American Literature Final Exam Study Guide 2011

Modern Short Stories

“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner
Writing about the South
Stylistic Devices
1) Jumbled Chronological Order
2) Narrator made a twist on Voice (collective memory of the townspeople)
Tone in 1st paragraph
-Fallen Monument: Emily was not a full part of the community (look at and appreciate
but don’t interact with), like a Stone (with hardness/impenetrability), Fallen from grace or
a point of respectability
Theme: Things aren’t what they seem ( Emily turns out to be a crazy woman who hides a
dead body in her house, yet she comes from a gentle and respected family [fallen
monument idea])
-Curiosity: The condition of a community
-Respectful Affection: They can serve independently as well
-Man-Servant: suggests Wealth
The untold story of Tobe (and his extreme loyalty to his masters [keeps secrets])
“Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway
Stylistic Devices:
1) Voice (Short and quick Dialogue)
2) Use of Subtext
- Subtext: Talking about Jig having an Abortion
Imagery: dry, hot, barren,wet
− country-side is brown and dry
− dry side of the valley
− table in the shade
− fields of grain and a river
− water in their drinks
Mood: Negative (anti-abortion)
Title: Rounded pregnant bellied mountains catch her eye; The White Elephant Game
(bring something in that you want to get rid of)
Shallowness of Relationship (All they do is look and drink)
- Don’t have anything in common except for traveling (male and female in
conflict, want different things, they are afraid to say it),
Part of “Lost Generation” (traveling in Spain with no place to go, wanderers)
“Once they take it away, you never get it back”
1- referring to the Baby [abortion]
2- Loss of their innocence
The Train Station: They are at a crossroads, a decision point
- Things aren’t what they seem (subtext and railroad decision)
Vagaries of human communication (and its complexity)
Theme: Confronting the Future
− ineffectiveness of communicating
− similar to secret life of Walter Mitty
− Subtext
 − pregnancy is elephant in their lives
“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson
Theme: Things are not what they seem
-Seems like an ordinary day with ordinary circumstances
-Bringing up questions about community (Just go on with life when one day each
year they kill one person in their community)
Use of Foreshadowing:
1) Boys collecting stones early in story
2) Happy when one of the boys isn’t chosen
2) Tesse freaks out when her family is chosen
-Use of a Twist (Stoning) [uses foreshadowing and Hints]
- Biblical Imagery: stoning to death
-the Scapegoat (Goat would take in all the sins of the townspeople)
-Metaphors:
1) Harvest rituals (Sacrifice the human for a good harvest)
2) Military Draft (Lottery) (one person sacrifices for the community)
“The Use of Force” by William Carlos Williams
Divided Mind
1) Doctor is divided in his will
- Wants to save lives (Diphtheria is a mortal illness)
- Wants to Hurt the Child (Anger)
- Both are driving forces in his character
Doctor is charmed by the precious little kid
- He is saving the childs life, but in doing so he gets annoyed and frustrated,
becomes angry and cruel to the child (wants to hurt it)
2) Young Girl
-) Throat has been sore for three days and wants her pain to get better, but
she could also let it get worse/ be stubborn in fear of “what the Doctor might do to her”
3) Parents
- They want to help the daughter but they don’t like to see her suffer
- Father cant even hold her down well, he backs off at the view of
his daughters discomfort (makes this whole process more
difficult)
-For the Reader
1) Very Relatable story (Angry at annoying brats)
2) Parents are always saying placates that are used to calm people down
- Themes: Divided Minds/Wills, Relatable story/situation
“The Man I Killed” by Tim Obrien
- Stream of Consciousness (Guilt going through Tim’s mind)
- All humans don’t react the same way to the event (all 3 have their own
understanding of this individual reality)
-Anti-War with regards to the Humanity of all people (more in common than we do
conflicting)
- 3 guys (Tim, Kiowa and Azar)
1) Tim: Deeply impacted by killing (reflective)
2) Kiowa: understanding and supportive of Tim (voice of reason)
 3) Azar: thinks killing is commendable
Narrative of a Fallen Soldier
-Tim tells us about his childhood and how he is not a soldier at heart
-Flowers grow out next to dead (vietnamese) body
- Realism: nature and man don’t see eye to eye (opposes Transcendentalism)
- Naturalism: Nature is out to get you (man is struggling to exist in this world, and
is sometimes losing the battle) (more radical version of realism)
-showing downsides of war
Impressionism: Speculates about his feelings during death, makes up an entire story of
the man and his life
Similarities to Walter Mitty:
1) Members of Military are involved in both stories
2) Traumatic effects of War (Anti-War ideals)
3) Descriptive and Slang language
- both unhappy
− making up what kids life could be, fantasizing/making up own worlds
− walter- war is glorious
− negative in “man I killed”
Tone: Weary, guilty, and remorseful
Theme: Meaning of life, Morality of War
“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” by James Thurber
- Daydreams while doing things, wife orders him around
Themes:
-Battle of the Sexes (like Unicorn and the Garden-wife dictates husband)
-Coping with reality by creating a fantasy
Ex:
- Living for Dreams (Like miniver cheevy)
Short Stories Comparisons and Similarities
− The use of force + The secret life of walter Mitty- (divided mind)
− The man I killed + secret life of Walter Mitty
− both unhappy
− making up what man's life could be, both fantasizing
− walter- war is glorious
− negative in “man I killed”
− The lottery + rose for emily
− foreshadowing
− Walter Mitty + unicorn in garden
− battle of sexes
− two male protagonists have vivid imaginations
− in mitty and unicorn
− creative side being stifled by women
− The man I killed + hills like white elephants
− opposing views on topic
− Azar likes war and everyone else is shameful of it
− he wants an abortion she doesnt
 − he thinks things will return to normal, she doesnt
− Rose for emily + unicorn in the garden
− betrayal
− Unicorn in the garden + lottery
− ironic
− think lottery is good but turns out bad
− hills like white elephants + unicorn
− ambiguity
− not knowing where they are heading (suggestive of their mindset)
− dont know the man is really telling truth and if there is unicorn

The Modern Novel

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Roaring Twenties
- Lost Generation and the Jazz Age
- September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940
-St Paul, Minnesota (a Midwesterner, has a different prospective)
- Zelda (name of his wife [model for daisy])
-The Observer and the Observed (lived the life of the time)
-List words and ideas associated with the roaring twenties
1) A Young Persons Era [20-40] (they were taking on the new
things that were happening)
2) Prohibition (religious)(except at pharmacies and speak-easies)
3) Three Piece suits, Fedoras, Flappers
4) Jazz/Ragtime, The Charleston and Black Bottom Dancing
5) The Roadster (electrification, telephone, indoor plumbing,
Modernity, Technology, womens suffrage)
-Stock Market Crash of 1929 and Great Depression
− Nick is an observer
− Cars play a large part in story
− Wilson is car repair man
− Gatsby's library is just for show
− The characters are drunk and stubborn
− labels Jordan “incurably dishonest”
− observing but not criticizing

The Great Gatsby

- Nick Carraway is wealthy enough to go to Yale, live in NY (financed by
father), own a hardware store
-Notes on the Study Sheets
-Wealthy vs. Struggling Working Class (he uses symbols)
- Gray (Ash) vs. White
symbols
1) Eyes- all knowing and seeing omnipotent (God’s eyes), but also
society and conscience
 2) Cars {movement: go fast, leave this life behind}
- Tom and Gatsby have cars
-Mr. Wilson repairs cars and sells gasoline
-A Stylist: good at prose and description/tightness
Pg 45: The Observer has wandered into the library and made an extraordinary
discovery, that Gatsby has a library full of real books (he thought they were fake)
a) Costs a lot more to put real books on shelf (he spent a lot of money)
b) “The guy knew when to stop too. He didn’t cut the pages”
-Doesn’t read them, doesn’t plan to ever read them
-Shows how Gatsby will go to any expense to appear to be learnéd,
wealthy of a certain class
Gatsby’s Late Appearance (creates mystery)
- Why does he give big parties if hes a bad host? (in hope of seeing Daisy)
Ch 5
-Shift in Nick, becomes the connector/middle man
-Gatsby is his neighbor, Daisy is second cousin once removed
Frytagz Pyramid
-Starts with Exposition (Nick tells us he rarely makes judgments), To the
plot of Gatsby to lure Daisy, The Climax [Gatsby puts all his cards down](didn’t
work), Things unravel (the murder, Wilson kills Gatsby, they runaway), The end
resolve
Use in class study sheets and novel itself for further detail

Modern Poetry
“Richard Cory” by Edwin Arlington Robinson
- A Vignette (about one persons life)
- Outsider in the community (they all look at him in admiration)
- Wealthy and educated
- He doesn’t think his life is worth living, shoots himself
Similarities to Miniver Cheevy:
− Cory is imperially slim
− Cheevy is lean
− doesnt look good in clothes
− both characters are dissatisfied w/ their lives
− both bring around their own death
− life Cheevy wants Cory has
− opposites on wealth spectrum
− both dont like their situation
“Mr. Floods Party” by Edwin Arlington Robinson
Theme:
1) Loneliness
− he is alone no family or friends (used to have them)
2) Desperation (talks to himself, desperate for company)
− immediate condition
− drunk
 − talking to himself
− Eben flood
− eb and flow
− tides
− measure time
− concept of plenty and dearth
− had many friends but now has none
− drinking during Prohibition
− allusion to bird of time
− his youth has flown away
− Decides to Carpe Diem (seize the day)
− allusion to Roland's ghost
− has no friends to come
“Miniver Cheevy” by Edwin Arlington Robinson
Born in the wrong century and place (doesn’t like the workaday world)
Themes:
- Escaping burdens of life by daydreaming
- Dwells on the past (constantly wishing he was in another time)
Daydreams: (a false reality) Not actively engaged in real life (not working)
Hes not wealthy, scorned the gold
He loathed the khaki suit but preferred the medieval armor (doesn’t want to be a
working man)
Allusion to the Medicis (and how he would be so similar to them [wealthy and
corrupt bankers from italy])
- He only thinks, never takes action, an alcoholic dying of tuberculosis
- He has missed and wasted lots of opportunities in life (sulking in thought)
− Tone:
− - Reminiscing
− pessimistic
− use of irony
− sarcastic
− entitled
− Structure:
− rhyme scheme
“Mending Wall” by Robert Frost
- He is a modern poet who particularly likes the conventional forms (Blank Verse)
-Mending Wall
Neighbors are brought together once a year to make a wall that separates them
-Irony: Speaker is questioning the purpose and usefuleness of wall
Thematic idea:
- Tradition
a) Establishes order and cultural traditions, keeps society united
- They unite around traditions making fences or the Lottery
b) Some traditions cause more harm than good (Lottery: Kill people,
Walls: Divides people from each other)
 - Create boundaries (Walls)
-Must kill someone each year (the Lottery)
- One person against another
References to the Supernatural (spells and elves)
- He is anti-wall, like paranormal creatures (humans like walls/boundaries)
- Elves: The mischief in me (and Ironic)
Neighbor wants the wall out of blind tradition, cant come up with a real reason except
that “good fences make good neighbors”
Title: Ironic (mending the wall itself but aggravating/further separating the humans on
both sides and worsening/removing their connection to each other)
-much like the lottery which is also considered good
“The Road not Taken” by Robert Frost
-A poem about the road he did not take
The Existential Question: Every decision we make determines the rest of our lives.
a) Commonly taught as a reflection of the decisions we make in life an how they
impact the rest of our lives
-He is also Mischievous and Ironic
-The poems title refers to the road he did NOT take
a) If you don’t do something, you wont know what happened there
“I could not travel both and be one Traveler”
a) Cant be two places at the same time
b) If he walks down one road, when he comes back he will not be the
same person
-Contradictions (they are equally beautiful and fair, but one is the better claim
and is grassy and needs wear [isn’t equal])
“Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost
− Political- Marxist
− reference to government(his, him)
− everything communal
− has been working
− isnt a man of leisure
− Cultural-feminine
− all his, never hers
− male horse
− feminine energy
− associated with nature
− wondering why he is there (nagging)
− a woman is missing
− Psychological- freudian
− the woods are attracting him
− thinking of death as lovely
− theological- Judeo- Christian
− winter solstice
− promises to God
− he is Santa Claus
 − his house- the church
− God has been confined in church
− not in nature anymore
“Fog” by Carl Sandburg
Influenced by Imagist Movement (1910-1918)
a) Absolute precision in representation of a single image
b) wrote in Free Verse
- Sensory Imagery
-sight, movement, sound, smell
a) Stillness and Quiet
b) Fog comes, stays awhile, then goes (like problems in life)
-Personification of the Fog as a cat
-A Metaphor (Cat and Fog)
- Images (senses)
“Anecdote of the Jar” by Wallace Stevens
Theme:
1) Complex relationship between human and nature
-Man organizes (like industrialization), or Man destroys
2) Transformative power of an active imagination
Poem is about the creative enterprise
-Speaker puts the jar there (in Tennessee)
- Jar has an effect on nature (not the other way around)
- Verbs- all action verbs
- Final stanza is an Anomaly
-Heavily speaks of what happens when you bring other things into a stable
environment (will either integrate or take dominion)
-Jar takes dominion in this case
“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot
-Similar to Walter Mitty and Miniver Cheevy
- Prufrock is a boring dweeb (that’s his problem)
- He wrote about a middle aged man in crisis
- Something to say about the Human Condition
- We are all able to relate because we all have our Prufrock moments
-Highly Image driven (motifs of illness, death [emotional suicide], and ocean
[drown because of siren song])
An Overview
-A dramatic Monologue (Epigraph to Montefeltro who is consigned to hell for
giving evil advice)
- Use of Allusions (Buonarroti)
- Compares the yellow fog to a dog
- Compare to Sandburg’s metaphor in tone and style?
c)
Line 27: How or why does one “prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet”?
a) Act differently towards different people (meeting dads boss vs an
opposing team member)
Motif: repetition of the word “time”
speaker “dares” to do “descend the stair” and face his past mistakes/decisions
b) He has his whole life in front of him to talk to these women and break
out of his shell
-Worrying about lost opportunities and deterioration of body (middle aged)
His “Life has been measured in Coffee Spoons”
a) Hes never been very adventurous (small and repetitive)
-Overly analytical and precise
-Isnt engaged in the party, probably in a library somewhere in the estate
-A solitary man (like a crab) who has had wasted/unpleasant parts in his life, but
tonight before and during the party is trying to live and seeing a real/normal life
Malinger means “pretends to be sick”
Line 82: What is the Allusion?
- St John the Baptist (prophet gets his head cut off)
- Come out the loser for his sacrifice
Line 85: Who is the Eternal Footman?
- Death/The Grim Reaper
- (Because I could not stop for death Emily Dickinson)
- He is afraid of death and dying without ‘making his mark’
a) Death is laughing at him because he hasn’t done
anything, he has wasted his shot/life
What does this line suggest about Prufrocks self-confidence?
a) He doesn’t have any, doesn’t think he’s worth anything
-Scared its never safe to tell a girl his true feelings for fear of getting
rejected
-Takes one last grasp at reclaiming his youth (by wearing cuffs as part of his
pants style, parting his hair over to cover bald spot)
- Nervous about eating a peach, he may lose a tooth
-He pulls back
Siren has been calling him to change his ways (snap out of it!)
- Fear it might cause Emotional suicide (he will drown) (allusion to
Homer’s the Odyssey)
-Storm in the ocean (white and black)
− Connections
− Walter Mitty (thinks too much)
− Miniver Cheevy (acts too much but isnt an actor)

“The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes

- Soul is related to rivers
- speaker comes to represent a community of individuals, and the rivers become
a metaphor for the history, spirit, and wisdom of Africans and African-Americans.
Through this metaphor, our speaker documents a history and a heritage.
“Archy and Mehitabel” by Don Marquis
-Lesson of the moth
a) No punctuations
b) Archie the cockroach telling about his conversation with the moth
-Archy has met his match in the moth as a philosopher who also has a
view on the world, Moth has taken a considered decision
-Archy is into playing it safe (cautious, boring)
a) he is motivated by his dedication, passion, and purpose
-Similarities to Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
a) Neither Archy nor Prufrock are driven by passion (looking for a missing
element) (they don’t have that moment of excitement like the moth)
-Archy wishes that he had something as much as the Moth wanted that flame
a) They are too worried, they analyze life but cant seem to change it
− Archy is like Prufrock
− just passing thru life , not wanting anything special
− realizes that he is missing something
− wants to have a goal in life
− missing passion, purpose
“The Red Wheelbarrow” by William Carlos Williams
-What Depends?
a) The poem (the observation lets him write this poem) [artistic creation]
b) The Farmer (life itself depends on this water/work/nature)
c) The quality of your life depends on noticing
-Snap out of it, Look at the Reed Wheelbarrow (contrasts Use of
Force)
-No punctuation for flow, and so there’s no meter (long and short lines, four
stanzas [breaking the “rules” of poetry])
-Get in touch with the real world (not filtered thru emotions and heavy
descriptions) (deceptively simple)
TP-CASTT
Title (w/o poem), Paraphrase, Connotation (deeper meaning), Attitude (tone),
Shift, Title (with poem),Theme (how does it relate/ what is it saying about life?)
Modern Non-Fiction
“Barbie and her Playmates”
- An Expository Essay, Cause and Effect structure (if this than this)
- Author: Professor Don Richard Cox
- Title: Barbie and her Playmates (written 1977)
a) Double entendre: Playmates are Ken/Kelly or the children
- Playmates gives the suggestion of playboy playmates ;)
- Subject: The influence of Barbie dolls on the generation that plays with
them
a) Looking at cultural and societal shifts
b) Informative essay not persuasive (informs them of what may
come as a result in the future because of these dolls)
- Audience: Parents who’s children play[ed] with Barbie’s; Students of
American culture (anthropologists)
-Thesis: Last sentence, or two possibilities on 188
- POV: He is anti-Barbie, A generalized Observer (like Nick Carraway)
a) He allies with traditionalist view (baby dolls)
-Technique/Style/Voice: deliberately using humor/sarcasm/double
entendre etc., (not presented as a highly researched essay but instead to stir up
the public readers)
b) Writing about the consumer driven culture (entertainment
equates with purchasing things)
-Life is determined by the goodies you have, this society is going to
grow up with no responsibilities and not work for their material goods
-We will become materialistic, girls will see their goal to be independent and self-
assertive and not being good mothers
“The Case for Torture”
- A Persuasive Essay
-Title
a) “The Case for” shows which side he’s on
b) Using examples as precedent (like in a court of law)
c) in which “cases” it is appropriate
d) Torture is a harsh and in your face word
-Subject: The justification of torture in certain cases
- Purpose: Persuasive
a) Call to Action (wants us to do something [think differently])
- Last sentence of story
b) He brings up opponents arguments
- Organizational Pattern: Thesis/Antithesis./Synthesis
a) Thesis: Torture is morally mandatory
b) Anti-Thesis: Unconstitutional, Barbaric
c) Synthesis (more in his favor): Balancing innocent lives against
means needed to save them
- POV: Should happen, You should choose to Torture
a) Becomes a moral/pragmatic argument
b) He is pro torture, the voice of common sense
- Techniques
a) raises opponents arguments, and then deals with them
b) Uses rhetorical questions (paragraph 4)
-Voice:

“The Amateur Scientist”

- The Anecdote
Tell a story from your own life that makes a point
- Writer and speaker as an outgrowth of scientific career
-Ant and Paramecium experiments
Title: Ironic-He worked on the Manhattan Project (hes a pro)
Its about before he was a pro scientists (when he was a kid)
Anyone who does these things for interest/curiosity is an amateur scientist
Subject: These tools of experimenting and learning are very powerful tools
(make life interesting/exciting, give you pleasurable discover)
Audience: The lay person (not other scientists)
Purpose: Informing (how to be an amateur scientist) and Entertaining (telling
stories)
Definition:
A Reflective and Personal Voice
Anecdotal Form: Makes a point almost entirely through use of stories
Science gave him a greater understanding of things and thereby more ability to
have an impact (Science rocks!) F4G
Learning is self-activated (not only inside school walls)
A lot pleases him, he is a very brave person (self-motivated; doing what interests
him not what other people define as being normal/interesting)
First Sentence: Starts with a simple declarative first person sentence.
a) Kid, Lab (not Laboratory)
Sounds like a conversation (not a written text)

“ Untying the Knot”

- An Analogy (Something is like something else by way of comparison)
- Using what they see/learn in nature to apply to humanity
- Snakeskin (particular), from it she draws a bigger insight
Title: 1) Snakeskin knot is not a knot and cant be untied
2) The Seasons don’t really have beginnings and ends (a kind of
knot)
- Power and Time are continuous loops
-Knotted Snakeskin is a metaphor for existence
-Oneness and at the same time variousness of nature is explored
Subject: Snakes and contemplation of seasons and time in Nature
Audience: The Educated Lay Person (General Audience)
Purpose: Informing us about an insight she has had (Informative)
Organizational Pattern: Comparisons, Specific (snakeskin) to General
(extrapolates to a general observation), Spatial
Theme: Time is a continuous Loop
POV: 1st Person, Her thoughts about it (Personal)
Quotes: These snakes are magic”. “The Knot had no beginning”
Allusion: From Genesis, idea of the Wheel or the loop
Techniques: Metaphors, Allusion, Imagery
“College Essay” by Hugh Gallagher
- Humorous Essay
-Massive layered on hyperbole
- Parodying what happens when a 17 year old tells someone about themselves
Types of Humor
- Satire= ridicules and exposes the follies and foibles of mankind
- Lampoon: an often-scathing personal satire
- Parody= ridicules a serious work by imitating and exaggerating in style
-Tall Tale= twist ending (shaggy dog story)
-Black Humor= juxtaposes morbid or absurd elements with comical or farcical
ones
Techniques
- Repetition- to repeat for effect
- Hyperbole- exaggeration
- Litotes- understatement
 -Quip (retort, jest, witticism, bon mot) a humorous turn of phrase
- Pun- a play on words
- Humorous anecdote- illustrate a point
Goldilocks theory of humor
- “too much”, “too little”, “just right”

The Modern Drama

“The Glass Menagerie” by Tennessee Williams
- A ground breaking play (multimedia incorporation and setup)
- Allusions
Importance of Staging:
- Use of multi-media=screen backdrop (slides music color gels)
- Use of narrator/character= Tom is both the narrator telling the story (memory
play) and a character in the present
- Single Setting= Wingfield Apartment
Amanda Wingfield and Jay Gatsby
- Both have a problem with time and being in the correct time
a) Gatsby wants to go back to his time with daisy
b) Amanda wants her daughter to have her experience that she remembers
she had as a courted young woman (caught up in memories trying to make them an
actuality for Laura)
- Both have issues/involvement with money (as a solution to their problem)
a) Gatsby has gone from poor to rich in order to buy love and the past
b) Amanda has slipped from the gentile to the impoverished
- Both live in their distorted memories or unrealistic dreams. Both confuse
dream and reality and live in a dream world
a) Gatsby dreams of being Daisy’s only love (that Tom B and daughter
just evaporates)
b) Amanda dreams of her dysfunctional daughter being a belle (marry and
have a house of her own)
- This shyness is Laura’s most affecting problem (she also has a
limp, but that isn’t her major problem, the reaction to being intensely self-consumed and
shyness is the main problem)
- Williams thoughts on the power of feelings/emotions
a) Strong emotions destroy (Tom and Amanda hold strong emotions and
aren’t successful people; Laura has strong emotions but keeps them buried inside [just as
destructive] )
b) Strong emotions make it hard to live comfortably in the mundane world
- Frequently creates fragile female characters
- Had a sister who was unstable, she was given harsh electroshock
treatments, never recovered (carried it as a memory, if he would have been there for her
to protect her)
a) Amanda (on surface seems bold, but she isn’t what she appears)
b) Laura (appears to be as fragile as glass, shy without skills and
romantically fragile, seems she could easily break)
-Frequently created trapped or cornered men
 a) Tom is a poet, Williams often shows creative/sensitive men who are
trapped/deadened by traditional society (don’t understand poetic sensibility [misread or
condemn it])
b) Tom is oppressed by
- His mother (treats him like a child)
- His job (mind-deadening job)
His sense of duty to his sister (his own awareness/conscience [but
at what price])
-Use of Symbolism
a) Fire Escape (come in and out, we are to understand that inside there is
an emotional/familial fire bubbling; Tom often goes out there to escape what is going on
in the apartment) An escape from the family arguments (go out here to simmer)
b) The Glass Menagerie (Laura collects little glass animals [they are
fragile and breakable(like her)]
c) The Unicorn (particularly fond of mystical beast [doesn’t fit in], A real
symbol for Laura)
d) The Gentleman caller (southern euphemism for a date/bf, [all that is
good about southern gentility and Amanda’s childhood, getting one will sort everything
out [not true]))
- Williams deals with the dysfunctional Family
-Amanda (living in a world that no longer is [ the past])
-Laura
-fragile
-Tom (he is rash)
- just wants to leave problems behind, let his family sort it out, like
his father
- Amanda-Tom
- she constantly nags him
-Amanda- Laura
-wants Laura to be just like her, dillusional
-Tom-Laura
- he knows he shouldn’t leave her but wants to escape from family
Allusions
Shorthand
-Proscenium: arch divides real (audience) world from the world of the stage
a) Narrator breaks off and talks to us
Flower of the Jonquil: Youth is one of beauty with flowers and bows and dresses,
fun times she had
The Jewel Box: Looks at the tropical plants there instead of going to typing
school
Magazines: Had serials in them (story that came out in parts)
Scarlett O’Hara: A southern belle, beautiful and alluring southern woman, has a
hard life yet perseveres
El Diablo:
The Jolly Roger: Tom wants to be a merchant marine
Eagles Nest: Reference to Hitlers mountaintop retreat Lost Generation: Personal
brewing, and international bubbling about stuff happening after WWI and how there was
bound to be a WWII
Guernica: A slaughter in the Spanish Civil War (Picasso)
Annunciation: Messenger from God comes to Mary and tells her she will
conceive Jesus (a momentous revelation!) allusion to the bible
Kitchenette: idea that this is a fairly cramped quarters (Laura sleeps in living
room)
Candelabrum: Candlesticks and holder
Worlds Fair: Century of Progress (forward thinking hes done p 72)
US Merchant Marines: Official member of merchant marines
Pirates of Penzance: Play he was in
Victrola: Wind up music playing machine
Lifesavers: Candy, and saving ones life
Scene 2: Complications revolve around Laura (businesswoman, find a boyfriend)
- Laura doesn’t want to go out, wants to stay and play with her glass menagerie
(lacks Dreams)
Scene 3: Spotlight on Tom (He wants to learn new things, he has dreams)
- Amanda is out of touch on both of her kids (pulling back on tom, wanting
Amanda to be more)
- Fight between Tom and Mom
- He doesn’t like his job (he pays rent)
- Insane Mr. Lawrence
a) When mom and brother fight, it’s Laura that suffers (tearing her
apart because she is delicate and fragile [like her glass menagerie])
- These people’s lives are simmering (imagery thru fire; Like a boiling pot)
Scene 5
- Moon on pg 49
- Tom takes action and wishes by himself
- Amanda wishes for Laura
- reflective of their personalities
Scene 6
- Jim and Laura are absolute opposite personalities
- She plays her dads old records even though he’s been gone out of her life since
she was eight
Scene 7
He finally remembers her from high school, go over their memories
- He comforts her about her cripple ness
- The Torch: Yearbook
- Tells her she has inferiority Complex
a) That’s her main problem
- An unresolved ending
1) Tom is going thru life racked by guilt while being in merchant marine
because he abandoned his family just like his father (Amanda and Laura are doing the
same sort of things)
2)
- She was willing to sacrifice the horn and become normal, she thought she had
love and Jim washers so she was wiling to make that change (when he pulls out, she is no
longer ok with it)
a) Unicorns are innocence (broken innocence), they are mythical
beasts that cannot be attained
-We find out that Jim has a fiancé betty
a) Didn’t know the purpose of the invite, feels bad
- He had kissed her, broken the horn off of the unicorn
-Use of Color and Lighting (quiz)

About the Author

-
“A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry
Word Association
Theme, connection
- Life: Ruth (abortion question), Walter Lee (Life=money) Mama (life=family
and freedom), Beneatha (life=free will [own life, who am I, experiment, become what she
wants to become [focused on herself]])
- Energy:
- Search: Mama (searching for a house in order to unite family) Walter-Lee
( searching for opportunity to provide) Beneatha( searching for a suitor who understands
her dreams)
- Movement:
- Release: Walter Lee is looking for a release
- Stability: Mama and Ruth (want the house for stability)
- Mobility: George (do whatever you please; an assimilationist [merged into a
dominant culture, taken on form of white culture]) Walter-Lee (wants to move up in
social standing)
- Heritage: Beneatha, Asagai (Nigerian)
- Walter Lee:
- Mama (Lena):
- Ruth:
- Beneatha:
- George:
- Asagai:
Poem “Harlem” by Hughes
-Thematically: All the characters have dreams that aren’t being realized, but you never
know whats going to happen (at the end there is a positive resolution in GM)
- Hughes “or does it explode?” (people take dreams and turn them into violent
reactions, suggesting that people will explode as a culture if they are kept from realizing
their American dream (their desire and rights to do what they want to do)
- Hansberry magically wraps it up and it will all solve itself
Theme RITS: Dreams Deffered (“I have a dream”) (people were born into this
condition/situation
- Amanda chose poorly in GM by marrying the wrong man, she cant support
family because she has limited job prospects [women in the 30’s], but in Raisin [theyre
black, opportunities aren’t there for them]
 - Walter Lee sees there are opportunities for white guys (making deals at the
café), but he thinks it is open to him (just fid the right way [liquor store]; George
Merchenson is black and is rich [buying the hotel downtown], makes us wonder why
walter lee isn’t [george has sold part of his culture to make it {assimilations}])
Tension
-Mama and Ruth don’t have tensions (have a certain solidarity between themselves)
-Beneatha to Ruth (B realizes they can barely take care of their present family, doesn’t
want Ruth to lower everyones standards of living by choosing to have another child
[irritates beneatha])
- Between Walter Lee, Mama, Ruth, and Beneatha
a) Walter Lee and Ruth have conflicts
- Not much money
-He talks with this friends that Ruth doesn’t like them
- Ruth wont give kid 50 cents because she says they don’t have it,
Walter gives him a whole dollar
- Walter Lee is trying to change his life because he hates what he
does, and Ruth tells her to eat and go to work
a) Hates how he is 35, unsuccessful, boy sleeps on couch
b) The women/family do not understand him (creative side
being stifled by women? Walter Mitty, Unicorn, Tom in GM)
- Walter Lee tells Beneatha she is weird for being a doctor, needs
to be like all other women (get married and stay in the home)
- Mama “spoils” her child
a) She lost her husband, she loved him, says Walter lee is
just like him
- When you tell them youre sick, say the flu because white people
get it so they don’t think youre just making up an excuse
- Mama doesn’t go to supermarket, frightened by them, goes to the
traditional market
- Mama’s plant dosnt get a single speck of sunlight the first day
a) But it has spirit, just like Bennie and Walter and HER!
- Mama and Big Walter lost a baby (Big Walter was so sad and depressed)
a) Loved his children, wanted them to have and be something
- Mama yells at Beneatha for trying to learn guitar (she experiments all the
time and never sticks with anything)
a) They laugh at her because she wants to express herself
b) They think its funny that they say she might not marry
- Beneatha says she is tired of hearing about God getting credit for things
humans do, Mama slaps her hard, Makes her say there is still God in mothers house
a) Mama strongly enforces Christian values
- Asagai gives her robe, calls her alaiyo , Mama makes stereotypical
comments about Africa that are obviously inaccurate, Asagai is too polite to react
- The Check ($10,000)
a) Mama could take a trip and forget about the family
b) WILL Help pay for Beneatha’s medical school (no matter where)
c) Get a home where Travis could play in the yard
 d) Walter wants to open a liquor store
- Mama wont have any part of it
- disgracing father’s name since he is now basically the check
e) Mama gives him 3k for Beneatha’s medical school, 3k for him and tells him to
be the head of the family the way he’s supposed to be (she trusts and loves him!) Giving
him same opportunity she had when she left South for North
- Asks Ruth to put the check away as soon as she gets it
a) Tells Walter lee that she will never invest in a liquor store
- Walter Lee says there is no peace in his house
a) He don’t got nothing, he aint gonna be nothing (doesn’t even think he
has an actual job, he is like a servant) (sees his future as empty nothingness)
- Walter Lee says money is life (not freedom): the newer generation of blacks has
changed (children so different from mama)
- Ruth is pregnant, Mama wants him to stand up and be like his daddy (tell Ruth
to not abort the baby), he walks out “a disgrace to his fathers memory”
a) He goes out and drinks his pains away
- Beneatha
- Walter Lee yells at George and makes fun of him and the education he has
a) Probably jealous of his opportunities (Faggoty white shoes)
- George calls him Prometheus, they have never heard it before
b) Shows their immense lack of education
- Mama buys a house in a place where only whites live (MOBILITY)
a) Ruth is very happy to say good bye to misery and move into a new
home
- There’s a whole lot of sunlight at the house (light imagery)
- Walter Lee tells mama she’s the head and she can run the family however she
wants because its her money
- Ruth gets a call from her husbands employer saying that he will get fired
tomorrow if he doesn’t show up because he hasn’t gone the last 3 days
a) Mama goes to the bar to get him, tells him how his dad died with
dignity even through enduring more hardship
b) he compares his opportunity to mamas opportunity to leave the south,
and how now that he didn’t do it he thinks that one opportunity will never come again
- She gives him a third of the money to do whatever he wants with
in a checking account and be the head of the family
- Family gives Mama a gardening tool kit to be their “Mrs. Miniver”
a) Travis gives grandma a “gardening” hat
- She is very excited they are happy to be in new house
- Ruth and Walter are seen in happy embrace, unlike the fighting they
were doing back in the old place
- A man comes to their household to tell them how they want to change the notion
that colored people are what cause problems and crime when they moved places
a) a hard-working honest people community
- He tells them its not race prejudice, but a matter of cultural background
a) Tells them negro families are happier when they live in their
own communities
 - Makes them an offer to buy the house from them at a financial gain to
the family
a) Walter Lee tells him to leave without letting him tell him the
financial details, The man straight up says how they are not wanted in that community
- They tells mama that they want a fine family of colored people out in
Clyborne Park
a) Lie to her, but she knows when she sees the card (?)
- They mock and the way he tries to sugar coat situation
- Mama is taking the ratty looking old plant to the new house because IT EXPRESSES
HER
a) Gets upset when he almost makes her ruin her plant
- Bobo tells Walter Lee that Willie never showed up to the train station to go to
Springfield (he is nowhere to be found, Willie took the money and is gone)
a) Walter Lee says how he put his whole life in his hands, money made from his
fathers flesh
b) He lost all the money! (including beneathas; $6,500)
- Mama talks about how hard his dad worked and now Walter has given it
all away in one day (asks God for strength numerous times)
-Beneatha tells Asagai how he gave away the money in a bad investment
a) Says Mama is the crazy one that gave away her future (the end for Beneatha)
- All the dreams in this house cant depend on what happened when and
whether or not a man died (all about those insurance money)
- You need to understand that Mama still believes she can change things
- Asagai invites her back to Nigeria (home)
a) B says too many things have happened, shes all mixed up, she will sit
and think
- B makes fun of him like an “entrepreneur”, mocks him for his mistake by creating false
things he could be going out and doing like a meeting at US Steel
- Mama wants to stay in the house, but Ruth says she will work like no other to get the
heck out of there
a) Mama offers to maybe just fix the house,”Learn to give up some things and
hold on to what you got”
- Walter Lee: He who gets and he who doesn’t get (mixed up and always
worrying trying to figure out whats right and wrong, and that makes us be taken
advantage of) (This world is all about taking, He who takes the most is the smartest, and
it don’t make a difference how)
a) Walter Lee invites the Clybourne Park guy back to try to get money
from his initial offer
- Talk of dreams and sunlight are all dead now, we are dead says Beneatha
b) Walter Says hes fine with degrading himself and accepting the offer,
that he will even get on his knees and beg for that money and acknowledge that they
would be dirtying up the neighborhood
- Beneatha said that Walter Lee is no brother of mine, that he wasn’t a man
a) Mama says who gave you the privilege to think you’re better than him
- I taught you to love him (there’s always something left to love)
- You need to love people the most when they are at their
lowest and cant believe in themselves, take into account what he’s gone thru to get to
where he is child
- Mama forces Travis to stay, and says Walter needs to teach him good like Willie
Harris taught him
- Walter Lee tells the man about his family and its situations, how they come from
a long line of proud people, Tells him that his father earned the house brick by brick so
they will move in and cause no trouble
- As he leaves he says, I sure hope you people know what youre
doing
-They all start moving, they are all happy and show affection to each other
a) B tells her family about how Asagai asked her to marry him
- Mama tells ruth how Walter Lee became a man today, like a rainbow after the rain
- Mama is very sad to leave her house, but then she turns and grabs her plant as is very
happy again
Comparisons
Mama v. Amanda
- both want what is best for their children
- trying to save family
Beneatha v. Laura
- both being courted by suitors
- Beneatha is strong willed and outgoing (has a future)
- Laura is fragile and weak
Tom v. Walter Lee
- Heads of family
- Want to get ahead
- Women don’t understand them
George v. Jim (gentleman callers)
− outsiders
− all suitors
− offer change to move away
Asagai v. Jim (gentleman callers)
Review
The House, the check, the liquor store (opportunity for W.L. to make himself a better
man and better for his family , sin in Mamas eyes), the plant
The Plant a symbol
a) Mama’s plant
b) Shabby but doesn’t get enough sunlight
- Struggling, environmental issues
- She is nurturing this plant, nothing in its environment induces it to grow
a) What else is Mama trying to nurture but is really in a bad
environment? (Children/Travis)
Takes place in the 1950’s , Tenement area of Chicago
a) Limited number of more advanced jobs for blacks
Mama tells Walter Lee that he is shaming his race/family/ancestors by taking a slap at
who he is in order to make money (like selling himself back into slavery)
- Accuse Mrs. Hansburry that she turns the people every which way, bipolar shifting
W.L. is playing the music of Jazz (comes from the black culture in America)
a) B Says we are not going to listen to this assimilationist junk anymore, puts on
African music (lose white culture into black cultural norm)

Contemporary Poetry
“Traveling Through the Dark” by William Stafford (pg 434)
-1) About Road Kill; Pushing a deer off of narrow a mountain road cliff
2) Something to say about how Wilderness is impacted by mankind
- Morality/Heroic vs. Practicality (human responisibility to preserve life [but
human life is more important than deers life])
- Life vs. Death (definition [human v. animals, etc.] )
- Technology vs. nature (car killed the deer, man pushes deer off cliff and kills the
baby inside/causes both their deaths)
c) us= man, doe, fawn, philosophically mankind, the car, other drivers
who come around that hill
-Man and his machinery impact things, and mankind has to deal with consequences
a) Car has its own lights (personification) own POV [survival of fittest]
- Man is in the dark morally and physical (and in decision making)
-“ The road is narrow” narrow paths to your choices
- To “swerve”: to go against what is the regular decision (try to be a hero)
could make more dead (people and the fawn can die)
- Action to save the lives of the people will also sacrificially kill
the fawn
-Stanza 4: Car has the energy, deer doesn’t (technologies throbbing dominance
against the underdog [dead-deer]
- For a moment he considered going to go great lengths for life, trying to do the
impractical
“I Only Am Escaped Alone to Tell Thee” by Howard Nemerov
- This poem is about: It is about Whaling
- Don’t dismiss the elephant in the room
Some of the significant words [repeated]: Harbor, Sail, Whales, Whalebone
-Whales were killed to make a fashion statements (a frivolous use of life)
- Condemning whaling, they were calm until we intervened
-Allusion to Bible story of Jobe (epilogue of Moby Dick)
-Dark vs. Light, Water like glass (troubled and inaccurate)
-comparison of woman to a ship

“What were they Like” by Denise Levertov

-Critical of War in Vietnam
-6 questions followd by 6 answers
-Talks about how there was peace before the war, but now the bombs have
destroyed the lives and cultures of the Vietnamese
-It has changed forever, questions are in past tense, the old Vietnam of
undisturbed tradition isn’t around anymore
Theme: Negative impacts of War (anti-war like the Man I Killed)
“Cinderella” by Anne Sexton
In Anne Sexton's “Cinderella”, Sexton utilizes an ironic tone to exhibit her feminist
tendencies
− Form: mocking happily ever after stories through the fairy tale form
− women are greater than that
− she doesn't believe that women are helpless
− princessball is a meat market
− problems dont end with marriage
− that they shouldn’t be limited to the kitchen
-Feminist sensibilities
-A parody of the form of the fairytale of “Cinderella”
- White dove replaces her mother when she dies, grants her her every wish
(golden dress and slippers, pecks sisters eyes out)
“Aunt Jennifers Tigers” by Adrienne Rich (pg 508)
- Author is sowing a needle-point of an image (male hunters have run tigers up
into a tree)
-She is identifying with the tigers (alter ego that she desires)
- Has a domineering husband (weight of the wedding band, ringed with
ordeals she was mastered by)
Theme: Marriage is a restriction on the modern Woman (abusive and oppressive)
-Creating a world thru her knitting where she is like a tiger, free from oppression
showing no fear
“At Tower Peak” by Gary Snyder (handout)
Theme: Humans dominance over nature (and the means of its exploitation)
through use of nature imagery
- bird-entangled swamps, urchin coasts, almost Mexican-hills, granite
peaks (their names forgotten)
He is sitting at a peak looking down upon a civilization
- Talks about rush of humans to manipulate and exploit
- Freeways clogged all day, academies packed with scholars
- Don’t even know the names of swamps, rivers, coasts, and hills; implies that the
humans pay little attention to nature (inferior)
- Nature goes at a slow pace, we can just take over
“In the Inner City” by Lucille Clifton
- Not really a sculptured poem but turned on its side it looks like a skyline
-An African American poet (inner city she presents as a form of isolated ghetto)
- Inner city v. uptown (not suburbs) : disparity of wealth
- Uptown has silent nights, inner cities are full of gunfire, sirens
-Pastel lights (not neon or street lights but garden lights)
-“Houses straight as dead men” (like people in a cemetery, imagery)
In the inner city thinking about what life is like in uptown
There is something uniquely human about home (wherever it is), draws us
Theme: Be thankful for life (happy to be alive)
-Connects: Death of Marilyn Monroe etc.
“Geometry” by Rita Dove
-African American poet (NOT ON THE TEST)
“The Death of Marilyn Monroe” by Sharon Olds (pg 555)
- Talking about the idolization of celebrities (everything is abnormal without her)
-You don't truly know death until you experience it
-Her death changes these paramedics lives forever (strong impact on them)
- One had nightmares and depression, one felt different about his family
and about death [where she would be waiting], one realizes that his ordinary
living wife is better than a dead Marilyn Monroe
- They see her in a different light (just a dead body now)
-One guy falls apart (nightmares, pains, depression)(shocked to see this perfect
woman die, thinks we are all doomed)
Theme: Life and Women are Important
“The Mountain” by Louis Gluck (pg 558)
Speaker: A Teacher, an Artist of some sort, (poet)
- Speaking to her class (students)
-She is talking about the creative process
Scenarios
1) Compares Art/teaching to myth of Sisyphus (endless and nonproductive labor)
2) Not true of teaching and art (you do accomplish something each time) Occurs in Hell
- looking at Artists as narcissistic (they do it for ego)
-Successful as a teacher this time (rock has added height to the mountain), but she will
have to do it all again next year

Review notes on writing, reading comprehension, and interpretation of literature