Major American Writers Midterm

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain

Daisy Miller

Henry James

Turn of the Screw

Henry James

The Ambiguity of Henry James

Wilson

The Wife of His Youth

Charles Chesnutt

The Awakening

Kate Chopin

Maggie: A Girl of the Streets

Stephen Crane

Mending Wall

Robert Frost

After Apple Picking

Robert Frost

Birches

Robert Frost

Design

Robert Frost

The Age of Innocence

Edith Wharton

To Whistler, American

Ezra Pound

In a Station of the Metro

Ezra Pound

The River Merchant's Wife

Ezra Pound

A Pact

Ezra Pound

The Emperor of Ice Cream

Wallace Stevens

Of Modern Poetry

Wallace Stevens

In Just

E.E. Cummings

Cambridge Ladies

E.E. Cummings

The Waste-Land

T.S. Eliot

"'The Darling!' thought Newland Archer... pictured her at his side in some scene of old European witchery"

Archer views May as his project, someone he has to teach and shape because she's "uneducated" or innocent

Mr. Sillerton Jackson had returned the opera-glass to Lawrence Lefferts... but then her mother was a Rushworth

People in TAOI are connected in society; either by marriage or blood

But when he had gone the brief round of her he returned discouraged by the thought that all this frankness and innocence were only an artificial product...

Despite Archer treating and viewing May as innocent and childlike, he's understanding that she is her own person and already has an understanding of the world. Upset that she's no longer his project

"'Well, then she bolted with his secretary'"...

Newland afraid of Ellen's influence on May, the family is afraid of Ellen's divorce

"'It was not in the least arranged for you?' ... 'have you forgotten...that in our country we don't allow our marriages to be arranged for us?'"

Archer thinks he has more independence because he gets to "decide" who he marries when in reality it is still dependent on class, wealth, etc.

"But they did not look like her--there was something too rich, too strong, in their fiery beauty"

Comparing Ellen to strength, beauty, independence with the yellow roses and May to innocence, security, tradition with the Lilies of the valley

"'mercy-shall we elope?'...'if you would-"

Newland is in a rush to marry May because he's afraid he'll have an affair with Ellen if he doesn't

"For a moment she remained motionless; ... 'Is it because you're not certain of your continuing to care for me?'"

May recognizes that Archer is pushing the wedding up (sooner) because he has feelings for someone else

"'I have never made love to you...and I never shall. But you are the woman I would have married if it had been possible for either of us"

Newland is falling in love (or at this point, in longing) with Ellen, sees her as someone new that he can "save", doesn't want her trapped in society, and knows that Ellen has to remain single unless a man is willing to have an affair with a married woman

"Archer felt irrationally angry. His host's contemptuous tribute to May's 'niceness' was just what a husband should have wished to hear said to his wife. The fact that a coarse-minded man found her lacking in attraction was simply another proof of her quality"

Newland was afraid of what other people thought of May and what was actually true about her or not; realizing that he only knows the side of her that she is willing to let him see, and he thinks that behind that she will be dull or empty

"At length she said: "I believe it's because of you"

Newland and Ellen are both stuck in limbo of wanting her to stay or leave, begin thinking about keeping her in the house and having an affair but still being married but Archer is too worried about his obligations and society's opinions

"No: she would go only if she felt herself becoming a temptation...it depended on himself to keep her just there, safe but secluded"

Newland and Ellen set themselves up for a hard time/struggle by staying close togehter

"'They smell less if one blows them out'"

May knowing that Archer is going to see Ellen, flame/candle in this scene is a representation of passion, May is in control of it and can be seen as a way of her warning him that things will be easier now if he purposefully "blows out" his passion for Ellen

"But what does it matter, now it's all over?"

May tells Archer that Ellen is going back to Europe with the family's approval, clear that Archer is broken up about it because he can't talk for a few minutes and is visibly upset

"Her color burned deeper, but she held his gaze. 'No; I wasn't sure then-but I told her I was. And you see I was right!' she exclaimed, her blue eyes wet with victory"

Readers realize that May told Ellen she was pregnant so that Ellen would leave (even though she wasn't sure). Archer won't cheat or leave now because he'll have children and that is unacceptable both to himself and society

"It was you that broke the new wood, Now is a time for carving"

A Pact, Ezra Pound. Tribute to Walt Whitman because poets are now able to experiment with different ways of writing

"Who bear the brunt of our America / And try to wrench her impulse into art"

To Whistler, American, Ezra Pound. Literature is a form of art, especially poetry; at the time America not only refused to understand but also didn't care about it

"The apparition of these faces in the crowd; / Petals on a wet, black bough."

In a Station of the Metro, Ezra Pound. Example of imagism - creating a scene, focusing on senses.

"The paired butterflies are already yellow with August / Over the grass in the West garden; / They hurt me. I grow older."

The River-Merchant's Wife: A Letter, Ezra Pound. The story of a couple getting older and love blossoming, butterflies are an example of how the time has passed and how long he has been away, and her desire to see him again.

"The boy followed a dozen feet in the rear...to be taken home by a father"

Jimmie's father doesn't scold him, simply punishes him by kicking him

"Is yer fader beatin' yet mudder, or yer mudder beatin' yer fader?"

shows that home life isn't good for Maggie and/or Jimmie - lots of abuse, naturalism thinks that it is inevitable for them to become the same way

"The girl...blossomed in a mud puddle...none of the dirt of Rum Alley seemed to be in her veins"

Maggie wasn't like her surroundings (like naturalism supposes), but that means she will be easily persuaded by anyone that seems better than them

"Maggie perceived that here was the beau ideal of a man...under the trees of her dream-gardens there had always walked a lover"

Maggie wants Pete to be a man good enough to steer her in the right direction

Daisy Miller, Henry James

Focuses on the double standards between men/women

"in a sharp, hard little voice - a voice immature, and yet, somehow, not young"

Daisy's brother, Randolph, has a hard voice - indicates that his life has not been an easy one

"She admitted that she was very exclusive...almost oppressively striking"

Daisy and Winterbourne talking; Daisy doesn't follow social expectations/conventions

"'I am an old woman, but I am not too old - thank Heaven - to be shocked!'"

Mrs. Costello shocked by Daisy's lack of following social norms and no longer wants to associate with her

"Winterbourne wished that Mrs. Walker would tuck in her carriage-rug...bade him farewell with a too emphatic flourish of the hat"

Winterbourne follows social customs and gets in the carriage, Daisy refuses to and walks off with Giovanelli - making her reputation worse

"This young man lingered a moment, then he began to walk. But he walked - not towards the couple with the parasol; towards the residence of his Aunt, Mrs. Costello"

Winterbourne chooses high society over Daisy, allowing reputations to mean more to him than her well-being

Turn of the Screw, Henry James

Focuses on the idea of unreliable narrators, hallucinations, etc.