. What does Robin learn from him? Consider the gentleman’s comments on the two-faced man leading the procession.

6. As the procession appears, there is a momentary lessening of noise, and then there is a peal of laughter. What has happened? Why does Robin eventually join in this laugher?

7. Notice the kind gentleman (from question #5) and his role at the end of the story. After the procession goes by, Robin has changed. The gentleman inquires, “Well, Robin, are you dreaming?” What is the significance of this question? What do you make of Hawthorne’s description of Robin: “His cheek was somewhat pale, and his eye not quite as lively as in the earlier part of the evening”? Why does the gentleman encourage Robin to remain in the city? He calls Robin a “shrewd youth.” Is this now true?

Goodman Brown

Do you consider Goodman Brown to be a sympathetic or an unsympathetic character? Write a paragraph about Brown that answers the question. Use one of the two following approaches:

• Write a paragraph that begins with your answer to the question and gives at least three specific reasons from the text that support your analysis of Brown as sympathetic or unsympathetic.

• If you can sincerely see Goodman Brown in both lights, write a paragraph of at least three points that first acknowledges the other view but then explains your stance. Your view should be stronger, so be sure to write more about your position than you write about the opposing view.

Mather claims that he is acting as a historian and not merely as a biased advocate in Wonders of the Invisible World. Do you agree or disagree with his self-assessment based on “The Devil Attacks the People of God” and “The Trial of Martha Carrier”?

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American Lit Module 3

Mather claims that he is acting as a historian and not merely as a biased advocate in Wonders of the Invisible World. Do you agree or disagree with his self-assessment based on “The Devil Attacks the People of God” and “The Trial of Martha Carrier”?