American Lit. Unit 7 Questions

What are key characteristics of the Modern American Novel?

The modern novel is aesthetically self-aware, abstract, structure and form are reduced or broken or ignored. There’s a focus on psychology or unclear or no resolution to the conflict.

F. Scott Fitzergerald’s story is entitled “Winter Dreams”. What exactly are the dreams discussed in the story?

The winter dreams refer to Dexter’s dreams of beauty, welath, and freedom. The dreams are embodied by Judy Jones, a woman who has all of what Dexter wants. These are his winter dreams because they are emotionally hollow and fleeting. These dreams are cold and empty and symbolize Dexters’s discontent with his life and who he is. He falls in love with Judy Jones because he believes that if he can obtain her, he will have everhything he’s ever wanted.

“The Snows of Kilimanjaro” by Ernest Hemingway is very similar to an earlier work we’ve read in the course. Of which story does it remind you? How are the stories similar and different?

Hemingway was influeneced by Ambrose Bierce. “The Snows of KIlimanjaro” is similar to “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge". The stories are similar because both the main character in Hemingway and Bierce’s storis envision a great escape to their perilous situation hwere they will both inevitably die. Peyton Farquhar imagines he is with his family as he is about to be hanged and Harry in Hemingway’s story, is facing an fatal illness that causes him to go in and out of a dream like state, hallucinating about a man named Compton rescuing him and taking him to the top of Kilimanjaro. Both characters use dreams or memories to escape from their inevitable and hopeless situations.

“Barn Burning” deals with a father/son relationship. Describe this relationship and how it affects the outcome of the story.

The relationship between Sarty and his father is very strained and tense. Sarty is afraid of him. His father abuses him, often using violence and intimidation to ensure Sarty obeys and remains loyal to him out of fear. This leads to Sarty running away after Abner burns down de Spain’s barn. Sarty tries to rationalize that his father was a good man because he believed him to be brave for fighting in the war but he ultimately keeps running away. Shaken with grief, he believes his father to be dead and did look back towards his old life.

How does Abner’s social class influence his behavior toward wealthy landowners like Major de Spain?

Abner is poor and heavily resents those who are wealthy. He is motivated to continue burning barns by his hatred of the wealthy. His habit of arson is a way to assert control over the wealthy and their property as he blames them for his own poverty and exploitation of those who do not live lavishly.

In Invisible Man, during the battle royal, what do the participants have to do while blindfolded?

They have to fight each other as entertainment for the town’s wealthy white guests.