¶ … American Literature
"Song of Myself" stanzas 1-21 by Walt Whitman
Pride in the self and one's perseverance at life
"I celebrate myself, and sing myself, and what I assume you shall assume, for every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
"I am satisfied -- I see, dance, laugh, sing;"
Equality and the view of American lands
"And it means, sprouting alike in broad zones and narrow zones, growing among black folks as among white…I give them the same, I receive them the same"
"Along far in the wilds and mountains I hunt, wandering amazed at my own lightness and glee…"
The Hairy Ape by Eugene O'Neill
A view of what industry does to the future of class and American society in cities
"A procession of gaudy marionettes, yet with something of the relentless horror of Frankensteins in their detached, mechanical awareness."
"Where's all de white-collar stiffs yuh said was here -- and de skoits -- her kind?"
B. The return to embracing nature and the natural, animal instincts of humanity
1. "He slips on the floor and dies. The monkeys set up a chattering, whimpering wail. And, perhaps, the Hairy Ape at last belongs."
2. "I seen de sun come up. Dat was pretty, too -- all red and pink and green. I was lookin' at de skyscrapers -- steel -- and de ships comin' in, sailin' out, all over the oith -- and dey was steel, too…on'y I couldn't get in it, see? I couldn't belong in dat."
III. Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane
A. Description of the American way of life, poverty in the cities
1. "Eh, child, what is it dis time? Is yer fader beatin' yer mudder, or yer mudder beatin' yer fader?"
2....
Because is easily shaped, these above-mentioned items were made to form by a skilled craftsman's hammer and by casting; gold was engraved and embossed; gold was used in granule form for decorative purposes; gold was pounded into thin sheets for "covering furniture, wooden coffins… for plating copper and silver and for cutting into thin strips to make wire" (Lukas, 264). Lukas explains that he measured several specimens of sheet gold
Tom Shulich ("ColtishHum") A comparative study on the theme of fascination with and repulsion from Otherness in Song of Kali by Dan Simmons and in the City of Joy by Dominique Lapierre ABSRACT In this chapter, I examine similarities and differences between The City of Joy by Dominique Lapierre (1985) and Song of Kali by Dan Simmons (1985) with regard to the themes of the Western journalistic observer of the Oriental Other, and
" And had Bucke never read any of Whitman's earlier poetry (Leaves of Grass, for example) "we might think that words could not convey greater passion" than they did in Drum-Taps (p. 171). "But now we know better," he went on. The "splendid faith" of Whitman's earlier poems is "greatly dimmed" in Drum-Taps, he insists. Bucke writes that he was told by a person "who knew the poet well, and who
Ralph Waldo Emerson's idealized and mesmerizing description of the role and life of the poet describes not only the particular calling and obligation of those who choose to follow the poetic muses but also -- because of Emerson's own influence on the writings of Americans who followed him -- proved to be a strongly proscriptive piece of advice for other poets and writers in the decades after Emerson helped to
O Captain Three Themes in "O Captain! My Captain!" Walt Whitman wrote "O Captain! My Captain!" In 1865 and it serves as an elegy to the President Lincoln, who had just been assassinated. As a patriotic American and the "poet of America" (as he called himself), Whitman was duty-bound to mourn the loss of the 16th U.S. president in verse. That he did so in a way completely opposite from his free
Well-placed imagery is like a snapshot into what the author is saying. They are essentially painting a picture and the images they give us are important to the overall message. Kate Chopin wants us to experience the thrill that Louise does when she realizes that her husband's death is not the end of the world but the beginning of a new one. Her life, once shadowed but that man,
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