ROSERO CP AMERICAN LIT EXAM STUDY GUIDE

Emily Dickinson

Reclusive New England poet who wrote about love, death, and immortality

The Soul Selects her own Society

Emily Dickinson, themes of individuality, isolation, and choice, emphasizing the soul's power to choose its companions and shut out the rest of the world, personifies the soul with human characteristics

Tell All The Truth But Tell It Slant

Emily Dickinson, reflection on truth, perception, and communication, argues that truth should be told fully, but indirectly because people can't always handle the intensity all at once, title is a paradox

Success is Counted Sweetest

Emily Dickinson, explores the idea that those who fail or are deprived of success understand and value it the most, paradox (those who never succeed understand success best)

Because I could not stop for Death

Emily Dickinson, presents Death as a gentle companion, explores themes of morality, eternity, and the passage of life, Death is personified as a polite gentleman

I heard a Fly buzz-when I died

Emily Dickinson, meditation on death and the moment of dying, speaker experiences it through the buzz of a fly, ironic (death is not majestic, but interrupted by a mundane fly)

Civil War Era

1861-1865

Walt Whitman

1819-1892, free verse poet born in New York, Leaves of Grass is considered his masterpiece,

I Hear America Singing

Walt Whitman, celebrates American workers, individualism, and democratic pride, describes a range of American laborers all "singing" as they go about their work

I celebrate myself, and sing myself

Walt Whitman, explores identity, the self, nature, democracy, and the human spirit, all people share a common spirit, all life is interconnected, the self is both individual and universal

I Sing the Body Electric

Walt Whitman, celebrates the human body as both a physical and spiritual entity, praises the human body in all its forms, the body and soul are inseparable, touching or knowing another person's body is also to touch their soul

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass, vivid autobiography of the escaped slave and renowned abolitionist

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Harriet Jacobs, one of the most significant and powerful firsthand accounts of female enslavement in the American South, focuses on sexual exploitation and maternal struggles

Slave spirituals

sorrow songs that revealed longing to escape bondage, strong faith, and hope for a better life

Follow the Drinking Gourd

coded oral history associated with the Underground Railroad, used to guide enslaved people to freedom in the North, the "drinking gourd" refers to the Big Dipper constellation

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot

rooted in the experiences of enslaved people in the US, "chariot" symbolizes the vehicle that carries the soul to heaven, "home" refers to eternal peace/the promised land

Deep River

expresses a deep yearning for freedom, peace, and fulfillment, "deep river" symbolizes the boundary between earthly suffering and spiritual freedom

Ain't I a Woman

Sojourner Truth speech, used her identity as a formerly enslaved Black woman to challenge both racist and sexist assumptions

Realism Era

1860s-1930s, looked closely at local manners, aimed at very minute fidelity to the common course of everyday life, hated romanticism, ironism is a branch

Naturalism Era

1893-1914, a theory in literature which emphasizes the role of the environment upon human characters, an extreme form of realism

Adventures of Huck Finn

Mark Twain, follows the story of Huck, a poor white boy, and Jim, an escaped enslaved man, as they travel down the Mississippi River

An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge

Ambrose Bierce, Peyton Farquhar is about to be hanged, flashback reveals that Farquhar is a Southern farmer who was tricked by a Union scout, he miraculously escapes and just as he reaches his wife's arms he dies, escape was just an illusion

The Story of an Hour

Kate Chopin, Louise Mallard receives news that her husband has died, she retreats to her room to grieve, imagines a future in which she can live for herself, as she descends the stairs her husband walks in alive, Louise dies on the spot ("the joy that kills")

To Build a Fire

Jack London, naturalist literature, follows a man travling alone in freezing temperatures accompanied by a dog, his overconfidence and disregard for nature's danger lead to fatal consequences

The Great Gatsby themes

American Dream, social class, morals, love, illusion

Green in the Great Gatsby

hope, dreams, ex: green light at the end of Daisy's dock

Yellow/Gold in the Great Gatsby

wealth, ex: Gatsby's car is yellow, showing limitation of status

White in the Great Gatsby

semblance of purity, ex: Daisy and Jordan wear white, hiding selfishness and carelessness

Blue/Purple in the Great Gatsby

death, ex: Wilson's eyes and Myrtle's dress

Red in the Great Gatsby

violence, ex: all blood and death in the novel, underline chaos and destruction

Eyes in the Great Gatsby

each of the characters' eyes describe their true nature, ex: Tom's "arrogant eyes"

Modern Poetry Era

1890s-1940s, experimental poetry that takes the material of language as its subject, or poetry that reworks the language, the move from representationalism to abstraction

A Leaf Falls

E.E. Cummings, a leaf falls loneliness, metaphor for a moment of solitude, concrete poetry (poem's shape mimics falling leaf)

Red Wheelbarrow

William Carlos Williams, imagist poetry with simple vocabulary, mimics minimalism and visual focus

This Is Just To Say

William Carlos Williams, imagist poetry that explores themes of desire, guilt, and everyday intimacy

Harlem Renaissance Era

1920s, name given to cultural movement in the 1920s among black Americans settling in a district in New York with a large black population

Jazz during the Harlem Renaissance

Hughes wanted to capture jazz as oral and improvisational tradition

Black Arts Movement

1960s, motto of Black Is Beautiful

Theme for English B

Langston Hughes, captures the voice of a young Black student trying to find truth in his experince when assigned by his professor to write something "true"

A Negro Speaks of Rivers

Langston Hughes, links the identity and history of African people to the great rivers of the world

I Too Sing America

Langston Hughes, reclaiming Black identity as a part of the American story, themes of hope, resistance, and racial equality

Strange Fruit

Billie Holiday, about the racism and violence against Blacks in the Jim Crow south, referencing the disturbing image of lynched Black bodies hanging from trees (fruit)

The Crucible

Arthur Miller, a group of girls are caught dancing with the devil and accuse others of consorting with the devil, themes of hysteria, fear, reputation, and power

The Catcher in the Rye

J.D. Salinger, protagonist Holden gets kicked out of school and ventures through New York, themes of innocence, alienation, and belonging

Imagist Poetry

vivid, simple images are used to evoke meaning without explanation

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Zora Neale Hurston, novel in African American and feminist literature, centered Black life and womanhood outside of white perspective