CLEP American Literature -- adapted from quizlet

'A Farewell to Arms'

Ernest Hemingway's war stories from driving an ambulance for the Italian army in WWI.

'Absalom, Absalom'

by William Faulkner, 1936
About incest and racial mixing

'Adventure of Huckleberry Finn'

1885, by Mark Twain
Jim (slave) Huck (rebellious boy) escape slavery, abusive father, conforming to society, oppressive aunts on the Mississippi river.

'Call of the Wild'

1903
Jack London's most famous work.
Told from POV of dog, Buck.
Removed from civilization Buck learns survival of the fittest and thrives. Becomes Alpha male of wolf pack. Symbolism: Jack London = Buck, struggling for success, Social Darwinism.

'Celebrated jumping frog of Culveras County'

By Mark Twain. Smiley = notorious gambler, trains a frog to jump. Stranger takes bet that he can find a frog which can jump higher, fills Smiley's frog with lead, Smiley loses, stranger vanishes.

'Civil Disobedience'

influence MLK and Ghandi and Nelson Mandella. Guide to peaceful protests, by: H.D Thoreau.

'Ethan Frome'

story of an impoverished farmer from Boston. Falls in love with wife's cousin, they attempt suicide by sledding into a tree, prot. = crippled, Mattie = paralyzed. by Edith Wharton

'For Whom the Bell Tolls'

Ernest Hemingway on the Spanish Civil war

'Grapes of Wrath'

by John Steinbeck, 1939
dispossed 'Okie' farmers forced immigrate to CA in the hopes for work, there is none. Tom Joad = prot. kills a man, leaves family.
combination of naturalism and symbolism.

'Great Gatsby'

by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Lyrical picture of Am's values and materialism
Wilson (gas station owner) kills prot. b/c he believes prot. ran over his wife. Analyzes personal and moral corruption in a success bent society, was not famous during his lifetime.

'Kilimanjaro'

By Ernest Hemingway.
Describes F. Scott Fitzgerald's decline, depicts the guilt of a talented unfulfilled artist facing death.

'Love song of J. Alfred Prufrock'

by T.S Eliot
about a man who is unable to overcome his timidness and find his place in the world, believes that asking his dream woman to marry him will disrupt the universe.

'Maggie: A girl of the streets'

1893
Maggie (prot.) falls for Pete, He dumps her after sex. Family disowns her and refuses to house or feed her, leads to prostitution and death. Mother forgives Maggie post mortem.
Big Picture: attack on traditional christian morals. Opened 20th century theme of loss of morals.
By: Stephen Crane

'Magnalia Christi Americana'

Cotton Mather = author. 1702.
Most famous work, his views on puritan society.

'Moby Dick'

By. H. Melville. greatest novel.
Interpretations: 1. risks of trying to make nature bend to the will of man. 2. rebellion against evil and chaos. 3. Ishmael's(narrator) search for meaning in life.
Antagonist interpretations: symbol of evil, God, indifferent universe.

'Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass'

3 versions.
Theme: Slavery corrupts human spirit and robs freedom from both slave and master.

'Native Son'

by Richard Wright,1940
poor black servant (Bigger) driven to murder by white oppression. told in 4 'stories' (really chapters)
Chicago, 1930's
Book1: Fear, murders white girl and burns her body in the chimney to avoid rape accusation.
Book2: Flight, Bigger (prot) writes ransom note, they find bones in the chimney, Bigger kills his gf and hides
Book3: Fate, Commie lawyer argues it's societies fault. Bigger faces death sentence with dignity and courage.
Summary: communism in the answer to AA probs, society is the crime committer, violence = necessary.

'Of Mice and Men'

by John Steinbeck, 1937
two drifters tragic attempt at owning a farm

'Rabbit at Rest'

contemporary, John Updike, follows Henry (prot.) into the present. Pulitzer winning.

'Rabbit is Rich'

contemporary, John Updike, set in the 90's. sad and quiet, Henry (prot.) living in small town in PA, wealthy and middle age

'Rabbit Redux'

contemporary, John Updike, set in the 70's, Henry= prot, Vietnam and black revolution's effect on Henry in small PA town

'Rabbit Run'

contemporary, John Updike, set in 1950's Henry=prot. midlife crisis, longs to escape his wife, child, and community.

'Red Badge of Courage'

Theme: Civil War, journey to manhood
Prot. = Henry Flemming, itching to get war experience.
Intent: psycholigical portrayal of fear: isolation, identity, death, failure, guilt.
Title means to be wounded in war. Impressionist.
By: Stephen Crane

'Self Reliance'

By: Ralph Waldo Emerson. Inward looking summary of how people should be independent.

'The Adventures of Augie March'

by Saul Bellow
1953 National Book award for vitality, richness, and originality

'The Awakening'

Kate Chopin. banned for sexuality. Edna Pontillier (prot) gives up money, family, respect and life in the pursuit of self realization.

'The Catcher in the Rye'

by J.D Salinger, 1951
Holden Caulfield = prot., symbol for misunderstood youth
teenager trying to make friends/way in the world, have sex, fails = mental breakdown = insane asylum

'The Invisible Man'

by Ralph Ellison, contemporary AA writer, 1952
prot= unnamed, ignoring of AA's in Am. society, prot tries to find his place, relationships=hollow, lives in solitude, finds hope.
idiomatic style

'The Last Straw'

essay protesting Mexican-Am. war. "gov't is best which governs least" by. H.D Thoreau

'The Old Man and the Sea'

by Ernest Hemingway.
Santiago = old fisherman, symbol for Jesus
Santiago spends 84 days at sea without a bite, fights largest fish for 3 days, sharks eat the fish on his return to port, other fishermen are blown away by the size of the remains.

'The Open Boat'

by Stephen Crane. plot: 4 men on a boat which sinks, take a dingy to safety
The only one with a name (Billy the Oiler) dies, despite being the strongest > Nature is random.
Humanity vs. The sea, an indifferent killer.

'The Outcasts of Poker Flat'

Setting: CA during Gold Rush 1849
2 prostitutes, 1 gambler, 1 thief are cast out, discovered by newly weds.All die in a blizzard except Tom (groom)
By Bret Harte, local color

'The Raven'

Set ground rules for 19th century poetry.
Author : Edgar Allen Poe.
Theme: man driven to madness by a raven while mourning the loss of his wife, Lenore.

'The Scarlet Letter'

1st psychological novel in Am. Hester Pryme = prot. = adultress.
Hester is put in jail and forced to wear a letter A on her chest. Rose bush is symbolism for Hester.

'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty'

By James Thurbor
Middle aged man escaped his wife by making elaborate fantasies in his head.

'The Sound and the Fury'

by William Faulkner
tragedy, decline of southern family, stream of conscious, humor and sin. Told from POV of 4 narrators: 3 brothers and slave. Later added a fifth narrator.

'The Victim'

by Saul Bellow
1 week in the life of Asa Kirby (prot) naturalistic and dark, Asa is against forces bigger than himself and bigger than him.

'The Wasteland'

by T.S Eliot
Am & EU despair post WWI despair and tragedy, had strayed too far from religious roots.

'The Yellow Wallpaper'

1892. by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
      Woman breaks down after childbirth, believes she sees a woman in the wallpaper trying to escape. Rips wallpaper from the wall, turns out she is the one in the wallpaper.

'To Build a Fire'

By Jack London.
Foolish prospector doesn't heed advice from elders in Yukon territory and sets out despite cold weather, his dog survives and gets help, prospector dies

'To Kill a Mockingbird'

1960. By Harper Lee, Scout Finch (f) and brother Jem, widowed father/lawyer Atticus. Atticus represents AA in court, problems arise.

'Typee'

Herman Melville's adventures at sea with island cannibals and nubile slave guards

'Uncle Tom's Cabin'

By: Harriet Beecher Stowe
credited for starting civil war.
Polemic- literary piece intending to change public opinion.
most influential book of 19th century.
theme: slavery can be solved with christian love.

'Walden'

By: H.D Thoreau.
Theme: reducing life to it's simplest to understand it better, resist materialism

'When Lilac last in the dooryard bloomed'

lementing Lincoln's death, dealt with it through nature.
symbolism: lilac- everlasting spirit, poet's love for the pres.
fallen west star- pres. Lincoln. Thrush's song- grief
'O Captain, my Captain' also by W. Whitman, memorializes Lincoln's death

'Young Goodman Brown'

Young = prot., leaves his wife in the middle of the night to find townespeople coercing with the devil. by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

"Bear Witness"

1st hand testimony of Holocaust

"Out of the cradle, endlessly rocking"

By: Walt Whitman.
Journey of the soul from _ to art. Life's natural cycles, death and beauty.

"Stopping by the Woods on a snowy Day"

Poem by Robert Frost.
Life is lonely, but I have promises to keep, I have heaven to go to.

"The Family"

high brow literary movement, today = New York review of books
influenced educational books of Contemporary period

"The White Heron"

1896, Sarah Orne Jewett(NE), local color
Sylvia = Child Prot. has relationship w/ nature. Meets ornithologist looking for , she knows where it is, won't tell him for fear he will kill it.
= symbol for: endangered wilderness, beauty and dignity of life.

Abigail Adams

Married 2nd president, gave birth to future president.
Famous letter to congress 'Remember the ladies" Women will not "be bound by laws that leave them voiceless, or rebellion"

age of enlightenment

was a cultural movement of intellectuals beginning in late 17th-century Western Europe emphasizing reason and individualism rather than tradition. It spread across Europe and to the United States, continuing to the end of the 18th century.

Alice Walker

1944-,contemporary AA writer, poor oppressed women in early 1900's. 'Once' poetry, authors senior year of college, abortion, trip to Africa= love, suicide, civil rights.
'The Color Purple' 1982, best known work & Pulitzer

Allen Ginsberg

1926-1947, Beat
"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness"
moved to CA after Burroughs arrest for wifes murder
oral recital of "Howl" = ticket to fame. 1955 sexual depravity, Beat defiance
'Empty Mirror', 'Kaddish and other poems' = collection of poems
Kaddish about mothers insanity and death
homosexual and buddhist

alliteration

repetition of consonants

Allusion

Reference to a well known place, event, person, work of art, or other literature.

Americas 1st Writers, (Early Colonial) 1607-1756

Puritanism and John Smith

Anne Bradstreet

1612-1672. 1st Am. published poet.
'The 10th muse lately sprung up in a Am.' 1650
'Love me tender, Love me true' = love for husband, promise of heaven.
'Verses of our burning house' = house means nothing compared to promise of heaven.
Puritan.

Anne Sexton

1920-1974, confessional poet
fashion model and librarian
'Live or Die'1966 = Pulitzer
Theme: self-explanation
mentally ill - suicide

Antagonist

Force or character in conflict with protagonist.

Aphorism

Clever, memorable statements.
"There will be sleeping enough in the grave"

Apostrophe

a figure of speech sometimes represented by exclamation "O". A writer or a speaker, using an apostrophe, detaches himself from the reality and addresses an imaginary character in his speech.

assonance

repetition of vowels

Atavism

recessive genes which show in preceding generations. Naturalist Belief.

Ballad

Story told in song form. Common themes: love and adventure. Poetry

Benjamin Franklin

1706-1790
Used aphorisms. > 'Poor Richards Almanac'
Self made american man.
Autobiography potrayed America's ambitious nature.

Bernhard Malamud

1914-1986, myth maker
theme: clash between american materialism and jewish conscience, difficulty in keeping Jewish identity in Am. society
'The Tenants' 'Gods Game' 'The Fixer'= Pulitzer

Blank Verse

Un-rhymed lines of iambic pentameter. captures natural rhythm of speech.

Booker T Washington

1856-1915 AA author, leader.Posited hard work and ignoring racism to cure it

Booker T. Washington

(1856-1915) An educator who urged blacks to better themselves through education and economic advancement, rather than by trying to attain equal rights. In 1881 he founded the first formal school for blacks, the Tuskegee Institute.

Bret Harte

1836-1902. theme: Wild West
'The outcasts of poker flat'
'The luck of roaring camp'
likeable Low life characters: thiefs, prostitutes with hearts of gold
Local Colorist

Carl Sandberg

1878*1967
Wrote Abe Lincoln's bio
Alikened to Walt Whitman: urban and patriotic poems, childish rhymes and ballads in freeverse.
America's hearty, earthy nature
three Pulitzer Prizes, two for his poetry and one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman II

author of the yellow wallpaper

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

1860-1935
Left husband and daughter for sanity. Married her cousin, commited suicide when she found out she had cancer.
Focus: attitudes of the time, especially women's treatment.
'The Yellow Wallpaper'. Local Colorist

Chicago Poets

Carl Sandberg, Vachel Lindsay, Edgar Lee Masters
Attended Literature School (Frost and Cummings too)
Wrote about everyday normal people, realistic and dramatic emphasis

Claude McKay

1890-1948 Harlem Renaissance writer from Jamaica
'Songs of Jamaica' allowed him fame and money to move to Am.
'Harlem Shadows' 1922, 1st great literary achievement of harlem renaissance.

Climax

3rd part of plot. Highest point of action.

Colonial

Literary period from beginnings to 1830

Conceit

Elaborate and unusual comparison between two starkly different objects.

Confessional Poets

poetry dealt with deeply personal, emotional, and psychological themes
personal poems with universal applicability: suffering of families, effect of 1950's on the individual
Robert Lowell = leader, Sylvia Plath = Patron Saint

Contemporary Literature

1946-present
Jewish American, AA, new frontiers

Contemporary literature

Authors from ____period:
Stephen King, John Updike, Truman Capote, John Cleever

Contemporary period

Literary period from 1945-present

Contemporary

1945 to present
Beat Movement: William Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Allan Ginsburg
Confessional Poets: Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Robert Lowell

Cotton Mather

1663-1728.
450 volumes of work, type A personality, Harvard @ 12y/o.
Began talk of witches.
Puritan Minister and Scribe during salem witch trials

Countee Cullen

Harlem Renaissance poet 1903-1946 Male, considered "Black Keats" Keats= famous English poet
traditional poetry, 'Color'1925@22y/o
'Copper Sun' 'The Ballad of the Brown Girl' celebrated genious

Denouement

4th part of plot. Resolves story and ties up loose ends.

Detective Short Stories

Logic is used to solve a mystery.
Created by Edgar Allen Poe: 'The Gold bug' 'Murders in Rue morgue' ' Purloined Letter' > Inspired character: Sherlock Holmes.

Determinism

All events follow natural laws. Inspired by Newton's laws of physics. Naturalist Belief.

Doctrine of election

God chooses who is saved and doomed. Puritan belief.

Dorothy Parker

1893-1967 symbol for liberated woman, witty and independent
Member/founder of Algonquin group
vogue and vanity fair writer
2 suicide attempts- 'Enough Rope' 1926
fame from short story 'Big Blend' contrast between appearance and reality.
Social sympathasizer=black listed

E.E Cummings

1894-1962
~1000 poems,'Tulips and Chimney's' experimented with words and rhythm, rhythm of phrase and variable foot
Common themes: individualism in a world of conformity, love and traditional values.
Ambulance driver in WWI, 3 marriages
idiosyncratic poetry, unusual spelling and typography

Early Romantic Period, Civil War

1855-1865

Edgar Allen Poe

1809-1849
Rhythm heavy, R.W. Emerson > "The Jingle Man"
Drunkard, married 13y/o cousin.
'The Raven' ' Annabel Lee'
Created short stories as lit. genre. Created detective novels.

Edgar Lee Masters

1868-1950
noted for 'Spoon River Anthology' 1915, epitaphs from the townpeople that sum up their lives, warn of mistakes they made. Sex and drawbacks

Edith Wharton

1862-1937
Bit hand that feeds her: wrote about wealthy and materialistic Am's. Mystery and misery of the heart
Theme: entrapment and expectations of high society women
1921 Pulitzer for 'The Age of innocence'
'House of Mirth' ' Summer' 'Ethan Frome'

Edward Arlington Robinson

1869-1935, poet
Believed he was born too late…wrong time period, wrote about historic myths.
"Richard Cory" warning about Am. success myth, successful man commits suicide
"Luke Havergal" forsaken lover
3 pulitzer's: 'Collection of poems' 1922, "The man who died twice"1925, "Tristram"1927
Ironic poems about ordinary people

Edward Taylor

1645-1729.
Puritan minister, finest puritan writer/poet.
2nd gen. explored self examination.
Used conceits.
Influenced:T.S Eliot and Ezra Pound.

Elie Wiesel

1928-, Jewish Writer
1st hand account of holocaust = 'Night' only he and his 2 sisters survived. Theme= loss of belief