american lit midterm

E pluribus unum

Latin for “Out of many, one.” U.S. motto expressing the idea that many different people/states form one nation.

Romanticism

Movement emphasizing emotion, imagination, nature, individuality, intuition, and personal freedom, often reacting against strict rationalism.

Realism

Literature that attempts to portray ordinary life and people realistically, rather than idealizing them. Focuses on believable characters, social conditions, and everyday experiences.

Pragmatism

Philosophy emphasizing practical consequences and experience—ideas are judged largely by how they work in actual life.

Huck Finn

Narrator/protagonist. A boy who escapes Pap and travels down the Mississippi with Jim. He struggles between society's morality and his own developing conscience.

Tom Sawyer

Huck's imaginative friend. Loves adventure stories and makes simple situations unnecessarily complicated.

Jim

Enslaved man who escapes after learning he may be sold. Travels with Huck seeking freedom. His relationship with Huck challenges Huck's learned racial prejudices.

Pap

Huck's abusive, alcoholic father. Wants control of Huck partly because of Huck's money.

Widow Douglas

Takes Huck into her home and attempts to “civilize” and educate him.

Colonel Sherburn

Shoots Boggs and later confronts the angry mob that comes to lynch him.

Boggs

Drunken man who publicly insults Sherburn and is shot and killed by him.

The King

One of the two con men Huck and Jim encounter. Pretends to be royalty and participates in numerous scams, including the Wilks scheme.

The Duke

The younger of the two con men. Claims to be a duke and travels/scams people with the King.

Edna Pontellier

Protagonist. Married woman and mother who increasingly seeks independence, identity, sexual freedom, and control over her own life.

Léonce Pontellier

Edna's husband. Concerned with social expectations, reputation, and Edna fulfilling the conventional role of wife/mother.

Adèle Ratignolle

Edna's friend and the model “mother-woman.” Devoted to husband, children, and traditional domestic life.

Robert LeBrun

Young man with whom Edna falls in love. He leaves for Mexico but later returns.

Alcée Arobin

Man with whom Edna has a physical/sexual relationship. Her attraction to him is different from her emotional love for Robert.

Mademoiselle Reisz

Independent, unmarried pianist. Represents an alternative to conventional female roles and encourages Edna's artistic/independent side.