Lit Exam#2 (Historical Context)

Edwin Arlington Robinson – “Richard Cory” (1896)

The Gilded Age / early modern industrial America

Reflects class divisions and disillusionment during a time of rapid wealth inequality and social change.

Willa Cather – “The Sculptor’s Funeral” (1905)

Small-town conservatism vs. artistic individuality

Critiques provincial American values in the late 19th century and the stifling effect of materialism on creativity.

Carl Sandburg – “Chicago” (1914)

Urbanization and industrial growth in early 20th-century America

Celebrates working-class strength and vitality in industrial cities; part of a move toward realism and modern urban identity.

Robert Frost – “Mending Wall” (1914)

Early 20th-century rural New England life
Explores tradition, boundaries, and human relationships in a changing, increasingly industrialized America.

Robert Frost – “The Road Not Taken” (1916)

Modern individualism and post–WWI uncertainty
Reflects the modern sense of personal choice and ambiguity—an era of shifting values and self-determination.

Robert Frost – “Birches” (1916)

Escapism amid industrial modernity
A nostalgic return to nature and youth, contrasting with the modern world’s pressures.

Claude McKay – “The Lynching” (1919)

The Harlem Renaissance / racial violence of the Red Summer (1919)
Responds to widespread racial terror and lynching in early 20th-century America.

Willa Cather – “The Novel Démeublé” (1922)

Modernist aesthetics / post–World War I literary experimentation
Advocates for literary simplicity and emotional truth—part of Modernism’s move away from ornate realism.

Wallace Stevens – “Anecdote of the Jar” (1923)

Modernism and changing views of art and reality
Explores how human art imposes order on chaotic nature—reflecting postwar uncertainty about meaning and perception.

William Carlos Williams – “The Red Wheelbarrow” (1923)

Imagism / American Modernism
Focuses on everyday objects and precision of imagery—rejects European traditions for American simplicity.

Ernest Hemingway – “Indian Camp” (1925)

Post–World War I disillusionment / early Modernism
Depicts confrontation with birth, death, and masculinity, influenced by Hemingway’s “Iceberg Theory” and postwar realism.

Ernest Hemingway – “Soldier’s Home” (1925)

Post–World War I America
Explores alienation and trauma of returning soldiers—part of the “Lost Generation” experience.

Ernest Hemingway – “Big Two-Hearted River, Part I” (1925)

Postwar recovery and emotional healing after WWI
Nature as therapy for trauma; minimalist style reflecting Modernist restraint.

Langston Hughes – “The Weary Blues” (1925)

The Harlem Renaissance / Jazz Age
Captures the rhythms and spirit of blues music as expression of Black identity and emotion.

Countee Cullen – “Yet Do I Marvel” (1926)

The Harlem Renaissance
Engages classical forms to question racial injustice and divine purpose, merging Black experience with traditional European poetics.

Langston Hughes – “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” (1926)

Harlem Renaissance artistic debates
An essay calling for Black artists to embrace racial pride and reject assimilation into white cultural standards.

Zora Neale Hurston – “Sweat” (1926)

The Harlem Renaissance / Southern Black life
Depicts Black female resilience and folk culture in the rural South; celebrates vernacular speech and self-empowerment.

William Faulkner – “A Rose for Emily” (1931)

The post–Civil War American South / Southern Gothic
Shows the decline of the Old South, social decay, and resistance to change after Reconstruction.

F. Scott Fitzgerald – “Babylon Revisited” (1931)

The Great Depression / aftermath of the Jazz Age
A reflection on excess, loss, and regret following the economic collapse after the Roaring Twenties.

William Carlos Williams – “This Is Just to Say” (1934)

Modernist domestic life and ordinary speech
Uses common language and small domestic acts to redefine what counts as poetry.

John Dos Passos, The Big Money [third in the U.S.A. trilogy] (1936)

The Great Depression / modern industrial America
Experimental collage-style portrait of American society; critiques capitalism and the illusion of the “American Dream.”

Katherine Anne Porter – Pale Horse, Pale Rider (1939)

World War I and the 1918 influenza pandemic
Explores love, mortality, and disillusionment in the shadow of war and epidemic—key Modernist themes.

Richard Wright – “The Man Who Was Almost a Man” (1939)

Jim Crow South and racial inequality
Explores racialized adolescence, manhood, and economic oppression under segregation.

William Carlos Williams – “A Sort of a Song” (1944)

Midcentury Modernism / poetic self-reflection
Expresses the ongoing struggle of creating art—poetry as organic and evolving like nature.