English 10 Midterm

Romantic Period (1776–1870)

Key Context: A reaction against Enlightenment rationalism and the Industrial Revolution. It emphasizes emotion, individualism, and nature.

American Romanticism: Explores the unique American identity, imagination, and the "dark underbelly" of human nature.

"Bartleby the Scrivener" by Herman Melville

Summary: A lawyer on Wall Street hires Bartleby, who eventually begins to refuse all tasks with the phrase, "I would prefer not to," eventually starving to death in prison.
Time Period Analysis: As an American Romantic text, it explores the "darker aspects of human nature" and the "dark underbelly" of society. Bartleby’s passive resistance is a reaction to the "routine-driven work" of the Industrial Revolution.
Main Idea: The emotional emptiness of capitalist systems leads to total human isolation and the decay of the individual.

Modernism (1910–1950)

Key Context: Characterized by upending traditional stabilities (religion, society) and disrupting the old Victorian order.

Characteristics: Pessimism, fragmentation, chaos, and Interiority (stream of consciousness to show unfiltered thoughts).

"Life of Ma Parker" by Katherine Mansfield

Summary: An elderly, impoverished housekeeper who has lost almost everyone she loves cleans for a wealthy, unempathetic "Literary Gentleman."
Time Period Analysis: Exhibits Modernist pessimism and interiority. The text uses a "random" structure where events shift between the present and her memories, reflecting a chaotic inner life.
Main Idea: The crushing weight of grief and the lack of "solace and recognition" for the working class in an indifferent world.

"The Garden Party" by Katherine Mansfield

Summary: Laura Sheridan struggles with her family's upper-class indifference when a poor neighbor dies during their party.
Time Period Analysis: Reflects Modernist skepticism toward social codes. Laura's "fragmented" realization of the class divide disrupts her "sheltered world."
Main Idea: The disconnect between the "too good to be true" upper-class life and the reality of human suffering.

Selected Poems (Langston Hughes & Claude McKay)

Summary: Hughes' "God to Hungry Child" and "Brass Spittoons" alongside McKay's "The Harlem Dancer."
Time Period Analysis: These works reflect the Modernist focus on "varying perspectives" and the "decay of character" under social pressure. Hughes critiques religious hypocrisy, while McKay shows the "interiority" of a dancer whose "falsely-smiling face" hides an empty heart.
Main Idea: The struggle for identity and dignity within systems of racial and economic oppression.

Post-Modernism to Present

Key Context: Analyzing the aftermath of industrialization and the rise of "Neoliberalism."

"Estranged Labor" by Karl Marx

Summary: An analysis of how workers become "alienated" from their work, themselves, and nature.
Analysis: Marx responds to the Industrial Revolution, arguing that the system treats workers like "products" that are "less valuable" the more they produce.
Main Idea: Capitalism forces workers into a state where they do not own their lives or labor.

"Work Won't Love You Back" by Sarah Jaffe

Summary: A critique of modern employment, the "Do What You Love" ideology, and the devaluation of "care work."
Analysis: Connects back to the collapse of Fordism and the rise of Neoliberalism, where individual "responsibility" replaces government help and collective security.
Main Idea: Expecting emotional fulfillment from work ("labor of love") is a tool for exploitation.

"A Raisin in the Sun" by Lorraine Hansberry

Summary: A Black family in Chicago struggles to decide how to use an insurance check to escape poverty.
Analysis: Explores the Modernist theme of "disillusionment with the American Dream" and "social injustice." Walter's journey from "brokenness" to "responsibility" defines his manhood through integrity.
Main Idea: Family unity and human dignity are more valuable than financial security bought through humiliation.

Study Tips for Part 2 (Synthesis)

To answer the 5-7 sentence identification questions:

Identify: State the author and the title of the work.
Contextualize: Briefly explain what is happening in the passage (who is speaking and why).
Connect: Link the passage to a vocab word (e.g., "This quote illustrates alienation from the act of workbecause...").
Synthesize: Explain the "so what?"—how does this passage prove the author's main point about labor or society?

Key Concepts

Political Economy: An academic discipline that studies how social and power relations constitute the production, distribution, and consumption of resources. It is essentially the study of control—who is in control (government/state/personal) and how economic relations influence social survival
Estranged Labor (Alienation): A core Marxist theory explaining how workers become separated from their work, themselves, and others under capitalism. Marx identifies four types of alienation:
- From the Product: Workers do not own what they create; it belongs to the capitalist and feels foreign to the worker.
- From the Act of Working: Work feels forced rather than chosen, draining the worker instead of allowing for self-expression.
- From "Species-Being" (Human Nature): Capitalism turns creative work into a mere means of survival, stripping away what makes people truly human.
- From Other People: Workers are forced to compete with one another, creating unequal social relationships.
American Romanticism: A literary movement (1776–1870) emphasizing emotion, individualism, and nature as a reaction to Enlightenment rationalism. It explores both the optimistic potential of the self and the "dark underbelly" of human nature.
Modernism: A literary and cultural movement characterized by upending traditional stabilities like religion and social propriety. It was a response to the rapidly changing world of the early 19th and 20th centuries, often marked by skepticism and a critique of social codes.
- Interiority (stream of consciousness):
  - refers to a character's inner life: their private thoughts, feelings, memories, and reactions.
  - stream of consciousness is a narrative technique that attempts to replicate the chaotic, unfiltered flow of these thoughts in a realistic way, often disregarding conventional grammar, syntax, or logical order.
- Pessimism
  - A feeling or belief that the worst will happen; a focus on the negative aspects of life.
- Fragmentation
  - The breaking of a story, character, or thought process into many separate, often disjointed pieces, reflecting a chaotic worldview.
- Decay of Plot/ Character
  - The breakdown of traditional story structure or the decline of a character's traditional moral or social standing, showing a loss of order or meaning.
- Chaos and Confusion
  - A state of total disorder and lack of understanding, often mirroring the character's inner state or the modern world.
- Shock
  - A sudden, strong feeling of surprise, especially an unpleasant one, often used to provoke strong reactions in characters or readers.
Harlem Renaissance: An outpouring of African American writing, music, and social criticism in the 1920s . it was a key movement for African Americans to define themselves in a "modern" sense.
Ideology: The dominant ideas and worldviews that justify an existing social and economic order, often making it seem natural or inevitable.
Social Realism: A style that refuses idealized scenarios, instead centering on the lives of poor and working-class people to critique structural wrongs in society.
Kitchenette: Small, often overcrowded apartments common in urban areas like Chicago. In literature, they signify deferred dreams and the physical wear and tear of poverty.
Intimate Labor: Paid and unpaid work that involves physical or emotional closeness, such as nursing, cleaning, or childcare. It often blurs the line between wage labor and p ersonal care.

Authors

Karl Marx
• Langston Hughes
• Pedro Pietri
• Claude Mchay
• James Oppenheim
• Philip Levine
• Herman Melville
• Katherine Mansfield
• Toni Morrison
• Lorraine Hansberry
• Sara Jalle

Readings

• "The Garden Party"
• *Bartleby the Scrivener: A
Story of Wall Street"
• "Estranged Labor"
• "Life of Ma Parker"
• "The Harlem Dancer"
• "What Work Is"
• A Raisin in the Sun
• "Brass Spittoons"
• "Puerto Rican Obituary"
• "Bread and Roses"
• "The Work You Do, The Person You Are"

Karl Marx

Reading: "Estranged Labor"
Key Concepts: Alienation (or estrangement) of labor.
Key Points:
- Marx argues that under capitalism, workers become separated from their products, the act of working, their human nature ("species-being"), and other people.
- The more effort a worker puts into a product, the more valuable the product becomes and the less valuable the worker becomes.
- Labor "kills" the worker; they exist merely to produce things that are ultimately separate from and more valuable than their own lives.

Lorraine Hansberry

Reading: A Raisin in the Sun
Key Concepts: Kitchenette, Social Realism.
Key Points:
- The play explores the deferred dreams of the Younger family living in a cramped "kitchenette" apartment.
- Act III: After losing their money, Walter Lee considers a buyout from a white neighbor (Karl Lindner) but ultimately chooses pride and unity over money, declaring the family's dignity.
- Mama (Lena) observes that Walter has finally "come into his manhood" by prioritizing his family's integrity.

Herman Melville

Reading: "Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street"
Key Concepts: American Romanticism, Passive Resistance.
Key Points:
- The story is narrated by a cautious Wall Street lawyer who hires Bartleby, a quiet and productive scrivener (copyist).
- Bartleby eventually begins to refuse tasks with the phrase, "I would prefer not to," which serves as a symbol of passive resistance against the routine of capitalism.
- The story explores alienation and the emotional emptiness of routine-driven work, ending with the lament: "Ah Bartleby! Ah humanity!".

Sarah Jaffe

Reading: "Work Won't Love You Back"
Key Concepts: "Labor of Love" Ideology, Neoliberalism.
Key Points:
- Jaffe critiques the modern expectation that workers should "love" their jobs, arguing this ideology is a lie used to control workers and justify low pay or poor conditions.
- She discusses how traditional job security (stable wages, benefits) has disappeared, replaced by unstable, overworked, and underpaid roles.
- True freedom comes from collective action and reclaiming life outside of work.

Langston Hughes

Readings: "God to Hungry Child" and "Brass Spittoons"
Key Concepts: Harlem Renaissance, Social Injustice.
Key Points:
- "God to Hungry Child": Critiques a society that prioritizes capital and stock investment over basic human needs like food and shelter.
- "Brass Spittoons": Describes the dehumanizing labor of a Black man cleaning spittoons, yet illustrates how he finds dignity and offers his polished work as something "beautiful to the Lord".

Toni Morrison

Reading: "The Work You Do, The Person You Are"
Key Points:
- A narrative about a worker cleaning a wealthy person's home and noticing the vast material differences compared to her own neighborhood.
- The central message is that work is merely a tool to navigate the world and does not define a person's identity.

Claude McKay

Reading: "The Harlem Dancer"
Key Concepts: Harlem Renaissance, Objectification.
Key Points:
- The poem highlights the divide between the dancer's graceful outward appearance and her internal exhaustion and detachment.
- It explores the emotional toll of performing for others' pleasure and the hidden struggles behind the glamour of Harlem's nightlife.

Pedro Pietri

Reading: "Puerto Rican Obituary"
Key Points:
- This poem depicts Puerto Rican workers who toil in harsh conditions, exhausted and underpaid.
- It critiques the "American Dream," noting that many "died dreaming about America" while being exploited by the system that employed them.