Introduction to American Literature (PDF)

INTRODUCTION Rationale Literature is perhaps best seen as a complement to other materials used to increase the foreign learner’s insight into the country whose language is being learnt. The aim of this book, therefore, is to devise ways of making literature a more significant part of a language teac...

INTRODUCTION Rationale Literature is perhaps best seen as a complement to other materials used to increase the foreign learner’s insight into the country whose language is being learnt. The aim of this book, therefore, is to devise ways of making literature a more significant part of a language teaching class and of developing the EFL leaners’ cultural knowledge, language practice, and personal involvement. It can be said that through this book, students have more opportunities to improve their language skills and analysis ability as well as critical thinking. Special features in this book direct students’ attention to the language of literature and the specific literary skills used by the authors. Scope of the book In the scope of this book, which is designed for 30 - period syllabus, students will have an opportunity to explore a range of ten literary works including six short stories, three poems, and an extract of a novel written by ten famous American authors. Each work is carefully chosen to illustrate a basic literary element of fiction or of poetry to students. This book is followed by the book of American Literature 2- which is designed for 45 - period syllabus. It is advisable that this book is accompanied by the book of the History of the American Literature- which will provide learners with more specific literary features and literary movements ranging from the Colonial period to the Contemporary time in the history of the American Literature. The learners are the senior EFL students who have completed the basic language skill courses and may cope with the American Culture Course simultaneously. Objectives The primary purpose of literature teaching in this book is to promote the use of literature as a resource for language teaching with four major objectives: 1. To help EFL students improve four language learning skills, especially reading comprehension skill and critical reading skill. 2. To provide students with the basic structure and the elements of the literary genres including fiction and poetry. 3. To give students an opportunity to introduce elements of literary style into their own writing. 4. To encourage students to reflect their personal response to what they have learned in the literary works.. 1  INSTRUCTIONS FOR USING THIS BOOK The following instructions will give students a general overview of the various sections as well as some suggestions for using this book in the classroom. 1. Have students read the biographical information about the author. This section provides interesting information about each author’s life and works as well as his/her original writing style. Point out that the author has written other works that students may want to read. 2. Have students think about the Before Reading questions. This section creates interest in the story and stimulates discussion before the actual reading. The questions require students to relate their own experiences or opinions to the situations or problems in the literary works. 3. Have the students read the works. Students are told to enjoy the story or the poem for its own sake, but they are advised to read carefully and critically. Teachers should explain what critical reading is. Students are asked to read the works first without stopping to look up for meaning in dictionary. They can underline or highlight any difficult words that stump them. Point out that context clue and their previous knowledge of English vocabulary have helped their reading. After completing their reading, students are advised to summarize the story or the poem in their own words. 4. Explain the literary lesson. Each literary work focuses on a specific literary element. After the students have read an introduction to the literary element, discuss the lesson to assure that they have a general understanding of the concept. Then, have students complete the exercises in this section, pause for a discussion so that the students can find out why their answers are right or wrong. 5. Have students answer the comprehension questions and analysis questions. Many of these questions refer to specific details in the literary works and require students to read carefully. These questions are designed to help students develop the skills of recalling the specific facts, understanding vocabulary, drawing a conclusion, making a judgment, understanding main ideas, and appreciating literary forms. 6. Have students spend time on discussion. These questions give students a chance to demonstrate their new skills and allow them to use their imagination and to apply themes in the literary works to their own experiences in various issues that interest students. This section may be assigned to partners, small groups, or the whole class. 7. Have students do the writing exercises. The writing exercises ask students to apply what they have learned about the literary elements discussed in the lesson. There is a variety of creative ideas as well as more academic assignments. Depending on the students’ levels, teachers may give them free choice or assign specific writing questions. 8. The Answer Keys at the end of the course allow students to check their answers to the comprehension questions. Students should be encouraged to correct wrong answers and to consider why the answers are right or wrong. 2  A SURVEY OF THE AMERICAN LITERATURE Early National Literature (1776-1820) The years from the adoption of the Constitution (1787) to the period of Jacksonian nationalism (1828-36) mark the emergence of a self-consciously national literature. The poet Joel Barlow, who was, like John Trumbull, one of the Connecticut Wits, greeted the new United States with his epic The Columbiad (1807), a reworking of his earlier The Vision of Columbus (1787). Philip Freneau wrote lyric poetry that fused the native scene and native expression. Other writers strove to develop an American literature but did not concentrate on strictly American subjects, using instead the universal themes of romance, virtue, vice and seduction that pervaded popular novels in England and on the Continent. William Hill Brown’s The Power of Sympathy (1789), an imitation of Goethe’s Sorrows of Young Werther, is regarded by some as the first American novel. Susanna Rawson’s sentimental and didactic tale of seduction, Charlotte Temple, published (1791) in London as Charlotte: A Tale of Truth, was extremely popular. In contrast to the prevailing sentimental novel was Hugh Henry Brackenridge’s massive Modern Chivalry (1792-1815), a picaresque novel with an underlying satire on bad government. The first professional novelist was Charles Brockden Brown, whose gothic and philosophical romances, beginning with Wieland (1798), anticipated Edgar Allan Poe. Early in the 19th century, Washington Irving gained European recognition as American’s first genuine man of letters. A History of New York (1809) is a whimsical satire of pedantic historians and literary classics. His best-known tales, Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, appeared in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent, which was published serially in 1819-20. William Cullen Bryant emerged in the 1820s as a poet of international stature. His Thanatopsis (1817), influenced by the English Graveyard poets, linked American literature to the emerging English Romanticism. Still, despite European influences, American writes attempted to create a distinctive literature during a time of rising literary nationalism. Noah Webster contributed An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828), in which he insisted that the country possessed its own Language. The nationalist theme was echoed by William Ellery Channing, Edward Everett, and most memorably by Ralph Waldo Emerson in his Phi Beta Kappa address at Harvard, The American Scholar (1837), which Oliver Wendell Holmes called "our intellectual Declaration of Independence.” James Fennimore Cooper was the first important American novelist to succeed with subjects and settings that largely American. Cooper achieved international prominence with his second novel, The Spy (1821), a tale of the Revolution. His many novels blending history and romance resulted in his being called "the American (Sir Walter) Scott," a title that put him in the company of one of the period's most popular and respected authors. Cooper became best known for his Leatherstocking Tales, five novels that run from The Pioneers (1823) to The Deerslayer (1841). Cooper's settings capture the American idea of nature, and his hero, Natty Bumppo, expresses the self- reliant, pioneering spirit of America. 3 Much of Cooper's sense of America was caught by the Fireside Poets, who celebrated American history and a benign American nature. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow displayed his skill at telling a story in verse in Hiawatha (1855), The Courtship of Miles Standish (1858), and Evangeline (1847). But Longfellow and his contemporaries succeeded best in public poetry intended for recitation. Still powerful are Longfellow's The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere (1863), John Greenleaf Whittier's Barbara Freitchie (1863), and Oliver Wendell Holmes's Old Ironsides (1830). Edgar Allan Poe stood apart from literary nationalism and represented a gloomier side of romanticism. As a reviewer, he was a harsh critic of second-rate American writing, but he dabbled in many popular sensationalistic forms. His often technically complex poetry uses commonplace romantic themes but gives them a philosophical and mystical application. Many of his short stories remain internationally famous, and he may be said to have invented the detective story. In The Fall of the House of Usher and The Tell- Tale Heart, Poe perfected the tale of gothic horror. Literature of Renaissance (1820-1860) The American renaissance, also known as the American Romantic Movement, began with the maturing of American literature in the 1830s and 1840s and ended with its flowering in the 1850s. During the 1830s, Ralph Waldo Emerson established himself as the spokesman for the Transcendentalism, first set forth in his essay Nature (1836). The group known as the Transcendentalists that gathered around him in Concord, Mass., included Bronson Alcott. Margaret Fuller, Theodore Parker, and William Ellery Channing, who joined with Emerson in the publication of Dial magazine (1840- 44). They subscribed to Emerson's faith that all people are united in their communion with the oversoul, a postreligious equivalent of God. Each individual, Emerson said, finds his or her own way to transcendence through self-knowledge, self-reliance, and the contemplation of nature. Henry David Thoreau came closest to putting Emerson's ideas into practice. After to intermittent years at Walden Pond in Concord, Mass., he wrote Walden or Life in the Woods (1854). In this book, Thoreau observes nature from the viewpoint of a naturalist-philosopher reflecting on the quiet desperation of humanity and the transcendental solace of the natural world. No less consciously indebted to Emerson was Walt Whitman, who dedicated the first edition of his poetry, Leaves of Grass (1855), to him. Whitman celebrated an untrammeled communion with nature with overtones of sensuality that appeared shocking even though his poetry expressed sound transcendental doctrine. Whitman also took seriously Emerson's appeal for American originality; he devised a loose, "natural" form of versification that seemed unpoetic and jarring to his contemporaries. After the Civil War, Whitman gained wider acceptance with his elegy on the death of Lincoln, When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed (1865). Whitman prose works include Democratic Vistas (1871), containing his philosophy democracy along with prophecies of its future greatness and the coming greatness of its literature, and Specimen Days (1882), an autobiographical account of his Civil War experiences as a voluntary nurse. 4 Unknown to the public, another American innovative poet, Emily Dickinson, was writing in Amhcrst, Mass. Her poems, written mostly from the late 1850s through the 1860s, were unconventional and deceptively simple lyrics concerned with death, eternity, and the inner life. Few were published in her lifetime, but when her poems were rediscovered in the 1920s, Dickinson took her place as a major American poet. Nathaniel Hawthorne represents American romanticism with its roots firmly planted in the Puritan past. His stories were collected in Twice-Told Tales (1837), which established his importance as an American writer. Some were tales of the Puritans and of early American history; others used a mixture of symbolism and allegory that, together with certain recurrent themes, were carried over into Hawthorne's hovels. His masterpiece, the Scarlet Letter (1850), is a symbolic romance set in Puritan New England. Hawthorne had been attracted to Emerson's thought but rejected its optimism both here and in the Blithedale Romance (1852), a novel based on the transcendentalists' utopian experiment, Brook Farm. The Rise of Realism (1860-1914) The post-Civil War period is roughly the period from the rise of realism to the advent of naturalism, up to World War I. The Civil War itself affected literature less than did the industrial expansion that came in its aftermath. Nevertheless, the war was the basis for poetry by Melville, Emerson, Lowell, and Whitman, and of significant autobiographical accounts by Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Charles Francis Adams Jr., and Ulysses S. Grant. Mark Twain led the movement away from the romanticism typical of the American renaissance to a worldly realism that dealt with actual places and situations. In his dialogue he produced equivalents of American speech never before attempted. Twain drew extensively from his personal experiences: on his own travels for The Innocents Abroad (1869) and Roughing It (1872), on his days as a river boat pilot for Life on the Mississippi (1883), and on his youth for his boyhood stories Tom Sawyer (1876) and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884). Huckleberry Finn is considered by many critics to the first modern American novel: it is more than likely the best known and is undoubtedly one of the great American literary achievements. The choice of the pen name Mark Twain by Samuel Clemens followed a practice common among American humorists who wrote during the 19th century. After Augustus B. Longstreet's Georgia Scenes (1835), James Russell Lowell wrote as Hosea Bigelow, Joel Chandler Harris as Uncle Remus, David Ross Locke as Petroleum V. Nasby, Charles Farrar Browne as Artemas Ward, and Finley Peter Dunne as Mr. Dooley. As novelists and critics, William Dean Howells and Henry James contributed to the shift from romance to realism. Howells's The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885) concerns an ordinary farmer who becomes wealthy and moves to Boston but whose spiritual rise comes about only when he loses his wealth. Despite a prolific output, Howells's significance rests mostly on his literary criticism and his opposition to provincialism in American literature. James departed even further from the provincial scene. He portrayed expatriate Americans in a European setting in Daisy Miller (1879) and in his triumph of psychological realism, The Portrait of a Lady (1881). Conversely, 5 James presented the reactions of Europeans to a New England background in The Europeans (1878). In The Bostonians (1886) he satirized New England reformers and philanthropists. As prolific as Howells, James was also a self-conscious critic and an advocate of realism. In his last novels, notably The Golden Bowl (1904), James created a new, complex language and symbolism for the novel that heralded the age of modernism. Regionalism, the literature of particular sections of the country, flourished, however Many authors who used this form of realistic local color were women, among them Willa Cather, Kate Chopin, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, Ellen Glasgow, Sarah Orne Jewett, and Edith Wharton. Other writers of the period who are thought of as regionalists are Ambrose Bierce, Hamlin Garland, and Bret Harte. Much of the literature of black Americans was regional in setting, by force of circumstance. Charles Chesnutt and William Wells Brown were early black novelists. In Lyrics of Lowly Life (1896), the poet and novelist Paul Lawrence Dunbar used dialect and humble settings in a blend of pathos and humor. Modernism and Experimentation (1914-1945) American literature between the two world wars was characterized by disillusionment with ideas and even with civilization itself. The writers of the so-called lost generation reacted with disillusionment to the war and adopted the despairing tone of The Waste Land (1922) by T.S. Eliot, in which Western civilization is symbolized by a bleak desert in desperate need of rain. The young poet E. E. Cummings used his wartime experience as the basis for a novel, The Enormous Room (1922), as did John D. Passos and William Faulkner. Ernest Hemingway, however, captured the experience of war and the sense of loss most lucidly in his first novel The Sun Also Rises (1926), which probes the experience of a group of disillusioned expatriates in Paris, and in A Farewell to Arms (1929). American writers gathered in Paris during the 1920s, partly to escape what they regarded as the small-town morality and shallowness of American culture. Among them, F. Scott Fitzgerald had the greatest success in the United States. His masterpiece, The Great Gatsby (1925) helped to create the image of the Roaring Twenties, the age of the flapper, and jazz age. The influence of European modernism reached the United States during this period, expressed a sense of modern life through art as a sharp break from the past, as well as from Western civilization’s classical traditions. In literature, Gertrude Stein developed an analogue to modern art. Using simple, concrete words as counters, she developed an abstract, experimental prose poetry which recalled the right, primary colors of modern art as in her influential collection Tender Buttons (1914). Ezra Pound was one of the most influential American poets of this century with his new school of poetry known as Imagism, which advocated a clear, highly visual presentation as seen in A Few Don’t of an Imagist (1913). The Imagist poets included William Carlos William, Amy Lowell, Robert Frost, and Wallace Stevens. Marianne Moore edited the Dial magazine and for several decades influenced American poetry with her disciplined, often unconventional verse. Hart Crane attempted an alternative to Eliot’s less vernacular modernism with his American epic, The Bridge (1930). 6 Vision and viewpoint became the essential aspect of the modernist novel as well. The way the story was told became as important as the story itself. William Faulkner assimilated the technique of the stream-of-consciousness novel from James Joyce’s Ulysses and put it to use in The Sound and The Fury (1929). The doctrine of modernism were championed in little magazines such as the Criterion, Dial, and Hound and Horn. Meanwhile, American literature began to be studied critically. To analyze such modernist novels and poetry, a school of “New Criticism” arose in the Unites States, with a new critical vocabulary. New critics hunted the “epiphany”, examined and clarified a work, hoping to “shed light” upon it through their “insights”. During this period, the American drama flowered, primarily because of Eugene O’Neill’s plays. With such brooding, symbolic, and intensely psychological works as The Emperor Jones (1920), Mourning Becomes Electra (1931), and his later, poetically autobiographical masterpiece Long Day’s Journey into Night (1956), O’Neill set a new standard for American playwrights. He was joined by a host of talented dramatists, including Maxwell Anderson, Philip Barry, Lillian Hellman, Elmer Rice, Thornton Wilder, and later by Edward Albee, Arthur Miller, and Tennessee Williams. American Prose: Realism and Experimentation (1945-1990) Narrative in the decades following World War II resisted generalization: it was extremely various and multi-faced. It was vitalized by international currents such as European existentialism and Latin American magical realism, while the electronic era brought the global village. Oral genres, media, and popular culture increasingly influenced narrative. The 1940s saw the flourishing of a new contingent of writers, including poet-novelist- essayist Robert Penn Warren, dramatists Arthur Miller, Lillian Hellman, and Tennessee Williams, and short story writers Katherine Anne Porter and Eudora Welty. All explored the fate of the individual within the family or community and focused on the balance between personal growth and responsibility to the group. The 1950s saw the delayed impact of modernization and technology in everyday life. Loneliness became the dominant theme for many writers; the faceless corporate man was a cultural stereotype in Sloan Wilson’s best-selling novel The Man In the Gray Flannel Suit (1955). Generalized American alienation came under the scrutiny of sociologist David Riesman in The Lonely Crowd (1950). The 1950s in American literature actually was a decade of subtle and pervasive unease. Novels by John O’Hara, John Cheever, and John Updike explored the stress lurking in the shadows of seeming satisfaction. Some of the best work portrait men who fall in struggle to succeed, as in Miller’s Death of a Salesman (1949) and Saul Bellow’s novella Seize the Day (1956). James Baldwin and Ralph Ellison mirrored the African-American experience of the 1950s. Their characters suffer from a lack of identity rather than from over ambition as in Baldwin’s Nobody Knows My Name (1961), Another Country (1962) and Ellison’s Invisible Man (1952). The 1960s were marked by a blurring of the line between fiction and fact, novels and reportage that has carried through the present day. Notable political and social works of the era include the speeches of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King. Novelist 7 Truman Capote stunned readers with Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1958) and In Cold Blood (1965). At the same time, the New Journalism emerged- volumes of nonfiction that combined journalism with techniques of fiction, reshaping them to add to the drama and immediacy of the story being reported. As the 1960s evolved, American literature flowed with the turbulence of the era. An ironic, comic vision also came into view, reflected in the fabulism of several writers. Examples include Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1962), Richard Brautigan’s Fishing in America (1967).By the mid-1970s, an era of consolidation has begun. The Vietnam conflict was over, followed soon afterward by U.S. recognition of the People’s Republic of China and America’s bicentennial celebration. Soon the 1980s- the “Me Decade” ensued, in which individuals tended to focus more on personal concerns than on larger social issues. New novelists like John Gardner, John Irving (The World According to Garp, 1978), Paul Theroux (The Mosquito Coast, 1981), William Kennedy (Ironweed, 1983), and Alice Walker (The Color Purple, 1982) surfaced with stylistically brilliant novels to portrait moving human drama. Contemporary American Literature (1990-present) American literature today is likewise dazzlingly diverse, exciting, and evolving. Social and economic advances have enabled previous underrepresented groups to express themselves more fully, while technological innovations have created a fast- moving public forum. Books by non-American authors and books on international and religious themes were in the list of best-sellers. Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of An Geisha (1997) (made into a movie) recounts a Japanese woman’s life during World War II. Dan Brown’s novel The Da Vinci Code (2003), Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner (2003) and Anne Rice’s Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt (2005) became popular with million copies. A pervasive regionalist sensibility has gained strength in American literature in the early 21st century. Decentralization expresses the postmodern U.S. condition, a trend most evident in fiction writing; no longer does anyone viewpoint or code successfully express the nation. Fiction writers from the Northeast examine countercultural and social diversity like in Sue Miller’s The Good Mother (1986). Another writer from Massachusetts, Anita Diamant, earns popular acclaim with The Red Tent (1997), a feminist historical novel based on the biblical story of Dinah. Don Delillo from New York City, began as an advertising writer, and his novel White Noise (1985) explores consumerism among many themes. Mid-Atlantic domestic realists include Richard Bausch from Baltimore, author of In The Night Season (1998), and the stories in Someone to Watch Over Me (1999). African Americans have made distinctive contributions. Feminist essayist and poet Audre Lorde’s autobiographical Zami: A New Spelling of My Name (1982) is an early account of a black woman’s experience in the United States. It is clear that American literature at the turn of the 21st century has become democratic and heterogeneous. Regionalism has flowered, and international, or global writers refract U.S. culture through foreign perspectives. Creative non-fiction and memoir have flourished. Noteworthy memoirs include The Stolen Light (1989) by Indian-American Ved Mehta, Angela Ashes (1996) by Irish American Frank McCourt. Southeast Asian-American authors, especially those from Korea and the 8 Phillipines, have found strong voices in the last decade. Chang-rae Lee’s remarkable novel Native Speakers (1995) interweaves public ideas, betray, and private despair. Bienvenido Santos’s Scent of Apples (1979), and Jessica Hagedorn’s The Gangster of Love (1996) are responding to the poignant autobiographical novel of Filipino- American migrant laborer Carlos Bulosan’s America Is in the Heart (1946). Noted Vietnamese-American film-maker and social theorist Trinh Minh Ha combines story- telling and theory in her feminist work Woman, Native, Other (1989). From China, Ha Jin has authored the novel Waiting (1999) which strikes American readers as fresh and original. Meanwhile, the new genre called short story or “flash fiction” has taken root that helps to “reduce geographies”, mirror postmodernism conditions in which borders seem closer together. A new generation of playwrights continues the American tradition of exploring current social issues on stage. The ferment of American poetry since 1990 makes the field decentralized and hard to define. Poets themselves struggled to make sense of the flood of poetry. It is possible to envision a continuum with “the poetry of the speaking self” set up by Robert Lowell, focused on vivid expression and exploration of deep, often buried, emotion. “The poetry of the world”, on the other side, tends to build up meaning from narrative drive, detail, and context. The most influential poet was Elizabeth Bishop who was considered the finest American woman poet of later 20th century. After all, American literature has traversed an extended, winding path from pre- colonial days to contemporary times. Society, history, technology all have had a telling impact on it. Ultimately, though, there is a constant- humanity, with all its radiance and its malevolence, its tradition and its promise. 9 10 Story: RIP VAN WINKLE (1819) Author: Washington Irving Literary Lesson: Plot Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American short story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. Washington was born on April 3, 1783, the same week that New York City residents learned of the British ceasefire which ended the American Revolution, and Irving's mother named him after George Washington. Several of Irving's brothers encouraged his literary aspirations, often supporting him financially as he pursued his writing career. Irving began writing letters to the New York Morning Chronicle in 1802 when he was 19, submitting commentaries on the city's social and theater scene under the pseudonym Jonathan Oldstyle. He made several other trips up the Hudson as a teenager, including an extended visit to Johnstown, New York where he passed through the Catskill Mountains region, the setting for Rip Van Winkle. Of all the scenery of the Hudson", Irving wrote, "the Kaatskill Mountains had the most witching effect on my boyish imagination". Irving then published A History of New York on December 6, 1809 under the Knickerbocker pseudonym, with immediate critical and popular success. He moved to England for the family business in 1815 where he achieved fame with the publication of The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., serialized from 1819–1820, in which six chapters deal with American subjects. Of these, the tales The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle have been called the first American short stories. He continued to publish regularly throughout his life, and he completed a five-volume biography of George Washington just eight months before his death at age 76 in Tarrytown, New York. Irving perfected the American short story and was the first American writer to set his stories firmly in the United States, even as he poached from German or Dutch folklore. He is also generally credited as one of the first to write in the vernacular and without an obligation to presenting morals or being didactic in his short stories, writing stories simply to entertain rather than to enlighten. As with most of Irving's work, Rip Van Winkle includes a lot of imagery, humor, and satire. Irving is largely credited as the first American Man of Letters and the first to earn his living solely by his pen. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow acknowledged Irving's role in promoting American literature in December 1859. Irving was one of the first American writers to earn acclaim in Europe. He advocated for writing as a legitimate profession and argued for stronger laws to protect American writers from copyright infringement. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Irving) 11  A. BEFORE READING I. Think before you read 1. What is legend? Name some popular legends in the Early Literature of your country. 2. Have you ever had a dream in which you are living in a strange society? Imagine how you would cope with strange people and circumstance. RIP VAN WINKLE Whoever has made a voyage up the Hudson must remember the Kaatskill mountains. They are a dismembered branch of the great Appalachian family, and are seen away to the west of the river, swelling up to a noble height, and lording it over the surrounding country. Every change of season, every change of weather, indeed, every 5 hour of the day produces some change in the magical hues and shapes of these mountains; and they are regarded by all the good wives, far and near, as perfect barometers. When the weather is fair and settled, they are clothed in blue and purple, and print their bold outlines on the clear evening sky; but sometimes, when the rest of the landscape is cloudless, they will gather a hood of gray vapors about their 10 summits, which, in the last rays of the setting sun, will glow and light up like a crown of glory. At the foot of these fairy mountains, the voyager may have descried the light smoke curling up from a Village, whose shingle roofs gleam among the trees, just where the blue tints of the upland melt away into the fresh green of the nearer landscape. It is a 15 little village of great antiquity, having been founded by some of the Dutch colonists, in the early times of the province, just about the beginning of the government of the good Peter Stuyvesant (may he rest in peace!), and there were some of the houses of the original settlers standing within a few years, built of small yellow bricks, brought from Holland, having latticed windows and gable fronts, surmounted with 20 weathercocks. In that same village, and in one of these very houses (which, to tell the precise truth, was sadly time–worn and weather–beaten), there lived, many years since, while the country was yet a province of Great Britain, a simple, good–natured fellow, of the name of Rip Van Winkle. He was a descendant of the Van Winkles who figured so 25 gallantly in the chivalrous days of Peter Stuyvesant, and accompanied him to the siege of Fort Christina. He inherited, however, but little of the martial character of his ancestors. I have observed that he was a simple, good–natured man; he was, moreover, a kind neighbor, and an obedient henpecked husband. Indeed, to the latter circumstance might be owing that meekness of spirit which gained him such universal 30 popularity; for those men are apt to be obsequious and conciliating abroad, who are under the discipline of shrews at home. Their tempers, doubtless, are rendered pliant and malleable in the fiery furnace of domestic tribulation, and a curtain–lecture is worth all the sermons in the world for teaching the virtues of patience and long– 12  suffering. A termagant wife may, therefore, in some respects, be considered a 35 tolerable blessing, and if so, Rip Van Winkle was thrice blessed. Certain it is, that he was a great favorite among all the good wives of the village, who, as usual with the amiable sex, took his part in all family squabbles, and never failed, whenever they talked those matters over in their evening gossipings, to lay all the blame on Dame Van Winkle. The children of the village, too, would shout with joy 40 whenever he approached. He assisted at their sports, made their playthings, taught them to fly kites and shoot marbles, and told them long stories of ghosts, witches, and Indians. Whenever he went dodging about the village, he was surrounded by a troop of them hanging on his skirts, clambering on his back, and playing a thousand tricks on him with impunity; and not a dog would bark at him throughout the neighborhood. 45 The great error in Rip's composition was an insuperable aversion to all kinds of profitable labor. It could not be for want of assiduity or perseverance; for he would sit on a wet rock, with a rod as long and heavy as a Tartar's lance, and fish all day without a murmur, even though he should not be encouraged by a single nibble. He would carry a fowling–piece on his shoulder, for hours together, trudging through 50 woods and swamps, and up hill and down dale, to shoot a few squirrels or wild pigeons. He would never refuse to assist a neighbor even in the roughest toil, and was a foremost man in all country frolics for husking Indian corn, or building stone fences; the women of the village, too, used to employ him to run their errands, and to do such little odd jobs as their less obliging husbands would not do for them. In a word, Rip 55 was ready to attend to anybody's business but his own; but as to doing family duty, and keeping his farm in order, he found it impossible. In fact, he declared it was of no use to work on his farm; it was the most pestilent little piece of ground in the whole country; everything about it went wrong, in spite of him. His fences were continually falling to pieces; his cow would either go astray, 60 or get among the cabbages; weeds were sure to grow quicker in his fields than anywhere else; the rain always made a point of setting in just as he had some out– door work to do; so that though his patrimonial estate had dwindled away under his management, acre by acre, until there was little more left than a mere patch of Indian corn and potatoes, yet it was the worst–conditioned farm in the neighborhood. 65 His children, too, were as ragged and wild as if they belonged to nobody. His son Rip, an urchin begotten in his own likeness, promised to inherit the habits, with the old clothes, of his father. He was generally seen trooping like a colt at his mother's heels, equipped in a pair of his father's cast–off galligaskins, which he had much ado to hold up with one hand, as a fine lady does her train in bad weather. 70 Rip Van Winkle, however, was one of those happy mortals, of foolish, well–oiled dispositions, who take the world easy, eat white bread or brown, whichever can be got with least thought or trouble, and would rather starve on a penny than work for a pound. If left to himself, he would have whistled life away, in perfect contentment; but his wife kept continually dinning in his ears about his idleness, his carelessness, 75 and the ruin he was bringing on his family. Morning, noon, and night, her tongue was incessantly going, and everything he said or did was sure to produce a torrent of household eloquence. Rip had but one way of replying to all lectures of the kind, and 13  that, by frequent use, had grown into a habit. He shrugged his shoulders, shook his head, cast up his eyes, but said nothing. This, however, always provoked a fresh 80 volley from his wife, so that he was fain to draw off his forces, and take to the outside of the house—the only side which, in truth, belongs to a henpecked husband. Rip's sole domestic adherent was his dog Wolf, who was as much henpecked as his master; for Dame Van Winkle regarded them as companions in idleness, and even looked upon Wolf with an evil eye, as the cause of his master's going so often astray. 85 True it is, in all points of spirit befitting in honorable dog, he was as courageous an animal as ever scoured the woods—but what courage can withstand the evil–doing and all–besetting terrors of a woman's tongue? The moment Wolf entered the house, his crest fell, his tail drooped to the ground, or curled between his legs, he sneaked about with a gallows air, casting many a sidelong glance at Dame Van Winkle, and 90 at the least flourish of a broomstick or ladle, he would fly to the door with yelping precipitation. Times grew worse and worse with Rip Van Winkle as years of matrimony rolled on; a tart temper never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows keener with constant use. For a long while he used to console himself, when 95 driven from home, by frequenting a kind of perpetual club of the sages, philosophers, and other idle personages of the village, which held its sessions on a bench before a small inn, designated by a rubicund portrait of his Majesty George the Third. Here they used to sit in the shade through a long, lazy summer's day, talking listlessly over village gossip, or telling endless, sleepy stories about nothing. But it would have been 100 worth any statesman's money to have heard the profound discussions which sometimes took place, when by chance an old newspaper fell into their hands from some passing traveller. How solemnly they would listen to the contents, as drawled out by Derrick Van Bummel, the school–master, a dapper learned little man, who was not to be daunted by the most gigantic word in the dictionary; and how sagely they 105 would deliberate upon public events some months after they had taken place. The opinions of this junto were completely controlled by Nicholas Vedder, a patriarch of the village, and landlord of the inn, at the door of which he took his seat from morning till night, just moving sufficiently to avoid the sun, and keep in the shade of a large tree; so that the neighbors could tell the hour by his movements as accurately 110 as by a sun–dial. It is true, he was rarely heard to speak, but smoked his pipe incessantly. His adherents, however (for every great man has his adherents), perfectly understood him, and knew how to gather his opinions. When anything that was read or related displeased him, he was observed to smoke his pipe vehemently, and to send forth, frequent, and angry puffs; but when pleased, he would inhale the smoke slowly 115 and tranquilly, and emit it in light and placid clouds, and sometimes, taking the pipe from his mouth, and letting the fragrant vapor curl about his nose, would gravely nod his head in token of perfect approbation. From even this stronghold the unlucky Rip was at length routed by his termagant wife, who would suddenly break in upon the tranquillity of the assemblage, and call 120 the members all to nought; nor was that august personage, Nicholas Vedder himself, sacred from the daring tongue of this terrible virago, who charged him outright with encouraging her husband in habits of idleness. 14  Poor Rip was at last reduced almost to despair; and his only alternative, to escape from the labor of the farm and the clamor of his wife, was to take gun in hand, and 125 stroll away into the woods. Here he would sometimes seat himself at the foot of a tree, and share the contents of his wallet with Wolf, with whom he sympathized as a fellow–sufferer in persecution. "Poor Wolf," he would say, "thy mistress leads thee a dog's life of it; but never mind, my lad, whilst I live thou shalt never want a friend to stand by thee!" Wolf would wag his tail, look wistfully in his master's face, and if 130 dogs can feel pity, I verily believe he reciprocated the sentiment with all his heart. In a long ramble of the kind, on a fine autumnal day, Rip had unconsciously scrambled to one of the highest parts of the Kaatskill mountains. He was after his favorite sport of squirrel–shooting, and the still solitudes had echoed and re–echoed with the reports of his gun. Panting and fatigued, he threw himself, late in the 135 afternoon, on a green knoll, covered with mountain herbage, that crowned the brow of a precipice. From an opening between the trees, he could overlook all the lower country for many a mile of rich woodland. He saw at a distance the lordly Hudson, far, far below him, moving on its silent but majestic course, with the reflection of a purple cloud, or the sail of a lagging bark, here and there sleeping on its glassy bosom 140 and at last losing itself in the blue highlands. On the other side he looked down into a deep mountain glen, wild, lonely, and shagged, the bottom filled with fragments from the impending cliffs, and scarcely lighted by the reflected rays of the setting sun. For some time Rip lay musing on this scene; evening was gradually advancing; the mountains began to throw their long 145 blue shadows over the valleys; he saw that it would be dark long before he could reach the village; and he heaved a heavy sigh when he thought of encountering the terrors of Dame Van Winkle. As he was about to descend, he heard a voice from a distance hallooing: "Rip Van Winkle! Rip Van Winkle!" He looked around, but could see nothing but a crow 150 winging its solitary flight across the mountain. He thought his fancy must have deceived him, and turned again to descend, when he heard the same cry ring through the still evening air, "Rip Van Winkle! Rip Van Winkle!"—at the same time Wolf bristled up his back, and giving a low growl, skulked to his master's side, looking fearfully down into the glen. Rip now felt a vague apprehension stealing over him; 155 he looked anxiously in the same direction, and perceived a strange figure slowly toiling up the rocks, and bending under the weight of something he carried on his back. He was surprised to see any human being in this lonely and unfrequented place, but supposing it to be some one of the neighborhood in need of his assistance, he hastened down to yield it. 160 On nearer approach, he was still more surprised at the singularity of the stranger's appearance. He was a short, square–built old fellow, with thick bushy hair, and a grizzled beard. His dress was of the antique Dutch fashion—a cloth jerkin strapped round the waist—several pairs of breeches, the outer one of ample volume, decorated with rows of buttons down the sides, and bunches at the knees. He bore on his 165 shoulders a stout keg, that seemed full of liquor, and made signs for Rip to approach and assist him with the load. Though rather shy and distrustful of this new acquaintance, Rip complied with his usual alacrity; and mutually relieving each other, 15  they clambered up a narrow gully, apparently the dry bed of a mountain torrent. As they ascended, Rip every now and then heard long rolling peals, like distant thunder, 170 that seemed to issue out of a deep ravine, or rather cleft between lofty rocks, toward which their rugged path conducted. He paused for an instant, but supposing it to be the muttering of one of those transient thunder–showers which often take place in the mountain heights, he proceeded. Passing through the ravine, they came to a hollow, like a small amphitheatre, surrounded by perpendicular precipices, over the brinks of 175 which impending trees shot their branches, so that you only caught glimpses of the azure sky, and the bright evening cloud. During the whole time Rip and his companion had labored on in silence; for though the former marvelled greatly what could be the object of carrying a keg of liquor up this wild mountain, yet there was something strange and incomprehensible about the unknown, that inspired awe, and 180 checked familiarity. On entering the amphitheatre, new objects of wonder presented themselves. On a level spot in the centre was a company of odd–looking personages playing at ninepins. They were dressed in quaint outlandish fashion; some wore short doublets, others jerkins, with long knives in their belts, and most of them had enormous 185 breeches, of similar style with that of the guide's. Their visages, too, were peculiar; one had a large head, broad face, and small piggish eyes; the face of another seemed to consist entirely of nose, and was surmounted by a white sugar–loaf hat, set off with a little red cock's tail. They all had beards, of various shapes and colors. There was one who seemed to be the commander. He was a stout old gentleman, with a weather– 190 beaten countenance; he wore a laced doublet, broad belt and hanger, high–crowned hat and feather, red stockings, and high–heeled shoes, with roses in them. The whole group reminded Rip of the figures in an old Flemish painting, in the parlor of Dominie Van Schaick, the village parson, and which had been brought over from Holland at the time of the settlement. 195 What seemed particularly odd to Rip was, that though these folks were evidently amusing themselves, yet they maintained the gravest faces, the most mysterious silence, and were, withal, the most melancholy party of pleasure he had ever witnessed. Nothing interrupted the stillness of the scene but the noise of the balls, which, whenever they were rolled, echoed along the mountains like rumbling peals 200 of thunder. As Rip and his companion approached them, they suddenly desisted from their play, and stared at him with such a fixed statue–like gaze, and such strange uncouth, lack– lustre countenances, that his heart turned within him, and his knees smote together. His companion now emptied the contents of the keg into large flagons, and made 205 signs to him to wait upon the company. He obeyed with fear and trembling; they quaffed the liquor in profound silence, and then returned to their game. By degrees, Rip's awe and apprehension subsided. He even ventured, when no eye was fixed upon him, to taste the beverage which he found had much of the flavor of excellent Hollands. He was naturally a thirsty soul, and was soon tempted to repeat 210 the draught. One taste provoked another; and he reiterated his visits to the flagon so often, that at length his senses were overpowered, his eyes swam in his head, his head gradually declined, and he fell into a deep sleep. 16  On waking, he found himself on the green knoll whence he had first seen the old man of the glen. He rubbed his eyes—it was a bright sunny morning. The birds were 215 hopping and twittering among the bushes, and the eagle was wheeling aloft, and breasting the pure mountain breeze. "Surely," thought Rip, "I have not slept here all night." He recalled the occurrences before he fell asleep. The strange man with the keg of liquor—the mountain ravine—the wild retreat among the rocks—the woe–be gone party at ninepins—the flagon—"Oh! that flagon! that wicked flagon!" thought 220 Rip—"what excuse shall I make to Dame Van Winkle?" He looked round for his gun, but in place of the clean well–oiled fowling–piece, he found an old firelock lying by him, the barrel encrusted with rust, the lock falling off, and the stock worm–eaten. He now suspected that the grave roisterers of the mountains had put a trick upon him, and, having dosed him with liquor, had robbed 225 him of his gun. Wolf, too, had disappeared, but he might have strayed away after a squirrel or partridge. He whistled after him and shouted his name, but all in vain; the echoes repeated his whistle and shout, but no dog was to be seen. He determined to revisit the scene of the last evening's gambol, and if he met with any of the party, to demand his dog and gun. As he rose to walk, he found himself 230 stiff in the joints, and wanting in his usual activity. "These mountain beds do not agree with me," thought Rip, "and if this frolic, should lay me up with a fit of the rheumatism, I shall have a blessed time with Dame Van Winkle." With some difficulty he got down into the glen: he found the gully up which he and his companion had ascended the preceding evening; but to his astonishment a mountain 235 stream was now foaming down it, leaping from rock to rock, and filling the glen with babbling murmurs. He, however, made shift to scramble up its sides, working his toilsome way through thickets of birch, sassafras, and witch–hazel; and sometimes tripped up or entangled by the wild grape vines that twisted their coils and tendrils from tree to tree, and spread a kind of network in his path. 240 At length he reached to where the ravine had opened through the cliffs to the amphitheatre; but no traces of such opening remained. The rocks presented a high impenetrable wall, over which the torrent came tumbling in a sheet of feathery foam, and fell into a broad deep basin, black from the shadows of the surrounding forest. Here, then, poor Rip was brought to a stand. He again called and whistled after his 245 dog; he was only answered by the cawing of a flock of idle crows, sporting high in the air about a dry tree that overhung a sunny precipice; and who, secure in their elevation, seemed to look down and scoff at the poor man's perplexities. What was to be done? The morning was passing away, and Rip felt famished for want of his breakfast. He grieved to give up his dog and gun; he dreaded to meet his wife; but it 250 would not do to starve among the mountains. He shook his head, shouldered the rusty firelock, and, with a heart full of trouble and anxiety, turned his steps homeward. As he approached the village, he met a number of people, but none whom he knew, which somewhat surprised him, for he had thought himself acquainted with everyone in the country round. Their dress, too, was of a different fashion from that to which 255 he was accustomed. They all stared at him with equal marks of surprise, and whenever they cast eyes upon him, invariably stroked their chins. The constant recurrence of 17  this gesture, induced Rip, involuntarily, to do, the same, when, to his astonishment, he found his beard had grown a foot long! He had now entered the skirts of the village. A troop of strange children ran at his 260 heels, hooting after him, and pointing at his gray beard. The dogs, too, not one of which he recognized for an old acquaintance, barked at him as he passed. The very village was altered: it was larger and more populous. There were rows of houses which he had never seen before, and those which had been his familiar haunts had disappeared. Strange names were over the doors—strange faces at the windows— 265 everything was strange. His mind now misgave him; he began to doubt whether both he and the world around him were not bewitched. Surely this was his native village, which he had left but a day before. There stood the Kaatskill mountains—there ran the silver Hudson at a distance—there was every hill and dale precisely as it had always been—Rip was sorely perplexed—"That flagon last night," thought he, "has 270 addled my poor head sadly!" It was with some difficulty that he found the way to his own house, which he approached with silent awe, expecting every moment to hear the shrill voice of Dame Van Winkle. He found the house gone to decay—the roof had fallen in, the windows shattered, and the doors off the hinges. A half–starved dog, that looked like Wolf, 275 was skulking about it. Rip called him by name, but the cur snarled, showed his teeth, and passed on. This was an unkind cut indeed.—"My very dog," sighed poor Rip, "has forgotten me!" He entered the house, which, to tell the truth, Dame Van Winkle had always kept in neat order. It was empty, forlorn, and apparently abandoned. This desolateness 280 overcame all his connubial fears—he called loudly for his wife and children—the lonely chambers rang for a moment with his voice, and then all again was silence. He now hurried forth, and hastened to his old resort, the village inn—but it too was gone. A large rickety wooden building stood in its place, with great gaping windows, some of them broken, and mended with old hats and petticoats, and over the door was 285 painted, "The Union Hotel, by Jonathan Doolittle." Instead of the great tree that used to shelter the quiet little Dutch inn of yore, there now was reared a tall naked pole, with something on the top that looked like a red nightcap, and from it was fluttering a flag, on which was a singular assemblage of stars and stripes—all this was strange and incomprehensible. He recognized on the sign, however, the ruby face of King 290 George, under which he had smoked so many a peaceful pipe, but even this was singularly metamorphosed. The red coat was changed for one of blue and buff, a sword was held in the hand instead of a sceptre, the head was decorated with a cocked hat, and underneath was painted in large characters, "GENERAL WASHINGTON." There was, as usual, a crowd of folk about the door, but none that Rip recollected. 295 The very character of the people seemed changed. There was a busy, bustling, disputatious tone about it, instead of the accustomed phlegm and drowsy tranquillity. He looked in vain for the sage Nicholas Vedder, with his broad face, double chin, and fair long pipe, uttering clouds of tobacco–smoke, instead of idle speeches; or Van Bummel, the schoolmaster, doling forth the contents of an ancient newspaper. In 300 place of these, a lean, bilious–looking fellow, with his pockets full of handbills, was 18  haranguing, vehemently about rights of citizens–elections—members of Congress— liberty—Bunker's hill—heroes of seventy–six–and other words, which were a perfect Babylonish jargon to the bewildered Van Winkle. The appearance of Rip, with his long, grizzled beard, his rusty fowling–piece, his 305 uncouth dress, and the army of women and children at his heels, soon attracted the attention of the tavern politicians. They crowded round him, eying him from head to foot, with great curiosity. The orator bustled up to him, and, drawing him partly aside, inquired, "on which side he voted?" Rip stared in vacant stupidity. Another short but busy little fellow pulled him by the arm, and rising on tiptoe, inquired in his ear, 310 "whether he was Federal or Democrat." Rip was equally at a loss to comprehend the question; when a knowing, self–important old gentleman, in a sharp cocked hat, made his way through the crowd, putting them to the right and left with his elbows as he passed, and planting himself before Van Winkle, with one arm akimbo, the other resting on his cane, his keen eyes and sharp hat penetrating, as it were, into his very 315 soul, demanded in an austere tone, "What brought him to the election with a gun on his shoulder, and a mob at his heels; and whether he meant to breed a riot in the village?" "Alas! gentlemen," cried Rip, somewhat dismayed, "I am a poor, quiet man, a native of the place, and a loyal subject of the King, God bless him! 320 Here a general shout burst from the bystanders–"a tory! a tory! a spy! a refugee! hustle him! away with him!" It was with great difficulty that the self–important man in the cocked hat restored order; and having assumed a tenfold austerity of brow, demanded again of the unknown culprit, what he came there for, and whom he was seeking. The poor man humbly assured him that he meant no harm, but merely came there in search 325 of some of his neighbors, who used to keep about the tavern. "Well—who are they?—name them." Rip bethought himself a moment, and inquired, Where's Nicholas Vedder? There was a silence for a little while, when an old man replied, in a thin, piping voice, "Nicholas Vedder? why, he is dead and gone these eighteen years! There was a 330 wooden tombstone in the churchyard that used to tell all about him, but that's rotten and gone too." "Where's Brom Dutcher?" "Oh, he went off to the army in the beginning of the war; some say he was killed at the storming of Stony–Point—others say he was drowned in a squall at the foot of 335 Antony's Nose. I don't know —he never came back again." "Where's Van Bummel, the schoolmaster?" "He went off to the wars, too; was a great militia general, and is now in Congress." Rip's heart died away, at hearing of these sad changes in his home and friends, and finding himself thus alone in the world. Every answer puzzled him too, by treating of 340 such enormous lapses of time, and of matters which he could not understand: war— Congress–Stony–Point;—he had no courage to ask after any more friends, but cried out in despair, "Does nobody here know Rip Van Winkle?" 19  "Oh, Rip Van Winkle!" exclaimed two or three. "Oh, to be sure! that's Rip Van Winkle yonder, leaning against the tree." 345 Rip looked, and beheld a precise counterpart of himself as he went up the mountain; apparently as lazy, and certainly as ragged. The poor fellow was now completely confounded. He doubted his own identity, and whether he was himself or another man. In the midst of his bewilderment, the man in the cocked hat demanded who he was, and what was his name? 350 "God knows!" exclaimed he at his wit's end; "I'm not myself—I'm somebody else— that's me yonder–no—that's somebody else, got into my shoes—I was myself last night, but I fell asleep on the mountain, and they've changed my gun, and everything's changed, and I'm changed, and I can't tell what's my name, or who I am!" The by–standers began now to look at each other, nod, wink significantly, and tap 355 their fingers against their foreheads. There was a whisper, also, about securing the gun, and keeping the old fellow from doing mischief; at the very suggestion of which, the self–important man with the cocked hat retired with some precipitation. At this critical moment a fresh, comely woman pressed through the throng to get a peep at the gray–bearded man. She had a chubby child in her arms, which, frightened at his 360 looks, began to cry. "Hush, Rip," cried she, "hush, you little fool; the old man won't hurt you." The name of the child, the air of the mother, the tone of her voice, all awakened a train of recollections in his mind. "What is your name, my good woman?" asked he. "Judith Cardenier." 365 "And your father's name?" "Ah, poor man, Rip Van Winkle was his name, but it's twenty years since he went away from home with his gun, and never has been heard of since,—his dog came home without him; but whether he shot himself, or was carried away by the Indians, nobody can tell. I was then but a little girl." 370 Rip had but one more question to ask; but he put it with a faltering voice: "Where's your mother?" Oh, she too had died but a short time since; she broke a blood–vessel in a fit of passion at a New–England pedler. There was a drop of comfort, at least, in this intelligence. The honest man could 375 contain himself no longer. He caught his daughter and her child in his arms. "I am your father!" cried he–"Young Rip Van Winkle once–old Rip Van Winkle now— Does nobody know poor Rip Van Winkle!" All stood amazed, until an old woman, tottering out from among the crowd, put her hand to her brow, and peering under it in his face for a moment exclaimed, "sure 380 enough! it is Rip Van Winkle—it is himself. Welcome home again, old neighbor. Why, where have you been these twenty long years?" Rip's story was soon told, for the whole twenty years had been to him but as one night. The neighbors stared when they heard it; some were seen to wink at each other, 20  and put their tongues in their cheeks; and the self–important man in the cocked hat, 385 who, when the alarm was over, had returned to the field, screwed down the corners of his mouth, and shook his head—upon which there was a general shaking of the head throughout the assemblage. It was determined, however, to take the opinion of old Peter Vanderdonk, who was seen slowly advancing up the road. He was a descendant of the historian of that name, 390 who wrote one of the earliest accounts of the province. Peter was the most ancient inhabitant of the village, and well versed in all the wonderful events and traditions of the neighborhood. He recollected Rip at once, and corroborated his story in the most satisfactory manner. He assured the company that it was a fact, handed down from his ancestor, the historian, that the Kaatskill mountains had always been haunted by 395 strange beings. That it was affirmed that the great Hendrick Hudson, the first discoverer of the river and country, kept a kind of vigil there every twenty years, with his crew of the Half–moon; being permitted in this way to revisit the scenes of his enterprise, and keep a guardian eye upon the river and the great city called by his name. That his father had once seen them in their old Dutch dresses playing at 400 ninepins in the hollow of the mountain; and that he himself had heard, one summer afternoon, the sound of their balls, like distant peals of thunder. To make a long story short, the company broke up, and returned to the more important concerns of the election. Rip's daughter took him home to live with her; she had a snug, well–furnished house, and a stout cheery farmer for a husband, whom Rip 405 recollected for one of the urchins that used to climb upon his back. As to Rip's son and heir, who was the ditto of himself, seen leaning against the tree, he was employed to work on the farm; but evinced an hereditary disposition to attend to any thing else but his business. Rip now resumed his old walks and habits; he soon found many of his former cronies, 410 though all rather the worse for the wear and tear of time; and preferred making friends among the rising generation, with whom he soon grew into great favor. Having nothing to do at home, and being arrived at that happy age when a man can be idle with impunity, he took his place once more on the bench, at the inn door, and was reverenced as one of the patriarchs of the village, and a chronicle of the old times 415 "before the war." It was some time before he could get into the regular track of gossip, or could be made to comprehend the strange events that had taken place during his torpor. How that there had been a revolutionary war—that the country had thrown off the yoke of old England—and that, instead of being a subject to his Majesty George the Third, he was now a free citizen of the United States. Rip, in fact, was no 420 politician; the changes of states and empires made but little impression on him; but there was one species of despotism under which he had long groaned, and that was— petticoat government. Happily, that was at an end; he had got his neck out of the yoke of matrimony, and could go in and out whenever he pleased, without dreading the tyranny of Dame Van Winkle. Whenever her name was mentioned, however, he 425 shook his head, shrugged his shoulders, and cast up his eyes; which might pass either for an expression of resignation to his fate, or joy at his deliverance. 21  He used to tell his story to every stranger that arrived at Mr. Doolittle's hotel. He was observed, at first, to vary on some points every time he told it, which was, doubtless, owing to his having so recently awaked. It at last settled down precisely to the tale I 430 have related, and not a man, woman, or child in the neighborhood, but knew it by heart. Some always pretended to doubt the reality of it, and insisted that Rip had been out of his head, and that this was one point on which he always remained flighty. The old Dutch inhabitants, however, almost universally gave it full credit. Even to this day, they never hear a thunder–storm of a summer afternoon about the Kaatskill, but 435 they say Hendrick Hudson and his crew are at their game of ninepins; and it is a common wish of all henpecked husbands in the neighborhood, when life hangs heavy on their hands, that they might have a quieting draught out of Rip Van Winkle's flagon. 22 B. AFTER READING I. Literary Lesson: Plot 1. Plot Development The plot is the arrangement of a well-ordered series of connected events in a story. A classic plot is as follows: the beginning of a story, the exposition, introduces the round characters, the setting, and the situations. The exposition tells you the time, the place, and the initial action of the story. The writer then begins to develop the main conflicts or the narrative hook that leads to the rising action of the plot. The conflicts intensify as one action leads to another, until the story reaches a point of highest tension and greatest interest called the climax. The falling action relates the events that are the result of the climax. Then the resolution ends the falling action by telling or implying the final outcome. 3. Climax Narrative hook 1. Exposition 5. Resolution Exercise 1: Plot summary: arrange the following events to represent the plot of the story Rip Van Winkle by identifying 5 stages including: exposition, narrative hook (at what point in the story does Rip get involved in his problems), rising action, climax (what action signals a turning point in the story), falling action, and resolution. 1. Rip got to know that his wife had died in her anger. 2. Rip met a strange little man who carried a barrel of liquor in the mountain. 3. Getting up the next morning, Rip found his dog disappear. 4. In his curiosity, Rip drank the liquor and then fell into sleep. 5. Rip found his way to the village and saw everything completely changed. 6. Rip saw a group of other strange men who were playing a Dutch game. 7. Rip recognized his daughter and his grandchild. 8. Rip was a kind and simple man who lived in a small and old village. 9. Rip soon took up his old habit and became famous with his strange story. 10. Rip went hunting with his dog after he had a quarrel with his wife. 23  2. External conflict The action at the core of a good plot usually centers on a conflict, a struggle between two opposite forces. Conflict can be external or internal. An external conflict exists when a person struggles against some outside forces, such as another person, nature, situation, society. Exercise 2: -What is the person-against-person conflict in Rip Van Winkle? What is at stake? What is the outcome? - Identify the person-against-situation conflict in the story. 3. Internal conflict A conflict of a person against himself or herself, taking place within a character is called internal conflict. Internal conflict is more subtle and complex than external conflict. In an internal conflict, a character may struggle to reach a decision, to make a moral choice, or to attain a personal goal. Exercise 3: Name two internal conflicts that occur within Rip when he returned to the village. II. Characterization: 1. What kind of person is Rip? Which of his characteristics are positive? Which ones are negative? 2. What is his wife’s personality? 3. Which social pattern is revealed through the relationship between Rip and his wife? III. Significance of changes The rising action in the story is made up of a series of changes to the village, the villagers, and their lives after Rip came back home. Each change in the village typifies a great change in the American society after the American Revolution (1765- 1783). Find out the significance in each of the following changes. (The first change has been signified as a sample) Changes in the village Changes in the United States The village was larger with more → The American territory expanded houses. from 13 earlier states to 50 states. There were more people in the village. → The Union Hotel replaced the village → inn. There was a flag with stars and stripes. → The villagers talked about politics. → Mrs. Van Dam Winkle died. → 24 IV. Insight discussion 1. Why did the Hudson River and the Catskill Mountains remain unchanged despite the flow of time? 2. What did Rip lose and gain after the revolution? 3. How did Rip adapt himself to the new society? 4. What is the American value reflected in the way Rip adapted himself to the new society? V. Journal writing Write the end of the story Rip Van Winkle in your own imagination, describing how Rip kept living in a new village with the unknown villagers and social changes. 25 Poem: THE TIDE RISES, THE TIDE FALLS (1879) Author: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Literary Lesson: Tone and Mood Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was born in Portland, Maine, then part of Massachusetts, and studied at Bowdoin College. After spending time in Europe he became a professor at Bowdoin and, later, at Harvard College. His first major poetry collections were Voices of the Night (1839) and Ballads and Other Poems (1841). Longfellow retired from teaching in 1854 to focus on his writing, living the remainder of his life in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in a former headquarters of George Washington. His first wife, Mary Potter, died in 1835 after a miscarriage. His second wife, Frances Appleton, died in 1861 after sustaining burns from her dress catching fire. After her death, Longfellow had difficulty writing poetry for a time and focused on his translation. He died in 1882. Longfellow predominantly wrote lyric poems which are known for their musicality and which often presented stories of mythology and legend. He became the most popular American poet of his day and also had success overseas. He has been criticized, however, for imitating European styles and writing specifically for the masses. Much of Longfellow's work is categorized as lyric poetry, but he experimented with many forms, including hexameter and free verse. His published poetry shows great versatility, using anapestic and trochaic forms, blank verse, heroic couplets, ballads, and sonnets. Typically, he would carefully consider the subject of his poetic ideas for a long time before deciding on the right metrical form for it. Much of his work is recognized for its melodious musicality. As he says, "what a writer asks of his reader is not so much to like as to listen". Some of his famous works include Poems on Slavery (1842), Evangeline (epic poem-1847), The Song of Hiawatha (epic poem- 1855). The poem The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls (1879) has been the most popular lyric poem. He was also the first American to translate Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy and was one of the five Fireside Poets. Longfellow had become one of the first American celebrities and was also popular in Europe. It was reported that 10,000 copies of the Courtship of Miles Standish sold in London in a single day. In 1884, Longfellow became the first non-British writer for whom a commemorative bust was placed in Poet’s Corner of Westminster Abbey in London. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Wadsworth_Longfellow) 26 A. BEFORE READING I. Think before you read 1. The poem begins with the tide rising and falling continuously. Can you describe some phenomena in nature following their cycles over and over again? 2. Are our lives like these endlessly repeated cycles of the natural world, or is a human life different? II. Video watching Watch the video on the poem (audiovisual by Anders Smedberg -2016) (Source: https://vimeo.com/170265957) 27  The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls The tide rises, the tide falls. The twilight darkens, the curlew calls; Along the sea sands damp and brown The traveler hastens toward the town, And the tide rises, the tide falls. Darkness settles on roofs and walls, But the sea, the sea in the darkness calls: The little waves, with their soft, white hands, Efface the footprints in the sands, And the tide rises, the tide falls. The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls: The day returns, but nevermore Returns the traveler to the shore, And the tide rises, the tide falls. 28 B. AFTER READING I. Interpretation One way to better understanding the meaning of the poem is to paraphrase the ideas in your own words. Here is an example of how a line from the poem can be paraphrased: Original line Possible paraphrasing The twilight darkens, the curlew calls Night is falling, the seabird cries out As you read the poem, pause after each stanza and paraphrase each line, using your own words. Your paraphrase should include the important details expressed in each stanza. II. Metrical form Form: Lyrical poem Structure: Three five - line stanzas Rhyme scheme: [aabba aacca aadda] III. Literary Lesson: Tone and Mood How a poet feels from time to time about the poem he is writing is called the poet’s mood. The poet imparts this mood to readers through the tone he depicts the poem. Tone is called the poet’s attitude, or the reflection of his attitude toward the ideas he is expressing in the poem. Mood refers to the atmosphere that surrounds a scene. Tone and mood are interactive because both involve feelings. 1. Language, Tone, and Mood Exercise 1: Read the first stanza from the poem and answer the following question: “The tide rises, the tide falls, The twilight darkens, the curlew call; Along the sea sands damp and brown The traveler hastens toward the town, And the tide rises, the tide falls.” The way the poet uses the descriptive language to depict the twilight which “darkens” and the sea sands which are “damp and brown” make you feel: A. depressed and unhappy B. lonely and discontented C. sad and gloomy D. hopeless and useless 2. Images, tone, and mood Exercise 2: What images in the second stanza of the poem evoke the feeling of helplessness and depression imparted from the traveler in front of the sea? 29  3. Changing tone and mood Exercise 3: The mood in stanza 2 and stanza 3 of the poem changes from: A. helplessness to hopefulness B. soberness to drunkenness C. sadness to happiness D. loneliness to elation Exercise 4: What is the poet’s attitude toward death? A. eager and inviting B. resisting and angry C. indifferent and careless D. calm and accepting IV. Questions for analysis 1. Look closely at each stanza. What does each stanza tell you about the passage of time? What is the metaphorical meaning of “the twilight”, “the darkness”, and “the breaking morning” following the shift of time? 2. Who is the traveler? Why does he hasten toward the town? Does he signify anything else more than a traveler? 3. In the second stanza, the poet personifies the sea and the waves. What words personify the sea and the waves? Do these images create a disturbing or a gentle, comforting feeling? Explain. 4. “Darkness on the roof” and “footprints on the sea sand” are the images referring to the passage of time. What do these images suggest that has happened to the traveler? 5. What words in the third stanza hint at the traveler’s fate? How does the image of the lively horses contrast with what probably has happened to the traveler? 6. In the third stanza, the tide keeps rising and falling, although the traveler does not return. How does this contrast reveal the poem’s theme? Is there any central insight into the relationship between human life and nature? Explain. V. Sketch note In your group, draw three pictures according to the three stanzas in the poem, explaining how the passage of time shifts and what happens to the traveler. 30 31 Poem: HOPE IS THE THING WITH FEATHERS (1861) Author: Emily Dickinson Literary Lesson: Figurative language Emily Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) lived much of her life in reclusive isolation. Dickinson was born into a prominent family with strong ties to its community. Evidence suggests that Dickinson lived much of her life in isolation. Considered an eccentric by locals, she developed a penchant for white clothing and was known for her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, to even leave her bedroom. Dickinson never married, and most friendships between her and others depended entirely upon correspondence. Although Dickinson's acquaintances were likely aware of her writing, it was not until after her death in 1886—when Lavinia, Dickinson's younger sister, discovered her cache of poems—that the breadth of her work became public. A complete, and mostly unaltered, collection of her poetry became available for the first time when scholar Thomas H. Johnson published The Poems of Emily Dickinson in 1955. While Dickinson was a prolific private poet, fewer than a dozen of her nearly 1,800 poems were published during her lifetime. The work that was published during her lifetime was usually altered significantly by the publishers to fit the conventional poetic rules of the time. Her poems are unique for the era in which she wrote; they contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation. The extensive use of dashes and unconventional capitalization in Dickinson's manuscripts, and the idiosyncratic vocabulary and imagery, combine to create a body of work that is far more various in its styles and forms than is commonly supposed. Dickinson avoids pentameter, opting more generally for trimeter, tetrameter and, less often, dimeter. Sometimes her use of these meters is regular, but oftentimes it is irregular. Though Dickinson often uses perfect rhymes (ABCB) for lines two and four, she also makes frequent use of slant rhyme. Many of her poems deal with themes of death and immortality, two recurring topics in letters to her friends. Dickinson's poetry frequently uses humor, puns, irony and satire. Emily Dickinson is now considered a powerful and persistent figure in American culture. Although much of the early reception concentrated on Dickinson's eccentric and secluded nature, she has become widely acknowledged as an innovative, proto- modernist poet. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Dickinson) 32 A. BEFORE READING I. Think before you read 1. How can you define hope in your mind? 2. What feelings can hope give you? Hope Is The Thing With Feathers “Hope” is the thing with feathers − That perches in the soul − And sings the tune without the words − And never stops − at all − And sweetest − in the Gale − is heard− And sore must be the storm− That could abash the little Bird That kept so many warm − I’ve heard it in the chillest land − And on the strangest Sea − Yet − never − in Extremity, It asked a crumb − of Me. 33 B. AFTER READING I. Vocabulary 1. A gale in this poem is a A. cloud B. desert C. strong wind D. little whale 2. Sore in this poem means A. fun B. adverse C. painful D. apologetic 3. Abash means to A. make uneasy B. increase C. embarrass D. hit with a hammer 4. Extremity in this poem means A. an arm/ a leg B. a far-away place C. severe hardship D. salvation 5. A crumb means A. evidence of decay B. a piece of food C. a small amount D. a great cartoonist II. Writing Style 1. Form of the poem: Iambic trimeter that often expands to include a 4th stressed syllable at the end of the line. 2. The long dashes which make the structure typical of Dickinson are meant to produce short pauses. 3. Homiletic style of writing is evidently deprived from religious hymns. III. Literary Lesson: Figurative language Any language which deviates from literal language so as to furnish novel effects or fresh insights into the subject being discussed is called figurative language. The most common figures of speech are simile, metaphor, personification and hyperbole. 1. What technique does the author use to describe “Hope”? A. alliteration B. extended metaphor C. simile D. personification 2. What is the extended metaphor in this poem? A. Feathers are compared to a bird B. Hope is compared to a bird C. A tune is compared to the soul D. A storm is a complication 3. The poet uses the word “gale” and “storm” as metaphors. What might these words represent? 34  A. bad weather B. pleasant time C. hardship D. time of success and growth 4. Hope is important and helpful in time of pain, sorrow or difficulty. Which lines from the poem best support this statement? A. lines 1-2 B. lines 3-4 C. lines 5-8 D. lines 11-12 5. The poet says hope “sings the tunes without the words”. Why might the poet have written that the tune has no words? A. to emphasize that hope does not need putting into words to be felt B. to point out that it is very difficult for people to express whether they feel hopeful or not C. to suggest that people are usually unable to understand the feeling of hope D. to indicate that people who are always hopeful are also often forgetful 6. What does the word “abash” most nearly mean, based on the poem? A. to confuse B. to praise C. to support D. to silence 7. What is the theme of the poem? A. People need to work hard in order to maintain hope at all times. B. Hope can survive through even the toughest times. C. Hope is able to keep people warm even in the coldest, stormiest lands. D. Without hope, people would be much more sensible and realistic. (Source: https://quizizz.com/admin/quiz/580765a524e9e1f554ecdf99/hope-is-the- thing-with-feathers-by-emily-dickinson) IV. Questions for analysis 1. Why do you think Dickinson chose a bird to represent hope? Hope  Bird Abstract  Concrete What characteristics do they share? 2. How important is the idea of suffering to this poem? Do you need it in order to have hope? How might the speaker answer that question? 3. How convincing is this poem in your estimation? Do you take any comfort in it? Why or why not? 4. How do this poem's rhyme and rhythm affect the way you read it? 35 36 Novel: THE SCARLET LETTER (1850) Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne Literary Lesson: Symbolism Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864) was one of the greatest an American novelist, dark romantic, and short story writer in American literature, who was a master of the allegorical and symbolic tale. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts. He entered Bowdoin College in 1821, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in 1824, and graduated in 1825. He published his first work in 1828, the novel Fanshawe; he later tried to suppress it, feeling that it was not equal to the standard of his later work. He published several short stories in periodicals, which he collected in 1837 as Twice- Told Tales. The next year, he became engaged to Sophia Peabody. He worked at the Boston Custom House and joined Brook Farm, a transcendentalist community, before marrying Peabody in 1842. The couple moved to The Old Manse in Concord, Massachusetts, later moving to Salem, the Berkshires, then to The Wayside in Concord. Hawthorne was famous for the novel The Scarlet Letter, which was published in 1850, followed by a succession of other novels. A political appointment as consul took Hawthorne and family to Europe before their return to Concord in 1860. Hawthorne died on May 19, 1864, and was survived by his wife and their three children. Much of Hawthorne's writing centers on New England, many works featuring moral metaphors with an anti-Puritan inspiration. His fiction works are considered part of the Romantic Movement and, more specifically, dark romanticism. His themes often center on the inherent evil and sin of humanity, and his works often have moral messages and deep psychological complexity. His four major romances were written between 1850 and 1860: The Scarlet Letter (1850). The House of the Seven Gables (1851), and The Marble Faun (1860). Another novel-length romance, Fanshawe, was published in 1828. Many of his works are inspired by Puritan New England, combining historical romance loaded with symbolism and deep psychological themes, bordering on surrealism. His later writings also reflect his negative view of the Transcendentalism movement. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Hawthorne) 37 Summary of The Scarlet Letter The novel begins with the narrator, a Custom House official, who happens to find a scarlet letter “A” in a box he finds one day in the office. The narrator then relates the story of Hester Prynne, the original bearer of the scarlet letter, who lived in Boston when it was just a small Puritan settlement in the seventeenth century. Hester’s story begins on a scaffold just outside the town prison. She has committed adultery, given birth to a child out of wedlock, and refuses to name the man with whom she had the affair. The village leaders hope to shame her into naming her lover by making her into a public spectacle. Even under intense pressure, Hester refuses to reveal her secret. She alone must bear the shame and isolation resulting from her actions. As a punishment, Hester is made to wear a scarlet letter “A” on her chest at all times. The letter “A” stands for adultery and causes her and her daughter to be scorned by the members of her community. Hester’s former husband returns to witness Hester’s shame. He decides to seek revenge against the man who, in his opinion, ruined Hester’s life and stole his wife from him. He assumes a new name, Roger Chillingworth, and becomes known as a physician specializing in alternative medicine. He befriends the Reverend Dimmesdale, the sickly young minister. Chillingworth eventually determines that Dimmesdale is the father of Hester’s daughter, Pearl. He plots an elaborate scheme in order to avenge the wrong he perceives was committed by Dimmesdale. Hester discovers Chillingworth’s plan to torture Dimmesdale on a daily basis, and recognizes that Dimmesdale’s health is significantly impacted by the revenge plot. Her secret is slowly killing the minister. As a result, Hester must break the promise she made years ago to never reveal the identity of Chillingworth in order to save Dimmesdale’s life. Hester reveals Chillingworth’s true identity to Dimmesdale and begs for his forgiveness. she arranges an encounter with Dimmesdale in the forest because she is aware that Chillingworth has probably guessed that she plans to reveal his identity to Dimmesdale. The former lovers decide to flee to Europe, where they can live with Pearl as a family. They will take a ship sailing from Boston in four days. Both feel a sense of release, and Hester removes her scarlet letter and lets down her hair. Pearl, playing nearby, does not recognize her mother without the letter. The day before the ship is to sail, the townspeople gather for a holiday and Dimmesdale preaches his most eloquent sermon ever. Meanwhile, Hester has learned that Chillingworth knows of their plan and has booked passage on the same ship. Dimmesdale, leaving the church after his sermon, sees Hester and Pearl standing before the town scaffold. He impulsively mounts the scaffold with his lover and his daughter, and confesses publicly, exposing a scarlet letter seared into the flesh of his chest. He falls dead, as Pearl kisses him. Frustrated in his revenge, Chillingworth dies a year later. Hester and Pearl leave Boston, and no one knows what has happened to them. Many years later, Hester returns alone, still wearing the scarlet letter, to live in her old cottage and resume her charitable work. She receives occasional letters from Pearl, who has married a European aristocrat and established a family of her own. When Hester dies, she is buried next to Dimmesdale. The two share a single tombstone, which bears a scarlet “A.” 38  A. BEFORE READING I. Think before you read 1. What is sin in your opinion? Is it easy or difficult to reveal one’s sin in public? 2. Have you ever felt guilt-ridden? What do people often do to relieve their guilt? II. Video watching The Scarlet Letter Video (1995) Director: Roland Joffe Script writer: Douglas Day Stewar (Source: https://trakt.tv/movies/the-scarlet-letter-1995) Chapter 2 The Market Place [...] The door of the jail being flung open from within there appeared, in the first place, like a black shadow emerging into sunshine, the grim and gristly presence of the town–beadle, with a sword by his side, and his staff of office in his hand. This personage prefigured and represented in his aspect the whole dismal severity of the 5 Puritanic code of law, which it was his business to administer in its final and closest application to the offender. Stretching forth the official staff in his left hand, he laid his right upon the shoulder of a young woman, whom he thus drew forward, until, on the threshold of the prison–door, she repelled him, by an action marked with natural dignity and force of character, and stepped into the open air as if by her own free will. 10 She bore in her arms a child, a baby of some three months old, who winked and turned aside its little face from the too vivid light of day; because its existence, heretofore, had brought it acquaintance only with the grey twilight of a dungeon, or other darksome apartment of the prison. When the young woman—the mother of this child—stood fully revealed before the 15 crowd, it seemed to be her first impulse to clasp the infant closely to her bosom; not so much by an impulse of motherly affection, as that she might thereby conceal a certain token, which was wrought or fastened into her dress. In a moment, however, wisely judging that one token of her shame would but poorly serve to hide another, she took the baby on her arm, and with a burning blush, and yet a haughty smile, and 20 a glance that would not be abashed, looked around at her townspeople and neighbours. On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter A. It was so artistically done, and with so much fertility and gorgeous luxuriance of fancy, that it had all the effect of a last and fitting decoration to the apparel which she wore, and 25 which was of a splendour in accordance with the taste of the age, but greatly beyond what was allowed by the sumptuary regulations of the colony. The young woman was tall, with a figure of perfect elegance on a large scale. She had dark and abundant hair, so glossy that it threw off the sunshine with a gleam; and a face which, besides being beautiful from regularity of feature and richness of 39 30 complexion, had the impressiveness belonging to a marked brow and deep black eyes. She was ladylike, too, after the manner of the