Survey of American Lit since Civil War

Survey of Brit Lit since Romantic Period

Survey of World Literature

Payton Klatt English 224 – Essay 1 Social Perceptions in a Changing Society Following the Civil War and facing a daunting reconstruction period, the new United States was coping with many changes. When slavery became abolished, African Americans, as seen in Ida B. Wells-Barnett’s writings, had an extremely difficult experience when trying to integrate within society. Chinese immigrants fought for rights during one of the most anti-immigration periods the country has ever seen. After signing into effect the Chinese Exclusion Act, many Chinese had restricted access to “The Land of the Free”. These changes of new legislation, increased immigration and new rights for African Americans and Chinese immigrants created an opportunity for the country to progress, but was hindered by a social perceptions from Whites. In Ida B. Wells-Barnett’s writing “A Red Record”, Wells-Barnett captures the frustration that many African Americans felt during this period. With slavery abolished and voting rights restored, African Americans felt they should fit into society with ease, although this couldn’t be further from the truth. Wells-Barnett feels that she was failed by the system because of the harassment African Americans receive about race riots, voting and post war treatment from the “chivalrous southern gentleman”. During the thirty years after the civil war, “more than ten thousand Negroes have been killed” while in contrast, “only three white men have been tried, convicted, and executed” for the same crimes “committed” by African Americans (292). A prominent reason for the discrimination African Americans faced was because of their newfound right to vote. America, being the land of the free and the worldwide face of democracy, struggled mightily with accepting the new African American voting population. Instead of Whites accepting this new demographic, African Americans were bullied and lashed out against, in order for them to not exercise their right to vote. Wells- Barnett choses to portray the violence African Americans experienced, in a way that her disgust and anger seethes through her writing. Wells-Barnett writes “the blood chills and the heart almost loses faith in Christianity when one thinks of the countless massacres of defenseless Negroes, whose only crime was the attempt to exercise their right to vote” about the disgust she feels for the failing society she lives in (293). While Wells-Barnett documents the terrible treatment she received, she mainly contrasts the treatment African Americans received from the so called “chivalrous southern gentleman” versus white women who came in droves to aid African Americans after the war. She says about treatment from white males, “To justify their own barbarism they assume a chivalry which they do not posses. True chivalry respects all womanhood” (295). In contrast, white women from the North came to help African Americans by educating them and teaching them Christian virtues. These women were then “insulted, persecuted, and ostracized, not by Negroes, but by the white manhood which boasts of its chivalry toward women” (295). Wells-Barnett documented the horrific treatment that African Americans received after their emancipation and is remembered for her confrontational but correct stance in history. Edith Maud Eaton (Sui Sin Far) was one of the first outspoken Chinese American writers in a time period when America took one of its strongest stances on immigration. “Mrs. Spring Fragrance” documents the struggle of a Chinese American merchant and his

ENG | 224 | Survey of American Lit since Civil War | lecture notes | Payton Klatt English 224 – Ess

ENG | 222 | Survey of World Literature | assessment | Scanned by CamScanner

Klatt 1 Payton Klatt Spear – Section 6 A “Love Song” In the room the women come and go Talking of Michelangelo In T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, Eliot writes of a lonely man, J. Alfred Prufrock, who gives the reader a glimpse into his life. Prufrock takes the reader with him as he has an internal monologue on his struggle to find love, coping with aging and finding a self worth. Prufrock monologue is triggered by him watching women come and go and listening to their conversation about their ideal man. He grapples with his self worth as a man and his self-image because he cannot be this ideal man or find love. The lines “In the room the women come and go / talking of Michelangelo” are repeated, as Prufrock begins his stream of conscience like monologue. Prufrock choses to sit in this room and watch and listen to women as they come and go. This is clue to his internal loneliness, as he observes from a distance instead of going to talk to these women. With the women coming and going, this is a metaphor for Prufrock’s life. He does not have a significant other, as women never stay in his life, but instead just come and go. Eliot choses to use the words come and go to signify and put emphasis on how Prufrock has no influence on them staying, but rather how he choses to sit distantly and watch from afar. The reader is continuously shown signs of Prufrock’s loneliness and internal struggle. Klatt 2 When Prufrock begins to listen to their conversations, the women are talking about Michelangelo, a famous painter and sculptor responsible for the statue of David. Finished during the Italian Renaissance, the statue depicts a tall, strong and good-looking man who is regarded as the ideal form of a man. Prufrock then begins analyzing himself, wondering how he compares to David. Once Prufrock begins to analyze himself, the reader is given a glimpse of his internal struggle. Prufrock brings the reader to awareness of his internal struggle by him saying, “Do I dare / Disturb the universe?” (45-46). Eliot uses these words to show how Prufrock sees his place in the world. Prufrock believes that he isn’t truly part of the universe. He believes that he has to make an effort and “dare” to disturb the universe, like it would be an inconvenience for the rest of the universe. It almost seems that Prufrock would rather not be involved in the universe in hopes that he wouldn’t disturb the balance of the world. This is another clue to Prufrock’s internal struggle over his self worth. The reader then sees Prufrock’s struggle with his external image. This doubt is seen in the lines 40-41, “With a bald spot in the middle of my hair - / (They will say: ‘How his hair is growing thin!’)”. Here, Prufrock is worried about his external image to the women who are coming and going. The reader is brought to this self- doubt because previously there is no mention of the women looking at or judging Prufrock on his external appearance. Prufrock initially brings it up without any women saying anything to him. This means that Prufrock is conscious enough about his unattractive image so that he feels the need to say it before anyone was thinking of or saying anything to him.

ENG | 226 | Survey of Brit Lit since Romantic Period | assessment | Klatt 1 Payton Klatt Spear – S

Klatt Payton Klatt English 226 – Section 6 Paper #1 Due: 9/28/15 Where the West Wind Blows Drive my dead thoughts over the universe, Like withered leaves, to quicken a new birth; And, by the incantation of this verse, Scatter, as from an unextinguished hearth Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind! Be through my lips to unawakened earth The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind, If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind? In Ode to the West Wind!, Percy Bysshe Shelley uses the wind and seasonal changes to represent the wisdom, death and rebirth of poetry and the narrator’s thoughts. The wind acts as a powerful force that drives out the wisdom from the narrator and acts as an acting force on the whole world. Seasons play a major role in the poem, as they are a representation of the cycle of life and the cycle of poetry. Shelley places the wind in a position that it acts upon the narrator to “drive my dead thoughts over the universe” (890). The wind is almost placed in a prophetic role, and it is acting on the narrator and bringing out the wisdom in his thoughts. Much like a prophet’s job is to coax out the wisdom from scripture or a higher place, the wind is coaxing out the wisdom from the narrator’s wisdom and writing. Shelley even continues the prophet metaphor by saying “Wild spirit, which art moving everywhere; Destroyer and Preserver” (889). This is a reference to the Hindu gods, Siva the Destroyer and Vishnu the Preserver. It is used to further the connection between the wind and the supernatural presence it adopts. 1 Klatt Shelley also uses the theme of seasons to connect poetry to death and rebirth. Shelley ends the poem with “If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?” which does a wonderful job of tying together the theme of death in winter and a new birth in spring that is developed throughout the poem. In literature, winter represents death. Shelley compares himself to a tree and his poetry is represented as leaves. With winter coming, the leaves begin to fall and die. Shelley knows that death in inescapable and that his poetry will continue after his life. With the wind acting as a supernatural force, it blows through the tree and scatters his poetry throughout the world. This continues the theme of spring being a representation of rebirth. When his thoughts are scattered through the world, Shelley hopes that his poetry brings new life to people who read his work. With this new rebirth he hopes that poetry is continued as an art and his influence is continued to be felt. Shelley has obviously been successful with this hope, as he is still a prevalent author nearly two hundred years after his time. As Shelley shows through the rest of the poem, he believes poetry is a life force, just as the wind is the life force through the world. Just as the wind has the power to continue to blow and affect the leaves and the landscape, poetry has the ability to influence people and the world. Shelley writes, “Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is” to further the comparison to the wind and poetry having an effect on himself (890). As a lyre is played by the wind, Shelley calls out and wishes that the wind, or poetry, would have an effect on him. He believes that poetry has the ability to affect the reader and influence him to create something, just as the lyre creates music. 2

ENG | 226 | Survey of Brit Lit since Romantic Period | assessment | Klatt Payton Klatt English 226

Payton Klatt English 224 Questions 1. What is the significance of Spiegelman using a comic book as a form of narrative? It is more or less effective than a conventional story? 2. How much truth is in the beginning of the story? How much does the commercial side of writing bother him? 3. What is the purpose of the narrative? Did you feel like there should be more to the story? Explain. 4. Do you think Knight’s poetry would be the same if his life choices had been different? How does his drug use surface in his writing? 5. What us the purpose of the repetition in A Poem for Myself? Does it add to the poem? Explain. Themes Commercialism Holocaust Self conflict Drug abuse Self-identity Quotations 1. “Artie, baby. Check out this licensing deal. You get 50% of the profits. We’ll make a million. Your dad would be proud!” (1504) 2. “Completely messed up. I mean, things couldn’t be going any better with my ‘career’, or at home, but mostly, I feel like crying.” (1505) 3. “Gee, I don’t understand exactly why… but these sessions with Pavel somehow make me feel better” (1508) 4. “As Knight once stated, ‘I died in Korea from a shrapnel wound and narcotics resurrected me. I died in 1960 from a prison sentence and poetry brought me back to life’” (1556) 5. “I am all f them, they are all of me, I am me, they are thee, and I have no sons to float in the space between” (1558)

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