American Literature - Third Year PDF

## American Literature **Third Year American Literature: Dr. Ali Mustafa** The course is divided into three sections: **Part I: American Poetry** 1. Robert Frost 2. Edwin Arlington Robinson **Robinson's poetry as a study in Human Character** * a critical review will be done of each poet * a col...

## American Literature **Third Year American Literature: Dr. Ali Mustafa** The course is divided into three sections: **Part I: American Poetry** 1. Robert Frost 2. Edwin Arlington Robinson **Robinson's poetry as a study in Human Character** * a critical review will be done of each poet * a collection of poems will be analyzed in detail **Frost's Regionalism** **A) Edwin Arlington Robinson** * Robinson was an alcoholic, he wrote poems that were not accepted by the publishers. * By accident, President Theodore Roosevelt came across one of his poems. * Roosevelt offered Robinson a government position (sinecure) to encourage him to write. * The president pushed the publishers to publish Robinson's poetry. * Robinson started to drink again afterwards. * Most of Robinson's characters are from Tilbury Town, which is not a real town. * Tilbury Town is a fictional town based on real characters and from his imagination. * He's a master etcher, as he's very good at portraying characters and society. * Some examples of his characters are *Richard Cory* and *Reuben Bright*. * These characters are taken from his environment. * Robinson talks about failure and he feels sympathy towards all failing characters. * He believes that failures are more interesting than successful people. **Reuben Bright** * Is a butcher in a slaughterhouse. * Is a human being just like you and me. * When told that his wife is about to die, he cries like a baby. * After arranging his wife's funeral, he collects her belongings and burns down the slaughterhouse. * He can't cope with the idea of his wife's death. **Richard Cory** * Is a psychological portrait of a man who has everything except the reason to live. * People admire him because of his material successes. * He is a rich man whom people admire and envy. * When walking in the town, people look at him and say, "We would like to be this man". * Although he is extremely rich and handsome, he is poor spiritually. * This man who has everything has killed himself. **Aunt Imogen** * Is a poem about inner loneliness. * Is a study of a mother’s starved love. * Imogen is a spinster with no children. * Every year, she goes to her sister’s house to meet her children. * She realizes that she was born to be Aunt Imogen, there are no other possibilities. * She has no children of her own, and her desire for motherhood has to be satisfied with the love of her sister’s children. * She accepts her life and finds happiness by loving other people. **B) Robert Frost** * He's considered a regional poet as he often writes about regional places in New England. * It’s a wild environment in the region. * Frost writes about different places he's been but his focus is mainly on North Boston. * He's interested in the daily lives of the farm workers and their daily trips to the city to buy supplies. * Robert Frost transcends regionalism, and has a universal approach to his poetry. * Two poems by Robert Frost will be analyzed: * *Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening* * *Desert Places* **1- *Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening*** * This poem is about a farmer traveling home from the city. * He stops by the woods to admire the beautiful scenery. * His horse wants him to move on as it’s getting dark. * The man realizes that he has duties to fulfill for his family and farm. * There’s a conflict between the man’s desire to stay in the beautiful world of nature and his need to fulfill his obligations to his family. * The woods symbolize the imaginative world. * The farm represents his need to be responsible for his family, the world of reality with its duties. * The man needs to go back home before the end of the day. * This represents the duties that he has to fulfill in life and his responsibilities to the human being. **2- *Desert Places*** * This poem is about loneliness. * The man feels lonely, not because of the loneliness of the universe, rather by his own inner loneliness. * This reflects the modern concept of the universe. * In modern poetry, the universe is not a guide and caretaker like it was in Romantic poetry. * This poem shows the doubt and uncertainty of a modern person who feels alone in the universe due to skepticism toward traditional beliefs and religion. * The man feels that the universe is against him. * This feeling of loneliness is due to a lack of inner spiritual values. **Part II: American Drama** **The Zoo Story by Edward Albee (Play)** * Two characters are involved, Jerry and Peter. * Jerry is a poor man who lives in the slums of New York. * He’s going to the zoo, and on his way, he compares his world with the world of the rich people of New York. * He meets Peter at the zoo, who is a man with a stable job and a family. * The play is about the communication between these two characters. * The play’s main theme is a criticism of American society. * Other issues in the play include American hypocrisy and the American dream. **Part III: Fiction** **The Pearl by John Steinbeck** * Kino is a poor diver who finds a pearl. * The reaction of the village and the pearl buyers are revealing. * The villagers were simple and poor. * The pearl buyers formed a cartel against Kino to buy the pear at a low price. * Kino escapes to another town to sell the pearl, but he is tracked by thieves. * A fight erupts between Kino and the thieves, and his son is killed. * Kino decides to throw the pearl back into the sea. * Kino’s wife, Juana, believes that the pearl is evil. * To Kino, the pearl represents a better future. * Kino wants to marry in the church, to buy clothes for his son, to send his son to school, and to buy a rifle. * Juana continually tells him that the pearl is evil and they should get rid of it. * In the end, Kino lost his son, because he wanted to keep the pearl. * The story is about the effect of wealth and how it can destroy lives, especially when people's greed is insatiable. * Steinbeck lived in a very poor society and community. * The novella demonstrates the hypocrisy of the people. * Before Kino found the pearl, the doctor refused to cure his son for a sting due to their poverty. * After discovering the pearl, the doctor pretends to be ill, and asks for money demanding Kino’s son's attention. * The priest did the same. **Part I: Poetry** **Edwin Arlington Robinson** **The Alien Pity: a Study of Character in Robinson’s Poetry** * Lloyd Morris (famous critic of Robinson) argues that Robinson's main focus is on character development and human behavior. * Robinson is a storyteller who creates a rich narrative. * He's mainly focused on human relationships and situations, rather than moralizing. * Robinson is more concerned with the complexity of these narratives and relationships, rather than specific moral messages. * He's a narrative poet, who often uses indirect language, leaving the reader to deduce the meaning of the story. **Some Key Points about Robinson's Poetry** * He has a direct approach to individual human characters, rather than using them as symbolic representations. * He’s considered a pioneer of the era, as he explores the subconscious minds and inner depths of human characters. * Most of his characters are ordinary people from his area: common people from Tilbury Town. * He also uses characters from mythology, history, and legend. * Robinson's strength lies in his focus on ordinary people. **Robinson's Approach to Characters** * Robinson's characters are complex and conflicted. * They often struggle internally with doubt, insecurity, and failure. * Robinson's unique approach to character development is in his analysis of the characters' inner thoughts and feelings, which are often in conflict. * This was unique at the time as it was pre- Freudian, and a revolutionary concept for that era. **Robinson's themes** * He's interested in failure, and how it affects individuals. * He shows how the outward success of people can mask internal struggles. * He emphasizes the dichotomy between reality and appearance. * He believes that the people who fail are more interesting. **Two kinds of alienation in Robinson’s poetry** 1. **The realists**: * They face reality squarely and cannot escape the truth about themselves. * They have two choices: suicide or withdrawal from life. 2. **The romantics**: * They have a superficial façade, trying to escape the truth with their own illusions. * They may seem contemptible or laughable. * In the end, those who choose to know themselves withdraw from life, and those who refuse choose to be rejected by society **I- Reuben Bright** * Is a butcher shown as a human being just like you and me. * Has trouble facing the reality of life. * He’s unable to cope with changes in the world, and has trouble adapting to the changes happening around him. * When told his wife is dying, he cries like a baby, and he is devastated by her death. * This man is used to blood and killing, but he is shown to be more vulnerable than expected. * He is a human being, despite his job. **II - Aaron Stark** * Is the miser of the town, and a humorous character. * He’s isolated and lonely. * He's more concerned with money than with relationships and human connection. * He's a miser, with a miser's nose and eyes that are like dollars in the dark. * He's always angry and grumpy. * He's happy when people talk about him being the miser of the town. * This demonstrates how his greed and selfishness isolate him.