English 2 Midterm prep

Basics of Drama

Made up, creative writing

Non-fiction

True or based on truth

Canon

Select works that are “much debated and ever-evolving list of the most highly and widely esteemed works,” (Mays 1.)

Prose

What novels, plays(drama), and short stories are written in - actual sentences

Genre

Types of literature. The types of “imaginative or creative writing.” They are: poetry, short stories, novels. plays(drama)

Protagonist

The main character of the work

Antagonist

The person/character who stands in the way of the main character (protagonist)

Conflict

The problematic issue in the story. It can be man vs man, man vs self, man vs nature/society

Setting

The place and time the work takes place in

Universal

Present or existing anywhere

POV (Point of View)

Who is telling the story. This lets readers see another’s perspective

  First person = I, Third Person = They/ he/she 

Plot

What happens in the story; the action in the work; who did what to whom

Unreliable Narrator

A narrator/someone who narrates a story in or unintentionally, not telling the truth.

Omniscient Narrator

ALWAYS 3rd POV; God complex; straight reporting; (as if someone is in the sky zooming in and reporting on the character’s lives)

Foreshadow

Predicting that something will happen

Symbol

What stands for/ represents something else

Theme

What overall meaning the author is trying to get across to readers

Style

Each author has his/her own; some writers use long sentences, others use short sentences

Situational Irony

The difference between what is expected to happen and what actually happens. Stems from a contradiction between reality and expectations

Verbal Irony

Something spoken that means the opposite of what you expect

Dramatic Irony

The audience/reader (you) know more than the character its happening to

Flat Character

A character with little to no complex emotions, personal goals or personality, also don’t undergo any change

Round Character

A character who undergoes change

Stock Character

A character that is a stereotype character.

Ex: This is info already known about what the character will be like before you even see info

Analysis

How one reads literature

Digging deeper and breaking apart

Lusus Naturae

Freak of nature

Other (Othering)

When you treat someone differently based on something that is different about him/her

Common place book

A secret diary many women kept and wrote in. Women often hid them so that they could write their real/true feelings

Patriarchy

Old fashioned way of life where men would be the providers and women took on taking care of the house, bearing children, and being controlled by their husbands.

Male dominated society

The Iceberg Theory

Developed by Hemingway

Where a writer gives readers very little information and it’s up to the reader to find out how much more there is

The Story of an Hour

Plot:
The story takes place in the late 19th century where Louise Mallard, a woman who learns of her husband's “death” in a railroad accident. at first, she feels grief, but then, as she processes the news, she feels a sense of freedom and relief. She begins to imagine a life ahead of her, free from the control of her marriage. Just as she was continuing to celebrate this new freedom, her husband, Brently Mallard, walks in the door and is alive. The shock of seeing him causes Louise to die from a heart attack, and the doctors say that she died from a heart attack and say "joy that kills."

Protagonist

Louise Mallard - wife of Brently Mallard. Seems to love her husband. Confused about her emotions

Antagonist:

Society - The setting takes place in a time where patriarchy was still in place.

Brently Mallard: Louise’s husband, seems kind, rich, high position of power.

Major Theme:
Repression of women in the context of marriage and societal expectations.

Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?

15-year-old Connie is a teenage girl who likes to go out with her friends, is self-centered, cares about her appearances, and has a strained relationship with her family. Her mother wants her to be like her older sister June who already has her life together while Connie is being rebellious. Connie goes out with her friends and meets a boy named Ellie and ends up leaving her friends behind to go with this boy. A man looks at Connie as the two drive. One day Connie’s family goes off to a barbecue where Arnold Friend and Ellie pull up to her house trying to convince her to come with them. Arnold lies about who he is and reveals that he knows just about everything about Connie. Arnold isn’t who he says he is and threatens Connie to kill her family if she doesn’t go with the two. She then starts to worry knowing that she can’t do much, hopes her family comes back and then sacrifices herself to save her family knowing that she may die.

Connie - 15 years old, self-centered, cares about her appearances, inexperienced

Antagonist:

Arnold Friend - About 30 years old, stalker, muscular build, dangerous, experienced, and manipulator

Connie’s mom - Always compares her to her sister June, doesn’t like what she does

June - 24 years old, has a job, helps around, is the person Connie is compared to

Ellie - The one who originally met Connie, older than her, follower

Theme:

Experience vs Inexperienced - Connie doesn’t know much about adulthood and acts as if she does. Arnold shows up and ruins that perception

Fantasy vs Reality - Connie’s reality is shattered when she meets Arnold and steps into the real world.

Lusus Naturae

A young girl is born with a disorder and doesn’t go out at all. She is seen as someone different due to her physical appearance and condition. Is considered a freak of nature. Doesn’t get along with her family. As she gets older, she becomes more curious of life and takes the chance to kiss a boy but ends up biting him instead. This later causes the whole town to go in search of her in order to kill her.

Protagonist -

The girl, Lasus Naturae - lonely, curious

Antagonist -

The Sister - Blames the girl for ruining her chances of getting married

Father - Hides her away or distances himself from the girl

Grandma - Thinks of the girl as a curse

Mother - seems to resent her

Society - Society standards were different and don’t accept her for who she is

Theme -

Being different: Society pressures those who are different from others.

The Cask of Amontillado

Montressor seeks revenge on Fortunato who has insulted him. Montressor lures Fortunato who is already drunk into his family’s catacombs by telling him of a rare wine he wants him to try. The bait works and the two descend into the catacombs while Fortunato is sick. Montressor picks on Fortunato’s pride by mentioning that they can return and that he’ll get the wine taster that Fortunato dislikes, but Fortunato insists on continuing. Eventually Montressor traps Fortunato and begins to bury him by sealing him up with a wall of stone with a trowel, leaving him to die. The story ends as a way of Montressor confessing what he did 50 years ago.

Protagonist

Montressor - Manipulative, smart, cold hearted, and vengeful

Antagonist

Fortunato - Arrogant, naive, gullible

Theme -

Pride - Having too much pride can lead to someone’s downfall. In this case, Fortunato’s pride with being a wine connoisseur is what gets him killed.

Revenge - Extreme lengths were taken in order to commit a murder

The Yellow Wallpaper

A woman is suffering from what is likely postpartum depression. She has a husband named John who is a physician and insists that she goes under the “rest cure” (doing nothing at all.) They stay in an isolated mansion during the summer where the woman is staying in a room with a yellow wallpaper that she dislikes. The woman insists that going out and being social, but John doesn’t allow it. As time goes on the woman becomes obsessed with the wall and starts to believe that she sees a woman trapped inside that wallpaper. As her symptoms worsen, she starts to become obsessed to where she believes that she needs to save the woman by peeling the wallpaper. Towards the end the woman has a mental breakdown and starts tearing off larger pieces of the wallpaper. Her husband walks in and ends up fainting.

2 possible endings

1. She goes mentally insane, not being able to go back to who she once was. She even goes over her husbands fainted body and doesn’t really acknowledge him.

2. She commits suicide by hanging herself using the rope that was around in order to escape.

Protagonist

Unnamed Woman - Oppressed, imaginative, depressed,

John - Controlling, treats wife weirdly by calling her “little,” Dismissive

Theme -

Women’s repression - At the time this was written in (1892), women’s lives were controlled by their husbands as the patriarchy way of live was still a thing. Many women often felt trapped and depressed.

Hills Like White Elephants

Jig and the American Man are having drinks and having a conversation at a bar in the valley of the Ebro River Valley in Spain. The two are waiting for the train to arrive. Jig describes the hills like “white elephants.” As the conversation continues the two discuss the fact that Jig is pregnant, and the American Man wants her to have an abortion. Jig on the other hand doesn’t want one and wants to start a family with this man as this has been her dream. The American man tries to convince to get the abortion and says that it’s a simple and easy process, but Jig is still indecisive of what she wants to do and begins to question his love. The American man continues to try and convince Jig to get the abortion, and it gets to a point where Jig becomes annoyed and stands up for herself by telling the man to shut up. The train then arrives.

2 endings

1.Jig gets the abortion - Jig goes along with it as it’s a possibility that she wants to keep the relationship. She doesn’t have the right resources to maintain a baby alone.

2.Jig keeps the baby - Jig has dreamed of having a family and thinks that her and the man could possibly get along.

Protagonist

Jig - Inexperienced, possibly a minor, indecisive, imaginative

Antagonist

American Man - Manipulative, soldier, has gotten with a lot of women, selfish \

Theme

Lack of communication - The two characters struggle to come to an agreement for the unborn baby that is to come.

Relationships - All relationships will have their hardships where the commitment towards one another will be tested.

Joyce Carol Oates

Born June 16, 1938, Lockport NY

Grew up on a farm where she was the oldest of 3 children

Father was a tool and die designer

Published 1st novel at 15

Younger sister Lynn Ann had autism and was institutionalized

Grandfather was mothered

Paternal grandmother survived murder/suicide attempt
Her neighbor(teen) tried to kill his family by arson

Witnessed a lot of violence

Born and raised Catholic but became Atheist

Earned a scholarship to attend Syracuse U

Graduated valedictorian at SU \

Began a Ph.D. in Literature from Rice U but never finished and became a full time writer

Published 58 novels, as well as plays, poetry, and criticism.

Several volumes of short stories.

Won the National Book Award for the novel THEM (1969).

Won the O'Henry Award, The National Humanities Medal, and the Jerusalem Prize (2019).

Taught at Princeton University (1978-2014).

Was a visiting professor at the University of California (2016-2020).

Was a visiting professor at Rutgers University during the fall of 2020 and summer of 2022.

Member of the board of trustees of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation

We Were the Mulvaneys
• Blonde
• Wonderland
• Black Water
• A Garden of Earthly Delights

THEMES

Violence, rape, and evil in modern history

Younger sister Lynn Ann had autism and was institutionalized

Grandfather was mothered

Margaret Atwood

Born in 1939 in Ottawa, Canada and is currently 84 years old.

Writes poetry, novels, essays, and is a literary critic. Also an inventor.

Has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of non-fiction, 9 collections of short stories, 8 children’s books, and 2 graphic novels.

Has won numerous awards—too many to count—for her writing, including:

• 2 Booker Prizes
  
  

• The National Book Critics Award
  
  

• The Franz Kafka Prize
  
  

• A Lifetime Achievement Award
  
  

Is the inventor of the LongPen, a remote signing device created in 2004 and debuted in 2006. This pen allows people to write in ink anywhere via a Tablet, PC, and the internet.

Is the 2nd of 3 children.

Spent most of her time in the woods in Quebec because her father was an entomologist. Was homeschooled until age 12.

Loved Grimm’s Fairy Tales and Canadian comic books.

Graduated high school in 1957.

Began writing poetry and plays at age 6.

Earned her B.A. in English with honors from the University of Toronto and an M.A. from Radcliffe College of Harvard University.

Began her Ph.D. work, finished classwork, and even started her dissertation but never completed it.

Married Jim Polk in 1968, but the couple divorced in 1973.

Formed a relationship with fellow novelist Graeme Gibson and moved to Alliston, Ontario, where their daughter, Eleanor Atwood-Gibson, was born in 1976. Was partners with Gibson until his death in 2019.

THEMES

Gender and identity
Religion and myth
The power of politics

Dystopian societies

Feminism

Environmentalism

NOVELS:
 Life Before Man (1979)
 The Handmaid’s Tale (1985)
 Cat’s Eye (1988)
 Alias Grace (1996)
 The Blind Assassin (2000)
 The Year of the Flood (2009)
 The Heart Goes Last (2015)

Edgar Allen Poe

Born on Jan 19, 1809, in Boston to David P Jr. and Elizabeth Arnold.

The second child in the family, with a sister and brother.

His father abandoned the family in 1810, and his mother died the following year. Poe was taken in by the Allan family in Richmond, Virginia, who forced him to take their last name, making him Edgar Allan Poe.

He was a champion swimmer in school.

Had a rocky relationship with his foster father, John Allan. After gambling away his tuition at the University of Virginia, Poe left and was forced to leave due to lack of finances.

In 1827, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and began crafting literature, publishing Tamerlane and Other Poems under a pseudonym.

After making peace with John Allan, Poe tried to become a cadet at West Point but failed, as he wanted to be a poet. He and Allan never spoke again.

Poe switched from poetry to prose, writing short stories, literary criticism, and dreaming of a literary magazine.

He moved to Baltimore, married his 13-year-old cousin Virginia Clemm in 1836, who died of tuberculosis in 1847.

In 1845, he published The Raven, which led to his success in writing mysterious, supernatural stories.

He started his own journal, The Penn, but died mysteriously in 1849 at age 40

Death:

Found unconscious in a ditch on Oct 3, 1849, wearing ill-fitting clothes, foaming at the mouth, and speaking incoherently. He died on Oct 7 at 5:00 a.m.

The cause of death remains unknown—suspected causes include alcohol poisoning, rabies, a drug overdose, flu, syphilis, or a brain tumor.

Last words were: “Lord help my poor soul.”

Believed great literature should be brief and focused on a single effect, with every idea carefully calculated.

Remembered for:
 1. He is the father of Detective Fiction; he founded the genre.
 2. Was the first American professional writer—meaning he was
the first person to be able to earn a living just by writing full-time.
 3. Was an alcoholic and dabbled in opiate use.
Major themes
Almost always used the unreliable narrator in his writings.
He often wrote about obsession, paranoia, alienation, death,
regret, and lost love.
He often shows rivals.
He uses the gothic style of writing.
GOTHIC Literature – is a type of literature that combines dark
elements, spooky settings with disturbed characters.
Unreliable narrator – someone who narrates a story who either
consciously or unconsciously do not tell the truth.

Works

“Fall of The House of Usher”

“The Black Cat”

“The Raven”

“A Dream Within a Dream”

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Early Life and Personal Background

• Born July 3, 1860, in Hartford, Connecticut.

• Had 1 older brother, 14 months older.

• Her father abandoned the family when she was a toddler, and they lived in poverty.

• Her father’s aunts, including author Harriet Beecher Stowe, occasionally supported the family.

• Attended 7 different schools in 4 years.

• Her mother was not affectionate with her or her brother.

• Most childhood friends were male, and she was known as a tomboy.

• Loved to read but was a poor student.

• After graduation, enrolled in the Rhode Island School of Design.

• Married Charles Walter Stetson in 1884, and they had 1 child, Katharine Beecher Stetson.

• Suffered from a serious bout of post-partum depression, at a time when women with such issues were often labeled hysterical or crazy.

• Separated from her husband in 1888, moved to California with her daughter, and eventually divorced.

• Formed a homosexual relationship with Adeline Knapp after her divorce, but the relationship ended later.

• Became involved in feminism and joined several feminist organizations, including The State Council for Women, The Economic Club, and The Parents Association.

Later Life and Contributions

• Held progressive views on parental rights and agreed that her ex-husband had a right to see their daughter.

• Married a second time to her first cousin, Houghton Gilman. They were happily married until his death from a cerebral hemorrhage.

• Died on August 17, 1935, after taking an overdose of chloroform due to severe pain from incurable breast cancer, diagnosed 3 years earlier.

• Believed in euthanasia. In her suicide note, she wrote that she chose “Chloroform over cancer.”

Feminist Role

• Was a delegate in California in 1896 for the Woman Suffrage Association convention.

• A member of the Nationalist Clubs movement, which aimed to end capitalism.

• Wrote fifteen essays, poems, a novella, and the short story The Yellow Wallpaper.

• Went on tours lecturing on women’s rights and the feminist movement.

Notable Works and Legacy

• Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper on June 6-7, 1890.

• The story was printed over a year later, first published in The New England Magazine in January 1892.

• Since its initial publication, The Yellow Wallpaper has become one of the most anthologized works in women’s literature courses, American literature courses, and feminism courses.

• Gilman wrote the story to change Americans' views on the role of women in society.

• The goal of The Yellow Wallpaper was to depict a woman’s deterioration into madness.

• The Yellow Wallpaper was a response to Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell, who attempted to cure Gilman using the “rest cure.”

• Gilman wrote an essay, “Why I Wrote The ‘Yellow Wallpaper’,” in 1913, explaining her motivations for the story.

Philosophy and Other Works

• Was a humanist and believed that the domestic environment oppressed women. Most of her works discuss this theme.

• Some of her notable works include:

  • Women and Economics (1898)

  • Concerning Children (1900)

  • Moving the Mountain (1911) – novel

  • Herland (1915) – novel

Ernest Hemingway

(July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961)
Born in Oak Park, Illinois, this individual revolutionized the American literary world and became a major celebrity in their era.

Their early career included working for school newspapers, then moving to Kansas City to work in journalism, which influenced their later writing style.

Their writing style was marked by brief, straightforward sentences, a contrast to the long, elaborate sentences used by many of their contemporaries.

World War I:

They served as an ambulance driver, which influenced their 1929 novel A Farewell to Arms.

Paris:

Moved to Paris after the war, where they mingled with other literary giants like James Joyce, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Gertrude Stein.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's Influence:

Fitzgerald introduced their manuscript The Sun Also Rises to his publisher, Charles Scribner, which helped launch their literary career.

Famous Novels:

Their major works include The Sun Also Rises (1926), A Farewell to Arms (1929), and The Old Man and the Sea (1951).

Personal Life:

They married four times, each marriage marked by conflict and multiple infidelities. Their first wife Hadley bore them a son, John. Their second wife Pauline gave them two sons, Patrick and Gregory. They were later married to journalist Martha Gellhorn and finally, Mary Welsh.

War Correspondent:

They worked as a war correspondent during the Spanish Civil War and World War II, which further solidified their tough, fearless image.

Awards:

They won the Pulitzer Prize for The Old Man and the Sea in 1951 and were awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954.

Struggles:

Later in life, they battled with depression, alcoholism, and mental health issues. They suffered from inner demons, which affected their writing and ability to function.

Suicide:

They took their own life on July 2, 1961, believing their ability to write and their essential self-had come to an end.

Legacy:

Their life and works left a lasting impact on American literature. They lived as a larger-than-life figure, embodying the adventurous and fearless persona of the modern writer.

The iceberg theory- (He invented this writing style; it gives very brief information; he gives just enough for you the reader to figure out what he is talking about. His style is like a seeing the tips of an iceberg above water.  Readers/Watchers only see the tips/get basic info, but—there is so much more below the surface.

Lots of dialogue-he uses lots of conversations in his works

Modern American writer- he uses realism – it’s not always a happy ending or happy; he shows reality.

EXTREMELY/ Very Autobiographical- he uses most of his life experiences in his fiction.

Margaret Atwood

Wrote “Lusus Naturae”

Joyce Carol Oates

Wrote “Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?”

Edgar Allen Poe

Wrote “The Cask of Amontillado”

Charlotte Perkins Gillman

Wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper"

Ernest Hemingway

Wrote “Hills Like White Elephants”

What is the difference between reading for PLOT and Reading for ANALYSIS--?

A surface level reading– who did what to whom? – reading for action
Reading for plot—action – is reading at a 7th grade level.

College-level reading requires
analysis—digging deeper and “picking things apart.”

Be able to discuss 3 reasons why a non-English major would have to take an intro to literature course.

To have different perspectives- live in someone else’s shoes for a bit.
To understand the author’s ideas/perspective or life.

To understand past history of a time period
To increase one’s reading comprehension skills
To enjoy the reading
To learn new vocabulary and increase vocabulary skills
To increase analysis skills—”picking a part” ideas
To learn different interpretations of a work of literature
To increase your cultural literacy and be exposed to different types of readings & ideas
Reading more helps one write better.

4 Genres of Literature

Poetry, short stories, novels, plays(drama)

Edgar Allan Poe

Father of the Short Story

Know what Genre came first, second, third, and last

Poetry

Drama

Novel

Short Story

Feminism

Focuses on the portrayal of women, gender roles, and power dynamics

Historical

Focuses on the context of the time period, events, and conditions that influenced a writer

Autobiographical

Based off of the author’s life which influences their work

Reader Response

The way the reader interprets/understood the text