RC AmericanLit007 PDF
RC AmericanLit007 PDF
Literature
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3 4 5 6 7 8 9 027/043 12 11 10 09 08 07
CONSU LTANTS
Program Consultants
Beverly Ann Chin, Jacqueline Jones
PhD, is Professor of Royster, DA, is Professor
English, Director of the of English and Senior Vice
English Teaching Program, Provost and Executive
former Director of the Dean of the Colleges of
Montana Writing Project, Arts and Sciences at The
and former Director Ohio State University. She
of Composition at the is currently on the Writing
University of Montana in Advisory Committee of the
Missoula. She currently serves as a Member at National Commission on Writing and serves as
Large of the Conference of English Leadership. chair for both the Columbus Literacy Council
Dr. Chin is a nationally recognized leader in and the Ohioana Library Association. In addition
English language arts standards, curriculum, and to the teaching of writing, Dr. Royster’s profes-
assessment. Formerly a high school teacher and sional interests include the rhetorical history of
an adult education reading teacher, Dr. Chin has African American women and the social and
taught in English language arts education at cultural implications of literate practices. She
several universities and has received awards for has contributed to and helped to edit numerous
her teaching and service. books, anthologies, and journals.
iii
ADVISORY BOAR D
Special Consultant
Dinah Zike, MEd, was a classroom teacher and a consultant for many years before she
began to develop Foldables™—a variety of easily created graphic organizers. Zike has written and
developed more than 150 supplemental books and materials used in classrooms worldwide. Her Big
Book of Books and Activities won the Teachers’ Choice Award.
iv
TEACH ER R EVI EWERS
v
BOOK OVERVI EW
vi
B OOK OVERVI EW
U N I T SE VE N
Into the Twenty-First Century 1960s–Present . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1128
Part 1: An Era of Protest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1143
Part 2: Nature and Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1207
Part 3: Extending and Remaking Traditions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1257
Reference Section
vii
SELECTIONS BY GEN R E
Short Story The Life You Save May Be Your Own . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 913
Flannery O’Connor
The Devil and Tom Walker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
The Second Tree from the Corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 927
Washington Irving
E. B. White
The Pit and the Pendulum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Edgar Allan Poe The Magic Barrel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 940
The Minister’s Black Veil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265 Bernard Malamud
Nathaniel Hawthorne The Rockpile. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 957
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373 James Baldwin
Ambrose Bierce The Portrait . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1013
The Celebrated Jumping Frog Tomás Rivera
of Calaveras County . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482 Ambush. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1172
Mark Twain Tim O’Brien
The Outcasts of Poker Flat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504 SQ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1233
Bret Harte Ursula K. Le Guin
A Wagner Matinée . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518 Snow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1247
Willa Cather Julia Alvarez
April Showers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534 Everything Stuck to Him . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1268
Edith Wharton Raymond Carver
The Story of an Hour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 546 Salvador Late or Early . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1298
Kate Chopin Sandra Cisneros
The Darling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552 Nineteen Thirty-Seven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1312
Anton Chekhov Edwidge Danticat
The Open Boat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 572
Stephen Crane Myth
To Build a Fire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 593 How the World Was Made . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Jack London Cherokee myth retold by James Mooney
In Another Country . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732 The Sky Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Ernest Hemingway Huron myth retold by Joseph Bruchac
Winter Dreams. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 742 How the Leopard Got His Claws . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
F. Scott Fitzgerald Chinua Achebe and John Iroaganachi
Soldiers of the Republic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 768
Dorothy Parker
Proverb
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 774
Katherine Anne Porter from Poor Richard’s Almanack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Benjamin Franklin
Early Autumn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 846
Langston Hughes
Breakfast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 868 Novel Excerpt
John Steinbeck from Moby-Dick. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
A Rose for Emily . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 876 Herman Melville
William Faulkner from The Jungle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 628
A Worn Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 890 Upton Sinclair
Eudora Welty
xxviii
SELECT IONS BY GEN R E
Song
I Have Killed the Deer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Taos Pueblo Song
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
Go Down, Moses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
xxx
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC/Art Resource, NY
SELECT IONS BY GEN R E
Keep Your Hand on the Plow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334 from How the Other Half Lives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 629
Anonymous Jacob Riis
A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1196 from The Perfect Hour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 762
Bob Dylan James L. W. West III
Stanzas from a Black Epic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 805
Drama Robert Hughes
The Crucible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1022 from Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 835
Arthur Miller Lawrence Raab
from You Have Seen Their Faces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 909
Erskine Caldwell and Margaret Bourke-White
Nonfiction and
from Hiroshima . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 999
Informational Text John Hersey
Essay from Dust Changes America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1122
How They Chose These Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 Margaret Bourke-White
Walter Isaacson from Stride Toward Freedom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1147
from The Whistle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 Martin Luther King, Jr.
Benjamin Franklin Choice: A Tribute to
from Nature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1153
from Self-Reliance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 Alice Walker
Ralph Waldo Emerson from Working: Roberto Acuna, Farm Worker . . . 1159
The Biology of Joy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 Studs Terkel
Michael D. Lemonick from Silent Spring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1230
from Woman in the Nineteenth Century . . . . . . . . . . 193 Rachel Carson
Margaret Fuller The Names of Women . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1290
from Civil Disobedience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 Louise Erdrich
Henry David Thoreau Thoughts on the African-American Novel . . . . . 1302
from In the Heart of the Sea: Toni Morrison
The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292 from Transfiguration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1346
Nathaniel Philbrick Annie Dillard
Slavery Under Glass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
Richard Lacayo Biography, Autobiography,
from Lincoln at Gettysburg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390 or Memoir
Garry Wills from The Way to Rainy Mountain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
from Walt Whitman: A Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416 N. Scott Momaday
Justin Kaplan from La Relación. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
from Emily Dickinson: An Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . 441 Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca
Billy Collins from Of Plymouth Plantation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Life Along the Mississippi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494 William Bradford
Nancy Gibbs from The Life of Olaudah Equiano . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
from Arctic Dreams: Imagination Olaudah Equiano
and Desire in a Northern Landscape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 608 from A Narrative of the Captivity and
Barry Lopez Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
from Stephen Crane: Tales of Adventure . . . . . . . . . . 615 Mary Rowlandson
Bettina L. Knapp
xxxi
from The Autobiography Letter, Journal, or Diary
of Benjamin Franklin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Letter to John Adams. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Benjamin Franklin Letter to Her Daughter from the
from John Adams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 New and Unfinished White House . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
David McCullough Abigail Adams
from Walden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 Letter to His Son . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368
Henry David Thoreau Robert E. Lee
from Long Walk to Freedom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220 from Letters to a Young Poet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 682
Nelson Mandela Rainer Maria Rilke
from An American Childhood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
Annie Dillard Speech or Public Document
from My Bondage and My Freedom . . . . . . . . . . . 337, 458 from The Iroquois Constitution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Frederick Douglass Dekanawida
from Mary Chesnut’s Civil War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360 from Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God . . . . . . 88
Mary Chesnut Jonathan Edwards
from Specimen Days . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402 Speech to the Second Virginia Convention . . . . . . . 106
Walt Whitman Patrick Henry
Two Views of the River . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490 The Declaration of Independence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Mark Twain Thomas Jefferson
from The Perfect Hour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 762 from The Crisis, No. 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
James L. W. West III Thomas Paine
from Dust Tracks on a Road . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 790 from Proposals for Electoral College Reform . . . . 147
Zora Neale Hurston Becky Cain
When the Negro Was in Vogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 815 On the Eve of Historic Dandi March . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
Langston Hughes Mohandas K. Gandhi
from Black Boy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 900 And Ain’t I a Woman?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
Richard Wright Sojourner Truth
from All Rivers Run to the Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 979 The Gettysburg Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386
Elie Wiesel Abraham Lincoln
from Kubota. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 990 I Will Fight No More Forever . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527
Garrett Hongo Chief Joseph
from One Writer’s Beginnings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1111 Remarks at Amherst College . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 725
Eudora Welty President John F. Kennedy
The Torchbearer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1144 Address upon Receiving the Nobel Prize
Rita Dove in Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 886
from Stride Toward Freedom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1147 William Faulkner
Martin Luther King, Jr. War Message to Congress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 968
from Stay Alive, My Son . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1178 Franklin D. Roosevelt
Pin Yathay Proposal for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. . . 1192
from The Woman Warrior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1258 Maya Lin
Maxine Hong Kingston
xxxii
F E ATU R ES
xxxiii
Time Life Pictures/Getty Images
F EATU R ES
UNIT SEVEN
Comparing Literature Ambush by Tim O’Brien. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1172
Across Time and Place The Gift in Wartime by Tran Mong Tu . . . . . . . . . . . 1177
from Stay Alive, My Son by Pin Yathay . . . . . . . . . . 1178
U N I T ON E
xxxiv
David Turnley/CORBIS
SK I LLS WOR KSHO PS
Persuasive Speech Professional Model: from Sentence Structure: Using Adverb Clauses . . . . . . . .81
Proposals for Electoral College Reform Using Mechanics: Using Commas with
by Becky Cain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 Nonessential Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .141
Sentence Structure: Correcting Dangling
Reflective Essay Professional Model: from An Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
American Childhood Coherence: Using Transitional Expressions . . . . . . 367
by Annie Dillard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296 Mechanics: Punctuating Appositives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517
Historical Research Paper Sentence Structure: Using Coordinating
Workshop Model: On the Front Lines: Women Conjunctions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 741
Soldiers in the Civil War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444 Sentence Structure: Using Introductory Phrases
and Clauses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 926
Literary Analysis Sentence Structure: Avoiding Run-on
Professional Model: from Stephen Crane: Sentences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1170
Tales of Adventure Sentence Structure: Avoiding Misplaced
by Bettina L. Knapp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 614 Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1246
xxxv
Tony Craddock/Stone/Getty Images
HOW TO USE TH E R EADE R’S C HOIC E
xxxvi
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anecdotes
[[reading] strategies...
a variety of strategies, for example,
•
by the patterns
evaluating
analyzing the of organization...in
author’s
author
contemporary the text.
’s use nonfiction
of complex literary elements (e.g., •
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activating
11.5.3
1
11.5.
1.5. characterization,
prior knowledge
rite reflective
Write
W ideas)) (ELA-7-H1)
ideas
compositions...
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xxxviii
ii
HOW TO USE TH E R EA D E R’S C HOIC E
Writing Workshops
Each unit in Glencoe Literature, The Reader’s
Choice includes a Writing Workshop. The workshop
walks you through the writing process as you work
on an extended piece of writing related to the unit.
• You will create writing goals and apply strategies ��������
to meet them.
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• You will pick up tips and polish your������������������������
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as you analyze professional and workshop models.
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• You will use a rubric to evaluate your own
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Organizing Information
Graphic organizers—such as Foldables, diagrams,
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ideas organized.
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SCAVENGER H U NT
��
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2 What is the difference between the glossary and the index?
�
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7 What are the Big Ideas for Unit 2, and how can you find them
in the text?
8 The Web site for the book is referred to throughout the book.
What sort of information does the Web site contain that might
help you?
3
(b)Photodisc, (bkgd)Steven Allen/Getty Images
CONTENTS
Timeline .................................................................................... 6
By the Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Being There . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Historical, Social, and Cultural Forces. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Big Ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Anonymous I Have Killed the Deer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Song . . . . . . . 13
Wrap-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
viii
Richard Cummins/CORBIS
CONTENTS
Anne Bradstreet Upon the Burning of Our House, July 10th, 1666 . . . . . . . . . . . . .Poem . . . . . . .82
To My Dear and Loving Husband . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Poem . . . . . . .85
Jonathan Edwards from Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Speech . . . . . . .88
Vocabulary Workshop: Distinct Meanings:
Understanding Analogies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
ix
SuperStock
Vocabulary Workshop: Word Origins: Understanding
Political Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Writing Workshop:
Persuasive Speech: Supporting Your Opinion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
x
North Wind Picture Archive
CONTENTS
U N IT T WO
AMERICAN –-------––-–––
ROMANTICISM 1800 1860 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .164
By the Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .166
Being There . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .167
Historical, Social, and Cultural Forces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .168
Big Ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .169
Henry David Thoreau from The Journal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Journal . . . . . 173
Edgar Allan Poe from The Fall of the House of Usher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Short Story . . . . . 175
Wrap-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .176
PART
–-----––
Individualism and Nature
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .177
xi
Bettmann/CORBIS
Comparing Literature Across Time and Place . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Henry David Thoreau from Civil Disobedience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Essay . . . . . 211
Mohandas K. Gandhi On the Eve of Historic Dandi March . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Speech . . . . . 218
PART
–-----–– The Dark Side of Romanticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Nathaniel Philbrick Historical Perspective: from In the Heart of the Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Essay . . . . . 292
xii
Images.com/CORBIS
CONTE NTS
U N IT TH R EE
The
The Civil War Era Timeline
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .316
xiii
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC/Art Resource, NY
TIME: Slavery Under Glass. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . News Article . . . . . 350
Sojourner Truth And Ain’t I a Woman? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Speech . . . . . 354
Vocabulary Workshop:
Denotation and Connotation: Using Semantic Charts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
xiv
CORBIS
CONTENTS
Justin Kaplan Literary Perspective: from Walt Whitman: A Life . . . . . . . . . . Nonfiction . . . . . 416
Billy Collins Literary Perspective: from Emily Dickinson: An Introduction . . . Essay . . . . . 441
xv
Christie’s Images
UNIT FOUR
Regionalism and Realism
1880–1910 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464
Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .466
P
PART 1 Regionalism and Local Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .479
Mark Twain The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County . . . . . .Short Story . . . . . 484
Two Views of the River . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Memoir . . . . . 490
TIME: Life Along the Mississippi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Investigative Report . . . . . 494
Edgar Lee Masters Lucinda Matlock. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Poem . . . . . 499
Fiddler Jones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Poem . . . . . 502
Bret Harte The Outcasts of Poker Flat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Short Story . . . . . 504
Grammar Workshop: Mechanics: Punctuating Appositives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517
P
PART 2 Realism and Naturalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .531
Bettina L. Knapp PROFESSIONAL MODEL: from Stephen Crane: Tales of Adventure. . Essay . . . . . 615
Speaking, Listening, and Viewing Workshop:
Delivering an Oral Response to Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 624
Jacob Riis from How the Other Half Lives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Essay . . . . . 629
xvii
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC/Art Resource, NY
UNIT FIVE
BEGINNINGS
OF THE MODERN AGE
1910 –1930s . . . . . 634
Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .636
“Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold”
—William Carlos Williams
xviii
The Barnes Foundation, Merion Station, Pennsylvania/CORBIS
CONTENTS
Vocabulary Workshop:
Word Meanings: Defining Compound Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 671
xix
Dorothy Parker Soldiers of the Republic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Short Story . . . . . 768
Katherine Anne Porter The Jilting of Granny Weatherall. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Short Story . . . . . 774
Lawrence Raab PROFESSIONAL MODEL: from Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall” . . . . . . Essay . . . . . 835
Speaking, Listening, and Viewing Workshop:
Oral Interpretation of a Poem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 842
from
Cold War
UNIT SIX
to
t
Depression 1930S –1960
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .S. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 852
Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .854
Vocabulary Workshop:
Word Parts: Understanding Roots, Prefixes, and Suffixes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 875
xxi
UPI/CORBIS
Erskine Caldwell
and Margaret
Bourke-White Historical Perspective:
from You Have Seen Their Faces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Photo Essay. . . . . . .909
Flannery O’Connor The Life You Save May Be Your Own . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Short Story . . . . . 913
E. B. White The Second Tree from the Corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Short Story . . . . . 927
Gwendolyn Brooks To Don at Salaam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Poem . . . . . 935
The Bean Eaters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Poem . . . . . 938
Randall Jarrell The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Poem . . . . . 974
xxii
Bill Jacklin/Private Collection/Bridgeman Art Library
CONTENTS
Literary History:
Cultural Rebels: Writers of the Beat Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1020
Arthur Miller The Crucible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Drama . . . . 1022
Writing Workshop:
Autobiographical Narrative: Exploring Your Roots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1110
Eudora Welty PROFESSIONAL MODEL: from One Writer’s Beginnings . . . . . Autobiography . . . . 1111
Speaking, Listening, and Viewing Workshop:
Art or Photo Essay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1118
xxiii
Gayle Ray/SuperStock
UNIT SEVEN
1960s–Present
. . . . . . . . . 1128
Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1130
Studs Terkel from Working: Roberto Acuna, Farm Worker . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oral History . . . . 1159
Grammar Workshop:
Sentence Structure: Avoiding Run-on Sentences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1170
xxiv
CONTENTS
xxv
Bettmann/CORBIS
PART 3 Extending and
Remaking Traditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1257
xxvi
SuperStock
CONTENTS
Jeremy Blachman PROFESSIONAL MODEL: Job Posting: The New York Times. . . . . . . Essay . . . . 1335
Speaking, Listening, and Viewing Workshop:
Conducting a Debate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1342
Reference Section
Literary Terms Handbook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . R1 Business Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .R42
Reading Handbook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . R20 Language Handbook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .R46
Vocabulary Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . R20 Grammar Glossary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . R46
Comprehension Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . R21 Mechanics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . R53
Literary Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . R23 Spelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . R58
Analysis and Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . R24 Test-Taking Skills Handbook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . R61
Using Foldables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . R26 Glossary/Glosario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .R64
Writing Handbook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . R30 Academic Word List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .R86
The Writing Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . R30 Index of Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .R89
Using the Traits of Strong Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . R33 Index of Authors and Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .R99
Writing Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . R35 Index of Art and Artists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .R102
Research Paper Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . R36 Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .R104
xxvii
The First Harvest in the Wilderness, 1855, Asher Brown Durand. Oil on canvas,
32 x 471/2 in. Brooklyn Museum of Art, NY.
4
Asher Brown Durand/ Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, USA/Bridgeman Art Library
U N IT ON E
Early
America
Beginnings –1800
Looking Ahead
The roots of American literature display a rich, complex mixture of
cultures and eras. Through oral tradition, the Native American peoples
preserved their myths, tales, songs, and other lore from long ago.
When Europeans reached the Americas, their writings recorded their
experiences of exploration and settlement. Africans who were brought
to the Americas by force wrote of the conditions of slavery. American
literature developed further as writers played an important role in the
colonial struggle for independence from Great Britain.
O B J EC TI V ES
In learning about Early America, you will focus on the following:
5
Timeline
(t) New York Historical Society, New York, USA/Bridgeman Art Library, (cr) George Henry Boughton /New York Historical Society, New York, USA/Bridgeman Art Library
1500 –1800
AM E R I CAN L I T E R AT U R E American flag, c. 1781
1500 1600
1542 1630 1640
La Relación by Álvar Núñez William Bradford begins Bay Psalm Book is published
Cabeza de Vaca is published Of Plymouth Plantation ▼
1650
Anne Bradstreet’s poems are
published in London
1682
A Narrative of the Captivity
and Restoration of Mrs. Mary
Rowlandson is published
1500 1600
1492 1528–1536 1607 1637
Columbus makes his first Cabeza de Vaca wanders the Jamestown, first permanent Anne Hutchinson is
voyage to the Americas American Southwest English colony in America, banished for religious dissent
is founded in Virginia
1521 1675–1676
Cortés conquers the 1619 King Philip, chief of the
Aztec empire First Africans arrive Wampanoags, wages war in
in Virginia New England
1620 1681
Aztec calendar stone Pilgrims aboard the William Penn founds the
Mayflower arrive at Cape Cod Pennsylvania colony
1630 1692
Massachusetts Bay Colony Witchcraft trials begin in
WO R L D EVE NTS is founded Salem, Massachusetts
1500 1600
1522 1600 1642
What is left of Magellan’s Edo (Tokyo) becomes the English Civil War begins
ships and crew complete capital of Japan
1649
circumnavigation of the
1632 King Charles I of England
globe
Shah Jahan begins the is executed; Puritan
1558 Taj Mahal as tomb for his Commonwealth is established
Elizabeth I becomes queen wife Mumtaz
1660
of England
Martin Luther ▲
English monarchy is restored
1588 under Charles II
English fleet defeats the
1517 1688
Spanish Armada
Protestant Reformation Glorious Revolution
begins in Germany establishes limited monarchy
in England
Taj Mahal
6 U N IT 1 E ARLY A M E RICA
(cl) Werner Forman/Art Resource, NY, (bl) Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY, (br) Royalty Free/CORBIS
(tl) Jean-Antoine Houdon / Musee des Beaux-Arts, Orleans, France, Roger-Viollet, Paris/Bridgeman Art Library, (tr) Noah Webster Spelling Book From the Collections of The Henry Ford Museum
Benjamin Franklin
1700
1704 1773 1776 1783 ▲
First colonial newspaper is Phillis Wheatley’s poems are Thomas Paine begins The Noah Webster’s American
published published in London Crisis series Speller is published
1732 1776 1782 1787
Benjamin Franklin’s first Thomas Paine’s Common Letters from an American Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on
Poor Richard’s Almanack is Sense is published Farmer by Michel Guillaume the State of Virginia is
published Jean de Crèvecoeur is published
published
1771 1789
Benjamin Franklin begins Interesting Narrative of the
his Autobiography Life of Olaudah Equiano is
published in London
1700
1735 1776 1783
John Peter Zenger trial helps Declaration of Treaty of Paris is signed,
establish freedom of the press 1765 ▲ Independence is signed confirming independence of
Stamp Act triggers protest United States
1736 1781
Great Awakening religious throughout colonies British surrender at 1788
revival begins in Yorktown, ending the U.S. Constitution is ratified
1770
Massachusetts Revolutionary War
British troops fire on 1789
1739 colonists in Boston Massacre George Washington
Africans attack slaveholders becomes first president
1775
in the Stono Rebellion
Battles of Lexington and
1754–1763 Concord are fought
French and Indian War
is fought
1700
1726 1789 Revolutionary War drum
▲
Reading Check
Timeline Visit www.glencoe.com Analyzing Graphic Information What was the history
for an interactive timeline. of the English monarchy between 1642 and 1688?
INTRODUCTION 7
(c) Williamsburg Marketplace, (b) NPS: Amer. Rev. War/Guilford Courthouse
By the Numbers
The Columbian Exchange unintentionally brought with them many diseases to
which Native Americans had no immunity.
Following the arrival of European explorers and
settlers in the Western Hemisphere, many plants and Devastating epidemics resulted, with some Native
animals were carried between the Americas and Europe, American groups suffering a 90 percent population loss
Africa, and Asia. This complex interaction, called the in the first century after European contact.
Columbian Exchange, permanently altered Earth’s eco-
systems and changed many
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ple crops from the Americas, �����
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8 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
Being
(tl) Art Archive/Musee de la Marine, Paris/ Dagli Orti, (tr) Art Resource,NY
There
The Cherokee, Iroquois, and Huron peoples lived in
what is now the eastern United States. Great Britain’s
American colonies extended from present-day Maine
to Georgia.
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B Residence of David Twining, 1845–1847,
Edward Hicks. Oil on canvas. Private collection.
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C Tontine Coffee House, c. 1797, Francis Guy.
Oil on linen. New York Historical Society, NY.
�������
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I NT ROD U CT I ON 9
(b) Francis Guy/New York Historical Society, New York, USA/Bridgeman Art Library
Early America
Beginnings –1800
European Contact
Beginning about 1400, a number of forces prompted
Europeans to start exploring the rest of the world.
These forces included the growth of trade between
Europe and Asia and advances in navigation and
shipbuilding. Led by the Portuguese and the Spanish,
European explorers brought many parts of the world
into meaningful contact with one another for the
first time in history. One of these explorers was
Christopher Columbus, an Italian who commanded a
Spanish fleet. In 1492 he made the first of four voy-
ages from Spain to the Americas, opening the era
of cultural contact between Europe and the
Pulling Down the Statue of George III, 1857. William Walcutt. Western Hemisphere.
Oil on canvas. Lafayette College Art Collection, Easton, PA.
The Native Americans “Why will you take by force what you
When Europeans arrived in the Western Hemisphere may obtain by love? Why will you
in the 1490s, it was already home to hundreds of
Native American peoples with different languages,
destroy us who supply you with food?”
cultures, and social values. The ancestors of these —Powhatan to Captain John Smith
Native Americans had come to the Western
Hemisphere from Asia thousands of years before.
Most of these peoples reached North America by a
This cultural contact had enormous effects on world
land bridge that once linked Siberia and Alaska
history. The European exploration, conquest, and set-
across the Bering Strait, but some may have used
tlement of the Americas led to the founding of many
sea routes.
new nations—including the United States—that
For thousands of years, the descendants of these peo- would play a large role in world affairs. For the Native
ples spread throughout the forests, plains, deserts, and Americans, however, it was the beginning of an
mountains of the Americas. The Native Americans immense tragedy during which many of their societies
responded to these varied environments with differ- were destroyed by war and disease.
10 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
Bettmann/CORBIS
Religious Belief The American Revolution
Religion was a major factor in American colonial cul- In the mid-1760s, unrest began to develop in Great
ture. This was particularly true in the New England Britain’s American colonies. A long war with France
colonies, where groups of Protestants from England, had left Britain in debt. To raise money, the British
such as the Pilgrims and Puritans, founded settle- government passed a series of unpopular laws, includ-
ments beginning in 1620. Other groups seeking reli- ing taxes on a variety of everyday items. By the mid-
gious freedom followed, including the Quakers led by 1770s, resentment over these taxes was leading to
William Penn, who settled in Pennsylvania in 1670. political violence and calls for colonial self-rule.
In the 1730s and 1740s, a religious revival called the
Great Awakening, which began in New England,
spread throughout the American colonies. Two results
of this movement were increased feelings of responsi- “The war is inevitable—and let it come!”
bility for Native Americans and enslaved Africans —Patrick Henry
and a more tolerant spirit toward other faiths.
INT RODUCTION 11
Big Idea 1
The Sacred Earth and the Power of Stor y telling
W
e often have a strong feeling for the This concept of common ownership contrasted
land where we live—its shapes and sharply with that of the Europeans, who in the early
colors, its sounds and smells. For 1600s began settling North America. These settlers
Native Americans, this feeling for had a fierce desire to own their own land. Violent
the natural world around them ran very deep. To conflicts often resulted when Native American lead-
them, the entire earth and all of the living things ers signed treaties—which they usually did not under-
that inhabited it were sacred. In Native American stand—that opened lands to white settlement.
cultures, this reverence for the earth and its creatures
was passed down orally from generation
to generation. Speakers and storytellers were valued
members of Native American communities. “American literature begins with the
first human perception of the American
The Cycle of Life landscape expressed and preserved
This attitude toward the natural world shaped the in language.”
religious beliefs of Native Americans. They saw ani-
mals, plants, and the forces of nature as part of a great — N. Scott Momaday
sacred cycle of life that human beings must treat with
deep respect. The religious ceremonies of Native
American peoples were organized around the events
of this natural cycle, such as the changing seasons A Legacy of Stories
and the birth, growth, and death of living things. The Native American oral tradition began approxi-
Native Americans saw spiritual values in the natural mately forty thousand years ago when the first Native
world. Through dreams and visions, they sought con- Americans crossed from Asia to Alaska via a land
tact with the spirits they believed to inhabit all living bridge that has since been covered by the waters of
things. Through their tales and songs, Native the Bering Strait. As populations migrated south,
Americans expressed their view of the sacredness of unique cultures and languages developed in response
the natural world. to a variety of environments. When European explor-
ers first arrived in the New World, thousands of lan-
guages, some of them as different from one another
as English is from Chinese, were spoken in the
“Sell a country! Why not sell the air, the Americas. Each of these cultures developed its own
great sea, as well as the earth? Did not stories and mythology.
the Great Spirit make them all for the use No one knows what the earliest stories were about,
but it is likely that many dramatized the precarious
of his children?” day-to-day existence of the first Native Americans.
—Tecumseh, Shawnee leader Stone Age hunters may have related tales of the hunt
to groups sitting around campfires. Sacred stories were
often at the heart of religious ceremonies, and in
societies where myth and reality merged, rituals were
Owning the Land thought to link the spirits of hunters and animals.
The Native Americans’ belief that the natural Versions of the earliest stories have evolved through
world is sacred affected their attitude toward land- hundreds of generations and are still a living part of
ownership. In their view, no one person could own Native American traditions.
land, which instead belonged in common to all
people—and other living things—that inhabited it.
12 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
Mimbres style pottery
bowl painted with the
guardians of the four
seasons, Mogollon culture,
A.D. 10th century. Maxwell
Museum of Anthropology,
Albuquerque, NM.
Reading Check
Analyzing Cause and Effect How did Native
Americans’ religious views lead to conflict
with Europeans?
INT RODUCTION 13
Werner Forman / Art Resource, NY
Big Idea 2
Life in the New World
E
ven under favorable circumstances, adjusting Colony in 1620. Bradford viewed writing primarily
to a new home and a new way of life is often as a practical tool. At the beginning of his history of
hard. For the Europeans who explored and the Plymouth Colony, he said that he intended to
settled North America, this experience was produce a record of events in “a plain style, with sin-
frequently a struggle to endure and subdue a wilder- gular regard unto the simple truth in all things.”
ness and was marked by fierce conflicts with Native
Americans. For the Africans seized from their homes
and enslaved in the Americas, the experience was a “For we must consider that we shall be
battle first to survive and then to hold on to their
cultural identity under slavery. as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all
people are upon us.”
A Collision of Cultures —John Winthrop
Europeans began to explore North America in the
early 1500s. Many of these explorers wrote grim
reports of the hardships they encountered in the In 1734 Jonathan Edwards (see pages 88 – 93), a
wilderness. The first arrivals were followed by other Congregational minister who was the greatest spokes-
Europeans, settlers who built towns and started farms. man of Puritanism, began a series of religious revivals
As European settlement spread, conflict developed among the young people in his community of
between the newcomers and Native Americans that Northampton, Massachusetts. His powerful sermons,
often led to brutal wars. Their superior weapons such as “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,”
enabled the Europeans to overcome their enemies. helped start and sustain the Great Awakening, a
Even more destructive to the Native Americans were widespread religious revival throughout the American
the diseases the newcomers brought with them. As a colonies. Edwards maintained that a person had to
result of war and disease, few Native Americans sur- repent and convert in order to be “born again.” This
vived beyond the end of the 1600s. idea of having an internal emotional experience
that brings one to God was a central idea of the
Puritan Style Great Awakening.
The Puritans were European settlers who had the
greatest influence on early American literature. Surviving Slavery
They began to establish communities in New England The first enslaved Africans were brought to Virginia
in the 1620s after leaving England to escape what in 1619. By the 1700s, slave ships arrived regularly in
they saw as signs of corruption in the Church of the American colonies full of African men, women,
England. These included elaborate rituals, a richly and children to be bought and sold. Most of these
dressed clergy, and fine churches. In opposition to people, like Olaudah Equiano (see pages 63 – 73), had
this, Puritans dressed in a plain style and held their been taken from their homes in West Africa by slave
simple religious services in undecorated meeting- traders. After enduring the horrors of the “Middle
houses. They also believed that they had a God-given Passage,” the long sea voyage across the Atlantic,
responsibility to establish an ideal way of life they reached the slave markets of the Americas.
in America. Despite brutal living conditions, these Africans strug-
The Puritans’ plainness and piety showed in their gled to preserve parts of their heritage—the social
writing, which employed straightforward language values and cultural traditions of their homelands—
and often focused on their faith. William Bradford but usually without success.
(see pages 60 – 65) was a member of the Puritan
group known as the Pilgrims, who settled Plymouth
14 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
Quaker Meeting, late 18th century. Anonymous. Oil on canvas, 251/4 x 30 in. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA.
September 6. These troubles being blown over, and hoped to help to cast half of them overboard before they
now all being compact together in one ship [the came to their journey’s end, and to make merry with
Mayflower], they put to sea again with a prosperous what they had; and if he were by any gently reproved, he
wind, which continued divers days together, which was would curse and swear most bitterly. But it pleased God
some encouragement unto them; yet, according to the before they came half seas over, to smite this young
usual manner, many were afflicted with sea sickness. And man with a grievous disease, of which he died in a des-
I may not omit here a special work of God’s providence. perate manner, and so was himself the first that was
There was a proud and very profane young man, one of thrown overboard. Thus his curses light on his own head,
the seamen, of a lusty, able body, which made him the and it was an astonishment to all his fellows, for they
more haughty; he would always be condemning the poor noted it to be the just hand of God upon him.
people in their sickness, and cursing them daily with
grievous execrations, and did not let to tell them that he
Reading Check
Evaluating Why did the Puritans adopt a plain style in
their writing?
INT RODUCTION 15
MFA Boston
Big Idea 3
The Road to Independence
A
s human beings grow, they experience evil. The combined effect of a bold, enterprising spirit
the challenges and rewards of becoming coupled with education was the emergence in the
independent. Maturity brings both American colonies of an outstanding political leader-
greater responsibilities and greater rights. ship, which one of these leaders, Thomas Jefferson
Separated by a long, dangerous sea voyage from (see pages 112–117), called a “natural aristocracy” of
Britain, the American colonists became used to man- virtue and talent.
aging their own affairs. As colonial society developed,
many Americans came to believe that this growth in
responsibility should be matched with an increase in
Political Rights
political and economic rights. In time, this belief Philosophical ideas helped to direct the American
would lead to revolution—resulting in a break with colonists’ moves toward revolution. During the 1700s,
Britain, a long war, and full independence. America came under the influence of the European
cultural movement known as the Enlightenment.
Enlightenment thinkers believed that natural laws
A “Natural Aristocracy” applied to social, political, and economic relation-
The culture of the American colonies was shaped ships. Among the ideas of the Enlightenment was the
by the practical, self-reliant, pioneer spirit of settlers concept that human beings possessed certain natural,
who had left their homelands to seek a better life. or “inalienable” rights, basic rights that could never
As the French-born American Michel Guillaume be taken away. Thomas Jefferson believed that the
Jean de Crèvecoeur observed, “He is an American colonists had a natural right to be free. He also
who, leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices believed that they had a right—indeed a duty—to
and manners, receives new ones from the mode of end what he saw as Britain’s tyrannical rule of the
life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, colonies by establishing their own independent gov-
and the new rank he holds.” The career of Benjamin ernment. In the Declaration of Independence,
Franklin (see pages 96–103) reflected the American Jefferson eloquently expressed the fundamental ideas
colonists’ ability to rise in the world. He began life behind the American Revolution and fiercely
as one of seventeen children in a poor family. He denounced British injustice.
ended as a successful businessman, an influential poli-
tician, and a famous writer and scientist.
Women’s Lives
In colonial America, law and custom gave men
greater authority and importance than women in
“Sloth, like rust, consumes faster politics and in the household. A married woman, in
than labor wears, while the used key particular, had few legal rights and was almost com-
pletely under her husband’s control. Despite their
is always bright.” legal limitations, many colonial women worked
—Benjamin Franklin outside their homes, running farms and businesses.
Women also played a vital role in the movement for
American independence by organizing boycotts of
British goods. During the Revolutionary War, women
Another important factor in the maturing of continued to make important contributions to the
American colonial society was an emphasis on self- American cause, both on the home front and on the
improvement through education. New England’s battlefront. However, the full exercise of the political
Puritans, for example, established a system of public rights they helped win would be denied them for
schools, believing that learning was a defense against another 140 years.
16 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
815
Reading Check
Analyzing Cause and Effect How did the American
colonies come to have an effective group of leaders at
the time of the Revolution?
INT RODUCTION 17
Geoffrey Clements/CORBIS
Wrap-Up
Why It Matters Cultural Links
American literature began with the oral tradition of Native American literature has been flourishing
the Native Americans. This ancient legacy of stories, since the late 1960s. Among the major writers
songs, prayers, history, and other lore enabled the contributing to this literary renaissance are
Native Americans to preserve the outlines of a world N. Scott Momaday, Louise Erdrich, Leslie Marmon
that largely vanished. Disease and war followed the Silko, and Sherman Alexie.
arrival of Europeans in the Western Hemisphere.
The writings of Benjamin Franklin, particularly his
In recent years, new generations of Native American
Autobiography, have inspired both Americans and
writers have reinterpreted, in modern terms, the
people around the world to implement programs of
literary themes and forms of this tradition, as part
self-improvement. Frederick Douglass was among
of a continuing effort to explore Native American
those who used Franklin’s writing as a model.
cultural identity.
In 1848, at the first women’s rights convention in
The writings of the Puritans are part of a cultural
the United States, Elizabeth Cady Stanton mod-
tradition stretching back to the time of Martin Luther
eled her “Declaration of Rights and Sentiments”
and the beginnings of the Protestant Reformation.
on Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence.
As interpreted by the Puritans, some of the most
important features of this tradition became central You might try using this study organizer to keep track of the
to the American cultural tradition. Central to this literary elements you learn in this unit.
Poems
Another influential feature of Puritan culture is its
emphasis on simplicity and practicality.
BOUND BOOK
Liter
Puritanism inspired the religious revival of the Great ar
Elem y
Awakening, which in turn inspired a desire for ents
democracy and equality in its followers. To many
Americans, this sense of equality applied not only to
religion but to society as well. It encouraged in them
a willingness to criticize established authority—
including the authority of the British government. Big Ideas Link to Web resources to
further explore the Big Ideas at www.glencoe.com.
1. Speaking/Listening Divide into two groups and debate the following statement: “The influence of
Puritanism on modern American culture has been generally positive.”
2. Visual Literacy Alone or with other students, create a design expressing the Native American concept of
the unending cycle of life.
3. Writing Write a brief essay exploring how Jefferson’s “natural aristocracy” of virtue and talent that
formed the leadership of the American Revolution would regard those governing the United States today?
OB J EC TIVES
• Use verbal and nonverbal strategies when presenting ideas.
• Recognize characteristics of cultures through reading. Study Central Visit www.glencoe.com
• Clarify and defend positions with evidence. and click on Study Central to review Early America.
18 U N IT 1 EARLY AMERICA
Part 1
Crossing the Ford, Platte River, Colorado, 1867–1870, Thomas Worthington Whittredge. Oil on canvas. Century Association, New York.
19
Thomas Worthington/Century Association, New York, USA/Bridgeman Art Library
LITER ARY H I STORY
C
ENTURIES BEFORE THE FIRST “When earth was still young and giants still roamed the
Europeans arrived on the shores of North land, a great sickness came upon them. All of them
America, Native Americans had established died except for one small boy. One day while he was
hundreds of thriving nations, each with a unique playing, a snake bit him. The boy cried and cried.
culture and heritage. Each nation had its own The blood came out, and finally he died. With his
tradition of oral literature—stories that were passed tears our lakes became. With his blood the red clay
down from one generation to the next as they were became. With his body our mountains became, and
told and retold in the privacy of households and in that was how earth became.”
tribal ceremonies. These stories embodied the tribe’s
past and told of its close relationship with the
natural world. The result is a literature that is
timeless, a literature created by no one author but
by the people as a whole.
Creation Myths
An important part of the oral tradition of each
culture was its myths. A myth is an anonymous,
traditional story that relies on the supernatural to
explain a natural phenomenon, an aspect of
human behavior, or a mystery of the universe.
Myths try to explain why the world is the way it
is. They provide imaginative ways to help people
feel at home in the world and make sense of it.
Creation myths tell how the world and human
beings came to exist. Some myths, called origin
myths, explain how natural phenomena, such as
the stars, moon, and mountains, came to be or
why a society has certain beliefs and customs.
Often, elements of both creation myths and origin
myths appear in one story, as in this myth of the
Taos Pueblo people:
Totem Pole at Saxman Totem Park, Ketchikan. Tlingit. Wood
sculpture. Ketchikan, Alaska, USA.
20 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
Pat O’Hara/CORBIS
Archetypes
The myths told by peoples around the world share
common elements known as archetypes. An archetype
(är kə tı̄p´) is a symbol, story pattern, or character type
that is found in the literature of many cultures. An
example of an archetype is children with opposite
qualities who are born of the same parent. In Iroquois
myth, Sky Woman gives birth to twins, one good and
one evil. This event explains the eternal struggle
between light and dark and between order and chaos.
Round rattle, raven/halibut design. Seattle Art Museum, Gift of
John H. Hauberg.
Tricksters Viewing the Artifact: What feature does this artifact contain
that reflects Native American beliefs?
Another archetype found in Native American
mythology is the trickster. This character type, spiritual bond between the Creator, humanity, and
frequently an animal—such as a coyote, a raven, or a the entire natural world. They emphasize that it is
mink—that speaks and displays other human traits, has the duty of human beings to maintain a balance
two sides to its personality. Tricksters are rebels who defy within the natural world.
authority and frequently cause trouble, but they are also
In many Native American cultures, each family group, or
clever and creative figures who can unexpectedly reveal
clan, believed it descended from a particular animal or
wisdom. For example, in one Native American myth,
other natural object, called the totem. Members of the
the coyote brought death into the world when he
bear clan, for example, honored the bear as their clan
realized that the earth would become too crowded if
ancestor. The bear in turn served as the clan’s guardian
people were to live forever. In a Navajo myth, the Holy
spirit, helping and protecting its members. The bear clan
People were gathered to place the stars in the sky. This
was responsible for preserving the myths of the bear.
process was taking so long that Coyote grew impatient,
snatched the bag of stars, and hurled it into the heavens, Myths and rituals continue to play a central role in
forming the Milky Way. A Kiowa myth explains how a traditional Native American cultures. They are used
trickster stole the sun from those who lived on the other to give people a sense of order and identity, to heal
side of the earth so that all people could share day and the sick, to ensure a plentiful supply of food, to teach
night equally. moral lessons, and to initiate young people into
adulthood and the wisdom of the tribal past.
R ES P O N D I N G AN D TH I N K I N G C R ITI CALLY
1. In your opinion, what is the most vital role of 3. What are some archetypes that can be found in such
mythology in a culture? forms of popular culture as comic books, movies,
and video games?
2. How do Native American myths express a dual view
of reality?
O B J EC TIVES
• Analyze characteristics of myths
• Connect to historical context of literature
LITERARY HISTO RY 21
Seattle Art Museum/CORBIS
B EF O R E YO U R E A D
T
who had served in the U.S. Army, developed a sys-
heir neighbors, the Creek, called them
tem of writing the Cherokee language called a sylla-
Cherokee, meaning “people with another lan-
bary, a set of written characters in which each
guage.” They called themselves Aniyunwiya,
character represents a syllable. When Sequoyah
“the real people.” Hundreds of years ago, the
pitched the syllabary to the tribal council, the chiefs
Cherokee were the largest Native American nation
marveled at its prospects and immediately accepted
in what is now the southeastern United States. Like
the new technology. Within a few years, almost the
most other Native American peoples, the Cherokee
entire Cherokee nation was literate. In 1828, the
possessed a vibrant oral culture. Myths helped the
Cherokee used their syllabary to publish The
Cherokee understand the world around them, live in
Cherokee Phoenix, the first Native American newspa-
harmony with nature, and pass on their beliefs and
per. But adopting white cultural practices did noth-
values to their descendants.
ing to disarm the westward expansion. In 1830, the
In the mid-1500s, the Cherokee used stone tools and Cherokee were forcibly removed from their land
hunted bears, elk, and deer. They lived in log cabins under the Indian Removal Act. Some 15,000
with bark roofs, no windows, and a smoke hole in the Cherokee were placed in internment camps. Mean-
roof, in towns of about 200 people. At any given while, settlers pillaged and burned Cherokee homes.
time, the Cherokee were in either peace mode or war
mode. Because they lived in an alternating state, the Trail of Tears In 1838–1839, the Cherokee were
Cherokee government was made up of two sets of exiled from their ancestral home and forced to march
officials: a white chief, who ruled during peacetime, 1,000 miles to present-day Oklahoma, then known as
and a red chief, who ruled during wartime. Indian Territory. As many as 4,000 Cherokee died
during the grueling 116-day journey. The soldiers
refused to slow down for the sick and exhausted.
Treaty of Augusta In the frenzy of activity sur-
Today, most Cherokee still live in Oklahoma, while
rounding the American Revolution, Cherokee land-
several thousand, the descendants of those who
holdings were drastically reduced. The Cherokee had
escaped the Trail of Tears, still live in North Carolina.
been friendly trading partners with the British
throughout the 1700s but had fallen into debt. In the
Treaty of Augusta in 1773, the Cherokee and Creek PA NJ
OH MD
were forced to cede vast swaths of their tribal lands in IL IN DE
Georgia to repay these debts to the British. Hoping WV
to regain their traditional hunting grounds, the MO VA
KY
Cherokee pledged their support for the British at the
beginning of the American Revolution. In the 1770s NC
and 1780s, the Cherokee engaged in a flurry of skir- TN
mishes with the American army. They lost each time AR Cherokee
nation SC
and were forced to surrender more lands.
MS AL GA
Assimilation In the 1800s, the Cherokee learned
LA ATLANTIC
to adapt by assimilating elements of white culture. OCEAN
Author Search For more about Author Search FL For more about
the Cherokee, go to www.glencoe.com. this author,
GULFgo to
OFwww.literature.glencoe.com.
MEXICO
22 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
C05-02C-A-827365
L I T E R AT U R E P R E V I E W R E A D I N G P R EVI E W
Big Idea The Sacred Earth and the vault (volt) n. an arched structure forming a
roof or ceiling; p. 24 The church’s vault arched
Power of Storytelling
high over our heads.
As you read “How the World Was Made,” notice
what it reveals about the Cherokees’ relationship alight (ə l¯t ) v. to descend and come to rest;
with nature. p. 24 The cat watched the pigeon alight on the roof.
conjurer (kon jər ər) n. one who performs
Literary Element Archetype magic; sorcerer; p. 25 The conjurer amused the
audience with his tricks.
An archetype is a character type, a descriptive
detail, an image, or a story pattern that recurs
Vocabulary Tip: Synonyms Synonyms are words
frequently in the literature from many cultures and
that have the same or similar meanings. Note that
evokes strong emotional responses. As you read
synonyms are always the same part of speech.
“How the World Was Made,” look for archetypal
elements.
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • understanding archetypes
• relating literature to cultural values • identifying sequence
CHEROKEE MYTH 23
(Cherokee–Great Smoky Mountains)
Retold by James Mooney
Vocabulary Vocabulary
vault (volt) n. an arched structure forming a roof or ceiling alight (ə l̄t) v. to descend and come to rest
24 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
Getty Images
set it in a track to go every day across the island
from east to west, just overhead. It was too hot
this way, and Tsiska´gı̆lı̆´(chēs ka i li´) the Red
Crawfish, had his shell scorched a bright red, so
that his meat was spoiled; and the Cherokee do
not eat it. The conjurers put the sun another
hand-breadth2 higher in the air, but it was still
too hot. They raised it another time, and
another, until it was seven handbreadths high
and just under the sky arch. Then it was right,
and they left it so. This is why the conjurers call
the highest place Gûlkwâ´gine Di´gălûñ´lătiyûñ´
(ul kwo ē nā dē´ ol un() lot ē yun()),
“the seventh height,” because it is seven hand-
breadths above the earth. Every day the sun goes
along under this arch, and returns at night on
the upper side to the starting place.
There is another world under this, and it is like
ours in everything—animals, plants, and people—
save that the seasons are different. The streams
that come down from the mountains are the trails nearly all were awake through the first night,
by which we reach this underworld, and the but the next night several dropped off to
springs at their heads are the doorways by which sleep, and the third night others were asleep,
we enter it, but to do this one must fast and go to and then others, until, on the seventh night,
water and have one of the underground people for of all the animals only the owl, the panther,
a guide. We know that the seasons in the under- and one or two more were still awake. To
world are different from ours, because the water in these were given the power to see and to go
the springs is always warmer in winter and cooler about in the dark, and to make prey of the
in summer than the outer air. birds and animals which must sleep at night.
When the animals and plants were first made— Of the trees only the cedar, the pine, the
we do not know by whom—they were told to spruce, the holly, and the laurel were awake to
watch and keep awake for seven nights, just as the end, and to them it was given to be always
young men now fast and keep awake when they green and to be greatest for medicine, but to
pray to their medicine.3 They tried to do this, and the others it was said: “Because you have not
endured to the end you shall lose your hair
2. A hand-breadth is a unit of measurement based on the every winter.”
width of a hand. It varies from 2½ to 4 inches. Men came after the animals and plants. At
3. Many Native American cultures believe that each plant, first there were only a brother and sister until
animal, and human has its own natural spirit that gives it
he struck her with a fish and told her to mul-
power. Medicine, in this instance, refers to this spirit.
tiply, and so it was. In seven days a child was
Reading Strategy Identifying Sequence When do the born to her, and thereafter every seven days
following events take place in relation to those you have another, and they increased very fast until
already read about?
there was danger that the world could not
Vocabulary
keep them. Then it was made that a woman
should have only one child in a year, and it
conjurer (kon jər ər) n. one who performs magic; sorcerer
has been so ever since.
C HER OK EE MYTH 25
Peter Johnson/CORBIS
A F T E R YO U R E A D
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. Which events in this myth do you find most mem- 5. (a)What does the narrator say when Cherokee
orable and why? tradition has no answer or explanation for an
occurrence? (b)How does the narrator’s phrasing
enhance the myth? Explain.
Recall and Interpret
6. For the Cherokee, are humans more important
2. (a)What is the little Water-beetle’s role in the cre- than plants or animals or equal to them? Support
ation of Earth? (b)What does this tell you about your view with examples from the myth.
Cherokee reverence for all creatures?
3. (a)What do the “conjurers” do? (b)Who do you Connect
think the conjurers are? Explain. 7. Big Idea The Sacred Earth and the Power of
4. (a)Which animals and plants are able to keep Storytelling (a)Why do the Cherokee people explain
awake for seven nights? (b)What moral lesson natural phenomena, such as mountains, underground
might this episode teach? springs, nocturnal predators, or evergreen trees, in
story terms? (b)What do these explanations suggest
about the Cherokee relationship with nature?
L I T E R A RY A N A LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
26 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
C U LT U R AL P ER SP ECTIV E on How the World Was Made
Informational Text
N. Scott Momaday
Pulitzer Prize Winner
Building Background
In the 1700s, the Kiowa (k̄´ə wa ) Indians began a
long migration from southwestern Montana to the
southern Great Plains. Along the way, they made con-
a single knoll rises out of the plain in
Oklahoma, north and west of the
Wichita Range. For my people, the
Kiowas, it is an old landmark, and they gave it
tact with the Crow Indians of southeastern Montana, the name Rainy Mountain. The hardest
whose nomadic way of life greatly influenced the weather in the world is there. Winter brings
Kiowa. Their travels came to an end in 1868 when blizzards, hot tornadic winds arise in the
they were forced to settle on an Oklahoma reservation. spring, and in summer the prairie is an anvil’s
Kiowa author N. Scott Momaday (mom´ə dā) fre- edge. The grass turns brittle and brown, and it
quently writes about the Kiowas’ rich history. In the fol- cracks beneath your feet. There are green belts
lowing selection, he describes their connection to the along the rivers and creeks, linear groves of
natural world and the end of the tribe’s golden age. hickory and pecan, willow and witch hazel. At
a distance in July or August the steaming foli-
Set a Purpose for Reading age seems almost to writhe1 in fire. Great
Read to learn about the Kiowas’ culture and their rela- green and yellow grasshoppers are everywhere
tionship with the land. in the tall grass, popping up like corn to sting
the flesh, and tortoises crawl about on the red
Reading Strategy earth, going nowhere in the plenty of time.
Analyzing Cultural Traditions Loneliness is an aspect of the land. All things
in the plain are isolate;2 there is no confusion
In the selection, Momaday presents his understanding
of objects in the eye, but one hill or one tree or
of Kiowa culture. Examine the elements that make up
one man. To look upon that landscape in the
the selection, such as the descriptions of the land, of
Kiowa history, and of Momaday’s grandmother. Think
early morning, with the sun at your back, is to
about what all of these elements, taken together, sug-
gest about the Kiowa.
1. Writhe means “to twist as in great pain.”
2. Isolate means “solitary.”
N . S C O T T M OM A D AY 27
Werner Forman / Art Resource, NY
Informational Text
lose the sense of proportion. Your imagination golden age. Along the way the Kiowas were
comes to life, and this, you think, is where befriended by the Crows, who gave them the
Creation was begun. culture and religion of the Plains. They acquired
I returned to Rainy Mountain in July. My horses, and their ancient nomadic spirit was sud-
grandmother had died in the spring, and I denly free of the ground. They acquired Tai-me,6
wanted to be at her grave. She had lived to be the sacred Sun Dance doll, from that moment
very old and at last infirm.3 Her only living the object and symbol of their worship, and so
daughter was with her when she died, and I was shared in the divinity of the sun. Not least, they
told that in death her face was that of a child. acquired the sense of destiny, therefore courage
I like to think of her as a child. When she and pride. When they entered upon the southern
was born, the Kiowas were living the last great Plains they had been transformed. No longer
moment of their history. For more than a hun- were they slaves to the simple necessity of sur-
dred years they had controlled the open range vival; they were a lordly and dangerous society of
from the Smoky Hill River to the Red, from the fighters and thieves, hunters and priests of the
headwaters of the Canadian to the fork of the sun. According to their origin myth, they
Arkansas and Cimarron. In alliance with the entered the world through a hollow log. From
Comanches, they had ruled the whole of the one point of view, their migration was the fruit
southern Plains. War was their sacred business, of an old prophecy, for indeed they emerged from
and they were among the finest horsemen the a sunless world.
world has ever known. But warfare for the Although my grandmother lived out her long
Kiowas was preeminently4 a matter of disposition life in the shadow of Rainy Mountain, the
rather than of survival, and they never under- immense landscape of the continental interior
stood the grim, unrelenting advance of the U.S. lay like memory in her blood. She could tell of
Cavalry. When at last, divided and ill-provi- the Crows, whom she had never seen, and of the
sioned, they were driven onto the Staked Plains Black Hills, where she had never been. I wanted
in the cold rains of autumn, they fell into panic. to see in reality what she had seen more perfectly
In Palo Duro Canyon they abandoned their cru- in the mind’s eye, and traveled fifteen hundred
cial stores to pillage5 and had nothing then but miles to begin my pilgrimage.
their lives. In order to save themselves, they sur- Yellowstone, it seemed to me, was the top of
rendered to the soldiers at Fort Sill and were the world, a region of deep lakes and dark tim-
imprisoned in the old stone corral that now ber, canyons and waterfalls. But, beautiful as it is,
stands as a military museum. My grandmother one might have the sense of confinement there.
was spared the humiliation of those high gray The skyline in all directions is close at hand, the
walls by eight or ten years, but she must have high wall of the woods and deep cleavages of
known from birth the affliction of defeat, the shade. There is a perfect freedom in the moun-
dark brooding of old warriors. tains, but it belongs to the eagle and the elk, the
Her name was Aho, and she belonged to badger and the bear. The Kiowas reckoned their
the last culture to evolve in North America. stature by the distance they could see, and they
Her forebears came down from the high coun- were bent and blind in the wilderness.
try in western Montana nearly three centuries Descending eastward, the highland meadows
ago. They were a mountain people, a mysteri- are a stairway to the plain. In July the inland
ous tribe of hunters whose language has never slope of the Rockies is luxuriant7 with flax and
been positively classified in any major group. buckwheat, stonecrop and larkspur.8 The earth
In the late seventeenth century they began a
long migration to the south and east. It was a
journey toward the dawn, and it led to a 6. Tai-me (t̄ mā), the Sun Dance doll, wears a robe of white
feathers.
7. Luxuriant means “marked by rich or plentiful growth.”
8. Flax is a flowering plant whose fibers are spun to make
3. Infirm means “physically weak” or “feeble.” cloth. Buckwheat is a plant whose seeds are used as a
4. Preeminently means “primarily.” cereal grain. Stonecrop is a flowering plant found on rocks
5. Pillage means “to loot” or “to plunder.” and walls. Larkspur is known for its showy flower stalks.
28 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
Informational Text
R
D
E
A
r
L
O
I
U
N O
Rainy
WI
OK
KLAHOM
t .
S
unfolds and the limit of the land recedes. Clusters oldest deity ranging after the solstices.10 Not yet
ofGMH17
trees, and
01 animals grazing far in the distance, would they veer southward to the caldron of the
S11-307-01A-845481
cause the vision to reach away and wonder to build land that lay below; they must wean their
First Proof
upon the mind. The sun follows a longer course in blood11 from the northern winter and hold the
the day, and the sky is immense beyond all compar- mountains a while longer in their view. They
ison. The great billowing clouds that sail upon it bore Tai-me in procession to the east.
are shadows that move upon the grain like water, A dark mist lay over the Black Hills, and
dividing light. Farther down, in the land of the the land was like iron. At the top of a ridge I
Crows and Blackfeet, the plain is yellow. Sweet clo- caught sight of Devil’s Tower12 upthrust
ver takes hold of the hills and bends upon itself to against the gray sky as if in the birth of time
cover and seal the soil. There the Kiowas paused the core of the earth had broken through its
on their way; they had come to the place where crust and the motion of the world was begun.
they must change their lives. The sun is at home
on the plains. Precisely there does it have the cer-
10. Solstices are days when the earth and the sun are in a
tain character of a god. When the Kiowas came to certain alignment. In the Northern Hemisphere, the
the land of the Crows, they could see the dark lees9 summer and winter solstices are the longest and shortest
of the hills at dawn across the Bighorn River, days of the year.
the profusion of light on the grain shelves, the 11. Wean their blood means “to become acclimated by
removing themselves gradually.”
12. Devils Tower, an 865-foot-high column of volcanic rock in
9. Lees are the sides of hills that are away from the wind. Wyoming, was designated as a national monument in 1906.
N. SC OT T MOMADAY 29
Informational Text
There are things in nature that engender13 an men journeyed into Texas, there to beg and
awful quiet in the heart of man; Devil’s Tower barter for an animal from the Goodnight herd.
is one of them. Two centuries ago, because She was ten when the Kiowas came together
they could not do otherwise, the Kiowas made for the last time as a living Sun Dance culture.
a legend at the base of the rock. My grand- They could find no buffalo; they had to hang
mother said: an old hide from the sacred tree. Before the
Eight children were there at play, seven sisters dance could begin, a company of soldiers rode
and their brother. Suddenly the boy was struck out from Fort Sill under orders to disperse the
dumb; he trembled and began to run upon his tribe. Forbidden without cause the essential
hands and feet. His fingers became claws, and his act of their faith, having seen the wild herds
body was covered with fur. Directly there was a slaughtered and left to rot upon the ground,
bear where the boy had been. The sisters were the Kiowas backed away forever from the med-
terrified; they ran, and the bear after them. They icine tree. That was July 20, 1890, at the great
came to the stump of a great tree, and the tree bend of the Washita. My grandmother was
spoke to them. It bade them climb upon it, and as there. Without bitterness, and for as long as
they did so it began to rise into the air. The bear she lived, she bore a vision of deicide.16
came to kill them, but they were just beyond its Now that I can have her only in memory, I
reach. It reared against the tree and scored the see my grandmother in the several postures
bark all around with its claws. The seven sisters that were peculiar to her: standing at the
were borne into the sky, and they became the wood stove on a winter morning and turning
stars of the Big Dipper.14 meat in a great iron skillet; sitting at the
south window, bent above her beadwork, and
From that moment, and so long as the legend afterwards, when her vision failed, looking
lives, the Kiowas have kinsmen in the night down for a long time into the fold of her
sky. Whatever they were in the mountains, hands; going out upon a cane, very slowly as
they could be no more. However tenuous their she did when the weight of age came upon
well-being, however much they had suffered her; praying. I remember her most often at
and would suffer again, they had found a way prayer. She made long, rambling prayers out of
out of the wilderness. suffering and hope, having seen many things.
My grandmother had a reverence for the I was never sure that I had the right to hear,
sun, a holy regard that now is all but gone out so exclusive were they of all mere custom and
of mankind. There was a wariness in her, and company. The last time I saw her she prayed
an ancient awe. She was a Christian in her standing by the side of her bed at night, naked
later years, but she had come a long way to the waist, the light of a kerosene lamp
about, and she never forgot her birthright. As moving upon her dark skin. Her long, black
a child she had been to the Sun Dances; she hair, always drawn and braided in the day, lay
had taken part in those annual rites, and by upon her shoulders and against her breasts
them she had learned the restoration of her like a shawl. I do not speak Kiowa, and I
people in the presence of Tai-me. She was never understood her prayers, but there was
about seven when the last Kiowa Sun Dance something inherently sad in the sound, some
was held in 1887 on the Washita River above merest hesitation upon the syllables of sorrow.
Rainy Mountain Creek. The buffalo were She began in a high and descending pitch,
gone. In order to consummate15 the ancient exhausting her breath to silence; then again
sacrifice—to impale the head of a buffalo bull and again—and always the same intensity of
upon the medicine tree—a delegation of old effort, of something that is, and is not, like
urgency in the human voice. Transported so
in the dancing light among the shadows of her
13. Engender means “to give rise to” or “to produce.” room, she seemed beyond the reach of time.
14. The Big Dipper is part of a larger constellation called Ursa
Major, the Great Bear.
15. Consummate means “to bring to completion.” 16. Deicide is the killing of a god.
30 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
Viewing the Photograph: Why do you think the sight of Devil’s Tower (see pages 29–30)
might have inspired the Kiowa to create a legend?
But that was illusion; I think I knew then that I made of lean and leather, and they bore them-
should not see her again. selves upright. They wore great black hats and
Houses are like sentinels in the plain, old bright ample shirts that shook in the wind.
keepers of the weather watch. There, in a very They rubbed fat upon their hair and wound
little while, wood takes on the appearance of their braids with strips of colored cloth. Some
great age. All colors wear soon away in the wind of them painted their faces and carried the
and rain, and then the wood is burned gray and scars of old and cherished enmities.19 They
the grain appears and the nails turn red with were an old council of warlords, come to
rust. The windowpanes are black and opaque;17 remind and be reminded of who they were.
you imagine there is nothing within, and indeed Their wives and daughters served them well.
there are many ghosts, bones given up to the The women might indulge themselves; gossip
land. They stand here and there against the sky, was at once the mark and compensation of
and you approach them for a longer time than their servitude. They made loud and elaborate
you expect. They belong in the distance; it is talk among themselves, full of jest and gesture,
their domain.18 fright and false alarm. They went abroad20 in
Once there was a lot of sound in my grand- fringed and flowered shawls, bright beadwork
mother’s house, a lot of coming and going, and German silver.21 They were at home in
feasting and talk. The summers there were full the kitchen, and they prepared meals that
of excitement and reunion. The Kiowas are a were banquets.
summer people; they abide the cold and keep There were frequent prayer meetings, and
to themselves, but when the season turns and great nocturnal feasts. When I was a child I
the land becomes warm and vital they cannot played with my cousins outside, where the
hold still; an old love of going returns upon lamplight fell upon the ground and the sing-
them. The aged visitors who came to my ing of the old people rose up around us and
grandmother’s house when I was a child were carried away into the darkness. There were
N. SCOTT MOMADAY 31
Joseph Sohm; Visions of America/CORBIS
Informational Text
a lot of good things to eat, a lot of laughter gone there, I thought, to
and surprise. And afterwards, when the quiet live and die, for there, of
returned, I lay down with my grandmother and all places, was its small
could hear the frogs away by the river and feel definition made whole
the motion of the air. and eternal. A warm wind
Now there is a funeral silence in the rooms, rose up and purled22 like Visual Vocabulary
the endless wake of some final word. The walls the longing within me. A scissortail, a type of
have closed in upon my grandmother’s house. The next morning I flycatcher, is a small
gray and pink bird
When I returned to it in mourning, I saw for awoke at dawn and went
with a forked tail.
the first time in my life how small it was. It out on the dirt road to
was late at night, and there was a white moon, Rainy Mountain. It was
nearly full. I sat for a long time on the stone already hot, and the grasshoppers began to fill
steps by the kitchen door. From there I could the air. Still, it was early in the morning, and
see out across the land; I could see the long the birds sang out of the shadows. The long
row of trees by the creek, the low light upon yellow grass on the mountain shone in the
the rolling plains, and the stars of the Big bright light, and a scissor-tail hied23 above the
Dipper. Once I looked at the moon and caught land. There, where it ought to be, at the end
sight of a strange thing. A cricket had perched of a long and legendary way, was my grand-
upon the handrail, only a few inches away mother’s grave. Here and there on the dark
from me. My line of vision was such that the stones were ancestral names. Looking back
creature filled the moon like a fossil. It had once, I saw the mountain and came away.
R ES P O N D I N G AN D TH I N K I N G C R ITI CALLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. How did you react to the description of the end of 5. (a)Explain why Momaday considers his grand-
the Kiowas’ old way of life? mother a living embodiment of Kiowa history.
(b)Did you find this description convincing? Why or
Recall and Interpret why not?
2. (a)What is the importance of Rainy Mountain?
6. Momaday watches a cricket that he says came to
(b)Why, do you think, does Momaday feel that
Rainy Mountain to die, “for there, of all places, was
Rainy Mountain is “where Creation was begun”?
its small definition made whole and eternal.” He
3. Summarize what you learned about the Kiowa sur- also describes his grandmother’s grave. Which of
render and the last Sun Dance. Then explain these works best for you as a symbol? Explain.
Momaday’s attitude toward these events, supporting
your answer with details from the selection. Connect
4. (a)What elements of Kiowa traditional beliefs were 7. Momaday once said, “I don’t see any validity in the
part of the grandmother’s life? (b)What do you separation of man and landscape.” He has also
learn about the Kiowa people from the way that called human alienation from nature “one of the
they respond to the end of their traditional lifestyle? great afflictions of our time.” How are these ideas
embodied in the selection? Support your answer.
O B J EC TIVES
• Analyze a work of literature, showing how it reflects the heritage, traditions, and beliefs of its author.
• Make judgments about how effectively an author supports his or her beliefs, using evidence from the text.
32 U N IT 1 EARLY AMERICA
Comparing Literature Across Time and Place
Huron—Eastern Woodland
The Sky Tree.......................................................................... myth ..................... 35
From water emerges Turtle Island
Native American,
Huron, c. 1600s
Sherman Alexie
The Summer of Black Widows ..................................poem ..................... 44
Endurance—an essential quality of stories
Native American,
Spokane, 1996
COM PAR I NG TH E Big Idea The Sacred Earth and the Power of
Storytelling
Storytellers played a vital role in oral cultures. They both preserved ancient myths and traditions
and made them live for new generations.
T HE H U R O N 35
Richard Cummins/CORBIS
A F T E R YO U R E A D
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. Would you describe Aataentsic’s actions as heroic? 5. (a)What is the function of the old chief’s dream in
Why or why not? “The Sky Tree”? (b)What does this myth suggest
about the importance that Native Americans attri-
bute to knowledge gained from dreams?
Recall and Interpret
6. (a)What motivates Aataentsic to follow the Sky Tree
2. (a)What is the Sky Tree? (b)Why is it important to
into the hole? (b)How do you view her actions?
the people in Sky Land?
3. (a)Why does Aataentsic cut down the Sky
Tree? (b)What does this action reveal about her Connect
relationship with her husband? 7. Big Idea The Sacred Earth and the Power of
4. (a)Which animal observes Aataentsic’s fall? Storytelling What does the role of the water
(b)What role does this animal assume? animals in the creation of Earth suggest about
Native American attitudes toward other living
creatures?
L I T E R A RY A N A LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
36 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
Retold by Chinua Achebe and John Iroaganachi
B E FOR E YOU R E AD
Building Background
West African writer Chinua Achebe has used the English Achebe’s myth is an adaptation of a children’s story by
language to challenge many of the racist attitudes he teacher and writer John Iroaganachi. Achebe’s version
observed as a young man. Born in 1930, Achebe grew is full of dark undertones that suggest an allegorical
up in an Ibo (also spelled Igbo) village in eastern Nigeria. link to the British colonial era and the Nigerian Civil
His acclaimed 1958 novel, Things Fall Apart, gained him War, which lasted from 1967 to1970. Various military
an international reputation. The novel depicts a cultural regimes, representing hostile ethnic groups, have
clash between traditional Ibo values and laws imposed periodically seized power in Nigeria since it declared its
by British colonialists. Speaking of the influence of independence from Britain in 1960. Today, continued
colonialism, Achebe said that his nation has been political corruption and ethnic struggles have stalled the
confronted with “a crisis in the soul” in which “we have progress of Nigeria toward unity, peace, and stability.
accepted everything alien as good and practically
everything local or native as inferior.” One of Achebe’s Author Search For more about Chinua
goals has been to “help [his] society regain belief in itself.” Achebe and John Iroaganachi, go to www.glencoe.com.
If you look at the world in terms of storytelling, you In the beginning . . . all the animals in the
have, first of all, the man who agitates, the man who forest lived as friends. Their king was the leop-
drums up the people—I call him the drummer. Then ard. He was strong, but gentle and wise. He
you have the warrior, who goes forward and fights. But ruled the animals well, and they all liked him.
you also have the storyteller who recounts the event, At that time the animals did not fight one
and this is the one who survives, who outlives all the another. Most of them had no sharp teeth or
others. It is the storyteller who makes us what we are, claws. They did not need them. Even King
who creates history. The storyteller creates the memory Leopard had only small teeth. He had no claws
that the survivors must have; otherwise, their surviving at all.
would have no meaning. Only the dog had big, sharp teeth. The
—Chinua Achebe other animals said he was ugly, and they
laughed at him.
C H I N U A A C H E B E A N D J O H N I R OAGA N A C H I 37
Seattle Art Museum/CORBIS
“It is foolish to carry sharp things in the The dog spoke again. “We are wasting our time.
mouth,” said the tortoise. Those who need a shelter should build it. I live in
“I think so, too,” said the goat. a cave, and it is enough for me.” Then he walked
The monkey jumped in and began to tease away. The duck followed him out.
the dog. “Does anyone else want to leave?” asked King
“Don’t worry, my dear friend,” said the mon- Leopard. No one answered or made a move to go.
key. “You need your teeth to clear your farm.” “Very well,” said King Leopard. “Let the rest of
The animals laughed at the monkey’s joke. us build the village hall.”
When the farming season came round, King The animals soon scattered about to find build-
Leopard led the animals to their farmland. They ing materials. The tortoise copied the pattern on
all worked hard to prepare their plots. At the his back and made the plan of the roof. The giant
end of the day they returned home tired. They rat and mouse dug the foundations. Some animals
sat on log benches in the village square. As they brought sticks, some ropes, others made roof-mats.
rested they told stories and drank palm wine.1 As they built the house, they sang many happy
But soon it would be the rainy season, and the songs. They also told many jokes. Although they
animals would have no shelter from the rain. worked very hard, everyone was merry.
The deer took this problem to King Leopard. After many weeks they finished the building.
They talked about it for a long time. King Leopard It was a fine building. The animals were pleased
decided to call the animals together to discuss it. with it. They agreed to open it with a very special
One bright morning . . . King Leopard beat his meeting.
royal drum. When the animals heard the drum, On the opening day the animals, their wives
they gathered at the village square. The tortoise and children gathered in the hall. King Leopard
was there. The goat was there, too. The sheep, the then made a short speech. He said: “This hall is
grass-cutter,2 the monkey, the hedgehog,3 the yours to enjoy. You worked very hard together to
baboon, the dog and many others were there. build it. I am proud of you.”
King Leopard greeted them and said, “I have The animals clapped their hands and gave
called you together to plan how we can make our- three cheers to their king.
selves a common shelter.” From that day they rested in their new hall
“This is a good idea,” said the giraffe. whenever they returned from their farm.
“Yes, a very good idea,” said many other animals. But the dog and the duck kept away from
“But why do we need a common house?” said the hall.
the dog. He had never liked King Leopard. One morning the animals went to their farms
“The dog has asked a good question,” said the as usual. King Leopard went to visit a chief in
duck. “Why do we need a common shelter?” another village.
“We do need somewhere to rest when we return At first the sun was shining. Then strong winds
from our farms,” replied King Leopard. began to blow. Dark clouds hid the sun. The first
“And besides,” said the goat, “we need a shelter rain was coming. The songbirds stopped their
from the rain.” singing. The humming insects became quiet.
“I don’t mind being wet,” said the duck. “In fact, Lightning flashed across the dark clouds. Claps of
I like it. I know that the goat does not like water thunder sounded. The rain poured and poured.
on his body. Let him go and build a shelter.” The animals in their farms saw the rain
“We need a shelter,” said the monkey, jumping coming and began to hurry to the village hall.
up and down in excitement. The dog also saw the rain coming and
“Perhaps we need one, perhaps we don’t,” said returned to his cave. But it was a very, very
the lazy baboon sitting on the low fence of the heavy rain. Water began to enter the cave.
square. Soon it was flooded.
The dog ran from one end of his cave to the
1. Palm wine is created from the sap of a palm tree.
2. The grass-cutter is a type of rodent.
other. But the water followed him everywhere. At
3. A hedgehog is a small, hairy mammal; some varieties have last he ran out of the cave altogether and made
quills. straight for the hall of the animals.
38 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
The deer was already there. He was surprised to The worst has happened to us
see the dog enter the hall. The worst has happened to us . . .
“What do you want here?” said the deer to The house the animals built
the dog. The cruel dog keeps us from it,
“It is none of your business,” replied the dog. The common shelter we built
“It is my business,” said the deer. “Please go out, The cruel dog keeps us from it,
this hall is for those who built it.” The worst has happened to us
Then the dog attacked the deer and bit him The worst has happened to us . . .
with his big, sharp teeth. The deer cried with
pain. The dog seized him by the neck and threw The cry of the deer rang out loud and clear. It
him out into the rain. was carried by the wind. King Leopard heard it
The other animals came in one after the other. on his way back from his journey and began to
The dog barked and threw each of them out. run toward the village hall.
They stood together shivering and crying in the As he got near, he saw the animals, wet and
rain. The dog kept barking and showing his teeth. sheltering under a tree. They were all crying. As he
Then the deer cried out: got nearer still, he could see the dog walking up
and down inside the hall.
O Leopard our noble king,
King Leopard was very angry. “Come out of the
Where are you?
hall at once,” he said to the dog. The dog barked
Spotted king of the forest,
and rushed at him. They began to fight. The dog
Where are you?
bit the leopard and tore his skin with his claws.
Even if you are far away
King Leopard was covered with blood. The dog
Come, hurry home:
went back to the hall. He stood at the door barking
and barking. “Who is next? Who! Who!” he
barked.
King Leopard turned to the animals and said:
“Let us go in together and drive out the enemy. He
is strong, but he is alone. We are many. Together
we can drive him out of our house.”
But the goat said: “We cannot face him. Look at
his strong teeth! He will only tear us to pieces!”
“The goat is right,” said the animals. “He is too
strong for us.”
The tortoise stood up and said: “I am sure we
are all sorry about what has happened to the
leopard. But he was foolish to talk to the dog the
way he did. It is foolish to annoy such a powerful
person as the dog. Let us make peace with him. I
don’t know what you others think. But I think
he should have been our king all along. He is
strong; he is handsome. Let us go on our knees
and salute him.”
“Hear! Hear!” said all the animals. “Hail
the dog!”
Tears began to roll down the face of the leopard.
His heart was heavy. He loved the animals greatly.
Baboon, 1978. Felipe Benito Archuleta. Carved and painted
cottonwood and pine with glue and sawdust. Smithsonian
But they had turned their backs on him. Now he
American Art Museum, Washington, DC. knew they were cowards. So he turned his back on
Viewing the Art: Does this sculpture of a baboon resemble any them and went away. Because of his many wounds
of the animals in the story? Explain.
Pale
pale water in the yellow-white light of
sun floating west
to China
10 where ocean herself was born.
Clouds that blow across the sand are wet.
Discussion Starter
How does the speaker’s explanation of the origin of rain in “Prayer to the
Pacific” illustrate the Native American attitude toward nature? Discuss this
question in your group. Use specific details from the poem to support
your opinions. Then share your conclusions with the class.
B EF O R E YO U R E A D
Building Background
Poetry slam champion Sherman Alexie has attracted That’s what’s going to happen here. These 13-year-
attention for the variety of his literary skills. Born in old Indian kids who’ve been going crazy with their
1966, Alexie grew up on the Spokane Indian camcorders will finally see the possibilities.”
Reservation in Washington State. He is a three-time
Alexie has been recognized for his ability to infuse
winner of the World Heavyweight Championship
his writing about the difficulties of life on Indian
Poetry Bout and wrote the screenplay for Smoke
reservations with humorous insights. Of his writing,
Signals, the first movie entirely produced, directed,
he once said, “I write about the kind of Indian I am:
and acted by Native Americans. Alexie adapted the
kind of mixed up, kind of odd, not traditional. I’m a
screenplay from a short story from his collection
rez kid who’s gone urban.” At the same time,
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.
Alexie’s work draws upon many traditional Native
The film won both the Audience Award and the
American themes, such as the cultural significance
Filmmakers Trophy at the 1998 Sundance Film
of storytelling.
Festival. He compared his role in making the film to
that of African American filmmaker Spike Lee.
“Spike didn’t necessarily get films made as much as Author Search For more about
he inspired filmmakers to believe in themselves. Sherman Alexie, go to www.glencoe.com.
44 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
Jerry Jacka Photography
The spiders appeared suddenly
after that summer rainstorm.
Some people still insist the spiders fell with the rain
while others believe the spiders grew from the damp soil like weeds
with eight thin roots.
We tucked our pants into our boots when we walked through fields
of fallow1 stories.
An Indian girl opened the closet door and a story fell into her hair.
We lived in the shadow of a story trapped in the ceiling lamp.
10 The husk of a story museumed on the windowsill.
Before sleep, we shook our blankets and stories fell to the floor.
A story floated in a glass of water left on the kitchen table.
We opened doors slowly and listened for stories.
The stories rose on hind legs and offered their red bellies to the
most beautiful Indians.
15 Stories in our cereal boxes.
Stories in our firewood.
Stories in the pockets of our coats.
We captured stories and offered them to the ants, who carried the
stories back to their queen.
A dozen stories per acre.
20 We poisoned the stories and gathered their remains with broom
and pan.
S H ER MA N A LEX I E 45
Wrap-Up: Comparing Literature Across Time and Place
• The Sky Tree • How the Leopard • Prayer to the • The Summer of
Huron—Eastern Got His Claws Pacific Black Widows
Woodland Chinua Achebe and Leslie Marmon Sherman Alexie
John Iroaganachi Silko
COM PAR I NG TH E Big Idea The Sacred Earth and the Power of Storytelling
Writing Read the following quotations from the selections. Write a brief essay in which you
compare two or more of the quotations. Base your comparison on the way the quotations
exemplify the power of storytelling and the tradition of the creation myth in oral cultures.
Cite evidence from the selections to support your main ideas.
“My husband,” she said, “when I cut the “Perhaps the animals will make peace
tree it split in half and then fell through a among themselves someday and live
great hole. Without the tree, there can be together again. Then they can keep away
no life. I must follow it.” the hunter who is their common enemy.”
—Huron, “The Sky Tree” —Chinua Achebe and John Iroaganachi
“How the Leopard Got His Claws”
1. How does each writer describe different aspects of the origin of the universe?
2. What is the importance of the writer’s cultural background in each of these selections?
3. How does the personification of animals contribute to each of the selections?
4. What insights about life offered by the writer do you find most compelling?
O B J EC TIVES
• Compare myths of various cultures. • Use questioning as a reading strategy.
• Analyze oral traditions.
W
hen Iroquois tribes in present-day New by the Iroquois people. In
York State were torn apart by fighting, fact, he was the first “pine
one man stepped in to instill peace. tree chief,” or chief cho-
Dekanawida (dək uhn a wē´ da) believed from an sen on the basis of merit
early age that he was predestined to unite the rather than by heredity.
Iroquois nation. “It is my business to stop the In 1570, the two leaders
shedding of blood among human beings,” he said. established an alliance
Traditional accounts of his life vary. He was among the five nations
thought to be a Huron born around 1550 near of the Iroquois—the
what is now Kingston, Ontario. In one account, Seneca, Cayuga, Oneida,
Dekanawida was the son of a virgin mother who, Onondaga, and Mohawk.
in the months leading up to his birth, observed Dekanawida created the alliance’s constitution,
omens that told Dekanawida would be a source which established rules for decision making and
of evil and destruction for the Huron people. To debate. Around 1600, after Dekanawida had com-
save her tribe, Dekanawida’s mother tried three pleted the task of establishing the confederacy, he
times to drown her infant son in an icy river, mysteriously vanished. But thanks to the peaceful
but to her disbelief, woke up each of the follow- government he had helped create, the confederacy
ing mornings with the child resting softly in her was able to resist outside pressures for almost two
arms. His mother interpreted this as a sign that hundred years.
he was fated to live and began to rear the boy. Dekanawida was born around 1550 and vanished
around 1600.
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D EK ANAWIDA 47
Getty Images
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L I T E R AT U R E P R E V I E W READI NG PREVI EW
After the Iroquois Confederacy was founded around The tribes’ meeting Any man or nation
place is called the that obeys the laws
1570, there was peace, and the tribes prospered.
Tree of the Great is welcome to shelter
Together the five tribes prevented French, English, and Peace. beneath the tree.
Dutch colonists from annexing their lands. The
Revolutionary War, however, caused deep rifts
between the tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy, result-
The Iroquois want their government to be peaceful.
ing in its end. But its legacy was a lasting one.
Dekanawida’s system was so effective that Benjamin
Conclusion
Franklin urged fellow colonists to view it as a model.
Big Idea The Power of Storytelling disposition (dis´ pə zish ən) n. one’s general
way of thinking or feeling; p. 49 Julia had a
Notice the ways in which the Iroquois Constitution
cheerful disposition.
reflects the Native Americans’ use of language to
describe their reverence for the natural world. convene (kən vēn ) v. to come together; assem-
ble; p. 50 Congress will convene to hear the presi-
Literary Element Author’s Purpose dent’s speech tonight.
The author’s purpose is the author’s intent in creating a posterity (pos ter ə tē) n. generations of the
work. As you read the constitution, carefully examine its future; all of one’s descendants; p. 50
provisions to see how they support Dekanawida’s goals. Mr. Norris requires students to create a record of
their thoughts for posterity.
• See Literary Terms Handbook, p. R2. temper (tem pər) v. to modify or moderate;
soften; p. 50 Alvaro tempers his anger by counting
to ten.
deliberation (di lib´ ə rā shən) n. careful con-
sideration; p. 51 After long deliberation, the city
council voted to build a new library.
Interactive Literary Elements
Handbook To review or learn more about the literary elements,
go to www.glencoe.com.
OB J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • understanding author’s purpose
• relating literature to cultural values • drawing conclusions about culture
48 U N IT 1 EARLY AMERICA
Dekanawida
The Tree of the Great Peace of the Confederacy, they may trace the Roots
I am Dekanawida and with the Five Nations’ to the Tree and if their minds are clean and
Confederate Lords I plant the Tree of the Great they are obedient and promise to obey the
Peace. I plant it in your territory, Adodarho,1 wishes of the Confederate Council, they shall
and the Onondaga Nation, in the territory of be welcomed to take shelter beneath the Tree
you who are Firekeepers.2 of the Long Leaves.
I name the tree the Tree of the Great Long We place at the top of the Tree of the Long
Leaves. Under the shade of this Tree of the Leaves an Eagle who is able to see afar. If he sees
Great Peace we spread the soft white feathery in the distance any evil approaching or any dan-
down of the globe thistle3 as seats for you, ger threatening, he will at once warn the people
Adodarho, and your cousin Lords. of the Confederacy.
We place you upon those seats, spread soft
with the feathery down of the globe thistle, there The Care of the Fire
beneath the shade of the spreading branches of
the Tree of Peace. There shall you sit and watch The Smoke of the Confederate Council Fire
the Council Fire of the Confederacy of the Five shall ever ascend and pierce the sky so that other
Nations, and all the affairs of the Five Nations nations who may be allies may see the Council
shall be transacted at this place. Fire of the Great Peace.
Roots have spread out from the Tree of the You, Adodarho, and your thirteen cousin
Great Peace, one to the north, one to the east, Lords shall faithfully keep the space about the
one to the south, and one to the west. The name Council Fire clean and you shall allow neither
of these roots is the Great White Roots and their dust nor dirt to accumulate. I lay a Long Wing
nature is Peace and Strength. before you as a broom. As a weapon against a
If any man or any nation outside the Five crawling creature I lay a staff with you so that
Nations shall obey the laws of the Great Peace you may thrust it away from the Council Fire.
and make known their disposition to the Lords
The Laws of the Council
1. Adodarho was an Onondaga chief who enjoyed a position Whenever the Confederate Lords shall assemble
of honor in the Confederate Council. His name became an for the purpose of holding a council, the
honorific, or traditional title, for Iroquois leaders. Onondaga Lords shall open it by expressing their
2. Firekeepers were important chiefs who oversaw the Council
Fire, which symbolized the confederacy.
gratitude to their cousin Lords and greeting
3. Globe thistle is a plant that has prickly leaves and blue them, and they shall make an address and offer
flowers. Like a dandelion, the flower becomes a mass of thanks to the earth where men dwell, to the
white, silky fuzz, or down, when it goes to seed.
Literary Element Author’s Purpose Based on this state- Reading Strategy Drawing Conclusions About
ment, what do you think is Dekanawida’s purpose in writing
Culture What can you conclude about the Iroquois attitude
this piece?
toward strangers or outsiders?
Vocabulary
Big Idea The Power of Storytelling How does the
disposition (dis´ pə zish ən) n. one’s general way of opening of a council meeting reflect the importance of story-
thinking or feeling telling in Native American culture?
D EK ANAWIDA 49
streams of water, the pools, the springs and the The Clans
lakes, to the maize4 and the fruits, to the medici- Among the Five Nations and their posterity
nal herbs and trees, to the forest trees for their there shall be the following original clans: Great
usefulness, to the animals that serve as food and Name Bearer, Ancient Name Bearer, Great Bear,
give their pelts for clothing, to the great winds Ancient Bear, Turtle, Painted Turtle, Standing
and the lesser winds, to the Thunderers, to the Rock, Large Plover, Little Plover, Deer, Pigeon
Sun, the mighty warrior, to the moon, to the Hawk, Eel, Ball, Opposite-Side-of-the-Hand, and
messengers of the Creator who reveal his wishes Wild Potatoes. These clans, distributed through
and to the Great Creator who dwells in the their respective Nations, shall be the sole owners
heavens above, who gives all the things useful to and holders of the soil of the country, and in
men, and who is the source and the ruler of them is it vested as a birthright.
health and life.
People of the Five Nations [who are] members of
All the business of the Five Nations’ a certain clan shall recognize every other mem-
Confederate Council shall be conducted by ber of that clan, irrespective of the Nation,
the two combined bodies of Confederate as relatives.
Lords. First the question shall be passed upon
by the Mohawk and Seneca Lords; then it The lineal descent of the people of the Five
shall be discussed and passed by the Oneida Nations shall run in the female line. Women
and Cayuga Lords. Their decisions shall then shall be considered the progenitors6 of the
be referred to the Onondaga Lords Nation. They shall own the land and the soil.
(Firekeepers) for final judgment. Men and women shall follow the status of
the mother.
When the Council of the Five Nation Lords
shall convene, they shall appoint a speaker for
the day. He shall be a Lord of either the
The Leaders
Mohawk, Onondaga, or Seneca Nation.
The Lords of the Confederacy of the Five Nations
No individual or foreign nation interested in a shall be mentors7 of the people for all time. The
case, question, or proposition shall have any thickness of their skin shall be seven spans—
voice in the Confederate Council except to which is to say that they shall be proof against
answer a question put to him or them by the anger, offensive actions, and criticism. Their
speaker for the Lords. hearts shall be full of peace and good will and
their minds filled with a yearning for the welfare
If the conditions which shall arise at any of the people of the Confederacy. With endless
future time call for an addition to or change of patience they shall carry out their duty, and their
this law, the case shall be carefully considered, firmness shall be tempered with a tenderness for
and if a new beam seems necessary or benefi- their people. Neither anger nor fury shall find
cial, the proposed change shall be voted upon
and, if adopted, it shall be called, “Added to
the Rafters.”5 6. Progenitors are direct ancestors or originators of an ancestral
line.
7. Mentors are wise and trusted advisers.
50 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
Getty Images
lodgment in their minds, and all their words and The Symbols
actions shall be marked by calm deliberation. A large bunch of shell strings, in the making
of which the Five Nations’ Confederate Lords
The Festivals have equally contributed, shall symbolize the
The rites and festivals of each Nation shall completeness of the union and certify the
remain undisturbed and shall continue as before pledge of the Nations represented by the
because they were given by the people of old Confederate Lords of the Mohawk, the
times as useful and necessary for the good of men. Oneida, the Onondaga, the Cayuga, and the
The recognized festivals of Thanksgiving shall Seneca, that all are united and formed into
be the Midwinter Thanksgiving, the Maple or one body or union called the Union of the
Sugar Making Thanksgiving, the Raspberry Great Law, which they have established.
Thanksgiving, the Strawberry Thanksgiving, the
Corn Planting Thanksgiving, the Corn Hoeing Five arrows shall be bound together very
Thanksgiving, the Little Festival of Green Corn, strong, and each arrow shall represent one
the Great Festival of Ripe Corn, and the com- nation. As the five arrows are strongly bound,
plete Thanksgiving for the Harvest. this shall symbolize the complete union of the
nations. Thus are the Five Nations united
Literary Element Author’s Purpose How does completely and enfolded together, united into
Dekanawida’s lengthy description of the traits of the Lords one head, one body, and one mind. Therefore
of the Confederacy reinforce his purpose for writing the they shall labor, legislate, and council together
constitution?
for the interest of future generations.
Vocabulary
deliberation (di lib´ ə rā shən) n. careful consideration
D EK ANAWIDA 51
A F T E R YO U R E A D
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. What is your opinion of Dekanawida’s abilities as a 5. (a)How does the Iroquois Constitution divide
peacemaker? Explain. authority among the five nations? (b)What benefits
did the Iroquois stand to gain by structuring deci-
Recall and Interpret sion making this way?
2. (a)What does Dekanawida say is the nature of the
6. (a)Judging by the provision about the leaders, what
roots of the Tree of the Great Peace? (b)What is
were important leadership qualities in the
placed at the top of the tree? Explain what this
confederacy? (b)Do you think Dekanawida was
suggests about the purpose behind the Iroquois
right to stress these qualities? Explain.
Confederacy’s formation.
3. (a)Describe the rules Dekanawida includes about Connect
making changes to the law. (b)Given these rules, 7. Big Idea The Power of Storytelling (a)Native
how would you characterize Dekanawida’s skills as American life was organized around the cycles of
a planner? nature. How is this fact reflected in the Iroquois
4. Explain the symbols of the confederacy described Constitution? (b)Explain in what other ways the
on page 51. In what way, do you think, does the constitution displays the Iroquois reverence for
design of the symbols reflect Dekanawida’s vision nature. Then tell how you think such a reverence
for the confederacy? strengthened the Iroquois.
L I T E R A RY A N A LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
Vocabulary Practice
Writing About Literature
Practice with Analogies Choose the word pair
Analyze Cultural Context The Iroquois that best completes the analogy.
Constitution describes rituals associated with the
functioning of the Confederate Council. What was 1. convene : gather ::
the point of these rituals? What do they indicate a. soar : fall
about the values of Iroquois society? In two para- b. build : erect
graphs, analyze and evaluate the rituals. c. save : spend
2. posterity : ancestors ::
a. lair : den
b. lane : path
Web Activities For eFlashcards, c. kindness : cruelty
Selection Quick Checks, and other Web activities, go to
www.glencoe.com.
52 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
Part 2
life in the
new world
Self-portrait, c. 1680. Thomas Smith. Oil on canvas, 243/4 x 233/4 in. Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA.
“For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes
of all people are upon us.”
— John Winthrop, A Model of Christian Charity
53
Thomas Smith / Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts, USA / Bridgeman Art Library
B EF O R E YO U R E A D
from La Relación
M E E T Á LVA R N Ú Ñ E Z C A BE Z A DE VAC A
F
ew adventurers have faced greater odds than
the Spanish explorer Álvar Núñez Cabeza de
Vaca (a l´ va r noo´
¯¯¯ nyez ka bā´ za dā
ba´ ka ). Stranded and defenseless in the vast wil-
derness of the New World, he had only a slim By the following spring, there were 15 men alive.
chance of surviving. His tale of the journey, La Eventually, Cabeza de Vaca and three others were
Relación, was the first European account of the the only survivors. Cabeza de Vaca lived among the
interior of what is now the United States. nomadic Native Americans in east Texas—the
In 1527, Cabeza de Vaca left Spain as a career sol- Karankawa, the Mariames, the Yguazes—for four
dier on an expedition to occupy North America years, adapting to their ways of life and morphing
and discover riches for the king. The expedition, from conquistador to trader and physician in order
which landed in 1528 at what is today Tampa Bay, to survive. The Native Americans were not as
Florida, was a disaster. Boat accidents, faulty judg- lucky. Many perished as a result of a stomach virus
ment, and disease led to the deaths of many of the that the Spaniards unwittingly carried with them.
600 men. The survivors developed a fruitful rela-
Trailblazer Cabeza de Vaca then traveled south
tionship with the Apalachee tribe, but the situa-
and west, hoping to find a Spanish outpost. He was
tion soured when the Spaniards took the tribe’s
the first European to trek through present-day
leader hostage. The Spaniards ended up cowering
Texas. He may have passed through Arizona and
in a coastal swamp, eating horseflesh to survive.
New Mexico, but details about his precise route are
Finally, led by Cabeza de Vaca, the explorers con-
scarce. He continued west through the Sierra Madre
structed basic rafts from horsehide and trees and set
and the Sonoran Desert in northern Mexico, may
sail, praying they could reach Cuba. Wracked by
have reached the Pacific Ocean, and then turned
starvation and thirst, the 80 men who managed to
south, finally running into a band of Spanish slave
cling to the rafts were buffeted by a hurricane and
traders in the present-day Mexican state of Sinaloa
deposited near present-day Galveston, Texas, on
on Mexico’s west coast. His countrymen were flab-
the Gulf of Mexico.
bergasted when Cabeza de Vaca stood before them
naked and filthy, with a number of Native
Americans at his side. Eight years had passed since
“We were entering a land for which he had landed in Florida. During that time, he had
traveled approximately 2,500 miles, mostly on foot.
we had no description, without
During his travels, Cabeza de Vaca proved to be a
knowing what kind of place it was, nor masterful ethnologist. He lived among Native
by what people it was inhabited, nor in Americans before they had been influenced by
European culture. His writings detail the unique cus-
which part of it we were.” toms of many tribes. Unlike other early explorers, he
—Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca called for tolerance and justice for Native Americans.
from La Relación Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca was born around
1490 and died around 1556.
54 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
Amanita Pictures
L I T E R AT U R E P R E V I E W R E A D I N G P R EVI E W
• What motivates Cabeza de Vaca to try to set sail Reading Tip: Taking Notes Use a chart to record
once the Spaniards have landed?
instances of bias and what they tell about Cabeza
• As the Native Americans lead Cabeza de Vaca and his de Vaca.
group to their lodges, the Spaniards do not know if
they are going to be saved or sacrificed. How do you
think you would react if you were in this situation? Quote Bias
p. 58 Cabeza de Vaca assumes
Building Background “Crude and that the indigenous
In the early 1500s, Spanish conquistadores began untutored people, people are unintelligent
exploring and invading Central and South America, who were like and unschooled before
searching for gold and other riches. In 1520, Hernán brutes” he knows anything
Cortés defeated the Aztecs and sacked Tenochtitlán, the about their culture and
site of present-day Mexico City. In 1534, Francisco way of life.
Pizarro conquered the Incas in Peru. The indigenous
people were baffled and frightened by the sudden
appearance of the Spanish. The Spanish had weapons
that ensured victory in war: horses, war dogs, guns, can-
Vocabulary
nons, as well as their greatest weapon, the smallpox
virus. As a result of Spanish occupation, indigenous ration (rash ən) n. fixed portion or share;
societies and cultures were in shambles. Indigenous p. 56 The campers ate their entire day’s ration and
peoples and the Spanish began to intermarry, creating a were still hungry.
mixed race.
rouse (rouz) v. to awaken from sleep; p. 56
They had gone to bed late, and it was difficult to
Setting Purposes for Reading rouse them.
Big Idea Life in the New World revive (ri v¯ v ) v. to give new strength and
As you read, think about what the narrative implies vitality, or bring back to consciousness; p. 56
about the Spaniards’ view of their own culture in com- The lifeguard was able to revive the unconscious
parison with that of the indigenous people they swimmer.
encountered in the New World.
embark (em bark ) v. to set out on a venture;
p. 57 The hunting party mounted their horses and
Literary Element Point of View prepared to embark.
Point of view is the relationship of the narrator to
the story. In a narrative with a first-person point of
view, the narrator is a character in the story and uses
the words I and me. As you read, be aware of how
Cabeza de Vaca’s first-person point of view affects his Interactive Literary Elements
description of people and events. Handbook To review or learn more about the literary elements,
go to www.glencoe.com.
• See Literary Terms Handbook, p. R14.
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • recognizing bias
• evaluating narrative point of view • analyzing historical narratives
We sailed in this manner together for four days, took over the boat, I tried to rest some but could
eating a daily ration of half a handful of raw not, and sleep was the furthest thing from my
corn. After four days a storm came up and mind.
caused the other boat to be lost. We did not Near dawn I thought I heard the roar of the
sink because of God’s great mercy. The weather breakers1 near shore, which was very loud because
was rough, very cold, and wintery. We had been the coast was low. Surprised by this, I roused the
suffering from hunger for many days and had sailing master, who said he thought we were near
been pounded so much by the sea that the fol- land. We took a sounding and found that the
lowing day many men began to faint. By night- water was seven fathoms2 deep. He thought that
fall all the men in my boat had passed out, one we should stay out until dawn. So I took an oar
on top of another, so near death that few of and rowed along the coast, which was a league3
them were conscious and fewer than five were distant. Then we set our stern4 to sea.
still upright. During the night only the sailing Near land a great wave took us and cast the
master and I were left to sail the boat. Two boat out of the water as far as a horseshoe can be
hours after nightfall he told me I should take tossed. The boat ran aground with such force that
over because he was in such a condition that he it revived the men on it who were almost dead.
thought he would die that very night; so I took When they saw they were near land they pushed
the tiller. In the middle of the night, I went to themselves overboard and crawled on their hands
see if the sailing master had died, but he told and knees. When they got to the beach, we lit a
me that he was better and that he would steer
until daybreak. At that time I certainly would 1. Breakers are waves that foam as they break on rocks or a
have rather died than see so many people before shoreline.
me in that condition. After the sailing master 2. A fathom is a linear measure equal to six feet, used mainly
in measuring the depth of water.
3. A league is a measure of distance equal to some three miles.
4. The stern is the rear part of a boat or ship.
Literary Element Point of View How might another per-
son on the boat have described this scene? Vocabulary
rouse (rouz) v. to awaken from sleep
Vocabulary
revive (ri v̄v) v. to give new strength and vitality, or
ration (rash ən) n. fixed portion or share bring back to consciousness
56 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
(map)The New York Public Library/Art Resource, NY, (nautical devices)Richard T. Norwitz/CORBIS
fire by some rocks and toasted some of the corn The following day at sunrise, at the time the
we had and found rain water. With the warmth Indians had indicated, they came to us as prom-
of the fire, the men revived and began to regain ised, bringing us much fish, some roots which
some of their strength. We arrived at this place they eat, the size of walnuts, some larger or
on the sixth of November. smaller. Most of these are pulled with great dif-
ficulty from under the water. In the evening they
Once our people had eaten, I sent Lope de returned to bring us more fish and the same kind
Oviedo, who was stronger and fitter than the rest of roots. They had their women and children
of us, to climb one of the trees nearby to sight the come to see us and they considered themselves
land and find out something about it. He did this rich with little bells and beads that we gave
and saw that we were on an island, and that the them. The following days they returned to visit
land appeared to have been trampled by livestock. with the same things as before.
He thought for this reason that it must be a coun- Seeing that we were provisioned with fish,
try of Christians, and told us so. I told him to look roots, water, and the other things we requested,
again very carefully to see if there were any paths we agreed to embark on our voyage once again.
that could be followed, but not to go too far We dug up the boat from the sand. We had to
because of possible danger. He found a path and strip naked and struggle mightily to launch it,
followed it for half a league and found some unoc- because we were so weak that lesser tasks would
cupied Indian huts, for the Indians had gone into have been enough to exhaust us. Once we were
the fields. He took a pot from one of them, a out from the shore the distance of two crossbow
small dog and some mullet5 and started back. shots, a wave struck us quite a blow and got us
We thought he was taking a long time to all wet. Since we were naked and it was very
return, so I sent two other Christians to look for cold, we let go of the oars. Another strong wave
him and find out what had happened to him. caused the boat to capsize. The Inspector and
They found him near there, pursued by three two other men held on to it to survive, but quite
Indians with bows and arrows. They were call- the opposite occurred because the boat pulled
ing out to him and he was trying to speak to them under and they drowned. Since the surf
them through sign language. He got to where was very rough, the sea wrapped all the men in
we were and the Indians stayed back a bit its waves, except the three that had been pulled
seated on the same shore. Half an hour later under by the boat, and cast them on the shore of
another one hundred Indian bowmen appeared. the same island. Those of us who survived were
We were so scared that they seemed to us to be as naked as the day we were born and had lost
giants, whether they were or not. They stopped everything we had. Although the few things we
near us, where the first three were. We could had were of little value, they meant a lot to us.
not even think of defending ourselves, since It was November then and the weather was
there were scarcely six men who could even get very cold. We were in such a state that our bones
up from the ground. The Inspector and I went could easily be counted and we looked like the
towards them and called them, and they picture of death. I can say for myself that I had
approached us. As best we could we tried to not eaten anything but parched corn since the
reassure them and ourselves, and gave them previous May, and sometimes I had to eat it raw.
beads and little bells. Each of them gave me an Although the horses were slaughtered while we
arrow, which is a sign of friendship. In sign lan- were building the boats, I was never able to eat
guage they told us that they would return in the them, and I had eaten fish fewer than ten times.
morning and bring us food, since they did not This is but a brief comment, since anyone can
have any at the time.
6. New Spain was a part of the Spanish Empire in the 1500s. It Big Idea Life in the New World What does this pas-
included Venezuela, Florida, Mexico, Central America, and
sage imply about the Spaniards’ ideas about people in the
other territory. Mexico City was its capital.
New World?
7. Idols are images of gods used as objects of worship.
58 U N IT 1 EARLY AMERICA
Getty Images
A F T E R YO U R E A D
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. After reading Cabeza de Vaca’s account, what 5. How do Cabeza de Vaca’s descriptions of his own
questions might you ask him? and his men’s suffering contribute to the effective-
ness and emotional impact of this account?
L I T E R A RY A NA LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO CA B U L A RY
I
wilderness survival skills.
t was 1620, and the passengers aboard the
They constructed crude
Mayflower were traveling to the Americas.
shelters, hoping to make
Violent storms tossed the creaking ship and
it through the winter.
blew it far off course. Among the passengers was
Nearly half the colonists
thirty-year-old William Bradford.
died of scurvy, pneumonia,
Born in Yorkshire, England, in 1590, Bradford was fever, or starvation.
orphaned as an infant and brought up by relatives.
As a youth, he studied the Bible and became a Governor The colony survived
Separatist. Like the Puritans, Separatists sought and in time grew into a thriving com-
reforms in the Church of England. Rather than try munity under Bradford’s leadership. He was reelected
to “purify” it, however, the Separatists broke away. governor for thirty one-year terms between 1622 and
In 1609, Bradford expatriated, moving to Leiden in 1656. In his gubernatorial years, he served as chief
Holland with the congregation and its leader, John magistrate, high judge, and treasurer. He also pre-
Robinson. Fearing they might become assimilated sided over the community’s legislature, known as the
into Dutch culture and lose their identity, the General Court. Unlike the Massachusetts Bay
Separatists decided to go to the Americas. John Colony, which was a Bible commonwealth,
Carver, a successful businessman, attained financial Plymouth was fairly egalitarian for its day, allowing
backing and chartered the Mayflower. Nearly 500 Presbyterians and maverick nonbelievers to live in
miles northeast of their intended destination, the the community without forcing them to practice in
Separatists landed in Provincetown, Massachusetts, Congregationalist or Separatist churches. To ensure
on Cape Cod on November 21, 1620. On December a peaceable, organized society, Bradford distributed
26, the 102 settlers disembarked nearby at a site they parcels of land equally to all settlers, even non-
named Plymouth, after the town where they had set believers. This organizational principle facilitated
sail. Before leaving the Mayflower, the men in the the private subsistence farming that drove
group drafted and signed the historic Mayflower Plymouth’s economy in its early years.
Compact, the colony’s rules of government. In 1630, Bradford started to compile Of Plymouth
Plantation, 1620–1647, one of the most important
narratives of early colonial life. The chronicle is
“All great and honorable actions are unique in that it separates religious commentary
from historical commentary. Certain narratives
accompanied with great difficulties, published by Puritans who had arrived during the
and must be both enterprised and Great Migration deemed colonial life as God’s
plan. Bradford made no such doctrinaire claims.
overcome with answerable courage.” Instead, he steered a middle course between a
—William Bradford Bible commonwealth and a secular society that
made for a prosperous Plymouth.
William Bradford was born in 1590 and died in 1657.
The First Winter The group of about 100 settlers,
known today as the Pilgrims, elected Bradford
leader after John Carver, the first governor, died. Author Search For more about
The voyage had been harsh. They arrived with little Literature
William Online
Bradford, Author Search For more
go to www.glencoe.com.
about this author, go to www.literature.glencoe.com.
60 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
Bettmann/CORBIS
L I T E R AT U R E P R E V I E W R E A D I N G P R EVI E W
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • analyzing the effects of diction and imagery
• monitoring comprehension • recognizing the impact of cultures and traditions on a text
WILLIAM BRADFO RD 61
William Bradford
62 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
Burstein Collection/CORBIS
they had sailed that course about half the day, they that the barbarians showed them no small kind-
fell amongst dangerous shoals and roaring breakers, ness in refreshing them, but these savage barbar-
and they were so far entangled therewith as they ians, when they met with them (as after will
conceived themselves in great danger; and the appear) were readier to fill their sides full of
wind shrinking upon them withal,4 they resolved to arrows than otherwise. And for the season it was
bear up again for the Cape and thought themselves winter, and they that know the winters of that
happy to get out of those dangers before night over- country know them to be sharp and violent, and
took them, as by God’s good providence they did. subject to cruel and fierce storms, dangerous to
And the next day they got into the Cape Harbor travel to known places, much more to search an
where they rid5 in safety. . . . unknown coast.
Being thus arrived in a good harbor, and
brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees from Chapter 11
and blessed the God of Heaven who had brought
them over the vast and furious ocean, and deliv-
The Starving Time
ered them from all the perils and miseries thereof, But that which was most sad and lamentable was,
again to set their feet on the firm and stable earth, that in two or three months’ time half of their
their proper element. And no marvel if they were company died, especially in January and February,
thus joyful, seeing wise Seneca6 was so affected being the depth of winter, and wanting houses
with sailing a few miles on the coast of his own and other comforts; being infected with the
Italy, as he affirmed, that he had rather remain scurvy9 and other diseases which this long voyage
twenty years on his way by land than pass by sea and their inaccommodate condition had brought
to any place in a short time, so tedious and dread- upon them. So as there died some times two or
ful was the same unto him. three of a day in the foresaid time, that of 100 and
odd persons, scarce fifty remained. And of these,
But here I cannot but stay and make a pause, in the time of most distress, there was but six or
and stand half amazed at this poor people’s pres- seven sound persons who to their great commen-
ent condition; and so I think will the reader, too, dations, be it spoken, spared no pains night nor
when he well considers the same. Being thus day, but with abundance of toil and hazard of their
passed the vast ocean, and a sea of troubles own health, fetched them wood, made them fires,
before in their preparation (as may be remem- dressed them meat, made their beds, washed their
bered by that which went before), they had now loathsome clothes, clothed and unclothed them.
no friends to welcome them nor inns to enter- In a word, did all the homely10 and necessary
tain or refresh their weatherbeaten bodies; no offices for them which dainty and queasy stom-
houses or much less towns to repair to, to seek achs cannot endure to hear named; and all this
for succor.7 It is recorded in Scripture8 as a mercy willingly and cheerfully, without any grudging in
to the Apostle and his shipwrecked company, the least, showing herein their true love unto
their friends and brethren; a rare example and
worthy to be remembered. Two of these seven
4. Also is another word for withal. were Mr. William Brewster, their reverend Elder,
5. Rid means “rode.” and Myles Standish, their Captain and military
6. Seneca was a Roman philosopher and writer.
commander, unto whom myself and many others
7. Succor means “assistance in a time of need; relief.”
8. The reference here to Scripture, or the Bible, is Acts of the
were much beholden in our low and sick condi-
Apostles 28, which tells of the kindness shown to St. Paul tion. And yet the Lord so upheld these persons as
and his companions by the natives of Malta after they in this general calamity they were not at all
were shipwrecked on that island. infected either with sickness or lameness. . . .
Literary Element Diction How does this phrase reflect
Bradford’s beliefs?
9. A severe lack of vitamin C causes a disease called scurvy.
Vocabulary 10. Homely here means “domestic.”
providence (prov ə dəns) n. divine care or guidance; Literary Element Diction What idea about life in the
foresight New World is reinforced by the adjectives in this passage?
WILLIAM BR ADFO RD 63
Indian Relations 4. If any did unjustly war against him, they
All this while the Indians came skulking about would aid him; if any did war against them, he
them, and would sometimes show themselves should aid them.
aloof off, but when any approached near them, 5. He should send to his neighbors confeder-
they would run away; and once they [the Indians] ates to certify them of this, that they might not
stole away their [the colonists’] tools where they wrong them, but might be likewise comprised in
had been at work and were gone to dinner. But the conditions of peace.
about the 16th of March, a certain Indian came 6. That when their men came to them, they
boldly amongst them and spoke to them in bro- should leave their bows and arrows behind them.
ken English, which they could well understand After these things he returned to his place
but marveled at it. At length they understood by called Sowams, some 40 miles from this place, but
discourse with him, that he was not of these parts, Squanto continued with them and was their inter-
but belonged to the eastern parts where some preter and was a special instrument sent of God
English ships came to fish, with whom he was for their good beyond their expectation. He
acquainted and could name sundry of them by directed them how to set their corn, where to take
their names, amongst whom he had got his lan- fish, and to procure other commodities, and was
guage. He became profitable to them in acquaint- also their pilot to bring them to unknown places
ing them with many things concerning the state for their profit, and never left them till he died.
of the country in the east parts where he lived,
which was afterwards profitable unto them; as also from Chapter 12
of the people here, of their names, number and First Thanksgiving
strength, of their situation and distance from this
place, and who was chief amongst them. His They began now to gather in the small harvest
name was Samoset. He told them also of another they had, and to fit up their houses and dwellings
Indian whose name was Squanto, a native of this against winter, being all well recovered in health
place, who had been in England and could speak and strength and had all things in good plenty. For
better English than himself. as some were thus employed in affairs abroad, oth-
Being, after some time of entertainment and ers were exercised in fishing, about cod and bass
gifts dismissed, a while after he came again, and and other fish, of which they took good store, of
five more with him, and they brought again all which every family had their portion. All the sum-
the tools that were stolen away before, and made mer there was no want; and now began to come in
way for the coming of their great Sachem, called store of fowl, as winter approached, of which this
Massasoit. Who, about four or five days after, place did abound when they came first (but after-
came with the chief of his friends and other atten- ward decreased by degrees). And besides waterfowl
dance, with the aforesaid Squanto. With whom, there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they
after friendly entertainment and some gifts given took many, besides venison, etc. Besides they had
him, they made a peace with him (which hath about a peck of meal a week to a person, or now
now continued this 24 years) in these terms: since harvest, Indian corn to that proportion.
Which made many afterwards write so largely of
1. That neither he nor any of his should their plenty here to their friends in England, which
injure or do hurt to any of their people. were not feigned but true reports.
2. That if any of his did hurt to any of theirs,
he should send the offender, that they might Big Idea Life in the New World How did life for the
punish him. settlers change so drastically since their bleak arrival in the
New World?
3. That if anything were taken away from any
of theirs, he should cause it to be restored; and
Vocabulary
they should do the like to his.
procure (prə kyoor) v. to obtain by care or effort
commodity (kə modə tē) n. a product or economic
Reading Strategy Monitoring Comprehension What good; an article of trade
does this passage say about this “certain Indian”? feigned (fānd) adj. fictitious; not genuine
64 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
A F T E R YO U R E A D
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond 5. (a)What are some examples of Samoset’s and
Squanto’s accomplishments? (b)What do you think
1. If you had been a Plymouth settler, what do you
might have happened to the Pilgrims without
think would have been your greatest challenge?
Squanto’s help?
Recall and Interpret
Analyze and Evaluate
2. (a)What hardships did the Pilgrims face aboard the
6. (a)What were the six terms of peace meant to
Mayflower and in Plymouth? (b)In your opinion,
accomplish? (b)In your opinion, was this plan a
were the Pilgrims skilled in adapting to unexpected
good one? Explain.
conditions in the New World? Explain.
7. (a)What enabled the Pilgrims to survive and cele-
3. (a)What caused the Pilgrims to land on Cape Cod,
brate their “First Thanksgiving”? (b)How much
in Massachusetts, instead of farther south, near the
credit do you give the Pilgrims for this success?
Hudson River? (b)How did this event affect the
expedition? Connect
4. (a)What enabled the Pilgrims to survive “the
8. Big Idea Life in the New World Do the experi-
Starving Time”? (b)What do Bradford’s comments
ences of the Pilgrims have any connection to our
reveal about the Pilgrims’ character?
society today? Explain.
L I T E R A RY A NA LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
Performing
You Are There Choose an event from Bradford’s
Vocabulary Practice
narrative and recast it in the form of a dramatic Jargon is vocabulary that is specific to a profession or
monologue. Speaking as if you were Bradford, a social group. Locate instances of jargon on page 62
address one or more of the Plymouth settlers during and try to determine their meanings from the context.
or after one of their experiences. Use modern lan-
guage instead of Bradford’s archaic diction. Practice and Apply Choose the best meaning for
each phrase.
1. they tacked about
a. changed direction c. stayed where
they were
b. could not decide d. returned
2. they decided to stand for the southward
a. avoid c. head for
Web Activities For eFlashcards,
Selection Quick Checks, and other Web activities, go to
b. represent d. object to
www.glencoe.com.
WILLIAM BR ADFO RD 65
B EF O R E YO U R E A D
T
he life of Olaudah Equiano (ō lau´ da paid. In 1766, at the
e kwē a´ nō) was a mixture of tragedy, strug- age of 21, he used
gle, and great achievement. The son of an money he had made to
Ibo chieftain, Equiano was born in Essaka, a vil- buy his freedom. He spent the next several years
lage in what is now Nigeria. His village was a con- working on ships, traveling to Turkey, Italy, and
siderable distance from the coast, and as a child Jamaica.
Equiano had never heard of the sea or of the peo-
While sailing, Equiano realized that life as a free
ple who lived beyond it. When he was eleven, he
man was in many respects no easier than his life
had a terrifying introduction to both when he and
as a slave had been. Freed slaves in the British
his sister were kidnapped by slave traders. They
colonies had no legal rights and were often
were separated, and Equiano was sold to Europeans
treated miserably. Equiano described his disap-
and packed onto a slave ship headed for the
pointment with the so-called freedom he was
Caribbean island of Barbados. The horrors Equiano
allowed to enjoy. Soon after he was freed, he
witnessed on the ship haunted him for the rest of
wrote, “Hitherto I had thought only slavery
his life.
dreadful; but the state of the free negro appeared
to me now equally so at least, and in some
respects even worse.”
“. . . I might say my sufferings were
Freedom Fighter In 1776 Equiano settled in
great; but when I compare my lot with that England to campaign against slavery. He helped
of most of my countrymen, I regard myself organize several antislavery organizations in
London and, along with other abolitionists, peti-
as a particular favorite of heaven. . . .” tioned the British parliament to end the slave
—Olaudah Equiano trade. Equiano was also part of the Committee for
Relief of the Black Poor in London and a leader
in the Sierra Leone recolonization project, a
failed attempt to bring former slaves back to
In the years after being captured, Equiano spent Africa. His greatest contribution to the abolition-
time in Virginia and England, where he was owned ist cause, however, was his 1789 autobiography,
by an officer of the British Royal Navy. Equiano The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah
served in the British navy with this officer from Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African. It was
1758 to 1762, during the French and Indian War. one of the first books published by a former slave
Over the years, the officer baptized him, renamed and became one of the most influential slave nar-
him Gustavus Vassa, and taught him seafaring ratives. Its graphic and powerful descriptions of
skills as well as how to read and write. These skills the inhumanity Equiano and other slaves suffered
would serve Equiano well after the officer sold him helped further the abolitionist cause throughout
to a merchant in the West Indies in 1763. Europe and the United States.
Olaudah Equiano was born in 1745 and died in 1797.
Sailor and Trader As a slave to the merchant,
Equiano worked on trading ships between the
West Indies and mainland American colonies and Author Search For more about
also did some trading on the side for which he was Olaudah Equiano, go to www.glencoe.com.
66 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
Royal Albert Memorial Musem, Exeter/Bridgeman Art Library
L I T E R AT U R E P R E V I E W R E A D I N G P R EVI E W
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • supporting and defending personal responses with details
• responding personally, critically, and analytically to texts from the text
OLAUDAH EQUIANO 67
Olaudah Equiano
The first object which saluted1 my eyes when I were some of those who had brought me on board,
arrived on the coast, was the sea, and a slave and had been receiving their pay; they talked to me
ship, which was then riding at anchor, and wait- in order to cheer me, but all in vain.4 I asked them
ing for its cargo. These filled me with astonish- if we were not to be eaten by those white men with
ment, which was soon converted into terror, horrible looks, red faces, and long hair. They told
when I was carried on board. I was immediately me I was not: and one of the crew brought me a
handled, and tossed up to see if I were sound, by small portion of spirituous liquor in a wine glass,
some of the crew; and I was now persuaded that I but, being afraid of him, I would not take it out of
had gotten into a world of bad spirits, and that his hand. One of the blacks, therefore, took it from
they were going to kill me. him and gave it to me, and I took a little down my
Their complexions, too, differing so much palate,5 which, instead of reviving me, as they
from ours, their long hair, and the language they thought it would, threw me into the greatest con-
spoke, (which was very different from any I had sternation6 at the strange feeling it produced, hav-
ever heard) united to confirm me in this belief. ing never tasted any such liquor before. Soon after
Indeed, such were the horrors of my views and fears this, the blacks who brought me on board went off,
at the moment, that, if ten thousand worlds had and left me abandoned to despair.
been my own, I would have freely parted with them I now saw myself deprived of all chance of
all to have exchanged my condition with that of returning to my native country, or even the least
the meanest2 slave in my own country. When I glimpse of hope of gaining the shore, which I now
looked round the ship too, and saw a large furnace considered as friendly; and I even wished for my for-
of copper boiling, and a multitude of black people of mer slavery7 in preference to my present situation,
every description chained together, every one of which was filled with horrors of every kind, still
their countenances3 expressing dejection and sor- heightened by my ignorance of what I was to
row, I no longer doubted of my fate; and, quite over- undergo. I was not long suffered8 to indulge my
powered with horror and anguish, I fell motionless grief; I was soon put down under the decks, and
on the deck and fainted. When I recovered a little, there I received such a salutation in my nostrils as I
I found some black people about me, who I believed had never experienced in my life: so that, with
the loathsomeness of the stench, and crying
1. Here, saluted means “became noticeable to” or “struck.”
2. Here, meanest means “of the lowest social position or rank.”
3. Countenance means “face” or “facial expression.” 4. Something done in vain is done without effect or success.
5. The palate, here, is the mouth and throat.
Literary Element Slave Narrative Why might Equiano 6. Consternation is paralyzing dismay or fear.
have included these details? 7. Equiano refers to a brief period of time he spent as a slave
to the Africans who kidnapped him and eventually sold him.
Reading Strategy In his experience, slavery in Africa was far less brutal than
Responding What about this passage
slavery in the New World.
makes it striking or memorable?
8. Here, suffered means “allowed.”
68 U N IT 1 EARLY AMERICA
SuperStock, Inc./SuperStock
The Slavedeck of the Albaroz, Prize to the H.M.S. Albatross, 1846. Francis Meynell. Watercolor.
National Maritime Museum, London.
Viewing the Art: How do you think this image compares with Olaudah Equiano’s description
of conditions in the hold of a slave ship?
together, I became so sick and low that I was would have jumped over the side, but I could not;
not able to eat, nor had I the least desire to and besides, the crew used to watch us very closely
taste any thing. I now wished for the last who were not chained down to the decks, lest we
friend, death, to relieve me; but soon, to my should leap into the water; and I have seen some
grief, two of the white men offered me eatables; of these poor African prisoners most severely cut,
and, on my refusing to eat, one of them held me for attempting to do so, and hourly whipped for
fast by the hands, and laid me across, I think the not eating. This indeed was often the case with
windlass,9 and tied my feet, while the other myself. In a little time after, amongst the poor
flogged me severely. I had never experienced chained men, I found some of my own nation,
any thing of this kind before, and although not which in a small degree gave ease to my mind. I
being used to the water, I naturally feared that inquired of these what was to be done with us?
element the first time I saw it, yet, neverthe- They gave me to understand, we were to be car-
less, could I have got over the nettings,10 I ried to these white people’s country to work for
them. I then was a little revived, and thought, if it
were no worse than working, my situation was not
9. A windlass is a type of crank with a handle. It is used to so desperate; but still I feared I should be put to
raise or lower a heavy object such as an anchor.
death, the white people looked and acted, as I
10. Nettings were networks of small ropes on the sides of a
ship. On slave ships, nettings were used to prevent captives
thought, in so savage a manner; for I had never
from jumping overboard.
Literary Element Slave Narrative How does the point of Big Idea Life in the New World What kind of mood
view affect the message of this selection? does Equiano create here?
OLAUD AH EQUIANO 69
National Maritime Museum, London/Bridgeman Art Library
seen among any people such instances of brutal were now convinced it was done by magic. Soon
cruelty; and this not only shown towards us after this the other ship got her boats out, and
blacks, but also to some of the whites them- they came on board of us, and the people of both
selves. One white man in particular I saw, ships seemed very glad to see each other. Several
when we were permitted to be on deck, flogged of the strangers also shook hands with us black
so unmercifully with a large rope near the fore- people, and made motions with their hands, sig-
mast, that he died in consequence of it; and they nifying I suppose, we were to go to their country,
tossed him over the side as they would have but we did not understand them.
done a brute. This made me fear these people the At last, when the ship we were in, had got in
more; and I expected nothing less than to be treated all her cargo, they made ready with many fear-
in the same manner. I could not help expressing my ful noises, and we were all put under deck, so
fears and apprehensions to some of my countrymen; that we could not see how they managed the
I asked them if these people had no country, but vessel. But this disappointment was the least of
lived in this hollow place? (the ship) they told me my sorrow. The stench of the hold while we
they did not, but came from a distant one. “Then,” were on the coast was so intolerably loathsome,
said I, “how comes it in all our country we never that it was dangerous to remain there for any
heard of them?” They told me because they lived so time, and some of us had been permitted to stay
very far off. I then asked where were their women? on the deck for the fresh air; but now that the
had they any like themselves? I was told they had. whole ship’s cargo were confined together, it
“And why,” said I, “do we not see them?” They became absolutely pestilential.11 The closeness
answered, because they were left behind. I asked of the place, and the heat of the climate, added
how the vessel could go? they told me they could to the number in the ship, which was so
not tell; but that there was cloth put upon the crowded that each had scarcely room to turn
masts by the help of the ropes I saw, and then himself, almost suffocated us. This produced
the vessel went on; and the white men had copious perspirations, so that the air soon
some spell or magic they put in the water when became unfit for respiration, from a variety of
they liked, in order to stop the vessel. I was loathsome smells, and brought on a sickness
exceedingly amazed at this account, and really among the slaves, of which many died—thus
thought they were spirits. I therefore wished falling victims to the improvident12 avarice,13 as
much to be from amongst them, for I expected I may call it, of their purchasers. This wretched
they would sacrifice me; but my wishes were situation was again aggravated by the galling14 of
vain—for we were so quartered that it was the chains, now became insupportable; and the
impossible for any of us to make our escape. filth of the necessary tubs,15 into which the chil-
While we stayed on the coast I was mostly on dren often fell, and were almost suffocated. The
deck; and one day, to my great astonishment, I shrieks of the women, and the groans of the
saw one of these vessels coming in with the sails dying, rendered16 the whole a scene of horror
up. As soon as the whites saw it, they gave a
great shout, at which we were amazed; and the
more so, as the vessel appeared larger by 11. Pestilential means “poisonous” or “likely to cause disease
or death.”
approaching nearer. At last, she came to an
12. Improvident means “lacking foresight” or “not providing for
anchor in my sight, and when the anchor was let the future.”
go, I and my countrymen who saw it, were lost in 13. Avarice is greed.
astonishment to observe the vessel stop—and 14. Galling is the chafing or rubbing that causes irritation of
the skin.
15. Necessary tubs are containers for bodily waste.
16. Render means “to cause to be” or “to make.”
Big Idea Life in the New World Why might Equiano
have included a description of this event? Reading Strategy Responding What is significant about
Equiano’s use of the word cargo here?
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
apprehensions (ap´ ri hen shən) n. fears of what may
happen in the future; anxieties copious (kō pē əs) adj. large in quantity; plentiful
70 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
and the attempt procured them
some very severe floggings. One
day, when we had a smooth sea
and moderate wind, two of my
wearied countrymen who were
chained together, (I was near
them at the time,) preferring
death to such a life of misery,
somehow made through the net-
tings and jumped into the sea:
immediately, another quite
dejected fellow, who, on account
of his illness, was suffered to be
out of irons, also followed their
example; and I believe many
The Slave Ship, 1840. Joseph Mallord William Turner. Oil on canvas. Museum of Fine more would very soon have done
Arts, Boston. the same, if they had not been
Viewing the Art: What does this painting tell you about the voyages of slave ships in prevented by the ship’s crew, who
Equiano’s time? were instantly alarmed. Those of
us that were the most active, were
almost inconceivable. Happily perhaps, for in a moment put down under the deck, and there
myself, I was soon reduced so low here that it was such a noise and confusion amongst the peo-
was thought necessary to keep me almost always ple of the ship as I never heard before, to stop
on deck; and from my extreme youth I was not her, and get the boat out to go after the slaves.
put in fetters.17 In this situation I expected every However, two of the wretches were drowned, but
hour to share the fate of my companions, some they got the other, and afterwards flogged him
of whom were almost daily brought upon deck at unmercifully, for thus attempting to prefer death
the point of death, which I began to hope would to slavery. In this manner we continued to
soon put an end to my miseries. Often did I undergo more hardships than I can now relate,
think many of the inhabitants of the deep much hardships which are inseparable from this accursed
more happy than myself. I envied them the free- trade. Many a time we were near suffocation from
dom they enjoyed, and as often wished I could the want of fresh air, which we were often without
change my condition for theirs. Every circum- for whole days together. This, and the stench of
stance I met with, served only to render my state the necessary tubs, carried off many.
more painful, and heightened my apprehensions, During our passage, I first saw flying fishes, which
and my opinion of the cruelty of the whites. surprised me very much; they used frequently to fly
One day they had taken a number of fishes; across the ship, and many of them fell on the deck.
and when they had killed and satisfied them- I also now first saw the use of the quadrant; I had
selves with as many as they thought fit, to our often with astonishment seen the mariners make
astonishment who were on deck, rather than observations with it, and I could not think what it
give any of them to us to eat, as we expected, meant. They at last took notice of my surprise; and
they tossed the remaining fish into the sea one of them, willing to increase it, as well as to
again, although we begged and prayed for gratify my curiosity, made me one day look through
some as well as we could, but in vain; and it. The clouds appeared to me to be land, which
some of my countrymen, being pressed by
hunger, took an opportunity, when they
Reading Strategy Responding How does this passage
thought no one saw them, of trying to get a
illustrate the illogical nature of punishments on the ship?
little privately; but they were discovered,
Vocabulary
gratify (rat ə f̄´) v. to satisfy or indulge
17. Fetters are leg irons.
OLAUD AH EQUIANO 71
Burstein Collection/CORBIS
disappeared as they passed along. This heightened they had many horses amongst them, and much
my wonder; and I was now more persuaded than larger than those I then saw.
ever, that I was in another world, and that every We were not many days in the merchant’s cus-
thing about me was magic. At last, we came in sight tody, before we were sold after their usual manner,
of the island of Barbadoes, at which the whites on which is this:—On a signal given, (as the beat of a
board gave a great shout, and made many signs of drum,) the buyers rush at once into the yard where
joy to us. We did not know what to think of this; the slaves are confined, and make choice of that
but as the vessel drew nearer, we plainly saw the parcel they like best. The noise and clamor with
harbor, and other ships of different kinds and which this is attended, and the eagerness visible in
sizes, and we soon anchored amongst them, off the countenances of the buyers, serve not a little to
Bridgetown.18 Many merchants and planters now increase the apprehension of terrified Africans, who
came on board, though it was in the evening. They may well be supposed to consider them as the min-
put us in separate parcels,19 and examined us atten- isters of that destruction to which they think them-
tively. They also made us jump, and pointed to the selves devoted. In this manner, without scruple, are
land, signifying we were to go there. We thought by relations and friends separated, most of them never
this, we should be eaten by these ugly men, as they to see each other again. I remember, in the vessel in
appeared to us; and, when soon after we were all put which I was brought over, in the men’s apartment,
down under the deck again, there was much dread there were several brothers, who, in the sale, were
and trembling among us, and nothing but bitter sold in different lots; and it was very moving on this
cries to be heard all the night from these apprehen- occasion, to see and hear their cries at parting. O, ye
sions, insomuch, that at last the white people got nominal20 Christians! might not an African ask
some old slaves from the land to pacify us. They you—Learned you this from your God, who says
told us we were not to be eaten, but to work, and unto you, Do unto all men as you would men
were soon to go on land, where we should see many should do unto you?21 Is it not enough that we are
of our country people. This report eased us much. torn from our country and friends, to toil for your
And sure enough, soon after we were landed, there luxury and lust of gain? Must every tender feeling be
came to us Africans of all languages. likewise sacrificed to your avarice? Are the dearest
We were conducted immediately to the mer- friends and relations, now rendered more dear by
chant’s yard, where we were all pent up together, their separation from their kindred, still to be parted
like so many sheep in a fold, without regard to sex from each other, and thus prevented from cheering
or age. As every object was new to me, every thing the gloom of slavery, with the small comfort of
I saw filled me with surprise. What struck me first, being together, and mingling their sufferings and
was, that the houses were built with bricks and sto- sorrows? Why are parents to lose their children,
ries, and in every other respect different from those brothers their sisters, or husbands their wives?
I had seen in Africa; but I was still more astonished Surely, this is a new refinement in cruelty, which,
on seeing people on horseback. I did not know what while it has no advantage to atone22 for it, thus
this could mean; and, indeed, I thought these peo- aggravates distress, and adds fresh horrors even to
ple were full of nothing but magical arts. While I the wretchedness of slavery.
was in this astonishment, one of my fellow-prisoners
spoke to a countryman of his, about the horses, 20. Nominal means “in name only.”
who said they were the same kind they had in their 21. “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should
country. I understood them, though they were from do to you, do ye even so to them.” (Matthew 7:12)
a distant part of Africa; and I thought it odd I had 22. Atone means “to make amends” or “to compensate for.”
not seen any horses there; but afterwards, when I Literary Element Slave Narrative How is this section
came to converse with different Africans, I found different from the rest of the work? Why does Equiano make
this change?
72 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
A F T E R YO U R E A D
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond such as word choice. (a)Review the last paragraph.
How does Equiano’s tone shift here from what came
1. What was your reaction to the description of life on
before? (b)Why does it shift? Explain how this shift in
a slave ship?
tone affected you.
Recall and Interpret 6. Equiano’s book was a best seller in its time.
2. (a)What does Equiano fear will happen to him (a)Why do you think his story was so successful at
when he is taken aboard the ship? (b)Why might capturing the public’s interest? (b)Why would his
he be so afraid? story have been useful to the cause of abolition?
3. (a)In spite of his fear, Equiano displays great curiosity. Connect
Relate an incident that reveals this curiosity. (b)What
might the incident reveal about his character? 7. Big Idea Life in the New World How has
reading this work affected your attitudes about per-
4. (a)What phrases does Equiano use to describe sonal freedom, human nature, or our nation’s his-
his feelings about slavery’s separation of loved tory of enslavement of Africans? Explain, using
ones? (b)Why does he regard it as he does? details from the selection.
Analyze and Evaluate
5. The tone of a work is the attitude the author conveys
toward his or her subject matter through elements
L I T E R A RY A NA LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO CA B U L A RY
OLAUD AH EQUIANO 73
B EF O R E YO U R E A D
I
n 1675, a long period of relative peace between
the Native Americans and Europeans in New
England ended in the bloody conflict known as
King Philip’s War. King Philip was the white settlers’
name for Metacom, the Sachem or leader of the
Wampanoag people, who vowed to halt European
expansion into his lands. The war began as a series of
Native American sieges on colonial towns in present- held captive for three months. Her wounds healed,
day Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. and she adapted to the Wampanoags’ meager diet.
Lancaster, a frontier town in central Massachusetts, She often bartered her skills as a seamstress for food,
was one of the last to be ransacked. knitting a pair of socks for a quart of peas or making
a shirt for a hunk of bear meat. The Wampanoag were
constantly on the move, traveling as far north as New
Hampshire while Rowlandson was being held captive.
“I had often before this said, that if the She had become disoriented early on, and fleeing was
Indians should come, I should choose not an option, especially because she could not bear
rather to be killed by them than taken to leave her surviving children in the hands of the
Wampanoag. A stolen Bible one of the Wampanoag
alive; but when it came to the trial my had given her and the small portions of food she man-
mind changed. . . .” aged to procure were all that sustained her.
74 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
Trustees of the Boston Library
L I T E R AT U R E P R E V I E W R E A D I N G P R EVI E W
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • understanding allusion
• relating literature to historical period • analyzing historical context
MARY ROWLANDSON 75
can express the sorrows of my heart and bitterness but go I must and leave it. When I had been
of my spirit that I had at this departure: but God a while at my master’s wigwam, I took the first
was with me in a wonderful manner, carrying me opportunity I could get to go look after my dead
along, and bearing up my spirit, that it did not child. When I came, I asked them what they had
quite fail. One of the Indians carried my poor done with it. They told me it was upon the hill;
wounded babe upon a horse: it went moaning all then they went and shewed me where it was,
along, I shall die, I shall die! I went on foot after it, where I saw the ground was newly dug, and there
with sorrow that cannot be expressed. At length I they told me they had buried it; there I left that
took it off the horse, and carried it in my arms, till child in the wilderness, and must commit it, and
my strength failed, and I fell down with it. Then myself also, in this wilderness condition, to Him
they set me upon a horse, with my wounded child who is above all.
in my lap. . . . . . . During my abode in this place Philip spake
Thus nine days I sat upon my knees, with my to me to make a shirt for his boy, which I did; for
babe in my lap, till my flesh was raw again. My which he gave me a shilling;7 I offered the money
child, being even ready to depart this sorrowful to my master, but he bade me keep it; and with it
world, they bid me carry it out to another wig- I bought a piece of horse flesh. Afterwards I made
wam; (I suppose because they would not be trou- a cap for his boy, for which he invited me to din-
bled with such spectacles;) whither I went with a ner; I went, and he gave me a pancake about as
very heavy heart, and down I sat with the picture big as two fingers; it was made of parched wheat,
of death in my lap. About two hours in the night, beaten and fried in bear’s grease, but I thought I
my sweet babe, like a lamb, departed this life, on never tasted pleasanter meat in my life. There was
Feb. 18, 1675 [1676] it being about six years and a squaw who spake to me to make a shirt for her
five months old. It was nine days (from the first sannup; for which she gave me a piece of bear.
wounding) in this miserable condition, without Another asked me to knit a pair of stockings, for
any refreshing of one nature or other, except a lit- which she gave me a quart of peas. I boiled my
tle cold water. I cannot but take notice how, at peas and bear together, and invited my master and
another time, I could not bear to be in the room mistress to dinner; but the proud gossip, because I
where any dead person was; but now the case is served them both in one dish, would eat nothing,
changed; I must and could lie down by my dead except one bit that he gave her upon the point of
babe, side by side, all the night after. I have his knife. Hearing that my son was come to this
thought since of the wonderful goodness of God place, I went to see him, and found him lying flat
to me, in preserving me so in the use of my reason upon the ground; I asked him how he could sleep
and senses in that distressed time, that I did not so? he answered me, that he was not asleep, but
use wicked and violent means to end my own mis- at prayer; and lay so, that they might not observe
erable life. In the morning, when they understood what he was doing. I pray God he may remember
that my child was dead, they sent for me home to these things, now he is returned in safety. At this
my master’s wigwam; (by my master, in this writ- place (the sun now getting higher) what with the
ing, must be understood Quannopin, who was a beams and heat of the sun, and the smoke of the
Saggamore,5 and married King Philip’s wife’s sister; wigwams, I thought I should have been blind; I
not that he first took me, but I was sold to him by could scarce discern one wigwam from another.
another Narrhaganset Indian, who took me when
first I came out of the garrison).6 I went to take up
my dead child in my arms to carry it with me, but 7. A shilling was an English or early American coin, whose
they bid me let it alone; there was no resisting, value was 20 pence (pennies) or ¹⁄₂₀ pound.
Big Idea Life in the New World How does this short
passage illustrate the cultural differences between the Native
5. A Saggamore was a subordinate chief in the hierarchy of Americans and the European settlers?
various Native American peoples.
6. A garrison is a military post. Vocabulary
Reading Strategy Analyzing Historical Context Why discern (di surn) v. to recognize as different and dis-
does the author include this information? tinct; distinguish
MARY R OWLANDSON 77
There was here one Mary Thurston of . . . My son being now about a mile from
Medfield, who, seeing how it was with me, me, I asked liberty to go and see him; they
lent me a hat to wear; but as soon as I was bade me go, and away I went; but quickly lost
gone, the squaw (who owned that Mary myself, travelling over hills and through
Thurston) came running after me, and got swamps, and could not find the way to him.
it away again. Here there was a squaw who And I cannot but admire at the wonderful
gave me one spoonful of meal;8 I put it in my power and goodness of God to me, in that
pocket to keep it safe; yet, notwithstanding, though I was gone from home, and met with
somebody stole it, but put five Indian corns in all sorts of Indians, and those I had no knowl-
the room of it; which corns were the greatest edge of, and there being no Christian soul
provision I had in my travel for one day. near me; yet not one of them offered the least
The Indians returning from Northampton, imaginable miscarriage to me. I turned home-
brought with them some horses and sheep, ward again, and met with my master; he
and other things which they had taken; I showed me the way to my son: when I came
desired them that they would carry me to to him I found him not well; and withal he
Albany upon one of those horses, and sell had a boil on his side, which much troubled
me for powder; for so they had sometimes him; we bemoaned one another a while, as
discoursed.9 I was utterly hopeless of getting the Lord helped us, and then I returned again.
home on foot the way that I came. I could When I was returned, I found myself as unsat-
hardly bear to think of the many weary steps isfied as I was before. I went up and down
I had taken to come to this place. moaning and lamenting; and my spirit was
Vocabulary
8. Meal is coarsely ground grain. lament (lə ment) v. to express deep sorrow or grief
9. Discoursed means “discussed.”
78 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
Daryl/Benson/Masterfile
ready to sink with the thoughts of my poor our course towards the bay-towns. I having
children; my son was ill, and I could not but nothing to eat by the way this day, but a few
think of his mournful looks; and no Christian crumbs of cake, that an Indian gave my girl
friend was near him to do any office of love for the same day we were taken. She gave it me,
him, either for soul or body. And my poor girl, and I put it into my pocket; there it lay till it
I knew not where she was, nor whether she was was so moldy (for want of good baking) that
sick or well, or alive or dead. I repaired under one could not tell what it was made of; it fell
these thoughts to my Bible (my great comforter all to crumbs, and grew so dry and hard, that
in that time) and that scripture came to my it was like little flints;11 and this refreshed me
hand, Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall many times when I was ready to faint. It was
sustain thee. Psal. lv. 22. in my thoughts when I put it into my mouth;
But I was fain10 to go and look after something that if ever I returned, I would tell the world
to satisfy my hunger; and going among the wig- what a blessing the Lord gave to such mean
wams, I went into one, and there found a squaw food. As we went along, they killed a deer,
who showed herself very kind to me, and gave me with a young one in her; they gave me a piece
a piece of bear. I put it into my pocket, and came of the fawn, and it was so young and tender,
home; but could not find an opportunity to broil it, that one might eat the bones as well as the
for fear they would get it from me, and there it lay flesh, and yet I thought it very good. When
all that day and night in my stinking pocket. In the night came on we sat down; it rained, but
morning I went again to the same squaw, who had they quickly got up a bark wigwam, where I
a kettle of ground nuts boiling; I asked her to let lay dry that night. I looked out in the morn-
me boil my piece of bear in her kettle, which she ing, and many of them had lain in the rain all
did, and gave me some ground nuts to eat with it, night. I saw by their reeking.12 Thus the Lord
and I cannot but think how pleasant it was to me. I dealt mercifully with me many times; and I
have seen bear baked very handsomely amongst the fared better than many of them.
English, and some liked it, but the thoughts that it . . . O the wonderful power of God that I
was bear made me tremble: but now that was have seen, and the experiences that I have
savory to me that one would think was enough to had! I have been in the midst of those roaring
turn the stomach of a brute creature. lions and savage bears, that feared neither
One bitter cold day I could find no room God nor man, nor the devil, by night and
to sit down before the fire; I went out, and could day, alone and in company, sleeping all sorts
not tell what to do, but I went into another wig- together; and yet not one of them ever offered
wam where they were also sitting round the fire; the least abuse of unchastity to me in word or
but the squaw laid a skin for me, and bid me sit action. Though some are ready to say I speak
down; and gave me some ground nuts, and bade it for my own credit; but I speak it in the pres-
me come again; and told me they would buy me ence of God, and to His glory.
if they were able; and yet these were strangers to . . . If trouble from smaller matters begins
me that I never knew before. to arise in me, I have something at hand to
. . . The fourteenth remove.—Now must we check myself with, and say when I am trou-
pack up and be gone from this thicket, bending bled, it was but the other day, that if I had
had the world, I would have given it for my
freedom. . . . I have learned to look beyond
10. In this instance, fain means “obliged.” present and smaller troubles, and to be qui-
Big Idea Life in the New World Why is it important to eted under them, as Moses said, Exod. xiv. 13,
Rowlandson that her son have a “Christian friend” near him? Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord.
FINIS13
Literary Element Allusion Why do these words help
Rowlandson feel better about her son and daughter?
11. Flints refers to pieces of flint, a very hard type of quartz.
Big Idea 12. Reeking here means “steaming”; that is, water was
Life in the New World How does Rowlandson
evaporating from their hair and clothing.
suggest that life in the New World has changed her?
13. Finis means “The End.”
MARY R OWLANDSON 79
A F T E R YO U R E A D
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. What incident or observation in Rowlandson’s 5. (a)How does Rowlandson portray her captors?
account surprised or moved you most? (b)In your opinion, is this portrayal fair?
6. (a)What qualities or behaviors help Rowlandson
Recall and Interpret survive her ordeal? (b)What did you find most puz-
zling about her behavior? Put your thoughts in the
2. (a)What does Rowlandson say that she always
form of a question.
intended to do if Native Americans attacked?
(b)Why do you think she changes her mind?
3. (a)What experience does Rowlandson have with Connect
Metacom (Philip)? (b)What impression of him 7. Big Idea Life in the New World Captivity nar-
does this episode convey? ratives such as Rowlandson’s were among the
4. (a)When Rowlandson first visits her son, what most popular literary genres in early America. What
does she find him doing? (b)What might this effect do you think this type of literature might
episode suggest about the attitude of the have had on the colonists’ attitudes and policies
Wampanoag? regarding Native Americans?
L I T E R A RY A N A LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C AB U L A RY
2. What is the effect of her allusion to the Book 1. What does her account suggest about King Philip’s
of Job? War and about the position of the settlers?
2. What does her account of her time as a prisoner
show about the life of the Wampanoag?
Writing About Literature
Analyze Genre Elements Like any other literary
genre, the Indian-captivity narrative has characteristic Vocabulary Practice
elements. These include sudden, fierce Native Practice with Synonyms Find the synonym for
American attacks on frontier settlements; innocent, each vocabulary word. Use a dictionary or a the-
defenseless prisoners (usually women and children); saurus if you need help.
hardship as the Indians move from camp to camp;
and eventual rescue of the captives. In two paragraphs, 1. desolation a. ruin b. jungle
explain which of these elements are present in A 2. daunt a. soothe b. discourage
Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary
Rowlandson and evaluate their overall literary effect. 3. compassion a. mercy b. pleasure
4. discern a. ignore b. perceive
Web Activities For eFlashcards,
5. lament a. bellow b. mourn
Selection Quick Checks, and other Web activities, go to
www.glencoe.com.
80 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
Grammar Workshop
Sentence Structure
º Subordinating
Examples Conjunctions
• When Europeans came to the United States, they often brought disease.
after if
[The underlined adverb clause answers the question when? and modifies the
although since
verb brought.]
as so long as
• Rowlandson was brave even though she was taken captive. as though unless
[The underlined adverb clause answers the question under what conditions? because until
and modifies the adjective brave.] before when
81
B EF O R E YO U R E A D
A
nne Bradstreet was the first published poet in Muses of ancient Greek mythology, goddesses who
America—a remarkable accomplishment inspired poets and other artists.)
considering that writing was thought
improper for a woman at that time. In fact, the title A Change of Style When Bradstreet saw The Tenth
page of her first book assures readers that she did not Muse in print, she was dissatisfied with her work and
shirk her responsibilities as a wife and mother in order stopped writing imitative verse. Instead, she started
to write poetry. The poems were said to be “the fruit writing warm, natural poetry
of some few hours, curtailed from sleep and other about her experiences as a
refreshments.” wife, mother, and woman in
seventeenth-century New
From England to the New World Anne England. Bradstreet’s best
Bradstreet (born Dudley) was born and raised in poems explore her love for
England. At age 16, Anne married Simon her husband, her sadness at
Bradstreet, a friend of the family. Two years later, the death of her parents and
Anne, her husband, and her parents boarded the other family members, and her
Arbella as members of John Winthrop’s party and struggle to accept as God’s
sailed to the Massachusetts Bay Colony to join the will the losses she suffered. Six
Puritan community there. At first, Bradstreet was years after Bradstreet’s death,
appalled by the crude life of the settlement, but an American edition of The
she soon adjusted. She wrote, “I changed my con- Tenth Muse, which included
dition and was married, and came into this coun- some of her later poems as
try, where I found a new world and new manners, well as her revisions of her
at which my heart rose [reacted angrily]. But after earlier work, appeared under
I was convinced it was the way of God, I submit- the new title Several Poems
ted to it and joined to the church at Boston.” Compiled with Great Variety of
Wit and Learning.
Anne Bradstreet was born in
Author Search For more about Literature
1612
Online Author Search For more
and died in 1672.
Anne Bradstreet, go to www.glencoe.com. about this author, go to www.literature.glencoe.com.
82 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
The Art Archive/St. Biddolph, Boston/Eileen Tweedy
L I T E R AT U R E P R E V I E W R E A D I N G P R EVI E W
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • drawing conclusions about the author’s beliefs
• analyzing literary periods • analyzing couplets
ANNE BRADSTREET 83
Anne Bradstreet
In silent night when rest I took My pleasant things in ashes lie,
For sorrow near I did not look And them behold no more shall I.
I wakened was with thund’ring noise Under thy roof no guest shall sit,
And piteous shrieks of dreadful voice. 30 Nor at thy table eat a bit.
5 That fearful sound of “Fire!” and “Fire!” No pleasant tale shall e’er be told,
Let no man know is my desire. Nor things recounted done of old.
I, starting up, the light did spy, No candle e’er shall shine in thee,
And to my God my heart did cry Nor bridegroom’s voice e’er heard
To strengthen me in my distress shall be.
10 And not to leave me succorless.1 35 In silence ever shall thou lie,
Then, coming out, beheld a space Adieu, Adieu,4 all’s vanity.5
The flame consume my dwelling place. Then straight I ’gin my heart to chide,
And when I could no longer look, And did thy wealth on earth abide?
I blest His name that gave and took,2 Didst fix thy hope on mold’ring dust?
15 That laid my goods now in the dust. 40 The arm of flesh didst make thy trust?
Yea, so it was, and so ’twas just. Raise up thy thoughts above the sky
It was His own, it was not mine, That dunghill mists away may fly.
Far be it that I should repine;3 Thou hast an house on high erect,
He might of all justly bereft Framed by that mighty Architect,
20 But yet sufficient for us left. 45 With glory richly furnished,
When by the ruins oft I past Stands permanent though this be fled.
My sorrowing eyes aside did cast, It’s purchased and paid for too
And here and there the places spy By Him who hath enough to do.
Where oft I sat and long did lie: A price so vast as is unknown
25 Here stood that trunk, and there that 50 Yet by His gift is made thine own;
chest, There’s wealth enough, I need no more,
There lay that store I counted best. Farewell, my pelf,6 farewell my store.
The world no longer let me love,
My hope and treasure lies above.
1. Succorless means “without assistance” or “helpless.”
2. This is a biblical reference to Job 1:21, “. . . the Lord
gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the
name of the Lord.” 4. Adieu (ə d¯¯¯
oo) is French for “good-bye.”
3. Repine means “to express unhappiness” or “to complain.” 5. All’s vanity is a biblical reference to Ecclesiastes 1:2 and
12:8, “Vanity of vanities: all is vanity.”
Reading Strategy Drawing Conclusions About 6. Pelf is a term for money or wealth, often used disapprovingly.
Author’s Beliefs What conclusions can you draw about
Bradstreet’s faith in God from these lines? Literary Element Metaphor Who is the “mighty Architect”
in this metaphor?
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
bereft (bi reft) adj. deprived of the possession or use of
something chide (ch¯d) v. to find fault with or to blame
84 U N IT 1 EARLY AMERICA
Anne Bradstreet
Vocabulary Big Idea Life in the New World How does Bradstreet’s
description of her love for her husband reflect her religious
recompense (rek əm pens´) n. something given in beliefs?
return for something else; compensation
ANNE BR ADSTREET 85
Victoria & Albert Museum, London/Art Resource
A F T E R YO U R E A D
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond 5. (a)What is the seeming contradiction in the last
line of the poem? (b)What do you think this line
1. Which Bradstreet poem did you find more
means?
poignant? Explain.
LI T E R A RY A N A LYS I S
86 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
R E AD I N G A N D VO CA B U L A RY WRITI NG AN D EXTEN DI NG
Drawing Conclusions
Reading Strategy Writing About Literature
About Author’s Beliefs Responding to Theme Write a review of either
“Upon the Burning of Our House” or “To My Dear and
Authors often incorporate their own beliefs into their
Loving Husband.” Discuss what you liked or disliked
writing. Sometimes they state these beliefs explicitly.
about either of the two poems or whether you agreed
Other times it might be possible to infer the author’s
with the speaker’s views. You might also want to
beliefs only by examining their word choice, use of fig-
explain the effect of such devices as rhyme, rhythm,
urative language, or rhetorical techniques.
and metaphor. Use lines from the poems to support
1. How does Bradstreet feel about worldly things? your opinions.
2. List three pieces of evidence to support your As you draft your review, be sure to
opinion.
• create a clear, focused thesis statement that is sup-
ported by textual evidence and personal experience
Vocabulary Practice • include topic sentences in paragraphs that are fully
Practice with Synonyms Read the following sen- developed and logically organized and that handle a
tences. Choose the best synonym for the under- single aspect of your argument
lined word. Use a dictionary if you need help.
• craft concise and effective opening and concluding
1. The team’s loss left the coach bereft of her paragraphs that introduce and reinforce your thesis
usual enthusiasm. After completing your draft, meet with a peer reviewer
a. deprived b. satisfied c. comforted to evaluate each other’s work and to suggest revisions.
2. Angela hated it when her older sister chided her. Then proofread your draft for errors in spelling, gram-
a. praised b. criticized c. teased mar, and punctuation and make the appropriate edits.
3. After we broke our neighbor’s mailbox, we
raked her yard as recompense.
Literary Criticism
a. punishment b. prize c. compensation
Kenneth B. Murdock writes that, even in her best
poems, Anne Bradstreet “conforms to the Puritan util-
itarian view of art and to [the Puritans’] distrust of the
Academic Vocabulary frankly sensuous.” Do you think the Bradstreet poems
you have read show evidence of the “utilitarian view
Here are two vocabulary words from the vocab- of art” or of her drawing back from the “frankly sen-
ulary list on page R86. The words will help you suous”? Write a paragraph citing evidence from the
think, write, and talk about the selection. poems to support your opinion of Murdock’s
judgment.
site (s̄t) n. the location of a building or structure
aspect (as pekt) n. a trait or characteristic to
be viewed, analyzed, or evaluated; an element Creative Writing
of something being examined Bradstreet describes her response to losing her pos-
sessions. Think about something you own that you
Practice and Apply treasure. Then imagine how you would feel if you lost
1. What objects does the speaker recall while on that cherished object. Quickly write a few words and
the site of her destroyed home? phrases that describe the object and your possible
2. What aspect of Bradstreet’s poems do you find reaction to its loss. Use these words and phrases to
most interesting? write your own poem. If you wish, you might try using
rhyme, repetition, or metaphor, as Bradstreet does
Web Activities For eFlashcards,
in her poems.
Selection Quick Checks, and other Web activities, go to
www.glencoe.com.
ANNE BR ADSTREET 87
B EF O R E YO U R E A D
J
onathan Edwards was a Puritan theologian, intuitive terms—
preacher, and philosopher who captivated con- God the divine con-
gregations with his “preaching of terror,” a veyed directly to the
brand of sermonizing aimed at shaking the faith of individual soul.
unrepentant sinners and saving them from eternal In 1729, Edwards suc-
damnation. His sermons hinge on fire-and-brim- ceeded his grandfather at the
stone depictions of hell and visions of churchgoers pulpit in Northampton,
dangling by tenuous threads over the depths of Massachusetts. In his sermons, he attributed New
hell, held by the hand of an angry God. “I think it England’s ailing morality to its moral and religious
is a reasonable thing to fright persons away from independence and its incomplete acceptance of
hell,” Edwards explained. “Is it not a reasonable faith as the sole means to salvation. In the early
thing to fright a person out of a house on fire?” 1730s, Edwards lambasted Arminianism, a move-
As a child, the precocious Edwards used his vivid ment in the Anglican Church that was gaining
imagination and shrewd, analytical mind to write sci- popularity among New England colonists. His ser-
entific essays on insects, colors, and rainbows. At 13, mons on the subject incited a religious revival in
he matriculated at Yale. He intended to use his edu- the Connecticut River valley in 1734–1735.
cation to publish works refuting natural philosophy
and its key doctrines of materialism and atheism.
Great Awakening Between 1730 and 1750, a reli-
gious revival known as the Great Awakening swept
through the colonies. Preachers attracted people in
“O sinner! consider the fearful danger droves and brought about ecstatic emotional reac-
you are in: it is a great furnace of tions and frenzied mass conversions with their ser-
mons. Edwards sought to keep his audiences calm,
wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full but his sermons were equally effective. His sermons
of the fire of wrath, that you are held were reproduced and read across Britain and other
regions in America. However, by 1750 some of
over in the hand of that God…” Northampton’s Puritans objected to Edwards’s
—Jonathan Edwards extreme teachings and removed him from his post.
He went into exile for several years, during which he
served as a missionary to Native Americans in the
frontier village of Stockbridge. He then became pres-
Conversion Edwards was a religious young man, ident of what is now Princeton University but died of
due to his Puritan upbringing, but he had qualms smallpox shortly thereafter. Edwards is widely consid-
about predestination, the doctrine that claims it is ered the most influential American writer before
predetermined whether an individual will go to Benjamin Franklin.
heaven or hell. But in 1721, while studying divinity, Jonathan Edwards was born in 1703 and died in 1758.
he underwent a religious conversion that confirmed
his belief in God as omnipotent, total, and in con-
trol of all things, including human destiny. Edwards Author Search For more about
subsequently thought of the revelation of God in Jonathan Edwards, go to www.glencoe.com.
88 U N IT 1 EARLY AMERICA
Joseph Badger/Yale University Art Gallery
L I T E R AT U R E P R E V I E W R E A D I N G P R EVI E W
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • identifying imagery
• relating literature to historical period • understanding connotation
JONATHAN EDWARDS 89
Jonathan Edwards
90 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
Adam Woolfitt/CORBIS
own preservation. But indeed these things are
nothing; if God should withdraw his hand, they
would avail no more to keep you from falling,
than the thin air to hold up a person that is sus-
pended in it.
Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as
lead, and to tend downwards with great weight
and pressure towards hell; and if God should let
you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly
descend and plunge into the bottomless gulf, and
your healthy constitution, and your own care and
prudence, and best contrivance,4 and all your
righteousness, would have no more influence to
uphold you and keep you out of hell, than a spi-
der’s web would have to stop a falling rock.
The bow of God’s wrath is bent, and the arrow
made ready on the string, and justice bends the
arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, and it is
nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of
an angry God, without any promise or obligation at
all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being
made drunk with your blood.
Thus are all you that never passed under a
great change of heart, by the mighty power of
the Spirit of God upon your souls; all that
were never born again, and made new crea-
tures, and raised from being dead in sin, to a
state of new, and before altogether unexperi- George Whitefield, c. 1742. John Wollaston. Oil on canvas,
325/8 x 26 in. National Portrait Gallery, London.
enced light and life, (however you may have
Viewing the Art: Does the painting capture the tone of
reformed your life in many things, and may Jonathan Edwards’s sermon? Support your opinion.
have had religious affections, and may keep up
a form of religion in your families and closets,5
and in the houses of God, and may be strict in The God that holds you over the pit of
it) you are thus in the hands of an angry God; hell, much as one holds a spider, or some
it is nothing but his mere pleasure that keeps loathsome insect, over the fire, abhors you,
you from being this moment swallowed up in and is dreadfully provoked; his wrath towards
everlasting destruction. you burns like fire; he looks upon you as wor-
thy of nothing else, but to be cast into the
4. A contrivance is a clever scheme or plan. fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have
5. Here, closets refers to small rooms used especially for prayer you in his sight; you are ten thousand times so
and meditation. abominable in his eyes, as the most hateful
Literary Element Imagery Why does Edwards introduce
and venomous serpent is in ours.
this image? O sinner! consider the fearful danger you are
in: it is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bot-
Big Idea Life in the New World What does Edwards’s tomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you are
observation indicate about the place of religion in the held over in the hand of that God, whose wrath
American colonies?
Vocabulary
Vocabulary abhor (ab ho r ) v. to regard with disgust
prudence (pr¯¯¯
oodəns) n. exercise of good and cautious abominable (ə bom ə nə bəl) adj. disgusting;
judgment detestable
Literary Element Imagery Which senses does this image Reading Strategy Examining Connotation How does the
appeal to? What emotions does it stir? connotation of the word flocking contribute to Edwards’s point?
92 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
A F T E R YO U R E A D
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. Imagine that you are in the congregation, listening 5. An allusion is a reference to a well-known person,
to Edwards’s sermon. How might you respond? character, place, or situation. (a)What allusion does
Edwards introduce in the last paragraph? (b)Why
Recall and Interpret does he make this reference?
2. (a)In the first paragraph, what generalization does
6. (a)What is the effect of Edwards’s repetition of the
Edwards make about all people? (b)Why do you
word you? (b)How would the effect have been dif-
think Edwards makes this statement?
ferent if Edwards had replaced you with a sinner?
3. (a)To what does Edwards compare the unrepen-
7. (a)What effect do you think Edwards intended his
tant sinner in paragraph seven? (b)What is the
sermon to have on his congregation? (b)In what
effect of this comparison?
other ways might a person have reacted?
4. (a)Near the end of the sermon, what does
Edwards say Christ has done? (b)How would you Connect
describe Edwards’s view of the relationship 8. Big idea Life in the New World Life in the
between God and humanity? American colonies was difficult and dangerous.
How do the conditions of colonial life contribute to
the impact of Edwards’s message?
L I T E R A RY A NA LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO CA B U L A RY
º Test-Taking Tip Connecting to Literature The definition of wrath tells you that the word
means “extreme anger.” One way to keep that information in your long-term
When you encounter
memory is to relate it to a pair of words you know well. You can form an anal-
word analogies on a test,
ogy—a way of showing that two relationships are the same—to remember the
a good strategy is to keep
meaning of wrath.
in mind the word rela-
tionship. Ask yourself,
wrath : anger :: starvation : hunger
“How is the first word
related to the second?” This analogy is “Wrath is to anger as starvation is to hunger.” Most analogy
Familiarize yourself with test questions ask you to identify the pair of words that best represents the
some of the most com- relationship expressed by another pair of words.
mon word relationships,
such as those listed in the glowing : flames ::
chart on this page. a. burning : freezing b. fierce : lion c. wren : bird d. sailor : ship
º Literary Terms To complete an analogy, use these tips:
Handbook
• Describe the relationship of the first pair of words. (“Glowing is a characteristic
For more about analogies,
of flames.”) Then use that relationship to describe the relationship between
see Literary Terms
the words in each answer choice. The one that fits best is the right answer.
Handbook, p. R1.
(“Fierce is a characteristic of a lion.”)
• The words in the second pair should be the same parts of speech as the
corresponding words in the first pair.
• If no choice makes sense, try another relationship between the first pair.
eFlashcards For eFlashcards
and other vocabulary activities, go Analogies can be based on a variety of relationships.
to www.glencoe.com.
Association or Usage An archer is associated with or uses a bow.
94 UNIT 1
Part 3
95
SuperStock
B EF O R E YO U R E A D
I
the first public library in America and the Academy
magine that your senator invented the Internet
of Philadelphia, which evolved into the University
and a new kind of electric guitar, spoke many
of Pennsylvania. In 1746 and 1747, Franklin made
languages, wrote poetry, started a successful cor-
groundbreaking investigations of electrical phenom-
poration, founded a college, and helped write some
ena and lightning that brought him international
of the world’s most important political documents.
fame. Franklin was also responsible for such diverse
If you can imagine such an extraordinary person
inventions as bifocal glasses, the Franklin stove,
today, then you are beginning to understand just
daylight saving time, and the lightning rod.
how remarkable Benjamin Franklin was in his time.
Diplomat and Revolutionary As a representa-
tive of the Pennsylvania Assembly, Franklin spent
“Dost though love life? Then do not much of the period from 1757 to 1775 in London.
He also acted as an agent for the colonies and
squander time; for that’s the stuff life argued against the hated Stamp Act. While
is made of.” Franklin had always opposed this tax, he did not, at
first, support American independence. Instead,
—Benjamin Franklin Franklin imagined a British empire made up of
from Poor Richard’s Almanack many self-governing nations. By 1775, however, his
hopes for reconciliation had vanished. Franklin left
Britain for Philadelphia, in preparation for the
Printer and Scientist Franklin was born into a coming war. Upon his arrival, Franklin learned that
poor Boston family, the tenth of seventeen children. the battles of Lexington and Concord had already
His formal education ended when he was only ten been fought. Within days, Franklin was made a del-
years old. By the age of twelve, Franklin was an egate to the Continental Congress for which he
apprentice in his brother James’s print shop. Over the helped draft the Declaration of Independence.
next five years, Franklin mastered this trade, which
Franklin’s greatest contribution to the Revolution
eventually provided him with
took place from 1776 to 1785, during his diplomatic
financial security. By the age
mission to France. Franklin, whose charm and wit
of twenty-six, he was oper-
were famous, became a celebrity almost immediately.
ating his own printing
The American cause was soon adopted by the French
firm in Philadelphia
government, which pledged funds and more than
and was writing and
40,000 troops. French support, secured by Franklin’s
publishing Poor
diplomacy, was vital in achieving American indepen-
Richard’s Almanack,
dence. Franklin’s role as a founder of the United
one of the most
States brought him fame, while his brilliant indepen-
popular and influ-
dent thinking and scientific rationalism assured him
ential works of its
a high position among the major figures of the
time, under the pen
eighteenth-century Enlightenment.
name Richard
Saunders. Benjamin Franklin was born in 1706 and died in 1790.
As he moved into
middle age, Franklin Author Search For more about
became more involved in Benjamin Franklin, go to www.glencoe.com.
96 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
Christie’s Images Ltd.
L I T E R AT U R E P R E V I E W R E A D I N G P R EVI E W
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following:
• analyzing autobiography • writing a character analysis
• analyzing the writer’s voice • analyzing aphorisms
• understanding word origins • connecting to personal experiences
BENJAMIN F RANKLIN 97
Benjamin Franklin
In the evening I found myself very feverish and acquaintance continued all the rest of his life.
went to bed; but having read some where that He had been, I imagine, an ambulatory quack
cold water drunk plentifully was good for fever, doctor, for there was no town in England nor any
I followed the prescription and sweat plentifully country in Europe of which he could not give a
most of the night. My fever left me, and in the very particular account. He had some letters,2
morning, crossing the ferry, I proceeded on my and was ingenious, but he was an infidel, and
journey on foot, having fifty miles to go to wickedly undertook, some years after, to turn the
Burlington,1 where I was told I should find boats Bible into doggerel3 verse, as Cotton had for-
that would carry me the rest of the way to merly done with Virgil. By this means he set
Philadelphia. many facts in a ridiculous light, and might have
It rained very hard all the day; I was thor- done mischief with weak minds if his work had
oughly soaked, and by noon a good deal tired; been published; but it never was.
so I stopped at a poor inn, where I stayed all At his house I lay that night, and arrived
night, beginning now to wish I had never left the next morning at Burlington, but had the
home. I made so miserable a figure, too, that I mortification to find that the regular boats
found, by the questions asked me, I was sus- were gone a little before, and no other
pected to be some runaway indentured servant expected to go before Tuesday, this being
and in danger of being taken up on that suspi-
cion. However, I proceeded next day and got 2. Here, letters means “education or knowledge, especially of
in the evening to an inn within eight or ten literature.”
miles of Burlington, kept by one Dr. Brown. 3. English poet Charles Cotton (1630–1687) wrote a doggerel
He entered into conversation with me while I version, or parody, of Virgil’s epic poem the Aeneid.
took some refreshment, and finding I had read Reading Strategy Analyzing Voice What do Franklin’s
a little, became very obliging and friendly. Our word choice and tone suggest about his attitude toward his
new friend?
98 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
Michael Sheldon / Art Resource, NY
Benjamin Franklin, Printer, c. 1928. John Ward Dunsmore. Oil on canvas, 28 x 36 in. The New
York Historical Society, New York.
Viewing the Art: What might Benjamin Franklin have been discussing with the other people
in this scene?
Saturday. Wherefore I returned to an old They took me in, and as there was no wind we
woman in the town, of whom I had bought rowed all the way; and about midnight, not hav-
some gingerbread to eat on the water, and ing yet seen the city, some of the company were
asked her advice. She proposed to lodge me confident we must have passed it and would row
till a passage by some other boat occurred. I no further; the others knew not where we were,
accepted her offer, being much fatigued by so we put toward the shore, got into a creek,
traveling on foot. Understanding I was a landed near an old fence, with the rails of which
printer, she would have had me remain in that we made a fire, the night being cold, in October,
town and follow my business, being ignorant and there we remained till daylight. Then one
what stock was necessary to begin with. She of the company knew the place to be Cooper’s
was very hospitable, gave me a dinner of Creek, a little above Philadelphia, which we saw
oxcheek with great good-will, accepting only as soon as we got out of the creek, and arrived
of a pot of ale in return; and I thought myself
fixed till Tuesday should come. However, walk-
ing in the evening by the side of the river, a Big Idea The Road to Independence How does this
description reveal the spirit of people who will fight for inde-
boat came by, which I found was going toward
pendence?
Philadelphia with several people in her.
BENJAMIN F RANKLIN 99
Collection of The New York Historical Society
there about eight or nine o’clock on the each arm and eating the other. Thus I went up
Sunday morning and landed at Market Street Market Street as far as Fourth Street, passing
wharf. by the door of Mr. Read, my future wife’s
I have been the more particular in this father; when she, standing at the door, saw me,
description of my journey, and shall be so of my and thought I made, as I certainly did, a most
first entry into that city, that you may in your awkward, ridiculous appearance. Then I turned
mind compare such unlikely beginnings with the and went down Chestnut Street and part of
figure I have since made there. I was in my work- Walnut Street, eating my roll all the way; and
ing dress, my best clothes coming round by sea. I coming round found myself again at Market
was dirty, from my being so long in the boat. My Street wharf, near the boat I came in, to which
pockets were stuffed out with shirts and stock- I went for a draught5 of the river water; and
ings, and I knew no one nor where to look for being filled with one of my rolls, gave the other
lodging. Fatigued with walking, rowing, and the two to a woman and her child that came down
want of sleep, I was very hungry; and my whole the river in the boat with us and were waiting
stock of cash consisted in a single dollar, and to go further.
about a shilling4 in copper coin, which I gave to Thus refreshed I walked again up the street,
the boatmen for my passage. At first they refused which by this time had many clean-dressed peo-
it, on account of my having rowed; but I insisted ple in it, who were all walking the same way. I
on their taking it. Man is sometimes more gener- joined them, and thereby was led into the great
ous when he has little money than when he has meeting-house of the Quakers,6 near the market.
plenty; perhaps to prevent his being thought to I sat down among them, and after looking round
have but little. a while and hearing nothing said,7 being very
I walked toward the top of the street, gazing drowsy through labor and want of rest the pre-
about till near Market Street, when I met a boy ceding night, I fell fast asleep and continued
with bread. I had often made a meal of dry so till the meeting broke up, when some one
bread, and inquiring where he had bought it, I was kind enough to rouse me. This, therefore,
went immediately to the baker’s he directed me was the first house I was in, or slept in, in
to. I asked for biscuits, meaning such as we had Philadelphia.
at Boston; that sort, it seems, was not made at
Philadelphia. I then asked for a threepenny loaf
5. Here, draught means “a gulp” or “a swallow.”
and was told they had none. Not knowing the 6. Quakers are members of the Society of Friends, a Christian
different prices nor the names of the different religious group founded in the seventeenth century.
sorts of bread, I told him to give me three- 7. Quaker religious meetings often include long periods of
silence.
penny worth of any sort. He gave me accord-
ingly three great puffy rolls. I was surprised at Reading Strategy Analyzing Voice What does Franklin
the quantity, but took it, and having no room reveal about his personality with this passage?
in my pockets, walked off with a roll under
Literary Element Autobiography Why might have
Franklin chosen to include this detail in his autobiography?
4. A shilling is a British coin equal to one-twentieth of a pound.
100 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
A F T E R YO U R E A D
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. How would you have felt if, like Franklin, you 5. (a)How does an autobiography differ from a
arrived in an unfamiliar city with little money, no biography? (b)How should a reader evaluate
job, and no place to live? Franklin’s autobiography differently from a
biography or a piece of fiction?
Recall and Interpret 6. (a)Why do you think Franklin emphasizes the
2. (a)What people does Franklin meet before he takes importance of self-reliance? (b)Explain whether
the boat to Philadelphia? (b)What do you learn you think self-reliance is as important today as it
about Franklin from these encounters? was in Franklin’s time.
3. (a)Why do the boatmen at first refuse to accept
money from Franklin? (b)Why do you think he Connect
offers to pay? 7. Big Idea The Road to Independence
4. (a)What does Franklin do during the Quakers’ (a)Describe the colonists’ reaction to Franklin when
meeting? (b)What do you think the last sentence he arrives in Philadelphia. How likely are they to
of this selection reveals about Franklin? have had an experience similar to Franklin’s?
(b)How might the colonists’ reaction be an indica-
tion of their desire for independence?
L I T E R A RY A NA LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
B EF O R E YO U R E A D
If you would keep your secret from an What you would seem to be, be really.
enemy, tell it not to a friend. Honesty is the best policy.
The worst wheel of the cart makes the Dost thou love life? Then do not squander
most noise. time; for that’s the stuff life is made of.
He that cannot obey, cannot command. Beware of little expenses, a small leak will
No gains without pains. sink a great ship.
’Tis easier to prevent bad habits than to A penny saved is a penny earned.
break them. Don’t count your chickens before they are
A rolling stone gathers no moss. hatched.
Today is yesterday’s pupil. Buy what thou hast no need of; and e’er
Most fools think they are only ignorant.1 long thou shalt sell thy necessaries.
An empty bag cannot stand upright. Not to oversee workmen, is to leave them
Well done is better than well said. your purse open.
Fish and visitors smell in three days.
Quarrels never could last long, if on one
1. Ignorant means “uneducated” or “uninformed.”
side only lay the wrong.
Reading Strategy Connecting What is a real-life example Love thy neighbor; yet don’t pull down your
of this aphorism?
hedge.
102 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
A F T E R YO U R E A D
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. (a)Which of the aphorisms from Poor Richard’s 5. (a)Which of Franklin’s aphorisms gives the most
Almanack were your favorites? (b)Which did you valuable advice? Why? (b)Describe a situation
dislike? where your chosen aphorism might apply.
Recall and Interpret 6. The colonists found useful advice in the aphorisms of
the Almanack. (a)Which of Franklin’s aphorisms do
2. (a)According to Franklin, how can a secret be kept
you think would be most relevant in today’s society?
from an enemy? (b)Describe in your own words
(b)Would any be irrelevant in today’s society? Explain.
the advice given in the second aphorism.
3. (a)What does Franklin say will sink a great Connect
ship? (b)What do you think he means by this 7. Big Idea The Struggle for Independence
aphorism? Which of these aphorisms would be most relevant
4. (a)In the final aphorism, what does Franklin say to the colonists’ struggle for independence? Explain.
about “thy neighbor”? (b)What might he mean by
“don’t pull down your hedge”?
L I T E R A RY A NA LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO CA B U L A RY
T
HAT THE UNITED STATES WON
independence from British colonial rule is as
much a result of effective writers and powerful
speakers as of General Washington and his brave army.
Patrick Henry, Thomas Paine, and Thomas Jefferson
were all highly skilled in rhetoric, the art of persuasion.
Persuasion is often based on three types of appeal:
• appeal to reason, logic, and evidence
• appeal to emotions, such as fear, pride, or hate
• ethical appeal, or persuasion based on what we
ourselves, moral philosophers, or the majority of
people in our culture think is right
No matter what kinds of appeals speakers and writers
focus on, they rely on a number of rhetorical devices. Patrick Henry’s Famous Speech, 1915. Clyde DeLand. Oil on canvas.
For example, making an ethical and emotional appeal Viewing the Art: How do you think this depiction of Patrick
in his pamphlet The Crisis, No. 1, Thomas Paine Henry compares with the tone of his famous speech?
Another common device is hyperbole, a figure of speech “They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope
that uses exaggeration to express strong emotion, to make with so formidable an adversary. But when shall
a point, or to evoke humor. In the following quotation, we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the
Thomas Paine uses hyperbole to enhance an emotional next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed,
appeal when explaining the momentous opportunity the and when a British guard shall be stationed in
Revolution presented for freedom and human progress. every house?”
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rhetorical device, connotative
language, to make an emotional
and ethical appeal.
R ES P O N D I N G AN D TH I N K I N G C R ITI CALLY
1. What answers is Patrick Henry expecting to his 3. Which type of persuasive appeal—appeal to reason,
rhetorical questions quoted on the bottom of page appeal to emotion, or appeal based on ethics—most
104? Explain. influences your political views? Explain.
2. What connotation is suggested by Thomas
Jefferson’s phrase ”swarms of officers”?
O B J EC TIVES
• Analyze literary periods. • Understand rhetorical devices.
• Analyze persuasion. • Analyze a political cartoon.
LITERARY HISTO RY 10 5
Frank Modell/The New Yorker/cartoonbank.com
B EF O R E YO U R E A D
O
n March 23, 1775, Patrick Henry stood
before fellow delegates at the Second
Virginia Convention and thundered his
famous challenge, “Give me liberty, or give me
death!” Thomas Marshall, a delegate to the con-
vention, recalled that Henry’s speech was “one of
the most bold, vehement, and animated pieces of
eloquence that had ever been delivered.” High Standards In 1787, Henry turned down an
offer to attend the Philadelphia Constitutional
Henry was born in Hanover County, Virginia. After a Convention. Although he had toiled as a lawyer, leg-
series of unsuccessful ventures as a storekeeper and islator, and governor to uphold inalienable rights and
farmer, he began to study law. Henry was admitted to protect the American colonists from British inter-
the bar in 1760 and within several years began to vention, Henry initially opposed the ratification of
prosper. In 1765, at the age of twenty-nine, he became the U.S. Constitution. What seemed a contradiction,
a member of the House of Burgesses, the representa- even an insult, to his critics was really Henry’s
tive assembly in colonial Virginia. That same year, unwillingness to compromise his high ethical stan-
England passed the Stamp Act, an extremely unpopu- dards. Henry championed American independence,
lar tax. When Henry attacked the act in a fiery speech but he believed that the Constitution as written did
in the House of Burgesses, several members inter- not sufficiently secure the rights of states or those of
rupted him with accusations of treason. Henry replied, individuals. Economics also played a role in his deci-
“If this be treason, make the most of it.” sion, for Henry feared that under the Constitution,
Spain might retain control of the Mississippi River
and the lucrative business of floating commerce up
“I know not what course others may and down its waters.
take; but as for me, give me liberty, or The Constitution was published in 1787, but the
nation remained divided in two camps. The Federalists
give me death.” supported the Constitution, and the Anti-Federalists
did not. Henry was the nation’s leading Anti-
—Patrick Henry
Federalist, and he and his supporters lobbied for
amendments. The Constitution was ratified in Virginia
in 1788 by the narrow margin of 89 to 79. The strong
Governor and Legislator In 1776, as the battles of arguments that Henry and his faction of Anti-
the Revolution raged around them, the citizens of Federalists made during the debate eventually led to
Virginia elected Henry to be the first governor of the the Bill of Rights. Henry refused several high positions
commonwealth under its new constitution. He served in the new federal government due to his ailing health
three consecutive one-year terms as governor from and family responsibilities. He died at the age of 63
1776 through 1778. As wartime governor, Henry vig- and was interred at Red Hill, his Virginia home.
orously supported General George Washington and
his army. Afterward, he continued to play a prominent Patrick Henry was born in 1736 and died in 1799.
role in Virginia politics. He was the principal figure in
the Virginia state legislature from 1780 to 1784 and
again from 1787 to 1790. Between these two stints in Author Search For more about
the legislature, Henry again served as governor. Patrick Henry, go to www.glencoe.com.
106 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
Getty Images
L I T E R AT U R E P R E V I E W R E A D I N G P R EVI E W
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following:
• relating literature to a historical period • analyzing figures of speech
• understanding rhetorical questions • writing an analysis of parallel structure
108 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
Virginia Historical Society
consider it as nothing less than a question of petition has been lately received? Trust it not, sir; it
freedom or slavery. And in proportion to the will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves
magnitude of the subject ought to be the free- to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this
dom of the debate. It is only in this way that we gracious reception of our petition comports with
can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfill the great these warlike preparations which cover our waters
responsibility which we hold to God and our and darken our land. Are fleets and armies neces-
country. Should I keep back my opinions at sary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we
such a time, through fear of giving offense, I shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled, that
should consider myself as guilty of treason force must be called in to win back our love? Let us
toward my country, and of an act of disloyalty not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements
toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere of war and subjugation; the last arguments to which
above all earthly kings. kings resort. I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this
Mr. President, it is natural for man to indulge martial array,5 if its purpose be not to force us to
in the illusions of submission? Can gentle-
hope. We are apt to men assign any other
shut our eyes against a possible motives for it?
painful truth, and lis- Has Great Britain any
ten to the song of that enemy, in this quarter of
siren, till she trans- the world, to call for all
forms us into beasts. Is this accumulation of
this the part of wise navies and armies? No,
men, engaged in a sir, she has none. They
great and arduous are meant for us; they
struggle for liberty? can be meant for no
Are we disposed to be other. They are sent
of the number of those over to bind and rivet
who, having eyes, see upon us those chains
not, and having ears, hear not, the things which the British ministry have been so long forg-
which so nearly concern their temporal4 salva- ing. And what have we to oppose to them? Shall
tion? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for
may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer
to know the worst and to provide for it. on the subject? Nothing. We have held the sub-
I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided; ject up in every light of which it is capable; but it
and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty6
way of judging of the future but by the past. And and humble supplication?7 What terms shall we
judging by the past, I wish to know what there has find which have not been already exhausted? Let
been in the conduct of the British ministry for the us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves longer.
last ten years to justify those hopes with which gen-
tlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and
the House? Is it that insidious smile with which our 5. A martial array is a military display.
6. An entreaty is a plea or request.
7. Here, supplication means “begging.”
4. The word temporal means “in time; relating to life on earth.”
Literary Element Rhetorical Question How does Henry
Reading Strategy Analyzing Figures of Speech What is build on this rhetorical question several sentences later?
being compared in this metaphor?
Reading Strategy Analyzing Figures of Speech Explain
Vocabulary Henry’s use of metaphor in this sentence.
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A F T E R YO U R E A D
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. Imagine that you were a delegate at the Second 5. (a)Which emotions are expressed in the
Virginia Convention. How do you think you would speech? (b)In your opinion, does Henry’s passion
have reacted to Henry’s speech? add to his effectiveness? Explain.
Recall and Interpret 6. (a)Why does Henry suggest that the colonists have
only two choices—liberty or death? (b)In your opin-
2. (a)According to Henry, what is the question “of
ion, are these the only options? Explain.
awful moment” to the country? (b)Why do you
think Henry gives several reasons to support his Connect
need to speak out?
7. Big Idea The Road to Independence (a)What was
3. (a)What does Henry say about Britain’s military and Henry’s immediate purpose in giving this
naval forces? (b)Why does he introduce this point? speech? (b)What do you think he would have
4. (a)According to Henry, what makes Americans viewed as Virginia’s next step?
“invincible”? (b)Why does Henry say that God is on
the side of the colonists?
L I T E R A RY A NA LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
Declaration of Independence
M E E T T H OM A S J E F FE R SON
H
onoring Nobel Prize winners at the White
House in 1962, President John F. Kennedy
observed, “I think this is the most extraordi-
nary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that
has ever been gathered together at the White House,
with the possible exception of when Thomas
Jefferson dined alone.” The reference was to Declaration of Independence. Although members of
Jefferson’s amazing mastery of at least a dozen differ- the congress edited, revised, and deleted portions of
ent endeavors. He was an architect, inventor, lawyer, the draft, the final version was basically Jefferson’s.
surveyor, musician, and botanist, to name but six pro-
fessions in which Jefferson excelled. Ultimately he Jefferson the Leader Jefferson succeeded Patrick
became president of the United States. Henry as governor of Virginia but returned to serve
Thomas Jefferson was born in 1743, in Albemarle in the congress from 1783 to 1784. After his
County in central Virginia, to Peter and Jane appointment as U.S. ambassador to France, he
Randolph Jefferson. In 1760 he enrolled in the became George Washington’s secretary of state and
College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, where then vice president under John Adams. In 1803,
he studied mathematics, science, and law. He began during the first of his two terms as president,
his law practice in 1767 and was elected to the Jefferson made a decision that changed the nation
Virginia House of Burgesses in 1769. In 1772 he mar- forever. He arranged to purchase the Louisiana
ried a young widow, Martha Wayles Skelton. They Territory from France. The Louisiana Purchase cost
had six children, but only two survived, and Martha the nation $11.25 million plus $3.75 million in
died in 1782, after the birth of their last child. French debts it agreed to pay—a transaction that
doubled the size of the United States. Jefferson then
sent a scientific expedition headed by Meriwether
Lewis and William Clark to explore these new
“The spirit of resistance to government lands and continue on to the Pacific Ocean.
is so valuable on certain occasions that Jefferson’s last years were spent at the Virginia
I wish it to be always kept alive. . . . I home he designed, built, and rebuilt—Monticello.
In 1819 he founded the University of Virginia at
like a little rebellion now and then.” Charlottesville near his home. He died on July 4,
1826, exactly fifty years after the signing of the
—Thomas Jefferson,
Declaration of Independence. A man of contradic-
from a letter to Abigail Adams, 1787
tions, he opposed slavery in principle but nonethe-
less owned slaves. His epitaph, which he composed
himself, cited his writing of the Declaration of
Jefferson the Writer As a delegate to the Second Independence among his achievements but made
Continental Congress in 1776, Jefferson drafted no reference to his presidency.
what many believe is the most powerful argument
Thomas Jefferson was born in 1743 and died in 1826.
for freedom ever written. When the delegates
debated breaking away from Britain, they turned to
Jefferson to commit their ideas about liberty and Author Search For more about
freedom to writing. He expressed those ideas in the Thomas Jefferson, go to www.glencoe.com.
112 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
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L I T E R AT U R E P R E V I E W R E A D I N G P R EVI E W
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • understanding parallelism
• relating literature to historical period • evaluating argument, syllogisms, and deductive reasoning
116 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
A F T E R YO U R E A D
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond England, not against the British people? (b)Why do
you think Jefferson went to such lengths to empha-
1. How has reading the Declaration of Independence
size this distinction?
affected your ideas about freedom?
6. (a)What method of organization did Jefferson use
Recall and Interpret in creating this document? (b)How effective is this
2. (a)What is the purpose of the document? (b)To method of organization?
which “opinions of mankind” might Jefferson be
referring? Connect
7. What points that Jefferson made in the Declaration
3. (a)According to Jefferson, which human rights are
of Independence do you think remain the most
“unalienable”? (b)How do you interpret the phrase
important today?
“pursuit of happiness”?
4. (a)How have the colonists met with “these 8. Big Idea The Road to Independence (a)What
oppressions”? (b)Why might the king have ignored does the Declaration of Independence stress
the colonists’ petitions for redress? about the dangers of changing a form of govern-
ment? (b)What does this indicate about the
Analyze and Evaluate process that led to the American Revolution?
5. (a)In what ways does Jefferson emphasize that the
colonists’ complaints are against the king of
L I T E R A RY A NA LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO CA B U L A RY
Media Link to
t h e Ro a d t o
Independence
Preview the Article
Even the Founding Fathers had to revise
How They
their writing. In “How They Chose These
Chose These
WORDS
Words,” a historian describes the role of
the writing process in drafting the
Declaration of Independence.
1. From the title, what do you think this
article will be about? What do you
already know about this subject?
2. Read the deck, or the sentence in
large type that appears below the title.
How does the author feel about
Franklin’s edits?
Jefferson wrote the Declaration’s first draft, but it was
Set a Purpose for Reading Franklin’s editing that made a phrase immortal.
Read to learn about the writing of the
By WALTER ISAACSON
A
Declaration of Independence and the
roles of Franklin and Jefferson in the
struggle for American independence. S THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS PREPARED TO VOTE
on the question of American independence in 1776,
Reading Strategy it appointed a committee for a job that no one at the
time thought was very important. The task, however,
Determining the Main Idea and
would turn out to be a momentous one: drafting a
Supporting Details
The main idea of a text is the most
declaration that explained the decision. The committee included
important thing that the writer wants to Benjamin Franklin, of course, and Thomas Jefferson and John
convey about his or her subject. The main Adams, as well as Connecticut merchant Roger Sherman and
idea is not always obvious; you may have New York lawyer Robert Livingston.
to identify it from details in the text.
How was it that Jefferson, at age And thus it fell to Jefferson to
As you read, create a graphic organizer 33, got the honor of drafting the compose, on a little lap desk he had
like the one shown below. document? His name was listed first designed, some of the most famous
on the committee, signifying that phrases in history while sitting alone
Main Idea:
he was the chairman, because he in a second-floor room of a house
• Supporting detail 1: Benjamin had gotten the most votes and on Market Street in Philadelphia
Franklin made important because he was from Virginia, the just a block from Franklin’s house.
changes to the document. colony that had proposed the “When, in the course of human
• Supporting detail 2: resolution. His four colleagues had events . . . ,” he famously began.
other committee assignments that
they considered to be more Taking a Page from Franklin
OB J EC TIVES
important. None of them realized The document Jefferson drafted was
• Use appropriate strategies to aid that the document would eventually in some ways similar to what
comprehension, including identifying the come to be viewed as a cornerstone Franklin would have written. It
main idea. of American politics. As for contained a highly specific bill of
• Select from multiple choices, a sentence
Franklin, he was still laid up in bed particulars against the British. It
that describes the main idea.
• Skim text for an overall impression and with boils and gout when the also recounted, as Franklin had
particular information. committee first met. often done, the details of America’s
118 UNIT 1
Informational Text
attempts to make peace despite on a depth of philosophy not found but back then it was considered not
England’s unbending attitude. in Franklin. He echoed both the only proper but learned.
Indeed, Jefferson’s words echoed language and grand theories of When he had finished a draft
some of the language that Franklin English and Scottish Enlightenment and included some changes from
had used, earlier that year, in a draft thinkers. Having read John Locke’s Adams, Jefferson sent it to Franklin
resolution that he never published: Second Treatise on Government at on the morning of Friday, June 21.
“Whereas, whenever kings, instead least three times, Jefferson was most “Will Doctor Franklin be so good
of protecting the lives and properties notably influenced by Locke’s as to peruse it,” he wrote in his
of their subjects, as is their bounden concept of natural rights. And cover note, “and suggest such
duty, do endeavor to perpetrate Jefferson built his case, in a manner alterations as his more enlarged
the destruction of either, they more sophisticated than Franklin view of the subject will dictate?”
thereby cease to be kings, become would have, on a contract between People were much more polite to
tyrants, and dissolve all ties of government and the governed that editors back then.
allegiance between themselves and was founded on the consent of the
their people.” people. Jefferson also, it should be Change for the Better?
Jefferson’s writing style, however, noted, borrowed freely from the Franklin made only a few changes,
was different from Franklin’s. It was phrasings of others, including the some of which can be viewed
graced with rolling rhythms and resounding Declaration of Rights in written in his hand on what
smooth phrases, soaring in their the new Virginia constitution. Jefferson referred to as the “rough
poetry and powerful despite their Today, this kind of borrowing might draft” of the Declaration. The most
polish. In addition, Jefferson drew lead to accusations of plagiarism, important of his edits was small but
significant. He crossed out, using
DEFT TOUCH Franklin changed the phrase “sacred and undeniable” to “self-evident,” the heavy backslashes that he often
an assertion of rationality. employed, the last three words of
Jefferson’s phrase “We hold these
truths to be sacred and undeniable.”
Franklin changed them to the words
now enshrined in history: “We hold
these truths to be self-evident.”
The idea of “self-evident” truths
drew on the rational view of the
world held by Isaac Newton and
Franklin’s close friend David Hume.
The great Scottish philosopher
Hume had developed a theory
that distinguished between truths
that describe matters of fact (such
as “London is bigger than
Philadelphia”) and truths that are
declared so through reason and
definition (“the angles of a triangle
total 180 degrees”; “all bachelors
are unmarried”). He referred to
the latter type of axioms as “self-
evident” truths. By using the word
sacred, Jefferson had implied,
intentionally or not, that the
principle in question—the equality
of men and their endowment
by their creator with inalienable
National Archives
Franklin’s other edits were less more than half the draft’s final five
suitable. He changed Jefferson’s paragraphs, in which Jefferson had
“reduce them to arbitrary power” to begun to ramble in a way that detracted
“reduce them under absolute from the document’s power. Jefferson
despotism,” and he took out the was upset. “I was sitting by Dr.
literary flourish in Jefferson’s “invade Franklin,” he recalled, “who perceived
and deluge us in blood” to make it that I was not insensible to these
more sparse: “invade and destroy us.” mutilations.” Franklin did his best to
And a few of his changes seemed console him.
stodgy and unnecessary. “Amount of At the official signing of the
their salaries” became “amount and parchment copy on August 2, John
payment of their salaries.” Hancock, the president of the
Congress, penned his name with
Congress Makes Cuts his famous flourish. “There must be
After the Continental Congress voted no pulling different ways,” he
for independence from England, it declared. “We must all hang
formed itself into a committee to together.” Supposedly, Franklin
consider Jefferson’s draft Declaration. replied, “Yes, we must, indeed, all
The members were not so light in hang together, or most assuredly we
WORDSMITHS Franklin, Jefferson,
their editing as Franklin had been. shall all hang separately.” Their
Livingston, Adams, and Sherman
Large sections were sliced out, most lives, as well as their sacred honor,
debate what the document
notably the one that criticized the should say. had been put on the line.
king for continuing the slave trade. –—Updated 2005, from TIME,
Congress also, to its credit, cut by Archive Photos/NewsCom July 7, 2003
R E S P O N D I N G A N D T H I N K I N G C R ITI CALLY
120 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
Vocabulary Workshop
Word Origins
º Test-Taking Tip
For example, the following entry gives the etymology of the word govern. Note
Analyzing word parts can
that the symbol < means “comes from.”
help you determine the
meanings of words and
govern ( uv´ ərn) v. to exercise political authority over: to govern a nation. [ME < increase your vocabulary.
OF gouverner < L gubernāre to steer (a ship) < Gk kybernān to steer] If you memorize common
prefixes and suffixes, you
will be more prepared when
The entry indicates that the word govern comes from a Middle English (ME) taking standardized tests.
word, which comes from the Old French (OF) word gouverner, which comes from º Reading Handbook
the Latin word gubernāre, which comes from the Greek kybernān, meaning “to
For more about under-
steer.” Knowing the etymology of the word govern not only enhances your under-
standing word origins,
standing of the word’s origins but may also help you understand other related
see Reading Handbook,
words, such as government and governor.
p. R20.
usurp
• Use knowledge of Greek
and Latin roots, prefixes,
and suffixes to understand
justice complex words.
121
B EF O R E YO U R E A D
C
orset maker, cobbler, teacher, tax collector—
Thomas Paine failed miserably at every
line of work he attempted in his native
England. Finally, at age thirty-seven, Paine set
sail for the colonies to start a new life. It was
1774, and the colonists were weighing the pros
and cons of a break with England. Always a
friend of the “little guy,” Paine sympathized with
the revolutionary forces.
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L I T E R AT U R E P R E V I E W R E A D I N G P R EVI E W
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • summarizing
• relating literature to historical period • understanding tone
THOMAS PA I N E 123
Thomas Paine
These are the times that try men’s souls. The sum- should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army
mer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has
crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but a right (not only to tax) but “to bind us in all
he that stands it now, deserves the love and cases whatsoever”;2 and if being bound in that
thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is manner is not slavery, then is there not such a
not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression
with us, that the harder the conflict, the more is impious;3 for so unlimited a power can belong
glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, only to God.
we esteem1 too lightly: it is dearness only that Whether the independence of the continent
gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to was declared too soon, or delayed too long, I
put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be
strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom
2. In March 1766, the British parliament repealed the Stamp
Act but also passed the Declaratory Act, which extended its
right to impose taxes on the colonies and “to bind [the
1. Esteem means “to value” or “to appreciate.”
colonies] in all cases whatsoever.”
Vocabulary 3. Impious (impē əs) means “lacking in reverence for God.”
tyranny (tirə nē) n. cruel use of authority; Big Idea The Road to Independence Why does Paine
oppressive power compare taxation without representation to slavery?
124 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
Bettmann/CORBIS
will not now enter into as an argument; my It is surprising to see how rapidly a panic will
own simple opinion is, that had it been eight sometimes run through a country. All nations
months earlier it would have been much better. and ages have been subject to them: Britain has
We did not make a proper use of last winter; trembled like an ague8 at the report of a French
neither could we, while we were in a dependent fleet of flat-bottomed boats; and in the four-
state. However, the fault, if it were one, was all teenth century the whole English army, after
our own; we have none to blame but ourselves. ravaging the kingdom of France, was driven back
But no great deal is lost yet. All that Howe4 has like men petrified with fear; and this brave
been doing for this month past is rather a rav- exploit was performed by a few broken forces
age than a conquest, which the spirit of the collected and headed by a woman, Joan of Arc.
Jerseys5 a year ago would have quickly repulsed, Would that heaven might inspire some Jersey
and which time and a little resolution will soon maid to spirit up her countrymen, and save her
recover. fair fellow sufferers from ravage and ravishment!
Yet panics, in some cases, have their uses; they
produce as much good as hurt. Their duration is
. . . he whose heart is firm, and whose always short; the mind soon grows through
them, and acquires a firmer habit than before.
conscience approves his conduct, will But their peculiar advantage is, that they are the
pursue his principles unto death. touchstones9 of sincerity and hypocrisy, and
bring things and men to light, which might oth-
erwise have lain forever undiscovered. In fact,
I have as little superstition in me as any man they have the same effect on secret traitors
living; but my secret opinion has ever been, which an imaginary apparition10 would have
and still is, that God Almighty will not give up upon a private murderer. They sift out the hid-
a people to military destruction, or leave them den thoughts of man, and hold them up in pub-
unsupportedly to perish, who have so earnestly lic to the world. Many a disguised tory has lately
and so repeatedly sought to avoid the calamities shown his head, that shall penitentially solem-
of war, by every decent method which wisdom nize11 with curses the day on which Howe
could invent. Neither have I so much of the arrived upon the Delaware.
infidel6 in me as to suppose that He has relin- . . . Quitting this class of men, I turn with the
quished the government of the world, and warm ardor of a friend to those who have nobly
given us up to the care of devils; and as I do stood, and are yet determined to stand the
not, I cannot see on what grounds the king of
Britain can look up to heaven for help against
8. An ague is a fit of shivering.
us: a common murderer, a highwayman,7 or a 9. A touchstone is anything that tests the quality or genuine-
housebreaker, has as good a pretense as he. ness of something.
10. An apparition is a ghost.
11. A colonist who supported British rule was a tory.
Penitentially solemnize means ”to celebrate formally with
4. Major General Sir William Howe was commander in
sorrow and regret.”
chief of the British forces in America during part of the
Revolutionary War. Big Idea The Road to Independence What does Paine
5. At one time New Jersey was divided into two sections, East feel is missing from the colonists’ struggle?
Jersey and West Jersey. The two parts were reunited as a
royal colony in 1702.
Reading Strategy Summarizing Briefly, what does Paine
6. Here, infidel means “someone who does not believe in God.”
7. A thief who stole from travelers on a public road was a say about the effect of panics on British sympathizers?
highwayman.
Vocabulary
Literary Element Tone Does Paine seem objective and
petrified (pet rə f ̄d) adj. paralyzed with fear; stiff or
removed here, or subjective and emotional? Explain.
like stone
exploit (eks ploit) n. notable, heroic deed; feat
Vocabulary
hypocrisy (hi pok rə sē) n. an expression of feelings or
resolution (rez´ ə l¯¯¯
oo shən) n. firmness of purpose beliefs not actually possessed or held
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. Suppose you were going to choose a sentence 6. Thomas Paine said that his goal as a writer was to
from Thomas Paine’s essay to put on a bulletin use plain language. Cite some sentences from The
board as a memorable quotation. Which sentence Crisis that you think achieve his goal and some that
would you choose? Why? do not.
Recall and Interpret 7. (a)How does Paine use religion as part of his
argument? (b)How effective is this approach in
2. Which Americans does Paine criticize in his essay?
persuading the reader?
Which does he praise?
8. (a)In what ways does Paine express the
3. (a)To whom does Paine compare the English
Enlightenment idea that government should oper-
king? (b)What emotions does Paine appeal to
ate by “the consent of the governed”? (b)Do you
when describing the king?
agree with this idea?
4. What connection do you think Paine sees between
the panics in European history Paine describes and Connect
the experience the colonists were facing?
9. Big Idea The Road to Independence Paine
5. (a)Paine suggests that this is not an “offensive” encourages his fellow citizens to defend them-
war. Why does he feel this way? (b)Why do you selves against British tyranny. (a)What kinds of
think Paine might have chosen this analogy as his qualities does Paine encourage the colonists to
final argument? have? (b)How might these qualities help to define
the new nation?
LI T E R A RY A N A LYS I S
▲
State Paine’s purpose
above.
▲
of persuasive devices to achieve
Practice with Multiple-Meaning Words Use a Paragraph(s)
his purpose
dictionary to locate at least one other meaning for
each of these vocabulary words. List both the
meaning of the word as it is used by Paine and the
other meaning you have found. Conclusion
▲
Evaluate Paine’s success
I
n 1773 most readers would have doubted that an sea voyage for Phillis’s health, and the Wheatleys’ son
enslaved woman had written a book of poetry. Nathaniel was bound for London on business. There
The above statement was taken from the intro- Wheatley was able to publish her first and only vol-
duction to Phillis Wheatley’s book of poetry, Poems on ume of poetry. Many of the poems contained pleas for
Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, published when justice, as shown in these lines from her poem “To the
Wheatley was only nineteen or twenty years old. Right Honourable William, Earl of Dartmouth”:
Signed by eighteen of “the most respectable charac- “That from a father seiz’d his babe belov’d: / Such,
ters in Boston,” including John Hancock and the such my case. And can I then but pray / Others may
royal governor, the statement was testimony to the never feel tyrannic sway?”
authenticity of the poems. Wheatley was the first
African American to publish a book of poetry. Freedom When Phillis returned from England, the
family freed her from enslavement. However, she
Wheatley was born in the Senegal/Gambia region on remained in the Wheatley household until John
the west coast of Africa around 1753. In 1761, when Wheatley died in 1778. In April of that same year,
she was just seven or eight, she was captured by slave she married John Peters, a freed African American.
traders and brought to New England on the slave Her husband’s business failed, and their two chil-
ship Phillis. John and Susanna Wheatley, wealthy dren died as infants. In 1784, alone and working as
Bostonians, purchased her to be a personal attendant a servant, she wrote her last poem. Her husband died
for Mrs. Wheatley. They gave the child the family in debtor’s prison, and on December 5, she died of
name Wheatley and the first name Phillis (the name malnutrition when she was only thirty-one. A brief
of the ship she arrived on). announcement in Boston’s Independent Chronicle
read, “Last Lord’s Day, died Mrs. Phillis Peters (for-
Early Promise Before long, the young girl was merly Phillis Wheatley), aged thirty-one, known to
often seen trying to form letters on the wall with a the world by her celebrated miscellaneous poems.”
piece of chalk or charcoal. When the Wheatley fam-
ily recognized her intelligence, they did not give her Phillis Wheatley was born around 1753 and died in 1784.
menial tasks or allow her to associate with their other
domestic slaves. Instead, Phillis was taught to read Author Search For more about
and write by Mrs. Wheatley’s daughter. She gained Phillis
AuthorWheatley,
Name, gogo
toto www.glencoe.com.
www.literature.glencoe.com.
OB J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • analyzing text structures
• understanding meter • relating literature to historical period
Sir.
I Have taken the freedom to address your Excellency in the enclosed poem,
and entreat your acceptance, though I am not insensible of its inaccuracies.
Your being appointed by the Grand Continental Congress to be
Generalissimo of the armies of North America, together with the fame of
your virtues, excite sensations not easy to suppress. Your generosity,
therefore, I presume, will pardon the attempt. Wishing your Excellency all
possible success in the great cause you are so generously engaged in. I am,
Your Excellency’s most obedient humble servant,
Phillis Wheatley.
Providence, Oct. 26, 1775.
His Excellency Gen. Washington.
Celestial choir! enthron’d in realms of light,
Columbia’s scenes of glorious toils I write.
While freedom’s cause her anxious breast alarms,
She flashes dreadful in refulgent1 arms.
5 See mother earth her offspring’s fate bemoan,
And nations gaze at scenes before unknown!
2. The poet asks for aid from a Muse. In Greek mythology, the
Muses (goddesses) preside over arts and sciences.
3. Here, propitious means “favorably.”
4. In Greek mythology, Eolus is the god of the winds.
5. Refluent means “back-flowing.”
6. The ensign here is a flag.
7. Gallic means “French.” Washington had fought the French during the
French and Indian War (1754–1763).
8. Anon means “soon.”
9. Britannia is Great Britain, personified as a goddess.
Literary Element Couplet How does this couplet work to form one
complete idea?
Big Idea The Road to Independence What does the speaker mean
by the “rising hills of dead”?
132 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
A F T E R YO U R E A D
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. What is your impression of Phillis Wheatley from 5. (a)To whom are lines 29–38 addressed? (b)How
reading her letter and poem? does this section of the poem differ from the rest?
6. How do Wheatley’s allusions to mythology
Recall and Interpret strengthen or weaken the meaning of the poem?
Explain.
2. (a)In your own words, restate the message in
Wheatley’s letter to General Washington. (b)Based
on the letter, what can you infer about her opinion Connect
of Washington?
7. Big Idea The Road to Independence How do
3. (a)In the poem, what image of Columbia is
you think Wheatley’s experience of being enslaved
described in lines 9–12? (b)What does that image
affected her attitude toward the colonial cause of
convey about the speaker’s view of America?
freedom?
4. (a)In lines 13–22, to what things does the speaker
compare the colonial army? (b)In your opinion, why
might Wheatley have chosen to use these images?
L I T E R A RY A NA LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
I
n her day, Abigail Adams was known to the world
as the loyal wife of John Adams, second president
of the United States. Today she is just as famous
for her brilliant mind. Adams participated in the
events of some of the most tumultuous years of the
nation, writing about them with sparkling wit.
—Abigail Adams, Letter to John Adams Letters That Endure Abigail Adams’s letters
vibrate with personality. She could be unapologeti-
cally opinionated, seeking to enlarge her husband’s
sense of morality: “You know my mind upon this sub-
Wife and Mother Adams met John Adams, a ject,” she wrote him regarding slavery. “I wish most
Harvard-trained lawyer, when she was fifteen. In 1764 sincerely there was not a slave in the province. It
the two married and went to live on John’s farm at always appeared a most iniquitous scheme to me—
Braintree (later Quincy), Massachusetts. John Adams fight ourselves for what we are daily robbing and
soon rose to prominence as a believer in American plundering from those who have as good a right to
independence, requiring him to spend years in freedom as we have.” Her most famous observations
Philadelphia at the Continental Congress. Abigail, relate to women, who she felt needed expanded legal
deeply supportive of the cause, stayed in Braintree to rights and education. “If we mean to have heroes,
raise their five children. Outwardly cheerful, she felt, statesmen, and philosophers, we should have learned
but rarely expressed, deep pain at being separated women,” she said.
from her husband. After some months spent without
a word from him, she finally wrote: “I pray my guard- Abigail Adams was born in 1744 and died in 1818.
ian generous to waft me the happy tidings of your
safety and welfare . . . Difficult as the day is, cruel as Author Search For more about
this war has been, separated as I am on account of it Abigail Adams, go to www.glencoe.com.
134 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
Getty Images
L I T E R AT U R E P R E V I E W R E A D I N G P R EVI E W
Big Idea The Road to Independence deprive (di pr¯ v ) v. to take away from; to keep
from enjoying or having; p. 136 Students should
As you read these letters, consider what Adams reveals
not deprive themselves of education.
about life during the Revolutionary War and the first years
of this country. Also consider how the letters reflect ideals tyrant (t¯ rənt) n. a ruler who exercises power
of the time, such as self-reliance and human rights. or authority in an unjust manner; one who has
absolute power; p. 137 Many colonists felt that
Literary Element Description King George was a tyrant.
Description is the use of details that appeal to the five extricate (eks trə kāt´) v. to set free from; to
senses to give the reader a vivid impression of a person, remove; p. 138 We need a plan to extricate our-
place, or thing. Good descriptive writing contributes to the selves from this dire situation.
overall purpose of a piece and avoids irrelevant details.
accommodate (ə kom ə dāt´) v. to provide room
As you read, notice details that give you a sense of being
or facilities for; p. 138 The hotel will accommo-
in colonial Boston and Washington, D.C.
date fifty people.
• See Literary Terms Handbook, p. R4. recourse (rē kors´) n. resorting to a person or
thing for help; p. 139 Without a car, her only
recourse was to phone her mother for a ride.
Interactive Literary Elements
Handbook To review or learn more about the literary elements,
go to www.glencoe.com.
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • responding to description
• relating literature to a historical period • recognizing author’s purpose
Braintree, March 31, 1776 I have sometimes been ready to think that the
passion for liberty cannot be equally strong in
I wish you would ever write me a letter half as
the breasts of those who have been accustomed
long as I write you; and tell me if you may where
to deprive their fellow creatures of theirs. Of this
your fleet are gone? What sort of defense Virginia
I am certain: that it is not founded upon the
can make against our common enemy? Whether it
generous and Christian principle of doing to oth-
is so situated as to make an able defense? Are not
ers as we would that others should do unto us.
the gentry1 lords and the common people vassals?2
Do not you want to see Boston; I am fearful of
Are they not like the uncivilized natives Britain
the small pox, or I should have been in before
represents us to be? I hope their rifle men,3 who
this time. I got Mr. Crane to go to our house and
have shown themselves very savage and even
see what state it was in. I find it has been occu-
bloodthirsty, are not a specimen of the generality
pied by one of the doctors of a regiment, very
of the people.
dirty, but no other damage has been done to it.
I am willing to allow the colony great merrit
The few things which were left in it are all gone.
for having produced a Washington, but they
Crane has the key, which he never delivered up.
have been shamefully duped by a Dunmore.4
136 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
National Park Service, Adams National Historical Park
I have wrote to him for it and am determined to a temporary peace, and the poor fugitives are
get it cleaned as soon as possible and shut it up. I returning to their deserted habitations.
look upon it a new acquisition of property, a Though we felicitate ourselves, we sympathize
property which one month ago I did not value at with those who are trembling lest the lot of
a single shilling, and could with pleasure have Boston should be theirs. But they cannot be in
seen it in flames. similar circumstances unless pusillanimity9 and
The town in general is left in a better state cowardice should take possession of them. They
than we expected, more owing to a precipitate5 have time and warning given them to see the
flight than any regard to the inhabitants, though evil and shun it.—I long to hear that you have
some individuals discovered a sense of honor and declared an independency—and by the way, in
justice and have left the rent of the houses in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be
which they were for the owners and the furniture necessary for you to make, I desire you would
unhurt, or if damaged sufficient to make it good. remember the ladies, and be more generous and
Others have committed abominable ravages. favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not
The mansion house of your president6 is safe and put such unlimited power into the hands of the
the furniture unhurt, whilst both the house and the husbands. Remember, all men would be tyrants
furniture of the Solicitor General have fallen a prey if they could. If particular care and attention is
to their own merciless party. Surely the very fiends not paid to the ladies, we are determined to
feel a reverential awe for virtue and patriotism, foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves
whilst they detest the parricide7 and traitor. bound by any laws in which we have no voice,
I feel very differently at the approach of spring or representation.
to which I did a month ago. We knew not then That your sex are naturally tyrannical is truth
whether we could plant or sow with safety, so thoroughly established as to admit no dis-
whether when we had toiled we could reap the pute, but such of you as wish to be happy will-
fruits of our own industry, whether we could rest ingly give up the harsh title of master for the
in our own cottages, or whether we should not more tender and endearing one of friend. Why,
be driven from the sea coasts to seek shelter in then, not put it out of the power of the vicious
the wilderness, but now we feel as if we might sit and the lawless to use us with cruelty and indig-
under our own vine and eat the good of the land. nity with impunity. Men of sense in all ages
I feel a gaieté de coeur8 to which before I abhor those customs which treat us only as the
was a stranger. I think the sun looks brighter, vassals of your sex. Regard us then as beings
the birds sing more melodiously, and nature placed by providence under your protection,
puts on a more cheerful countenance. We feel and in imitation of the Supreme Being, make
use of that power only for our happiness.
5. Precipitate means “sudden” or “hasty.”
6. John Hancock was the president of the Continental Abigail
Congress. When the British occupied Boston, General
William Howe took Hancock’s house as his headquarters.
7. Here, parricide means “a person who commits the crime of
treason.” 9. Pusillanimity (pū´sə lə nimə tē) means “cowardliness” or
8. Gaieté de coeur (ā ə tā də koer) is a French idiom “faintheartedness.”
meaning “lightheartedness” or “playfulness.”
Big Idea The Road to Independence How does this
Reading Strategy Recognizing Author’s Purpose Why comment reflect Adams’s support for the Revolution?
might Adams have included this information?
Vocabulary
Literary Element Description How do these details tyrant (t̄rənt) n. a ruler who exercises power or author-
express the emotional pitch of Adams’s situation? ity in an unjust manner; one who has absolute power
138 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
N.C. Wyeth/Smithsonian Institution
Abigail Adams Hanging Laundry in the East Wing of the Unfinished White House.
Gordon Phillips. Oil on canvas. Collection of the White House Historical Association.
Viewing the Art: What does this painting tell you about Abigail’s character?
cords2 only, has he been able to get. Most of that is designed for the drawing-room, and has the crim-
was expended to dry the walls of the house before son furniture in it. It is a very handsome room now;
we came in, and yesterday the man told him it was but, when completed, it will be beautiful. If the
impossible for him to procure it to be cut and twelve years, in which this place has been consid-
carted. He has had recourse to coals; but we can- ered as the future seat of government, had been
not get grates made and set. We have, indeed, improved, as they would have been if in New
come into a new country. England, very many of the present inconveniences
You must keep all this to yourself, and, when would have been removed. It is a beautiful spot,
asked how I like it, say that I write you the situa- capable of every improvement, and, the more I
tion is beautiful, which is true. The house is made view it, the more I am delighted with it.
habitable, but there is not a single apartment fin- Since I sat down to write, I have been called
ished, and all withinside, except the plastering, has down to a servant from Mount Vernon4, with a
been done since Briesler came. We have not the billet5 from Major Custis, and a haunch of veni-
least fence, yard, or other convenience, without, son, and a kind, congratulatory letter from
and the great unfinished audience-room I make a Mrs. Lewis, upon my arrival in the city, with
drying-room of, to hang up the clothes in. The Mrs. Washington’s love, inviting me to Mount
principal stairs are not up, and will not be this win- Vernon, where, health permitting, I will go,
ter. Six chambers are made comfortable; two are before I leave this place. . . .
occupied by the President and Mr. Shaw; two lower Thomas comes in and says a House6 is made;
rooms, one for a common parlor, and one for a so to-morrow, though Saturday, the President
levee-room.3 Upstairs there is the oval room, which will meet them. Adieu, my dear. Give my love to
your brother, and tell him he is ever present
2. A cord is a quantity of wood equal to 128 cubic feet. upon my mind.
3. A levee-room is a room for holding formal receptions. Affectionately your mother,
Reading Strategy Recognizing Author’s Purpose Why A. Adams
might Adams have made this request?
4. Mount Vernon, located near Washington, D.C., was the home
Vocabulary of George Washington and his wife, Martha.
5. Here, billet means “a short letter.”
recourse (rēko rs´) n. resorting to a person or thing
6. Enough members of the House of Representatives had
for help
arrived for a session of Congress to take place.
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. Would you like to have known Abigail Adams? Why 5. Adams expresses herself openly in her letter to
or why not? her husband. What does this tell you about their
relationship?
Recall and Interpret
6. Adams says that “all men would be tyrants if they
2. (a)From reading the first letter, what details did you
could.” (a)What do you think she means by this?
learn about the British occupation of Boston, the
(b)Are you convinced by her arguments?
role of Dunmore, and “those who are trembling
lest the lot of Boston should be theirs”? (b)What 7. (a)How can you tell that Adams is well informed
are Abigail Adams’s attitudes toward the conflict about current events? (b)Do Adams’s opinions
and the various people mentioned? Explain. seem fair to you? Explain.
3. (a)What does Adams urge her husband to consider 8. What character traits could you attribute to Abigail
as he creates a new code of laws? (b)What reasons Adams based solely on her letter to her daughter?
does she give for urging this consideration?
Connect
4. (a)In her letter to her daughter, what domestic
problems does Adams discuss? (b)Why do you 9. Big Idea The Road to Independence What do
think she instructs her daughter not to reveal her these letters tell you about life before and after the
feelings about these problems? American Revolution?
L I T E R A RY A N A LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
140 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
Grammar Workshop
Mechanics
A nonessential element in a sentence is one that could be omitted without To determine whether a
changing the basic meaning of the sentence. Such elements should be set off by word, a phrase, or a clause
one comma if the element appears at the beginning or the end of the sentence is essential, try reading the
and by two commas if the element appears within the sentence. Examples of sentence without it. Here’s
nonessential elements are underlined in the sentences below. another tip: when you
read the sentence aloud,
Participle: He walked along, singing. you may notice that you
drop your voice slightly
Infinitive: To begin, he prepared himself for opposition. when reading nonessential
clauses and phrases.
Participial phrase: Abigail, disapproving of John’s short letters, gently º Test-Taking Tip
scolded him. When looking over a test
essay, check to see that no
Infinitive phrase: To be fair, John Adams was unusually busy in commas are missing. The
Philadelphia. meaning of a sentence
may seem clear to you,
Adjective clause: Abigail, who had been denied the advantages of but missing commas may
a formal education, was a great reader and tire- make it unclear to a
less correspondent. reader.
º Language Handbook
Appositive: Abigail, a wise woman, often advised her husband. For more on Missing
Commas with
Interjection: Alas, one of John and Abigail’s children died young. Nonessential Elements,
see Language Handbook,
Parenthetical expression: Mrs. Adams was, essentially, able to adjust to any p. R55.
circumstance.
eWorkbooks To link to
Exercise the Grammar and Language
eWorkbook, go to
Revise for Clarity Rewrite the sentences, adding commas where needed. www.glencoe.com.
1. People who lived in the 1800s if alive today would I feel certain be
astonished at the traffic between Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
2. To be sure Abigail’s letter to her daughter is full of details that express OB J ECTI V ES
her difficulties. • Learn about nonessential
3. The First Lady faced with the lack of wood was somewhat perturbed. elements.
4. The audience-room which was unfinished and empty was where clothes
• Learn how to identify
phrases that require a
were dried. comma.
141
H I STO R I C A L P E R SP ECT IVE on John Adams
Informational Text
David McCullough
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize
Building Background
Letters between John and Abigail Adams reveal their
personal thoughts and feelings, providing insights into
their lives, the Revolutionary War, and the career of the
O f the courtship Adams had said not a
word in his diary. Indeed, for the entire year of
second president of the United States. The following 1764 there were no diary entries, a sure sign of
selection, from historian David McCullough’s biography how preoccupied he was.
John Adams, frequently refers to the correspondence At their first meeting, in the summer of 1759,
of the Adamses. Abigail had been a shy, frail fifteen-year-old.
Often ill during childhood and still subject to
Set a Purpose for Reading recurring headaches and insomnia, she appeared
Read to discover biographical information about Abigail more delicate and vulnerable than her sisters. By
and John Adams. the time of her wedding, she was not quite
twenty, little more than five feet tall, with dark
Reading Strategy
brown hair, brown eyes, and a fine, pale com-
Analyzing a Biographical Narrative plexion. For a rather stiff pastel portrait, one of a
Analyzing a biographical narrative involves looking pair that she and John sat for in Salem a few
closely at parts of a selection to determine what they years after their marriage, she posed with just a
reveal about a person’s life and character. As you read, hint of a smile, three strands of pearls at the
take notes about what the selection reveals about neck, her hair pulled back with a blue ribbon.
Abigail and John. Use word webs like the one below But where the flat, oval face in her husband’s
to help you. portrait conveyed nothing of his bristling intel-
ligence and appetite for life, in hers there was a
nicknamed Diana strong, unmistakable look of good sense and
character. He could have been almost any well-
Abigail’s life and
fed, untested young man with dark, arched brows
character and a grey wig, while she was distinctly attrac-
tive, readily identifiable, her intent dark eyes
clearly focused on the world.
11. Braintree, a town in eastern Massachusetts, was John 13. Judah was a homeless woman who, being unable to care
Adams’s birthplace. for herself, had been brought to the Adamses’ household by
12. A fortnight is two weeks. Braintree officials. Her arrival had caused a family argument.
144 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
Informational Text
A second baby, John Quincy, was born two her and the “little ones,” became increasingly
years later, in 1767, also in mid-July, and Adams difficult. “God preserve you and all our family,”
began worrying about college for Johnny, fine he would write.
clothes for Nabby, dancing schools, “and all But in 1765, the same year little Abigail was
that.” To Abigail, after nearly three years of born and Adams found himself chosen surveyor
marriage, her John was still “the tenderest of of highways in Braintree, he was swept by events
husbands,” his affections “unabated.”14 into sudden public prominence. His marriage
For Adams, life had been made infinitely and family life were barely under way when he
fuller. All the ties he felt to the old farm were began the rise to the fame he had so long
stronger now with Abigail in partnership. She desired. “I never shall shine ’til some animating
was the ballast15 he had wanted, the vital center occasion calls forth all my powers,” he had writ-
of a new and better life. The time he spent away ten, and here now was the moment.
from home, riding the court circuit, apart from “I am . . . under all obligations of interest and
ambition, as well as honor, gratitude and duty, to
exert the utmost of abilities in this important
14. Unabated means “at full strength.” cause,” he wrote, and with characteristic honesty
15. Here, ballast means “something that provides stability.” he had not left ambition out.
RESP ON DI NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond 5. McCullough writes that “life had become infinitely
fuller” for John Adams after his marriage and the
1. In what ways do you think that the relationship
birth of his children. Do you think that Adams con-
between John and Abigail Adams is like relation-
sidered his marriage more fulfilling than his career?
ships between married people today? How is it
Why or why not?
different?
Adams’s life”? (b)Do you agree with his assess- • Evaluate biographical information.
• Construct graphic organizers.
ment? Explain.
➥ Focus Lesson: Parallelism To present a clearly stated opinion ✓ Choose an issue that has opposing
viewpoints
Presenting
✓ State your opinion in a single sentence
in the introduction
148 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
Persuasion
Prewriting
Address Counterarguments
Choose an Issue Think of a situation you would like to change. Have you
noticed a rule or policy that is ineffective or unfair? Enacting change requires you Be sure your persua-
to persuade others that a situation can and should be improved, and that your sive speech considers
solution is the right one. both sides of an issue.
Anticipate and respond
º The purpose of a persuasive speech is to inform and influence. briefly to objections to
your position. Use a
º Determine your audience. Your audience should include people who have pro-and-con scale to help
the power to improve the situation you describe. As you write, think about you to separate the rea-
the background your audience will need in order to understand the issue and sons for your argument
which tone and types of evidence will help persuade them. (pros) from one or two
counterarguments (cons).
Clarify Your Position What is your opinion about the issue? In one or two
sentences, clearly state the issue and your opinion about it. This is your thesis.
PROS CONS
Support Your Position To persuade your audience that your position is valid,
you need to provide reasons and support them with relevant evidence. You should
make appeals to logic, ethics, and emotions. Defend your reasons with precise
and accurate evidence, such as facts, expert opinions, statistics, and examples.
Outline Your Argument Before drafting your persuasive speech, create an out-
line to organize your reasons and evidence. Your introduction should describe the
issue and propose your opinion. (For more information on types of proposals, see
“Delivering a Persuasive Speech” on page 154.) In each body paragraph, include Test Prep
a reason and relevant evidence. In your conclusion, summarize your position and
end with a call to action. Many tests include persua-
sive essays. As with a per-
suasive speech, clarify your
position (thesis) and before
Introduction • Reason: The electoral college system is flawed writing briefly organize your
• Thesis because the Constitution does not bind
reasons in an outline. For
presidential electors to vote for the can-
timed tests, spend only a
➧
Discuss Your Ideas Once you finish outlining your persuasive speech, share
your ideas with a partner. To develop your writing voice and to become more
comfortable speaking in front of an audience, read your thesis and reasons. Make
sure that each part is clear and that your tone is engaging and respectful.
150 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
Persuasion
Conclusion
How does the writer
appeal to the audience
and persuade the group
to act?
Revision:
Many of our citizens recognize that Dillard needs a town museum. In fact,
the Dillard Historical Society has been talking about building a museum for
some time now.1 As historian and Society member Adam Frasier explains,
“With no central location, Dillard’s historic objects risk being damaged or
lost. There is no systematic organization in place. The longer we postpone
the decision, the worse it will get.”2 In July 2004, the Dillard Post noted that
an estimated 65 percent of archived material is currently in storage,
unavailable to the public or even most researchers.3
1: Example 2: Expert Opinion 3: Statistic
152 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
Persuasion
º Focus Lesson
Repetition
Repeat a word, phrase,
Original: In this sentence, similar ideas are not connected or emphasized.
or clause for emphasis.
Let ’s preserve the cultural heritage and the deep history of our town, as “I came, I saw, I con-
well as its architecture, which is unique. quered.”
—Julius Caesar
Improved: Create parallel phrases to reflect the parallel meaning. Rhetorical Question
Let ’s preserve the cultural heritage, deep history, and unique These questions are not
architecture of our town. meant to be answered,
but are asked to empha-
size the obvious.
Original: In this sentence, the series does not use parallel grammatical forms.
“If you wrong us, shall
Others complain that with the weeds, teetering fence, and the paint we not revenge?”
that is cracked and peeling, the house might just as well be haunted. —William Shakespeare
Metaphor
Improved: Edit the sentence so that all items are parallel in form.
Metaphors compare two
Others complain that with the sprawling weeds, teetering fence, and seemingly unlike things.
peeling paint, the house might just as well be haunted. “No man is an island.”
—John Donne
Presenting
Writer’s Portfolio
Preparing Your Persuasive Speech Once you have finished writing, revis- Place a copy of your
ing, and editing your persuasive speech, you should think about how you’ll persuasive speech
present it to your audience. Many speakers read from note cards instead of from in your portfolio to
the paper itself. If you would rather read from your paper, you may wish to review later.
increase the type size and spacing, or add notes in the margins. Your teacher
may ask for a clean copy of your speech to grade, so be sure to check the pre-
sentation guidelines.
Assignment
▲
• Review your speech for clarity and logic. Find out how much time you will be
allotted to speak. If necessary, shorten your speech while preserving your main
points and key evidence.
• Thoroughly familiarize yourself with your speech and research. This will
increase your confidence, help you speak fluently, and enable you to speak
spontaneously should the need arise.
• Think again about your audience—who they are, what they know about your
topic, and what their opinions might be. This will help you anticipate their
reactions and prepare for the questions they may ask.
• Consider what tone would be appropriate for the occasion.
—remembe
rt
your voice o modulate the tone of
—make eye
c
members ontact with audience
154 UNIT 1 EA R LY A M E R I C A
Creating Your Visual Media
Visual media or aids heighten the interest of a presentation and also help make
evidence easier to grasp. As you review your speech, think about how media such
as diagrams, photographs, or charts might support your points. Use the chart Use a Mirror
below to brainstorm ideas for visuals with a partner. Practice your gestures in front
of a mirror until your body
language looks natural.
Important Points Ideas for Visual Aids What Visual Aid Will
The town garbage Photograph of landfill Demonstrate
landfills are filling up at The urgency of acting Sound Check
a record rate. to prevent landfills from Record your presentation and
overflowing. play it back to check on
whether your voice expresses
the right mood and your
words are understandable.
Rehearsing
Rehearse your speech both in private and in front of friends and family. Videotape
Rehearsal helps you identify any grammar or spelling flaws that you may have Videotape your performance
missed—you don’t want to stumble over them when it comes time to speak. and provide your own critique.
Rehearsal will also help you present visual aids skillfully. Finally, rehearsal will
help you refine your delivery until it is smooth and effective.
Ask your listeners for feedback on your pronunciation, pacing, and volume. If
you will be fielding questions from your audience, ask your listeners for practice
questions. Keep your answers focused and to the point. As you practice, you will
grow more comfortable speaking.
Reading: Nonfiction
Carefully read the following passage. Use context clues to determine the meaning of words that
you are unfamiliar with. Pay close attention to the author’s main idea and use of rhetorical
devices. Then answer the questions on pages 157–158.
156 UNIT 1 E A R LY A M E R I C A
(continued)
25 If I see one fond of appearance, or fine clothes, fine houses, fine furniture, fine equipages, all
above his fortune, for which he contracts debts, and ends his career in a prison, Alas! say I, he has
paid dear, very dear, for his whistle.
When I see a beautiful sweet-tempered girl married to an ill-natured brute of a husband, What a
pity, say I, that she should pay so much for a whistle!
30 In short, I conceive that great part of the miseries of mankind are brought upon them by the
false estimates they have made of the value of things, and by their giving too much for their whistles.
1. From whom did Franklin get the whistle? 5. The word whistle, in line 11, is an example of
A. a shop which rhetorical device?
B. friends on a holiday A. connotative language
C. another boy B. hyperbole
D. a peddler C. parallelism
D. figurative language
2. Which rhetorical device is most evident in the
sentence beginning on line 5? 6. According to Franklin, what will happen if people
A. hyperbole neglect their affairs?
B. rhetorical question A. Their affairs will suffer.
C. connotative language B. They will succeed in politics.
D. parallelism C. They will become popular.
D. They will give up comfortable living.
3. From the context, what does the word folly in
line 7 mean? 7. In line 18, which literary device does Franklin use
A. a great deal in the phrase said I?
B. an agreement A. allusion
C. a mistake B. aphorism
D. good sense C. inversion
D. meter
4. From the context, what does the word reflection in
line 8 mean? 8. In the paragraph beginning on line 19, which is
A. likeness an example of connotative language?
B. mirror image A. pleasure
C. possibility B. miser
D. thought C. wealth
D. friendship
T E S T P R E PA R AT I O N AN D P RA CT IC E 157
9. From the context, what does the word fine in 13. On the basis of this passage, what is the overall
line 25 mean? tone of this piece?
A. penalty A. aphoristic
B. satisfactory B. ironic
C. elegant C. angry
D. thin D. formal
10. Where does Franklin say one “fond of 14. Which of the following best describes the
appearance” will end his career? author’s purpose?
A. with a fine house A. to explain
B. without benevolent friendship B. to persuade
C. in ruined health C. to entertain
D. in prison D. to describe
11. From where does Franklin say most of the 15. What is the main idea of this passage?
“miseries of mankind” come? A. Never spend money on things you cannot
A. false estimates of value afford.
B. the high value of things B. Avoid wasting time.
C. ill-natured brutes C. Always be aware of the true cost of your
D. contracted debts desires.
D. Always listen to advice from concerned
12. Starting with the second paragraph, which family members.
literary or rhetorical device does Franklin
employ at the end of each paragraph?
A. allusion
B. hyperbole
C. connotative language
D. repetition
158 UNIT 1 E A R LY A M E R I C A
Vocabulary Skills: Sentence Completion
For each item in the Vocabulary Skills section, choose the word or words that best complete
the sentence.
1. In the end, England’s attempts to the 6. The Native Americans viewed the Pilgrims with
colonists’ demand for representation were a great deal of , especially after so many
unsuccessful. began to arrive.
A. abate A. apprehension
B. rouse B. compassion
C. convene C. subjugation
D. lament D. providence
2. The in Boston Harbor frightened soldiers 7. The Native American oral tradition is populated
and woke many people. with powerful , animals, and ancestral
A. commodity spirits.
B. ration A. vaults
C. clamor B. mortifications
D. scruple C. scruples
D. conjurers
3. There were no reactions to Patrick Henry’s
powerful speech to the Second Virginia Convention, 8. According to Olaudah Equiano, the Africans,
which greatly the delegates. who were shown no during the Middle
A. petrified . . . alighted Passage, were by their captors’ use of
B. obliging . . . deprived violence.
C. feigned . . . roused A. mischief . . . appeased
D. ingenious . . . gratified B. hypocrisy . . . daunted
C. tyranny . . . spurned
4. Jonathan Edwards believed that his sermons could D. compassion . . . petrified
help repair the in people’s souls.
A. desolation 9. Thomas Jefferson hoped to protect America’s
B. prudence from tyranny when he drafted the
C. vault Declaration of Independence.
D. conjurer A. resolutions
B. infidels
5. Persecution in England motivated the Pilgrims to C. rations
on a very voyage across the D. posterity
Atlantic Ocean.
A. temper . . . abominable 10. During his lifetime, Benjamin Franklin created
B. embark . . . arduous many things.
C. revive . . . copious A. copious
D. abhor . . . insidious B. petrified
C. ingenious
D. insidious
[1] [4]
[1] Of all of those who signed this What is truly incredible, though, is that so
document, though, Benjamin Franklin was certainly many of his inventions and concepts are still useful
the most important. [2] There are many important today. For example, Franklin was responsible for
Americans whose names appear on the Declaration bifocal glasses, the lightning rod, the Franklin stove
6
of Independence. [3] No other figure from this the first North American volunteer fire department,
6
period is as interesting or as consistently relevant as and the first North American public library.
6
Franklin continues to be. [5]
[2] While the other founders were important
Unlike many of the other founders Franklin figures who played prominent roles in the shaping of
2
was from a modest background and was largely self- this country, none was as exciting, were as diverse
2 7
educated. He did not have the kinds of advantages in talents, or had as much foresight as Benjamin
7
that Jefferson, and Washington took for granted. Franklin.
3
[3]
Franklin’s background is startling when
one considers his accomplishments. No other
founder can claim the same number of achievements
in so many different fields of study. Franklin was a
4
great scientist, writer, politician, philosopher, and
4
diplomat. Amazingly, his formal education ended
when he was only ten years old.
1. Which of the following sequences of sentences will 2. Which of the following is the best way to improve
make paragraph 1 most logical? passage 2?
A. NO CHANGE A. NO CHANGE
B. 3, 1, 2 B. Unlike many of the other founders, Franklin
C. 2, 1, 3 was from a modest background
D. 3, 2, 1 C. Unlike other founders Franklin was from a
modest background
D. Many of the other founders came from modest
backgrounds
160 UNIT 1 E A R LY A M E R I C A
3. Which of the following is the best revision of 7. Which of the following is the best way to
passage 3? improve passage 7?
A. NO CHANGE A. NO CHANGE
B. Washington, and Jefferson B. was as diverse in talents, or had as
C. Jefferson and Washington much foresight
D. Jefferson, Washington C. is as diverse in talents, or had as much
foresight
4. Which of the following is the best way to write D. that could be as diverse in talents, or
passage 4? have as much insight
A. NO CHANGE
B. Franklin was a great scientist, writer, 8. What could have been added to the last
politician and philosopher, diplomat. paragraph to make it stronger?
C. Franklin was a great scientist and diplomat. A. a summary of the key points
D. Franklin was a scientist and writer and a B. the introduction of new information
politician, and philosopher, and diplomat C. the introduction of opposing viewpoints
D. a visual aid
5. Which of the following sentences, if inserted at
the beginning of paragraph 4, would provide the Questions 9 and 10 ask about the essay as
most effective transition? a whole.
A. Benjamin Franklin was a good inventor.
9. The writer intends to add a paragraph
B. Franklin’s inventions and scientific findings
concerning Franklin’s contribution to the
were groundbreaking in the 1700s.
Revolutionary War. The most logical place
C. There were many things that Franklin knew,
to insert this paragraph is:
even without a strong formal education.
A. before the third paragraph
D. In the long run, Franklin’s formal education
B. after the last paragraph
wasn’t that important.
C. before the second paragraph
6. Which of the following is the best revision of D. after the fourth paragraph
passage 6?
10. What information could have been added
A. NO CHANGE
to this essay to make it more convincing?
B. the Franklin stove the first North American
A. rebuttals of specific arguments against
volunteer fire department and the first public
the author’s position
library in North America.
B. further examples of Franklin’s
C. the Franklin stove and the first volunteer fire
inventions
department and public library.
C. a thorough description of everyday life
D. the Franklin stove, the first North American
in America during the 1700s
volunteer fire department, and the first North
D. an account of Franklin’s time in Paris
American public library.
Essay
Benjamin Franklin wrote that “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little
temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” Do you agree with this statement? Write
a short persuasive essay in which you argue for or against Franklin’s claim. As you write, keep in
mind that your essay will be checked for ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence
fluency, conventions, and presentation.
162
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC/Art Resource, NY
AMERICAN
U N IT T WO
–----–––––-–––
ROMANTICISM
1800 1860
Looking Ahead
Powerful forces marked the period that produced the first great American
literature. The arrival of the European cultural movement known as
Romanticism strongly influenced many American writers of this time.
These writers also responded to social forces, including an outburst of
reform movements, the spread of industry, and the increasing sectional
strife that would soon bring the Civil War.
O B J EC TI V ES
While studying American Romanticism, you will focus on the following:
16 3
TIMELINE
1800 1860
Godey's Lady's Book ▼
–----–---–-–––
AM E R I CAN L I T E R AT U R E
U N I T E D STAT ES EV E NTS
16 4 U N IT 2 AMERICAN ROMANTICISM
(t) British Museum, London, UK/Bridgeman Art Library, (cl) MPI/Getty Images, (cr) Bettmann/CORBIS (bl) Carmen Redondo/CORBIS, (br) Museum of London, UK/Bridgeman Art Library
Masthead from the
▼
North Star newspaper
1840 1850
1840 1845 1850 1854
Tales of the Grotesque Henry David Thoreau goes The Scarlet Letter by Walden by Henry
and Arabesque by Edgar to live at Walden Pond Nathaniel Hawthorne David Thoreau
Allan Poe
1845 1851 1855
1841 Woman in the Nineteenth Moby-Dick by The Song of Hiawatha
Social reformers establish Century, an early work of Herman Melville by Henry Wadsworth
Brook Farm, an experiment feminism, by Margaret Fuller Longfellow
1852
in communal living
1847 Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet 1855
1841 Frederick Douglass begins Beecher Stowe Leaves of Grass by
Essays by Ralph publishing the North Star, an Walt Whitman
Waldo Emerson abolitionist newspaper
1845
The Raven and Other Poems
by Edgar Allan Poe
1840 1850
1844 1846–1848 1850 1859
Samuel Morse Mexican-American War Fugitive Slave Act, Antislavery activist
demonstrates the first fought; Mexico cedes forcing return of escaped John Brown is hanged
telegraph by sending a territory in Southwest to slaves to their owners, for raiding federal arsenal at
message from Washington, United States inflames sectional conflict Harpers Ferry, Virginia
D.C., to Baltimore
1848 1857
American gold coin ▼ First women’s rights In Dred Scott case,
convention held in Supreme Court rules that
Seneca Falls, New York slaves and former slaves
are not U.S. citizens
1849
California gold rush begins
1840 1850
1845 1850 ▲
Potato famine begins in Taiping Rebellion begins 1859
Ireland, leading to mass in China Charles Darwin publishes
immigration to America his theory of evolution
1855
1848 Coronation of Czar Alexander II,
Revolutions sweep Europe; who later frees the Russian serfs
Karl Marx and Friedrich
Engels publish the
Communist Manifesto
Reading Check
Analyzing Graphic Information What relationship can
you see between the events in U.S. history in 1815 and
Irish famine victims 1828 as they are related to the career of Andrew Jackson?
▼
INTRODUCTION 16 5
(t) Library of Congress, (cl) Heritage Coins, (cr) Archivo Iconografico, S.A./CORBIS, (b) George Frederick Watts/Trustees of the Watts Gallery, Compton, Surrey, UK/Bridgeman Art Library
BY THE NUMBERS
–----––-–––––––––––––––––
URBAN AND RURAL POPULATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES, 1810–1870
30
Rural Population
Millions of People
25
Urban Population
20
15
10
5
0
1810 1820 1830 1840 1850 1860 1870
Source Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970
Purchasing Power
In 1851, a male textile worker earned BIG CITIES OF 1830 RAILROAD
$6.50 a week, a shoemaker or printer
City Population • In 1833, there were 380 miles
between $4 and $6 a week, and an of rails in the United States.
unskilled laborer about $1 a week. New York 200,000
Baltimore 80,000 By 1860, there were more
Only a small group of skilled workers, than 30,000 miles of rails in
such as blacksmiths, machinists, and Philadelphia 80,000
Boston 60,000 the United States.
carpenters, were able to make at
least $10.38 per week. This is the
amount that reformer Horace Greeley
IMMIGRATION FACTORIES
calculated as the weekly income that
a family of five needed to make ends • Between 1821 and 1840, In 1840, U.S. factories and mills
meet (see list below). 751,000 immigrants entered produced goods valued at less
the United States. than $500 million. In 1850, they
produced goods valued at more
• Between 1841 and 1860, than $1 billion.
Weekly Needs more than four million immi-
.63 grants came to the United
Flour
.32 States (most from Great VOTER PARTICIPATION,
Sugar
.63 Britain, Ireland, and Germany). 1824–1840
Butter
Milk .14
$1.40
Percentage of Eligible Voters Who Voted
Potatoes .50
70
Tea and coffee .25 • In 1850, 64.9 percent of
Candles and oil .14 white children and 31.3
60
57.6% 57.8%
Fuel .40 percent of African American 50 55.4%
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C Brook Farm, 1844. Josiah Wolcott. Oil on
panel. Massachusetts Historical Society,
Boston MA. Painting of a Transcendentalist
community outside Boston.
Reading Check 2. How many more U.S. citizens lived in rural areas
than in urban areas in 1850?
Analyzing Graphic Information
1. In which presidential election year during this 3. What large cities are located in the area shown
period did voter participation increase the most on the map? Judging by the images, how were
from the previous one? the cities of the period like and unlike big U.S.
cities today?
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INT ROD UCTION 167
(tl) Boston Public Library, (tr) The New York Public Library / Art Resource, NY, (b) Josiah Wolcott / Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, MA, USA / Bridgeman Art Library
AMERICAN –-------––-–––
ROMANTICISM 1800 1860
Historical, Social, and Cultural Forces
The Industrial Revolution new factories were built. Francis C. Lowell, for
example, opened a series of mills in northeastern
In the mid-1700s, a huge economic change known
Massachusetts beginning in 1814. His Boston
as the Industrial Revolution began in Britain.
Manufacturing Company employed thousands of
Manufacturing shifted from skilled workers using
women and children, who worked for lower wages than
hand tools to unskilled laborers tending large, complex
men and in often dangerous conditions. An expanding
machines. Factories, some housing hundreds of
network of roads and canals united different sections
machines and workers, replaced home-based work-
of the country. Two new inventions—the steamboat
shops. Manufacturers sold their goods nationwide or
and the railroad—revolutionized transportation.
abroad instead of just locally.
The Industrial Revolution soon spread to the United
States, where it caused tremendous economic growth
Sectional Strife
and transformed American society. Hundreds of The Industrial Revolution brought economic growth
to the United States, but it was also one of several
factors that were dividing Americans into two
nations, the North and the South. The northern
states had large cities and an economy based on
manufacturing. The southern states had few large
cities, and their farming economy was dominated by
a single crop—cotton. Much of this cotton was
grown on large plantations worked by slaves. The
more fiercely northern reformers agitated to end
slavery, the more stubbornly southerners defended
the “peculiar institution” they saw as necessary to
their way of life. In time, these divisions would bring
the Civil War.
Optimism is the belief that Many American Romantics There was a dark underside
the world around us is believed in the beneficial to American Romanticism.
always improving. Some effects of a close link It took a variety of forms,
American Romantics pre- between humanity and including a fascination with
sented an optimistic view of nature. This belief coexisted disease, madness, death, evil,
the possibility of human with a concern that the supernatural, and the
progress, based in part on a the spread of industry and destructive aspects of nature.
democratic confidence in the new technology threatened See pages 174 –175.
ability of ordinary individuals the natural world and isolated
to better themselves, their people from it.
political system, and society. See pages 172–173.
See pages 170–171.
E
ach of us has ambitions and plans, hopes club. Among those who participated in the talks at
and dreams. Our beliefs affect how we the Transcendental Club were Margaret Fuller,
feel about what we can achieve as indi- Henry David Thoreau, and Nathaniel Hawthorne.
viduals and citizens. Optimists believe
The essence of Transcendentalism was the philosophy
they can reach their goals in life. Ralph
known as Idealism. For Idealists, such as the German
Waldo Emerson (see pages 178–188) was a lifelong
philosopher Immanuel Kant, reality is not “out there”
optimist. He also celebrated the individual, proclaim-
in material objects but instead exists in our ideas
ing that by being true to their innermost selves, peo-
about those objects. The Transcendentalists believed
ple could accomplish great things.
that intuition is a more valuable guide than sensory
experience in grasping what nature really is. As
Rise of the Common People Emerson exulted in his essay “Nature,” “I see the
Beginning in the 1820s, the American belief in spectacle of morning from the hilltop over against my
the power of the ordinary citizen had a huge impact house, from daybreak to sunrise, with emotions which
on both political and social life. Changes in voting an angel might share.”
laws expanded the electorate to include nearly all
white males. In 1828, these voters elected frontiers-
man Andrew Jackson as president, marking the
Emerson’s Outlook
arrival of the common people in American politics. Emerson’s optimism convinced him that the universe
“Well, if Andrew Jackson can be president,” observed existed for humanity’s benefit. He told people that
one outraged North Carolina woman, “then anybody they simply needed to look within themselves to
can!” Americans of this period also became involved awaken a sense of wonder and recover their oneness
in a broad range of reform movements. These ordi- with the universe: “Every spirit builds itself a house,
nary citizens formed associations, raised money, wrote and beyond its house a world, and beyond its world
pamphlets, held rallies, gave speeches, and worked to a heaven. Know then that the world exists for you.”
pass laws designed to improve American society. He believed that ordinary human beings had limit-
less potential. His avid reading of mystical Hindu
philosophy influenced his conviction that humans
are divine because they share in the Over-soul,
“All that Adam had, all that Caesar Emerson’s name for the spirit that pervades the
could, you have and can do.” universe. Emerson summed up his ideas by saying
that he had really taught only one thing, that every
— Ralph Waldo Emerson person was infinite.
Emerson’s Essays
Transcendentalism Emerson is best known for his essays, such as “Self-
Emerson’s belief in the value of the individual was Reliance.” An essay is a short piece of nonfiction
shaped by the era in which he lived. In the 1830s, writing on any topic. Essays can range from serious,
the influence of Romanticism began to be felt in the formal analyses to light, personal reflections.
United States. One result was Transcendentalism, a Although Emerson’s essays are formal, they are not
loosely organized movement that embodied the ideas tightly unified around a single topic. Instead, he pre-
of thinkers who were active in New England in the sented his thoughts in a loosely organized series of
1830s and 1840s. Emerson was a leading figure in striking sentences. “The maker of a sentence,” he
this group, which began as an informal discussion observed, “launches out into the infinite.”
Our houses are built with foreign taste; our shelves are soil, the length of the day, the wants of the people, the
garnished with foreign ornaments; our opinions, our habit and form of the government, he will create a house
tastes, our faculties, lean, and follow the Past and the in which all these will find themselves fitted, and taste
Distant. The soul created the arts wherever they have and sentiment will be satisfied also.
flourished. It was in his own mind that the artist sought Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can
his model. It was an application of his own thought to present every moment with the cumulative force of a
the thing to be done and the conditions to be observed. whole life's cultivation; but of the adopted talent of
And why need we copy the Doric or the Gothic model? another, you have only an extemporaneous, half posses-
Beauty, convenience, grandeur of thought, and quaint sion. That which each can do best, none but his Maker
expression are as near to us as to any, and if the can teach him. No man yet knows what it is, nor can, till
American artist will study with hope and love the precise that person has exhibited it. Where is the master who
thing to be done by him, considering the climate, the could have taught Shakespeare?
Reading Check
Analyzing Cause and Effect Why would Emerson’s
optimism have made him a reformer?
T
oday, many people are concerned about Thoreau and Nature
the effects of civilization on the wilder-
Another New Englander, Emerson’s friend Thoreau,
ness. Conflicts between environmentalists
also rejected a conventional life. Like Emerson,
and commercial interests are widespread.
Thoreau championed American individualism. He
How important is nature, and what can
spent two years in a cabin he built at Walden Pond
we learn from it? In the 1800s, Henry David Thoreau
near his home of Concord, Massachusetts. Thoreau
(see pages 202–217) revealed his thoughts about this
sharply observed the natural surroundings there. “For
question in his journal. Thoreau believed that con-
many years,” he wrote, “I was self-appointed inspector
tact with wild nature refreshed the human spirit.
of snow storms and rain storms and did my duty faith-
Other writers have described the benefits of nature’s
fully.” Thoreau was not fond of luxuries and not
beauty and the feelings of peace that result from
afraid of striking out on his own.
being out-of-doors. Nature can also teach us respect
for its destructive ways and remind us that, though we Emerson’s and Thoreau’s concept of the natural world
try, we can never wholly subdue its powerful forces. had much in common with the Native American
viewpoint. Both traditions found harmony and pur-
pose in the unspoiled earth. At Walden, Thoreau
communed with nature. He wrote, “You only need sit
“I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and still long enough in some attractive spot in the woods
have it all to myself, than be crowded on that all its inhabitants may exhibit themselves to you
by turns.” Leslie Marmon Silko, a contemporary
a velvet cushion.” Native American author, expresses a similar view.
—Henry David Thoreau She writes, “I never feel lonely when I walk alone in
the hills: I am surrounded with living beings, with
these sandstone ridges and lava rock hills full of life.”
O
ur experience of life and the world has a Settings are dark and often contain decayed dwellings
dark side. We fear the evils we know— with shadowy passageways, haunting sounds, and
poverty, violence, disease, madness, damp rooms.
death—and are troubled by nameless ter-
rors that might lurk in the shadows beyond
our knowledge. Not all the important American writ-
Poe and the Terror of the Soul
ers of Emerson’s time shared his optimism. Nathaniel A European tradition of Gothic literature existed
Hawthorne (see pages 265–278) admired Emerson long before Edgar Allan Poe (see pages 242–263), but
but thought him unrealistic. To Herman Melville he was the first American master of this type of hor-
(see pages 280–291), Emerson’s optimism was “non- ror. In his poems and stories, Poe often bettered ear-
sense” that ignored the “disagreeable facts” of life. lier Gothic writers in achieving spine-tingling effects.
Most of his stories and poems deal with loss and sor-
row, ruin and revenge, disease and death. Poe’s liter-
Hawthorne and Melville ary works reflected his own troubles and fears, but
Almost all of Hawthorne’s fiction is based on stories many readers responded favorably to his subject mat-
of the past, particularly the history and legends of his ter and the mood of his works, thus confronting their
Puritan ancestors in New England. Hawthorne was own fears. Emerson and the Transcendentalists
drawn to the Puritan past as Gothic writers were believed that humans are inherently good. By con-
drawn to the Middle Ages. In Puritan New England, trast, Poe seems to have had an instinctive feel for
he found a strange, stark world that provided a richly the dark impulses of human nature. Poe observed,
textured background for the explorations of the “The terror of which I write is not of Germany [the
nature of good and evil in his fiction. Hawthorne’s setting of much Gothic fiction], but of the soul.”
friend Melville first gained a literary reputation for He expressed this spiritual terror in haunting
romantic tales of adventure in the South Seas. In suc- literary works.
ceeding books, he used his sea stories to explore the
mystery of the evil that he saw in both human life
and the forces of nature. In Melville’s masterpiece,
Poe’s Short Stories
Moby-Dick, Ahab, the crazed captain of a whaling Poe was a master of the brief fictional narrative
ship, sees evil personified in a huge white whale. known as the short story. In addition to writing many
Gothic tales of terror, he invented a new type of short
fiction, the detective story. His first detective story,
Gothic Horror “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” combines Gothic
The dark side of European Romanticism can be horror with solid reasoning by Poe’s fictional detec-
seen in the tradition of Gothic literature. A classic tive, Dupin.
example from nineteenth-century England is Mary
Poe’s stories illustrate his idea that any artistic com-
Shelley’s Frankenstein, a novel about a monster that
position should have a single, unique effect. This
destroys its creator. The American Romantics also
effect is evident in the gloomy, ominous beginning of
recognized the power of darkness. Gothic horror relies
his short story “The Fall of the House of Usher,” guar-
chiefly on atmosphere, or mood, to achieve its effects.
anteed to make the reader long for sunshine or the
Writers create an atmosphere of horror through plot,
comfort of his or her own room.
characters, and settings that most people find chill-
ing. Plots often focus on mysterious happenings,
tragic events, and hideous outcomes. Characters are
often mad, half-mad, or frightened to death. They
may exhibit strange behavior and physical traits.
During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in any of that half-pleasurable, because poetic, sentiment,
the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppres- with which the mind usually receives even the sternest
sively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on natural images of the desolate or terrible. I looked upon
horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; the scene before me—upon the mere house, and the
and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening simple landscape features of the domain—upon the
drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher. bleak walls—upon the vacant eye-like windows—upon
I know not how it was—but, with the first glimpse of the a few rank sedges—and upon a few white trunks of
building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my decayed trees—with an utter depression of soul . . .
spirit. I say insufferable; for the feeling was unrelieved by
Reading Check
Comparing and Contrasting In what sense were Poe
and Emerson both Romantics (see pages 170 –174)?
How did their Romanticism differ?
Connect to Today
» Use what you have learned about the
period to do one of these activities.
1. Speaking/Listening Working with several other students, create a brief presentation for your class
about how one of this period’s big ideas affects American culture today. You can use examples from
literature, fine art, music, movies, or other kinds of expression.
2. Visual Literacy Create an illustrated diagram showing the bright and dark sides of Romanticism.
For example, you might present your diagram in the form of a color spectrum on which you position
cultural ideas and values, works of art, and writers associated with Romanticism’s two aspects.
3. Writing Taking into account the political, social, economic, and cultural characteristics of this
period, do you think the United States was a better place to live in then or now? Write a brief essay
exploring this question.
OB J EC TIVES
• Construct a graphic organizer
• Deliver an oral presentation Study Central Visit
• Analyze political, social, economic, and cultural characteristics www.glencoe.com and click on Study Central to
in writing review American Romanticism.
Kindred Spirits, 1849. Asher Durand. Oil on canvas. The New York Public Library.
“We see the world piece by piece, as the sun, the moon, the animal,
the tree; but the whole, of which these are the shining parts, is the soul.”
—Emerson, “The Over-Soul”
177
Francis G. Mayer/CORBIS
B EF O R E YO U R E A D
R
alph Waldo Emerson was the central figure
of American Romanticism. His ideas about
the individual, claims about the divine, and
attacks on society were revolutionary.
Emerson’s father was a Unitarian minister and
his mother a devout Anglican. When Emerson
was only eight years old, his father died, and
Mrs. Emerson was forced to open a boarding-
house. At the age of 14, Emerson entered
Harvard College. After graduation, he studied
at Harvard Divinity School. By 1829, Emerson
had been ordained a Unitarian minister and
was preaching in Boston’s Second Church.
Challenges to Optimism Emerson’s own opti-
In 1831 Ellen Tucker, Emerson’s wife, died sud- mism was challenged when his son Waldo died of
denly. Emerson had already been questioning his scarlet fever in 1842. Two years later, Emerson’s
religious convictions, and after Ellen’s death, he essay “The Tragic” appeared in The Dial, a tran-
experienced intense grief that further eroded his scendentalist magazine he had co-founded. In this
faith. Eventually, Emerson left the church to essay, Emerson claimed that the arts and the intel-
embark on a career as a writer. lect can “ravish us into a region whereinto these
passionate clouds of sorrow cannot rise.”
A Controversial Career In 1833 Emerson set-
After 1870, his memory began to fail and the
tled in Concord, Massachusetts, and began writing
quality of his essays diminished. He stayed in
Nature. This slim book was to become one of
Concord and wrote little in his last years; he
Emerson’s most influential works. Two years later,
died of pneumonia at the age of 79.
Emerson married Lydia Jackson, whom he called
“Lidian.” Emerson and Lydia had four children. Emerson influenced writers as diverse as essayist
Henry David Thoreau (page 202), novelist Louisa
During the late 1830s, Emerson gained fame for his
May Alcott, and poets Robert Frost (page 704),
lectures—notably “The American Scholar” and the
Wallace Stevens (page 689), and Hart Crane.
divinity school Address. These speeches, both deliv-
Emerson was a radical individualist, and his
ered at Harvard, rejected organized religion and
impact on American thought can still be felt
undue reverence for the past. Harvard’s conservative
today. As modern critic Harold Bloom wrote,
administration was outraged. As a result, he was not
“. . . no single sage, not Dr. Johnson nor
invited to speak at the college for the next 30 years.
Coleridge, is as inescapable as Emerson goes on
While Emerson’s ideas enraged some, they excited being for American poets and storytellers.”
many others and helped create the transcendental-
Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in 1803 and died
ist movement, of which Emerson was the spokes-
in 1882.
person. Optimism, self-reliance, intuition, and
idealism formed the core of transcendentalist
thought. Idealism is a philosophy that maintains Author Search For more about
the belief that reality is created by the mind. Ralph Waldo Emerson, goAuthor Search For more about
to www.glencoe.com.
this author, go to www.glencoe.com.
• See Literary Terms Handbook, p. R18. Vocabulary Tip: Synonyms Words that have the
same meaning are called synonyms. The words
ragged and shabby, for example, are synonyms. Note
Interactive Literary Elements
that synonyms are always the same part of speech.
Handbook To review or learn more about the literary elements,
go to www.glencoe.com.
O B J EC TIVES
In studying these selections, you will focus on the following: • analyzing figurative language
• analyzing literary periods • drawing conclusions
• recognizing an author’s purpose • analyzing metonymy
• analyzing theme • writing a comparison/contrast essay
To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as When we speak of nature in this manner, we
much from his chamber as from society. I am not have a distinct but most poetical sense in the
solitary whilst I read and write, though nobody is mind. We mean the integrity of impression
with me. But if a man would be alone, let him made by manifold4 natural objects. It is this
look at the stars. The rays that come from those which distinguishes the stick of timber of the
heavenly worlds will separate between him and wood-cutter from the tree of the poet. The
what he touches. One might think the atmo- charming landscape which I saw this morning is
sphere was made transparent with this design, to indubitably5 made up of some twenty or thirty
give man, in the heavenly bodies, the perpetual farms. Miller owns this field, Locke that, and
presence of the sublime. Seen in the streets of Manning the woodland beyond. But none of
cities, how great they are! If the stars should them owns the landscape. There is a property in
appear one night in a thousand years, how would the horizon which no man has but he whose eye
men believe and adore; and preserve for many can integrate all the parts, that is, the poet. This
generations the remembrance of the city of God is the best part of these men’s farms, yet to this
which had been shown! But every night come their warranty-deeds6 give no title.
out these envoys1 of beauty, and light the uni- To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature.
verse with their admonishing2 smile. Most persons do not see the sun. At least they
The stars awaken a certain reverence, have a very superficial seeing. The sun illuminates
because though always present, they are inac- only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye
cessible; but all natural objects make a kindred and the heart of the child. The lover of nature is
impression, when the mind is open to their he whose inward and outward senses are still truly
influence. Nature never wears a mean3 appear- adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit
ance. Neither does the wisest man extort her of infancy even into the era of manhood. His
secret, and lose his curiosity by finding out all intercourse with heaven and earth becomes part
her perfection. Nature never became a toy to a of his daily food. In the presence of nature a wild
wise spirit. The flowers, the animals, the moun- delight runs through the man, in spite of real
tains, reflected the wisdom of his best hour, as sorrows. Nature says,—he is my creature, and
much as they had delighted the simplicity of his
childhood.
4. Manifold means “many kinds or varieties.”
5. Indubitably means “without a doubt” or “certainly.”
6. Warranty-deeds are legal documents that state ownership of
1. Envoys are those sent as representatives of another.
property.
2. Admonishing means “gently warning” or “scolding.”
3. Here, mean means “poor,” “inferior,” or “shabby.” Reading Strategy Recognizing Author’s Purpose What
does this statement suggest to you about Emerson’s
Big Idea Kinship with Nature How does Emerson’s purpose?
statement relate nature to his belief in individualism?
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
integrate (intə rāt´) v. to bring all parts together into
perpetual (pər pech¯¯¯
oo əl) adj. lasting forever; eternal a whole
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. (a)Which of Emerson’s ideas do you think are true 5. (a)In this essay, how does Emerson personify, or
in light of your own experience? (b)With which give human traits to nature? (b)Does Emerson’s
ideas do you disagree? personification of nature strengthen or weaken his
arguments? Explain.
Recall and Interpret
6. (a)How does Emerson show his idealism in this
2. (a)What does Emerson say would happen if the
essay? (b)How does idealism affect the theme of
stars appeared only one night in a thousand
Nature?
years? (b)What does his comment suggest about
human nature? 7. Emerson claims that the individual becomes
childlike while immersed in nature. (a)What evi-
3. (a)In Emerson’s view, how do adults and children
dence does he use to support this statement?
differ in the way they view nature? (b)What
(b)Do you agree with this claim? Why or why not?
does Emerson suggest accounts for this
difference? Connect
4. (a)According to Emerson, what effect does the 8. Big Idea Kinship with Nature How do your
experience of nature have on him? (b)What feelings about nature compare with those of
conclusion does he draw from that effect? Emerson?
L I T E R A RY A N A LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
Vocabulary Practice
Writing About Literature
Practice with Synonyms Find the synonym for
Respond to Theme Emerson states, “Nature always each vocabulary word from Nature listed in the first
wears the colors of the spirit.” Write a one-page column. Use a dictionary or a thesaurus if you
response explaining why you agree or disagree with need help.
this statement. Use evidence from this essay and your
personal experience to defend your position. 1. blithe a. happy b. reckless
2. integrate a. dismantle b. synthesize
3. occult a. secret b. unhealthy
4. perennial a. long lasting b. frequent
Web Activities For eFlashcards,
5. perpetual a. unending b. stubborn
Selection Quick Checks, and other Web activities, go to
www.glencoe.com.
B E F O R E YO U R E A D
I read the other day some verses written by an flashes across his mind from within, more
eminent1 painter which were original and than the lustre of the firmament of bards2 and
not conventional. Always the soul hears an sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his
admonition in such lines, let the subject be thought, because it is his. In every work of
what it may. The sentiment they instill is of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts:
more value than any thought they may con- they come back to us with a certain alienated
tain. To believe your own thought, to believe majesty. Great works of art have no more
that what is true for you in your private heart, affecting lesson for us than this. They teach us
is true for all men,—that is genius. Speak your to abide by our spontaneous impression with
latent conviction and it shall be the universal good humored inflexibility then most when
sense; for always the inmost becomes the out- the whole cry of voices is on the other side.
most,—and our first thought is rendered back Else, tomorrow a stranger will say with mas-
to us by the trumpets of the Last Judgment. terly good sense precisely what we have
Familiar as the voice of the mind is to each, thought and felt all the time, and we shall be
the highest merit we ascribe to Moses, Plato, forced to take with shame our own opinion
and Milton is that they set at naught books from another.
and traditions, and spoke not what men, but There is a time in every man’s education
what they thought. A man should learn to when he arrives at the conviction that envy is
detect and watch that gleam of light which ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he
must take himself for better, for worse, as his
1. Eminent means “distinguished” or “prominent.”
portion; that though the wide universe is full
Vocabulary
2. Bards are poets.
admonition (ad mə nish´ ən) n. a warning; cautionary
advice Reading Strategy Drawing Conclusions What does
latent (lā tənt) adj. present but not evident; hidden Emerson mean by this statement?
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. (a)What was your reaction to Emerson’s discussion 5. Emerson uses many religious references through-
of nonconformity? (b)In your experience, how valu- out the essay. (a)Why do you think he does so?
able a trait is the type of nonconformity that (b)How do they affect the essay’s meaning
Emerson recommends? and tone?
6. (a)What kinds of figurative language does Emerson
Recall and Interpret use to describe both society and the individual?
(b)How effective is his use of figurative language?
2. (a)According to Emerson, what is genius? (b)How
does his definition of genius relate to his belief in 7. (a)What parts of Emerson’s essay did you find
individualism? most persuasive? (b)What techniques did he use
to convince you of his arguments?
3. (a)According to Emerson, in what way should a
person approach his or her work? (b)What kind of Connect
“work” do you think he is describing?
8. Big Idea Optimism and Individualism Do you
4. (a)To what does Emerson compare society? think it is possible for people to live as individuals
(b)How does society affect what people value? and nonconformists in modern society? Why or
why not?
LI T E R A RY A N A LYS I S
B EF O R E YO U R E A D
5 The foe long since in silence slept, Spirit! who made those freemen dare
Alike the Conqueror silent sleeps, To die, or leave their children free,
And Time the ruined bridge has swept 15 Bid time and nature gently spare
Down the dark stream which seaward creeps. The shaft we raise to them and Thee.
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. What were your reactions to the poem? 5. (a)A hymn is a song of praise or thanksgiving. What
is Emerson praising or being thankful for in this
Recall and Interpret poem? (b)Do you think this hymn is a fitting dedi-
2. (a)What did the farmers do at the bridge in cation for a war monument? Explain.
Concord? (b)What does the speaker imply about
6. (a)What is the effect of the rhyme and rhythm of
the impact of their activities?
this poem? (b)Do think the use of rhyme is appro-
3. (a)Where are the battle’s participants now? priate to the subject matter? Explain.
(b)What has happened to the bridge?
Connect
4. (a)What wish do the last two lines express?
(b) Why do you think the speaker wishes for this? 7. Big Idea Optimism and Individualism How
does this poem relate to Emerson’s optimism and
belief in the individual?
L I T E R A RY A N A LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
Academic Vocabulary
Literature Groups
Why a Poem? Should Emerson have written a Here are two words from the vocabulary list
speech instead of a poem? Which form do you think on page R86. These words will help you think,
would have been more effective? In your group, dis- write, and talk about the selection.
cuss these questions and use evidence from the
poem to support your ideas. Summarize your ideas communicate (kə mū ni kāt´) v. to pass along
and share them with the class. information or knowledge
period (pēr e əd) n. a division of time
Media Link to
19 t h – C e n t u r y
Optimism
Preview the Article
The Biology of
JOY
Not only did Emerson’s optimism inspire
Scientists know
his writing, it may have helped him live plenty about
longer. New research shows that people depression.
with a positive attitude are more likely to Now they are
lead longer, happier lives.
starting to
1. Analyze the photos of the monk on
understand
page 190 and the babies on page
191. What might these tell you about the roots
the nature of the article? of positive
2. Skim the first paragraph. What emotion.
connection do you think the writer
I
By MICHAEL D. LEMONICK
is going to make between biology
and joy?
T ALL BEGAN WITH RICHARD DAVIDSON, A PROFESSOR OF
psychology and psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin.
Set a Purpose for Reading Davidson was in a lab observing a Buddhist monk sink deep
Read to discover the biological roots of into blissful meditation when he noticed something that sent
positive emotion and to connect the
his own pulse racing. Davidson checked the data streaming to
article’s ideas with the optimism of
his computer from electrodes attached to the monk’s skull. Electrical
Emerson and Thoreau.
activity in the left prefrontal lobe of the monk’s brain was shooting
up at a tremendous rate. “It was exciting,” Davidson recalls. “We
Reading Strategy
didn’t expect to see anything that dramatic.”
Analyzing Cause and Effect Relationships
Cause and effect describes the relationship When Davidson made his to lessen the risk or limit the severity
between an action and its consequence. discovery, he had been studying the of cardiovascular disease, lung
The cause, or action, directly results in the link between prefrontal-lobe activity disease, diabetes, high blood
effect, or consequence. and the bliss deep meditators pressure, and colds. According to a
experience. But even for someone Dutch study of elderly patients,
While you read, record cause-and-effect with his experience, watching the those upbeat mental states reduced
situations presented in “The Biology of brain crackle with activity as a an individual’s risk of death 50%.
Joy” in a chart like the one below. Share person entered a trancelike state Doctors have known for years
your findings with the class. was something never seen before. It that clinical depression—the
made clear, says Davidson, that extreme opposite of happiness—can
Cause Effect happiness isn’t just a vague feeling. worsen heart disease and other
Instead it’s a physical state of the illnesses. But the neurochemistry of
brain—one that you can bring on depression is much better known
deliberately. than that of happiness, mostly
That’s not all. As researchers because depression has been studied
have gained an understanding of more intensively and for much
the physical characteristics of a longer. Until about 10 years ago,
O B J EC TIVES happy brain, they have come to see says Dacher Keltner, a psychologist
• Make connections to text, within text,
that those traits have a powerful at the University of California,
and among texts across the subject areas.
influence on the rest of the body. Berkeley, “90% of emotion research
• Establish a reading vocabulary by identifying
and correctly using new words acquired Scientists have discovered that focused on the negative. There still
through study of their relationship to happiness or feelings of hopefulness, are all of these interesting questions
other words.
optimism, and contentment appear about the positive state.”
• Read for particular information.
Happiness on the Brain predict which infants would cry in back from unpleasant emotions.
A growing number of researchers response to that brief but significant They’re like an exercise to strengthen
exploring the physiology and stress.” our happiness muscles.
neurology of happiness are starting to In short, some babies are just born
answer those questions. Perhaps most happy. But neuroscientists have also The Chemistry of Happiness
basic of all is what happiness is, in a learned that the brain is highly Exactly what is the physical difference,
clinical sense. At this point, nobody adaptable. It rewires itself in response though, between a left prefrontal
can say exactly. The word happiness, to experience, and that’s especially cortex that leans towards happiness
Davidson observes, “is kind of a true before the age of puberty. One and one that doesn’t? It almost
placeholder for a group of positive might assume, therefore, that negative certainly has in part to do with
emotional states. It’s a state of well- experiences might destroy a happy neurotransmitters. These chemicals
being where individuals are usually personality—and if they’re extreme ferry signals from one neuron to the
not motivated to change the way they and frequent enough, that might be next. Davidson believes that one of
are feeling. They’re motivated to true. Davidson has learned, however, these chemicals, dopamine, may be
preserve it.” But, Davidson notes, that mild to moderate doses of significant. Researchers are studying
there is much more that scientists negative experience are helpful. The the relationship of dopamine levels to
must learn about the qualities and reason, he believes, is that stressful feelings of extreme happiness and
effects of happiness in humans. Much events give us practice at bouncing depression.
of that information lies in a part of
the brain called the left prefrontal
cortex, the brain’s major center of
happiness.
Scientists want to know if the
prefrontal cortex creates the
sensation of happiness or whether it
merely reflects a person’s more
general emotional state. Davidson
thinks the answer is both: “We’re
confident that this part of the brain
is the cause of at least certain kinds
of happiness.” That suggests some
people are genetically predisposed to
be happy by virtue of their busy
prefrontal cortexes, and research in
infants confirms it. Davidson first
measured left prefrontal activity in
babies less than a year old. Then he
gave them a test in which their
mothers left the room briefly. “Some James Schnepf for TIME
babies will cry hysterically the instant NIRVANA CHECK
Davidson, right,
the mom leaves,” he says. “Others prepares to record
are more resilient.” It turns out that the brain activity
the babies with the higher left of a Buddhist monk
entering a state of
prefrontal activity are the ones who blissful meditation.
don’t cry. “We were actually able to
Bettmann/Corbis
great pieces of good fortune
what it lacks in that happen but seldom to a
length. man in the course of his life.
be happy
we’d have a
a contrast with
pretty good something that ain’t
time. pleasant.
care of themselves than sad sacks which they were grateful. way,” says Emmons. “They see life
do. Many studies—and common Despite being assigned randomly, as a gift, health as a gift. So they
sense—suggest that to be the case. the last group not only had the want to take certain measures to
In a series of studies begun in predicted jump in their overall preserve it.” Reminding yourself of
1998, psychologist Robert Emmons feelings of happiness, says Emmons, what you’re grateful for is a
of the University of California at but were also found to spend more technique open to anyone, but
Davis has found further evidence time exercising, be more likely to more sophisticated methods of
that happy people are better at have regular medical checkups, and manipulating happiness are
keeping themselves in good shape. routinely take preventive health showing promise as well. Behavior
Emmons randomly assigned 1,000 actions like wearing sunscreen. therapy and medication, for
adults to one of three groups. The Overall, the “gratitude” group were example, are used mostly to fight
first group kept daily journals of promoting better health. “They depression, but they may also be
their moods and rated them on a rate themselves as more energetic, useful in enhancing happiness.
scale of 1 to 6. The second group more enthusiastic, more alert,” Such positive results gratify
did that and listed the things that Emmons reports. In short, keeping happiness scientists. Thanks to
annoyed or hassled them throughout the diaries contributed to their Keltner, Davidson, and others,
their day. The third group kept a physical and emotional well-being. those findings have gained the
journal but added an activity that Not surprisingly, the advantages field a degree of respectability
has repeatedly been shown to were greatest when compared with that’s long overdue—and that
improve one’s sense of satisfaction the group that focused on life’s ultimately could make all of us a
with life: they were asked to write hassles. “People who are grateful whole lot happier.
down every day all the things for tend to view their body a certain –—From TIME, January 17, 2005
R E S P O N D I N G A N D T H I N K I N G C R ITI CALLY
N
ew England socialite, expatriate revolution- opportunities to use their
ary, transcendentalist, author, feminist—all learning. Fuller’s meetings
of these labels describe Margaret Fuller. Born provided an opportunity for
in Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, Fuller received an women to discuss their ideas
extensive education in literature, languages, and the and speak their thoughts
arts from her father, Timothy Fuller Jr., a congress- freely. These meetings gave her
man from Massachusetts. She was a very precocious a formidable reputation, and in
child and continued to educate herself after attend- 1840 she was invited to edit The Dial,
ing several local academies. After her father’s sudden a transcendentalist magazine, in which she published
death in 1835, she became responsible for the educa- her essay “The Great Lawsuit.” She later expanded
tion of her eight younger siblings. this essay into her groundbreaking feminist work,
Woman in the Nineteenth Century. Her book reveals
her extensive knowledge of literature and philosophy.
It gained a wide audience and is an impressive argu-
“When people keep telling you that ment for the equal status of women.
you can’t do a thing, you kind of like
Activism Abroad In 1846 Fuller went to Europe as
to try it.” the first female foreign correspondent for the New
—Margaret Fuller York Tribune. While in Rome, she was involved with
Italian aristocrat and revolutionary Giovanni Angelo
Ossoli and eventually had a child with him. Ossoli
was active in the Risorgimento, a movement to over-
Feminist and Intellectual In 1836, Fuller first throw Rome’s papal state and to unify Italy; Fuller
met Ralph Waldo Emerson (page 178) and stayed at vigorously supported the movement. She felt at home
his house in Concord while he was finishing his in Italy and saw the Risorgimento as an opportunity
essay Nature. On first acquaintance he was uninter- for women and the laboring class to gain freedom
ested in Fuller, put off by what he described as her and human rights. When the 1848 revolution broke
“extreme plainness” and her “trick of opening and out, Fuller volunteered in a hospital and sent vivid
shutting her eyelids” and saying that the two would reports home to the Tribune while Ossoli fought. The
“never get far.” Like many who knew her, however, revolution failed, and in 1850 Fuller and Ossoli fled
he soon changed his opinion and developed great to the United States with their infant son, Angelo.
respect for Fuller. He wrote of Fuller, “she has noble Tragically, their ship sank off the coast of New York,
traits and powers and cannot fail of a permanent and all three were killed.
success.” They became close friends, and Fuller Fuller’s life is well summed up by her memorial in
eventually joined his Transcendentalist Club. Cambridge: “in youth an insatiable student . . . in
In 1839 Fuller moved to Boston and began a series of riper years teacher, writer, critic . . . in maturer age . . .
language classes and formal conversations for women earnest reformer in America and Europe.”
on topics such as literature, education, mythology, and Margaret Fuller was born in 1810 and died in 1850.
philosophy. She was described as a dazzling discussion
leader, and these meetings attracted many intellectu-
als and social activists. Though women were some- Author
Author Search
Search For
For more
more about
about
times taught the same subjects as men, they had few Margaret Fuller,gogototowww.literature.glencoe.com.
Author Name, www.glencoe.com.
Big Idea Optimism and Individualism commensurate (kə men sər it) adj. equal to;
proportionate; p. 197 Our participation in the
As you read, notice how Fuller’s feminism is an exten-
development of this project was commensurate with
sion of Emerson’s belief in the divinity of the individual.
your own.
OB J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • summarizing text
• analyzing literary periods • writing an evaluative essay
• recognizing a thesis statement
19 4 U N IT 2 AMERICAN ROMANTICISM
Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS
Margaret Fuller
Mr. and Mrs. I. N. Phelps Stokes, 1897. John Singer Sargent. Oil on
1. Prerogative means “right.”
canvas, 841/4 x 393/4 in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
2. Here, biased means “influenced.”
Viewing the Art: What do you think of the different attitudes of
the husband and wife portrayed in this painting? How does her Reading Strategy Summarizing Summarize this state-
attitude compare or contrast with Margaret Fuller’s description ment in your own words.
of the role of women in marriage? Explain.
violated, the dignity of halls of legislation degraded, think it impossible for negresses4 to endure field-
by an attempt to introduce them there. Such duties work, even during pregnancy, or for sempstresses5
are inconsistent with those of a mother;” and then to go through their killing labors.
we have ludicrous pictures of ladies in hysterics at As to the use of the pen, there was quite as
the polls, and senate-chambers filled with cradles. much opposition to Woman’s possessing herself
But if, in reply, we admit as truth that Woman of that help to free agency as there is now to her
seems destined by nature rather for the inner cir- seizing on the rostrum6 or the desk; and she is
cle, we must add that the arrangements of civi- likely to draw, from a permission to plead her
lized life have not been, as yet, such as to secure cause that way, opposite inferences to what
it to her. Her circle, if the duller, is not the qui- might be wished by those who now grant it.
eter. If kept from “excitement,” she is not from As to the possibility of her filling with grace and
drudgery. Not only the Indian squaw carries the dignity any such position, we should think those
burdens of the camp, but the favorites of Louis XIV3 who had seen the great actresses, and heard the
accompany him in his journeys, and the washer- Quaker preachers of modern times, would not
woman stands at her tub, and carries home her doubt that Woman can express publicly the fulness
work at all seasons, and in all states of health. of thought and creation, without losing any of the
Those who think the physical circumstances of peculiar beauty of her sex. What can pollute and
Woman would make a part in the affairs of national tarnish is to act thus from any motive except that
government unsuitable, are by no means those who something needs to be said or done. Woman could
take part in the processions, the songs, the dances
3. Louis XIV was the king of France from 1638–1715.
Vocabulary
18. Here, electric means “exciting.”
lot (lot) n. way of life or purpose as determined by fate; 19. Insuperable means “insurmountable.”
fortune
reverence (rev ər əns) n. a feeling of respect or deep Big Idea Optimism and Individualism How is this
affection statement similar to Emerson’s ideas in “Self-Reliance”?
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. Which of Fuller’s arguments do you find most 5. (a)Why do you think Fuller presents opposing view-
convincing? Explain. points throughout the essay? (b)How effective is
her use of this rhetorical device?
Recall and Interpret
6. Fuller makes an analogy between the plight of
2. (a)Fuller says that women are kept from excite-
women and that of enslaved African Americans. Is
ment. In her judgment, what are they not kept
this a valid analogy? Why or why not?
from? (b)Based on this judgment, what can you
infer about the true motives of those opposed to 7. (a)Why do you think Fuller introduces Miranda into
women’s rights? this essay? (b)Does Miranda help advance Fuller’s
arguments? Explain.
3. (a)What are two examples that Fuller gives of
women who fill public positions with “grace and Connect
dignity”? (b)How do these examples strengthen
Fuller’s argument? 8. Big Idea Optimism and Individualism How
does Fuller’s feminism draw on the transcendental-
4. (a)How do men respond to Miranda? (b)What is ist belief in optimism and individualism?
the reason for their response, and what does it
suggest about women’s education?
L I T E R A RY A NA LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
I
N THE MID-1800s, A GROUP OF HIGHLY
popular American writers became known as the
“Fireside Poets” because it was thought that
families often sat by the fire and read or recited their
poems aloud. Eager to help establish a truly national
literature, these poets frequently created vivid pictures
of the New England countryside in their lyrics or of
famous events from American history in their
narrative poems.
R ES P O N D I N G AN D TH I N K I N G C R ITI CALLY
1. What does the speaker in “To the Fringed Gentian” 3. According to the speaker in “Old Ironsides,” what
describe in lines 9–12? What do these lines add to events have taken place on the ship? What does his
your understanding of the speaker’s attitude towards description of these events suggest about his attitude
the gentian? towards Old Ironsides?
2. How does Bryant use personification in lines 13 and 4. In “Old Ironsides,” explain the terms of the metaphor
14? How do these lines relate to the end of the in lines 15–16.
poem?
O B J EC TIVES
• Analyze literary periods • Analyze figurative language
• Draw conclusions about a speaker’s attitudes
from Walden
M E E T H E N RY DAV I D T H O R E AU life occurred in
1845, when he
A
built a cabin on
lthough he is best known for his simple
land that Emerson
lifestyle at Walden Pond, Henry David
owned at Walden
Thoreau was a complex man: opinionated,
Pond near Concord.
cranky, nonconformist, compassionate, and subtly
Thoreau lived there
humorous. He was an unconventional thinker who
for more than two
expressed his ideas about major issues such as war,
years spending most of
slavery, wealth, taxes, friendship, vegetarianism,
his time reading, writing
and the lessons that nature can teach, yet he also
(including his most famous
wrote about topics as simple as hoeing his garden
book, Walden), observing
and walking in the woods. Much of what Thoreau
nature, and meditating.
did, thought about, or saw—and he was a keen
observer—later took the form of a journal entry, Thoreau was deeply affected by his brother’s
an essay, or part of a book. death in 1842, and three years later decided to
write an account of a camping and canoeing
Thoreau was born in Concord, Massachusetts,
trip they had taken, referring to notes he had
and lived there most of his life. He graduated
made along the way. The account became his
from Harvard University in 1837 and took a
first book, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack
teaching job at his old grammar school. However,
Rivers, written during his time at Walden Pond
he refused to physically discipline his students and
and published in 1849. The publisher returned
quickly resigned. Thoreau founded a progressive
the unsold copies, prompting Thoreau to later
school with his brother John in Concord the
observe, “I now have a library of nearly nine
next year. Although the school was successful,
hundred volumes, over seven hundred of which
it had to close in 1841 because of his brother’s
I wrote myself.”
poor health.
Thoreau’s most famous book, Walden, or, Life in the
Woods, was first published in 1854 and over time
has become a classic. In Walden we learn what
“In Wildness is the preservation of Thoreau considered most important in life. For
the world.” example, he thought that most people spend too
much time working to afford luxuries and do not
—Thoreau, Walking take time to truly experience life. Walden also
reflects a changing New England and Thoreau’s
response to industrialization. Most importantly,
through Walden and his other works, Thoreau
Life in the Woods While at Harvard, Thoreau helped inspire a long tradition of nature writing in
was influenced by the works of Ralph Waldo the United States. He remains an inspiration for
Emerson, and the two men became friends. From environmentalists everywhere.
1841 to 1843, Thoreau lived with the Emerson
Henry David Thoreau was born in 1817 and died
family, assisting as a handyman. During this time
in 1862.
he contributed a variety of works to The Dial, a
Transcendentalist magazine, including poetry,
literary essays, and the first of his nature essays. Author Search For more about
The act that probably most changed Thoreau’s Henry David Thoreau, go to www.glencoe.com.
Setting Purposes for Reading myriad (mir ē əd) adj. countless, innumera-
ble; p. 205 There were myriad efforts to
Big Idea Kinship with Nature improve society during the Age of Reform.
As you read, look for the ways in which Thoreau stresses
the importance of a close relationship with nature. Vocabulary Tip: Context Clues When you
come across an unfamiliar word, examine its
context—the surrounding words and sentences—
Literary Element Metaphor
for clues to its meaning. One familiar type of
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares or context clue, known as contrast, provides a
equates two seemingly unlike things. In contrast to a word or phrase that is opposite in meaning to
simile, a metaphor implies the comparison instead of the unfamiliar word, as in the following example:
stating it directly, and does not use the connectives like “One is enough . . . what do you care for a
or as. For example, Thoreau uses the metaphor “this myriad” (p. 205).
chopping sea of civilized life” to suggest the perils and
difficulties of modern living. As you read, identify other
metaphors that Thoreau uses to convey his ideas.
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • connecting to personal experience
• analyzing literary periods • analyzing metaphors
indispensable as the breakfast. “Pray tell me any Literary Element Metaphor What comparison is Thoreau
making here?
Big Idea Kinship with Nature Why does Thoreau make Big Idea Kinship with Nature How would you compare
this comment about the relationship between people and this suggestion with Thoreau’s comments in the chapter
nature? “Where I Lived and What I Lived For”?
RESP ON DI NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. With which of Thoreau’s ideas do you strongly 5. (a)How does Thoreau characterize the animals he
agree? With which ideas do you strongly disagree? observes? (b)Do you agree with his observations?
Recall and Interpret 6. (a)Why does Thoreau insist that people need to
simplify their lives? (b)Is he a credible speaker on
2. (a)What did Thoreau hope to do at Walden?
this topic? Explain.
(b)How could being at Walden help him achieve
his goal? 7. (a)What is Thoreau’s central message in Walden?
(b)Does Thoreau’s decision to leave Walden affect
3. (a) What are Thoreau’s views of the news and the
your evaluation of his message?
mail? (b)What do these views tell you about his
values? Connect
4. (a)Summarize the battle between the ants that 8. Big Idea Kinship with Nature (a)What does
Thoreau describes. (b)Why do you think he Thoreau learn at Walden? (b)What role does
becomes so fascinated with this battle? nature play in what he learns?
Mohandas K. Gandhi
On the Eve of Historic
Dandi March ..................................................................... speech .................. 218
Nonviolent resistance—a tool for social justice
India, 1930
Nelson Mandela
from Long Walk to Freedom ..................... autobiography ................220
A society transformed through sacrifice and commitment
South Africa, 1994
H E NRY D AV I D T HO R E AU 211
Henry David Thoreau
I heartily accept the motto, “That government This American government—what is it but a tra-
is best which governs least”; and I should like to dition, though a recent one, endeavoring to trans-
see it acted up to more rapidly and systemati- mit itself unimpaired to posterity,2 but each instant
cally. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, losing some of its integrity? It has not the vitality
which also I believe—“That government is best and force of a single living man; for a single man
which governs not at all”; and when men are can bend it to his will. It is a sort of wooden gun to
prepared for it, that will be the kind of govern- the people themselves. But it is not the less neces-
ment which they will have. Government is at sary for this; for the people must have some compli-
best but an expedient;1 but most governments cated machinery or other, and hear its din, to satisfy
are usually, and all governments are sometimes, that idea of government which they have. Govern-
inexpedient. The objections which have been ments show thus how successfully men can be
brought against a standing army, and they are imposed on, even impose on themselves, for their
many and weighty, and deserve to prevail, may own advantage. It is excellent, we must all allow. Yet
also at last be brought against a standing gov- this government never of itself furthered any enter-
ernment. The standing army is only an arm of prise, but by the alacrity with which it got out of its
the standing government. The government way. It does not keep the country free. It does not
itself, which is only the mode which the people settle the West. It does not educate. The character
have chosen to execute their will, is equally lia- inherent in the American people has done all that
ble to be abused and perverted before the peo- has been accomplished; and it would have done
ple can act through it. Witness the present somewhat more, if the government had not some-
Mexican war, the work of comparatively a few times got in its way. For government is an expedient
individuals using the standing government as by which men would fain3 succeed in letting one
their tool; for, in the outset, the people would another alone; and, as has been said, when it is
not have consented to this measure.
2. Posterity means “future generations.”
3. Fain means “gladly” or “willingly.”
1. Expedient means “something employed to bring about a
desired result; a means to an end.” Vocabulary
H E N RY D AV I D TH O R EAU 213
The Pierpont Morgan Library/Art Resource, NY
I have paid no poll-tax7 for six years. I was body, his senses. It is not armed with superior wit
put into a jail once on this account, for one or honesty, but with superior physical strength. I
night; and, as I stood considering the walls of was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my
solid stone, two or three feet thick, the door own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest.
of wood and iron, a foot thick, and the iron What force has a multitude? They only can force
grating which strained the light, I could not me who obey a higher law than I. They force me
help being struck with the foolishness of that to become like themselves. I do not hear of men
institution which treated me as if I were mere being forced to live this way or that by masses of
flesh and blood and bones, to be locked up. I men. What sort of life were that to live? When I
wondered that it should have concluded at meet a government which says to me, “Your
length that this was the best use it could put money or your life,” why should I be in haste to
me to, and had never thought to avail itself of give it my money? It may be in a great strait, and
my services in some way. I saw that, if there not know what to do: I cannot help that. It must
was a wall of stone between me and my towns- help itself; do as I do. It is not worth the while to
men, there was a still more difficult one to snivel about it. I am not responsible for the suc-
climb or break through, before they could get cessful working of the machinery of society.
to be as free as I was. I did not for a moment I am not the son of the engineer. I perceive that,
feel confined, and the walls seemed a great
waste of stone and mortar. I felt as if I alone
of all my townsmen had paid my tax. They They only can force
plainly did not know how to treat me, but
behaved like persons who are underbred. In me who obey a
every threat and in every compliment there was higher law than I.
a blunder; for they thought that my chief desire
was to stand the other side of that stone wall. I
could not but smile to see how industriously they when an acorn and a chestnut fall side by side,
locked the door on my meditations, which fol- the one does not remain inert to make way for
lowed them out again without let8 or hindrance, the other, but both obey their own laws, and
and they were really all that was dangerous. As spring and grow and flourish as best they can, till
they could not reach me, they had resolved to one, perchance, overshadows and destroys the
punish my body; just as boys, if they cannot other. If a plant cannot live according to its
come at some person against whom they have a nature, it dies; and so a man.
spite, will abuse his dog. I saw that the State was The night in prison was novel and interesting
half-witted, that it was timid as a lone woman enough. The prisoners in their shirt-sleeves were
with her silver spoons, and that it did not know enjoying a chat and the evening air in the doorway,
its friends from its foes, and I lost all my remain- when I entered. But the jailer said, “Come, boys, it
ing respect for it, and pitied it. is time to lock up”; and so they dispersed, and I
Thus the State never intentionally confronts a heard the sound of their steps returning into the
man’s sense, intellectual or moral, but only his hollow apartments. My room-mate was introduced
to me by the jailer as “a first-rate fellow and a clever
man.” When the door was locked, he showed me
7. A poll tax, now illegal, was a tax on people (not property).
Payment was often required in order to vote.
where to hang my hat, and how he managed mat-
8. Here, let means “an obstruction” or “an obstacle.” ters there. The rooms were whitewashed once a
month; and this one, at least, was the whitest, most
Big Idea Optimism and Individualism Why does simply furnished, and probably the neatest apart-
Thoreau believe he is freer than his “townsmen”?
ment in the town. He naturally wanted to know
where I came from, and what brought me there;
Vocabulary
and, when I had told him, I asked him in my turn
blunder (blun dər) n. a serious error or mistake result- how he came there, presuming him to be an honest
ing from carelessness or confusion
man, of course; and, as the world goes, I believe he
was. “Why,” said he, “they accuse me of burning a there, and examined where former prisoners
barn; but I never did it.” As near as I could discover, had broken out, and where a grate had been
he had probably gone to bed in a barn when drunk, sawed off, and heard the history of the various
and smoked his pipe there; and so a barn was burnt. occupants of that room; for I found that even
He had the reputation of being a clever man, had here there was a history and a gossip which
been there some three months waiting for his trial never circulated beyond the walls of the jail.
to come on, and would have to wait as much lon- Probably this is the only house in the town
ger; but he was quite domesticated and contented, where verses are composed, which are afterward
since he got his board for nothing, and thought that printed in a circular form, but not published. I
he was well treated. was shown quite a long list of verses which were
He occupied one window, and I the other; composed by some young men who had been
and I saw that if one stayed there long, his prin- detected in an attempt to escape, who avenged
cipal business would be to look out the window. themselves by singing them.
I had soon read all the tracts9 that were left I pumped my fellow-prisoner as dry as I could,
for fear I should never see him again; but at length
9. Tracts are leaflets or pamphlets, especially those on religious he showed me which was my bed, and left me to
or political topics. blow out the lamp. It was like traveling into a far
H E N RY D AV I D TH O R EAU 215
George Caleb Bingham/Private Collection/Bridgeman Art Library
country, such as I had never expected to behold, and emerged a tottering and gray-headed man;
to lie there for one night. It seemed to me that I and yet a change had to my eyes come over the
never had heard the town-clock strike before, nor scene—the town, and State, and country—greater
the evening sounds of the village; for we slept than any that mere time could effect. I saw yet
with the windows open, which were inside the more distinctly the State in which I lived. . . .
grating. It was to see my native village in the light The authority of government, even such as I
of the Middle Ages, and our Concord was turned am willing to submit to—for I will cheerfully
obey those who know and can do better than I,
and in many things even those who neither
know nor can do so well—is still an impure one:
I saw yet more to be strictly just, it must have the sanction and
distinctly the State consent of the governed. It can have no pure
in which I lived. right over my person and property but what I
concede to it. The progress from an absolute to a
limited monarchy, from a limited monarchy to a
democracy, is a progress toward a true respect for
into a Rhine10 stream, and visions of knights and
the individual. Even the Chinese philosopher14
castles passed before me. They were the voices of
was wise enough to regard the individual as the
old burghers11 that I heard in the streets. I was an
basis of the empire. Is a democracy, such as we
involuntary spectator and auditor12 of whatever
know it, the last improvement possible in gov-
was done and said in the kitchen of the adjacent
ernment? Is it not possible to take a step further
village-inn—a wholly new and rare experience to
towards recognizing and organizing the rights of
me. It was a closer view of my native town. I was
man? There will never be a really free and
fairly inside of it. I never had seen its institutions
enlightened State until the State comes to recog-
before. This is one of its peculiar institutions; for
nize the individual as a higher and independent
it is a shire town.13 I began to comprehend what
power, from which all its own power and author-
its inhabitants were about.
ity are derived, and treats him accordingly. I
In the morning, our breakfasts were put
please myself with imagining a State at least
through the hole in the door, in small oblong-
which can afford to be just to all men, and to
square tin pans, made to fit, and holding a pint
treat the individual with respect as a neighbor;
of chocolate, with brown bread, and an iron
which even would not think it inconsistent with
spoon. When they called for the vessels again, I
its own repose15 if a few were to live aloof from it,
was green enough to return what bread I had left;
not meddling with it, nor embraced by it, who
but my comrade seized it, and said that I should
fulfilled all the duties of neighbors and fellow-
lay that up for lunch or dinner. Soon after he was
men. A State which bore this kind of fruit, and
let out to work at haying in a neighboring field,
suffered it to drop off as fast as it ripened, would
whither he went every day, and would not be
prepare the way for a still more perfect and glori-
back till noon; so he bade me good-day, saying
ous State, which also I have imagined, but not
that he doubted if he should see me again.
yet anywhere seen.
When I came out of prison—for some one
interfered, and paid that tax—I did not perceive
that great changes had taken place on the com- 14. The Chinese philosopher is Confucius (c. 551–479 B.C.)
15. Here, repose refers to the state’s “peace of mind.”
mon, such as he observed who went in a youth
Big Idea Optimism and Individualism What type of
freedom does Thoreau desire?
10. Concord refers to the Concord River. The Rhine River flows
through Germany and the Netherlands.
11. Burghers is a term for inhabitants of a city. Vocabulary
12. Here, auditor means “someone who hears,” or “a listener.” sanction (sank shən) n. approval or support
13. A shire town, or county town, is similar to a county seat.
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. What was your reaction to Thoreau’s opinion on 5. How does Thoreau’s perspective change when he
disobeying the government? is released from prison?
Recall and Interpret 6. How does the fact that Thoreau spent only one
night in jail affect your evaluation of his opinions?
2. (a)Why was Thoreau jailed? (b)What does this tell
you about Thoreau’s beliefs? 7. (a)How do you evaluate Thoreau’s criticism of
democracy? (b)Is it accurate; is it fair? (c)Cite
3. (a)Why is Thoreau’s cellmate in prison? (b)What
evidence from the story to support your opinion.
does Thoreau presume about his cellmate’s
conviction? Connect
4. (a)How does Thoreau react to his night in 8. Big Idea Optimism and Individualism (a)What
jail? (b)What does this say about his personality? do you think are some essential qualities for an
individual who wishes to reform society or the
government? (b)Which of these qualities does
Thoreau possess?
H E NRY D AV I D T HO R E AU 217
Mohandas K. Gandhi
B EF O R E YO U R E A D
Building Background
Known as Mahatma, or “Great-Souled,” Mohandas K. Gandhi’s “salt march” in 1930 protested the salt
Gandhi led the movement against British rule in early monopoly, which required Indians to buy taxed salt
twentieth-century India. From his devout mother he from the British government. To demonstrate
learned the Hindu principle of ahimsa, or noninjury to opposition to British economic control, marchers to the
all life. Like his father he prepared for a government post. Arabian Sea defied British law by extracting salt from
After law school in England, he moved to South Africa, seawater.
where he helped lead the struggle against Indian
discrimination. After returning to India in 1914, Gandhi
led the opposition to British control. His method was
based on satyagraha—“truth persistence”—non-violent Author Search For more about
resistance to injustice. Mohandas K. Gandhi, go to www.glencoe.com.
In all probability this will be my last speech to you. But let there be not a semblance of breach of
Even if the Government allow me to march tomor- peace even after all of us have been arrested. We
row morning, this will be my last speech on the have resolved to utilize all our resources in the pur-
sacred banks of the Sabarmati.1 Possibly these may suit of an exclusively nonviolent struggle. Let no
be the last words of my life here. one commit a wrong in anger. This is my hope and
I have already told you yesterday what I had to prayer. I wish these words of mine reached every
say. Today I shall confine myself to what you should nook and corner of the land. My task shall be done
do after my companions and I are arrested. The pro- if I perish and so do my comrades. It will then be for
gram2 of the march to Jalalpur3 must be fulfilled as the Working Committee of the Congress5 to show
originally settled. The enlistment of the volunteers you the way and it will be up to you to follow its
for this purpose should be confined to Gujarat4 only. lead. So long as I have not reached Jalalpur, let
From what I have seen and heard during the last nothing be done in contravention to the authority
fortnight, I am inclined to believe that the stream vested in me by the Congress. But once I am
of civil resisters will flow unbroken. arrested, the whole responsibility shifts to the
Congress. No one who believes in nonviolence, as
1. The Sabarmati is a river in western India.
2. Here, program means “mission.”
3. Jalalpur, a city in India, was the last stop on Gandhi’s 5. By Congress, Gandhi is referring to the Indian National
march to Dandi. Congress, a political party led by Gandhi in the 1920s
4. Gujarat is a state in western India. and 1930s.
M O H A N D A S K . GAN DH I 219
Nelson Mandela
B EF O R E YO U R E A D
Building Background
From prisoner to president of South Africa, Nelson favor of supporting acts of sabotage against
Mandela was one of the political miracles of the the government. In 1962 he was jailed and,
twentieth century. Born the son of an African tribal chief after a widely publicized trial, was sentenced to
in 1918, Mandela passed up his right to chieftainship to life in prison in 1964.Author
Over Search
the years,
For Mandela
more about
study law, starting a firm with fellow reformer Oliver became
Author thegoworld’s
Name, best-known political prisoner,
to www.literature.glencoe.com.
Tambo. In 1944 he became a leader in the African gaining international support in his fight against
National Congress (ANC), a political party that opposed apartheid.
apartheid, South Africa’s policy of racial segregation.
After a massacre of unarmed Africans in 1960, Author Search For more about
Mandela dropped his nonviolent reform method in Nelson Mandela, go to www.glencoe.com.
May 10 dawned bright and clear. For the past the seat of white supremacy, and now it was the
few days, I had been pleasantly besieged by site of a rainbow gathering of different colors and
arriving dignitaries1 and world leaders who were nations for the installation of South Africa’s first
coming to pay their respects before the inaugu- democratic, nonracial government.
ration.2 The inauguration would be the largest On that lovely autumn day I was accompanied
gathering ever of international leaders on South by my daughter Zenani. On the podium, Mr. de
African soil. Klerk4 was first sworn in as second deputy presi-
The ceremonies took place in the lovely dent. Then Thabo Mbeki5 was sworn in as first
sandstone amphitheater formed by the Union deputy president. When it was my turn, I
Buildings in Pretoria.3 For decades, this had been pledged to obey and uphold the constitution and
1. Dignitaries are people who hold a rank of dignity, or honor. 4. F. W. de Klerk served as president of South Africa from 1989
2. An inauguration is a ceremonial induction into office, or a to 1994.
formal beginning. 5. Thabo Mbeki is a politician who became the president of
3. Pretoria is the administrative capital of South Africa. South Africa in 1999.
N EL SO N M A ND ELA 221
Louise Gubb/CORBIS SABA
other days, that I was simply the sum of all those comes more naturally to the human heart than
African patriots who had gone before me. That its opposite. Even in the grimmest times in
long and noble line ended and now began again prison, when my comrades and I were pushed to
with me. I was pained that I was not able to our limits, I would see a glimmer of humanity in
thank them and that they were not able to see one of the guards, perhaps just for a second, but
what their sacrifices had wrought.11 it was enough to reassure me and keep me going.
The policy of apartheid created a deep and Man’s goodness is a flame that can be hidden but
lasting wound in my country and my people. All never extinguished.
of us will spend many years, if not generations, We took up the struggle with our eyes wide
recovering from that profound hurt. But the open, under no illusion that the path would be
decades of oppression and brutality had another, an easy one. As a young man, when I joined the
unintended effect, and that was that it produced African National Congress,13 I saw the price my
the Oliver Tambos, the Walter Sisulus, the Chief comrades paid for their beliefs, and it was high.
Luthulis, the Yusuf Dadoos, the Bram Fischers, For myself, I have never regretted my commit-
the Robert Sobukwes12 of our time—men of such ment to the struggle, and I was always prepared
extraordinary courage, wisdom, and generosity to face the hardships that affected me personally.
that their like may never be known again. But my family paid a terrible price, perhaps too
Perhaps it requires such depth of oppression to dear a price for my commitment.
create such heights of character. My country is In life, every man has twin obligations—obli-
rich in the minerals and gems that lie beneath its gations to his family, to his parents, to his wife
soil, but I have always known that its greatest and children; and he has an obligation to his
wealth is its people, finer and truer than the pur- people, his community, his country. In a civil
est diamonds. and humane society, each man is able to fulfill
It is from these comrades in the struggle that I those obligations according to his own inclina-
learned the meaning of courage. Time and again, tions and abilities. But in a country like South
I have seen men and women risk and give their Africa, it was almost impossible for a man of my
lives for an idea. I have seen men stand up to birth and color to fulfill both of those obliga-
attacks and torture without breaking, showing a tions. In South Africa, a man of color who
strength and resiliency that defies the imagina- attempted to live as a human being was punished
tion. I learned that courage was not the absence and isolated. In South Africa, a man who tried
of fear, but the triumph over it. I felt fear myself to fulfill his duty to his people was inevitably
more times than I can remember, but I hid it ripped from his family and home and was forced
behind a mask of boldness. The brave man is not to live a life apart, a twilight existence of secrecy
he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers and rebellion. I did not in the beginning choose
that fear. to place my people above my family, but in
I never lost hope that this great transforma- attempting to serve my people, I found that I was
tion would occur. Not only because of the great prevented from fulfilling my obligations as a son,
heroes I have already cited, but because of the a brother, a father, and a husband.
courage of the ordinary men and women of my In that way, my commitment to my people, to
country. I always knew that deep down in every the millions of South Africans I would never
human heart, there is mercy and generosity. No know or meet, was at the expense of the people I
one is born hating another person because of the knew best and loved most. It was as simple and
color of his skin, or his background, or his reli- yet as incomprehensible as the moment a small
gion. People must learn to hate, and if they can child asks her father, “Why can you not be with
learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love us?” And the father must utter the terrible words:
“There are other children like you, a great many
of them . . .” and then one’s voice trails off.
11. Here, wrought means “made.”
12. The people Mandela refers to—Tambo, Sisulu, Luthuli,
Dadoo, Fischer, and Sobukwe—are fellow South African 13. The African National Congress (ANC) is a South African
reformers and opponents of apartheid. political party founded by blacks in 1912.
N EL SO N M A ND ELA 223
Wrap-up: Comparing Literature Across Time and Place
1. What is each writer’s main message or philosophical assumption? What objections might
some readers raise to the viewpoints presented?
2. What is the historical context that shapes each writer’s message?
3. Evaluate the effectiveness of each writer’s argument for both friendly and hostile audiences.
Which writer best succeeds at stating his case? Why?
4. Which of the reading selections challenged you to think in a new way? Explain.
OB J EC TIVES
• Compare and contrast authors’ messages • Analyze historical content • Evaluate argument
224 U N IT 2 AMERICAN ROMANTICISM
David Turnley/CORBIS
PART
–-----––
The Fog Warning, 1885. Winslow Homer. Oil on canvas. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
225
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
LITER ARY H I STORY
A
S THE AMERICAN NOVELIST
and critic Henry James observed,
“It takes a great deal of history to
produce a little literature.” At the beginning
of the 1800s, the United States was still a very
young country. American writers of the time
were painfully conscious of the lack of a native
literary tradition. This was particularly true in
the area of fiction.
Dominated by Puritanism, early American
culture had no place for made-up stories
created largely for entertainment. This
attitude toward fiction lingered for a long
time. It was not until the period of American
Romanticism that Washington Irving,
Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Edgar Allan Poe
laid the foundations of the American short
story. In the process, they created literary The Headless Horseman Pursuing Ichabod Crane, 1858. John Quidor.
Oil on canvas. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC.
forms and ideas about how to write short
stories that remain important today.
R ES P O N D I N G AN D TH I N K I N G C R ITI CALLY
1. What was the attitude of readers in early American 3. What were Poe’s important innovations in literary
culture toward fiction? Why do you think early form? Explain how these innovations can be seen in
American readers had this attitude? literature today.
2. What materials did Irving use as the basis of his 4. Compare and contrast Poe’s and Hawthorne’s attitudes
fiction? How did he use these materials? toward literary theory and practice. Name one literary
achievement that each author is famous for today.
O B J EC T IVES
• Analyze historical context. • Compare and contrast literary techniques.
N
amed after his country’s first president,
Washington Irving won the battle for
America’s literary independence. He was
the first American storyteller to be internation-
ally recognized as a man of letters. The English
novelist William Makepeace Thackeray summed
up this accomplishment when he called Irving
“the first Ambassador from the New World of
Letters to the Old.”
During his time away from writing, Irving held a
Lawyer and Writer The youngest of eleven chil- variety of jobs. He traveled often, eventually moving
dren, Irving was born in New York City to a to Europe to manage his brother’s business interests.
wealthy family with strict moral values. Though In 1818, after the family business went bankrupt,
Irving had little formal education, he took an early Irving resumed writing.
interest in the study of law, later working in the
International Acclaim The Sketch Book of
law office of Josiah Ogden Hoffman. He soon fell
Geoffrey Crayon, Gent (1819–1820) established
in love with Hoffman’s daughter Matilda, and the
his literary reputation in Europe. The book included
couple were engaged.
two stories that were to become classics, “The
But his interest in law began to dwindle, and in 1802 Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle.”
he started to write, publishing a series of satirical Irving borrowed the plots of these stories from two
essays in a New York newspaper. He soon began to traditional German folktales before placing them in
publish a series of periodical essays called Salmagundi. the Hudson Valley setting. Irving’s ability to blend
The essays were witty sketches that poked fun at European sophistication with American flavor is the
everything from Thomas Jefferson’s politics to the most distinctive characteristic of his writing.
latest fashions. The success of Salmagundi steered
After several years in London, Paris, and Madrid,
Irving away from law and toward writing.
Irving returned to the United States. There, he
continued writing—travel books, histories, biogra-
Success and Heartbreak In 1809, under the
phies of Columbus and Washington, and more
pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker, he published
tales and sketches.
his most popular work, Knickerbocker’s A History
of New York from the Beginning of the World to the Irving’s enormous popularity at home and abroad
End of the Dutch Dynasty. A History was a humor- earned him recognition as the father of American let-
ous, tongue-in-cheek combination of history, folk- ters. His stories featured distinctively American set-
lore, and opinion that delighted readers with tings and character types. He influenced a broad
hilarious sketches of the customs, manners, and range of authors—from Romantics, such as Nathaniel
families of old New York. That same year, how- Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe, to regionalist writ-
ever, Irving’s fiancée, Matilda Hoffman, died sud- ers, such as Mark Twain and William Faulkner.
denly of tuberculosis. Overwhelmed by grief, Irving Washington Irving was born in 1783 and died in 1859.
put his writing career on hold. He later reflected
that he considered this period the darkest of his
life. Haunted perpetually by the memory of his lost Author Search For more about
fiancée, Irving was never to marry. Washington Irving, go to www.glencoe.com.
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • analyzing literary periods
• making predictions
• understanding characterization and archetypes
A few miles from Boston, in Massachusetts, there is the woman could lay hands on she hid away; a
a deep inlet, winding several miles into the interior hen could not cackle but she was on the alert to
of the country from Charles Bay, and terminating secure the new laid egg. Her husband was contin-
in a thickly wooded swamp or morass. On one side ually prying about to detect her secret hoards, and
of this inlet is a beautiful dark grove; on the oppo- many and fierce were the conflicts that took place
site side the land rises abruptly from the water’s about what ought to have been common property.
edge into a high ridge, on which grow a few scat- They lived in a forlorn-looking house that stood
tered oaks of great age and immense size. alone and had an air of starvation. A few strag-
Under one of these gigantic trees, according to gling savin trees, emblems of sterility, grew near it;
old stories, there was a great amount of treasure no smoke ever curled from its chimney, no trav-
buried by Kidd the pirate. The inlet allowed a facil- eler stopped at its door. A miserable horse, whose
ity to bring the money in a boat, secretly and at ribs were as articulate as the bars of a gridiron,
night, to the very foot of the hill; the elevation of stalked about a field where a thin carpet of moss,
the place permitted a good lookout to be kept that scarcely covering the ragged beds of pudding
no one was at hand; while the remarkable trees stone,1 tantalized and balked his hunger; and
formed good landmarks by which the place might sometimes he would lean his head over the fence,
easily be found again. The old stories add, more- look piteously at the passer-by, and seem to peti-
over, that the devil presided at the hiding of the tion deliverance from this land of famine.
money, and took it under his guardianship; but this, The house and its inmates had altogether a bad
it is well known, he always does with buried trea- name. Tom’s wife was a tall termagant,2 fierce of
sure, particularly when it has been ill gotten. Be temper, loud of tongue, and strong of arm. Her
that as it may, Kidd never returned to recover his voice was often heard in wordy warfare with her
wealth, being shortly after seized at Boston, sent husband, and his face sometimes showed signs
out to England, and there hanged for a pirate. that their conflicts were not confined to words.
About the year 1727, just at the time that No one ventured, however, to interfere between
earthquakes were prevalent in New England and them. The lonely wayfarer shrunk within himself
shook many tall sinners down upon their knees, at the horrid clamor and clapperclawing,3 eyed
there lived near this place a meager, miserly fel- the den of discord askance, and hurried on his
low, of the name of Tom Walker. He had a wife as way, rejoicing, if a bachelor, in his celibacy.
miserly as himself; they were so miserly that they
even conspired to cheat each other. Whatever
1. Pudding stone is a rock consisting of pebbles and gravel
embedded in cement, like plums in a pudding.
Literary Element Characterization What does this detail 2. A termagant is a quarrelsome, scolding woman.
tell you about Tom Walker and his wife? 3. Clapperclawing is scratching or clawing with the fingernails.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
discord (dis kord) n. lack of agreement or harmony;
prevalent (prev ə lent) adj. widespread conflict
Vocabulary
Reading Strategy Making and Verifying Predictions
What purpose might this fort serve in the story? What clues melancholy (mel ən kol´ē) adj. depressing; dismal;
lead you to this prediction? gloomy
swamp, and seemed, as Tom said, to go down, cares!” He now felt convinced that all he had heard
down, down into the earth, until nothing but and seen was no illusion.
his head and shoulders could be seen, and so He was not prone to let his wife into his confi-
on, until he totally disappeared. dence, but as this was an uneasy secret he willingly
When Tom reached home he found the black shared it with her. All her avarice was awakened at
print of a finger burned, as it were, into his fore- the mention of hidden gold, and she urged her hus-
head, which nothing could obliterate. band to comply with the black man’s terms, and
The first news his wife had to tell him was the secure what would make them wealthy for life.
sudden death of Absalom Crowninshield, the rich However Tom might have felt disposed to sell him-
buccaneer. It was announced in the papers with the self to the devil, he was determined not to do so to
usual flourish, that a great man had fallen in Israel.13 oblige his wife, so he flatly refused, out of the mere
Tom recollected the tree which his black friend spirit of contradiction. Many and bitter were the
had just hewn down, and which was ready for burn- quarrels they had on the subject, but the more she
ing. “Let the freebooter14 roast,” said Tom; “who
talked the more resolute was Tom not to be damned night elapsed, another morning came, but no wife.
to please her. In a word, she was never heard of more.
At length she determined to drive the bargain on What was her real fate nobody knows, in
her own account, and, if she succeeded, to keep all consequence of so many pretending to know.
the gain to herself. Being of the same fearless tem- It is one of those facts which have become
per as her husband, she set off for the old Indian fort confounded by a variety of historians. Some
towards the close of a summer’s day. She was many asserted that she lost her way among the tan-
hours absent. When she came back she was reserved gled mazes of the swamp, and sank into some
and sullen in her replies. She spoke something of a pit or slough; others, more uncharitable,
black man whom she had met about twilight hew- hinted that she had eloped with the house-
ing at the root of a tall tree. He was sulky, however, hold booty,15 and made off to some other
and would not come to terms; she was to go again province; while others surmised that the
with a propitiatory offering, but what it was she for- tempter had decoyed her into a dismal quag-
bore to say. mire, on the top of which her hat was found
The next evening she set off again for the lying. In confirmation of this it was said a
swamp, with her apron heavily laden. Tom waited great black man, with an ax on his shoulder,
and waited for her, but in vain; midnight came, but was seen late that very evening coming out of
she did not make her appearance; morning, noon, the swamp, carrying a bundle tied in a check
night returned, but still she did not come. Tom now apron, with an air of surly triumph.
grew uneasy for her safety, especially as he found she The most current and probable story, how-
had carried off in her apron the silver teapot and ever, observes that Tom Walker grew so anx-
spoons and every portable article of value. Another ious about the fate of his wife and his property
that he set out at length to seek them both at
the Indian fort. During a long summer’s afternoon
Reading Strategy Making and Verifying Predictions
What do you think has happened to Tom’s wife?
15. Booty is stolen goods.
groaned and screeched on the axletrees you traveling Zionward,28 were struck with self-reproach
would have thought you heard the souls of the poor at seeing themselves so suddenly outstripped in their
debtors he was squeezing. career by this new-made convert. Tom was as rigid
As Tom waxed old, however, he grew thoughtful. in religious, as in money, matters; he was a stern
Having secured the good things of this world, he supervisor and censurer of his neighbors, and
began to feel anxious about those of the next. He seemed to think every sin entered up to their
thought with regret on the bargain he had made account became a credit on his own side of the
with his black friend, and set his wits to work to page. He even talked of the expediency of reviving
cheat him out of the conditions. He became, there- the persecution of Quakers and Anabaptists. In a
fore, all of a sudden, a violent churchgoer. He word, Tom’s zeal became as notorious as his riches.
prayed loudly and strenuously, as if heaven were to Still, in spite of all this strenuous attention to
be taken by force of lungs. Indeed, one might always forms, Tom had a lurking dread that the devil, after
tell when he had sinned most during the week by all, would have his due. That he might not be taken
the clamor of his Sunday devotion. The quiet unawares, therefore, it is said he always carried a
Christians who had been modestly and steadfastly small Bible in his coat pocket. He had also a great
folio Bible on his countinghouse desk, and would
frequently be found reading it when people called
Reading Strategy Making and Verifying Predictions
Do you think Tom will succeed in cheating the devil?
28. Zionward means “toward heaven.”
Literary Element Characterization How does this state- Big Idea The Power of Darkness What is the effect of
ment develop Tom’s character? including details of the thunderstorm?
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. (a)What was your reaction to Tom Walker at the 6. (a)The narrator often uses disclaimers by saying
beginning of the story? (b)Did your opinion of him “people said” or “it is said.” Why might Irving have
change by the end? used this tactic? (b)How trustworthy does the nar-
rator appear to be?
Recall and Interpret 7. What can you infer about the narrator’s attitude
toward money and human greed?
2. (a)How does Tom react to the devil and his offer?
(b)What does this tell you about Tom? 8. Satire is a form of writing that uses humor as a
way of criticizing someone or something. (a)In
3. (a)What kind of person is Tom’s wife? (b)How does
what ways is this story a satire? (b)Do you agree
she contribute to Tom’s agreement with the devil?
with Irving’s implied criticisms?
4. (a)What eventually happens to Tom’s wife?
(b)Which version of what happened to her does Connect
the narrator want the readers to believe? Explain. 9. Big Idea The Power of Darkness Irving wrote
5. (a)What finally happens to Tom Walker? (b)How “The Devil and Tom Walker” when Puritanism was
do you interpret what happens to his possessions? fading and the urge to acquire wealth was growing.
How does Irving portray the dark side of both reli-
gion and wealth in his story?
YO U ’ R E T H E C R I T I C : Different Viewpoints
H OW C RE AT I V E WA S I RV I NG ?
Some of Washington Irving’s most famous stories,
“[In ‘The Devil and Tom Walker,’] Irving began
such as “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Devil and with the legends of Captain Kidd and his buried
Tom Walker,” are adaptations of European folktales. treasure and . . . he grafted upon this material a
As a result, some critics have faulted Irving for a much wider variety of motifs drawn from German
lack of originality, creativity, and imagination. folklore. . . . The devil himself, for example, is a
compound of German, American Indian, and
Read the two excerpts of literary criticism on Irving Puritan elements.”
from novelist and essayist Charles Dudley Warner —Edward Wagenknecht
and critic and biographer Edward Wagenknecht. As
you read the two excerpts, ask yourself how you
would define creativity and whether Irving dis- Group Activity
played creativity in “The Devil and Tom Walker.” Discuss the following questions with your classmates.
Refer to the two passages above and cite evidence
“It has been said that Irving lacked imagination. . . . from “The Devil and Tom Walker” to support your
Now, it seems to me that the transmutation of the answers.
crude and heretofore unpoetical materials which he
found in the New World into what is as absolute a 1. How does Washington Irving show imagination
creation as exists in literature, was a distinct work in “The Devil and Tom Walker”?
of the imagination.” 2. How important do you think it is for a writer to
—Charles Dudley Warner
be completely original in creating a literary
work? How can a writer be creative in using
existing sources?
Academic Vocabulary
Review: Archetype
Here are two vocabulary words from the vocab-
As you learned in Unit One, an archetype is a charac- ulary list on page R86. These words will help
ter type, a setting, an image, or a story pattern that you think, write, and talk about the selection.
occurs frequently in literature across many cultures
and evokes strong emotional responses. For example, commission (kə mish ən) n. an authorization or
heroes like Luke Skywalker are archetypal figures, as command to act in a certain manner or to perform
are evil-hearted villains like Darth Vader. What arche- certain acts
types does Irving use in “The Devil and Tom Walker”? benefit (ben ə fit) n. a positive gain resulting
Why do you think he chose to use them? from some other action
As you draft, follow the writing model shown here to Notice some of Irving’s most effective word choices:
help you organize your character sketch.
Descriptive Word Part of Speech
START
quagmires noun
smothering adjective
Introduction State your impression of Tom
▲
mire noun
Write several paragraphs that
Body
▲
F IN I S H
Revising Check
After you complete your draft, meet with a peer
The Right Word Diction, or word choice, is important
reviewer to evaluate each other’s work and to suggest
to consider when revising your own writing. With a
revisions. Then proofread and edit your draft for errors
partner, go through your character sketch of Tom
in spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
Walker and note places where more precise nouns
and adjectives would make your sketch clearer and
more vivid. Revise your draft to improve diction. Use a
thesaurus if you need to.
T
oday’s authors might well envy Edgar Allan
Poe. More than 150 years after his death, he
is still one of the world’s most popular writers
and continues to captivate a wide audience. Known
primarily as a master of horror and suspense tales, he
is also credited with inventing the detective story
and contributing to the development of science
fiction. Despite his talent, Poe led a troubled life
marked by poverty, restlessness, and loneliness. Still, he spent much of his life struggling—moving
from city to city, from job to job. He was unable to
escape his spirit-breaking poverty.
“They who dream by day are In 1847, just as Poe seemed to be gaining recognition
for his writing, his world collapsed. His wife died at
cognizant of many things which escape the age of twenty-four, and Poe plunged into a sorrow
those who dream only by night.” too deep to bear. Two years after his wife’s death, Poe
was found delirious on the streets of Baltimore and
—Edgar Allan Poe, from “Eleonora” died shortly thereafter, completely alone.
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • understanding narrative poetry
• analyzing how a poem is related to themes of the • analyzing sound devices
historical period
244
Scala/Art Resource, NY
O nce upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber1 door.
5 “’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—
Only this and nothing more.”
25 Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, “Lenore!”
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, “Lenore!”
30 Merely this and nothing more.
1. A chamber is a room.
2. Surcease means “an end.”
Literary Element Narrative Poem What element of storytelling is established in these lines?
Reading Strategy Analyzing Sound Devices Why might Poe have used alliteration in
this line?
Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter
In there stepped a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore.3
Not the least obeisance4 made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;
40 But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door—
Perched upon a bust of Pallas5 just above my chamber door—
Perched, and sat, and nothing more.
3. Days of yore means “days of long ago.” Here Poe is referring to a Bible story in
which ravens feed the Hebrew prophet Elijah during a sojourn in the wilderness.
(1 Kings 17:1–7)
4. Obeisance means “a movement or gesture, such as a bow, that expresses respect.”
5. A bust is a statue of someone’s head and shoulders. Pallas refers to Pallas Athena,
the Greek goddess of wisdom.
6. Here, countenance means “facial expression.”
7. Plutonian refers to Pluto, the Roman god of the dead and ruler of the underworld.
Reading Strategy Analyzing Sound Devices What effect does Poe create by
repeating the description “above my chamber door”?
Big Idea The Power of Darkness How does this bit of dialogue reflect the
dark side of Romanticism?
Vocabulary
lattice (latəs) n. a structure of crisscrossed strips, commonly wood or metal,
that forms a pattern of openings
beguile (bi ̄ l) v. to influence by deceit; to trick
Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer10
80 Swung by Seraphim11 whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor.
“Wretch,” I cried, “thy God hath lent thee—by these angels he hath sent thee
Respite—respite and nepenthe12 from thy memories of Lenore;
Quaff,13 oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!”
Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”
Reading Strategy Analyzing Sound Devices How is this repetition of the word nevermore different
than others in the poem, and what is the significance of that difference?
Vocabulary
placid (plasəd) adj. calm; peaceful; undisturbed
respite (res pət) n. a period of rest or relief, as from work or sorrow
“Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!” I shrieked, upstarting—
“Get thee back into the tempest and the Night’s Plutonian shore!
Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!
100 Leave my loneliness unbroken!—quit the bust above my door!
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!”
Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”
Reading Strategy Analyzing Sound Devices What is the effect of the repetition in this line?
Literary Element Narrative Poem How is the end of this poem similar to the end of a short story?
Vocabulary
balm (bam) n. something that heals or soothes, as an ointment
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. In your opinion, what is the most haunting image 5. (a)What is the effect of the repetition of the raven’s
in this poem? single word, nevermore? (b)Is the word appropri-
ate in the context of the poem, or would some
Recall and Interpret other word have been as effective?
2. (a)Why is the speaker reading at the beginning of 6. (a)How would you describe Poe’s purpose in writing
the poem? (b)How would you describe his emo- this poem? (b)Did he achieve his purpose? Explain.
tional state in the first six stanzas?
3. (a)What is the speaker’s first reaction to the raven’s Connect
entrance? (b)Why does he react this way?
7. Big Idea The Power of Darkness Which
4. (a)What will never be lifted from the raven’s details contribute to the mood of this poem, and
shadow? (b)What does the future probably hold how do they illustrate the dark side of
for the speaker? Romanticism?
L I T E R A RY A NA LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO CA B U L A RY
Performing
Dramatic Reading Work with a classmate to deliver Vocabulary Practice
a dramatic reading of “The Raven.” One reader should Practice with Synonyms Choose the best
deliver the narrator’s words that are set off in quotation synonym for each vocabulary word.
marks; the other should read all the other lines.
1. lattice
• Vary your facial expressions, the pace of your read- a. border c. mesh
ing, and the tone and volume of your voice to b. barrier d. block
reflect the narrator’s mounting anxiety.
2. beguile
• One reader might provide background sounds, such
a. charm c. candor
as an intermittent tapping during the first six stanzas.
b. repel d. evade
3. placid
a. tempestuous c. chaotic
b. blustery d. serene
4. respite
a. persistence c. hesitation
Web Activities For eFlashcards, b. lull d. turmoil
Selection Quick Checks, and other Web activities, go to
www.glencoe.com.
• What sorts of things scare people the most? Reading Tip: Taking Notes Use a chart to record the
• What happens when someone is overcome by fear? sequence of events.
Building Background
SEQUENCE OF EVENTS
This story is set during the last years of the Spanish
Inquisition (1478–1834). Established in 1231 by the In the story, the problem begins when
Roman Catholic Church, the Inquisition was a court that
arrested and tried suspected heretics, or those who
➧ ➧
opposed Church teaching. Those convicted of heresy
were imprisoned for life or sentenced to death. Pope After that,
Innocent IV authorized the use of torture to obtain con-
fessions to heresy in 1252, and Pope Sixtus IV authorized
the Spanish Inquisition in 1478. Spanish inquisitors, or
judges, were especially harsh. None was more feared
Next,
than Tomás de Torquemada, named the grand inquisitor
for Castile in 1483. He was responsible for approximately
two thousand burnings at the stake. Today, the Inquisition
is remembered as a period of mercilessness and brutality.
Vocabulary
Setting Purposes for Reading
deduce (di d¯¯¯oos , ¯dūs ) v. to draw a conclusion
Big Idea The Power of Darkness from something known or assumed; p. 253 Several
As you read, note how darkness and terror, both aspects of clues helped us deduce the location of the runaways.
Romanticism, are portrayed in “The Pit and the Pendulum.”
impede (im pēd ) v. to slow or block progress
or action; obstruct; p. 253 Road construction will
Literary Element Suspense impede travel this summer.
Suspense is a feeling of curiosity, uncertainty, or even lethargy (leth ər jē) n. sluggish inactivity or
dread about what is going to happen next. Writers drowsiness; p. 255 Dad told Bill to be active and
heighten the suspense in a story by creating a threat get over his lethargy.
to the central character, or protagonist, and giving read-
ers clues about what might happen. As you read this proximity (prok sim ə tē) n. closeness in space,
story, examine how Poe creates suspense. time, sequence, or degree; nearness; p. 258 The
proximity of the cobra made us nervous.
• See Literary Terms Handbook, p. R18. diffuse (di fuz ) v. to spread widely; to scatter
in all directions; p. 260 Green dye was diffused
Interactive Literary Elements
Handbook To review or learn more about the literary elements, into the river on St. Patrick’s Day.
go to www.glencoe.com.
OB J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • responding to suspense
• analyzing literary periods • identifying sequence
I was sick—sick unto death with that long their expression of firmness—of immovable reso-
agony; and when they at length unbound me, and lution—of stern contempt of human torture. I
I was permitted to sit, I felt that my senses were saw that the decrees of what to me was Fate, were
leaving me. The sentence—the dread sentence still issuing from those lips. I saw them writhe
of death—was the last of distinct accentuation with a deadly locution.2 I saw them fashion the
which reached my ears. syllables of my name; and I shuddered because no
After that, the sound of the inquisitorial voices sound succeeded. I saw, too, for a few moments of
seemed merged in one dreamy indeterminate delirious horror, the soft and nearly imperceptible
hum. It conveyed to my soul the idea of waving of the sable draperies which enwrapped
revolution—perhaps from its association in fancy the walls of the apartment. And then my vision
with the burr of a millwheel. This only for a brief fell upon the seven tall candles upon the table.
period; for presently I heard no more. Yet, for a At first they wore the aspect of charity, and
while, I saw; but with how terrible an exaggera- seemed white slender angels who would save me;
tion! I saw the lips of the black-robed judges. but then, all at once, there came a most deadly
They appeared to me white—whiter than the nausea over my spirit, and I felt every fiber in
sheet upon which I trace these words—and thin my frame thrill as if I had touched the wire of a
even to grotesqueness;1 thin with the intensity of galvanic battery,3 while the angel forms became
meaningless specters,4 with heads of flame, and I
saw that from them there would be no help. And
1. Grotesqueness is the state of being distorted or unnatural in then there stole into my fancy, like a rich musical
shape or appearance.
note, the thought of what sweet rest there must
Literary Element Suspense The narrator obviously lives be in the grave. The thought came gently and
to tell his story despite his death sentence. How do you think
the author will maintain interest in his tale?
2. Locution is a form or style of verbal expression.
Big Idea 3. In a galvanic battery, direct electric current is produced by
The Power of Darkness What is the effect of
means of chemical action.
Poe’s description of extreme whiteness here?
4. Specters are ghosts or ghostly visions.
Vocabulary Vocabulary
deduce (di d¯¯¯
oos) v. to draw a conclusion from some- impede (im pēd) v. to slow or block progress or action;
thing known or assumed obstruct
Literary Element Suspense How does this sentence Reading Strategy Identifying Sequence What signal
build tension? words indicate the sequence of events in this paragraph?
rumor as the Ultima Thule28 of all their punish- many days passed—ere it swept so closely over
ments. The plunge into this pit I had avoided me as to fan me with its acrid breath. The odor
by the merest of accidents, and I knew that sur- of the sharp steel forced itself into my nostrils. I
prise, or entrapment into torment, formed an prayed—I wearied heaven with my prayer for its
important portion of all the grotesquerie of these more speedy descent. I grew frantically mad, and
dungeon deaths. Having failed to fall, it was no struggled to force myself upward against the sweep
part of the demon plan to hurl me into the abyss; of the fearful scimitar.30 And then I fell suddenly
and thus (there being no alternative) a different calm, and lay smiling at the glittering death, as a
and a milder destruction awaited me. Milder! I child at some rare bauble.31
half smiled in my agony as I thought of such There was another interval of utter insensibil-
application of such a term. ity; it was brief; for, upon again lapsing into life
there had been no perceptible descent in the
What boots it29 to tell of the long, long hours of pendulum. But it might have been long; for I
horror more than mortal, during which I counted knew there were demons who took note of my
the rushing vibrations of the steel! Inch by inch— swoon, and who could have arrested the vibra-
line by line—with a descent only appreciable at tion at pleasure. Upon my recovery, too, I felt
intervals that seemed ages—down and still down very—oh, inexpressibly sick and weak, as if
it came! Days passed—it might have been that through long inanition.32 Even amid the agonies
of that period, the human nature craved food.
28. Here, Ultima Thule (ul tə mə th¯¯¯ oo lē) means “extreme
With painful effort I outstretched my left arm as
limit” or “greatest degree.” In ancient times, this was the
name of the northernmost part of the known world.
29. What boots it? is an expression meaning “What good is it?” 30. A scimitar is a curved, single-edged sword of Asian origin.
Literary Element 31. A bauble is any showy but worthless trinket.
Suspense What is to be his fate? Why is
32. The exhaustion caused by a lack of food or water is called
the destruction “milder?”
inanition.
Vocabulary
Big Idea The Power of Darkness An atmosphere of
diffuse (di fūz) v. to spread widely; to scatter in all horror is essential to Gothic fiction. How does this passage
directions create a sense of horror?
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. (a)What emotions did you experience while read- 6. (a)Why is the third method of torture especially
ing this story? (b)Were you surprised by the end- frightening for the narrator? (b)Is Poe’s portrayal of
ing? Why or why not? the third method as the most horrible convincing?
P R I M A RY V I S UA L A R T I FAC T
First-Person
Point of View
Academic Vocabulary
Here are two vocabulary words from the vocab-
Events Characters Setting ulary list on page R86.
Internet Connection Activity Scan “The Pit and the Pendulum” for other
Would you like to take a tour of the Poe museum in examples of concrete and abstract words that effec-
Richmond, Virginia? Do you want to learn more about tively convey the narrator’s ordeal. Add these words to
Poe’s life? Would you like to hear “The Raven” read your Mood cluster diagram.
aloud? You can do all this and more online. Use any
major search engine and enter key words and phrases
Revising Check
such as Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven, or other titles.
The Right Word Concrete and abstract words—which
appeal to the reader’s senses and convey ideas, con-
cepts, or qualities—can increase the effectiveness of your
writing. With a partner, review your essay on “The Pit and
the Pendulum.” Revise your writing by including effective
concrete and abstract words to establish a mood or
tone. If you wish, consult a thesaurus, to help you.
Exercise
For each item below, use context clues to figure out the meaning of the under-
lined word. Identify the type of context clue used to uncover its meaning.
eFlashcards For eFlashcards 1. Edgar Allan Poe is credited with writing the first crime stories that use
and other vocabulary activities, go ratiocination, or logical thinking, to solve a mystery.
to www.glencoe.com. a. reasoning b. characters c. mathematics d. footprints
2. In one of Poe’s stories, “The Purloined Letter,” a detective is asked to
O B J ECTIVES get the stolen document back.
• Use context clues to under-
a. ancient b. personal c. damaged d. taken without
stand unfamiliar words.
• Verify word meanings using consent
context clues.
3. Other characters may think that a problem is inexplicable, but Poe’s
detective, C. Auguste Dupin, finds it easy to understand.
a. mysterious b. boring c. simple d. dangerous
4. Many modern sleuths, from Encyclopedia Brown and Nancy Drew to the
police investigators on TV crime shows, owe their methods to Dupin.
a. criminals b. readers c. detectives d. authors
26 4 U N IT 2
B EF O R E YO U R E A D
W
hat do you think it would be like to
spend a dozen years in self-imposed soli-
tude? Nathaniel Hawthorne did just
that, reading widely in New England history and
perfecting his skills as a writer. The dark Puritan
past haunted Hawthorne’s imagination. His ances-
tors included one judge who had prosecuted
Quakers in the 1650s and another who had served Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. However,
in the notorious witchcraft trials at Salem, Hawthorne was not in sympathy with Emerson’s
Massachusetts, in 1692. No churchgoer, Hawthorne optimistic outlook and goals of reforming society.
was still as keenly aware of problems of sin and guilt
as any early Puritan. He explored complex questions Literary Success Unable to support his growing
of right and wrong in tales he called “allegories of family as a writer, Hawthorne returned to Salem and
the heart”—stories that teach a moral principle. took a government job that he disliked. When he
lost the job, he turned again to writing, completing
his masterpiece, The Scarlet Letter, in early 1850.
Although he feared it would be a failure, the book
was a sensation, and Hawthorne soon followed it
“What other dungeon is so dark as with another successful novel, The House of the Seven
one’s own heart! What jailer so Gables. During this period, he moved his family from
Salem to the countryside, where a close neighbor was
inexorable as one’s self!”
the writer Herman Melville. The two writers, who
—Nathaniel Hawthorne shared a dark view of human life, spent a great deal
from The House of the Seven Gables of time together.
Hawthorne’s final years were shadowed by the
coming of the Civil War. Not motivated by anti-
Habits of Solitude Born in Salem, young slavery zeal, he saw the conflict as a collapse of the
Hawthorne was an avid reader of poetry and stories social order, not a sacred cause. In ill health, strug-
of adventure. He also spent long periods alone in the gling to continue writing, and depressed,
remote Maine woods, where “I first got my cursed Hawthorne died while on a journey.
habits of solitude.” After attending college in Maine, In his novels and stories, Hawthorne set himself the
Hawthorne returned to Salem, where he secluded challenge of creating “a neutral ground where the
himself at home for the “twelve lonely years” of his Actual and the Imaginary might meet.” When he
apprenticeship as a writer. He produced two books, succeeds, his fiction has, as the literary critic Alfred
first a novel titled Fanshawe and later a collection of Kazin observes, “the mysterious authenticity and
short stories, Twice-Told Tales. The novel was a fail- the self-sufficient form of a dream.”
ure, but reviewers praised Twice-Told Tales, and the
book sold well. In the late 1830s, as Hawthorne was Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804 and died in 1864.
beginning to establish his reputation as a writer, he
met and fell in love with Sophia Peabody, whom he
married in 1842. The couple moved to Concord, Author Search For more about
where Hawthorne socialized with Ralph Waldo Nathaniel Hawthorne, go to www.glencoe.com.
• Under what circumstances might you want to dis- Reading Tip: Taking Notes Use a chart to record the
tance yourself from those around you?
inferences you draw from the details presented.
• How much does a person’s appearance affect how
people feel about him or her?
Detail Inference
Building Background
p. 269 “Many The members of the
“The Minister’s Black Veil” is set in a small town in Puritan
spread their congregation seem to
New England in the early 1700s. Puritanism was a sect
clasped hands on feel the minister can
that broke away from the Church of England in the
1500s. In the 1600s, Puritans came to New England and their bosoms.” see into their hearts.
founded a community based on biblical laws. Puritans
believed that human beings were sinful by nature and
deserved eternal punishment but that God had “elected”
some people to be saved. Puritans fought the “natural” Vocabulary
tendency to sin and felt responsible for the moral welfare
venerable (ven ər ə bəl) adj. deserving respect
of others. Keeping a close eye on the behavior of others
because of age, character, or position; p. 268
was elevated to a religious duty—“holy watching,” or
The people relied on the venerable judge’s wisdom.
“doing the Lord’s work.” The subtitle of “The Minister’s
Black Veil” is “A Parable.” A parable is a story with a moral iniquity (in ik wə tē) n. sin; p. 269 He was too
lesson that teaches forgiveness of sinners. steeped in iniquity to tell right from wrong.
sagacious (sə ā shəs) adj. having or showing
Setting Purposes for Reading wisdom and keen perception; p. 269 Careful
Big Idea The Power of Darkness planning is typical of a sagacious person.
As you read, notice how the Romantics’ dark fascina- irreproachable (ir´ i prō chə bəl) adj. free from
tion with the strange and sinister is displayed in “The blame; faultless; p. 274 The lawyer’s handling of
Minister’s Black Veil.” the case was irreproachable, but her client still lost.
zealous (zel əs) adj. filled with enthusiastic
Literary Element Symbol devotion; passionate; p. 274 Overly zealous,
A symbol is a person, place, or thing that has meaning the waiter kept asking if we needed anything.
in itself and also stands for something other than itself.
A crossroads, for example, may symbolize choices in Vocabulary Tip: Synonyms Synonyms are words
life. A symbol in a literary work may have many mean- that have the same or similar meanings. Note that
ings and feelings associated with it, or it may point to synonyms are always the same part of speech.
something that cannot be precisely defined. As you read
the story, examine how Hawthorne develops the sym-
bolic meaning of the minister’s decision to veil his face. Interactive Literary Elements
Handbook To review or learn more about the literary elements,
• See Literary Terms Handbook, p. R18. go to www.glencoe.com.
OB J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • interpreting literary symbols
• analyzing literary periods • expanding vocabulary
• making inferences • drawing upon your background
26 6 U N IT 2 AMERICAN ROMANTICISM
Nathaniel Hawthorne
7. Crepe is a light, soft fabric with a crinkled surface. Reading Strategy Making Inferences Why do you think
8. Here, abstracted means “lost in thought” or “preoccupied.” Mr. Hooper may find his congregation a fearful sight?
9. Perturbation (pur´ tər bā shən) means “agitation” or
“uneasiness.” Vocabulary
Literary Element Symbol How does Mr. Hooper’s veil venerable (ven ər ə bəl) adj. deserving respect because
affect the way he views the world around him? of age, character, or position
Literary Element Symbol What is Earth’s “Black Veil”? 27. A deputation is a delegation.
28. Abashed means “ashamed” or “embarrassed.”
Reading Strategy 29. A synod is a council of church officials or a governing body
Making Inferences How might the
of all churches.
minister’s self-distrust have led him to conceal his face?
30. Plighted wife means “intended wife,” or “fiancée.”
perhaps, that his meaning might be doubted, faint, sad smile, so often there, now seemed to
he exerted himself to speak. glimmer from its obscurity, and linger on Father
“Yea,” said he, in faint accents, “my soul hath Hooper’s lips.
a patient weariness until that veil be lifted.” “Why do you tremble at me alone?” cried he,
“And is it fitting,” resumed the Reverend Mr. turning his veiled face round the circle of pale
Clark, “that a man so given to prayer, of such a spectators. “Tremble also at each other! Have
blameless example, holy in deed and thought, so men avoided me, and women shown no pity,
far as mortal judgment may pronounce; is it fitting and children screamed and fled, only for my
that a father in the church should leave a shadow black veil? What, but the mystery which it
on his memory, that may seem to blacken a life so obscurely typifies, has made this piece of crepe
pure? I pray you, my venerable brother, let not so awful? When the friend shows his inmost
this thing be! Suffer us to be gladdened by your heart to his friend; the lover to his best
triumphant aspect as you go to your reward. beloved; when man does not vainly shrink from
Before the veil of eternity be lifted, let me cast the eye of his Creator, loathsomely treasuring
aside this black veil from your face!” up the secret of his sin; then deem me a mon-
And thus speaking, the Reverend Mr. Clark ster, for the symbol beneath which I have lived,
bent forward to reveal the mystery of so many and die! I look around me, and, lo! on every
years. But, exerting a sudden energy, that made visage a Black Veil!”
all the beholders stand aghast, Father Hooper While his auditors shrank from one another,
snatched both his hands from beneath the bed- in mutual affright, Father Hooper fell back upon
clothes, and pressed them strongly on the black his pillow, a veiled corpse, with a faint smile lin-
veil, resolute to struggle, if the minister of gering on the lips. Still veiled, they laid him in
Westbury would contend with a dying man. his coffin, and a veiled corpse they bore him to
“Never!” cried the veiled clergyman. “On the grave. The grass of many years has sprung up
earth, never!” and withered on that grave, the burial stone is
“Dark old man!” exclaimed the affrighted moss-grown, and good Mr. Hooper’s face is dust;
minister, “with what horrible crime upon your but awful is still the thought that it moldered46
soul are you now passing to the judgment?” beneath the Black Veil!
Father Hooper’s breath heaved; it rattled in
his throat; but, with a mighty effort, grasping for-
46. Moldered means “turned to dust” or “crumbled.”
ward with his hands, he caught hold of life, and
held it back till he should speak. He even raised Literary Element Symbol To what “mystery” do you think
himself in bed; and there he sat, shivering with the minister is referring?
RESP ON DI NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. (a)What was your first reaction to the minister’s 5. (a)What is “the one desirable effect” that the veil has
black veil? (b)Did your reaction change as the story on Mr. Hooper? (b)What are the negative effects?
developed?
6. (a)What does Elizabeth’s changing relationship with
Mr. Hooper reveal about her personality? (b)Do
Recall and Interpret you find her a sympathetic character? Explain.
2. (a)How do the townspeople react when they first 7. (a)What do you think was most puzzling about the
see Mr. Hooper wearing the black veil? (b)Why story? (b)Write your thoughts down in the form of
might the veil affect them as it does? question.
3. (a)What is the subject of Mr. Hooper’s sermon on Connect
the first day he wears the black veil? (b)What do
8. Do you think that the veil eventually causes Mr.
you think is the association between the veil and
Hooper to become a better minister? Why or
congregation’s interpretation of the sermon?
why not?
4. (a)Briefly retell in your own words the main events
of the story. (b)Which of these events was most 9. Big Idea The Power of Darkness The Puritan
surprising? view of sin and human nature is a basic element of
this story. How is the Romantic view of human
nature also shown?
YO U ’ R E T H E C R I T I C : Different Viewpoints
H OW PESSI M IST IC WA S H AW T H O RN E ?
Read the two excerpts of literary criticism below. Both Group Activity Discuss the following questions with
critics agree that Hawthorne’s writing has a light and classmates. Refer to the excerpts and cite evidence
a dark side. As you read the excerpts, notice the differ- from “The Minister’s Black Veil” for support.
ence in emphasis between the two critics.
1. (a)What is the difference in emphasis between
James and Melville? (b)Which critic do you
“What pleased [Hawthorne in gloomy subjects] was think comes closer to an accurate assessment of
their picturesqueness, their rich duskiness of color, Hawthorne’s pessimism? Explain.
their chiaroscuro; but they were not the expression
of a hopeless, or even of a predominantly 2. Chiaroscuro is a
melancholy, feeling about the human soul.” technique used
—Henry James by visual artists
to balance light
and shadow.
“Perhaps no writer has ever wielded this terrific How might this
thought [Original Sin] with greater terror than this technique apply
same harmless Hawthorne. Still more: this black to Hawthorne’s
conceit pervades him through and through. You outlook on the
may be witched by his sunlight,—transported by human condition?
the bright gildings in the skies he builds over you;
but . . . even his bright gildings but fringe and play
upon the edges of thunder-clouds.”
—Herman Melville
Review: Characterization
Characterization refers to the various methods that a Academic Vocabulary
writer uses to develop the personality of a character.
Here are two vocabulary words from the vocab-
Partner Activity Meet with a classmate and talk ulary list on page R86.
about how you got to know Mr. Hooper better as you
read the story. Working with your partner, create a culture (kul chər) n. a people’s unique way of
web diagram like the one below. Then fill it in with a life—customs, art, rituals, and beliefs
striking example for each method of characterization
that Hawthorne uses to portray Mr. Hooper. ideology (ə̄´ dē ŏl ə jē ) n. a set of principles
and thoughts that guides an individual or a
group
physical other characters’
appearance comments
Practice and Apply
1. What did you learn about Puritan culture from
Mr. Hooper reading “The Minister’s Black Veil”?
2. How would you describe the ideology that
actions
narrator’s guides Mr. Hooper’s role as minister?
comments
spoken words
Introduction
Present your interpretation of
• Make sure that the word’s denotation, or literal
▲
disinterested uninterested
Briefly summarize your
Conclusion respectfully respectively
▲
F INISH
• Be sensitive to a word’s connotation–the positive or
negative association that the word can evoke. Make sure
After you complete your draft, meet with a peer that the connotation of the words you choose supports
reviewer to evaluate each other’s work and to suggest the meaning and tone you intend. The words below
revisions. Then proofread and edit your draft for errors have similar meanings but very different connotations.
in spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
Positive Negative
curious nosy
Literary Criticism thin skinny
Group Activity In his review of Twice-Told Tales, a thrifty cheap
collection of Hawthorne’s short stories, Poe called
“The Minister’s Black Veil” a “masterly composition.”
Meet with a few of your classmates to collaborate on
Activity Scan Hawthorne’s story for other examples
writing five blurbs—short descriptions from reviews
of adjectives with positive or negative connotations
that might appear on a book jacket for “The Minister’s
suggesting gloom. Make a list of them to read aloud
Black Veil.” As you write the blurbs, praise the story for
and explain to the class.
its greatest merits.
Revising Check
Web Activities For eFlashcards,
Selection Quick Checks, and other Web activities, go to Precise Words Work with a partner to improve word
www.glencoe.com. choices in your essay for “The Minister’s Black Veil.”
Corrected: Working all night long, the firefighters finally extinguished the blaze.
Dangling: Sprinting across the room, the heavy door slammed in my face. eWorkbooks To link to
the Grammar and Language
eWorkbook, go to
Corrected: Sprinting across the room, I saw the heavy door slam in my face. www.glencoe.com.
Exercise
OB J ECT IV ES
Revise for Clarity Rewrite these sentences, correcting the dangling • Correct dangling modifiers.
modifiers. • Demonstrate control over the
placement of modifiers.
1. Looking for movie ideas, Poe’s stories were discovered. • Use participles correctly.
279
B EF O R E YO U R E A D
from Moby-Dick
M E E T H E R M A N M E LV I LLE
N
O! in thunder.” This, according to
Herman Melville, is what the true writer
says. With his own great “NO!” Melville
set himself against the optimism of Emerson and
the Transcendentalists, challenged conformity, and
rejected the idea of progress and prosperity that inherently evil, and they wrote fiction that
dominated the American mind in the 1800s. explored the dark side of life.
Hawthorne’s influence can be seen in Melville’s later
Adventure and Fame Born in New York City,
work, beginning with his masterpiece, Moby-Dick, a
Melville faced many misfortunes in his youth despite
whaling story of great complexity and power, meant
being the son of a wealthy merchant. He was forced
to rival the work of Shakespeare. Published in 1851,
to leave school at twelve and instead of studying, he
this tale of the obsessed hero-villain Captain Ahab
focused on finding a profession. Unable to do so, in
and his doomed search for the white whale is now
1841 he became a sailor aboard the whale ship
regarded as one of the greatest American novels.
Acushnet, bound for the South Pacific.
When the novel first appeared, however, it met with
During his time as a sailor, Melville jumped ship neither critical nor popular acclaim.
and lived for a month with the Typee, a supposedly
The commercial failure of his next two works con-
cannibalistic tribe that nevertheless treated him
vinced Melville that he could not support his fam-
graciously, took part in a mutiny, and spent time in
ily by writing. He was forced to sell his farm and
jail on the island of Tahiti. These sailing years gave
spend nearly twenty years at a routine job, a cus-
him the background knowledge of ships and exotic
toms inspector in New York City. Literary circles
islands that served him well in his first two novels,
lost track of Melville. In his later years, he pub-
Typee (1846) and Omoo (1847), both popular tales
lished some poems, which were overlooked by the
of adventure.
public, and at his death he left behind the manu-
The success of these novels brought temporary script of his last work, the novel Billy Budd. It was
stability into Melville’s life. In 1847, he married published posthumously in 1924.
Elizabeth Shaw, the daughter of the chief justice
During his life, Herman Melville achieved fame
of Massachusetts. He became a literary celebrity
and then watched it fade to nothing. His most
in both England and America. His sudden suc-
important achievements were ridiculed by critics
cess, however, was short-lived because he refused
and ignored by the public. Nathaniel Hawthorne,
to continue writing the sort of adventure books
however, asserted that no “writer ever put . . . real-
the public craved. His third novel, Mardi (1849),
ity before his reader more unflinchingly” than did
written in a new allegorical style, was not what
Herman Melville. Generations later, readers began
readers of that era expected from an author of
to discover the depth and power of his writing and
adventures, and as a result it was poorly received.
to accept his bold rendering of reality.
Critical Neglect In 1850, Melville purchased a Herman Melville was born in 1819 and died in 1891.
farm near Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and befriended
the writer Nathaniel Hawthorne, who lived just
six miles away. The two writers had much in com- Author Search For more about
Author Search For more about
mon: they shared the Puritan view of humanity as Herman Melville, go to www.glencoe.com.
this author, go to www.literature.glencoe.com.
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • monitoring comprehension
• analyzing literary periods • analyzing motivation and metaphor
Ahab
For several days after leaving Nantucket, nothing a perturbation. This was strangely heightened at
above hatches1 was seen of Captain Ahab. The times by the ragged Elijah’s diabolical incoher-
mates regularly relieved each other at the watches, ences uninvitedly recurring to me, with a subtle
and for aught2 that could be seen to the contrary, energy I could not have before conceived of. But
they seemed to be the only commanders of the poorly could I withstand them, much as in other
ship; only they sometimes issued from the cabin moods I was almost ready to smile at the solemn
with orders so sudden and peremptory, that after all whimsicalities of that outlandish prophet of the
it was plain they but commanded vicariously. Yes, wharves.4 But whatever it was of apprehensive-
their supreme lord and dictator was there, though ness or uneasiness—to call it so—which I felt,
hitherto unseen by any eyes not permitted to pen- yet whenever I came to look about me in the
etrate into the now sacred retreat of the cabin. ship, it seemed against all warranty to cherish
Every time I ascended to the deck from my such emotions. For though the harpooneers, with
watches below, I instantly gazed aft3 to mark if the great body of the crew, were a far more bar-
any strange face were visible; for my first vague baric, heathenish, and motley set than any of the
disquietude touching the unknown captain, tame merchant-ship companies which my previ-
now in the seclusion of the sea, became almost ous experiences had made me acquainted with,
still I ascribed this—and rightly ascribed it—to
1. Above hatches means “on deck.”
2. Here, aught means “anything” or “all.” 4. Before the Pequod set sail, an odd sailor, Elijah, warned
3. Aft means “the rear section of a ship.” Ishmael about Captain Ahab.
Literary Element Motivation Why does Ahab isolate Reading Strategy Monitoring Comprehension Whom
himself from his crew? does Ishmael describe in this passage?
28 4 U N IT 2 AMERICAN ROMANTICISM
Flip Nicklin/Getty Images
The Quarter-Deck “Sir!” said the mate, astonished at an order sel-
(Enter Ahab: Then, all.) dom or never given on shipboard except in some
It was not a great while after the affair of the extraordinary case.
pipe, that one morning shortly after breakfast, “Send everybody aft,” repeated Ahab. “Mast-
Ahab, as was his wont, ascended the cabin- heads, there! come down!”
gangway to the deck. There most sea-captains usu- When the entire ship’s company were assem-
ally walk at that hour, as country gentlemen, after bled, and with curious and not wholly unappre-
the same meal, take a few turns in the garden. hensive faces, were eyeing him, for he looked not
Soon his steady, ivory stride12 was heard, as to unlike the weather horizon when a storm is com-
and fro he paced his old rounds, upon planks so ing up, Ahab, after rapidly glancing over the bul-
familiar to his tread, that they were all over warks, and then darting his eyes among the crew,
dented, like geological stones, with the peculiar started from his stand-point; and as though not a
mark of his walk. Did you fixedly gaze, too, upon soul were nigh16 him resumed his heavy turns
that ribbed and dented brow; there also, you upon the deck. With bent head and half-
would see still stranger foot-prints—the foot- slouched hat he continued to pace, unmindful of
prints of his one unsleeping, ever-pacing thought. the wondering whispering among the men; till
But on the occasion in question, those dents Stubb cautiously whispered to Flask, that Ahab
looked deeper, even as his nervous step that morn- must have summoned them there for the purpose
ing left a deeper mark. And, so full of his thought of witnessing a pedestrian feat. But this did not
was Ahab, that at every uniform turn that he made, last long. Vehemently pausing, he cried:—
now at the main-mast and now at the binnacle,13 “What do ye do when ye see a whale, men?”
you could almost see that thought turn in him as he “Sing out for him!” was the impulsive
turned, and pace in him as he paced; so completely rejoinder17 from a score of clubbed voices.
possessing him, indeed, that it all but seemed the “Good!” cried Ahab, with a wild approval in
inward mould of every outer movement. his tones; observing the hearty animation into
“D’ye mark him, Flask?” whispered Stubb; which his unexpected question had so magneti-
“the chick that’s in him pecks the shell. ’Twill cally thrown them.
soon be out.” “And what do ye next, men?”
The hours wore on;—Ahab now shut up within “Lower away, and after him!”
his cabin; anon, pacing the deck, with the same “And what tune is it ye pull to, men?”
intense bigotry of purpose14 in his aspect. “A dead whale or a stove boat!”18
It drew near the close of day. Suddenly he More and more strangely and fiercely glad and
came to a halt by the bulwarks,15 and inserting approving grew the countenance19 of the old
his bone leg into the auger-hole there, and with man at every shout; while the mariners began to
one hand grasping a shroud, he ordered Starbuck gaze curiously at each other, as if marvelling how
to send everybody aft. it was that they themselves became so excited at
such seemingly purposeless questions.
But, they were all eagerness again, as Ahab, now
12. Ivory stride refers to Ahab’s walking with an artificial leg half-revolving in his pivot-hole, with one hand
made from a whale’s jawbone. reaching high up a shroud, and tightly, almost con-
13. A binnacle is a compartment on a ship for the ship’s lamp
vulsively grasping it, addressed them thus:—
and compass.
14. Bigotry of purpose refers to Ahab’s fierce single-mindedness.
“All ye mast-headers have before now heard
15. The sides of a ship above the upper deck are known as the me give orders about a white whale. Look ye!
bulwarks. d’ye see this Spanish ounce of gold?”—holding
Big Idea The Power of Darkness What effect does
Melville create by describing the routine walks of other
sea captains and country gentlemen before describing 16. Here, nigh means “close” or “near.”
Ahab’s pacing? 17. An impulsive rejoinder is a spontaneous response or reply.
18. A dead whale or a stove boat! is a whaler’s motto meaning,
“We kill a whale or wreck our boat in the attempt!”
Literary Element Motivation Why does Ahab pace the
19. Countenance refers to the appearance or expression of the
deck so resolutely?
face that reveals mood or emotion.
up a broad bright coin to the sun—“it is a six- “It’s a white whale, I say,” resumed Ahab, as he
teen dollar piece, men,—a doubloon. D’ye see it? threw down the topmaul; “a white whale. Skin
Mr. Starbuck, hand me yon topmaul.” your eyes for him, men; look sharp for white
While the mate was getting the hammer, water; if ye see but a bubble, sing out.”
Ahab, without speaking, was slowly rubbing the All this while Tashtego, Daggoo, and
gold piece against the skirts of his jacket, as if to Queequeg22 had looked on with even more
heighten its lustre, and without using any words intense interest and surprise than the rest, and at
was meanwhile lowly humming to himself, pro- the mention of the wrinkled brow and crooked
ducing a sound so strangely muffled and inarticu- jaw they had started as if each was separately
late that it seemed the mechanical humming of touched by some specific recollection.
the wheels of his vitality in him. “Captain Ahab,” said Tashtego, “that white
Receiving the topmaul from Starbuck, he whale must be the same that some call Moby
advanced towards the main-mast with the ham- Dick.”
mer uplifted in one hand, exhibiting the gold “Moby Dick?” shouted Ahab. “Do ye know the
with the other, and with a high raised voice white whale then, Tash?”
exclaiming: “Whosoever of ye raises20 me a “Does he fan-tail a little curious, sir, before he
white-headed whale with a wrinkled brow and a goes down?” said the Gayheader deliberately.
crooked jaw; whosoever of ye raises me that “And has he a curious spout, too,” said Daggoo,
white-headed whale, with three holes punctured “very bushy, even for a parmacetty,23 and mighty
in his starboard fluke21—look ye, whosoever of quick, Captain Ahab?”
ye raises me that same white whale, he shall “And he have one, two, tree—oh! good
have this gold ounce, my boys!” many iron in him hide, too, Captain,” cried
“Huzza! huzza!” cried the seamen, as with Queequeg disjointedly, “all twiske-tee betwisk,
swinging tarpaulins they hailed the act of nailing
the gold to the mast.
22. Tashtego, Daggoo, and Queequeg are the harpooneers on
the Pequod; Ishmael befriended Queequeg in Nantucket
before signing up for the voyage.
20. To raise a whale is to spot or identify it in the sea. 23. Parmacetty (or spermaceti) is a white, waxy solid found in
21. Starboard fluke means “the right half of a whale’s tail.” the oil of whales. Here, it refers to the whale itself.
28 6 U N IT 2 AMERICAN ROMANTICISM
Images.com/CORBIS
like him—him—” faltering hard for a word, and “God bless ye,” he seemed to half sob and half
screwing his hand round and round as though shout. “God bless ye, men. Steward! go draw the
uncorking a bottle—“like him—him—” great measure of grog.28 But what’s this long face
“Corkscrew!” cried Ahab, “aye, Queequeg, about, Mr. Starbuck; wilt thou not chase the white
the harpoons lie all twisted and wrenched in whale? art not game for Moby Dick?”
him;24 aye, Daggoo, his spout is a big one, like a “I am game for his crooked jaw, and for the jaws
whole shock of wheat, and white as a pile of our of Death too, Captain Ahab, if it fairly comes in
Nantucket wool after the great annual sheep- the way of the business we follow; but I came here
shearing; aye, Tashtego, and he fan-tails like a to hunt whales, not my commander’s vengeance.
split jib in a squall.25 Death and devils! men, it How many barrels will thy vengeance yield thee
is Moby Dick ye have seen—Moby Dick— even if thou gettest it, Captain Ahab? it will not
Moby Dick!” fetch thee much in our Nantucket market.”
“Captain Ahab,” said Starbuck, who, with “Nantucket market! Hoot! But come closer,
Stubb and Flask, had thus far been eyeing his Starbuck; thou requirest a little lower layer. If mon-
superior with increasing surprise, but at last ey’s to be the measurer, man, and the accountants
seemed struck with a thought which somewhat have computed their great counting-house the
explained all the wonder. “Captain Ahab, I have globe, by girdling it with guineas, one to every
heard of Moby Dick—but it was not Moby Dick three parts of an inch; then, let me tell thee, that
that took off thy leg?” my vengeance will fetch a great premium here!”
“Who told thee that?” cried Ahab; then paus- “He smites29 his chest,” whispered Stubb, “what’s
ing, “Aye, Starbuck; aye, my hearties all round; it that for? methinks it rings most vast, but hollow.”
was Moby Dick that dismasted me; Moby Dick “Vengeance on a dumb brute!” cried Starbuck,
that brought me to this dead stump I stand on “that simply smote thee from blindest instinct!
now. Aye, aye,” he shouted with a terrific, loud, Madness! To be enraged with a dumb thing,
animal sob, like that of a heart-stricken moose; Captain Ahab, seems blasphemous.”
“Aye, aye! it was that accursed white whale that “Hark ye yet again,—the little lower layer. All
razeed26 me; made a poor pegging lubber of me visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks.
for ever and a day!” Then tossing both arms, But in each event—in the living act, the
with measureless imprecations he shouted out: undoubted deed—there, some unknown but still
“Aye, aye! and I’ll chase him round Good Hope, reasoning thing puts forth the mouldings of its fea-
and round the Horn, and round the Norway tures from behind the unreasoning mask. If man
Maelstrom, and round perdition’s27 flames before will strike, strike through the mask! How can the
I give him up. And this is what ye have shipped prisoner reach outside except by thrusting through
for, men! to chase that white whale on both the wall? To me, the white whale is that wall,
sides of land, and over all sides of earth, till he shoved near to me. Sometimes I think there’s
spouts black blood and rolls fin out. What say ye, naught beyond. But ’tis enough. He tasks me; he
men, will ye splice hands on it, now? I think ye heaps me; I see in him outrageous strength, with an
do look brave.” inscrutable malice sinewing it. That inscrutable
“Aye, aye!” shouted the harpooneers and sea- thing is chiefly what I hate; and be the white
men, running closer to the excited old man: “A whale agent, or be the white whale principal, I
sharp eye for the White Whale; a sharp lance for
Moby Dick!”
28. Grog is alcoholic liquor, such as rum, often diluted
with water.
24. Moby Dick has survived many attacks and bears the 29. To smite is to strike sharply.
wounds (and mangled harpoons) inflicted by those who
Reading Strategy Monitoring Comprehension Whom
failed to kill him.
25. Like a split jib in a squall means “like a torn sail in a does Ahab describe in this passage?
storm.”
26. A razee is a “cut-off” ship, or a ship with its upper decks Vocabulary
removed. Ahab, too, has had a part of himself removed,
inscrutable (in skr¯¯¯
oo tə bəl) adj. mysterious, or not able
namely, his leg.
to be interpreted or understood
27. Here, perdition is hell.
37. St. Vitus’ or St. Vitus’ Dance is a nervous disorder that causes 41. Cardinals are high officials of the Roman Catholic Church;
shaking of the limbs. Ahab mocks the steward for having a Ahab addresses his three mates as cardinals.
shaky hand and spilling some of the liquor. An ague is a fever. 42. A malediction is a curse.
38. Volition is an act of choosing or willing something. Big Idea The Power of Darkness How does Ahab’s use
39. Here, fain means “rather.”
of religious language and ritual reveal the darker side of his
40. A Leyden jar is a form of capacitor, or “electrical circuit
intention?
element that can store an electrical charge temporarily.”
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond 6. (a)Why does Starbuck accuse Ahab of
blasphemy? (b)Is Ahab guilty of blasphemy or not?
1. Would you want to sail with a captain like Ahab?
Explain.
Explain.
7. (a)Why does the crew choose to follow Ahab in
Recall and Interpret his mission to kill Moby Dick? (b)How do you
2. (a)What does Ishmael notice about Ahab’s account for the “magnetism” between Ahab and
appearance? (b)How does Ahab’s appearance his crew?
influence Ishmael’s impression of him?
8. Is Ahab justified in not revealing the Pequod’s true
3. (a)Describe Ahab’s posture as he stands on the mission until the voyage is well underway?
quarter-deck. (b)How does his stance affirm his Support your answer with evidence from the story.
position as captain?
Connect
4. (a)What is Starbuck’s reaction to Ahab’s intention to
hunt Moby Dick? (b)Why does he react this way? 9. Big Idea The Power of Darkness How does
Melville use Ahab and his mission as a means of
Analyze and Evaluate exploring the mystery of evil in the world?
5. (a)What does Moby Dick represent to Ahab,
Starbuck, and the crew of the Pequod? (b)Why does
Melville present different perceptions of the whale?
LI T E R A RY A N A LYS I S
Academic Vocabulary
Nathaniel Philbrick
A
Building Background S DARKNESS APPROACHED AT THE END OF
In 1820 a sperm whale sank the Nantucket whaling the first day, the wind built steadily,
ship Essex. The crew was lost at sea for four months; kicking up a steep, irregular chop.1 The
eight survived. This event inspired Herman Melville’s Essex whaleboats were hybrids—built for rowing
Moby-Dick. In the chapters “Ahab” and “The Quarter- but now adapted to sail—and the men were still
Deck” (see pages 282–289), Melville models his por- learning how they handled. Instead of a rudder,
trayal of Captain Ahab on first mate Owen Chase’s each boat was equipped with a steering oar. This
account of the tragedy. The following selection, from eighteen-foot lever enabled a rowed whaleboat
historian Nathaniel Philbrick’s nonfiction book, to spin around in its own length, but it was not
describes the Essex crew’s first days stranded at sea. so effective in guiding a sailboat, and required
the helmsman to stand at the cumbersome oar.
Set a Purpose for Reading At this early stage in the voyage, the whaleboats
Read to discover the historical basis for Melville’s were dangerously overloaded. Instead of five
novel Moby-Dick. hundred pounds of whaling equipment, each
Reading Strategy boat contained close to a thousand pounds of
bread, water, and tortoises,2 and waves broke
Analyzing Historical Context over the built-up gunnels3 and soaked the men.
Analyzing historical context involves gathering back- The boats were also without centerboards or
ground information and exploring social forces that skegs4 to help them track through the water,
influenced the writing of a literary work. As you read, forcing the helmsmen to tug and push their
take notes on the historical context for Melville’s tale.
Use a two-column chart like the one below.
1. Here, chop means “waves.”
2. Tortoises were commonly kept aboard whaleships to be
World of Ahab World of Owen Chase used as food for the crew.
3. A gunnel is the upper edge of a boat’s side.
4. A skeg is the rear, or stern of a ship’s keel, or main timber.
A centerboard is a retractable keel.
5. In this context bilge means “the lowest part of a ship’s hull.“ 9. The Offshore Ground was a heavily whaled expanse of
6. Owen Chase was the first mate aboard the Essex. ocean off the coast of Peru.
7. George Pollard was the captain of the Essex. 10. The trades are trade winds, or winds that always move in
8. Matthew Joy was second mate aboard the Essex. the same direction.
NATHA NI E L P HI L B R I C K 293
Courtesy of Nantucket Historical Association
Informational Text
But as they would soon discover, their greatest
concern was not food but rather water. The human
body, which is 70 percent water, requires a bare
minimum of a pint a day to remove its waste prod-
ucts. The men of the Essex would have to make do
with half that daily amount. If they experienced
any hot weather, the deficit would only increase.
That first night of their journey, Chase,
Pollard, and Joy distributed the rations of bread
and water to their boat-crews. It was two days
after the sinking now, and the men’s interest in
The sea chest of food had finally returned; the bread was quickly
Captain George Pollard
eaten. There was something else they craved:
tobacco. A whaleman almost always had a quid11
overpowering need to reclaim at least some control of tobacco in his mouth, going through more
of their own destiny. Being sighted by a whaleship than seventy pounds of it in a single voyage. In
would, according to Chase, not “depend on our addition to all their other woes, the crew of the
own exertions, but on chance alone.” Reaching Essex had to contend with the jittery withdrawal
South America, on the other hand, depended “on symptoms associated with nicotine addiction.
our own labors.” From Chase’s perspective, this After the meager meal, the men not on watch
made all the difference and demanded that they went to sleep. “Nature became at last worn out
not “lose sight, for one moment, of the strong with the watchings and anxieties of the two pre-
probabilities which, under Divine Providence, ceding nights,” Chase recalled, “and sleep came
there were of our reaching land by the route we insensibly upon us.” But as his men fell into what
had prescribed to ourselves.” he judged to be a dreamless stupor, Chase found
The plan had one iron requirement: they had himself in the middle of a waking nightmare.
to make their provisions last two months. Each Unable to sleep for the third night in a row, he
man would get six ounces of hardtack and half a continued to dwell obsessively on the circum-
pint of water a day. Hardtack was a simple dried stances of the ship’s sinking. He could not get the
bread made out of flour and water. Baked into a creature out of his mind: “[T]he horrid aspect and
moisture-free rock to prevent spoilage, hardtack revenge of the whale, wholly engrossed my reflec-
had to be broken into small pieces or soaked in tions.” In his desperate attempts to find some
water before it was eaten, if a sailor didn’t want explanation for how a normally passive creature
to crack a tooth. could suddenly become a predator, Chase was
The daily ration was equivalent to six slices of plagued by what psychologists call a “tormenting
bread, and it provided about five hundred calo- memory”—a common response to disasters. Forced
ries. Chase estimated that this amounted to less to relive the trauma over and over again, the survi-
than a third of the nourishment required by “an vor finds larger, hidden forces operating through
ordinary man.” Modern dietary analysis indicates the incident. The philosopher William James felt
that for a five-foot, eight-inch person weighing this compulsion firsthand some years later. After
145 pounds, these provisions met about a quarter the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, he wrote: “I
of his daily energy needs. True, the men of the realize now how inevitable were men’s earlier
Essex had more than just bread; they had tor- mythological versions [of disaster] and how artificial
toises. Each tortoise was a pod of fresh meat, fat, and against the grain of our spontaneous perceiving
and blood that was capable of providing as many are the later habits which science educates us.”
as 4,500 calories per man—the equivalent of For most disaster victims, the repeated flashbacks
nine days of hardtack. Yet, even augmented by of a tormenting memory have a therapeutic value,
the tortoises, their daily rations amounted to a gradually weaning the sufferer from anxieties that
starvation diet. If they did succeed in reaching
South America in sixty days, each man knew he
would be little more than a breathing skeleton. 11. A quid means “a cut of something chewable.”
might otherwise interfere with his ability to sur- Locked in his own private chamber of hor-
vive. There are some, however, who cannot rid rors, Ahab resolved that his only escape was
themselves of the memory. Melville, building upon through hunting down and killing Moby Dick:
Chase’s account, would make his Captain Ahab a “How can the prisoner reach outside except by
man who never emerged from the psychic depths thrusting through the wall? To me, the white
in which Chase had writhed these three nights. whale is that wall, shoved near to me.” Chase,
Just as Chase was convinced that the whale that on a tiny boat a thousand miles from land, did
attacked the Essex exhibited “decided, calculating not have the possibility of revenge. Ahab was
mischief,” so was Ahab haunted by a sense of the fighting a symbol; Chase and his shipmates
white whale’s “outrageous strength, with an inscru- were fighting for their lives.
table malice sinewing12 it.”
R ES P O N D I N G AN D TH I N K I N G C R ITI CALLY
Respond 5. After being attacked by a whale, the Essex crew
“felt an overpowering need to reclaim at least some
1. Are you surprised that the whale’s attack on the
control of their own destiny”. Do you think that this
Essex haunted Chase? Why or why not?
need for control drove Ahab’s obsessive quest to
Recall and Interpret hunt Moby Dick? Why or why not?
Prewriting
Drafting Connecting to Literature In his writing Emerson often looks back, or reflects,
on his experiences and uses them as jumping-off places for exploring his thoughts
Revising on a subject. This type of writing is usually referred to as the reflective essay. In
a reflective essay, you narrate and describe a personal experience to show both
➥ Elaborating
Focus Lesson:
Ideas
what the experience taught you and what it might teach others. To write a suc-
cessful essay you will need to learn the goals of reflective writing and the strate-
Editing & Proofreading gies to achieve those goals. These goals and strategies form the defining features
of a reflective essay.
➥ Focus Lesson: Correcting
Comma Splices
Goals Strategies
Writing Models For models To make vivid observations ✓ Use descriptive details to create a
and other writing activities, go to
www.glencoe.com. picture for your reader
✓ Use active verbs and striking adjectives
OB J EC TIVES
To connect with an audience ✓ Use first-person point of view
• Write a reflective essay
✓
exploring the meaning of Use a thoughtful but conversational
a personal experience. style to help develop your personal
• Use narration and description
writing voice
in a reflective essay.
Real-World Connection
º Assignment For college applications, you
Write a reflective essay that describes one of your experiences with the natu- might be asked to write an
ral world and expresses the insight you gained. As you move through the essay about a personal experi-
stages of the writing process, keep your audience and purpose in mind. ence. Think about some ideas
you might like to explore in
a college application essay.
Audience: peers and classmates
As you will see in this Writing
Purpose: to explore the significance of a personal experience Workshop assignment, the
key to success is to clearly
show the significance of your
experience.
Analyzing a Professional Model
In her autobiography, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Dillard reflects on the
significance of a childhood encounter with a moth. As you read the following
passage, note how Dillard uses both narrative and descriptive details to convey
her unique voice. Pay close attention to the comments in the margin. They
point out features that you might want to include in your own reflective essay.
Prewriting
Gather Ideas Prewriting is the stage of the writing process during which Top Ten
you generate ideas. You can use many different strategies: Create a personal “Nature’s
Best” list: best landscape,
º Approach the idea of the natural world from different angles. Keep in mind body of water, season,
that the natural world doesn’t just mean a wilderness or the countryside. time of day, weather, cloud
Weather is a part of nature. Nature is also present in cities and suburbs, as formation, tree, flower,
well as in parks, gardens, zoos, museums, and many other places. mammal, bird, fish, insect,
and so on. What experiences
º If you keep a journal, you might review it for entries dealing with nature.
do you associate with these
Thoreau referred to his journal as he wrote Walden.
choices?
º Look at family videos or photograph albums to recall events that relate to
the natural world, such as a trip to a national park, a zoo, or a natural
history museum.
º Use a cluster diagram. Start by putting the idea “nature” in the center and
jot down general areas that you associate with nature. Then move outward to
more specific associations until you think of an experience you want to write
about. Using the diagram below, one student focused on a meeting with an
animal rescuer.
landscape
nature poetry science
nature
“tame” “wild”
Talk About Your Ideas Meet with a partner to help focus on what you will say to
your readers and how you will say it. Think about your essay as a conversation on the
page in which you, the writer, do all the talking. To help develop your writing voice,
take turns telling each other the most vivid details of your experience. As you and
your partner speak, listen to the style of your language and your original approach to
ideas. Jot down notes and refer to them when you are developing your essay.
Animal 911
Introduction
I generally like nature to keep its distance—wild things belong outside. So
Do the opening sentences
introduce the essay topic in when I saw a white-flecked feather on the third step of the stairs leading up
an exciting and suspenseful to the second floor, I knew it was a bad sign. There were two more feathers
way? Why or why not?
on the fifth step. I followed the trail of fluff to the kitchen, where I found
First-Person Point of View the rest of the bird. I didn’t know what kind of bird it was—just a small
What are the advantages of round creature with a long bill. It had somehow managed to survive a meet-
using the first-person point
ing with our family cat. By the time I managed to corner and capture the
of view? What effect would
these sentences have if bird, it seemed to be in deep shock. I wasn’t feeling too well myself.
they were written in the With no bird experts around to consult, I had no way of knowing how
third-person?
seriously injured the poor creature was. Should I simply put the bird outside
Conversational Tone
on the porch and let nature—the neighborhood cats—take its course? I called
How does asking a
question create a the vet who looked after our cat. He suggested I get in touch with a Mrs.
conversational tone? Roberts, who lived not too far away. This woman took in injured animals that
people brought her and cared for them until they were well enough to return
to the wild. She sounded like just the person I needed. I put my injured bird
into a shoe box lined with tissue and took the bus to see Mrs. Roberts.
Narrative Details/ Along the way, I began to think about the person I was about to meet.
Chronological Order
To start with, what would Mrs. Roberts look like? Since she was in the busi-
How do transitional phrases
help your readers follow ness of looking after hurt animals, I began to picture her as a very sweet and
your ideas? gentle sort of person—sort of cuddly. I was wrong.
When I got to her house, I rang the bell. Nobody responded, so I walked
around to the back yard. I knew immediately I had come to the right place.
300 UNIT 2
Narration / Description
There were some large screened-in areas, where I could see a several
different animals, including a deer. There were also two or three upright
posts. A large, fierce-looking bird—some kind of hawk, I guess—
gripped the top of one of these. It glared at me as if I were a mouse. As I
Descriptive Details
stood there, I was startled by a clear, low voice behind me.
How do these details
“May I help you?” she asked. I spun around, nearly dropping my shoe box. help your readers visualize
“Mrs. Roberts?” I responded. She simply nodded in reply. My cuddly the scene? How do they
create tension?
fantasy of an animal rescuer was immediately replaced by a far tougher
reality. She was an old woman but clearly still very strong and sturdy,
Descriptive Details
with dark eyes and sharp features. She looked a bit like a hawk herself.
How do these details help
“I have an injured bird here,” I began, offering her my shoe box. the readers visualize Mrs.
As she took the box and removed the lid, I noticed she seemed to smile. Roberts? What do they tell
about her character?
It may have been the sight of the tissue paper in which I had put the
injured bird. She probably thought it looked like a doll bed created by a
little kid. She picked up the bird in one strong, brown hand and studied
it for a time before returning it to the box and replacing the cover.
“It’s a starling,” Mrs. Roberts said, as if she understood I wouldn’t
know. “I’m afraid there’s nothing I can do for it.”
“Really?” I asked, feeling a sharp stab of disappointment. “I thought
you took care of—are you sure there’s nothing?”
Narrative Details/Dialogue
“It’s a very old bird,” she explained.
How does the use of dia-
This comment was also a bit of shock. During my bus ride, I had logue show your readers
decided—based on no knowledge at all—that the bird was young. Part what is happening? Does
it place the readers in the
of my fantasy had been visiting the bird as it got better.
middle of the action?
“People bring me so many animals that I have to limit myself to aid-
ing those that are worth saving,” Mrs. Roberts explained. “This starling
just isn’t. Sorry. I’ll dispose of the bird for you.”
I was grateful she had relieved me of responsibility for the injured
bird, but I still felt that somehow Mrs. Roberts didn’t “care” for nature
in the way I had expected. She wasn’t cuddly. Thinking about her later,
however, it was clear that she cared very much; but she only applied her
Conclusion
concern to creatures that could benefit from it. My meeting with Mrs.
Why is it important that you
Roberts taught me that to love nature does not mean to be sentimental express how you felt at the
about wild creatures. You can be both realistic and caring. time of your experience and
how you feel now?
As she took the box and removed the lid, I noticed she seemed to smile.
Revision:
As she took the box and removed the lid, I noticed she seemed to smile.
It might have been the sight of the tissue paper in which I had put the
injured bird.1 She probably thought it looked like a doll bed created by a
little kid.2 “It’s a starling,” Mrs. Roberts said.3
1: Reasons 2: Descriptions 3: Dialogue
º Focus Lesson
I was grateful she had relieved me of responsibility for the injured How Was That?
bird, I still felt that somehow Mrs. Roberts didn’t “care” for nature in Try reading your essay
the way I had expected. aloud. Often you will be
able to “hear” a mistake
Solution A: Replace the comma with an end mark of punctuation, such as that you might not “see.”
a period or a question mark, and begin the new sentence with a capital letter.
Writer’s Portfolio
Place a copy of your
reflective essay in
Presenting your portfolio to
review later.
Appearance Matters Make your essay inviting to read. Handwritten papers
should be neat and legible. If you are working on a word processor, double-space
the lines of text and use a readable font, or typeface. Other design elements—
such as boldfaced headings or pictures—can help you present information effec- Writing Models For models
tively as well as make your essay look more appealing. Be sure to check with your and other writing activities, go to
teacher about presentation guidelines. www.glencoe.com.
Assignment
▲
• Read your essay aloud to a peer. Discuss which ideas you should keep or delete
and how your might adjust the language to fit the purpose. For example, you
might add informal expressions or vary sentence structure to make your essay
sound even more conversational.
• Jot down vivid details, striking dialogue, and key ideas on note cards. Arrange
the note cards in the same order as the elements appear in your essay. Use
your note cards as a speaking prompt.
• Make sure that you note the significance of the personal experience you
explored in your essay.
Use some of the verbal and nonverbal techniques listed below to ensure that
your audience clearly understands you and is engaged in what you have to say.
pauses to convey your meaning. you are saying. • Use voice, gesture, sound,
and visual effects to enhance
your performance.
✓ Tone Speak in an animated ✓ Gestures Use natural gestures to
• Polish your presentation in
voice. reinforce your ideas. rehearsal.
Billy Budd
Herman Melville
An industrious young sailor
accidentally kills the
tyrannical master-at-arms
who victimized him.
Reading: Nonfiction
Carefully read the following passage. Use context clues to help you define any words with which
you are unfamiliar. Pay close attention to the author’s main idea and use of rhetorical devices.
Then, on a separate sheet of paper, answer the questions on pages 309–310.
TE S T P RE PA RATIO N A N D P RACTICE 30 9
10. By referring to the wheel of fortune, what 13. On the basis of this passage, with which of the
literary technique is Emerson using? following statements would Emerson be most
A. foreshadowing likely to agree?
B. irony A. People are generally solitary.
C. allusion B. Individuals are stronger than communities.
D. motif C. There is no such thing as community.
E. analogy D. Only governments can protect private property.
E. Private property must be outlawed.
11. Which trait of good writing is Emerson
demonstrating in the sentence Do not believe it, 14. On the basis of this passage, what is the overall
in line 27? tone of this essay?
A. organization A. despairing
B. presentation B. ironic
C. word choice C. authoritative
D. sentence variety D. angry
E. voice E. sarcastic
12. What type of essay is this? 15. What is the main idea of this passage?
A. informal A. The individual is greedy and corrupt.
B. persuasive B. Individuals should reject society.
C. expository C. There is no such thing as chance.
D. narrative D. People must reject governments and property.
E. personal E. Individuals must look to themselves to be free.
310 UNIT 2 A M E R I C A N R O M A N TI C I S M
Vocabulary Skills: Sentence Completion
For each item in the Vocabulary Skills section, choose the word or words that best complete the sentence.
Write your answers on a separate sheet of paper.
1. For the writers of the era, Romanticism was both a 6. In their writings, Poe and Hawthorne often deal
political and a literary movement. with evil, or .
A. prejudice A. expedient
B. ideology B. admonition
C. din C. iniquity
D. issue D. lethargy
E. debate E. torpor
2. The agrarian South had few cities, whereas the 7. Individualism, the concern of the
cities in the North were heavily Transcendentalists, remains an important issue
industrialized. to this day.
A. manifest A. diffuse
B. inherent B. occult
C. myriad C. impregnable
D. blithe D. perennial
E. latent E. melancholy
3. The Age of Reform was marked by the rise of 8. Poe crafted his stories of the in
many religious organizations that hoped to order to convey a sense of horror to the reader.
increase the overall of America. A. melancholy . . . occult
A. melancholy . . . lethargy B. irreproachable . . . culture
B. perennial . . . cognizance C. sublime . . . sage
C. expedient . . . alacrity D. sagacious . . . culture
D. deliberately . . . resignation E. prevalent . . . sublime
E. zealous . . . integrity
9. Ralph Waldo Emerson was a writer and
4. The and clamor of the cities drove
philosopher, known as “The Sage of Concord.”
Thoreau into nature and a quiet life of seclusion.
A. pessimistic
A. wealth
B. venerable
B. size
C. popular
C. greed
D. sinister
D. din
E. superficial
E. pollution
5. Thoreau’s life at Walden Pond was a response to 10. Hawthorne was drawn to the stark Puritan
his own to live simply and deliberately. of the past.
A. iniquity A. morality
B. cognizance B. behavior
C. decorum C. culture
D. admonition D. landscape
E. discord E. sermons
6. Which of the following errors appears in sentence 8? 9. Which of the following errors appears in
A. run-on sentence sentence 12?
B. incorrect parallelism A. run-on sentence
C. fragment B. misplaced modifier
D. incorrect verb tense C. fragment
E. misplaced modifier D. incorrect verb tense
E. incorrect parallelism
7. Which of the following is the best revision of
sentence 9? 10. While writing the concluding paragraphs of this
A. Stuck having rehearsal for jazz band, Alaska draft, what information should the writer include
stays far away. to illustrate the essay’s general idea?
B. Because I was stuck with rehearsal for jazz A. examples of other people wasting their
band, I couldn’t go to Alaska. free time
C. Because there was rehearsal for jazz band, B. how to get a summer job
Alaska was far away from me. C. how the writer’s optimism improved the
D. I have rehearsal for jazz band, so Alaska was situation
far away. D. details about band rehearsal
E. Jazz band rehearsal had me stuck, so Alaska E. details about his family’s trip to Alaska
was so far away.
Essay
Ralph Waldo Emerson claimed that “nothing can bring you peace but yourself.” Do you agree
with this statement? Write a short reflective essay that expresses your ideas about individualism
and Emerson’s claim. As you write, keep in mind that your essay will be checked for ideas,
organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions, and presentation.
314
Dennis Malone Carter/The Bridgeman Art Library
U N IT TH R EE
O B J EC T IV ES
In learning about the Civil War era, you will focus on the following:
315
Timeline Uncle Tom’s Cabin
▲
AM E R I CAN L I T E R AT U R E
1850 1860
1852 1855 1859–1865 1862
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Frederick Douglass’s Emily Dickinson writes more Julia Ward Howe’s “Battle
Uncle Tom’s Cabin autobiography, My Bondage than eight hundred poems Hymn of the Republic”
is published and My Freedom, is published is published
1861
1855 1858 Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in 1863
Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Abraham Lincoln gives A the Life of a Slave Girl is Abraham Lincoln delivers
Grass is published House Divided speech published under the the Gettysburg Address
pseudonym Linda Brent
1865
Walt Whitman’s Drum-Taps
is published
U N I T E D STAT ES EV E NTS
1850 1860
1850 1860–1861 1861
Compromise of 1850 Pony Express runs from Confederate forces fire
strengthens Fugitive Slave Act Missouri to California on Fort Sumter in South
Carolina, starting the
1854 1860
Civil War
Congress passes Kansas- Abraham Lincoln wins
Nebraska Act presidential election 1861
First Battle of Bull Run
1856 1857 1860
is fought
Proslavery forces sack Dred Scott decision makes South Carolina secedes from
Lawrence, Kansas, and slavery legal in all territories the Union 1862
antislavery forces retaliate Richard Gatling patents the
1859 1861
with Pottawatomie Massacre first practical machine gun
John Brown raids federal Jefferson Davis becomes the
in “Bleeding Kansas” conflict
arsenal at Harpers Ferry, VA. Confederate president 1863
Union collects income tax
to fund the Civil War
WO R L D EVE NTS
1850 1860
1850 1856 1861 1865
Taiping Rebellion begins Crimean War ends Alexander II, czar of Russia, Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s
in China frees serfs Adventures in Wonderland
1857
is published
1850 Gustave Flaubert’s Madame 1861
Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Bovary is published Burke and Wills expedition 1867
Sonnets from the Portuguese reaches Australia Alfred Nobel receives
1857–1858
is published British patent on dynamite
Indian soldiers revolt in
1853 Sepoy Mutiny (known in 1868
Commodore Perry opens India as First War of Meiji Restoration reforms
Japan to world trade Independence) Japan’s government
1855 1858
David Livingstone names Benito Juárez becomes
Victoria Falls in Africa president of Mexico
▲
1870
1873 1878
Henry Timrod’s “Cotton Henry James’s Daisy
Boll” is published Miller and The Europeans
are published
1875
▲ Mary Baker Eddy’s Science 1879
1868 and Health with Key to the George W. Cable’s Old
Louisa May Alcott’s Little Scriptures is published Creole Days is published
Women is published
1876
Mark Twain’s Adventures of
Tom Sawyer is published
1870
1863 1865 1870
Emancipation Proclamation Abraham Lincoln is Hiram Revels becomes
declares freedom for assassinated by John Wilkes the first African
enslaved persons in the Booth American elected to
Confederate states the U.S. Senate
1865
1863 Civil War ends 1876
Battle of Gettysburg is fought Battle of the Little
1866
Bighorn (Custer’s Last
1864 Ku Klux Klan organizes in
Stand) is fought
Abraham Lincoln is Tennessee
reelected president 1877
1868
Reconstruction ends
Ulysses S. Grant is elected
president; he holds office
until 1877
1870
1870 1876 1879
Franco-German War begins First full production of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s
Richard Wagner’s Ring of House is published
Ferdinand de Lesseps, 1872
the Nibelung is performed
engineer for Suez Canal Claude Monet completes
at Bayreuth
Impression: Sunrise
1869
1874
Suez Canal opens in Egypt
The Three-Cornered Hat by
1869 Pedro Antonio de Alarcón y Reading Check
Mohandas K. Gandhi is born Ariza is published
Analyzing Graphic Information:
1. How long did the Civil War last?
Timeline Visit www.glencoe.com for 2. Which occurred first, the issuing of the Emancipation
an interactive timeline. Proclamation or the freeing of the serfs in Russia?
INTRODUCTION 317
(tl)Mary Evans Picture Library, (tr)Smithsonian Images, (c)New-York Historical Society, New York, USA, Bridgeman Art Library, (b)Mary Evans Picture Library/The Image Works
By the Numbers
DIVISION OF RESOURCES BETWEEN THE UNION AND THE CONFEDERACY
100
Percentage of Overall Resources
Union
90 94%
92% Confederacy
90%
80
82%
70
71% 72%
60 69%
67%
50 56%
40 44%
30 33%
29% 31%
20 28%
10 18%
10%
0 8% 6%
s n s on al
ion re
d
or
ts
hip of ck tio m
cti pit
lat tu p s les tra uc f far u a
pu c
fa s Ex a nt M ad i o d
ro o d g c
Po nu od rch pr be pr kin
lro n
Ma go e r a i a i m Ir o n
Ba
n
M Gr Nu
Source: Historical Statistics of the United States
318 UNIT 3 TH E C I V I L WA R E RA
Being T here
Before South Carolina seceded in December 1860,
the nation stood on the brink of destruction.
After secession began, the tensions between
A Plantation on the Mississippi, nineteenth
the industrial North and the agricultural South
century. Currier & Ives. Color lithograph.
Museum of the City of New York. came to a violent head.
Wounded Union soldiers being cared for by The Battle of Antietam, 1862. Captain James Hope. Oil on
B nurse Anne Bell, 1861–1865. Photograph. C canvas. U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, DC.
WV separated from VA
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www.glencoe.com for an interactive map.
Antislavery Movement
Most Northerners opposed the Fugitive Slave Act,
and most free-state legislatures passed laws in an
attempt to block it. The Underground Railroad, a
secret network that aided enslaved fugitives escaping
to the North, became more active than ever. The
fugitives were known as “freight” or “packages,” the
homes where they were sheltered were “stations,” and
those who guided them were “conductors.”
In 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s best-selling novel Abraham Lincoln with General George Brinton
McClellan talking in a tent at the Antietam battlefield.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin depicted the cruelty of slavery and
Undated photo by Mathew Brady.
the fight for freedom. Abolitionists hailed the book;
one review proclaimed, “A slaveholder might read it
without anger, but not easily without a secret abhor- Secession
rence of the system which he himself upholds.” As the 1860 presidential election approached, the
Republican Party nominated Abraham Lincoln.
Lincoln was not an outright abolitionist; he simply
believed that slavery should be excluded from
the new territories. With Lincoln’s victory, many
320 UNIT 3 TH E C I V I L WA R E RA
Alexander Gardner/CORBIS
Southern states, anticipating that the new president S. Grant finally began to attack Southern resources
would abolish slavery, felt that they had no choice but as well as Confederate forces.
to leave the Union. On December 20, 1860, South
President Lincoln, assassinated on April 14, 1865,
Carolina seceded. Six more states soon followed.
did not witness the end to the struggle that had
These states formed the Confederate States
divided the nation. After more than 600,000 deaths
of America, or the Confederacy, which included
on both sides, the last Confederate soldiers surren-
eleven states by the start of the war. In Lincoln’s
dered in May 1865. The Thirteenth Amendment
inaugural address, he pleaded for the North and
became law in December 1865, officially ending
South to avoid bloodshed and violence. His plea
slavery in the entire nation. The North’s victory in
was not heeded, and on April 12, 1861, Confederate
the Civil War destroyed the South’s slave economy.
troops attacked Fort Sumter, a federal fort in the
Seceded states eventually returned to the Union,
harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. The Civil
but a legacy of bitterness lingered long after the last
War had begun.
Yankee soldier had marched home.
Reconstruction
“We failed, but in the good
Although the fighting had ended, the period of
providence of God apparent failure Reconstruction involved more than rebuilding and
often proves a blessing.” repairing the South. It would take years to restructure
Southern society, grant rights to those who had been
— Confederate General Robert E. Lee enslaved, and readmit the Southern states to the
Union. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act in 1866
and then the Fourteenth Amendment—redefining
citizenship to include African Americans and requir-
War ing their equal protection under the law—but the
The South’s long tradition of military service gave nation did little to help those who had been freed.
the Confederate army an early advantage over the After Reconstruction, the new South was in many
Union. As the war continued, however, the Union ways similar to the pre-Civil War South: White
grew stronger, while Confederate losses weakened Southern Democrats returned to power, and African
the South. To win the war, Union General Ulysses Americans lost many of their civil rights.
The culture of African During the Civil War, Poets Walt Whitman and
Americans was shaped by Americans created a literary Emily Dickinson experi-
their struggle against slav- record that ranged from vivid mented with new verse
ery. Spirituals and slave accounts of wartime life to forms during this period.
narratives testified to the profound expressions of faith In divergent ways, they
harshness of slavery and in American ideals. explored the self and its
African Americans’ fierce See pages 324–325. relation to the world.
resistance to it. See pages 326–327.
See pages 322–323.
S
uppose that you were not allowed to read or write drawn from the Bible, as slaves likened their situation
or own anything. Picture yourself being whipped to that of the Jews held captive in Egypt.
for disobeying orders or hunted after trying to
Many songs had a dual meaning, expressing both reli-
escape. Imagine that you could be sold away from
gious faith and a hunger for freedom. Some also
your family. That was life in slavery.
served as encoded messages. The first line of “Follow
the Drinking Gourd”—“When the sun comes back
and the first quail calls”—refers to late winter.
“There is no Negro problem. The “Conductors” on the Underground Railroad found
that it took about a year for escapees to journey from
problem is whether the American people the South to the Ohio River and that crossing the
have loyalty enough, honor enough, river was easiest during winter, when the river was
frozen. Thus, the song suggests that enslaved Africans
patriotism enough, to live up to their make their escape during winter and follow the
own Constitution.” “Drinking Gourd”—the Big Dipper constellation,
whose cup points to the North Star.
—Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass (see pages 337–344) was born on a
The Realities of Slavery Maryland plantation and was separated from his
Southern plantation owners purchased Africans for mother soon after birth. Early on Douglass realized
cultivating cotton, rice, or other crops. Southern laws that education was the path to freedom. As he taught
made enslaved people property for life; even their himself to read and write, he grew determined to gain
children could be sold. It was illegal to teach enslaved that freedom. After Douglass escaped at age twenty,
people to read or write, for owners feared that knowl- he spoke at an antislavery meeting, launching his
edge would bring revolt and the ruin of their eco- career as a powerful orator and an influential member
nomic system. Escape was difficult; night patrols of the abolitionist movement. In 1845, he authenti-
whipped or killed the slaves they caught. cated his life story and the brutality he had endured
by writing Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,
Slavery was legal in the North, too; however, condi-
an American Slave, later expanded into My Bondage
tions there were different. Some enslaved persons
and My Freedom and Life and Times of Frederick
were allowed to work in the industrial trades, and cer-
Douglass.
tain states allowed them to marry and acquire prop-
erty. An enslaved person could be punished, but an
owner who killed one could be charged with murder. Slave Narratives
Religious groups had always opposed slavery, and most Slave narratives became increasingly popular in the
Northerners came to believe that slavery was wrong. decades before the Civil War. In addition to Frederick
The argument over expanding slavery into new terri- Douglass, writers William Wells Brown, Solomon
tories began to tear the nation apart. Northup, and Sojourner Truth sold tens of thousands
of copies of their life stories. They not only provided
Strength in Religion Northerners and abolitionists with glimpses of the
horrors of slavery but also contradicted the claims of
Enslaved Africans combined traditional African
slave owners. Through these narratives, slaves could
music with Christian hymns to create spirituals, or
be seen as people rather than property. For many peo-
songs of salvation and religious beliefs (see pages
ple who knew no African Americans, these accounts
330–335). Much of the imagery in spirituals was
revealed a culture and community that were founded
on tradition, family, love, and respect.
322 UNIT 3 T H E C I V I L WA R E RA
The Hour of
Emancipation,
1863. William
Tolman Carlton.
Oil on canvas.
Private collection.
Frederick Douglass gave a speech to a white audience in Rochester, New York, on July 5, 1852.
The following paragraphs are taken from that speech.
from The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro by Frederick Douglass
The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of
enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, lib- tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty
erty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns,
fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious
brought light and healing to you has brought stripes and parade and solemnity, are, to him mere bombast, fraud,
death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You deception, impiety, and hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover up
may rejoice, I must mourn. . . . crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There
What, to the American slave, is your fourth of July? is not a nation on earth guilty of practices more shock-
I answer, a day that reveals to him, more than all other ing and bloody than are the people of the United States,
days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which at this very hour.
he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is
a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your
national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of
Reading Check
Analyzing Author’s Purpose How did Douglass try
to persuade his white readers and listeners to fight
against slavery?
F
ighting any war brings fear, loss, suffering, and Mary Chesnut’s World
death, but a war that turns the people of a coun-
Mary Boykin Miller Chesnut (see pages 360–366)
try against each other is doubly bitter. In the
grew up in luxury on a large South Carolina planta-
American Civil War, communities and sometimes
tion. Although she personally hated slavery, her fam-
even families became divided by the conflict.
ily owned hundreds of slaves, and both her father and
Letters home were written from places most people had
husband served as proslavery senators. Chesnut had
never heard of—Shiloh, Antietam, Gettysburg, and
little choice but to remain loyal to the South, but she
Chickamauga—all sites of major battles where thou-
documented the brutal cost of the war in her journal:
sands of soldiers were wounded or killed.
July 1st [1862] . . . Edward Cheves, only son of
John Cheves, killed. His sister kept crying, ‘Oh,
mother, what shall we do; Edward is killed,’ but
“Many are the hearts that are weary the mother sat dead still, white as a sheet, never
tonight, Wishing for the war to cease,” uttering a word or shedding a tear. Are our
women losing the capacity to weep?
— from the Civil War song “Tenting on the Old
Chesnut visited hospitals, rejoiced with friends at
Campground” by Walter C. Kittredge
Confederate victories, and cried over Confederate
losses. Through it all, she detailed the cruelties and
evils of war in her journal. Her story told of her own
Revolution or Treason? fears and reactions, the devaluation of Confederate
When Abraham Lincoln (see pages 386–392) was currency, and the inflation that forced families
elected to the U.S. Congress in 1846, he voted into starvation.
against abolishing slavery, because he thought it
would tear the Union apart. Although his goal was Lincoln’s Vision and Words
not to end slavery, he opposed its spreading to new
Abraham Lincoln initially wished only to limit slav-
territories. He believed that the territories should
ery and to preserve the Union, but he came under
remain “places for poor people to go and better their
increasing pressure to turn the war into a campaign
condition.” As antislavery sentiment grew in the
against slavery. He cautiously committed himself to
North, it became clear that the United States was
eliminating slavery throughout the country, begin-
in danger of becoming divided.
ning with the Emancipation Proclamation, which
In his speech A House Divided in 1858, Lincoln announced that he would free the enslaved people in
warned of the possible end of the Republic: the South on January 1, 1863. The proclamation
turned the war into a moral battle that aroused not
“We are now far into the fifth year, since a policy
only the spirit of the North but also the spirits of
was initiated with the avowed object and confident
those who were enslaved. Lincoln’s speeches reflected
promise of putting an end to slavery agitation. . . .
his dedication to the preservation of the Union and
In my opinion, it will not cease until a crisis shall
his desire to heal the nation. When Lincoln delivered
have been reached, and passed—‘A house divided
the Gettysburg Address in 1863, he expressed a new
against itself cannot stand.’”
vision of the United States.
When Lincoln was elected president in 1860, his
The language of the Bible and of William
words proved true. The North saw secession as an act
Shakespeare inspired Lincoln’s words. Lincoln’s
of treason. The South believed that it had launched a
speeches were eloquent and moving, effectively com-
second American revolution, and the Civil War
bining simplicity with grandeur, emotion with power,
began soon after Lincoln took office.
and respect for human government with divine ideals.
324 UNIT 3 T H E C I V I L WA R E RA
Civilians at 31st
Pennsylvania Infantry
Camp, 1862. Black
and white photograph.
Medford Historical
Society Collection.
The Almighty has his own purposes. “Woe unto the years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every
world because of offenses! for it must needs be that drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by
offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the another drawn with the sword, as was said three thou-
offense cometh!” If we shall suppose that American sand years ago, so still it must be said, “the judgments
slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether.”
of God, must needs come, but which, having continued With malice toward none; with charity for all; with
through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let
and that He gives to both North and South, this terrible us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the
war, as the woe due to those by whom the offense nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne
came, shall we discern therein any departure from those the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all
divine attributes which the believers in a Living God which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace,
always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope—fervently do among ourselves, and with all nations.
we pray—that this mighty scourge of war may speedily
pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the
wealth piled by the bond-man’s two hundred and fifty
Reading Check
Summarizing Main Ideas What are the main ideas of
each of the two paragraphs from Lincoln’s Second
Inaugural Address?
I
n the middle of the 1800s, two poets with dra- poems in Drum-Taps reflect his changing attitudes
matically contrasting lives and writing styles and experiences as a nurse.
altered the course of American poetry. Walt
Whitman cared for both Union and Confederate sol-
Whitman and Emily Dickinson explored their
diers in war hospitals. Being on the scene was essen-
emotions through poetry that broke with tradi-
tial to him, whether he was sharing the energy of city
tional themes and forms. Their work created two
life or the grief of battle casualties. In President
diverse inspirations for poets to this day.
Abraham Lincoln, Whitman found an American
hero. He celebrated the “Rail-Splitter” who had
emerged from humble origins to unify the nation and
“The genius of the United States is not felt profound grief when Lincoln was assassinated. In
best or most in its executives or the elegy “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard
Bloom’d,” Whitman reflects on Lincoln—“the great
legislatures, nor in its ambassadors or star early droop’d in the western sky.” The elegy
authors or colleges . . . but always most addresses the nature of grief and embraces a theme of
renewal in spite of the tragic assassination:
in the common people.”
“From deep secluded recesses,
—Walt Whitman From the fragrant cedars and the ghostly pines so
still, Came the carol of the bird.”
Critic Alfred Kazin wrote that Whitman’s elegy “is as
Whitman’s World much a monument as the Lincoln Memorial.”
Walt Whitman (see pages 394–422) found poetry in
the lives of everyday Americans. He took daily walks Dickinson’s Introspection
to absorb the sights and sounds of Brooklyn and its While Whitman experienced America and its people,
people, especially blue-collar workers. Whitman used Emily Dickinson (see pages 423–443) observed the
his experiences as a reporter, teacher, laborer, and life of Amherst, Massachusetts, from her second-story
Civil War nurse to create his poetry. His distinctive bedroom window, composing poetry that could turn
style is marked by long, rollicking lines written in free the ordinary into the deeply meaningful. Dickinson
verse—poetry based on the irregular rhythms of wrote approximately 1,775 poems, though less than a
speech, rather than on traditional poetic meter. dozen were published in her lifetime. She suggested
Whitman imagined his work as one long, boundless that her work had to make its points subtly: “The
poem that expressed his all-embracing view of the Truth must dazzle gradually / Or every man be blind.”
world. Leaves of Grass captured the colorful speech Although Dickinson created poetry during the Civil
and brash, optimistic spirit of a vital young nation. War, her poems do not place the reader on the battle-
In an essay on the ideal poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson field and in the action as Whitman’s do. Instead, her
had observed: “The poet has a new thought; he has themes connect the reader to moments and feelings.
a whole new experience to unfold; he will tell us how
it was with him, and all men will be the richer in his A presentiment is a premonition, or a feeling that
fortune.” Inspired by Emerson’s vision, Whitman saw something is about to happen. In her poem on the
himself as this poet. following page, Dickinson describes the time before
darkness envelops the day. Her metaphor relates sun-
set and darkness to death. Though this poem is not
Whitman on the War about the Civil War, it conveys a fear of dying, appro-
When the Civil War came, Whitman’s work reflected priate to a period of war. Dickinson’s poems could be
his sympathies for the struggles of the Union. The categorized in conventional terms—love, nature,
326 UNIT 3 T H E C I V I L WA R E RA
Central Park, 20th century. George Luks. Oil on canvas,
31.5 x 34.4 in. Private collection. “Cavalry Crossing a Ford”
by Walt Whitman
eternity, loneliness, and death—but she brought irony A line in long array where they wind betwixt
and keen observation to these common topics. Her
green islands,
poetry included unconventional use of punctuation,
They take a serpentine course, their arms flash
especially dashes, and short, clipped lines that took
in the sun—hark to the musical clank,
rhythmic influence from the hymns that she had
heard as a child. Dickinson has been described as an Behold the silvery river, in it the splashing
expert miniaturist because of the depth of expression horses loitering stop to drink,
contained in this tightly constructed poems. Behold the brown-faced men, each group, each
person a picture, the negligent rest on the
saddles,
5 Some emerge on the opposite bank, others are
“The Lightning is a yellow Fork” just entering the ford—while,
by Emily Dickinson Scarlet and blue and snowy white,
The guidon flags flutter gayly in the wind.
The Lightning is a yellow Fork
From Tables in the sky
By inadvertent fingers dropt
The awful Cutlery
2. Visual Literacy Create a timeline that represents the American people and the struggles they faced
during the Civil War. Use works of art, photographs, advertisements, book covers, and posters in your
timeline. Include brief descriptions of how these works reflect the period.
3. Writing Poet James Russell Lowell read his poem “Commemoration Ode” at Harvard College
shortly after Lincoln’s death. In the poem, he called Lincoln “the first American.” Write a short essay
explaining what you think he meant by this. Consider Lincoln’s life, his writings, and his place in the
American consciousness.
O B J EC TIVES
• Evaluate how a historical period shaped its literature. Study Central Visit
• Use writing to discover and organize what is known about a topic. www.glencoe.com and click on Study Central to
• Communicate a specific message by using a variety of media forms. review The Civil War Era.
• Use effective verbal and nonverbal stategies in an oral interpretation.
A Ride for Liberty, or The Fugitive Slaves, 1862. J. Eastman Johnson. 55.9 x 66.7 cm. Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York.
329
J. Eastman Johnson/The Bridgeman Art Library
B EFO R E YO U R E A D
Three Spirituals
W H O W ROT E T H E SPI R I T UA LS ?
T
he spirituals featured here came out of the
oral tradition of African Americans
enslaved in the South before the outbreak
of the Civil War. These “sorrow songs,” as they
were called, were created by anonymous artists and
transmitted by word of mouth. As a result, several
versions of the same spiritual may exist. According Some spirituals served as encoded messages by
to the Library of Congress, more than six thousand which enslaved field workers, forbidden to speak
spirituals have been documented, though some are to each other, could communicate practical infor-
not known in their entirety. mation about escape plans. Some typical code
African American spirituals combined the tunes words included Egypt, referring to the South or the
and texts of Christian hymns with the rhythms, state of bondage, and the promised land or heaven,
finger-snapping, clapping, and stamping of tradi- referring to the North or freedom. To communi-
tional African music. The spirituals allowed cate a message of hope, spirituals frequently
enslaved Africans to retain some of the culture of recounted Bible stories about people liberated from
their homelands and forge a new culture while fac- oppression through divine intervention. The spiri-
ing the hardships of captive life in the United tual “Keep Your Hand on the Plow,” for example,
States. Many spirituals followed a call-and- tells the story of Paul and Silas, who were released
response pattern in which a leader sang the verses from prison after God sent an earthquake to free
and was answered by a group of singers. The sing- them.
ers often improvised the songs by changing words The spirituals were saved from obscurity after the
or adding new verses. Civil War by the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University
in Nashville, Tennessee. To raise money for the
school during a time of financial hardship, the
small university choir sang spirituals to church
“Every tone [in the spirituals] was a groups around the country. The Jubilee Singers
testimony against slavery, and a prayer were soon in demand and eventually performed
the spirituals for President Ulysses S. Grant and
to God for deliverance from chains.” England’s Queen Victoria.
—Frederick Douglass The spirituals became a part of American pop cul-
ture, paving the way for other musical forms
including blues and jazz and influencing poets such
Enslaved African Americans sang spirituals both as James Weldon Johnson. When Martin Luther
in worship and while laboring in the field. Many King Jr. led the march in Washington, D.C., for
of the songs have a dual meaning, expressing both civil rights in March 1963, he quoted from the
religious faith and a hunger for freedom. The New spiritual “Free at Last”: “You can hinder me here,
York Tribune published “Go Down, Moses” after but you can’t hinder me there.”
Reverend Lewis Lockwood heard African
Americans singing it on September 3, 1861, and
submitted the lyrics.
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • understanding the influence of historical context on a work
• relating literature to a historical period • understanding the use of refrain in a poem or song
Harriet Tubman Series No. 11, 1939-40. Jacob Lawrence. Casein tempera on gessoed hardboard,
12 x 177/8 in. Hampton University Museum, Hampton, VA.
5 When Israel was in Egypt’s land, When they had reached the other shore,
Let my people go; Let my people go;
Oppressed so hard they could not stand, They sang a song of triumph o’er.
Let my people go. 20 Let my people go.
CHORUS
5 Hold on, hold on,
Keep your hand on the plow,
Hold on.
1. In the Bible (Acts 16:16 – 40) the Apostle Paul and his
companion Silas are imprisoned, but an earthquake shakes
the prison and releases them.
2. In the Bible (John 13:4 – 20) the Apostle Peter objects at
first when Jesus wants to wash his feet.
334 UNIT 3 T H E C I V I L WA R E RA
A F T E R YO U R E A D
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. Which phrases or lines from these spirituals did you 6. Enslaved African Americans highly valued, and
find most comforting or inspiring? frequently retold, stories from the Gospels.
(a)In light of this, what do you think is the meaning
Recall and Interpret of lines 1–3 of “Keep Your Hand on the Plow”?
2. (a)What might the chariot in “Swing Low, Sweet (b)In what way do these lines illuminate the
Chariot” represent? (b)Who or what might be the theme, or overall message, of the song? Give
“band of angels” in line 7? details from the song to support your answer.
3. (a)What feelings does the speaker express in 7. Describe the mood, or overall feeling or emotion,
lines 13–16? (b)Why do you think the speaker’s created by each of the spirituals. Use specific
“soul feels heavenly bound”? examples from each song to support your
response.
4. (a)In lines 1–8 of “Go Down, Moses,” what is the
speaker asking Moses to do? (b)What might these
lines say about the experiences and hopes of Connect
enslaved African Americans?
8. Big Idea Resistance to Slavery What elements
5. (a)Summarize the two Bible stories retold in “Keep of the spirituals helped singers and listeners endure
Your Hand on the Plow.” (b)Why do you think these and overcome slavery? Include details from the
particular stories were included in a spiritual? Explain. spirituals in your answer.
L I T E R A RY A NA LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
Frederick Douglass
from My Bondage and My Freedom ........... autobiography .......... 339
The power of knowledge
Robert Hayden
Frederick Douglass .................................................................. poem .......... 345
Realizing the dream of freedom
Quincy Troupe
In Texas Grass ............................................................................ poem .........346
Lapses in the path to equality
336 UNIT 3 T H E C I V I L WA R E RA
B E FOR E YOU R EA D
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution/Art Resource, NY
F R E D ER I C K D OU G L A S S 337
L I T E R AT U R E P R E V I E W R E A D I N G P R E V I EW
338 UNIT 3 T H E C I V I L WA R E RA
Frederick Douglass
Series No. 8. Jacob Lawrence (1917–2000). Casein tempera on gessoed hardboard, 12 x 17 7/8 in. Hampton University Museum, VA.
Vocabulary
Big Idea Resistance to Slavery How does this incompat-
induce (in doo
¯¯¯ s´) v. to lead by persuasion or influence ibility motivate Douglass to resist the institution of slavery?
340 UNIT 3 TH E C I V I L WA R E RA
cessful, was that of using my young white play-
mates, with whom I met in the street, as teachers.
I used to carry, almost constantly, a copy of
Webster’s spelling book in my pocket; and, when
sent of errands, or when play time was allowed
me, I would step, with my young friends, aside,
and take a lesson in spelling. I generally paid my
tuition fee to the boys, with bread, which I also
carried in my pocket. For a single biscuit, any of
my hungry little comrades would give me a lesson
more valuable to me than bread. Not every one,
however, demanded this consideration, for there
were those who took pleasure in teaching me,
whenever I had a chance to be taught by them. I
am strongly tempted to give the names of two or
three of those little boys, as a slight testimonial of
the gratitude and affection I bear them, but pru-
dence forbids; not that it would injure me, but it
might, possibly, embarrass them; for it is almost an
unpardonable offense to do any thing, directly or
indirectly, to promote a slave’s freedom, in a slave
state. It is enough to say, of my warm-hearted lit-
tle play fellows, that they lived on Philpot street,
very near Durgin & Bailey’s shipyard.
Although slavery was a delicate subject, and
very cautiously talked about among grown up peo-
The Life of Frederick Douglass #29: The war was over. The slaves were literally ple in Maryland, I frequently talked about it—and
turned out by their masters into a world unknown to them. They had ceased to that very freely—with the white boys. I would,
be slaves of man and became slaves of nature, 1939. Jacob Lawrence. Casein sometimes, say to them, while seated on a curb
tempera on hardboard, 17 x 12. Hampton University Museum, Hampton, VA.
stone or a cellar door, “I wish I could be free, as
you will be when you get to be men.” “You will be
I was most narrowly watched in all my move-
free, you know, as soon as you are twenty-one, and
ments. If I remained in a separate room from the
can go where you like, but I am a slave for life.
family for any considerable length of time, I was
Have I not as good a right to be free as you have?”
sure to be suspected of having a book, and was at
Words like these, I observed, always troubled
once called upon to give an account of myself. All
them; and I had no small satisfaction in wringing
this, however, was entirely too late. The first, and
from the boys, occasionally, that fresh and bitter
never to be retraced, step had been taken. In
condemnation of slavery, that springs from nature,
teaching me the alphabet, in the days of her sim-
unseared and unperverted. Of all consciences, let
plicity and kindness, my mistress had given me
me have those to deal with which have not been
the “inch,” and now, no ordinary precaution could
bewildered by the cares of life. I do not remember
prevent me from taking the “ell.”3
ever to have met with a boy, while I was in slav-
Seized with a determination to learn to read, at
ery, who defended the slave system; but I have
any cost, I hit upon many expedients to accom-
often had boys to console me, with the hope that
plish the desired end. The plea which I mainly
something would yet occur, by which I might be
adopted, and the one by which I was most suc-
F R E D ER I C K D OU G L A S S 341
The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation / Art Resource, NY
made free. Over and over again, they have told which he has performed toward the slave, and
me, that “they believed I had as good a right to be tells him he is permitted to speak for himself.
free as they had”; and that “they did not believe Thus invited to the debate, the quondam5 slave
God ever made any one to be a slave.” The reader made a spirited defense of himself, and thereafter
will easily see, that such little conversations with the whole argument, for and against slavery, was
my play fellows, had no tendency to weaken my brought out. The master was vanquished at every
love of liberty, nor to render me contented with turn in the argument; and seeing himself to be
my condition as a slave. thus vanquished, he generously and meekly
When I was about thirteen years old, and had emancipates the slave, with his best wishes for
succeeded in learning to read, every increase of his prosperity. It is scarcely necessary to say, that
knowledge, especially respecting the FREE a dialogue, with such an origin, and such an end-
STATES, added something to the almost intoler- ing—read when the fact of my being a slave was
able burden of the thought—“I AM A SLAVE FOR a constant burden of grief—powerfully affected
LIFE.” To my bondage I saw no end. It was a ter- me; and I could not help feeling that the day
rible reality, and I shall never be able to tell how might come, when the well-directed answers
sadly that thought chafed my young spirit. made by the slave to the master, in this instance,
Fortunately, or unfortunately, about this time in would find their counterpart in myself. . . .
my life, I had made enough money to buy what I had now penetrated the secret of all slavery
was then a very popular school book, viz:4 the and oppression, and had ascertained their true
“Columbian Orator.” I bought this addition to foundation to be in the pride, the power and the
my library, of Mr. Knight, on Thames street, avarice of man. The dialogue and the speeches
Fell’s Point, Baltimore, and paid him fifty cents were all redolent of the principles of liberty, and
for it. I was first led to buy this book, by hearing poured floods of light on the nature and character
some little boys say that they were going to learn of slavery. . . . Nevertheless, the increase of
some little pieces out of it for the Exhibition. knowledge was attended with bitter, as well as
This volume was, indeed, a rich treasure, and sweet results. The more I read, the more I was led
every opportunity afforded me, for a time, was to abhor and detest slavery, and my enslavers.
spent in diligently perusing it. Among much “Slaveholders,” thought I, “are only a band of
other interesting matter, that which I had successful robbers, who left their homes and went
perused and reperused with unflagging satisfac- into Africa for the purpose of stealing and reduc-
tion, was a short dialogue between a master and ing my people to slavery.” I loathed them as the
his slave. The slave is represented as having been meanest and the most wicked of men. As I read,
recaptured, in a second attempt to run away; and behold! the very discontent so graphically pre-
the master opens the dialogue with an upbraid- dicted by Master Hugh, had already come upon
ing speech, charging the slave with ingratitude, me. I was no longer the light-hearted, gleesome
and demanding to know what he has to say in boy, full of mirth and play, as when I landed first
his own defense. Thus upbraided, and thus called at Baltimore. Knowledge had come; light had
upon to reply, the slave rejoins, that he knows penetrated the moral dungeon where I dwelt;
how little anything that he can say will avail, and, behold! there lay the bloody whip, for my
seeing that he is completely in the hands of his back, and here was the iron chain; and my good,
owner; and with noble resolution, calmly says,
“I submit to my fate.” Touched by the slave’s
answer, the master insists upon his further speak- 5. Quondam means “that once was” or “former.”
ing, and recapitulates the many acts of kindness
Reading Strategy Analyzing Cause and Effect What
effect did reading this anecdote about the slave and his
4. Viz is an abbreviation for the Latin word videlicet, meaning master have on Douglass?
“namely” or “that is.”
Vocabulary
Reading Strategy Analyzing Cause and Effect What
was the ironic effect of Douglass’s learning to read? vanquish (vang´ kwish) v. to defeat
342 UNIT 3 TH E C I V I L WA R E RA
kind master, he was the author of my situation. angel stood in the way;7 and—such is the rela-
The revelation haunted me, stung me, and made tion of master and slave—I could not tell her.
me gloomy and miserable. As I writhed under the Nature had made us friends; slavery made us ene-
sting and torment of this knowledge, I almost mies. My interests were in a direction opposite
envied my fellow slaves their stupid content- to hers, and we both had our private thoughts
ment. This knowledge opened my eyes to the and plans. She aimed to keep me ignorant; and I
horrible pit, and revealed the teeth of the fright- resolved to know, although knowledge only
ful dragon that was ready to pounce upon me, increased my discontent. My feelings were not
but it opened no way for my escape. I have often the result of any marked cruelty in the treatment
wished myself a beast, or a bird—anything, I received; they sprung from the consideration of
rather than a slave. I was wretched and gloomy, my being a slave at all. It was slavery—not its
beyond my ability to describe. I was too thought- mere incidents—that I hated. I had been cheated.
ful to be happy. It was this everlasting thinking I saw through the attempt to keep me in igno-
which distressed and tormented me; and yet rance; I saw that slaveholders would have gladly
there was no getting rid of the subject of my made me believe that they were merely acting
thoughts. All nature was redolent of it. Once under the authority of God, in making a slave of
awakened by the silver trump6 of knowledge, my me, and in making slaves of others; and I treated
spirit was roused to eternal wakefulness. Liberty! them as robbers and deceivers. The feeding and
the inestimable birthright of every man, had, for clothing me well, could not atone for taking my
me, converted every object into an asserter of liberty from me. The smiles of my mistress could
this great right. It was heard in every sound, and not remove the deep sorrow that dwelt in my
beheld in every object. It was ever present, to young bosom. Indeed, these, in time, came only
torment me with a sense of my wretched condi- to deepen my sorrow. She had changed; and the
tion. The more beautiful and charming were the reader will see that I had changed, too. We were
smiles of nature, the more horrible and desolate both victims to the same overshadowing evil—
was my condition. I saw nothing without seeing she, as mistress, I, as slave. I will not censure her
it, and I heard nothing without hearing it. I do harshly; she cannot censure me, for she knows I
not exaggerate, when I say, that it looked from speak but the truth, and have acted in my oppo-
every star, smiled in every calm, breathed in sition to slavery, just as she herself would have
every wind, and moved in every storm. acted, in a reverse of circumstances.
I have no doubt that my state of mind had
something to do with the change in the treat-
ment adopted, by my once kind mistress toward 7. Douglass is referring to a biblical tale (Numbers 22:21–35)
in which an ass (donkey), despite being beaten by its
me. I can easily believe, that my leaden, down-
master, Balaam, cannot obey and move on because its way
cast, and discontented look, was very offensive is blocked by an angel whom Balaam cannot see.
to her. Poor lady! She did not know my trouble,
and I dared not tell her. Could I have freely Literary Element Autobiography What does this state-
ment tell the reader about Douglass’s priorities in life?
made her acquainted with the real state of my
mind, and given her the reasons therefor, it
Big Idea Resistance to Slavery What does this state-
might have been well for both of us. Her abuse
ment say about the institution of slavery?
of me fell upon me like the blows of the false
prophet upon his ass; she did not know that an Vocabulary
censure (sen´ shər) v. to express disapproval of; to find
fault with; to blame
6. Trump is a trumpet.
F R E D E R I C K D OU G L A S S 34 3
A F T E R YO U R E A D
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. How did this narrative affect your appreciation of 5. (a)From his reading, what conclusion does Douglass
your personal freedom? draw about the foundation of slavery? (b)Do you
agree with his analysis? Explain.
6. In your opinion, who is hurt more by the system of
Recall and Interpret
slavery—Douglass or the Auld family? Explain.
2. (a)How does Mrs. Auld treat Douglass when he
first arrives? (b)What does Douglass infer from her Connect
initial attitude toward him? 7. Douglass shows in his autobiography that his mind
3. (a)How does Mrs. Auld’s behavior toward Douglass and spirit still remained free while he was physically
change? (b)What does Douglass infer from these held captive. In what ways might a person held in
changes? captivity keep his or her mind free? Explain.
4. (a)Who later helps Douglass learn to read? 8. Big Idea Resistance to Slavery Why do you
(b)Compare these teachers’ attitudes toward think that slave narratives such as Douglass’s were
slavery with Mrs. Auld’s attitude. an important part of the antislavery effort?
L I T E R A RY A N A LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
344 UNIT 3 TH E C I V I L WA R E RA
B E FOR E YOU R EA D
Building Background
Born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1913, Robert Hayden during the height of the civil rights movement in the
later worked as a researcher for the Federal Writers’ 1960s when political poetry was in vogue. However,
Project in Michigan, one of the government’s many Hayden’s poetry does confront racial issues and
New Deal programs intended to provide a livelihood features prominent African American historical figures
for victims of the Great Depression. Hayden viewed such as Nat Turner, Frederick Douglass, and Malcolm X.
history “as a long, tortuous, and often bloody Hayden taught at the university level for more than
process of becoming, of psychic evolution.” He thirty years, although he said that he considered
created elegant, well-crafted poetry, much of it himself to be “a poet who teaches in order to earn a
concerned with African American history. living so that he can write a poem or two now and
then.” In 1976 he was the first African American poet
Hayden wanted to be known as a poet rather than as
to be appointed poetry consultant to the Library of
a black poet. He believed that racial labeling restricted
Congress. Hayden died in 1980.
African American poets, placing them “in a kind of
literary ghetto,” where the standards of other writers
were not applied to them. Many African American Author Search For more about
writers disagreed with Hayden’s position, especially Robert Hayden, go to www.glencoe.com.
Robert Hayden
1. Diastole (d̄ as tə lē´) is the period of normal relaxation of the heart between beats.
2. Systole (sis tə lē) is the period of normal contraction between diastoles.
R OB E RT HAY D E N 34 5
B EFO R E YO U R E A D
Building Background
Poet Quincy Troupe, born in St. Louis, Missouri, in In the following poem, “In Texas Grass,” Troupe alludes
1939, experienced firsthand the limitations that racial to a “promise of forty acres & a mule.” At the end of
discrimination placed on generations of African the Civil War, General William T. Sherman promised
Americans. Speaking of the inability of African that freed African Americans would receive forty acres
Americans to achieve their potential, Troupe said, of land and a mule. However, few formerly enslaved
“When I would look into my grandmother’s eyes, and African Americans ever received land, or even a mule,
my uncle’s eyes, and my dad’s eyes, I would see from the government. As a result, that phrase came to
these holes full of loss and sadness.” Thus, the subject represent the failure of Reconstruction to assist African
matter of Troupe’s award-winning poetry, in addition to Americans emerging from slavery.
celebrating the elation of seeing Magic Johnson play
basketball or John Coltrane play the saxophone, also
explores darker subject matter, such as the brutality of Author Search For more about
a slaughterhouse or the rage against racism. Quincy Troupe, go to www.glencoe.com.
Quincy Troupe
all along the railroad 25 thinking of the master & his long forgotten
tracks of texas promise of forty acres & a mule
old train cars lay & even now, if you pass across
rusted & overturned this bleeding flesh
5 like new african governments ever changing landscape
long forgotten by the people 30 you will see the fruited
who built & rode them countryside, stretching, stretching
till they couldn’t run no more & old black men & young black
10 & they remind me of old race horses men, sitting on porches, waiting
who’ve been put out to pasture waiting for rusted trains
amongst the weeds 35 silent in texas grass
rain, sleet & snow
till they die & rot away Discussion Starter
15 like photos fading
in grandma’s picture book Although this poem is set after the end of slavery in
the United States, it describes in vivid and poignant
of old black men & women, in mississippi
detail slavery’s legacy. With a small group, discuss
texas, who sit on dilapidated porches
the literal and figurative examples the poem gives of
that fall away
the conditions African Americans experienced after
20 like dead man’s skin
slavery. What conclusions about the journey from
like white people’s eyes slavery to equality can you draw from these exam-
& inside the peeling photos ples? Share your group’s conclusions with the rest
old men sit, sad eyed of the class.
& waiting, waiting for worm dust
O B J EC TIVES
• Compare historical context in literary works. • Analyze cause-and-effect relationships.
• Understand autobiography. • Role-play an interview.
I
N THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, MANY
writers shared their personal accounts of the two
major issues of the day—slavery and the Civil
War. These writings, which recount the emotions
their authors felt, the details they saw, and the battles
they fought, contribute much to the understanding of
this tumultuous time in the United States.
Accounts of Slavery
Nineteenth-century African American writers, such
as Frederick Douglass (pp. 337–344) and Sojourner
Truth (pp. 354–357), told variations of one
compelling story—the story of life in slavery, escape
from bondage, and life as a free person. These
accounts, called slave narratives, were written as
early as 1760 and continued to be written after the
Civil War. The pre-war narratives were in part Sarah Gudger, age 121. North Carolina. Library of Congress
intended to recruit Northerners to the abolitionist photo.
cause, especially after the Fugitive Slave Act was
passed in 1850. BI From 1936 to 1938, during the Depression, writers
and journalists from the Works Progress
Administration (WPA) interviewed more than 2,300
former slaves and recorded their memories of the past.
“Reader, be assured this narrative is
These narratives are a rich source of details about life
no fiction. I am aware some of my on plantations and in cities.
adventures may seem incredible; but Slave narratives have had an influence on modern
they are, nevertheless, strictly true.” literature as well, in the works of such writers as
Richard Wright (pp. 900–908), Ernest J. Gaines,
—Harriet Jacobs Alice Walker (pp. 1153–1157), and Toni Morrison
from Preface to Incidents in the Life (pp. 1302–1308).
of a Slave Girl, 1861
R E S P O N D I N G A N D T H I N K I N G C R I T I C A L LY
1. How might slave narratives have influenced the 3. Why are personal diaries and letters often of interest
abolitionist cause? to general readers in later times?
2. A memoir, unlike an autobiography, focuses on only
part of the writer’s life, often a significant part. What
Literary History For more about
are some reasons a person might choose to write a slave narratives and civil war memoirs, letters and diaries, go to
memoir? Explain. www.glencoe.com.
GLASS
“Slavery Under Glass” examines how
newly built African American museums
educate the public on a dark period of
U.S. history.
1. Examine the photographs on
pages 351–353. What clues to the
content of the article do these images
give the reader?
2. Skim the first paragraph. From it, what New African American–history museums try to
do you think that this article might balance authenticity and to uplift.
teach you about slavery?
T
By RICHARD LACAYO
350 UNIT 3
Informational Text
Slavery is one of the most shameful Cincinnati—it was only in 2002 feelings of guilt (whites), anger
chapters of American history, but that the Ku Klux Klan stopped its (African Americans), and resent-
shameful stories are not the kind annual mounting of a Christmas ment (both), the center offers a
that everybody wants to pay money tree in the city’s main square. The final room that is not a gallery of
to hear. desire for reconciliation is built into any kind but a space for discus-
“There is a reluctance on the the center’s mission. Its focus, says sion. Trained facilitators will
part of African Americans and Spencer Crew, its executive director, encourage visitors to examine
whites to deal with slavery,” says “is not about finger pointing.” their feelings and share them.
former Virginia Governor Doug More than that, it also aims to “Productive, positive, uplifting”—
Wilder. He conceived the National be America’s first museum is this any way to tell a story so full
Slavery Museum, scheduled to open intended not just to arouse feel- of suffering? Well, maybe it is. For
in 2007. “People don’t want to ings but also to resolve them safely. one thing, the Freedom Center is in
discuss it. ‘Let’s get past it,’ they say. Concerned that people might exit many respects still the thing it
Well, I say that attitude is insulting the exhibition galleries with claims not to be: a museum of
to our history. We need to develop a
conscious awareness of how far CONNECTING Examining shackles
we’ve come and who we are.” in the Ohio museum
CINCINNATI A gallery at
the Underground Railroad
Freedom Center
its uplifting message. Its next “The Struggle Continues.” Here both themes. “We will prove
significant section of exhibits is the interactive computer displays allow ourselves to be the museum of the
“Hall of Everyday Freedom Heroes.” you to learn about ongoing efforts future,” promises Naomi Nelson,
It offers portraits and touch-screen against oppression, hunger, illiteracy, the center’s director of education.
information about a whole spectrum bigotry, and modern-day slavery. She may be right about that. If it
of figures from throughout the world So you may well leave the last also always manages to do justice to
who fought for the rights of religious galleries with your mind far from the past, the future looks O.K.
and racial minorities, women, and the horrors of the slave experience — UPDATED 2006, from TIME,
just about anyone who ever stood up or even the struggles against it. But August 30, 2004, and People,
against an oppressive system. That the center will also have temporary September 6, 2004
leads in turn to a final area, called exhibitions that will expand on
R ES P O N D I N G AN D TH I N K I N G C R ITI CALLY
A
rmed with common sense and sharp wit,
Sojourner Truth spent her long life bat-
tling slavery and demanding voting rights
“There is no use in one man, or one
for women. Nearly six feet tall, Truth had a deep, nation, to try to do or be everything. It
smooth voice that quieted rowdy crowds and won is a good thing to be dependent on each
devoted supporters. Resisting injustice, Truth
believed, was her divinely ordained duty. other for something, it makes us civil
Sojourner Truth, whose given name was Isabella, and peaceable.”
was born into slavery in Ulster County, New York, —Sojourner Truth
a Dutch-speaking region. She endured cruel slave
owners, backbreaking work, and harsh beatings
until, at age twenty-nine, she escaped. Given ref- Isabella had believed she saw visions and heard
uge by Isaac and Maria Van Wagener, she took the messages sent from God. In about 1843, she
name Isabella Van Wagener. Since childhood, changed her name to Sojourner Truth—meaning
that she would become a sojourner, or visiting
traveler, spreading the truth of God—and started
to preach throughout the northeastern United
States. Before long, she began to weave antislavery
messages into her preaching.
Truth also became an ardent champion of women’s
rights, especially the right to vote. In 1850 she
began traveling the Midwest, attracting large crowds
wherever she spoke. On this tour, in Akron, Ohio,
she delivered what would become her most famous
address, “And Ain’t I a Woman?” Truth then moved
to Battle Creek, Michigan, where she continued to
agitate for women’s rights and abolition. After the
start of the Civil War in 1861, Truth worked to
gather supplies and funds for black volunteer regi-
ments. Toward the end of the war, Truth moved to
Washington, D.C. where she accepted a job with the
National Freedmen’s Relief Association, counseling
former slaves. At the age of seventy-eight, Truth
returned to Battle Creek, where she remained until
her death. A monument in downtown Battle Creek
commemorates this remarkable woman.
Sojourner Truth was born in 1797 and died in 1883.
354 UNIT 3 T H E C I V I L WA R E RA
Bettmann/CORBIS
L I T E R AT U R E P R E V I E W R E A D I N G P R EVI E W
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • understanding oratory
• connecting literature to historical context • evaluating an argument
356 UNIT 3 T H E C I V I L WA R E RA
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C./ Art Resource, NY
A F T E R YO U R E A D
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. Imagine you are attending the Women’s Rights 5. An allusion is a reference to a well-known charac-
Convention in 1851. How might you respond to ter, place, or situation from history or from music,
Sojourner Truth’s speech? art, or another work of literature. (a)What allusion
to the Bible does Truth make in the paragraph just
before her closing statement? (b)Evaluate the
Recall and Interpret impact of that allusion on her message.
2. (a)How does Truth refute the first three reasons
given against women’s suffrage? (b)What does
Connect
Truth’s response tell you about her character?
6. Big Idea Resistance to Slavery (a)How does
3. (a)What repetition does Truth use in the first
Truth introduce the antislavery message into her
part of her argument? (b)What is the effect of this
speech? (b)How appropriate is this message, given
repetition?
the purpose of the convention?
4. (a)How does Truth answer the religious argument
against letting women vote? (b)What does her
argument tell you about her religious beliefs?
L I T E R A RY A N A LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO CA B U L A RY
Denotation Connotation
Exercise
1. Complete the chart. With your classmates, discuss the denotations and
connotations of the three words. Why do you think Truth chose to
describe her feeling as grief and not as sorrow or regret? Explain.
OB J EC TIVES 2. Find three or four words that have denotations that are similar to each
• Analyze denotation and other in other selections in Unit 3, Part 1. Create and fill in the mean-
connotation. ings for a semantic features chart with these words. Explain what partic-
• Create graphic organizers ular shades of meaning the connotations of the words help the authors
to understand text.
to suggest.
358 UNIT 3 TH E CIVI L WAR E RA
PART 1
Resistance to Slavery
A Ride for Liberty, or The Fugitive Slaves, 1862. J. Eastman Johnson. 55.9 x 66.7 cm. Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York.
329
J. Eastman Johnson/The Bridgeman Art Library
B EFO R E YO U R E A D
Three Spirituals
W H O W ROT E T H E SPI R I T UA LS ?
T
he spirituals featured here came out of the
oral tradition of African Americans
enslaved in the South before the outbreak
of the Civil War. These “sorrow songs,” as they
were called, were created by anonymous artists and
transmitted by word of mouth. As a result, several
versions of the same spiritual may exist. According Some spirituals served as encoded messages by
to the Library of Congress, more than six thousand which enslaved field workers, forbidden to speak
spirituals have been documented, though some are to each other, could communicate practical infor-
not known in their entirety. mation about escape plans. Some typical code
African American spirituals combined the tunes words included Egypt, referring to the South or the
and texts of Christian hymns with the rhythms, state of bondage, and the promised land or heaven,
finger-snapping, clapping, and stamping of tradi- referring to the North or freedom. To communi-
tional African music. The spirituals allowed cate a message of hope, spirituals frequently
enslaved Africans to retain some of the culture of recounted Bible stories about people liberated from
their homelands and forge a new culture while fac- oppression through divine intervention. The spiri-
ing the hardships of captive life in the United tual “Keep Your Hand on the Plow,” for example,
States. Many spirituals followed a call-and- tells the story of Paul and Silas, who were released
response pattern in which a leader sang the verses from prison after God sent an earthquake to free
and was answered by a group of singers. The sing- them.
ers often improvised the songs by changing words The spirituals were saved from obscurity after the
or adding new verses. Civil War by the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University
in Nashville, Tennessee. To raise money for the
school during a time of financial hardship, the
small university choir sang spirituals to church
“Every tone [in the spirituals] was a groups around the country. The Jubilee Singers
testimony against slavery, and a prayer were soon in demand and eventually performed
the spirituals for President Ulysses S. Grant and
to God for deliverance from chains.” England’s Queen Victoria.
—Frederick Douglass The spirituals became a part of American pop cul-
ture, paving the way for other musical forms
including blues and jazz and influencing poets such
Enslaved African Americans sang spirituals both as James Weldon Johnson. When Martin Luther
in worship and while laboring in the field. Many King Jr. led the march in Washington, D.C., for
of the songs have a dual meaning, expressing both civil rights in March 1963, he quoted from the
religious faith and a hunger for freedom. The New spiritual “Free at Last”: “You can hinder me here,
York Tribune published “Go Down, Moses” after but you can’t hinder me there.”
Reverend Lewis Lockwood heard African
Americans singing it on September 3, 1861, and
submitted the lyrics.
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • understanding the influence of historical context on a work
• relating literature to a historical period • understanding the use of refrain in a poem or song
Harriet Tubman Series No. 11, 1939-40. Jacob Lawrence. Casein tempera on gessoed hardboard,
12 x 177/8 in. Hampton University Museum, Hampton, VA.
5 When Israel was in Egypt’s land, When they had reached the other shore,
Let my people go; Let my people go;
Oppressed so hard they could not stand, They sang a song of triumph o’er.
Let my people go. 20 Let my people go.
CHORUS
5 Hold on, hold on,
Keep your hand on the plow,
Hold on.
1. In the Bible (Acts 16:16 – 40) the Apostle Paul and his
companion Silas are imprisoned, but an earthquake shakes
the prison and releases them.
2. In the Bible (John 13:4 – 20) the Apostle Peter objects at
first when Jesus wants to wash his feet.
334 UNIT 3 T H E C I V I L WA R E RA
A F T E R YO U R E A D
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. Which phrases or lines from these spirituals did you 6. Enslaved African Americans highly valued, and
find most comforting or inspiring? frequently retold, stories from the Gospels.
(a)In light of this, what do you think is the meaning
Recall and Interpret of lines 1–3 of “Keep Your Hand on the Plow”?
2. (a)What might the chariot in “Swing Low, Sweet (b)In what way do these lines illuminate the
Chariot” represent? (b)Who or what might be the theme, or overall message, of the song? Give
“band of angels” in line 7? details from the song to support your answer.
3. (a)What feelings does the speaker express in 7. Describe the mood, or overall feeling or emotion,
lines 13–16? (b)Why do you think the speaker’s created by each of the spirituals. Use specific
“soul feels heavenly bound”? examples from each song to support your
response.
4. (a)In lines 1–8 of “Go Down, Moses,” what is the
speaker asking Moses to do? (b)What might these
lines say about the experiences and hopes of Connect
enslaved African Americans?
8. Big Idea Resistance to Slavery What elements
5. (a)Summarize the two Bible stories retold in “Keep of the spirituals helped singers and listeners endure
Your Hand on the Plow.” (b)Why do you think these and overcome slavery? Include details from the
particular stories were included in a spiritual? Explain. spirituals in your answer.
L I T E R A RY A NA LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
Frederick Douglass
from My Bondage and My Freedom ........... autobiography .......... 339
The power of knowledge
Robert Hayden
Frederick Douglass .................................................................. poem .......... 345
Realizing the dream of freedom
Quincy Troupe
In Texas Grass ............................................................................ poem .........346
Lapses in the path to equality
336 UNIT 3 T H E C I V I L WA R E RA
B E FOR E YOU R EA D
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution/Art Resource, NY
F R E D ER I C K D OU G L A S S 337
L I T E R AT U R E P R E V I E W R E A D I N G P R E V I EW
338 UNIT 3 T H E C I V I L WA R E RA
Frederick Douglass
Series No. 8. Jacob Lawrence (1917–2000). Casein tempera on gessoed hardboard, 12 x 17 7/8 in. Hampton University Museum, VA.
Vocabulary
Big Idea Resistance to Slavery How does this incompat-
induce (in doo
¯¯¯ s´) v. to lead by persuasion or influence ibility motivate Douglass to resist the institution of slavery?
340 UNIT 3 TH E C I V I L WA R E RA
cessful, was that of using my young white play-
mates, with whom I met in the street, as teachers.
I used to carry, almost constantly, a copy of
Webster’s spelling book in my pocket; and, when
sent of errands, or when play time was allowed
me, I would step, with my young friends, aside,
and take a lesson in spelling. I generally paid my
tuition fee to the boys, with bread, which I also
carried in my pocket. For a single biscuit, any of
my hungry little comrades would give me a lesson
more valuable to me than bread. Not every one,
however, demanded this consideration, for there
were those who took pleasure in teaching me,
whenever I had a chance to be taught by them. I
am strongly tempted to give the names of two or
three of those little boys, as a slight testimonial of
the gratitude and affection I bear them, but pru-
dence forbids; not that it would injure me, but it
might, possibly, embarrass them; for it is almost an
unpardonable offense to do any thing, directly or
indirectly, to promote a slave’s freedom, in a slave
state. It is enough to say, of my warm-hearted lit-
tle play fellows, that they lived on Philpot street,
very near Durgin & Bailey’s shipyard.
Although slavery was a delicate subject, and
very cautiously talked about among grown up peo-
The Life of Frederick Douglass #29: The war was over. The slaves were literally ple in Maryland, I frequently talked about it—and
turned out by their masters into a world unknown to them. They had ceased to that very freely—with the white boys. I would,
be slaves of man and became slaves of nature, 1939. Jacob Lawrence. Casein sometimes, say to them, while seated on a curb
tempera on hardboard, 17 x 12. Hampton University Museum, Hampton, VA.
stone or a cellar door, “I wish I could be free, as
you will be when you get to be men.” “You will be
I was most narrowly watched in all my move-
free, you know, as soon as you are twenty-one, and
ments. If I remained in a separate room from the
can go where you like, but I am a slave for life.
family for any considerable length of time, I was
Have I not as good a right to be free as you have?”
sure to be suspected of having a book, and was at
Words like these, I observed, always troubled
once called upon to give an account of myself. All
them; and I had no small satisfaction in wringing
this, however, was entirely too late. The first, and
from the boys, occasionally, that fresh and bitter
never to be retraced, step had been taken. In
condemnation of slavery, that springs from nature,
teaching me the alphabet, in the days of her sim-
unseared and unperverted. Of all consciences, let
plicity and kindness, my mistress had given me
me have those to deal with which have not been
the “inch,” and now, no ordinary precaution could
bewildered by the cares of life. I do not remember
prevent me from taking the “ell.”3
ever to have met with a boy, while I was in slav-
Seized with a determination to learn to read, at
ery, who defended the slave system; but I have
any cost, I hit upon many expedients to accom-
often had boys to console me, with the hope that
plish the desired end. The plea which I mainly
something would yet occur, by which I might be
adopted, and the one by which I was most suc-
F R E D ER I C K D OU G L A S S 341
The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation / Art Resource, NY
made free. Over and over again, they have told which he has performed toward the slave, and
me, that “they believed I had as good a right to be tells him he is permitted to speak for himself.
free as they had”; and that “they did not believe Thus invited to the debate, the quondam5 slave
God ever made any one to be a slave.” The reader made a spirited defense of himself, and thereafter
will easily see, that such little conversations with the whole argument, for and against slavery, was
my play fellows, had no tendency to weaken my brought out. The master was vanquished at every
love of liberty, nor to render me contented with turn in the argument; and seeing himself to be
my condition as a slave. thus vanquished, he generously and meekly
When I was about thirteen years old, and had emancipates the slave, with his best wishes for
succeeded in learning to read, every increase of his prosperity. It is scarcely necessary to say, that
knowledge, especially respecting the FREE a dialogue, with such an origin, and such an end-
STATES, added something to the almost intoler- ing—read when the fact of my being a slave was
able burden of the thought—“I AM A SLAVE FOR a constant burden of grief—powerfully affected
LIFE.” To my bondage I saw no end. It was a ter- me; and I could not help feeling that the day
rible reality, and I shall never be able to tell how might come, when the well-directed answers
sadly that thought chafed my young spirit. made by the slave to the master, in this instance,
Fortunately, or unfortunately, about this time in would find their counterpart in myself. . . .
my life, I had made enough money to buy what I had now penetrated the secret of all slavery
was then a very popular school book, viz:4 the and oppression, and had ascertained their true
“Columbian Orator.” I bought this addition to foundation to be in the pride, the power and the
my library, of Mr. Knight, on Thames street, avarice of man. The dialogue and the speeches
Fell’s Point, Baltimore, and paid him fifty cents were all redolent of the principles of liberty, and
for it. I was first led to buy this book, by hearing poured floods of light on the nature and character
some little boys say that they were going to learn of slavery. . . . Nevertheless, the increase of
some little pieces out of it for the Exhibition. knowledge was attended with bitter, as well as
This volume was, indeed, a rich treasure, and sweet results. The more I read, the more I was led
every opportunity afforded me, for a time, was to abhor and detest slavery, and my enslavers.
spent in diligently perusing it. Among much “Slaveholders,” thought I, “are only a band of
other interesting matter, that which I had successful robbers, who left their homes and went
perused and reperused with unflagging satisfac- into Africa for the purpose of stealing and reduc-
tion, was a short dialogue between a master and ing my people to slavery.” I loathed them as the
his slave. The slave is represented as having been meanest and the most wicked of men. As I read,
recaptured, in a second attempt to run away; and behold! the very discontent so graphically pre-
the master opens the dialogue with an upbraid- dicted by Master Hugh, had already come upon
ing speech, charging the slave with ingratitude, me. I was no longer the light-hearted, gleesome
and demanding to know what he has to say in boy, full of mirth and play, as when I landed first
his own defense. Thus upbraided, and thus called at Baltimore. Knowledge had come; light had
upon to reply, the slave rejoins, that he knows penetrated the moral dungeon where I dwelt;
how little anything that he can say will avail, and, behold! there lay the bloody whip, for my
seeing that he is completely in the hands of his back, and here was the iron chain; and my good,
owner; and with noble resolution, calmly says,
“I submit to my fate.” Touched by the slave’s
answer, the master insists upon his further speak- 5. Quondam means “that once was” or “former.”
ing, and recapitulates the many acts of kindness
Reading Strategy Analyzing Cause and Effect What
effect did reading this anecdote about the slave and his
4. Viz is an abbreviation for the Latin word videlicet, meaning master have on Douglass?
“namely” or “that is.”
Vocabulary
Reading Strategy Analyzing Cause and Effect What
was the ironic effect of Douglass’s learning to read? vanquish (vang´ kwish) v. to defeat
342 UNIT 3 TH E C I V I L WA R E RA
kind master, he was the author of my situation. angel stood in the way;7 and—such is the rela-
The revelation haunted me, stung me, and made tion of master and slave—I could not tell her.
me gloomy and miserable. As I writhed under the Nature had made us friends; slavery made us ene-
sting and torment of this knowledge, I almost mies. My interests were in a direction opposite
envied my fellow slaves their stupid content- to hers, and we both had our private thoughts
ment. This knowledge opened my eyes to the and plans. She aimed to keep me ignorant; and I
horrible pit, and revealed the teeth of the fright- resolved to know, although knowledge only
ful dragon that was ready to pounce upon me, increased my discontent. My feelings were not
but it opened no way for my escape. I have often the result of any marked cruelty in the treatment
wished myself a beast, or a bird—anything, I received; they sprung from the consideration of
rather than a slave. I was wretched and gloomy, my being a slave at all. It was slavery—not its
beyond my ability to describe. I was too thought- mere incidents—that I hated. I had been cheated.
ful to be happy. It was this everlasting thinking I saw through the attempt to keep me in igno-
which distressed and tormented me; and yet rance; I saw that slaveholders would have gladly
there was no getting rid of the subject of my made me believe that they were merely acting
thoughts. All nature was redolent of it. Once under the authority of God, in making a slave of
awakened by the silver trump6 of knowledge, my me, and in making slaves of others; and I treated
spirit was roused to eternal wakefulness. Liberty! them as robbers and deceivers. The feeding and
the inestimable birthright of every man, had, for clothing me well, could not atone for taking my
me, converted every object into an asserter of liberty from me. The smiles of my mistress could
this great right. It was heard in every sound, and not remove the deep sorrow that dwelt in my
beheld in every object. It was ever present, to young bosom. Indeed, these, in time, came only
torment me with a sense of my wretched condi- to deepen my sorrow. She had changed; and the
tion. The more beautiful and charming were the reader will see that I had changed, too. We were
smiles of nature, the more horrible and desolate both victims to the same overshadowing evil—
was my condition. I saw nothing without seeing she, as mistress, I, as slave. I will not censure her
it, and I heard nothing without hearing it. I do harshly; she cannot censure me, for she knows I
not exaggerate, when I say, that it looked from speak but the truth, and have acted in my oppo-
every star, smiled in every calm, breathed in sition to slavery, just as she herself would have
every wind, and moved in every storm. acted, in a reverse of circumstances.
I have no doubt that my state of mind had
something to do with the change in the treat-
ment adopted, by my once kind mistress toward 7. Douglass is referring to a biblical tale (Numbers 22:21–35)
in which an ass (donkey), despite being beaten by its
me. I can easily believe, that my leaden, down-
master, Balaam, cannot obey and move on because its way
cast, and discontented look, was very offensive is blocked by an angel whom Balaam cannot see.
to her. Poor lady! She did not know my trouble,
and I dared not tell her. Could I have freely Literary Element Autobiography What does this state-
ment tell the reader about Douglass’s priorities in life?
made her acquainted with the real state of my
mind, and given her the reasons therefor, it
Big Idea Resistance to Slavery What does this state-
might have been well for both of us. Her abuse
ment say about the institution of slavery?
of me fell upon me like the blows of the false
prophet upon his ass; she did not know that an Vocabulary
censure (sen´ shər) v. to express disapproval of; to find
fault with; to blame
6. Trump is a trumpet.
F R E D E R I C K D OU G L A S S 34 3
A F T E R YO U R E A D
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. How did this narrative affect your appreciation of 5. (a)From his reading, what conclusion does Douglass
your personal freedom? draw about the foundation of slavery? (b)Do you
agree with his analysis? Explain.
6. In your opinion, who is hurt more by the system of
Recall and Interpret
slavery—Douglass or the Auld family? Explain.
2. (a)How does Mrs. Auld treat Douglass when he
first arrives? (b)What does Douglass infer from her Connect
initial attitude toward him? 7. Douglass shows in his autobiography that his mind
3. (a)How does Mrs. Auld’s behavior toward Douglass and spirit still remained free while he was physically
change? (b)What does Douglass infer from these held captive. In what ways might a person held in
changes? captivity keep his or her mind free? Explain.
4. (a)Who later helps Douglass learn to read? 8. Big Idea Resistance to Slavery Why do you
(b)Compare these teachers’ attitudes toward think that slave narratives such as Douglass’s were
slavery with Mrs. Auld’s attitude. an important part of the antislavery effort?
L I T E R A RY A N A LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
344 UNIT 3 TH E C I V I L WA R E RA
B E FOR E YOU R EA D
Building Background
Born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1913, Robert Hayden during the height of the civil rights movement in the
later worked as a researcher for the Federal Writers’ 1960s when political poetry was in vogue. However,
Project in Michigan, one of the government’s many Hayden’s poetry does confront racial issues and
New Deal programs intended to provide a livelihood features prominent African American historical figures
for victims of the Great Depression. Hayden viewed such as Nat Turner, Frederick Douglass, and Malcolm X.
history “as a long, tortuous, and often bloody Hayden taught at the university level for more than
process of becoming, of psychic evolution.” He thirty years, although he said that he considered
created elegant, well-crafted poetry, much of it himself to be “a poet who teaches in order to earn a
concerned with African American history. living so that he can write a poem or two now and
then.” In 1976 he was the first African American poet
Hayden wanted to be known as a poet rather than as
to be appointed poetry consultant to the Library of
a black poet. He believed that racial labeling restricted
Congress. Hayden died in 1980.
African American poets, placing them “in a kind of
literary ghetto,” where the standards of other writers
were not applied to them. Many African American Author Search For more about
writers disagreed with Hayden’s position, especially Robert Hayden, go to www.glencoe.com.
Robert Hayden
1. Diastole (d̄ as tə lē´) is the period of normal relaxation of the heart between beats.
2. Systole (sis tə lē) is the period of normal contraction between diastoles.
R OB E RT HAY D E N 34 5
B EFO R E YO U R E A D
Building Background
Poet Quincy Troupe, born in St. Louis, Missouri, in In the following poem, “In Texas Grass,” Troupe alludes
1939, experienced firsthand the limitations that racial to a “promise of forty acres & a mule.” At the end of
discrimination placed on generations of African the Civil War, General William T. Sherman promised
Americans. Speaking of the inability of African that freed African Americans would receive forty acres
Americans to achieve their potential, Troupe said, of land and a mule. However, few formerly enslaved
“When I would look into my grandmother’s eyes, and African Americans ever received land, or even a mule,
my uncle’s eyes, and my dad’s eyes, I would see from the government. As a result, that phrase came to
these holes full of loss and sadness.” Thus, the subject represent the failure of Reconstruction to assist African
matter of Troupe’s award-winning poetry, in addition to Americans emerging from slavery.
celebrating the elation of seeing Magic Johnson play
basketball or John Coltrane play the saxophone, also
explores darker subject matter, such as the brutality of Author Search For more about
a slaughterhouse or the rage against racism. Quincy Troupe, go to www.glencoe.com.
Quincy Troupe
all along the railroad 25 thinking of the master & his long forgotten
tracks of texas promise of forty acres & a mule
old train cars lay & even now, if you pass across
rusted & overturned this bleeding flesh
5 like new african governments ever changing landscape
long forgotten by the people 30 you will see the fruited
who built & rode them countryside, stretching, stretching
till they couldn’t run no more & old black men & young black
10 & they remind me of old race horses men, sitting on porches, waiting
who’ve been put out to pasture waiting for rusted trains
amongst the weeds 35 silent in texas grass
rain, sleet & snow
till they die & rot away Discussion Starter
15 like photos fading
in grandma’s picture book Although this poem is set after the end of slavery in
the United States, it describes in vivid and poignant
of old black men & women, in mississippi
detail slavery’s legacy. With a small group, discuss
texas, who sit on dilapidated porches
the literal and figurative examples the poem gives of
that fall away
the conditions African Americans experienced after
20 like dead man’s skin
slavery. What conclusions about the journey from
like white people’s eyes slavery to equality can you draw from these exam-
& inside the peeling photos ples? Share your group’s conclusions with the rest
old men sit, sad eyed of the class.
& waiting, waiting for worm dust
O B J EC TIVES
• Compare historical context in literary works. • Analyze cause-and-effect relationships.
• Understand autobiography. • Role-play an interview.
I
N THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, MANY
writers shared their personal accounts of the two
major issues of the day—slavery and the Civil
War. These writings, which recount the emotions
their authors felt, the details they saw, and the battles
they fought, contribute much to the understanding of
this tumultuous time in the United States.
Accounts of Slavery
Nineteenth-century African American writers, such
as Frederick Douglass (pp. 337–344) and Sojourner
Truth (pp. 354–357), told variations of one
compelling story—the story of life in slavery, escape
from bondage, and life as a free person. These
accounts, called slave narratives, were written as
early as 1760 and continued to be written after the
Civil War. The pre-war narratives were in part Sarah Gudger, age 121. North Carolina. Library of Congress
intended to recruit Northerners to the abolitionist photo.
cause, especially after the Fugitive Slave Act was
passed in 1850. BI From 1936 to 1938, during the Depression, writers
and journalists from the Works Progress
Administration (WPA) interviewed more than 2,300
former slaves and recorded their memories of the past.
“Reader, be assured this narrative is
These narratives are a rich source of details about life
no fiction. I am aware some of my on plantations and in cities.
adventures may seem incredible; but Slave narratives have had an influence on modern
they are, nevertheless, strictly true.” literature as well, in the works of such writers as
Richard Wright (pp. 900–908), Ernest J. Gaines,
—Harriet Jacobs Alice Walker (pp. 1153–1157), and Toni Morrison
from Preface to Incidents in the Life (pp. 1302–1308).
of a Slave Girl, 1861
R E S P O N D I N G A N D T H I N K I N G C R I T I C A L LY
1. How might slave narratives have influenced the 3. Why are personal diaries and letters often of interest
abolitionist cause? to general readers in later times?
2. A memoir, unlike an autobiography, focuses on only
part of the writer’s life, often a significant part. What
Literary History For more about
are some reasons a person might choose to write a slave narratives and civil war memoirs, letters and diaries, go to
memoir? Explain. www.glencoe.com.
GLASS
“Slavery Under Glass” examines how
newly built African American museums
educate the public on a dark period of
U.S. history.
1. Examine the photographs on
pages 351–353. What clues to the
content of the article do these images
give the reader?
2. Skim the first paragraph. From it, what New African American–history museums try to
do you think that this article might balance authenticity and to uplift.
teach you about slavery?
T
By RICHARD LACAYO
350 UNIT 3
Informational Text
Slavery is one of the most shameful Cincinnati—it was only in 2002 feelings of guilt (whites), anger
chapters of American history, but that the Ku Klux Klan stopped its (African Americans), and resent-
shameful stories are not the kind annual mounting of a Christmas ment (both), the center offers a
that everybody wants to pay money tree in the city’s main square. The final room that is not a gallery of
to hear. desire for reconciliation is built into any kind but a space for discus-
“There is a reluctance on the the center’s mission. Its focus, says sion. Trained facilitators will
part of African Americans and Spencer Crew, its executive director, encourage visitors to examine
whites to deal with slavery,” says “is not about finger pointing.” their feelings and share them.
former Virginia Governor Doug More than that, it also aims to “Productive, positive, uplifting”—
Wilder. He conceived the National be America’s first museum is this any way to tell a story so full
Slavery Museum, scheduled to open intended not just to arouse feel- of suffering? Well, maybe it is. For
in 2007. “People don’t want to ings but also to resolve them safely. one thing, the Freedom Center is in
discuss it. ‘Let’s get past it,’ they say. Concerned that people might exit many respects still the thing it
Well, I say that attitude is insulting the exhibition galleries with claims not to be: a museum of
to our history. We need to develop a
conscious awareness of how far CONNECTING Examining shackles
we’ve come and who we are.” in the Ohio museum
CINCINNATI A gallery at
the Underground Railroad
Freedom Center
its uplifting message. Its next “The Struggle Continues.” Here both themes. “We will prove
significant section of exhibits is the interactive computer displays allow ourselves to be the museum of the
“Hall of Everyday Freedom Heroes.” you to learn about ongoing efforts future,” promises Naomi Nelson,
It offers portraits and touch-screen against oppression, hunger, illiteracy, the center’s director of education.
information about a whole spectrum bigotry, and modern-day slavery. She may be right about that. If it
of figures from throughout the world So you may well leave the last also always manages to do justice to
who fought for the rights of religious galleries with your mind far from the past, the future looks O.K.
and racial minorities, women, and the horrors of the slave experience — UPDATED 2006, from TIME,
just about anyone who ever stood up or even the struggles against it. But August 30, 2004, and People,
against an oppressive system. That the center will also have temporary September 6, 2004
leads in turn to a final area, called exhibitions that will expand on
R ES P O N D I N G AN D TH I N K I N G C R ITI CALLY
A
rmed with common sense and sharp wit,
Sojourner Truth spent her long life bat-
tling slavery and demanding voting rights
“There is no use in one man, or one
for women. Nearly six feet tall, Truth had a deep, nation, to try to do or be everything. It
smooth voice that quieted rowdy crowds and won is a good thing to be dependent on each
devoted supporters. Resisting injustice, Truth
believed, was her divinely ordained duty. other for something, it makes us civil
Sojourner Truth, whose given name was Isabella, and peaceable.”
was born into slavery in Ulster County, New York, —Sojourner Truth
a Dutch-speaking region. She endured cruel slave
owners, backbreaking work, and harsh beatings
until, at age twenty-nine, she escaped. Given ref- Isabella had believed she saw visions and heard
uge by Isaac and Maria Van Wagener, she took the messages sent from God. In about 1843, she
name Isabella Van Wagener. Since childhood, changed her name to Sojourner Truth—meaning
that she would become a sojourner, or visiting
traveler, spreading the truth of God—and started
to preach throughout the northeastern United
States. Before long, she began to weave antislavery
messages into her preaching.
Truth also became an ardent champion of women’s
rights, especially the right to vote. In 1850 she
began traveling the Midwest, attracting large crowds
wherever she spoke. On this tour, in Akron, Ohio,
she delivered what would become her most famous
address, “And Ain’t I a Woman?” Truth then moved
to Battle Creek, Michigan, where she continued to
agitate for women’s rights and abolition. After the
start of the Civil War in 1861, Truth worked to
gather supplies and funds for black volunteer regi-
ments. Toward the end of the war, Truth moved to
Washington, D.C. where she accepted a job with the
National Freedmen’s Relief Association, counseling
former slaves. At the age of seventy-eight, Truth
returned to Battle Creek, where she remained until
her death. A monument in downtown Battle Creek
commemorates this remarkable woman.
Sojourner Truth was born in 1797 and died in 1883.
354 UNIT 3 T H E C I V I L WA R E RA
Bettmann/CORBIS
L I T E R AT U R E P R E V I E W R E A D I N G P R EVI E W
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • understanding oratory
• connecting literature to historical context • evaluating an argument
356 UNIT 3 T H E C I V I L WA R E RA
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C./ Art Resource, NY
A F T E R YO U R E A D
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. Imagine you are attending the Women’s Rights 5. An allusion is a reference to a well-known charac-
Convention in 1851. How might you respond to ter, place, or situation from history or from music,
Sojourner Truth’s speech? art, or another work of literature. (a)What allusion
to the Bible does Truth make in the paragraph just
before her closing statement? (b)Evaluate the
Recall and Interpret impact of that allusion on her message.
2. (a)How does Truth refute the first three reasons
given against women’s suffrage? (b)What does
Connect
Truth’s response tell you about her character?
6. Big Idea Resistance to Slavery (a)How does
3. (a)What repetition does Truth use in the first
Truth introduce the antislavery message into her
part of her argument? (b)What is the effect of this
speech? (b)How appropriate is this message, given
repetition?
the purpose of the convention?
4. (a)How does Truth answer the religious argument
against letting women vote? (b)What does her
argument tell you about her religious beliefs?
L I T E R A RY A N A LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO CA B U L A RY
Denotation Connotation
Exercise
1. Complete the chart. With your classmates, discuss the denotations and
connotations of the three words. Why do you think Truth chose to
describe her feeling as grief and not as sorrow or regret? Explain.
OB J EC TIVES 2. Find three or four words that have denotations that are similar to each
• Analyze denotation and other in other selections in Unit 3, Part 1. Create and fill in the mean-
connotation. ings for a semantic features chart with these words. Explain what partic-
• Create graphic organizers ular shades of meaning the connotations of the words help the authors
to understand text.
to suggest.
358 UNIT 3 TH E CIVI L WAR E RA
PART 2
The Civil War:
A NationDivided
359
Rick Reeves/National Guard
B EF O R E YO U R E A D
M
ary Boykin Chesnut’s life was one of
opposites. Before the Civil War, she was
the privileged daughter of Stephen
Miller, a wealthy plantation owner in South
Carolina. When the war ended, however, she and
her husband were financially ruined. Although she
abhorred slavery, her family owned hundreds of
slaves, and her father was a pro-slavery congress-
man, senator, and governor. Chesnut’s observant
nature, education, and social position made her
an excellent chronicler of the South during the
Civil War.
360 UNIT 3 TH E C I V I L WA R E RA
L I T E R AT U R E P R E V I E W R E A D I N G P R EVI E W
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • responding to journal entries
• analyzing historical context • distinguishing fact and opinion
362 UNIT 3 TH E C I V I L WA R E RA
big brave,” have gone down to the island—vol- “The news, I come for the latest news—all of the
unteered as privates. men of the King family are on the island”—of
Seven hundred men were sent over. which fact she seemed proud.
Ammunition wagons rumbling along the streets While she was here, our peace negotiator—
all night. Anderson burning blue lights—signs or envoy—came in. That is, Mr. Chesnut
and signals for the fleet outside, I suppose. returned—his interview with Colonel Anderson
Today at dinner there was no allusion to had been deeply interesting—but was not
things as they stand in Charleston Harbor. There inclined to be communicative, wanted his din-
was an undercurrent of intense excitement. ner. Felt for Anderson. Had telegraphed to
There could not have been a more brilliant cir- President Davis for instructions.
cle. In addition to our usual quartet (Judge What answer to give Anderson, &c&c.7 He
Withers, Langdon Cheves, and Trescot) our two has gone back to Fort Sumter, with additional
governors dined with us, Means and Manning. instructions.
These men all talked so delightfully. For once When they were about to leave the wharf, A.
in my life I listened. H. Boykin sprang into the boat, in great excite-
That over, business began. In earnest, Governor ment; thought himself ill-used. A likelihood of
Means rummaged a sword and red sash from some- fighting—and he to be left behind!
where and brought it for Colonel Chesnut, who
has gone to demand the surrender of Fort Sumter. —S—
allusion (ə l¯¯¯
oozhən) n. an indirect or casual refer- Vocabulary
ence; an incidental mention prostrate (prostrāt) adj. stretched out with face to the
audaciously (o dāshəs lē) adv. boldly; arrogantly ground in humility, adoration, or submission
Bettmann/Corbis
Prayers from the women and imprecations8 from
the men, and then a shell Somebody came in just now and reported Colonel
would light up the scene. Chesnut asleep on the sofa in General Beauregard’s
Tonight, they say, the forces room. After two such nights he must be so tired
are to attempt to land. as to be able to sleep anywhere. . . .
The Harriet Lane9 had her APRIL 13, 1861. . . . Nobody hurt, after all. How
wheelhouse smashed and put gay we were last night.
back to sea. Reaction after the dread of all the slaughter
we thought those dreadful cannons were making
Visual Vocabulary —S—
such a noise in doing.
The wheelhouse is
the enclosed area We watched up there— Not even a battery11 the worse for wear.
on the deck of a everybody wondered. Fort Fort Sumter has been on fire. He has not yet
ship that shelters Sumter did not fire a shot. silenced any of our guns. So the aides—still
the steering equip- with swords and red sashes by way of uniform—
ment and the pilot.
—S— tell us.
But the sound of those guns makes regular
Today Miles and Manning, colonels now—aides meals impossible. None of us go to table. But tea
to Beauregard—dined with us. The latter hoped trays pervade the corridors, going everywhere.
I would keep the peace. I give him only good Some of the anxious hearts lie on their beds
words, for he was to be under fire all day and and moan in solitary misery. Mrs. Wigfall and I
night, in the bay carrying orders, &c. solace ourselves with tea in my room.
These women have all a satisfying faith. . . .
—S—
Last night—or this morning truly—up on the APRIL 15, 1861. . . . I did not know that one
housetop I was so weak and weary I sat down on could live such days of excitement.
something that looked like a black stool. They called, “Come out—there is a crowd
“Get up, you foolish woman—your dress is on coming.”
fire,” cried a man. And he put me out. It was a A mob indeed, but it was headed by Colonels
chimney, and the sparks caught my clothes. Chesnut and Manning.
Susan Preston and Mr. Venable then came up. The crowd was shouting and showing these
But my fire had been extinguished before it two as messengers of good news. They were
broke out into a regular blaze. escorted to Beauregard’s headquarters. Fort
Sumter had surrendered.
—S—
Those up on the housetop shouted to us, “The
fort is on fire.” That had been the story once or
Do you know, after all that noise and our tears and
twice before.
prayers, nobody has been hurt. Sound and fury, sig-
nifying nothing.10 A delusion and a snare.... —S—
Vocabulary Vocabulary
364 UNIT 3 T H E C I V I L WA R E RA
Bettmann/CORBIS
and, with his handkerchief as a white flag, rowed But it is all confusion. Our flag is flying there.
over to Fort Sumter. Wigfall went in through a Fire engines have been sent to put out the fire.
porthole. Everybody tells you half of something and
When Colonel Chesnut arrived shortly after then rushes off to tell something else or to hear
and was received by the regular entrance, the last news. . . .
Colonel Anderson told him he had need to pick
his way warily, for it was all mined.
Literary Element Journal Would a member of the
As far as I can make out, the fort surrendered Confederate army or a Confederate official agree that “it is
to Wigfall. all confusion” ?
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond 6. Many of Chesnut’s entries document meals and
the people who were present at them. (a)Why
1. What insights about the Civil War did these journal
might she have documented these meals? (b)In
entries give you?
what ways do they contribute to the impact of her
Recall and Interpret journal?
2. (a)What activities in Chesnut’s entry for April 7 sug- 7. (a)How would you describe Chesnut’s state of
gest that war is about to begin? (b)What attitude mind at the end of this excerpt? (b)Given what
does Chesnut express toward these activities? you know about the Civil War, in what ways do her
feelings foreshadow the events to come?
3. (a)What major event takes place on April 12?
(b)What hopes and fears does Chesnut convey in Connect
the entry for that day?
8. Although Chesnut did not approve of slavery, she
4. (a)What bit of good news does Chesnut report in believed in the Confederate cause. What factors
her entry for April 13? (b)What does this entry might have motivated her to support the
reveal about her attitude toward the war? Confederacy?
L I T E R A RY A N A LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
366 UNIT 3 TH E C I V I L WA R E RA
Grammar Workshop
Sentence Coherence
Transitional words and phrases can clarify not only time order but other relation-
ships as well. Each of those relationships uses particular transitions.
Examples
• Because Anderson refused to surrender Fort Sumter, the battle began.
[Because shows a cause/effect relationship.] eWorkbooks To link to
the Grammar and Language
• The cannon fire was intense; however, no one was hurt. eWorkbook, go to
[However shows a contrast relationship.] www.glencoe.com.
Exercise
Revise for Clarity Add a transitional word or phrase to show a relationship
between each pair of sentences. Underline the transition and tell what rela-
tionship it shows.
1. Many Charleston men were exhausted during the battle. Colonel
Chesnut fell asleep on a sofa in the commanding general’s quarters.
OB J ECT IV ES
2. Mrs. Auld began to teach Frederick Douglass to read. She became angry • Analyze and evaluate
when she saw him reading. transitions.
3. “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” was sung in worship. It carried a coded meaning. • Use transitions to clarify
text.
A
dored by his troops and respected by his Within three weeks of taking command, Lee had
enemies, Robert E. Lee remains a symbol of organized his troops, improved discipline and
Southern and American dignity. He was morale, and convinced his soldiers of his authority.
born into the famous Lee family of Virginia, who, Nevertheless, he knew that the powerful Union
according to President John Adams, had “more men forces far outnumbered his own and had no
of merit in it than any other family.” His father was doubt that his regiment would be crushed in the
a cavalry commander during the Revolutionary open battlefield.
War, a governor of Virginia, and a friend to George
Washington. As a student at West Point, Lee
earned many honors, including a commission to the
elite Army Corps of Engineers. During the Mexican “There was not a man in the
War (1846–1848), he rose to the rank of captain. Confederacy whose influence with the
General Winfield Scott said that Lee was “the very
best soldier I ever saw in the field.” whole people was as great as his.”
—Ulysses S. Grant
A Difficult Decision In 1861 Lee faced an ago-
nizing decision. President Lincoln asked him to
command the Union forces in the Civil War. Victory and Defeat Lee achieved brilliant
Unwilling to fight against his state, Lee declined and victories at the battles of Second Manassas,
resigned his position in the United States Army. He Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. Then, in order
had been in the army for thirty-six years. Lee then to keep fighting off of Virginia soil, Lee pushed north
joined the Confederate forces and took command of into Maryland and Pennsylvania, engaging the U.S.
the Army of Northern Virginia in 1862. Army at Antietam and Gettysburg in June and July
of 1863. However, after Gettysburg, the Union forces
began to prevail. Lee’s forces were malnourished and
undersupplied, while those of Union General Grant
had a fresh batch of recruits, superior armaments, and
an impressive cavalry. Grant’s troops progressed far-
ther and farther into Virginia. On April 9, 1865, see-
ing that the end had come, Lee surrendered to
General Grant at Appomattox. After the war Lee
urged his fellow Southerners to put their bitterness
behind them. An enduring U.S. hero, Lee was a bril-
liant soldier with a noble spirit and a chivalric manner.
Robert E. Lee was born in 1807 and died
in 1870.
368 UNIT 3 TH E C I V I L WA R E RA
Corbis
L I T E R AT U R E P R E V I E W R E A D I N G P R EVI E W
Building Background
In the days before telephones and e-mail, letters were
the most common way to communicate at a distance.
Robert E. Lee’s letters are of interest because they
throw light on historic events and reveal the mind and
heart of a great leader. Lee wrote this letter on January
23, 1861. South Carolina had seceded from the Union Vocabulary
in December 1860, followed quickly by Mississippi, perusal (pə rōō zəl) n. the process of examining
Florida, and Alabama. Lee’s home state of Virginia carefully; p. 371 Her perusal of the latest Harry
would secede approximately three months later, on Potter book totally engrossed her.
April 17, 1861.
anarchy (an ər kē) n. the absence of govern-
Setting Purposes for Reading ment; p. 371 Lawmen were few in the frontier com-
munities, and anarchy was frequently the rule.
Big Idea A Nation Divided
As you read, consider how Lee’s personal conflict array (ə rā ) v. to place in proper or methodical
reflects the sharp divide between the North and South. order; p. 371 The chess pieces were arrayed against
each other.
Literary Element Diction redress (rē dress´) n. compensation, as for
wrong done; p. 371 Our neighbor demanded
Diction is a writer’s choice of words, an important ele-
redress for the damage to his house caused by a bro-
ment in the writer’s “voice” or style. As you read, con-
ken water main.
sider how Lee’s choice of words expresses his concerns
shortly before the outbreak of the Civil War. contend (kən tend ) v. to argue; dispute; p.
371 I contend that every citizen should be informed
• See Literary Terms Handbook, p. R5. about current issues.
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • understanding diction
•
relating literature to historical period • determining the main idea
ROBERT E . LEE 36 9
SEF/Art Resource, NY
Robert E. Lee
370 UNIT 3 TH E C I V I L WA R E RA
I received Everett’s1 Life of Washington which
you sent me, and enjoyed its perusal. How his
individual or private benefit. As an American
citizen, I take great pride in my country, her
spirit would be grieved could he see the wreck of prosperity and institutions, and would defend
his mighty labors! I will not, however, permit any state if her rights were invaded. But I can
myself to believe, until all ground of hope is gone, anticipate no greater calamity for the country
that the fruit of his noble deeds will be destroyed, than a dissolution of the Union. It would be an
and that his precious advice and virtuous example accumulation of all the evils we complain of,
will so soon be forgotten by his countrymen. As far and I am willing to sacrifice everything but
as I can judge by the papers, we are between a state honor for its preservation. I hope, therefore,
of anarchy and civil war. May God avert2 both of that all constitutional means will be exhausted
these evils from us! I fear that mankind will not before there is a resort to force. Secession is
for years be sufficiently Christianized to bear the nothing but revolution. The framers of our
absence of restraint and force. I see that four states3 Constitution never exhausted so much labor,
have declared themselves out of the Union; four wisdom, and forbearance in its formation, and
more will apparently follow their example. surrounded it with so many guards and securi-
Then, if the border states are brought into the ties, if it was intended to be broken by every
gulf of revolution, one half of the country will be member of the Confederacy at will. It was
arrayed against the other. I must try and be intended for “perpetual union,” so expressed in
patient and await the end, for I can do nothing the preamble, and for the establishment of a
to hasten or retard it. government, not a compact, which can only be
The South, in my opinion, has been aggrieved dissolved by revolution or the consent of all the
by the acts of the North, as you say. I feel the people in convention assembled. It is idle to
aggression and am willing to take every proper step talk of secession. Anarchy would have been
for redress. It is the principle I contend for, not established, and not a government, by
Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, and
the other patriots of the Revolution. . . . Still, a
Union that can only be maintained by swords
1. Edward Everett was a noted American politician and orator.
and bayonets,4 and in which strife and civil war
2. Here, avert means “to ward off.”
3. The first four states to secede from the Union were South are to take the place of brotherly love and
Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, and Alabama. With Georgia, kindness, has no charm for me. I shall mourn
Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North for my country and for the welfare and progress
Carolina, these states would make up the Confederate States
of mankind. If the Union is dissolved, and the
of America.
government disrupted, I shall return to my
Literary Element Diction What does Lee’s choice of native state and share the miseries of my
adjectives indicate about his feelings toward George Washington? people; and, save in defense, will draw my
sword on none.
Vocabulary
perusal (pə r¯¯¯
oo zəl) n. the process of examining carefully
anarchy (an ər kē) n. the absence of government 4. A bayonet is a large knife or dagger that can be attached to
the muzzle of a rifle.
array (ə rā) v. to place in proper or methodical order
redress (rē dress´) n. compensation, as for wrong done Big Idea A Nation Divided What does this statement
contend (kən tend) v. to argue; dispute reveal about Lee’s personal response to the imminent war?
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. What questions would you like to ask Robert E. Lee 5. (a)How does Lee support his opinions about
after reading his letter? secession? (b)What can you infer from this about
Lee’s attitude toward his country?
Recall and Interpret
6. (a)Why does Lee say that he will mourn for his
2. (a)How does Lee describe George Washington?
country and “for the welfare and progress of
(b)What do you learn about Lee’s character from
mankind”? (b)How do you think Lee might react to
his description of Washington?
events taking place today? Explain.
3. (a)What two evils does Lee say the country is
between? (b)What do you think Lee means when Connect
he says, “I fear that mankind will not for years be 7. Big Idea A Nation Divided Mary Custis Lee
sufficiently Christianized to bear the absence of wrote to a friend, “My husband has wept tears of
restraint and force”? blood over this terrible war, but as a man of honor
4. (a)What decision does Lee announce at the end of and a Virginian, he must follow the destiny of his
the letter? (b)What kind of person does this state.” How was Lee’s dilemma comparable to the
letter reveal Lee to be? one facing the country as a whole?
L I T E R A RY A N A LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
372 UNIT 3 TH E C I V I L WA R E RA
B EF O R E YO U R E A D
Bettmann/Corbis
An Occurrence at Owl
Creek Bridge
M E E T A M BROSE BI E RC E
A
mbrose Bierce did not trust people. Nor
did he trust governments, businesses, or
churches. Most of all, “Bitter Bierce,” as
he was known, did not trust easy answers or senti-
mentality. As his biographer Carey McWilliams
wrote, Bierce was “idealistic, cynical, morose . . .
a realist who wrote romances, a fine satirist and Commercial Advertiser, a financial weekly. He was
something of a charlatan.” put in charge of the paper’s humor section, “The
Town Crier.” Bierce’s columns often consisted of
satirical attacks against politicians and business
“Nothing is so improbable as what is leaders, attracting great notoriety for himself and
the News Letter.
true. It is the unexpected that occurs;
but that is not saying enough; it is also Nuggets and Dust In 1872 Bierce and his wife
Mary Ellen traveled to England. While overseas, he
the unlikely—one might almost say the published three books of fiction, The Fiend’s Delight,
impossible.” Nuggets and Dust Panned Out in California, and
Cobwebs from an Empty Skull. In 1875 Bierce
—Ambrose Bierce, “The Short Story” returned to San Francisco, but his life continued to
be marked by a pattern of restlessness and dissatisfac-
tion. He quit his job as an editor for the Argonaut
and traveled to the Dakota Territory, hoping to leave
Soldier and Civilian Ambrose Bierce was born journalism behind. There Bierce worked as a man-
into an impoverished Ohio farm family. He was ager for a mining firm that was losing money. The
the tenth of thirteen children. After one year of firm collapsed and he returned to San Francisco.
high school at the Kentucky Military Institute, From 1881 to 1886, Bierce wrote for Wasp, a humor
Bierce became a printer’s apprentice for a news- magazine. From 1887 to 1908, Bierce worked as a
paper in Indiana. columnist for the San Francisco Examiner.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Bierce In 1914 Bierce disappeared in Mexico, which was
enlisted in the Ninth Indiana Volunteers. He then in the midst of a revolution. In a letter to a
fought in several important battles, including friend, he wrote, “Goodbye, if you hear of my
Shiloh and Chickamauga. At the battle of being stood up against a Mexican stone wall and
Kennesaw Mountain in 1864, Bierce suffered a shot to rags please know that I think it a pretty
severe head wound. He would later say that the good way to depart this life. It beats old age, dis-
bullet “crushed my skull like a broken walnut.” ease, or falling down the cellar stairs.” His disap-
Bierce recovered and continued to serve in the pearance and death remain a mystery.
army, eventually being promoted to major.
Ambrose Bierce was born in 1842 and disappeared
After the war, Bierce settled in San Francisco, in 1914.
California. For the next two years, he worked as a
guard at the mint and studied for long periods of
time at the public library. In 1868 Bierce landed a Author Search For more about
position at the San Francisco News Letter and Ambrose Bierce, go to www.glencoe.com.
Bettmann/Corbis
the foot planking that traversed it. the collar of his well-fitting
Beyond one of the sentinels nobody was in frock-coat. He wore a mustache
sight; the railroad ran straight away into a forest and pointed beard, but no whis-
for a hundred yards, then, curving, was lost to kers; his eyes were large and
view. Doubtless there was an outpost farther dark gray, and had a kindly
along. The other bank of the stream was open expression which one would
ground—a gentle acclivity3 topped with a stock- hardly have expected in one
ade of vertical tree trunks, loop-holed for rifles, whose neck was in the hemp.
with a single embrasure through which Evidently this was no vulgar Visual Vocabulary
protruded the muzzle of a brass cannon com- assassin. The liberal military A frock-coat is a
manding the bridge. Midway of the slope code makes provision for man’s coat that
reaches to the
between bridge and fort were the spectators—a hanging many kinds of per- knees. Popular in
single company of infantry in line, at “parade sons, and gentlemen are not the nineteenth
rest,” the butts of the rifles on the ground, the excluded. century, it is
barrels inclining slightly backward against the The preparations being usually double-
breasted and fitted
right shoulder, the hands crossed upon the stock. complete, the two private sol-
at the waist.
A lieutenant stood at the right of the line, the diers stepped aside and each
point of his sword upon the ground, his left hand drew away the plank upon
resting upon his right. Excepting the group of which he had been standing. The sergeant
four at the center of the bridge, not a man turned to the captain, saluted and placed himself
moved. The company faced the bridge, staring immediately behind that officer, who in turn
stonily, motionless. The sentinels, facing the moved apart one pace. These movements left the
banks of the stream, might have been statues to condemned man and the sergeant standing on
adorn the bridge. The captain stood with folded the two ends of the same plank, which spanned
arms, silent, observing the work of his subordi- three of the cross-ties6 of the bridge. The end
nates, but making no sign. Death is a dignitary upon which the civilian stood almost, but not
who when he comes announced is to be received quite, reached a fourth. This plank had been
with formal manifestations of respect, even by held in place by the weight of the captain; it was
those most familiar with him. In the code of mil- now held by that of the sergeant. At a signal
itary etiquette silence and fixity4 are forms of from the former the latter would step aside, the
deference. plank would tilt and the condemned man go
The man who was engaged in being hanged was down between two ties. The arrangement com-
apparently about thirty-five years of age. He was a mended itself to his judgment as simple and
civilian, if one might judge from his habit,5 which effective. His face had not been covered nor his
was that of a planter. His features were good—a eyes bandaged. He looked a moment at his
straight nose, firm mouth, broad forehead, from “unsteadfast footing,” then let his gaze wander to
which his long, dark hair was combed straight the swirling water of the stream racing madly
beneath his feet. A piece of dancing driftwood
caught his attention and his eyes followed it
3. An acclivity is an upward slope. down the current. How slowly it appeared to
4. Fixity refers to a steady and unmoving stance. move! What a sluggish stream!
5. Habit refers to a distinctive manner of dress or type of He closed his eyes in order to fix his last
clothing.
thoughts upon his wife and children. The water,
Big Idea A Nation Divided What does the condemned touched to gold by the early sun, the brooding
man’s position in life suggest about the possible causes for mists under the banks at some distance down
his execution? the stream, the fort, the soldiers, the piece of
drift—all had distracted him. And now he
Vocabulary
protrude (prō tr¯¯¯
ood) v. to stick out; to project
6. Cross-ties are the wooden pieces to which railroad rails are
adorn (ə dorn) v. to make beautiful; to decorate
secured.
376 UNIT 3 TH E C I V I L WA R E RA
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John A. Rutherford
The Red Bridge, 1896. Julian Alden Weir. Oil on canvas, 24¼ x 33¾ in.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
became conscious of a new disturbance. Striking thank God, is as yet outside their lines; my wife
through the thought of his dear ones was a sound and little ones are still beyond the invader’s far-
which he could neither ignore nor understand, a thest advance.”
sharp, distinct, metallic percussion like the As these thoughts, which have here to be set
stroke of a blacksmith’s hammer upon the anvil; down in words, were flashed into the doomed
it had the same ringing quality. He wondered man’s brain rather than evolved from it the cap-
what it was, and whether immeasurably distant tain nodded to the sergeant. The sergeant
or near by—it seemed both. Its recurrence was stepped aside.
regular, but as slow as the tolling of a death
knell.7 He awaited each stroke with impatience II
and—he knew not why—apprehension. The Peyton Farquhar was a well-to-do planter, of an
intervals of silence grew progressively longer; the old and highly respected Alabama family. Being
delays became maddening. With their greater a slave owner and like other slave owners a poli-
infrequency the sounds increased in strength and tician he was naturally an original secessionist8
sharpness. They hurt his ear like the thrust of a and ardently devoted to the Southern cause.
knife; he feared he would shriek. What he heard
was the ticking of his watch.
He unclosed his eyes and saw again the water 8. A secessionist was one in favor of breaking away from the
Union.
below him. “If I could free my hands,” he
thought, “I might throw off the noose and spring Reading Strategy Making and Verifying Predictions
into the stream. By diving I could evade the bul- What can the reader predict about the condemned man from
lets and, swimming vigorously, reach the bank, this statement?
assent (ə sent) v. to express agreement Reading Strategy Making and Verifying Predictions
poignant (poin yənt) adj. sharp; severe; causing emo- What does this sentence enable the reader to predict about
tional or physical anguish the outcome of Farquhar’s mission to burn the bridge?
378 UNIT 3 TH E C I V I L WA R E RA
agonies seemed to shoot from his neck down- superhuman strength! Ah, that was a fine
ward through every fiber of his body and limbs. endeavor! Bravo! The cord fell away; his arms
These pains appeared to flash along well- parted and floated upward, the hands dimly seen
defined lines of ramification18 and to beat with on each side in the growing light. He watched
an inconceivably rapid periodicity.19 They them with a new interest as first one and then
seemed like streams of pulsating fire heating the other pounced upon the noose at his neck.
him to an intolerable temperature. As to his They tore it away and thrust it fiercely aside,
head, he was conscious of nothing but a feeling its undulations23 resembling those of a water-
of fullness—of congestion. These sensations snake. “Put it back, put it back!” He thought
were unaccompanied by thought. The intellec- he shouted these words to his hands, for the
tual part of his nature was already effaced; he undoing of the noose had been succeeded by
had power only to feel, and feeling was tor- the direst pang that he had yet experienced.
ment. He was conscious of motion. Encompassed His neck ached horribly; his brain was on fire;
in a luminous cloud, of which he was now his heart, which had been fluttering faintly,
merely the fiery heart, without material sub- gave a great leap, trying to force itself out at
stance, he swung through unthinkable arcs of his mouth. His whole body was racked and
oscillation,20 like a vast pendulum. Then all at wrenched with an insupportable anguish! But
once, with terrible suddenness, the light about his disobedient hands gave no heed to the
him shot upward with the noise of a loud plash;21 command. They beat the water vigorously with
a frightful roaring was in his ears, and all was quick, downward strokes, forcing him to the
cold and dark. The power of thought was surface. He felt his head emerge; his eyes were
restored; he knew that the rope had broken and blinded by the sunlight; his chest expanded
he had fallen into the stream. There was no convulsively, and with a supreme and crown-
additional strangulation; the noose about his ing agony his lungs engulfed a great draft of
neck was already suffocating him and kept the air, which instantly he expelled in a shriek!
water from his lungs. To die of hanging at the He was now in full possession of his physical
bottom of a river!—the idea seemed to him ludi- senses. They were, indeed, preternaturally24 keen
crous. He opened his eyes in the darkness and and alert. Something in the awful disturbance of
saw above him a gleam of light, but how distant, his organic system had so exalted and refined
how inaccessible! He was still sinking, for the them that they made record of things never
light became fainter and fainter until it was a before perceived. He felt the ripples upon his
mere glimmer. Then it began to grow and brighten, face and heard their separate sounds as they struck.
and he knew that he was rising toward the sur- He looked at the forest on the bank of the
face—knew it with reluctance, for he was now stream, saw the individual trees, the leaves and
very comfortable. “To be hanged and drowned,” the veining of each leaf—saw the very insects
he thought, “that is not so bad; but I do not wish upon them: the locusts, the brilliant-bodied flies,
to be shot. No; I will not be shot; that is not fair.” the gray spiders stretching their webs from twig
He was not conscious of an effort, but a sharp to twig. He noted the prismatic colors in all the
pain in his wrist apprised him that he was trying dewdrops upon a million blades of grass. The
to free his hands. He gave the struggle his atten- humming of the gnats that danced above the
tion, as an idler22 might observe the feat of a jug- eddies25 of the stream, the beating of the dragon-
gler, without interest in the outcome. What flies’ wings, the strokes of the water-spiders’ legs,
splendid effort!—what magnificent, what
23. Undulations are regular movements that come in waves.
18. Here, ramification means “the act of branching out.” 24. Preternaturally (prē´ tər nach ər əl ē) means “going
19. Periodicity means “recurrence at regular intervals.” beyond what is normal” or “extraordinarily.”
20. Oscillation is swinging back and forth with regular rhythm. 25. Eddies are currents that move contrary to the main current
21. Plash is a splash or the sound of a splash. in a river or stream, usually in a circular motion.
22. An idler is a person who is lazy or not employed.
Reading Strategy Making and Verifying Predictions
Literary Element Point of View What does this state- What does this statement suggest about Farquhar’s attempt
ment tell the reader about the narrator’s point of view? to escape?
like oars which had lifted their boat—all these bridge gazing into his own through the sights of
made audible music. A fish slid along beneath the rifle. He observed that it was a gray eye and
his eyes and he heard the rush of its body parting remembered having read that gray eyes were
the water. keenest, and that all famous marksmen had
He had come to the surface facing down the them. Nevertheless, this one had missed.
stream; in a moment the visible world seemed to A counter-swirl had caught Farquhar and
wheel slowly round, himself the pivotal point, turned him half round; he was again looking into
and he saw the bridge, the fort, the soldiers upon the forest on the bank opposite the fort. The
the bridge, the captain, the sergeant, the two pri- sound of a clear, high voice in a monotonous
vates, his executioners. They were in silhouette singsong now rang out behind him and came
against the blue sky. They shouted and gesticu- across the water with a distinctness that pierced
lated, pointing at him. The captain had drawn and subdued all other sounds, even the beating
his pistol, but did not fire; the others were of the ripples in his ears. Although no soldier, he
unarmed. Their movements were grotesque and had frequented camps enough to know the dread
horrible, their forms gigantic. significance of that deliberate, drawling, aspi-
Suddenly he heard a sharp report26 and some- rated27 chant; the lieutenant on shore was taking
thing struck the water smartly within a few a part in the morning’s work. How coldly and
inches of his head, spattering his face with spray. pitilessly—with what an even, calm intonation,
He heard a second report, and saw one of the presaging,28 and enforcing tranquillity in the
sentinels with his rifle at his shoulder, a light men—with what accurately measured intervals
cloud of blue smoke rising from the muzzle. The fell those cruel words:
man in the water saw the eye of the man on the
26. Here, a report is an explosive sound or noise, especially 27. Here, aspirated refers to a breathy sort of speech.
from a rifle or a pistol when fired. 28. Presaging means “acting as a sign or a warning of.”
380 UNIT 3 TH E C I V I L WA R E RA
“Attention, company! . . . Shoulder arms! . . . the smitten33 water he heard the deflected shot
Ready! . . . Aim! . . . Fire!” humming through the air ahead, and in an
Farquhar dived—dived as deeply as he could. instant it was cracking and smashing the
The water roared in his ears like the voice of branches in the forest beyond.
Niagara, yet he heard the dulled thunder of the “They will not do that again,” he thought;
volley29 and, rising again toward the surface, met “the next time they will use a charge of grape.34
shining bits of metal, singularly flattened, oscil- I must keep my eye upon the gun; the smoke will
lating slowly downward. Some of them touched apprise me—the report arrives too late; it lags
him on the face and hands, then fell away, con- behind the missile. That is a good gun.”
tinuing their descent. One lodged between his Suddenly he felt himself whirled round and
collar and neck; it was uncomfortably warm and round—spinning like a top. The water, the banks,
he snatched it out. the forests, the now distant bridge, fort and men—
As he rose to the surface, gasping for breath, all were commingled and blurred. Objects were
he saw that he had been a long time under represented by their colors only; circular horizon-
water; he was perceptibly farther down stream— tal streaks of color—that was all he saw. He had
nearer to safety. The soldiers had almost finished been caught in a vortex35 and was being whirled
reloading; the metal ramrods30 flashed all at once on with a velocity of advance and gyration that
in the sunshine as they were drawn from the bar- made him giddy and sick. In a few moments he
rels, turned in the air, and thrust into their sock- was flung upon the gravel at the foot of the left
ets. The two sentinels fired again, independently bank of the stream—the southern bank—and
and ineffectually. behind a projecting point which concealed him
The hunted man saw all this over his shoul- from his enemies. The sudden arrest of his motion,
der; he was now swimming vigorously with the abrasion of one of his hands on the gravel,
the current. His brain was as energetic as his restored him, and he wept with delight. He dug
arms and legs; he thought with the rapidity of his fingers into the sand, threw it over himself in
lightning. handfuls and audibly blessed it. It looked like dia-
“The officer,” he reasoned, “will not make that monds, rubies, emeralds; he could think of noth-
martinet’s31 error a second time. It is as easy to ing beautiful which it did not resemble. The trees
dodge a volley as a single shot. He has probably upon the bank were giant garden plants; he noted
already given the command to fire at will. God a definite order in their arrangement, inhaled the
help me, I cannot dodge them all!” fragrance of their blooms. A strange, roseate36
An appalling plash within two yards of him light shone through the spaces among their
was followed by a loud, rushing sound trunks and the wind made in their branches the
diminuendo,32 which seemed to travel back music of æolian harps.37 He had no wish to per-
through the air to the fort and died in an fect his escape—was content to remain in that
explosion which stirred the very river to its enchanting spot until retaken.
deeps! A rising sheet of water curved over him, A whiz and rattle of grapeshot among the
fell down upon him, blinded him, strangled him! branches high above his head roused him from
The cannon had taken a hand in the game. As his dream. The baffled cannoneer had fired him
he shook his head free from the commotion of a random farewell. He sprang to his feet, rushed
up the sloping bank, and plunged into the forest.
All that day he traveled, laying his course by
29. Here, a volley is a discharge of bullets in rapid succession.
30. Ramrods are rods used for stuffing the charge down the
barrel of a rifle that is loaded from the muzzle. 33. Here, smitten means that the water has been bombarded
31. A martinet is one who stresses strict attention to forms and with ammunition from the cannon.
rules. 34. Grape refers to grapeshot, a cluster of small iron balls that
32. Diminuendo (di min´ ū en dō) is a musical term that disperse when shot from a cannon.
describes a gradual decrease in volume. 35. Here, a vortex is a whirling mass of water that pulls
Big Idea everything to its center.
A Nation Divided How do you think Bierce’s
36. Roseate means “rose-colored.”
actual experiences in the war affected his descriptions of
37. Æolian harps produce musical sounds when air passes
combat?
through the strings.
382 UNIT 3 T H E C I V I L WA R E RA
A F T E R YO U R E A D
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. What was your reaction to the end of the story? 5. (a)What literary device does Bierce use in section II
of the story? (b)Did you find this literary device to
Recall and Interpret be effective? Explain.
2. (a)Summarize the scene in the story’s first two
6. Do you think that the description of Farquhar’s final
paragraphs. Who is involved? What reactions does
thoughts is realistic? Explain.
the narrator describe? (b)Why do the observers of
the event respond to it in the way they do? Connect
3. (a)In sections I and II, what do you learn about 7. Big Idea A Nation Divided How do you think
Farquhar’s appearance, personality, and background? Bierce’s war experiences affected his attitude
(b)What can you infer about the narrator’s attitude toward the events in this story? What view of peo-
toward Farquhar from these descriptions? ple’s desire to fight wars do you think Bierce
4. (a)Describe the specific physical sensations that expresses in this selection?
Farquhar experiences in section III. (b)How do his
sensations change during the course of this
section? (c)What do these changes suggest?
YO U ’ R E T H E C R I T I C : Point/Counterpoint
BI E RC E ’S O BSESSIO N W I T H DE AT H
Read the following two excerpts of literary criticism.
“One might quibble with the charge that Bierce’s
The first is by Edmund Wilson, an American literary stories lack sympathy; they are, in their way
critic of the mid-twentieth century. The second is by enormously sympathetic, but it is the understated
Bierce’s biographer and Civil War historian Roy Mor- and unspoken sympathy of the modern stylist, not
ris Jr. As you read, consider how these critics share the breathy sentimentality of the Victorian. Besides,
similar assumptions but differ in their conclusions. Bierce might have answered, such sentimental bosh
is what got the soldiers in his stories into their
deadly predicaments in the first place. It is not
sympathy that Bierce is after, but clarity.”
“But eventually, in his horror stories, the obsession —Roy Morris Jr.
with death becomes tiresome. If we try to read these
stories in bulk, they get to seem not merely
disgusting but dull . . . the trick repeated again and Group Activity
again. The executioner Death comes to us from Discuss the following questions. Refer to the excerpts
outside our human world and, capriciously, above and cite evidence from “An Occurrence at
gratuitously, cruelly, slices away our lives. It is an Owl Creek Bridge” to support your opinions.
unpleasant limitation of Bierce’s treatment of
violent death that it should seem to him never a 1. (a)How do these two critics differ in their conclu-
tragedy, but merely a bitter jest.” sions about Bierce? What assumptions do they
—Edmund Wilson share? (b)Which critic do you think comes closer
to accurately assessing Bierce’s attitude? Explain.
2. How does the “clarity” that Morris sees in Bierce’s
writings differ from the Transcendentalist clarity as
described by Emerson in essays such as “Nature”?
384 UNIT 3 T H E C I V I L WA R E RA
W R I T I N G A N D E X TE N D I N G G R A M M A R A N D ST Y L E
Paragraph B. Thesis Statement but related sentences, varying sentence type, and
increasing general readability. It is important to keep in
➧
Paragraph
C. Supporting Evidence
1. Badly needing sleep, Tim’s bed looked very inviting.
➧
Paragraph B. Restatement of Thesis In the first sentence, the participial phrase badly
needing sleep modifies bed, which confuses the writ-
er’s intended meaning. In the second sentence, badly
After completing your draft, exchange essays with a needing sleep modifies Tim, which eliminates the
peer reviewer to evaluate each other’s work and to confusion.
suggest revisions. Then proofread and edit your draft
Activity Scan “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”
for errors in spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
for other examples of participial phrases. Write down
three sentences from the story that include participial
Literary Criticism phrases and underline the phrases. Then write three
sentences imitating Bierce’s style that use participial
Group Discussion Critic Cathy N. Davidson identifies
phrases.
three main types of language that Bierce uses to nar-
rate “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.” In section I, Revising Check
according to Davidson, the narrator speaks in “military
Participial Phrases Work with a partner to review
terminology, objective and distant.” In section II, the
and revise your use of participial phrases in the essay
narrator uses “jingoistic cant, deceiving and self-deceiv-
you wrote for the Writing About Literature feature on
ing.” In section III, Davidson describes the narrator’s
this page.
language as “lush and sensuous.” Do you agree with
Davidson’s opinion? Meet with a group of classmates
and discuss Bierce’s use of language in the story.
Present your conclusions to the class.
Web Activities For eFlashcards,
Selection Quick Checks, and other Web activities, go to
www.glencoe.com.
A
braham Lincoln’s impact on the history
and culture of the United States has been
immeasurable. He is a familiar figure to all
Americans—even small children recognize his
trademark hat. One of the United States’ greatest
presidents, Lincoln led the country through the
Civil War, helping to preserve the Union and to
end slavery. Lincoln and the United States showed
the world that democracy can be a durable form of
government.
“A new nation, conceived in liberty, Southern states to secede from the Union. As a
and dedicated to the proposition that result the nation plunged into the Civil War. A
man who had once described military glory as “that
all men are created equal.” attractive rainbow that rises in showers of blood—
—Abraham Lincoln that serpent’s eye that charms to destroy” became a
The Gettysburg Address great war leader only because it was necessary to
preserve the Union. Lincoln believed quite strongly
that a Confederate victory would most likely have
Politician Born in Hardin County, Kentucky, resulted in at least two separate nations. That, he
Lincoln grew up mainly on frontier farms in felt, would have marked the failure of our nation’s
Indiana, where he worked as a rail-splitter, flatboat- democracy. His policies as president proved shrewd,
man, storekeeper, surveyor, and postmaster. and the war ended on April 9, 1865, with victory
Lincoln’s parents were nearly illiterate and Lincoln for the North.
received no formal education. Nevertheless, he
Public Speaker Lincoln’s tragic and dramatic
developed a hunger for learning and read every
assassination cemented his place as a U.S. legend.
book he could find. Following a move to New
His fame stems largely from the enduring power of
Salem, Illinois, Lincoln began to study law. At
his words, and the Gettysburg Address and his
twenty-five, he was elected to the Illinois state leg-
Second Inaugural Address are perhaps the most
islature, marking the beginning of an astounding
notable examples of Lincoln’s mastery of public
political career. In 1836, the self-taught Lincoln
speaking. These speeches forcefully convey
passed the bar examination and began to practice
Lincoln’s deepest convictions in spare, highly
law. Twenty-four years later, after gaining national
evocative language. Both speeches have had a vast
political prominence, he was nominated as the
influence on the language of U.S. politics.
Republican presidential candidate. Lincoln won
the election on November 6, 1860.
Abraham Lincoln was born in 1809 and died in 1865.
President and Commander in Chief Because
Lincoln believed that Congress should prevent the Author Search For more about
spread of slavery, his victory prompted seven Abraham Lincoln, go to www.glencoe.com.
386 UNIT 3 T H E C I V I L WA R E RA
L I T E R AT U R E P R E V I E W R E A D I N G P R EVI E W
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • analyzing style
• relating literature to its historical period • writing an evaluative essay
• analyzing parallelism
388 UNIT 3 T H E C I V I L WA R E RA
Reza Estakhrian/Stone/Getty Images
A F T E R YO U R E A D
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. Which part of this speech made the greatest 5. (a)How does Lincoln’s speech affect your impres-
impression on you? Why? sions of Lincoln? (b)What can you infer from this
speech about Lincoln’s character?
Recall and Interpret
6. This speech is often quoted. What, in your opinion,
2. (a)In the opening sentence, what words does
makes it so memorable and inspiring?
Lincoln use to describe the United States? (b)What
does this sentence tell you about Lincoln’s concept 7. What is unintentionally ironic about Lincoln’s state-
of government? ment that “The world will little note, nor long
remember what we say here, but it can never for-
3. (a)According to Lincoln, why are he and those in
get what they did here”?
the audience gathered together? (b)In what way
does Lincoln believe that the battlefield has already Connect
been consecrated?
8. Big Idea A Nation Divided Why did Lincoln
4. (a)To what does Lincoln say “the living” should consider the Civil War a test of U.S. democracy?
dedicate themselves? (b)What does Lincoln mean
by the “unfinished work” and the “great task
remaining before us”?
L I T E R A RY A N A LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO CA B U L A RY
Garry Wills
Pulitzer Prize Winner
Building Background
In the following passage, historian Garry Wills closely
examines the continuing significance of Lincoln’s
Gettysburg Address, which is considered one of
the greatest speeches ever given by an American
president. In Wills’s Pulitzer Prize–winning book, he
W hen Lincoln rose, it was with a sheet
or two, from which he read—as had
the minister who offered the invoca-
tion. Lincoln’s three minutes would, ever after,
be obsessively contrasted with Everett’s1 two
hours in accounts of this day. It is even claimed
discusses the meaning of Lincoln’s words, their long- that Lincoln disconcerted the crowd with his
term effect, and the historical environment in which abrupt performance, so that people did not know
Lincoln delivered the address. Wills maintains that how to respond (“Was that all?”). Myth tells of a
the importance of Lincoln’s brief 272-word speech poor photographer making leisurely arrange-
is nearly unparalleled. ments to take Lincoln’s picture, expecting him to
be there for some time. But it is useful to look at
the relevant part of the program as Wills’s2 com-
Set a Purpose for Reading
mittee printed it:
Read to discover the significance of the Gettysburg
Address and why it remains important today. Music, by BIRGFIELD’S Band.
Prayer, by REV. T. H. STOCKTON, D.D.
Reading Strategy Music, by the Marine Band.
Connecting to Political Context Oration, by Hon. EDWARD EVERETT.
Connecting to political context involves an examination
of the political assumptions that influenced the writing 1. Edward Everett, who delivered the previous oration, had
of a literary work. As you read this selection, look for been president of Harvard University, a member of Congress,
and the governor of Massachusetts. He was one of the most
the answer to this question: What is the basic political
well-known speakers of his day.
assumption that Wills attributes to Lincoln in the 2. David Wills was a prominent citizen of Gettysburg,
Gettysburg Address? Cite evidence from the text to Pennsylvania, and responsible for organizing the interstate
support your answer. commission that created the Gettysburg National Cemetery.
R ES P O N D I N G AN D TH I N K I N G C R ITI CALLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. What did you find most interesting in this essay? 4. (a)To what plane does Wills claim that Lincoln ele-
vated the discussion of the Civil War? (b)What evi-
Recall and Interpret dence does he present to support this contention?
2. (a)Why does Wills say that comparing the lengths (c)What effect do you think the Gettysburg Address
of Lincoln’s address and Everett’s oration “raises a has had on historians’ interpretation of the war?
false issue”? (b)How important to Wills is the 5. (a)Why do you think that Wills mentions several
length of the Gettysburg Address? “myths” related to the address? (b)Do you find his
3. (a)What does Wills tell us about Lincoln’s voice and points about these myths convincing? Explain.
delivery? (b)To what personal fact about Lincoln does
Wills attribute the effectiveness of his performance? Connect
6. Wills says that, because of the Gettysburg Address,
“the Civil War is, to most Americans, what Lincoln
wanted it to mean.” What does the Civil War mean
OB J EC TIVES to you? How has the Gettysburg Address influenced
• Enhance your understanding of U.S. history and culture. your interpretation?
• Analyze political assumptions in a literary work.
• Analyze the features and rhetorical devices of a public
document.
The Girl I Left Behind Me, 1870–75. Eastman Johnson. Oil on canvas,
42 x 347/8 in. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC.
393
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC / Art Resource, NY
B EF O R E YO U R E A D
Whitman’s Poetry
M E E T WA LT W H I TM A N The first edition of Leaves
of Grass contained just
W
twelve poems, but they
hen Walt Whitman first published
were enough to convince
Leaves of Grass in 1855, it marked the
Ralph Waldo Emerson, the
beginning of a revolution in poetry. At
most famous literary figure
the time, however, few people noticed the young
of his day, of the unknown
poet’s radical work—and most of those who did
poet’s genius. Here was the
were either dismayed or offended. Whitman’s
new American voice
poetry was realistic, free flowing, and shockingly
Emerson had been calling
candid. No subject was too commonplace for his
for. In a letter to Whitman,
attention: not the mechanic nor the prisoner nor
Emerson said the collec-
the lowly blade of grass. He was the first poet in
tion was “the most extraor-
English to write extensively in free verse, an open,
dinary piece of wit and
unregulated form that reflected the cadences of
wisdom that America has
everyday speech. Although it took decades for his
yet contributed.” With the
poetry to be broadly accepted, Leaves of Grass
encouragement of a small group of admirers,
eventually became an enduring symbol of the
Whitman pressed on with his life’s work: revising,
democratic spirit it celebrated.
rearranging, and adding to Leaves of Grass, envi-
sioning all of his work as one vast poem.
Witness to War Like all Americans, Whitman
“The United States themselves are was deeply distressed by the Civil War. In 1862,
essentially the greatest poem.” he traveled to the Virginia battlefront to care for
his brother George, who had been wounded in
—Walt Whitman the first battle of Fredericksburg. Deeply moved by
the suffering he encountered and finding his
brother’s condition stable, Whitman went on to
An American Voice As a young man, Whitman Washington, D.C. to work as a volunteer nurse in
loved to wander through the streets of Manhattan, army hospitals. His experiences during the Civil
a section of New York City. As he walked, he jot- War inspired some of his greatest works, including
ted down his impressions of the city’s sights, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” his
sounds, and array of characters. A great reader, elegy to President Lincoln.
Whitman was nurtured by the transcendentalists,
yet he was no country dweller delighting in the Even in old age, Whitman kept writing, attempting
quiet joys of nature. Instead, he believed in gath- to put “a Person, a human being (myself, in the
ering a wide range of experiences, so he held latter half of the Nineteenth Century, in America)
numerous jobs: office boy, doctor’s helper, printer’s freely, fully, and truly on record.” The final,
assistant, journalist, typesetter, and printer. He also “deathbed” edition of Leaves of Grass (1891),
traveled down the Mississippi River, listening to which contained 383 titled poems, put on record
the talk of working people, farmers, and soldiers. the man who had become America’s national poet.
Whitman used his experiences to create a new Walt Whitman was born in 1819 and died in 1892.
kind of poetry that celebrated the multifaceted
spirit of his country.
Author Search For more about
this author,
Walt go to
Whitman, go www.literature.glencoe.com.
to www.glencoe.com.
394 UNIT 3 T H E C I V I L WA R E RA
CORBIS
L I T E R AT U R E P R E V I E W R E A D I N G P R EVI E W
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • analyzing free verse
• analyzing literary periods • paraphrasing
WALT WHITMAN 39 5
© T.H. Benton and R.P. Benton Testamentary Trusts/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY/The St. Louis Art Museum
Cradling Wheat, 1938. Thomas Hart Benton. tempera and oil on board, 31 x 38 in.
T.H. Benton and R.P. Benton Testamentary Trusts/Licensed by VAGA,
New York, NY/The St. Louis Art Museum.
Walt Whitman
I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,
Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe1 and strong,
The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,
The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,
5 The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat,
the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck,
The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands,
The wood-cutter’s song, the ploughboy’s on his way in the morning,
or at noon intermission or at sundown,
The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work,
or of the girl sewing or washing,
Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,
10 The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young fellows,
robust, friendly,
Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.
Literary Element Free Verse Why is free verse appropriate for the descriptions in this poem?
396 UNIT 3 T H E C I V I L WA R E RA
Photography Courtesy of Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence/Art Resource, NY
Walt Whitman
When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause
in the lecture-room,
5 How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.
Reading Strategy Paraphrasing How would you rephrase these lines in your own words?
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
L I T E R A RY A N A LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
398 UNIT 3 T H E C I V I L WA R E RA
William MacIlvaine the Younger/New York Historical Society/Bridgeman Art Library
Walt Whitman
A sight in camp in the daybreak gray and dim,
As from my tent I emerge so early sleepless,
As slow I walk in the cool fresh air the path near by the hospital tent,
Three forms I see on stretchers lying, brought out there untended lying,
5 Over each the blanket spread, ample brownish woolen blanket,
Gray and heavy blanket, folding, covering all.
Then to the second I step—and who are you my child and darling?
Who are you sweet boy with cheeks yet blooming?
Then to the third—a face nor child nor old, very calm, as of beautiful yellow-white ivory;
Young man I think I know you—I think this face is the face of the Christ himself,
15 Dead and divine and brother of all, and here again he lies.
Big Idea A Poetic Revolution How is this description different from what you might read in poems from an ear-
lier era?
WALT WHITMAN 39 9
Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York. Dick S. Ramsay Fund 59.9
Walt Whitman The Wounded Drummer Boy, 1871.
Eastman Johnson. Oil on canvas, 40 x 36 in.
The Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York.
1. Speculators are people who engage in risky business ventures hoping to make quick or large profits.
2. A parley is a conference between enemies to discuss terms of a truce or an agreement. Expostulation is the act of
reasoning with a person to correct or dissuade him or her.
3. Trestles are structures in which a beam is supported by four diverging legs.
Reading Strategy Paraphrasing Would your paraphrase of this line work with the rest of the poem?
400 UNIT 3 T H E C I V I L WA R E RA
A F T E R YO U R E A D
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Beat! Beat! Drums!
1. Which image or idea from these two poems stands Recall and Interpret
out in your mind? Why? 6. (a)What instruments are mentioned in this poem?
(b)What might they represent?
A Sight in Camp in the Daybreak Gray and Dim 7. (a)What kinds of activities do the instruments
Recall and Interpret interrupt? (b)What does the variety of activities
2. (a)What item does the speaker describe in lines suggest to you about the speaker’s message?
5–6? (b)Why might the speaker have focused on
this item?
Analyze and Evaluate
8. (a)Why might the people in stanza 3 be praying,
3. (a)Describe the first two soldiers. (b)What do the beseeching, and so on? (b)What message does
speaker’s questions imply about his feelings toward this stanza convey? Explain your answer.
the soldiers?
9. (a)What attitude toward war does this poem
Analyze and Evaluate express? (b)How well does it express that attitude?
4. Why do you think Whitman presents the three sol- Support your answer.
diers in this order?
5. (a)What comparison does Whitman make in the
last stanza? (b)What is the effect of comparing the
third soldier to Christ?
L I T E R A RY A NA LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
B EF O R E YO U R E A D
Opening of the Secession War an extra and cross’d to the Metropolitan hotel
News of the attack on fort Sumter and the flag (Niblo’s) where the great lamps were still
at Charleston harbor, S. C., was receiv’d in New brightly blazing, and, with a crowd of others,
York city late at night (13th April, 1861,) and was who gather’d impromptu, read the news, which
immediately sent out in extras of the newspapers. was evidently authentic. For the benefit of some
I had been to the opera in Fourteenth street that who had no papers, one of us read the telegram
night, and after the performance was walking aloud, while all listen’d silently and attentively.
down Broadway toward twelve o’clock, on my way No remark was made by any of the crowd, which
to Brooklyn, when I heard in the distance the had increas’d to thirty or forty, but all stood a
loud cries of the newsboys, who came presently minute or two, I remember, before they dispers’d.
tearing and yelling up the street, rushing from side
to side even more furiously than usual. I bought
Vocabulary
Literary Element Historical Narrative How does this impromptu (im promp t¯¯¯
oo, -tū) adv. done on the spur
description set the tone for this entry? of the moment
402 UNIT 3 T H E C I V I L WA R E RA
Christie’s Images/CORBIS
I can almost see them there now, under the feet, legs, arms, hands, &c., a full load for a one-
lamps at midnight again. horse cart. Several dead bodies lie near, each cover’d
with its brown woolen blanket. In the door-yard,
Contemptuous Feeling towards the river, are fresh graves, mostly of officers,
Even after the bombardment of Sumter, how- their names on pieces of barrel-staves or broken
ever, the gravity of the revolt, and the power boards, stuck in the dirt. (Most of these bodies were
and will of the slave States for a strong and con- subsequently taken up and transported north to
tinued military resistance to national authority, their friends.) The large mansion is quite crowded
were not at all realized at the North, except by upstairs and down, everything impromptu, no sys-
a few. Nine-tenths of the people of the free tem, all bad enough, but I have no doubt the best
States look’d upon the rebellion, as started in that can be done; all the wounds pretty bad, some
South Carolina, from a feeling one-half of con- frightful, the men in their old clothes, unclean and
tempt, and the other half composed of anger bloody. Some of the wounded are rebel soldiers and
and incredulity. It was not thought it would be officers, prisoners. One, a Mississippian, a captain,
join’d in by Virginia, North Carolina, or hit badly in leg, I talk’d with some time; he ask’d me
Georgia. A great and cautious national official for papers, which I gave him. (I saw him three
predicted that it would blow over “in sixty days,” months afterward in Washington, with his leg
and folks generally believ’d the prediction. I amputated, doing well.) I went through the rooms,
remember talking about it on a Fulton ferry-boat downstairs and up. Some of the men were dying. I
with the Brooklyn mayor, who said he only had nothing to give at that visit, but wrote a few
“hoped the Southern fire-eaters would commit letters to folks home, mothers, &c. Also talk’d to
some overt act of resistance, as they would then three or four, who seem’d most susceptible to it, and
be at once so effectually squelch’d, we would needing it.
never hear of secession again—but he was afraid
they never would have the pluck to really do After First Fredericksburg
anything.” I remember, too, that a couple of December 23 to 31.—The results of the late
companies of the Thirteenth Brooklyn, who battle are exhibited everywhere about here in
rendezvou’d at the city armory, and started thousands of cases, (hundreds die every day,) in
thence as thirty days’ men, were all provided with the camp, brigade, and division hospitals. These
pieces of rope, conspicuously tied to their musket- are merely tents, and sometimes very poor ones,
barrels, with which to bring back each man a the wounded lying on the ground, lucky, if their
prisoner from the audacious South, to be led in a blankets are spread on layers of pine or hemlock
noose, on our men’s early and triumphant return! twigs, or small leaves. No cots; seldom even a
mattress. It is pretty cold. The ground is frozen
Down at the Front hard, and there is occasional snow. I go around
from one case to another. I do not see that I do
Falmouth, Va., opposite Fredericksburgh, December
much good to these wounded and dying; but I
21, 1862.—Begin my visits among the camp hospi-
cannot leave them. Once in a while some young-
tals in the army of the Potomac. Spend a good part
ster holds on to me convulsively, and I do what I
of the day in a large brick mansion on the banks of
can for him; at any rate, stop with him and sit
the Rappahannock, used as a hospital since the bat-
near him for hours, if he wishes it.
tle—seems to have receiv’d only the worst cases.
Out doors, at the foot of a tree, within ten yards of
the front of the house, I notice a heap of amputated Literary Element Historical Narrative What two differ-
ent effects might this passage have had on readers during
the Civil War?
Literary Element Historical Narrative How would this
information be presented in a textbook?
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
subsequently (sub sə kwent lē) adv. at a later time
susceptible (sə sep tə bəl) adj. easily influenced or
incredulity (in´ krə d¯¯¯
oo lə tē, -dū-) n. disbelief
affected
Besides the hospitals, I also go occasionally on The current portraits are all failures—most of
long tours through the camps, talking with the them caricatures.
men, &c. Sometimes at night among the groups
around the fires, in their shebang enclosures of A Soldier on Lincoln
bushes. These are curious shows, full of charac- May 28.—As I sat by the bedside of a sick
ters and groups. I soon get acquainted anywhere Michigan soldier in hospital to-day, a convalescent
in camp, with officers or men, and am always from the adjoining bed rose and came to me,
well used. Sometimes I go down on picket with and presently we began talking. He was a mid-
the regiment I know best. As to rations, the dle-aged man, belonged to the 2d Virginia regi-
army here at present seems to be tolerably well ment, but lived in Racine, Ohio, and had a
supplied, and the men have enough, such as it is, family there. He spoke of President Lincoln, and
mainly salt pork and hard tack. Most of the regi- said: “The war is over, and many are lost. And
ments lodge in the flimsy little shelter-tents. A now we have lost the best, the fairest, the truest
few have built themselves huts of logs and mud, man in America. Take him altogether, he was
with fire-places. the best man this country ever produced. It was
quite a while I thought very different; but some
No Good Portrait of Lincoln time before the murder, that’s the way I have
Probably the reader has seen physiognomies seen it.” There was deep earnestness in the sol-
(often old farmers, sea-captains, and such) that, dier. (I found upon further talk he had known
behind their homeliness, or even ugliness, held Mr. Lincoln personally, and quite closely, years
superior points so subtle, yet so palpable, making before.) He was a veteran; was now in the fifth
the real life of their faces almost as impossible to year of his service; was a cavalry man, and had
depict as a wild perfume or fruit-taste, or a pas- been in a good deal of hard fighting.
sionate tone of the living voice—and such was
Lincoln’s face, the peculiar color, the lines of it, Vocabulary
the eyes, mouth, expression. Of technical beauty convalescent (kon və le sənt) n. a person who is
it had nothing—but to the eye of a great artist it recovering from an illness, an injury, or a surgical
furnished a rare study, a feast and fascination. operation
404 UNIT 3 T H E C I V I L WA R E RA
A F TE R YO U R E A D
RESP ON DI NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond 4. (a)In “After First Fredericksburg,” where does
Whitman find the wounded soldiers lying?
1. What is your impression of the Civil War after
(b)Why do you think he includes this detail?
reading these excerpts?
Academic Vocabulary
Writing About Literature
Here are two words from the vocabulary list on
Apply Form: Historical Narrative In Specimen
page R86. These words will help you think, write,
Days, Whitman describes his experiences during and
and talk about the selection.
personal feelings about an important historic event,
the Civil War. Think about an influential or historic
attitude (a tə t¯ō¯ōd´, -tūd´) n. an opinion or
event that has happened in your lifetime. What was
general feeling about something
your experience during that occurrence, and how did it
affect you emotionally? Write a few paragraphs describ- individual (in´ də vi j¯ō¯ō əl) adj. existing as a
ing your experience of that event and your reactions to distinct entity; separate
it. If you wish, you might try writing your account in
journal form, as Whitman did. Practice and Apply
1. How would you describe Whitman’s attitude toward
the Civil War?
Web Activities For eFlashcards, 2. According to Whitman on page 404, what individual
Selection Quick Checks, and other Web activities, go to elements of Lincoln’s face made it impossible to depict?
www.glencoe.com.
OB J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • analyzing voice
• relating literature to historical periods • drawing conclusions
1
I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
My tongue, every atom of my blood, form’d from this soil, this air,
Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents the same,
I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin,
Hoping to cease not till death.
6
A child said What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands;
15 How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any more than he.
I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven.
Big Idea A Poetic Revolution In line 14 the rhythmic pattern creates a rising and falling effect, end-
ing in a stop. What pattern does Whitman use in line 15?
20 What do you think has become of the young and old men?
And what do you think has become of the women and children?
Reading Strategy Drawing Conclusions Why is the speaker convinced that death does not exist?
408 UNIT 3 TH E C I V I L WA R E RA
16
I am of old and young, of the foolish as much as the wise,
Regardless of others, ever regardful of others,
30 Maternal as well as paternal, a child as well as a man,
Stuff’d with the stuff that is coarse and stuff’d with the stuff that is fine,
One of the Nation of many nations, the smallest the same and the largest the same,
A Southerner soon as a Northerner, a planter nonchalant3 and hospitable down by the
Oconee4 I live,
A Yankee bound my own way ready for trade, my joints the limberest joints on earth and
the sternest joints on earth,
35 A Kentuckian walking the vale of the Elkhorn in my deer-skin leggings, a Louisianian
or Georgian,
A boatman over lakes or bays or along coasts, a Hoosier,5 Badger,5 Buckeye;5
At home on Kanadian snow-shoes or up in the bush, or with fishermen off Newfoundland,
At home in the fleet of ice-boats, sailing with the rest and tacking,
At home on the hills of Vermont or in the woods of Maine, or the Texan ranch,
40 Comrade of Californians, comrade of free North-Westerners, (loving their big proportions,)
Comrade of raftsmen and coalmen, comrade of all who shake hands and welcome
to drink and meat,
A learner with the simplest, a teacher of the thoughtfullest,
A novice beginning yet experient of myriads of seasons,
Of every hue and caste am I, of every rank and religion,
45 A farmer, mechanic, artist, gentleman, sailor, quaker,
Prisoner, fancy-man, rowdy,6 lawyer, physician, priest.
17
These are really the thoughts of all men in all ages and lands, they
are not original with me,
If they are not yours as much as mine they are nothing, or next to nothing,
Literary Element Voice What do these lines convey about the speaker’s personality?
This is the grass that grows wherever the land is and the water is,
This is the common air that bathes the globe.
46
I know I have the best of time and space, and was never measured and
never will be measured.
Not I, not any one else can travel that road for you,
You must travel it for yourself.
Shoulder your duds9 dear son, and I will mine, and let us hasten forth,
Wonderful cities and free nations we shall fetch as we go.
75 If you tire, give me both burdens, and rest the chuff of your hand10 on my hip,
And in due time you shall repay the same service to me,
For after we start we never lie by again.
This day before dawn I ascended a hill and look’d at the crowded heaven,
And I said to my spirit When we become the enfolders of those orbs, and the pleasure and
knowledge of every thing in them, shall we be fill’d and satisfied then?
80 And my spirit said No, we but level that lift to pass and continue beyond.
You are also asking me questions and I hear you,
I answer that I cannot answer, you must find out for yourself.
Reading Strategy Drawing Conclusions What message does the speaker convey about the reader’s path
in life?
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Sit a while dear son,
Here are biscuits to eat and here is milk to drink,
85 But as soon as you sleep and renew yourself in sweet clothes, I kiss you with a good-by kiss
and open the gate for your egress hence.11
51
The past and present wilt—I have fill’d them, emptied them,
And proceed to fill my next fold of the future.
Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)
100 I concentrate toward them that are nigh,13 I wait on the door-slab.
Who has done his day’s work? who will soonest be through with his supper?
Who wishes to walk with me?
Will you speak before I am gone? will you prove already too late?
52
The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me, he complains of my gab and my loitering.
Literary Element Voice How would you describe the intended relationship between the speaker and the
reader of this poem?
Reading Strategy Drawing Conclusions What stage of his journey has the speaker reached?
Literary Element Voice How would you describe the poet’s voice in the closing lines of the poem?
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A F T E R YO U R E A D
AP/Wide World
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. How did you react to the speaker in the poem? 5. (a)How does the speaker seem to view himself in
Explain your answer. relation to nature and to the rest of the world?
(b)In your opinion, is the speaker a hero? Explain.
Recall and Interpret
6. (a)Summarize the speaker’s advice to his “son” in
2. (a)What is the main topic of section 1? (b)What is lines 73–91. (b)In your opinion, why does he give
the speaker saying in lines 10–13 about his past this advice? Support your answer with details from
learning and his future? the poem.
3. (a)What does the speaker say about death in lines 7. (a)Consider the image of the grass in sections 6
20–27? (b)What do these lines suggest about the and 52. What does the grass have to do with life
speaker’s view of life and death? and death? (b)Why might Whitman have called his
4. (a)A paradox is a statement that seems to contra- volume of poetry Leaves of Grass?
dict itself but may actually be true. What paradoxes
does Whitman list in section 16? (b)What do these
Connect
lines suggest about Whitman’s attitude toward 8. Big Idea A Poetic Revolution (a)Why is free
himself? verse particularly suited to Whitman’s ideas?
(b)How do you think the use of this form relates to
Whitman’s democratic principles?
YO U ’ R E T H E C R I T I C : Point/Counterpoint
R ESP ONSES TO W H I TM A N
It took several years for the American public to
“We can trace an order in [Whitman’s] ideas.
embrace Whitman’s poetry. At first, most readers— First comes religion or the concept of the
and there were few of them—were shocked by the universe; then personality, or the sense of self
unconventional subject matter, the unusual forms, and . . .; then love . . . and comradely emotions;
the break with standard rhyme and meter. A famous then democracy, or the theory of human
poet of that time, John Greenleaf Whittier, threw his equality and brotherhood.”
copy of Leaves of Grass into his fireplace in disgust. —John Addington Symonds, 1893
Author’s Purpose
Theme Theme
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W R I T I N G A N D E X TE N D I N G G R A M M A R A N D ST Y L E
Justin Kaplan
National Book Award Winner
J U S TI N K A P L AN 417
Informational Text
James Russell Lowell6 that he had been alerted of the Brook Farm commune8 who had lived on
to the existence of this “literary curiosity” by admiring terms with its founder, George Ripley,
the revered Emerson, who had apparently writ- and with Margaret Fuller and Nathaniel
ten a letter to the author “expressing the warm- Hawthorne, Dana had retrieved some remnants
est admiration and encouragement.” In his of idealism from the ruins of that experiment in
unsigned review in the September Putnam’s plain living and high thinking. In the “nameless
Monthly Norton described Leaves of Grass as bard” of Leaves of Grass he recognized an oafish
“preposterous yet somehow fascinating,” a sur- descendant of Emerson, Bronson Alcott9, and
prisingly harmonious fusion other “prophets of the soul.”
of “Yankee transcendental- He too praised Whitman’s
ism and New York rowdy- “bold, stirring thoughts,”
ism” that at times “genuine intimacy with
exhibited, in the “rough Norton confessed nature,” and “keen apprecia-
and ragged thicket of its
pages,” undeniable boldness
that he had had tion of beauty.” But he
argued that “the essential
and originality. Norton to overcome his spirit of poetry” had found
confessed that he had had “an uncouth and grotesque
to overcome his distaste for distaste for the embodiment.” “His indepen-
the book’s “disgusting” and dence often becomes coarse
“intolerable” coarseness. book’s “disgusting” and defiant. His language is
“One cannot leave it about too frequently reckless and
for chance readers,” he told
and “intolerable” indecent,” Dana said, sound-
Lowell, “and would be sorry coarseness. ing the cry that Whitman
to know that any woman was to hear to the end of his
had looked into it past the days, “and will justly prevent
title-page. I have got a his volume from free circula-
copy for you, for there are tion in scrupulous circles.”
things in it you will admire.” (“No, no,” Lowell Because of such objections William Swayne, the
replied, “the kind of thing you describe won’t Fulton Street bookseller listed in the original
do.”) Another member of Emerson’s circle, the announcements in the Tribune, had withdrawn
clergyman Edward Everett Hale, future author Leaves of Grass from his stock and his name from
of The Man Without a Country, praised Fowler and Wells’s advertisements. Even Life
Whitman (in the January 1856 North American Illustrated, the firm’s own “Family Newspaper,”
Review) for his “remarkable power,” his “fresh- said the book was “perfect nonsense,” “a series of
ness, simplicity, and reality,” and for living up utterances” that the public was advised to take or
to the claims made in the preface. Half a cen- leave, “just as they prefer.” Soon Samuel Wells,
tury later Hale was still congratulating himself more of a businessman and less of a crusader
for having written this review, the first that, in than his partner Orson Fowler, suggested that
Whitman’s recollection, had done his book any- Whitman omit “certain objectionable passages”
thing close to justice. or look for another publisher.
In the summer of 1855, when he returned At Mickle Street10 Whitman made an almost
from his vacation on eastern Long Island, he had casual thing of it when he explained how
been greeted by a review of a different sort, Emerson’s letter, a private and privileged
prominent but grudging and even mischievous,
by Charles A. Dana of the Tribune, Horace 8. The Brook Farm commune was an experimental utopian
Greeley’s7 managing editor. A one-time member community in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, from 1841 to
1847.
9. Bronson Alcott (1799–1888) was a transcendentalist, a
6. James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) was a famed American radical educator, and the father of novelist Louisa May
Fireside poet. Alcott.
7. Horace Greeley (1811–1872) was an abolitionist and the 10. Mickle Street in Camden, New Jersey, was the location of
founder of the New York Tribune. Whitman’s house, which he purchased in 1884.
418 UNIT 3 TH E C I V I L WA R E RA
Informational Text
The New York Public Library / Art Resource, NY
source, views the matter from a more posi-
tive and less critical standpoint.
420 UNIT 3 T H E C I V I L WA R E RA
Even the loyal and resourceful Bucke,19 utterly Museum, General Tom Thumb and the Swedish
flummoxed20 for once, had to admit that Nightingale had not been wasted on him.22
Whitman’s “they readily sold” was “a plain lie.” Whitman supplied friendly journals with the
According to Bucke’s information, the first edi- information that Leaves of Grass created “an
tion had “no sale” and the second “little or no extraordinary sensation in the literary world on
sale.” “If the reader goes to a bookstore,” Hale had both sides of the Atlantic”—“the emphatic com-
pointed out in his review, “he may expect to be mendation of America’s greatest critic has been
told, at first, as we were, that there is no such ratified by the public.” And it was Whitman who
book, and has not been.” Whitman himself said wrote three anonymous reviews of Leaves of
he doubted “if even ten were sold” and that he Grass that appeared around the end of 1855.
ended up giving away almost all of his first edition “An American bard at last!” he announced in
to “friends and relatives”—“Oh, as a money mat- the United States Review. “Politeness this man
ter, the book was a dreadful failure.” It was a “fail- has none, and regulation he has none. A rude
ure” despite the vigorous deployment of his talents child of the people!—No imitation—No for-
as an impresario21 with one lifelong act to man- eigner—but a growth and idiom of America,” he
age. The lessons of P. T. Barnum’s American wrote in the Brooklyn Daily Times, and in sup-
R ES P O N D I N G AN D TH I N K I N G C R ITI CALLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. How did you react to Kaplan’s perspective on Walt 4. Did Whitman do the right thing in writing his own
Whitman? reviews of Leaves of Grass? Explain.
OB J EC TIVES
• Read to enhance understanding of history and American • Synthesize information from literary works in order to come
culture. to a conclusion.
V
irtually unknown during her lifetime,
Emily Dickinson now stands as a giant of
American literature. Her stark, concise
poems speak in an instantly recognizable voice,
reflecting a sense of style as individual as a finger-
print. In spare, chiseled verses, Dickinson
upended convention, posing the great questions
of life in the form of riddles for the reader.
OB J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • analyzing sound devices
• analyzing literary periods • interpreting rhyme
Emily Dickinson
If you were coming in the Fall, If only Centuries, delayed,
I’d brush the Summer by 10 I’d count them on my Hand,
With half a smile, and half a spurn, Subtracting, till my fingers dropped
As Housewives do, a Fly. Into Van Dieman’s Land.1
5 If I could see you in a year, If certain, when this life was out—
I’d wind the months in balls— That yours and mine, should be
And put them each in separate Drawers, 15 I’d toss it yonder, like a Rind,
For fear the numbers fuse— And take Eternity—
Emily Dickinson
The Soul selects her own Society—
Then—shuts the Door—
To her divine Majority—
Present no more—
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Clare Marie Leonard/CORBIS
AF
A F TE
T E R YO U R E A
ADD
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. Which of these poems most closely reflects your 5. How do the dash and the capitalization of
own experiences or feelings? Explain. “Immortality” affect the meaning of the poem?
Explain.
If you were coming in the Fall
Recall and Interpret The Soul selects her own Society
2. (a)What periods of time does the speaker describe Recall and Interpret
in each of the first four stanzas? (b)Describe the 6. (a)In your own words, explain what the soul
actions the speaker imagines taking in each of selects. (b)From how many does the soul choose
these stanzas. just one? Tell what you think this suggests about
the soul.
Analyze and Evaluate
3. How effective is the simile in the last verse of the Analyze and Evaluate
poem at conveying suspense? Explain. 7. The last verse includes a metaphor describing the
soul closing “the Valves of her attention.” In your
My life closed twice before its close opinion, is this verse a fitting end given the content
of the previous stanzas? Explain why or why not.
Recall and Interpret
4. (a)How does the speaker define parting? (b)How,
in your opinion, do partings affect the speaker?
L I T E R A RY A NA LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
As he defeated—dying—
10 On whose forbidden ear
The distant strains of triumph
Burst agonized and clear!
Emily Dickinson
1. Nectar is a sweet liquid secreted by plants and used by bees
in the making of honey. In Greek mythology, nectar is the
drink of the gods that makes all who drink it immortal.
2. Purple Host means “winning army.”
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Success is counted sweetest
1. Were you surprised by Dickinson’s ideas about Recall and Interpret
madness and success? Explain why or why not. 5. (a)What example of success is given in the second
stanza? (b)In the third stanza, why do you think
Much Madness is divinest Sense the poem calls the “defeated” one’s perception of
victory “agonized” and “clear”?
Recall and Interpret
2. (a)According to the speaker, in lines 1–3, with what Analyze and Evaluate
is sense often confused? (b)Who does the speaker 6. (a)How is the observation about soldiers and armies
say knows the difference? in stanzas two and three related to lines 1–2?
3. (a)How is a person who disagrees with accepted (b)Why, in your opinion, did Dickinson choose to
ideas regarded? (b)What does the last word of the use war imagery in a poem about success? Explain
poem suggest about what happens to such a person? what this choice might suggest about Dickinson’s
views of the world or of personal fulfillment.
Analyze and Evaluate 7. (a)What paradox lies at the heart of this
4. How would you describe the poet’s attitude toward poem? (b)Do you agree with the observation
the popular concept of sanity? about success and human nature in the poem?
L I T E R A RY A N A LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
430 UNIT 3 T H E C I V I L WA R E RA
Emily Dickinson
I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—
The Stillness in the Room
Was like the Stillness in the Air—
Between the Heaves of Storm—
Vocabulary
heave (hēv) n. an upward motion, or an effort to raise
interpose (in´tər pōz) v. to intrude, intervene, or to
put oneself between
432 UNIT 3 T H E C I V I L WA R E RA
Patrick William Adam/Oldham Art Gallery, Lancashire, UK/Bridgeman Art Library
A F T E R YO U R E A D
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond 6. How does Dickinson’s account of someone dying
compare with other representations of death?
1. Which images in these poems did you find espe-
cially striking? Why?
The Bustle in a House
I heard a Fly buzz when I died Recall and Interpret
Recall and Interpret 7. (a)What words does the speaker use that suggest
everyday household chores? (b)To what type of
2. In the first stanza of “I heard a Fly buzz when I died,”
chores is Dickinson really referring?
to what is the atmosphere in the room compared?
8. (a)According to the second stanza, when will we
3. (a)In lines 5 and 6, what are the “Eyes” and
again “use” the love we put aside on the morning
“Breaths” doing? (b)What do they await? Explain.
after death? (b)What might this suggest about
4. Summarize the last two stanzas. Explain what Dickinson’s religious faith? Explain.
impression of death you received from these lines.
Analyze and Evaluate
Analyze and Evaluate 9. (a)What analogy does the speaker make in this
5. (a)Why do you think the speaker calls his or her poem? (b)What does this analogy suggest about
belongings “Keepsakes”? (b)What other words or human reactions and needs after a death? Explain
phrases in the poem seem to indicate an implied whether you found this analogy effective.
truth about life, death, or the human soul?
L I T E R A RY A NA LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
434 UNIT 3 T H E C I V I L WA R E RA
Alinari/Art Resource, NY
A F T E R YO U R E A D
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. What were your first reactions upon reading this 6. Reread lines 9–16. (a)How does the poem shift at
poem? Explain. line 13? (b)What effect is created by this? Explain
your answer.
Recall and Interpret
7. (a)How would you describe the mood, or
2. (a)According to lines 1–2, why does “Death” stop
emotional quality and atmosphere, of this poem?
for the speaker? Explain what these lines suggest
(b)Which images or details help to create this
about human behavior. (b)According to lines 3–4,
mood? Explain.
what does “Death’s” carriage hold?
8. One critic says that in this poem, the question of
3. (a)What places and things does the speaker pass
death is presented “without making any final
in the third stanza? (b)What might these places
statement about it. There is no solution to the
and things represent?
problem . . . the idea of immortality is confronted
4. What is the “House” in the ground described in the with the fact of physical disintegration. We are not
fifth stanza? Explain how you know. told what to think; we are told to look at the
situation.” Do you agree? Explain why or why not.
5. (a)According to the sixth stanza, how much time
has passed since the day of “Death’s” visit? (b)Why 9. This poem is one of Dickinson’s most famous.
did that day seem so long to the speaker? Support Describe the elements of the poem that you think
your answer with details from the poem. contribute the most to its effectiveness. Explain.
L I T E R A RY A N A LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
2. Why do you think Dickinson chooses to portray 1. What is the relationship between the “Horses” in
death as she does? Use details from the poem to the last stanza and “Death”? To clarify, reread the
support your answer. poem.
2. What other points in the poem were clarified for
you by rereading? Explain.
Literature Groups
Analyze Images Dickinson uses images of everyday
objects and events to evoke the experience of dying.
With your group, evaluate these images. Which images
do you consider especially creative or striking? What is
their overall effect in the poem? Support your opinions.
Vocabulary
cathedral (ke thēdrəl) n. a church that is the official
seat of a bishop
imperial (im pēr ē əl) adj. of or relating to an empire
or emperor
affliction (ə flikshən) n. great suffering, distress, or
A Woman Sewing in an Interior, 1901. Vihelm Hammershoi. Oil on canvas, its cause
28 15/16 x 27 15/16 in. Detroit Institute of Arts. Founders Society Purchase,
Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund.
436 UNIT 3 T H E C I V I L WA R E RA
Vilhelm Hammershoi/ Private Collection, Christie’s Images;/Bridgeman Art Library
Christie’s Images
Emily Dickinson
RESP ON DI NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond This is my letter to the World
1. What did you most like about these poems? Recall and Interpret
Explain. 6. (a)To whom is the letter addressed? (b)What
might the speaker be referring to with the words
There’s a certain Slant of light “my letter”?
Recall and Interpret 7. (a)What “News” does the letter contain? (b)What
2. (a)What does the slant of light give us, according to is the speaker’s relationship to nature?
the speaker? (b)Describe the mood, or feeling, 8. What plea does the speaker make in the second
that the slant of light brings. stanza?
3. (a)When does the speaker observe the slant of
light? (b)Why is this significant? Explain.
Analyze and Evaluate
9. What does the fact that the world never wrote back
4. What does the light seem to represent to the suggest about the speaker?
speaker? Explain how lines 15–16 reinforce this.
Connect
Analyze and Evaluate
10. Big Idea A Poetic Revolution Dickinson’s
5. (a)What feelings does Dickinson evoke with her
poems transform simple, everyday experiences
descriptions of a “Heavenly Hurt” and “the Seal
into the meaningful and universal. How do the
Despair”? (b)Does Dickinson bring out these
poems you read accomplish this?
feelings effectively?
YO U ’ R E T H E C R I T I C : Point/Counterpoint
W H AT IS DIC K I NSON ’S T RU E WO R T H ?
Along with Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson is
“Emily Dickinson cuts things off very short,
praised for her revolutionary effect on American and that always seems to me rather shocking.
poetry. Using the themes and language closest to She ends poems too soon for me.”
her, she invented a style that reflects both uniquely —Helen Vendler
American attitudes and her own inner nature.
“She was an independent spirit. She did her best to • Which aspects of Dickinson’s
poetry are praised by Williams?
get away from too strict an interpretation. . . . And
Which aspects are criticized by
she followed the American idiom . . . .She speaks
Vendler?
the spoken language, the idiom, which would be
deformed by Oxford English. . . . She was a real • Which of the critical assess-
good guy.” ments do you agree with more?
—William Carlos Williams Explain.
the right, tell what the details help you infer about the Nominative I, you, she, he, it we, you, they
poem’s message. At the bottom of your chart, sum-
marize the poem’s overall message. Use this chart to Objective me, you, her, him, it us, you, them
help you create your first draft.
my, mine, your, his, our, ours, your,
Possessive
yours, her, hers, its yours, their, theirs
The poem’s theme is _______. from “If you were coming in the Fall”
440 UNIT 3 T H E C I V I L WA R E RA
LITER ARY P ER SP ECTIVE on Emily Dickinson
Informational Text
Billy Collins
T
Building Background oday Emily Dickinson is recognized not
only as a major poet of the American
Known for his witty, accessible poetry, Billy Collins
served as the nation’s poet laureate from 2001 to
nineteenth century but also as one of the
2003. In the following passage from his introduction most intriguing poets of any place or time, in
to The Selected Poems of Emily Dickinson, Collins both her art and her life. The outline of her
discusses the myth that surrounds Emily Dickinson’s biography is well known. She was born in
life, the enduring power of her work, and the tools that Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1830 and, except for
she used in crafting her poems. a few excursions to Philadelphia, Washington,
and Boston, spent her entire life there, increas-
Set a Purpose for Reading ingly limiting her activities to her father’s house.
Read to learn more about Dickinson’s life, her poems, “I do not cross my Father’s ground to any House
and a critic’s interpretation of each. or Town,” she wrote, referring to a personal
reclusiveness that was noticeable even to her
Reading Strategy contemporaries. In the front corner bedroom of
Analyzing Literary Criticism that house on Main Street, Dickinson wrote over
1,700 poems, often on scraps of paper and on the
Analyzing literary criticism involves recognizing the
main ideas and supporting details in a piece of
backs of grocery lists, only a handful of which
criticism in order to compare the critic’s response to a were published in her lifetime and then anony-
piece of literature with your response. As you read, mously. She was known to give poems to friends
take notes on Collins’s literary criticism. Use a two- and neighbors, often as an accompaniment to
column chart like the one below. the cakes and cookies she baked, sometimes low-
ering them from an upstairs window in a basket.
Critic’s Response My Response
Her habit of binding groups of poems together
into little booklets called fascicles might indicate
zigzag logic in she felt her poems were presentable, but most of
poems her poems never went farther than her desk
drawer where they were discovered by her sister
BILLY COLLINS 4 41
Christie’s Images Ltd
Informational Text
after Dickinson’s death in 1886 of kidney failure. were it not for the poems themselves. Her style
In her lifetime, her poetry remained unknown, is so distinctive that anyone even slightly
and although a few small editions of her poems acquainted with her poems would recognize a
were published in the 1890s, it was not until poem on the page as an Emily Dickinson poem,
1955 that a reliable scholarly edition appeared, if only for its shape. Here is a typical example:
transcribing the poems precisely from the origi-
nal manuscripts and preserving all of Dickinson’s ’Tis little I could care for pearls
typographical eccentricities. Convincingly or Who own the ample sea;
not, she called publication “the auction of the Or brooches4 when the Emperor
mind” and compared the public figure to a frog With rubies pelteth me;
croaking to the admiring audience of a bog.
It is fascinating to consider the case of a person Or gold, who am the Prince of Mines;
who led such a private existence and whose poems Or diamonds, when I see
remained unrecognized for so long after her death, A diadem5 to fit a dome
as if she had lain asleep only to be awakened by Continual crowning me.
the kiss of the twentieth century. The quirky cir-
cumstances of her life have received as much if Such a short form leads to concision and
not more commentary than the poems themselves. quick-wittedness, her poems standing as dramatic
Some critics valorize1 her seclusion as a form of examples of poetry’s ability to compress wide
female self-sufficiency; others make her out to be a meaning into small spaces. She was also fond of
victim of her culture. Still others believe that her the riddle. The diadem that crowns her always is
solitariness has been exaggerated. She did attend the sky. With the dome of earth overhead, the lit-
school, after all, and she maintained many inti- tle poem wants to ask, who needs the grosser6
mate relationships by letter. Moreover, it was less riches of pearls, rubies, gold, or diamonds? The
eccentric in her day than in ours for one daugh- modest size of her poems (most are shorter than a
ter—she had a brother who was a lawyer and a sis- sonnet) matches the modest space of house and
ter who married—to remain home to run the garden in which she chose to live. The poems are
household and assist her parents. Further, all writ- also short because she does not waste time intro-
ers need privacy; all must close the door on the ducing the poem. She neither provides the details
world to think and compose. But Dickinson’s sep- of a physical setting, as a conventional nature
arateness—which has caused her to be labeled a poem might do, nor does she explain the poem’s
homebody, a spinster, and a feminist icon among occasion. The poems begin suddenly, often with a
other things—took extreme forms. She was so shy declaration (“Superiority to fate / Is difficult to
that her sister Lavinia would be fitted for her learn”) or a definition (“Hope is a subtle glut-
clothes; she wore only white for many years ton”). Dickinson does not knock before entering,
(“Wear nothing commoner than snow”); and she so the reader may feel swept up into the center of
rarely would address an envelope, afraid that her the poet’s thought process without warning. To
handwriting would be seen by the eyes of strang- open a poem by saying “I felt a cleavage in my
ers. When asked of her companions, she replied in mind / As if my brain had split” is to thrust the
a letter to Thomas Wentworth Higginson2, “Hills, reader into a psychic intimacy with the fractured
sir, and the sundown, and a dog large as myself speaker. Also, her poems tend to end abruptly and
that my father bought me.” decisively, often with epigrammatic7 authority
However tempting it is to search through the (“The only secret people keep / Is Immortality”).
biographical evidence for a solution to the Her tiny, untitled poems may fit her sensibility
enigma3 of Emily Dickinson’s life, we must and provide the verbal equivalent of a home’s
remember that no such curiosity would exist safe enclosure—a room within a room—but the
1. Valorize means to “attach value or worth to something.” 4. A brooch is a piece of jewelry that is fastened by a pin.
2. Thomas Wentworth Higginson was a noted abolitionist, 5. Diadem means “crown.”
ordained minister, and editor for the Atlantic Monthly. 6. Here, grosser mean “less fine.”
3. An enigma is something puzzling or mysterious. 7. Epigrammatic means “in the manner of a pithy, wise saying.”
442 UNIT 3 T H E C I V I L WA R E RA
Informational Text
James Marshall/CORBIS Or, with Dickinson,
R ES P O N D I N G AN D TH I N K I N G C R ITI CALLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. How did you respond to Emily Dickinson’s 4. What does Collins suggest about the “commentary”
seclusion? related to Dickinson’s seclusion?
5. Collins states that in her poetry Dickinson
Recall and Interpret “compress[es] wide meaning into small spaces”
2. (a)To what does Dickinson compare the public and that Dickinson’s poems require an agile reader
figure? (b)How would you explain her disdain for who can make “imaginative and grammatical
public opinion? leaps”? Do you agree with his statement?
3. Collins asserts that the meter of Dickinson’s poems
creates “the verbal equivalent of a home’s safe Connect
enclosure.” Why else do you think Dickinson may 6. Big Idea A Poetic Revolution In what ways do
have used this meter? you think Dickinson’s poetic innovations are related
to her separation from the world?
O B J EC TIVES
• Compare reviews of literature to your own responses.
• Extend ideas presented in secondary sources through analysis.
• Analyze meter.
º Ask Questions Think of a research report as a well-documented response to a Consider the purpose of
significant question. List several research questions. As you learn more, refine your paper and how best
your research questions and focus on a central idea. to address your audience.
Use a formal and objective
º Focus Your Topic Once you have a general topic that interests you, use your tone to show that your
research questions to help determine the scope of your topic. The topic should research is serious and
not be so broad that you will be writing in generalities nor so narrow that you unbiased. Avoid slang and
cannot find adequate sources. contractions. Use the third-
person point of view.
Compare the topics in the chart below to see the differences between topics that
are too broad, too narrow, and appropriately limited.
Narrowing a Topic
Women during the Civil War Women soldiers during the Women soldiers of the 95th
Civil War Illinois Infantry Regiment
Gather Evidence After you narrow your topic, try to answer your research
questions. Familiarize yourself with your topic’s larger context and background.
Then think about the historical situation or events that influenced your topic.
º Find Reliable Sources Use bibliography cards to keep track of all your
sources. As you research, evaluate the credibility of your sources and make
sure that they are not outdated, biased, or based on faulty data. For example,
personal Web sites may promote personal agendas and not facts. However,
books published by well-known publishers or universities are generally reliable.
º Consider Different Perspectives Keep in mind that people can have dif-
ferent perspectives on historical events. Consider perspectives that are often
overlooked in the study of the Civil War.
Make a Plan Once you are familiar with several expert perspectives on your
topic, write a thesis statement. Keep in mind that you will probably revise your
thesis as you gain insight and draw conclusions while writing. Use your notes
to help you make an outline. Include only information that is relevant to your
thesis. Choose an effective way to order the main ideas and keep related ideas
together.
446 UNIT 3 T H E C I V I L WA R E RA
Research
Drafting
448 UNIT 3 T H E C I V I L WA R E RA
Research
Encyclopedia of the Civil War. New York: Harper & Row Encyclopedia Sources
Publishers, 1986. Use encyclopedias and
Hall, Richard. Patriots in Disguise: Women Warriors of the Civil War. similar reference materials
for general background
New York: Paragon House, 1993. and research. When would
Hattaway, Herman. Shades of Blue and Gray: An Introductory Military you use an encyclopedia
as a source? When would
History of the Civil War. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri you not?
Press, 1997.
Leonard, Elizabeth D. All the Daring of the Soldier: Women of the Civil
Variety of Sources
War Armies. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1999.
Use a variety of sources
Moore, Frank. Women of the War: Their Heroism and Self-Sacrifice. from all perspectives in
1866. Reprint. Alexander, NC: Blue/Gray Books, 1997. your research. How might
an outdated source con-
Varhola, Michael J. Everyday Life During the Civil War. Cincinnati:
tribute to your paper if
Writer’s Digest Books, 1999. used correctly?
Wagner, Margaret E., Gary W. Gallagher, and Paul Finkelman, eds. Civil
War Desk Reference. New York: Grand Central Press, 2002.
Ward, Geoffrey C. The Civil War: An Illustrated History. New York:
Alfred A. Knopf, 1990.
Peer Review After drafting, exchange papers with a partner. Note passages that
seem unclear, irrelevant, incomplete, or out of place.
Traits of Strong Writing
Follow these traits of
Use the rubric below to evaluate your writing.
strong writing to express
your ideas effectively. Rubric: Writing an Effective Historical Research Paper
Ideas message or
✓ Do you begin with a strong, clear thesis statement that guides your paper?
theme and the details ✓ Do you include a main idea in each paragraph?
that develop it
✓ Do you support your main ideas with information from a variety of sources?
Organization arrange-
✓ Do you organize your paragraphs coherently?
ment of main ideas and
supporting details ✓ Do you quote, paraphrase, summarize information, and cite sources correctly?
Voice writer’s unique ✓ Do you synthesize information and draw your own conclusions?
way of using tone and
style
º Focus Lesson
Word Choice vocabu-
lary a writer uses to Making Paragraphs Coherent
convey meaning
To make your writing coherent, choose an organizational scheme, eliminate
Sentence Fluency unrelated information, and use transitional words and phrases.
rhythm and flow of
sentences Draft: Incoherent paragraph
Conventions correct
spelling, grammar, Sarah Rosetta Wakeman disguised herself and joined the army to help
usage, and mechanics her family pay off debts (Burgess 18). As a child, Wakeman hunted
squirrels. A military salary was particularly attractive to women, who
Presentation the way typically earned far less than men.
words and design ele-
ments look on a page
For more information Revision: Revise and reorganize the paragraph to make it coherent.
on using the traits of
strong writing, see
pages R33–R34 of the
Another major reason that women—and men—joined the army was for
Writing Handbook. the money.1 Sarah Rosetta Wakeman, for example,2 disguised herself and
joined the army to help her family pay off debts (Burgess 18). As a child,
Wakeman hunted squirrels.3 A military salary was particularly attractive to
women, who typically earned far less than men. Higher wages offered women
independence that would have been otherwise unheard of in the 1860s.4
452 UNIT 3 TH E C I V I L WA R E RA
Research
Get It Right When you have completed the final draft of your research paper,
proofread it for errors in grammar, usage, mechanics, and spelling. Focus spe-
cifically on your citations and your Works Cited page. Refer to the Language
Handbook, pages R46–R60, as a guide.
º Focus Lesson
Quotations Within
Using Quotations Correctly Quotations
As you edit your draft, check to make sure that your quotations are cited Use single quotation
correctly. Integrate quotations into your own writing to keep them from marks for quoted
sounding choppy. In addition, always analyze the quotation in your own material inside a direct
words so that its significance is made clear. quotation. Use double
quotation marks for
the main quotation.
Problem: Too many direct quotations break up the flow of the paper.
Long Quotations
“Although most accounts were neutral or complementary, some
To use a long quota-
newspaper reports about women discovered in the ranks implied that
tion (four or more
they were of very bad character, indeed” (Burgess 6).
lines), start a new line
and indent the quota-
Solution A: Include part of the quotation in a sentence of your own.
tion. Do not use quota-
Those women who did enlist—and were later discovered to be female— tion marks, but be
were considered to be “of very bad character, indeed” (Burgess 6). sure to introduce the
quotation sufficiently
Solution B: Quote a complete sentence but introduce it in your own words. and to analyze it in
your own words.
Historian Lauren Cook Burgess notes, “Although most accounts were
neutral or complementary, some newspaper reports about women
discovered in the ranks implied that they were of very bad character,
indeed” (6).
Presenting
Writing Models For models
Preparing Your Historical Research Paper Before you turn in your final and other writing activities, go to
paper, make sure that it is formatted correctly and that you are handing in a www.glencoe.com.
clean copy, including the Works Cited page. Check the indentation of long
quotations. Ask your teacher about any additional presentation guidelines.
organization that works best Plan an oral report of your historical research paper and
for your report. deliver it to an audience.
454 UNIT 3 T H E C I V I L WA R E RA
Creating Your Visual Media
As you plan your report, consider how charts, graphs, maps, and diagrams can
clarify statistical or technical information and how photographs, paintings, and
artifacts can allow the audience a glimpse into the time period. Use the chart Use a Mirror
below to brainstorm ideas for visual media with a partner. Practice your gestures in
front of a mirror until your
body language looks natural.
What is the best way to What images can I What artifacts can I
visually present find or create to display to bring the
Sound Check
statistics and technical illustrate the main history in my report
data in my report? ideas of my report? to life? Record your presentation
and play it back to check
on whether your voice
expresses the right mood
and your words are
Rehearsing understandable.
Use some of the verbal and nonverbal techniques below to ensure that your
audience clearly understands you and is engaged in what you have to say.
Little Women
by Louisa May Alcott (1868–1869)
This tale of four sisters growing up in Concord,
Massachusetts, during the Civil War era has
become one of the best-loved American novels
about the transition from adolescence to
adulthood. Each sister in the March family has
a distinctive personality. Meg, the oldest, is the
most refined. Jo, fiery and independent, wants
to be a writer. Beth is shy
Uncle Tom’s Cabin and musical. Amy,
the youngest and
by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1852)
most sensible,
One early example of Realism predates the Civil is the most
War. Authored by an abolitionist, Uncle Tom’s beautiful.
Cabin was the first work of American fiction to Alcott
depict what life was like for slaves in the South. modeled the
When Kentucky farmer Arthur Shelby decides sisters, their
to sell the slaves Uncle Tom and Harry, Harry’s levelheaded
mother, Eliza, runs away with Harry in her arms, mother, and
making her way to the free state of Ohio. Tom their idealistic
is put on a riverboat to be sold farther south. father on her
Stowe’s graphic depiction of slaves’ suffering own family.
made Uncle Tom’s Cabin highly influential in
stirring abolitionist sentiment.
456 UNIT 3 T H E C I V I L WA R E RA
(l)from the collection of Edith Hariton/Antique Textile Resource, Bethesda, (r)Hulton/Archive
CRITICS’ CORNER
“In the execution of her very difficult task, Mrs. Stowe has displayed rare
descriptive powers, a familiar acquaintance with slavery under its best and
worst phases, uncommon moral and philosophical acumen, great facility of
thought and expression, feelings and emotions of the strongest character.
Intimate as we have been, for a score of years, with the features and
operations of the slave system, and often as we have listened to the recitals
of its horrors from the lips of the poor hunted fugitives, we confess to the
frequent moistening of our eyes, and the making of our heart grow liquid
as water, and the trembling of every nerve within us, in the perusal of the
incidents and scenes so vividly depicted in her pages.”
—Liberator Review, March 26, 1852
Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens
The American The orphaned Pip falls in
by Henry James (1877) love with the wealthy
Estella and struggles to
In his novels, Henry James created acute attain status in nineteenth-
portrayals of human psychology and of social and century England.
cultural mores. The American tells the story of
Christopher Newman, a wealthy American
businessman who travels to Europe. He there falls
The Brothers Karamazov
in love with beautiful Claire de Cintre. Though by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Christopher is friendly and intelligent as well as
The tragic and dramatic story of
successful, Claire’s relatives are unimpressed by
the murdered Fyodor Karamazov
him. They consider him to lack cultivation and
and his culpable sons
propriety. James vividly dramatizes the clash of
European and American sensibilities.
Reading: Nonfiction
Carefully read the following passage. Use context clues to help define any words with which you
are unfamiliar. Pay close attention to the author’s main idea and use of literary devices. Then
answer the questions on pages 459–460 on a sheet of paper.
from My Bondage and My Freedom 30 Our house stood within a few rods of the
my stay with Mr. Covey. We were worked all weathers. me with thoughts of my wretched condition. I have
5 It was never too hot or too cold; it could often, in the deep stillness of a summer’s Sabbath,
never rain, blow, snow, or hail too hard for us to stood all alone upon the banks of that noble bay,
work in the field. Work, work, work, was scarcely and traced, with saddened heart and tearful eye, the
more the order of the day than the night. The 40 countless number of sails moving off to the mighty
longest days were too short for him, and the shortest ocean. The sight of these always affected me
10 nights were too long for him. I was somewhat powerfully . . . .
unmanageable when I first went there; but a few I shall never be able to narrate the mental
months of this discipline tamed me. Mr. Covey experience through which it was my lot to pass
succeeded in breaking me. I was broken in body, 45 during my stay at Covey’s. I was completely
soul and spirit. My natural elasticity was crushed; wrecked, changed and bewildered; goaded almost to
15 my intellect languished; the disposition to read madness at one time, and at another reconciling
departed; the cheerful spark that lingered about my myself to my wretched condition. Everything in the
eye died; the dark night of slavery closed in upon way of kindness, which I had experienced at
me; and behold a man transformed into a brute! 50 Baltimore; all my former hopes and aspirations for
Sunday was my only leisure time. I spent usefulness in the world, and the happy moments
20 this in a sort of beast-like stupor, between sleep and spent in the exercises of religion, contrasted with
wake, under some large tree. At times, I would rise my then present lot, but increased my anguish.
up, a flash of energetic freedom would dart through I suffered bodily as well as mentally. I had
my soul, accompanied with a faint beam of hope, 55 neither sufficient time in which to eat or to sleep,
that flickered for a moment, and then vanished. I sank except on Sundays. The overwork, and the brutal
25 down again, mourning over my wretched condition. chastisements of which I was the victim, combined
I was sometimes prompted to take my life, and that with that ever-gnawing and soul-devouring
of Covey, but was prevented by a combination of thought—“I am a slave—a slave for life—a slave
hope and fear. My sufferings on this plantation 60 with no rational ground to hope for
seem now like a dream rather than a stern reality. freedom”—rendered me a living embodiment of
mental and physical wretchedness.
4 58
458 U N IT 3 T HE CIVIL
THE C IV I L WAR E RA
ERA
1. What does Douglass say the “longest days” were to 6. What literary device is Douglass using when he
Mr. Covey? writes that the Chesapeake Bay has a “broad
A. like Sunday bosom”?
B. like nights A. allusion
C. too long B. personification
D. too short C. simile
D. irony
2. From the context, what can you infer that the
word discipline in line 12 means? 7. What can you infer about the source of Douglass’s
A. specialty feelings concerning the ships in Chesapeake Bay?
B. instruction A. The ships reminded him of the freedom that
C. punishment he did not have.
D. training B. To Douglass, the ships represented Mr.
Covey’s cruelty.
3. According to Douglass, what caused his C. The ships carried enslaved people and so
transformation “into a brute”? reminded Douglass of his own condition.
A. Mr. Covey’s success at breaking him D. Because the ships were ghostlike, they
B. the death of the spark in his eye terrified Douglass.
C. the crushing of his elasticity
D. the departure of his inclination to read 8. From the context, what can you infer that the
word present in line 53 means?
4. How did Douglass spend his Sundays? A. exhibited
A. at work B. previous
B. in a stupor C. granted
C. reading D. current
D. exercising his religious beliefs
9. What effect did Douglass’s memories of
5. What literary device is Douglass using when he Baltimore have on him?
writes that his sufferings were “like a dream”? A. They drove him to the brink of madness.
A. allusion B. They increased his anguish.
B. personification C. They gave him hope.
C. simile D. They made him exercise his religion.
D. irony
TE S T P RE PA RATIO N A N D P RACTICE 4 59
10. From the context, what does the word ground in 13. Which of the following best describes the
line 60 mean? author’s purpose in this passage?
A. land A. to entertain
B. position B. to persuade
C. floor C. to describe
D. reason D. to explain
11. In this passage how does Douglass reveal the 14. From what point of view is this passage written?
personality of Mr. Covey? A. first person
A. through direct characterization B. second person
B. through indirect characterization C. third-person omniscient
C. through metaphor D. third-person limited
D. through symbols
15. According to this passage, which of the
12. What is the overall tone of this passage? following best describes the main idea of My
A. authoritative Bondage and My Freedom?
B. ironic A. Slavery was common in Baltimore.
C. despairing B. Mr. Covey, for a time, broke Frederick
D. sarcastic Douglass.
C. Mr. Covey was an evil man.
D. Slavery is an evil institution that must be
resisted.
460 UNIT 3 T H E C I V I L WA R E R A
Vocabulary Skills: Sentence Completion
For each question in the Vocabulary Skills section, choose the best word to complete the sentence.
1. Robert E. Lee feared that the secession of the 6. Many soldiers at the Battle of
Southern states would result in lawlessness and Gettysburg, which was one of the war’s
throughout the country. bloodiest.
A. depravity A. hallowed
B. anarchy B. perished
C. perusal C. assented
D. rackets D. censured
2. A series of misjudgments and military failures 7. Robert E. Lee was responsible for some of the
the Confederacy to surrender in 1865. Civil War’s most brilliant and military
A. consecrated maneuvers.
B. arrayed A. audacious
C. induced B. imperial
D. censured C. prostrate
D. poignant
3. Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth both
fought to slavery. 8. A common of slave owners was that they
A. vanquish were “civilizing” the people they held in
B. consecrate bondage.
C. pervade A. cathedral
D. adorn B. perusal
C. allusion
4. Because he had witnessed the horrors of combat, D. delusion
Ambrose Bierce rejected the idea that there
could be a/an war. 9. In the end, the South could not with the
A. imperial North’s overwhelming force.
B. prostrate A. protrude
C. poignant B. assent
D. benevolent C. induce
D. contend
5. In the nineteenth century, many people believed
that Walt Whitman’s poems were filled with 10. There was little actual for those who had
and that his books should be banned. suffered so severely under slavery.
A. scores A. heave
B. redress B. redress
C. depravity C. affliction
D. allusions D. score
(1) The period of the Civil War and Reconstruction were an important time in American history.
(2) No other event has had so many long-term effects on American politics, the arts in America,
and the development of equipment and techniques of war.
(3) The consequences of the war for American law and politics was profound. (4) The war
directly responsible for the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth constitutional amendments,
which freed enslaved people and guaranteed them citizenship and the right to vote. (5) The
conflict changed how people thought about their culture. (6) Furthermore, the outcome of the
war essentially swept away the old political squabbles that had gripped the nation for so long.
(7) Regionalism would no longer be the central source of national conflict.
(8) The Civil War helped launch photography as a vital tool for relaying newsworthy images, it
established photography as a new form of art. (9) Literature too was changed by the war. (10) The
massive loss of life was partly responsible for romanticism’s end and the rise of both realism and
naturalism. (11) As Walt Whitman said, a great literature will . . . arise out of that era.
(12) Often called the “first modern war” the Civil War was the first to use equipment that
became common during the 1900s. (13) This was the first war in which the telegraph, the
machine, and shell gun, surveillance balloons, the submarine, ironclad ships, and land mines
were extensively used.
1. Which of the following is the best revision of 2. Which of the following is the best revision of
sentence 1? sentence 3?
A. The period of the Civil War and A. The consequences of the war was profound.
Reconstruction were an important times in B. The war’s consequences for American law and
American history. politics was profound.
B. The period of the Civil War and C. The consequences of the war for American law
Reconstruction was important times in and politics were profound.
American history. D. The consequences for American law and
C. The period of the Civil War and politics was profound.
Reconstruction was an important time in
American history.
D. The period of the Civil War and
Reconstruction were important times in
American history.
462 UNIT 3 T H E C I V I L WA R E R A
3. Which of the following errors appears in 7. Which of the following is the best revision of
sentence 4? sentence 12?
A. run-on sentence A. The “first modern war,” the Civil War, used
B. fragment modern equipment.
C. misplaced modifier B. Often called the “first modern war,” the Civil
D. incorrect parallelism War was the first to use equipment that
became common during the 1900s.
4. Which sentence is not related to the main idea C. Often called the “first modern war.” The
of paragraph 2? Civil War was the first to use equipment that
A. 3 became common during the 1900s.
B. 4 D. Often called the first modern war the Civil
C. 5 War was the first to use equipment that
D. 6 became common during the 1900s.
5. Which of the following is the best revision of 8. Which of the following is the best revision of
sentence 8? sentence 13?
A. The Civil War helped launch photography as A. This was the first war in which the telegraph,
a vital tool for relaying newsworthy images, the machine and shell gun, surveillance
and it established photography as a new form balloons, the submarine, ironclad ships, and
of art. land mines were extensively used.
B. The Civil War helped launch photography. B. This was the first war in which the telegraph,
C. The Civil War launched photography as a the machine, and shell gun, surveillance
vital tool for relaying newsworthy images, it balloons, and the submarine, and ironclad
established photography as a new form of art. ships, and land mines were extensively used.
D. The Civil War helped launch photography as C. This was the first war in which the telegraph
a new form of art. and the machine were extensively used.
D. This was the first war in which the telegraph
6. Which of the following is the best revision of was extensively used.
sentence 11?
A. As Walt Whitman said, a great literature will 9. What is most notably missing from this essay?
arise out of that era. A. a concluding paragraph
B. A great literature will . . . arise out of that B. an opening paragraph
era. C. evidence
C. “As Walt Whitman said, a great literature D. a visual aid
will . . . arise out of that era.”
D. As Walt Whitman said, “A great literature 10. Which of the following titles would best suit this
will . . . arise out of that era.” essay?
A. “America at War”
B. “Nineteenth-Century Combat”
C. “American Innovation”
D. “The Effects of the Civil War”
Essay
By the time students enter high school, they have learned how many events in history have
influenced our world today. Think about the issue of slavery in the United States. Write an
essay in which you consider how the issue of slavery divided the United States and how it
eventually changed our country.
464
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. Gift of the W.L. and May T. Mellon Foundation.
U N IT FOU R
Regionalism and
Realism
1880–1910
Looking Ahead
The United States changed rapidly after the Civil War. American writers
reacted to these changes by turning away from Romanticism toward
Realism, a literary movement whose writers depicted life as they saw it,
not as they imagined it to be. A literary movement that was akin to
Realism was Regionalism, sometimes known as the local color
movement, whose writers portrayed the distinctive traits of particular
areas of the United States. A later, more extreme movement was
Naturalism, whose writers sought to describe with scientific objectivity
the effects of environment and heredity on character.
⇒ How do you think the historical and cultural trends of this period
continue to affect the United States today?
O B J EC TI V ES
In learning about Regionalism and Realism, and Naturalism, you will focus on the following:
• analyzing the characteristics of a literary period and how the issues of this period influenced its writers
• clarifying and understanding informational texts
• evaluating the influences of the historical period that shaped literary characters, plots, settings, and themes
• connecting literature to historical contexts, current events, and your own experiences
465
Timeline 1880–1910
AM E R I C AN L I T E R AT U R E
1880 1890
1880 1884 1896 1899
Joel Chandler Harris’s Uncle Mark Twain’s The Adventures Paul Laurence Dunbar’s Lyrics Charles Waddell Chesnutt’s
Remus, His Songs and His of Huckleberry Finn is published of a Lowly Life is published The Conjure Woman is
Sayings is published published
1885 1898
1881 W. D. Howells’s The Rise of Stephen Crane’s “The Open
Henry James’s The Portrait Silas Lapham is published Boat” is published
of a Lady is published
1886 1899
1884 Sarah Orne Jewett’s “A White Kate Chopin’s The Awakening
Helen Hunt Jackson’s Heron” is published is published
Ramona is published
U N I T E D STAT E S E V E N TS
1880 1890
1881 1884 1890
Queen Liliuokalani
Clara Barton founds George Eastman designs Wounded Knee Massacre
American Association roll film for cameras takes place 1893
of the Red Cross Americans overthrow Queen
1885 1891
1881 William Le Baron Jenney James A. Naismith invents Liliuokalani of Hawaii
Booker T. Washington builds the first skyscraper basketball 1896
founds Tuskegee Institute in Chicago Plessy v. Ferguson case is tried
1892
1882 1886 Immigration center opens on 1896
Renegade Jesse James is President Grover Cleveland Ellis Island Klondike gold rush begins
killed by one of his own gang dedicates the Statue of
Liberty in New York 1898
Spanish-American War
WO R L D E VE N TS is fought
1880 1890
1883 1889 1890 1895
Krakatoa volcano erupts; Eiffel Tower is completed German chancellor Otto Lumière Brothers introduce
ensuing tsunami kills over in Paris von Bismarck resigns, due motion pictures
36,000 people to conflicts with Kaiser
1889 1896
Wilhelm II
1883 Brazil becomes a republic First modern Olympic
Standard time divides Earth 1892 Games are held in Athens
into 24 time zones Gerhart Hauptmann’s
1896
The Weavers is published
1885 Famine that will kill millions
Indian National Congress 1894 of people begins in India
is founded War begins between China
1898
and Japan
Marie and Pierre Curie
discover radium
1896 Olympics
1900
1900 1903 1904 1908
Hawaii becomes a territory The Great Train Robbery, first The United States begins Electric washing machine
of the United States narrative film, is shown construction of the is invented
Panama Canal
1901 1909
President McKinley is 1906 National Association for the
assassinated; Theodore San Francisco earthquake Advancement of Colored
Roosevelt becomes president takes place People (NAACP) is founded
1903 1908 1910
Wright Brothers make first Ford Motor Company Angel Island facility for
airplane flight produces the Model T Ford Asian immigrants is opened
1900
1900 1905 1908
Boxer Rebellion against Strikes and mass protests Oil is discovered in the
European influence begins begin reform in Russia Middle East
in China
1906 1910
1904 Finland is first European Mexican Revolution begins
Russo-Japanese War begins country to grant woman
suffrage
Reading Check
Analyzing Graphic Information Which events on the
Timeline Visit www.glencoe.com for timeline continue to shape the daily life of people in
an interactive timeline. the United States today?
400
300
200
100
80
60
40
20
0
1861 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920
Source: Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970 (1975).
150
and more reliable, the American
Total Miles of Railroad
1885
1890
1870
1875
25
dren attending school had 0
Source: Historical Statistics of the
risen to over 17,300,000.
United States: Colonial Times to 1970.
468 UNIT 4 R EG I O N A L I S M A N D RE AL IS M
Being There
Between the Civil War and World War I, the growth of
mining, ranching, and farming brought settlement to the
West. At the same time, populations of cities in the East
swelled as immigrants poured into the United States and
job seekers from rural areas sought employment in industry.
A Immigrants in line
leaving Ellis Island,
waiting for ferry to
New York. ca. 1900.
Undated photograph.
WA ME
MT ND VT NH
MN
OR MA
NY
WI
ID SD MI RI
A CT
WY PA
IA NJ
NE C OH
NV IL IN
DE
UT WV
CO VA MD
CA B KS MO KY
NC
OK TN
TERR. SC
ARIZONA NEW MEXICO IND. AR
TERRITORY TERRITORY TERR.
MS GA
AL
LA
TX
FL
INTRODUCTION 469
(l)Bettmann/CORBIS, (c)CORBIS, (r)Snark/Art Resource, NY
Regionalism and
Realism 1880–1910
Historical, Social, and Cultural Forces
Westward Expansion Westward expansion was a disaster for the Native
Americans of the region. Each new group of settlers
For a time during the early nineteenth century,
further encroached on Native Americans’ traditional
American settlement paused at the edge of the Great
ways of life. The Native Americans of the Great
Plains. Settlers felt challenged by these vast, treeless
Plains had long depended on the herds of buffalo for
grasslands, which had little rainfall, a fierce climate,
food, clothing, and shelter. By the 1880s, the destruc-
and soil that was very fertile but difficult to plow. But
tion of these herds by white hunters had doomed this
beginning in the 1860s, improvements in farming
way of life. After the Civil War, the policy of the
equipment, the expansion of the railroads, and the
U.S. government was to move Native Americans
Homestead Act, which enabled settlers to claim pub-
onto reservations, which were large tracts of land set
lic land, made more Americans willing to move to
aside for them. Resistance by some Native Americans
the Great Plains. However, these prairie farmers—
led to armed clashes with U.S. troops.
or “sodbusters”—still faced constant toil, drought,
extreme temperatures, blizzards, tornadoes, grass fires,
locusts, and a social and cultural isolation that broke The Gilded Age
many homesteaders’ spirits. As the Great Plains and the West were being settled,
cities in the East and Midwest were also growing.
New inventions, such as the electric light and the
telephone, improved economic efficiency and created
new jobs. Thousands of Americans moved to cities in
search of work, and millions of immigrants arrived,
many of them from southern and eastern Europe.
By the early 1900s, Americans had transformed the
United States into the world’s leading industrial
nation. However, this rapid growth had a social cost.
Beneath the glittering surface of prosperity, corrup-
tion in business and politics became so widespread
that historians often refer to this period as the Gilded
Age, a reference to Mark Twain’s scathing social sat-
ire of the same name, which described the greed and
Across the Continent, Westward the Course of corruption of the time. The gap between rich and
Empire Takes Its Way. Color lithograph. Museum
poor Americans widened greatly, and a few so-called
of the City of New York.
robber barons became enormously wealthy as a result
The West’s rich deposits of gold, silver, and copper of the labors of their employees. Cities were overpop-
served the needs of growing industries in the East. ulated, and the poor were forced to live in tenement
The lure of these precious metals brought the first houses that were crowded, dirty, and unsafe.
wave of settlers that populated what would become
the mountain states of the West.
Following the Civil War, some Writers of this period turned Naturalism, a more extreme
American writers concen- away from Romanticism and movement, grew out of
trated on the unique charac- attempted to create the Realism. Naturalist writers,
teristics, or local color, of a appearance of ordinary life. influenced by scientists such
particular region of the coun- Known as Realists, these as Charles Darwin, believed
try. They attempted to portray writers aimed not to tran- that human beings are
the landscape, speech, cus- scend reality but to render shaped by heredity and
toms, and other cultural the truth of everyday experi- environment and dominated
details of their chosen region. ence as they saw, heard, and by economic, social, or
See pages 472–473 felt it. natural forces.
See pages 474–475 See pages 476–477
I
nfluenced by such factors as public education more than a humorist or local colorist. In The
and mass media, culture in the United States Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain had trans-
today is probably more uniform than at any formed our literature by writing a true American
other time in our history. In the past, cultural novel, in which the setting, subject matter, charac-
differences among people from various parts of ters, and style were unmistakably American. Howells
the United States were more marked. After the Civil claimed Twain to be an American genius, hailing him
War, a new group of American writers, known as as “incomparable, the Lincoln of our literature.”
Regionalists or local colorists, emphasized local cul-
tures. Not all of these Regionalist writers were born
and educated in the East, as most previous American
Bret Harte’s Far West
writers had been. Many came from the South, Bret Harte told stories of the rude, lawless life of the
Midwest, or West. Under the influence of the new California gold-mining country while describing
emphasis on Realism in art and literature, they did places few people had ever seen. One of his earliest
not present the unusual characters and exotic set- stories, “The Luck of Roaring Camp,” made Harte
tings familiar in Romanticist writing. Instead, local famous. Readers in both the United States and
colorists depicted the ordinary people and everyday Britain enthusiastically read about the gamblers,
places around them. thieves, and social misfits that populate his work.
Harte distinguished himself from other writers of the
In their writing, the local colorists emphasized set- West by his ironic tone. His unsavory characters fre-
ting, and their characters tended to be typical of a quently undergo an unexpected reformation, which
particular region, which was clear from their speech provides the narrator with an opportunity to make
and beliefs. Often the narrator was an outsider who wry comments on their sudden changes of heart.
observed a world filled with unfamiliar or outdated
characteristics and customs. This outsider frequently
revealed the tension between the new and old, the
modern and the old-fashioned. The mood of local “Consciously, I was always, as I still
color writing was sometimes nostalgic, serving as a
am, trying to fashion a piece of
reminder of a time before mass production and noisy
urban life. At other times, the mood was more som- literature out of the life next at hand.”
ber, presenting a criticism of habits and ideas consid-
—William Dean Howells
ered long outmoded.
T
he emergence of American Realism in the upon seeing an exhibit of Brady’s photographs,
second half of the 1800s was in part a reac- “If he has not brought bodies and laid them in our
tion to the Romanticism of the previous era. dooryards and along [our] streets, he has done some-
Romanticism’s glorification of the imagina- thing very like it.” Many Realist writers aspired to
tion became unappealing to Realists, who adapt this kind of photographic realism to their
wanted to explore the motivations, behaviors, and literary works.
actions of real people. Some of the most important
writers of the time were considered Realists, including
fiction writers Henry James, O. Henry, and William
Kate Chopin and Women
Dean Howells. During her lifetime, Kate Chopin was widely criti-
cized for her realistic portrayal of women. She was the
first American woman to write frankly about the sup-
The Birth of Realism pressed passion and discontentment of women who
Before Realism appeared in America, it was already were confined to the traditional roles of wives and
flourishing in Europe. French novelist Honoré de mothers. She believed that the role of an artist was to
Balzac is commonly considered the father of Realism. rebel. As a character in her novel The Awakening
His masterpiece The Human Comedy is a massive col- observes, an artist must have “a soul that dares and
lection of ninety novels and novellas that detail the defies.” Chopin wrote of women “awakening” to their
panorama of French society. Balzac did not limit the confined state and challenging the social values and
scope of his masterpiece to an examination of one patriarchal rules that defined and limited them.
class of people or cultural environment. Instead he Chopin is sometimes considered to be a Regionalist
invented a complex and textured fictional world writer, because in some of her stories she depicted the
based on all levels of society. customs of Creoles and Cajuns in Louisiana, using
their language and describing their lifestyles. She
Advanced by such authors as Gustave Flaubert, Leo
made their world real and confirmed their humanity
Tolstoy, George Eliot, and Charles Dickens, Realism
by refusing to judge their lives or their struggles.
soon became the most prominent literary movement
in Europe. These novelists examined the psychology
of human behavior and created characters who strug- Paul Laurence Dunbar and
gle with problems that nineteenth-century readers
would have recognized in their own lives or in the
African Americans
lives of their contemporaries. Paul Laurence Dunbar was one of the earliest African
American poets to gain widespread recognition.
The rise of Realism in the United States can be William Dean Howells’s favorable review of Dunbar’s
traced to disillusionment following the Civil War. book Majors and Minors in Harper’s Weekly helped to
For many, the war had destroyed the Romantic view establish Dunbar as an international literary figure.
of humanity. Like Mathew Brady in his famous photo- While Dunbar wrote the bulk of his verse in the lofty
graphs of the Civil War dead or Jacob Riis in his por- poetic diction of his day, he is best known for his use
traits of New York slum children, the Realists wanted of rural African American dialect. Dunbar’s dialect
to present life as it actually was—often cruel and poems depict the post-war lives of African Americans
never embellished. In fact, the rise of photography in and reflect their frustrated aspirations in an era of
general, and Brady’s images in particular, fundamen- white dominance. Throughout his life, Dunbar tried
tally altered the ways in which Americans perceived to strike a balance between the conventions of the
reality. Photography enabled artists to capture and European literary tradition and those of African
convey, with stark objectivity, the world as it appeared American folk culture.
through the camera’s lens. As a reporter observed
W
hat do you think contributes most to shap- to human behavior. These ideas are important in
ing a person’s life? Is it the biological factor several of London’s works, including his most
of heredity? Is it the social and economic popular novels, The Call of the Wild and The Sea-
factor of environment? Or is it the result Wolf. London spent time in the Alaskan wilderness
of other factors, such as an individual’s and the South Seas, and many of his stories demon-
own will? Realistic writers, for the most part, did not strate the power of nature over civilization: “Nature
concern themselves with these philosophical ques- has many tricks wherewith she convinces man of his
tions. Toward the end of the 1800s, however, a group finity—the ceaseless flow of the tides, the fury of
of writers known as Naturalists, who were strongly the storm, the shock of the earthquake, the long
influenced by Charles Darwin’s scientific theory of roll of heaven’s artillery.”
evolution by natural selection, adopted the view that
people had little control over their own lives. They
believed that human destiny was shaped by powerful
forces, including heredity, social and economic pres- A man said to the universe:
sures, and the natural environment. Like the Realist “Sir, I exist!”
writers, Naturalists wrote about ordinary people, but
they often focused on the working class and the poor,
“However,” replied the universe,
presenting the futile battles of individuals against a “The fact has not created in me
brutal society or an indifferent universe.
A sense of obligation.”
— Stephen Crane
Edwin Arlington Robinson and Fate
Edwin Arlington Robinson said he felt “doomed, or
elected, or sentenced for life, to the writing of poetry.”
His most famous poems are set in fictional Tilbury Stephen Crane and War
Town, which was modeled on his childhood home-
In his writing, Stephen Crane was attracted to war
town of Gardiner, Maine. The characters in his
and other forms of violent struggle. Though the Civil
poems, like Robinson himself, are often loners or
War had ended six years before Crane was born, he
misfits. They live in communities where people feel
used it as the subject of his best-known book, The Red
pressure to conform and where creativity is misunder-
Badge of Courage. Later short stories express Crane’s
stood or simply ignored. Robinson’s poems focus
belief in the necessity of courage, honesty, and poise
almost exclusively on an individual or on individual
in the face of an indifferent universe. In “The Blue
relationships. His tone is a blend of irony and compas-
Hotel,” Crane described humans as so many lice
sion toward his characters, many of whose lives end
clinging “to a whirling, fire-smote, ice-locked,
in personal failure and despair.
disease-stricken, space-lost bulb.” The pathos of
human helplessness in the face of brute fact closes the
Jack London and Nature story “An Episode of War” as a young officer reacts to
From the age of nine, Jack London was helping to sup- the loss of his arm: “‘Oh, well,’ he said, standing
port his family through hard physical labor. His early shamefaced amid these tears. ‘I don’t suppose it
experiences made him sympathetic toward the work- matters so much as all that.’” In The Red Badge of
ing class and convinced him that capitalist society was Courage, Crane presents his hero, a young recruit
brutal and repressive. London was also drawn to Social named Henry Fleming, who responds to his first
Darwinism, a movement that—unlike Darwin him- experience of a new, violent environment—battle.
self—attempted to apply Darwin’s biological theories
1. Speaking/Listening Work with other students to research art and music from the late 1800s to the early
1900s. Choose a piece of art or a song and find a connection to the social and economic situation of the
United States during this time. Present your findings to the class.
2. Visual Literacy Create a map showing the regions of the country that were represented by Mark Twain,
Willa Cather, Kate Chopin, and Bret Harte. For each area, create an icon to represent the author and the region.
3. Writing How would the muckraking social reformers of this period—such as Jane Addams and Upton
Sinclair—view city life in the United States today? Write a brief essay that explores this question.
OB J EC TIVES
• Use appropriate appeals to support claims and arguments. Study Central Visit
• Interpret the influences of historical context on a literary work. www.glencoe.com and click on Study Central to
• Organize and convert information into charts, graphs, or maps. review Regionalism and Realism.
• Analyze and synthesize ideas in writing.
Regionalism
and Local Color
Red Pepper Time, c. 1930. Oscar Edmund Berninghaus. Oil on canvas, 25 x 301/16 in. Gift of Arvin Gottlieb.
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC.
479
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC/Art Resource, NY
LITER ARY H I STORY
I
N 1871, BRET HARTE SIGNED A $10,000 The Importance of Setting
contract with The Atlantic Monthly magazine, Setting was the most distinct feature of local color
the highest sum ever paid to an author at the stories, which most often took place in rural towns.
time. The impressive sale of Harte’s stories marked Authors depicted in meticulous detail the time,
the beginning of the local color fiction boom. Still place, and historical background in which events
recovering from the devastation of the Civil War, in their fiction occurred. The setting of local color
readers welcomed the relief that Harte’s light- fiction spanned the continent, from Harte’s tales
hearted tales of the California Gold Rush provided. of California miners to Sarah Orne Jewett’s stories
of country dwellers in New England. Jewett, a
prominent local colorist, wrote about common
people living in coastal towns: doctors, sailors,
Writers culturally reunited the mothers, and wives. Her most famous book, The
country by crafting stories about real Country of the Pointed Firs, was well received all
over the nation. Local color writing appealed to
people, small towns, and regional a wide audience, regardless of its setting.
lifestyles.
The Role of Character
While Harte and Jewett may have been among
After the political reunification of the North and the first local colorists, the best known is Mark
South, the focus on national issues gave way to Twain. Twain’s “The Celebrated Jumping Frog
smaller, regional concerns. Writers culturally of Calaveras County” (page 484) continues to
reunited the country by crafting stories about real be one of the most popular works of local color
people, small towns, and regional lifestyles. In many fiction. Smiley, the story’s protagonist, is typical
cases, local color fiction reflected old-fashioned of characters portrayed in local color writing.
values, as if authors were writing to remember the Characters are usually small-town residents, shown
country before it had been ravaged by war. in their everyday lives performing everyday tasks.
The Landing, Bailey Island, Maine, c. 1907. Alfred Thompson Bricher. Oil on canvas, 38 x 81 in.
Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH.
R ES P O N D I N G AN D TH I N K I N G C R ITI CALLY
1. Explain why you think local color fiction became so 3. How would you compare and contrast local color
popular in the United States in the late nineteenth fiction with its predecessor, Romantic literature?
century.
4. What are some examples of local color fiction that
2. Why did women writers have a strong presence in you know from books, movies, or television?
the local color movement?
O B J EC TIVES
• Interpret the influence of historical context on a literary • Recognize how writers represent their cultures and traditions
work. in a text.
• Analyze the relevance of setting to a text’s meaning.
LITERARY HISTO RY 4 81
Bettmann/CORBIS
B EF O R E YO U R E A D
“W
hen I was born I was a member of a taste of fame: “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of
firm of twins,” Twain told an audience Calaveras County.” In 1867, as a traveling corre-
in 1901. “And one of them disap- spondent for the Alta California, Twain set out
peared.” Although he was not actually a twin, Twain for Europe and the Middle East. This journey pro-
did have two sides to his personality. Born Samuel vided the material for The Innocents Abroad; or,
Langhorne Clemens, he took as his pen name a term The New Pilgrim’s Progress (1869), which poked
used by riverboat pilots in navigation: Mark Twain. fun at inexperienced American travelers and
quickly became a best seller.
• See Literary Terms Handbook, pp. R4–R5. Vocabulary Tip: Word Roots When you are trying
to figure out the meaning of an unfamiliar word,
think of words that share a root with it. The words
interminable and terminal share a root: the Latin
Interactive Literary Elements word terminus, meaning “end” or “boundary.”
Handbook To review or learn more about the literary elements,
go to www.glencoe.com.
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • understanding dialect
• analyzing literary periods • analyzing comic devices
Vocabulary
Big Idea Regionalism How does Twain evoke the region
interminable (in turmi nə bəl) adj. seemingly endless in this passage?
did learn him, too. He’d give him a little punch on a dead level, he could get over more ground
behind, and the next minute you’d see that frog at one straddle30 than any animal of his breed
whirling in the air like a doughnut—see him you ever see. Jumping on a dead level was his
turn one summerset, or may be a couple, if he strong suit, you understand; and when it come
got a good start, and come down flat-footed and to that, Smiley would ante up31 money on him
all right, like a cat. He got him up so in the as long as he had a red.32 Smiley was monstrous
matter of catching flies, and kept him in prac- proud of his frog, and well he might be, for fell-
tice so constant, that he’d nail a fly every time ers that had traveled and been everywheres, all
as far as he could see him. Smiley said all a frog said he laid over any frog that ever they see.
wanted was education, and he could do most Well, Smiley kept the beast in a little lattice
any thing—and I believe him. Why, I’ve seen box, and he used to fetch him down town some-
him set Dan’l Webster29 down here on this times and lay for a bet. One day a feller—a
floor—Dan’l Webster was the name of the stranger in the camp, he was—come across him
frog—and sing out, “Flies, Dan’l, flies!” and with his box, and says:
quicker’n you could wink, he’d spring straight “What might it be that you’ve got in the box?”
up, and snake a fly off’n the counter there, and And Smiley says, sorter indifferent like, “It
flop down on the floor again as solid as a gob of might be a parrot, or it might be a canary, may
mud, and fall to scratching the side of his head be, but it an’t—it’s only just a frog.”
with his hind foot as indifferent as if he hadn’t And the feller took it, and looked at it careful,
no idea he’d been doin’ any more’n any frog and turned it round this way and that, and says,
might do. You never see a frog so modest and “H’m—so ’tis. Well, what’s he good for?”
straightfor’ard as he was, for all he was so gifted. “Well,” Smiley says, easy and careless, “He’s
And when it come to fair and square jumping good enough for one thing, I should judge—he
can outjump any frog in Calaveras county.”
The feller took the box again, and took
29. Dan’l Webster refers to Daniel Webster (1782–1852),
a famous orator who served as a U.S. senator and a U.S.
another long, particular look, and give it back to
secretary of state.
30. Here, straddle means “to jump.”
Reading Strategy Analyzing Comic Devices How does
31. Ante up means “to put into the pool” or “to bet.”
Twain create humor in this passage?
32. A red refers to a red cent, meaning “any money at all.”
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. What questions would you like to ask Simon 5. Why do you think Wheeler tells his listener about
Wheeler? the mare and bull pup first, before focusing on
the frog?
Recall and Interpret 6. Who is the main character in this story? Explain.
2. (a)How does the narrator come to meet Simon 7. (a)In this selection, one story serves as a frame
Wheeler and to hear his story? (b)What can you for another story. Which story is the frame?
infer about the narrator’s attitude toward (b)Why might Twain have chosen this structure?
Wheeler?
3. (a)Why does Wheeler call Smiley “the curiosest Connect
man”? (b)What conclusions can you draw about
Smiley’s character, based on the tale Wheeler tells? 8. Big Idea Regionalism How does Twain capture
the flavor of the Old West in this story?
4. (a)What does Smiley entice the stranger to
do? (b)What event or events determine the out-
come of the encounter with the stranger? Explain
your answer.
L I T E R A RY A NA LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
• How would the story have been different if the nar- a. garrulous b. conjecture c. dilapidated
rator had met Wheeler in a city?
B EF O R E YO U R E A D
Now when I had mastered the language of this water steamboating was new to me. A broad expanse of
and had come to know every trifling feature that the river was turned to blood; in the middle distance
bordered the great river as familiarly as I knew the the red hue brightened into gold, through which a
letters of the alphabet, I had made a valuable acqui- solitary log came floating, black and conspicuous; in
sition. But I had lost something, too. I had lost some- one place a long, slanting mark lay sparkling upon
thing which could never be restored to me while I the water; in another the surface was broken by boil-
lived. All the grace, the beauty, the poetry had gone ing, tumbling rings, that were as many-tinted as an
out of the majestic river! I still keep in mind a cer- opal; where the ruddy flush was faintest, was a
tain wonderful sunset which I witnessed when smooth spot that was covered with graceful circles
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. What are your impressions of Mark Twain’s 5. Do you think that Twain gained more or lost more
personality? by learning the trade of a riverboat pilot?
6. What do you think was Twain’s main purpose for
Recall and Interpret writing this memoir?
2. (a)What is “the language of this water” that Twain 7. Does Twain make the job of riverboat pilot sound
masters? (b)Why does he suggest that learning appealing?
how to navigate the river is like mastering a foreign
language?
Connect
3. (a)What does Twain mean by “the romance and
the beauty” of the river? (b)Why does he lose the 8. Big Idea Regionalism Regionalist writers por-
ability to see these special qualities forever? trayed the distinctive traits of particular areas of the
United States. From reading Twain’s memoir, what
4. (a)What terms does Twain use that would be famil- did you learn about the challenges of life on the
iar mainly to riverboat pilots or people living along Mississippi River?
the river? (b)Why does Twain include these terms
in this memoir?
LI T E R A RY A N A LYS I S
• train engineer
Tone:
• factory worker
word sentence figures of
• musician choice structure speech
• farmer
3. Rewrite the end of the selection using the new
analogy you chose.
M e d i a L i n k t o 19 t h –
C e n t u r y Re g i o n a l i s m
and Local Color
Preview the Article
Life Along the
Mississippi
“Life Along the Mississippi” documents
the Mississippi River region’s current
struggle to prosper in a changing
economy.
1. What have you already learned about
life on the Mississippi from reading
Twain’s work? What else would you
like to know?
2. Read the section headings throughout
the article. What clues do these
provide about the article’s content?
U
By NANCY GIBBS
literature by Mark Twain, and how this
region has changed over time. NLESS YOU ARE DRIVING ACROSS IT OR FLYING OVER
it or floating down it, it is hard to see the actual
Reading Strategy Mississippi. Anyone who had anything to do with
Clarifying Meaning the river discovered long ago that this huge
When you clarify the meaning of a text, you continental drainpipe was too powerful to leave
work to unlock the meaning of each section alone. So the great engineers designed the levees and locks and
or paragraph. Create a chart similar to the dams that reduced the number of ships that sank and towns that
one below and answer the questions to vanished. But their work also hid the river behind its walls and
help you clarify meaning as you read.
left the rest to the imagination.
Questions Answers Aside from Mark Twain’s same—Where’s Taco Bell? Where’s
What does this Huckleberry Finn, the imagination Home Depot?—it’s easy to assume
section mean? may be the best guide for exploring that no region is really distinct
the Mississippi River. Otherwise anymore. We’re all online now, and
How does this you need both a boat and a car, even in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a
relate to the maybe a canoe and a bicycle too, local observes, the kids don’t say
main idea? for the skinny inlets and alleys “y’all” anymore. They say, “you
along the way, and a lot of time guys,” just like on TV.
and patience. We could at best
splash in it a little, to see what it felt Heading South
like and what we might learn—and So we were surprised, everywhere
unlearn—by stopping along the we went. The more you explore the
way. It was worth remembering communities along the river, and
OB J EC TIVES the farther south you travel down
Huck Finn’s lesson: The river is the
• Clarify understanding of informational
sanctuary; the shore is where you into the Mississippi Delta, more
texts by creating graphic organizers.
• Explore life experiences related to get into trouble. than one thing becomes clear: This
subject area content. In a country where travelers is still a land unto itself, defined by
• Use background knowledge and experi-
lament that every town looks the its colorful, bloody past. It is a land
ence to connect to text.
494 UNIT 4
Informational Text
Diana Walker
apart from the region that cradles War and, a century later, the battle personal, but slow by the standards
the early stretches of the river itself, for civil rights. “Of course the war of a country that hurries into the
the Midwestern states of Minnesota, is not over,” says our 87-year-old future.
Wisconsin, and Iowa. While these guide in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Even progress on race comes in
states have reinvented themselves Now there is a quieter conflict the most intimate gestures: Last
three times in a half century, moving raging, not on the broad political December, as Elnora Littleton in
from agriculture to industry to high stage but in the particulars of Rosedale, Mississippi, tells it, she
technology, many communities in individual lives. Along the river, became the first African American
the Mississippi Delta have wrestled people hear about the new woman in those parts ever to
with the explosion of progress and economy, but they don’t have a preach at a white man’s funeral. In
prosperity. ticket to get there. Information this part of the country, she says, it
The South is where the country’s superhighway? Progress here is a is a milestone worth noting. “I
two wars were fought: the Civil back road, winding, scenic, and made history,” she says.
Diana Walker (4)
A Terrible Beauty
In the South, the river is the color
of café au lait (coffee with milk).
Down toward the mouth of the
Mississippi, the land was formed of
sedimentary deposits from farther
upriver, including the rich topsoil
blown from the hills of Wyoming
into the Missouri and acres of
Kansas prairie swallowed by flooding
and swept downstream. Mark
Twain’s characters claimed that a
man who drank the water could
grow corn in his stomach. You know
all this, and yet you are unprepared
for the Delta, otherworldly and flat,
the best place to grow cotton on
this earth. It was once a hellish
jungle, cleared by the backbreaking
labor of enslaved persons and
sharecroppers. It’s like a wet western
Kansas—beautiful, flat, and fertile.
The difference, of course, is that
when faced with the shrinking
labor needs of modern farming, the
good people of western Kansas
simply moved away in search of
better lives elsewhere. While this
happened in the Delta as well, a
large number of people chose to
stay in one of the poorest regions in
the U.S. The average family of four
here has an income of $16,538,
slightly more than half the national
average. In Mississippi County,
Arkansas, 35% of kids live in
poverty, and 40% of adults don’t
have a high school diploma. Riverfront architecture in the Mississippi River town
If the new economy has not yet of Alton, Illinois, reflects the river’s colorful past.
flowed downstream, there are lots of
people who will tell you no one is
even looking for it here. Whether or Town and Out? The idea of luring a nice little
not a town stays afloat has a lot to do We were left asking the same software company is years away.
with whether the local factory is still question all these towns face as the Suppose you have lost your
open—the fate of the town rests in ground shifts beneath their feet: brickyard, and the tugs no longer
the hands of Continental Concrete, What’s it going to be? Change? Or stop at your town, and the
Sparta Printing, the Mississippi Lime die? Is there maybe another choice? interstate has drawn the
Co., Tower Rock Quarry, Ralston The towns individually try to megastores, and even the schools
Purina, and Pillsbury. When one of reinvent themselves, and the region and churches move away, and the
these leaves, and the farms start to as a whole tries to reinvent itself. young people leave, and Main
fail, an entire town can shrivel and As you move farther south, many Street is on life support. The
die. Laid-off workers lose their towns don’t have the roads or Chamber of Commerce gets
livelihood. Retired workers lose their infrastructure to recruit some big together and daydreams: What
health insurance. new car plant or distribution center. would it take to bring life back to
IN FORT MADISON, IOWA, a town that has found a way to revive downtown, Here and elsewhere, there are big
residents gather for a band concert. groups of people—ministers and
teachers and store owners and
There is the newly reopened Delta sharecroppers to pick the cotton, there bureaucrats—who are prepared to
Blues Museum, which honors such would have been no plantation give all their time and muscle to
hometown heroes as Charley Patton, economy; without African Americans putting things right, making a place
Son House, Robert Johnson, Muddy to sing the work songs and field chants better. To the outsider, it would seem
Waters, and John Lee Hooker. The and play diddley bows and mail-order so much easier just to pick up and
history of the music is the story of the guitars, there would be no Delta blues. move on. Trying to stay, and to change,
people who invented it and the Without the blues, there would be no is an act of faith.
suffering that created it. Without rock ’n’ roll to conquer the world and –Updated 2005,
African American workers to clear help sell all those burgers and jeans. from TIME, July 10, 2000
the thickly wooded Delta plain and The poorest, most oppressed people in
R ES P O N D I N G AN D TH I N K I N G C R ITI CALLY
E
dgar Lee Masters’s Spoon River Anthology
took early twentieth-century readers by sur-
prise. Published in 1915, the anthology is a
collection of free-verse first-person monologues
spoken by the people of a small Midwestern town,
who are now “sleeping on the hill.” Masters called
the poems epitaphs.
The realism and irony expressed in Spoon River
Anthology were at odds with the romantic and in law. Masters eventually took up both pursuits
sentimental poetry popular at the time. Though and established his first law office in Chicago in
some critics questioned this new type of poetry, 1893. He married Helen M. Jenkins, the daughter
the book sold thousands of copies, is still in of another Chicago lawyer, in 1898, and they had
print, and has even been adapted for the stage. three children. Masters was a successful attorney
After the anthology’s publication, Ezra Pound and argued some cases before the U.S. Supreme
wrote of Masters, “At last! America has discov- Court.
ered a poet.”
Literary Success Masters’s first book, A Book of
Verses, was published in 1898, and he published a
number of other poetry books, a collection of
“It is all very well, but for essays, and several plays over the next sixteen
myself I know years. Through his writing, he became friends with
Carl Sandburg and Harriet Monroe, the editor of
I stirred certain vibrations in Poetry magazine. Despite Masters’s ties to the
Spoon River Chicago community, he later separated from his
family and moved to New York City. He married
Which are my true epitaph, Elaine Coyne, a teacher, in 1926.
more lasting than stone.” Spoon River Anthology was well received both
—Edgar Lee Masters critically and commercially. Masters was later
“Percival Sharp” awarded the Poetry Society of America Award,
the Mark Twain silver medal, and the Shelley
Memorial Award. By the end of his life, Masters
had published more than fifty volumes, includ-
From Small Town to Supreme Court Born in ing poetry collections, plays, novels and biogra-
Kansas, Masters grew up in the small Illinois towns phies. Spoon River, however, remained his only
of Petersburg and Lewistown. As a boy, he spent literary success.
long periods of time at his grandfather’s farm, where
he fished, rode horses, and read Charles Dickens Edgar Lee Masters was born in 1868 and died
and Ralph Waldo Emerson. After graduating high in 1950.
school, he worked as an apprentice for a local
printer and attended Knox College for one year.
Although Masters wanted to study literature and Author Search For more about
be a writer, his father pushed him toward a career this author,
Edgar go to www.literature.glencoe.com.
Lee Masters, go to www.glencoe.com.
OB J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • drawing conclusions about characters
• analyzing characteristics of regionalism • analyzing a dramatic monologue
I went to the dances at Chandlerville, And by Spoon River gathering many a shell,
And played snap-out1 at Winchester. And many a flower and medicinal weed—
One time we changed partners, 15 Shouting to the wooded hills, singing to the
Driving home in the moonlight of middle June, green valleys.
5 And then I found Davis. At ninety-six I had lived enough, that is all,
We were married and lived together for And passed to a sweet repose.
seventy years, What is this I hear of sorrow and weariness,
Enjoying, working, raising the twelve Anger, discontent and drooping hopes?
children, 20 Degenerate sons and daughters,
Eight of whom we lost Life is too strong for you—
Ere I had reached the age of sixty. It takes life to love Life.
10 I spun, I wove, I kept the house, I nursed
the sick, Literary Element Dramatic Monologue What does this
I made the garden, and for holiday line tell you about the speaker’s philosophy of life?
Rambled over the fields where sang the larks,
Vocabulary
repose (ri pōz ) n. relaxation; tranquility; eternal rest
1. Snap-out (also known as crack-the-whip) is a game in which
degenerate (di jen ər it) adj. having declined in
players link hands in a line and then run or skate so as to
condition or character; deteriorated
shake off those at the end of the line.
Vocabulary
ruinous (r¯¯¯
oo i nəs) adj. causing ruin; destructive
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond 5. (a)What reasons does Fiddler give for having
neglected his farm? (b)How does he seem to feel
1. Have you ever known anyone whose outlook on
about his work habits?
life resembles that of Lucinda Matlock or Fiddler
Jones? Explain.
Analyze and Evaluate
Recall and Interpret 6. (a)If you were to interview Lucinda Matlock, what
questions might you ask her about facing life’s ups
2. (a)Describe how Lucinda Matlock spent her life.
and downs? (b)From your reading of the poem,
(b)What were her joys and her sorrows?
what do you think her answers would be?
3. (a)Describe Lucinda’s tone, or attitude toward her
7. (a)What is Fiddler’s philosophy of life? (b)What do
subject and audience, in lines 1–17. (b)How does
you think of Fiddler’s philosophy? Explain.
her tone change in lines 18–22? What might you
infer about her character from this change?
Connect
4. In lines 5–14 of “Fiddler Jones,” Fiddler describes
8. Big Idea Regionalism Both Lucinda Matlock
different ways of perceiving the same things.
and Fiddler Jones are from the same small
(a)Summarize these descriptions. (b)What point
Midwestern farming community. In your opinion,
do you think he is trying to make?
how might their philosophies be different if they
had spent their lives in a busy city instead?
L I T E R A RY A NA LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
I
f U.S. newspapers of the early 1870s had fea-
tured bestseller lists, one name would have
appeared regularly at the top: Bret Harte. Not
only was he one of the most widely read writers in
the United States at the time, but he was also the
best paid. The $10,000 the Atlantic Monthly
awarded him in 1871 for 12 stories per year was
the highest figure ever paid to an American writer
at that time. Harte wrote colorful, romantic stories
about the American West. In many of his stories, the stories they wanted. However, when the presti-
he conjured the flavor and characters of the gious Boston literary magazine the Atlantic Monthly
California Gold Rush long after it had ended. offered Harte a contract, the writer accepted the
offer and left California for the East. He never
Born in Albany, New York, Harte ventured west returned west.
when he was eighteen years old. He worked as a
Personal and family problems prevented Harte
drugstore clerk and a Wells Fargo guard, and,
from maintaining his early literary success. He
according to some accounts, he may have also
served as a diplomat in Prussia and Scotland before
tried teaching school and prospecting before he
returning to writing as his sole profession. In
found lasting work in journalism. However, when
England, Harte found an enthusiastic audience for
he wrote an editorial condemning the massacre of
his work long after readers in the United States
sixty Native Americans by local white men, he so
had grown tired of his literary formula. However,
outraged readers that he had to quit his job as edi-
his health failed rapidly, and he died in 1902 of
tor of the Northern Californian and leave town.
throat cancer.
• Why might a person be outcast from society? Reading Tip: Taking Notes As you read, use a chart
• Can a person be an outcast without physically going like the one below to record details that you might use
somewhere else? Explain.
to make generalizations about the characters and setting.
Building Background
Bret Harte’s “The Outcasts of Poker Flat” is set in fron- Details of Setting or
tier California during the Gold Rush. The transformation Generalization
Character
of the West during the Gold Rush was rapid and spec-
tacular. By the end of 1849, over 80,000 gold-seekers Uncle Billy: sluice-
had come to California. Mining towns sprang up robber, confirmed
almost overnight. Drawn from all walks of life, the drunkard
“Forty-Niners” created a rough, lawless, and sometimes
violent world. Justice was spotty at best in these com-
munities; the inhabitants themselves might take on the
Vocabulary
roles of judge, jury, and occasionally, executioner. Harte
saw for himself the many types of people who were impropriety (im´ prə pr¯ ə tē) n. the quality of
drawn to these communities. In his writing, he tried to being improper; inappropriate behavior; p. 507
look at these people with unblinking realism and to Newspapers accused the mayor of impropriety
capture their peculiarities of speech and behavior. when he hired his relatives for city jobs.
Setting Purposes for Reading malevolence (mə lev ə ləns) n. a disposition to
wish harm to others; ill will; p. 508 The bully’s
Big Idea Regionalism malevolence caused the other children to fear him.
As you read “The Outcasts of Poker Flat,” notice how
equanimity (ēk´ wə nim ə te, ek´¯) n. evenness
Harte introduces regional details into the setting.
of temper; calmness; p. 508 The teacher became
known for her equanimity during disruptions.
Literary Element Characterization
hypothesis (h¯ poth ə sis) n. an unproved
The methods a writer uses to reveal the personality of a
explanation or assumption; p. 511 Sharon’s
character are called characterization. The writer may
hypothesis was that a tree branch was causing the
describe a character directly, or reveal a character’s per-
strange tapping sounds.
sonality through his or her words, thoughts, and actions,
and through the actions and reactions of other charac- seclusion (si kloo zhən) n. separation from
ters. As you read, look for direct statements about each others; isolation; p. 511 Seeking seclusion, the
character as well as action and dialogue that broaden famous movie star shunned fans and reporters.
your understanding of the characters’ personalities.
Vocabulary Tip: Denotation and Connotation
• See Literary Terms Handbook, p. R3. A word’s denotation is its literal, or dictionary,
meaning. A word’s connotation, however, is the
Interactive Literary Elements
feeling or association the word suggests.
Handbook To review or learn more about the literary elements,
go to www.glencoe.com.
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • making generalizations about story elements
• analyzing literary periods • analyzing methods of characterization
BRET HARTE 50 5
Bret Harte
SuperStock, Inc./SuperStock
As Mr. John Oakhurst, gambler, stepped into agin2 justice,” said Jim Wheeler, “to let this yer
the main street of Poker Flat on the morning young man from Roaring Camp—an entire
of the 23d of November, 1850, he was con- stranger—carry away our money.” But a crude sen-
scious of a change in its moral atmosphere timent of equity residing in the breasts of those
since the preceding night. Two or three men, who had been fortunate enough to win from Mr.
conversing earnestly together, ceased as he Oakhurst overruled this narrower local prejudice.
approached, and exchanged significant Mr. Oakhurst received his sentence with philo-
glances. There was a Sabbath lull in the air, sophic calmness, none the less coolly that he was
which, in a settlement unused to Sabbath aware of the hesitation of his judges. He was too
influences, looked ominous. much of a gambler not to accept fate. With him
Mr. Oakhurst’s calm, handsome face betrayed life was at best an uncertain game, and he recog-
small concern in these indications. Whether he nized the usual percentage in favor of the dealer.
was conscious of any predisposing cause was A body of armed men accompanied the
another question. “I reckon they’re after some- deported wickedness of Poker Flat to the outskirts
body,” he reflected; “likely it’s me.” He returned of the settlement. Besides Mr. Oakhurst, who was
to his pocket the handkerchief with which he known to be a coolly desperate man, and for
had been whipping away the red dust of Poker whose intimidation the armed escort was
Flat from his neat boots, and quietly discharged intended, the expatriated3 party consisted of a
his mind of any further conjecture. young woman familiarly known as “The Duchess;”
In point of fact, Poker Flat was “after some- another who had won the title of “Mother
body.” It had lately suffered the loss of several Shipton;”4 and “Uncle Billy,” a suspected sluice-
thousand dollars, two valuable horses, and a robber5 and confirmed drunkard. The cavalcade6
prominent citizen. It was experiencing a spasm provoked no comments from the spectators, nor
of virtuous reaction, quite as lawless and ungov- was any word uttered by the escort. Only when
ernable as any of the acts that had provoked it. the gulch which marked the uttermost limit of
A secret committee had determined to rid the Poker Flat was reached, the leader spoke briefly
town of all improper persons. This was done and to the point. The exiles were forbidden to
permanently in regard of two men who were return at the peril of their lives.
then hanging from the boughs of a sycamore in As the escort disappeared, their pent-up feel-
the gulch,1 and temporarily in the banishment ings found vent in a few hysterical tears from
of certain other objectionable characters. I the Duchess, some bad language from Mother
regret to say that some of these were ladies. It is Shipton, and a Parthian7 volley of expletives
but due to the sex, however, to state that their from Uncle Billy. The philosophic Oakhurst
impropriety was professional, and it was only in alone remained silent. He listened calmly to
such easily established standards of evil that Mother Shipton’s desire to cut somebody’s
Poker Flat ventured to sit in judgment. heart out, to the repeated statements of the
Mr. Oakhurst was right in supposing that he was
included in this category. A few of the committee
2. Agin is dialect for against.
had urged hanging him as a possible example and
3. Expatriated means “banished” or “exiled.”
a sure method of reimbursing themselves from his 4. The original Mother Shipton (1488–1560) was an English
pockets of the sums he had won from them. “It’s woman accused of witchcraft.
5. A sluice-robber is someone who steals gold from sluices,
long water troughs used by miners to separate gold ore
1. A gulch is a small, narrow valley, especially one eroded by from other materials.
running water. 6. A cavalcade (kav´ əl kād) is a procession, especially of
people on horseback.
Reading Strategy Making Generalizations Is Poker Flat 7. Here, Parthian means “delivered when parting or retreating.”
ordinarily a very religious town? How can you tell? The cavalry of the ancient country of Parthia (now part of
Iran) was known for shooting arrows while retreating or
Vocabulary pretending to retreat.
impropriety (im´ prə pr̄ə tē) n. the quality of being Literary Element Characterization Based on this
improper; inappropriate behavior description, how would you describe Oakhurst’s view of life?
BR ET HARTE 507
Duchess that she would die in the road, and to undoubtedly, the most suitable spot for a camp,
the alarming oaths that seemed to be bumped had camping been advisable. But Mr. Oakhurst
out of Uncle Billy as he rode forward. With the knew that scarcely half the journey to Sandy Bar
easy good humor characteristic of his class, he was accomplished, and the party were not
insisted upon exchanging his own riding-horse, equipped or provisioned for delay. This fact he
“Five-Spot,” for the sorry mule which the pointed out to his companions curtly, with a
Duchess rode. But even this act did not draw philosophic commentary on the folly of “throw-
the party into any closer sympathy. The young ing up their hand before the game was played
woman readjusted her somewhat draggled out.” But they were furnished with liquor, which
plumes with a feeble, faded coquetry;8 Mother in this emergency stood them in place of food,
Shipton eyed the possessor of “Five-Spot” with fuel, rest, and prescience.10 In spite of his remon-
malevolence, and Uncle Billy included the strances, it was not long before they were more
whole party in one sweeping anathema.9 or less under its influence. Uncle Billy passed
The road to Sandy Bar—a camp that, not rapidly from a bellicose11 state into one of stupor,
having as yet experienced the regenerating the Duchess became maudlin,12 and Mother
influences of Poker Flat, consequently seemed Shipton snored. Mr. Oakhurst alone remained
to offer some invitation to erect, leaning against a rock, calmly surveying
the emigrants—lay over a them.
steep mountain range. It Mr. Oakhurst did not drink. It interfered with
was distant a day’s severe a profession which required coolness, impassive-
travel. In that advanced ness, and presence of mind, and, in his own lan-
season the party soon guage, he “couldn’t afford it.” As he gazed at his
Visual passed out of the moist, recumbent13 fellow exiles, the loneliness begot-
Vocabulary temperate regions of the ten of his pariah trade,14 his habits of life, his
Sierras refers to the
foothills into the dry, cold very vices, for the first time seriously oppressed
Sierra Nevada, a
mountain range in bracing air of the Sierras. him. He bestirred himself in dusting his black
Eastern California. The trail was narrow and clothes, washing his hands and face, and other
difficult. At noon the acts characteristic of his studiously neat habits,
Duchess, rolling out of her saddle upon the and for a moment forgot his annoyance. The
ground, declared her intention of going no far- thought of deserting his weaker and more pitiable
ther, and the party halted. companions never perhaps occurred to him. Yet
The spot was singularly wild and impressive. he could not help feeling the want of that excite-
A wooded amphitheatre, surrounded on three ment which, singularly enough, was most condu-
sides by precipitous cliffs of naked granite, cive to that calm equanimity for which he was
sloped gently toward the crest of another preci- notorious. He looked at the gloomy walls that
pice that overlooked the valley. It was, rose a thousand feet sheer above the circling pines
around him, at the sky ominously clouded, at the
valley below, already deepening into shadow; and,
8. Coquetry (kō kə trē) means “flirtation.”
9. An anathema (a nath ə mə) is a strong denunciation or a
doing so, suddenly he heard his own name called.
curse.
Literary Element Characterization Note the different 10. Prescience (prē shē əns) is foresight.
reactions of the four travelers. What do you learn about 11. Bellicose (bel ə kōs) means “showing an eagerness to
each character from his or her behavior? fight” or “quarrelsome.”
12. Maudlin (mod lin) means “excessively sentimental.”
Big Idea Regionalism How do the descriptions of the 13. Recumbent (ri kum bənt) means “lying down” or “resting.”
“wild and impressive” scenery contribute to your under- 14. A pariah (pə r̄ ə) is an outcast, someone who is despised
standing of the region and its influence upon the people? by others. A pariah trade is an occupation that is socially
unacceptable.
Vocabulary Vocabulary
malevolence (mə levə ləns) n. a disposition to wish equanimity (ek´ wə nim ə tē) n. evenness of temper;
harm to others; ill will calmness
BR ET HARTE 509
The Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio. Bequest of Frederick W. Schumacher
to retire up the cañon16 until he could recover stirred the dying fire, the wind, which was now
his gravity. There he confided the joke to the blowing strongly, brought to his cheek that
tall pine-trees, with many slaps of his leg, which caused the blood to leave it,—snow!
contortions of his face, and the usual profan- He started to his feet with the intention of
ity. But when he returned to the party, he awakening the sleepers, for there was no time to
found them seated by a fire—for the air had lose. But turning to where Uncle Billy had been
grown strangely chill and the sky overcast—in lying, he found him gone. A suspicion leaped to
apparently amicable conversation. Piney was his brain, and a curse to his lips. He ran to the
actually talking in an impulsive girlish fashion spot where the mules had been tethered—they
to the Duchess, who was listening with an were no longer there. The tracks were already
interest and animation she had not shown for rapidly disappearing in the snow.
many days. The Innocent was holding forth, The momentary excitement brought Mr.
apparently with equal effect, to Mr. Oakhurst Oakhurst back to the fire with his usual calm.
and Mother Shipton, who He did not waken the
was actually relaxing into sleepers. The Innocent
amiability. “Is this yer a slumbered peacefully, with
d—d picnic?” said Uncle a smile on his good-
Billy, with inward scorn, as “He looked over humored, freckled face; the
he surveyed the sylvan 17
virgin Piney slept beside
group, the glancing fire- the valley, and her frailer sisters as sweetly
light, and the tethered ani- as though attended by
mals in the foreground.
summed up the celestial guardians; and Mr.
Suddenly an idea mingled present and Oakhurst, drawing his blan-
with the alcoholic fumes ket over his shoulders,
that disturbed his brain. It future in two words, stroked his mustaches and
was apparently of a jocu- waited for the dawn. It
lar nature, for he felt
18 ‘Snowed in!’” came slowly in a whirling
impelled to slap his leg mist of snowflakes that daz-
again and cram his fist into zled and confused the eye.
his mouth. What could be seen of the
As the shadows crept slowly up the moun- landscape appeared magically changed. He
tain, a slight breeze rocked the tops of the looked over the valley, and summed up the
pine-trees and moaned through their long and present and future in two words, “Snowed in!”
gloomy aisles. The ruined cabin, patched and A careful inventory of the provisions,
covered with pine boughs, was set apart for which, fortunately for the party, had been
the ladies. As the lovers parted, they unaffect- stored within the hut, and so escaped the
edly exchanged a kiss, so honest and sincere felonious19 fingers of Uncle Billy, disclosed
that it might have been heard above the sway- the fact that with care and prudence they
ing pines. The frail Duchess and the malevo- might last ten days longer. “That is,” said Mr.
lent Mother Shipton were probably too Oakhurst sotto voce20 to the Innocent, “if
stunned to remark upon this last evidence of you’re willing to board us. If you ain’t—and
simplicity, and so turned without a word to perhaps you’d better not—you can wait till
the hut. The fire was replenished, the men lay Uncle Billy gets back with provisions.”
down before the door, and in a few minutes
were asleep.
Mr. Oakhurst was a light sleeper. Toward 19. Felonious means “evil” or “villainous.”
morning he awoke benumbed and cold. As he 20. Sotto voce (sot ō vō chē) means “in a low tone of voice.”
The Italian words literally mean “under the voice.”
For some occult21 reason, Mr. Oakhurst could the snow’ll melt, and we’ll all go back together.”
not bring himself to disclose Uncle Billy’s ras- The cheerful gayety of the young man and Mr.
cality, and so offered the hypothesis that he Oakhurst’s calm infected the others. The Innocent,
had wandered from the camp and had acci- with the aid of pine boughs, extemporized22 a
dentally stampeded the animals. He dropped a thatch for the roofless cabin, and the Duchess
warning to the Duchess and Mother Shipton, directed Piney in the rearrangement of the interior
who of course knew the facts of their associ- with a taste and tact that opened the blue eyes of
ate’s defection. “They’ll find out the truth that provincial maiden to their fullest extent. “I
about us all when they find out anything,” he reckon now you’re used to fine things at Poker
added significantly, “and there’s no good Flat,” said Piney. The Duchess turned away
frightening them now.” sharply to conceal something that reddened her
Tom Simson not only put all his worldly store cheeks through their professional tint, and
at the disposal of Mr. Oakhurst, but seemed to Mother Shipton requested Piney not to “chat-
enjoy the prospect of their enforced seclusion. ter.” But when Mr. Oakhurst returned from a
“We’ll have a good camp for a week, and then weary search for the trail, he heard the sound
of happy laughter echoed from the rocks. He
BR ET HARTE 511
Fine Art Photographic Library/CORBIS
stopped in some alarm, and his thoughts first At midnight the storm abated, the rolling
naturally reverted to the whiskey, which he had clouds parted, and the stars glittered keenly
prudently cachéd.23 “And yet it don’t somehow above the sleeping camp. Mr. Oakhurst, whose
sound like whiskey,” said the gambler. It was not professional habits had enabled him to live on
until he caught sight of the blazing fire through the smallest possible amount of sleep, in dividing
the still blinding storm, and the group around it, the watch with Tom Simson somehow managed
that he settled to the conviction that it was to take upon himself the greater part of that duty.
“square fun.” He excused himself to the Innocent by saying
Whether Mr. Oakhurst had cachéd his cards that he had “often been a week without sleep.”
with the whiskey as something debarred the free “Doing what?” asked Tom. “Poker!” replied
access of the community, I cannot say. It was Oakhurst sententiously.27 “When a man gets a
certain that, in Mother Shipton’s words, he streak of luck, he don’t get tired. The luck gives
“didn’t say ‘cards’ once” during that evening. in first. Luck,” continued the gambler reflec-
Haply the time was beguiled by an accordion, pro- tively, “is a mighty queer thing. All you know
duced somewhat ostenta- about it for certain is that it’s bound to change.
tiously by Tom Simson And it’s finding out when it’s going to change
from his pack. Notwith- that makes you. We’ve had a streak of bad luck
standing some difficulties since we left Poker Flat,—you came along, and
attending the manipula- slap you get into it, too. If you can hold your
tion of this instrument, cards right along you’re all right. For,” added the
Visual Vocabulary Piney Woods managed to gambler, with cheerful irrelevance—
Castanets are pairs of pluck several reluctant
concave shells, often melodies from its keys, to “ ‘I’m proud to live in the service of the Lord,
made of ivory or
an accompaniment by the And I’m bound to die in His army.’ ”
wood. The shells are
held in the hand and Innocent on a pair of
played by clicking bone castanets. But the The third day came, and the sun, looking
them together. crowning festivity of the through the white-curtained valley, saw the out-
evening was reached in a casts divide their slowly decreasing store of provi-
rude24 camp-meeting25 hymn, which the lovers, sions for the morning meal. It was one of the
joining hands, sang with great earnestness and peculiarities of that mountain climate that its rays
vociferation. I fear that a certain defiant tone and diffused a kindly warmth over the wintry land-
Covenanter’s swing26 to its chorus, rather than scape, as if in regretful commiseration of the past.
any devotional quality, caused it speedily to infect But it revealed drift on drift of snow piled high
the others, who at last joined in the refrain:— around the hut,—a hopeless, uncharted, trackless
sea of white lying below the rocky shores to which
“I’m proud to live in the service of the Lord, the castaways still clung. Through the marvelously
And I’m bound to die in His army.” clear air the smoke of the pastoral28 village of
Poker Flat rose miles away. Mother Shipton saw
The pines rocked, the storm eddied and whirled it, and from a remote pinnacle of her rocky fast-
above the miserable group, and the flames of their ness hurled in that direction a final malediction.29
altar leaped heavenward, as if in token of the vow. It was her last vituperative30 attempt, and perhaps
for that reason was invested with a certain degree
23. Cachéd (kasht) means “hidden.”
24. Here, rude means “vigorous” or “robust.” 27. Sententiously (sen ten shəs lē) means “in a concise,
25. A camp-meeting is an outdoor religious gathering. energetic manner.”
26. Covenanter’s swing implies a lively rhythm. The Covenanters 28. Pastoral means “of, or relating to, rural life.”
were Scottish Presbyterians who made covenants, or 29. A malediction (mal´ ə dik shən) is a curse.
agreements, to resist rule by the Church of England. 30. Vituperative (vi too
¯¯ pə rā´ tiv) means “characterized by
abusive language and harsh criticism.”
Reading Strategy Making Generalizations What gener-
alization can you make about all of the characters based on Big Idea Regionalism Does this paragraph describe a
this passage? region that is truly “kindly” toward the outcasts? Explain.
BR ET HARTE 513
found that some one had wan faces, you could
quietly piled beside the hut scarcely have told from the
enough fuel to last a few Toward morning equal peace that dwelt
days longer. The tears rose upon them which was she
to her eyes, but she hid
they found that had sinned. Even the
them from Piney. themselves unable law of Poker Flat recog-
The women slept but lit- nized this, and turned away,
tle. In the morning, look- to feed the fire, leaving them still locked in
ing into each other’s faces, each other’s arms.
they read their fate. which gradually But at the head of the
Neither spoke, but Piney, gulch, on one of the largest
accepting the position of
died away. pine-trees, they found the
the stronger, drew near and deuce of clubs36 pinned to
placed her arm around the the bark with a bowie-knife.
Duchess’s waist. They kept this attitude for the It bore the following, written in pencil in a
rest of the day. That night the storm reached firm hand:
its greatest fury, and, rendering asunder the
protecting vines, invaded the very hut. ✝
Toward morning they found themselves BENEATH THIS TREE
unable to feed the fire, which gradually died LIES THE BODY
away. As the embers slowly blackened, the OF
Duchess crept closer to Piney, and broke the JOHN OAKHURST,
silence of many hours: “Piney, can you pray?” WHO STRUCK A STREAK OF BAD LUCK
“No, dear,” said Piney simply. The Duchess, ON THE 23RD OF NOVEMBER 1850,
without knowing exactly why, felt relieved,
AND
and, putting her head upon Piney’s shoulder,
HANDED IN HIS CHECKS
spoke no more. And so reclining, the younger
ON THE 7TH DECEMBER, 1850.
and purer pillowing the head of her soiled sis-
✝
ter upon her virgin breast, they fell asleep.
The wind lulled as if it feared to waken
them. Feathery drifts of snow, shaken from And pulseless and cold, with a derringer by
the long pine boughs, flew like white winged his side and a bullet in his heart, though still
birds, and settled about them as they slept. calm as in life, beneath the snow lay he who
The moon through the rifted clouds looked was at once the strongest and yet the weakest
down upon what had been the camp. But all of the outcasts of Poker Flat.
human stain, all trace of earthly travail, was
hidden beneath the spotless mantle mercifully
36. The deuce of clubs is the two of clubs. In a deck of cards,
flung from above.
it has the lowest value.
They slept all that day and the next, nor
did they waken when voices and footsteps Literary Element Characterization Why does the
broke the silence of the camp. And when narrator describe Oakhurst as “at once the strongest
and yet the weakest of the outcasts of Poker Flat”?
pitying fingers brushed the snow from their
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. (a)Did the ending of the story surprise you? Why or 5. (a)What is the narrator’s tone, or attitude, toward
why not? (b)Did the ending seem appropriate? the outcasts? (b)What words or phrases convey
Support your answer. this tone?
Recall and Interpret 6. (a)Which character from the story do you admire
the most? Support your answer with examples from
2. (a)What has the secret committee of Poker Flat
the text. (b)Which do you admire the least? Why?
decided to do? Why? (b)What can you infer about
the outcasts based on the committee’s decision? 7. (a)In your opinion, what message, or lesson, does
this story convey? (b)How effectively does Harte
3. (a)Summarize what happens during the outcasts’
convey this message?
second day in camp. (b)What do you learn about
each of the characters, based on their behavior? Connect
4. (a)When the searchers from Poker Flat arrive at the 8. Big Idea Regionalism Setting is considered inte-
camp, what do they find? (b)How would you com- gral when a story could not take place in another
pare their treatment of the outcasts at the end of time and place. How does the setting—both time
the story to their treatment at the beginning? and place—influence the actions of the characters
in this story?
L I T E R A RY A N A LYS I S
BR ET HARTE 515
R EAD I N G AN D VO CAB U L ARY W R IT I N G A N D E X T E N D I N G
Here are two words from the vocabulary list on Literary Criticism
page R86. These words will help you think,
Group Discussion Critic Arthur Inkersley noted in his
write, and talk about the selection.
1897 article “Californian Literature” that Bret Harte
aggregate (a rə at) n. a whole composed of “grew too big for his environment, and left California.
individual parts; sum total . . . Though his present address is . . . London, his
inspiration is still drawn from the . . . Pacific Coast.”
external (iks turn əl) adj. related to, of, or situ- With a small group, discuss whether you think that
ated on the outside; superficial an author needs to be in a specific setting in order to
portray it. What benefits are there to writing about the
Practice and Apply place you are physically in? What are some benefits of
1. What circumstance had been experienced by writing about a place in your memory?
each individual in the aggregate of outcasts?
2. What external causes contributed to the out-
casts’ demise? Web Activities For eFlashcards,
Selection Quick Checks, and other Web activities, go to
www.glencoe.com.
Exercise
Revise for Clarity Rewrite five of the sentences below, adding commas as eWorkbooks To link to
necessary. One sentence needs no commas. the Grammar and Language
eWorkbook, go to
1. Bret Harte the most famous Western writer in the 1860s wrote about www.glencoe.com.
small mining towns.
2. “The Outcasts of Poker Flat” a well-known story contains a colorful cast
of characters.
3. The town Poker Flat decides to get rid of its undesirables.
4. Oakhurst, the Duchess, Mother Shipton, and Uncle Billy a confirmed OB J ECTIV ES
drunkard are escorted out of town. • Learn about essential and
nonessential appositives.
5. Tom Simson a guileless youth was seen ascending the trail.
6. Oakhurst was found with a pistol a derringer by his side.
• Learn when to use com-
mas with appositives.
517
B EF O R E YO U R E A D
A Wagner Matinée
M E E T W I LL A C AT H E R neighbors. She
learned French,
A
German, Latin,
lthough she spent fewer than thirteen years
and Greek, partici-
living on the Nebraskan prairie, readers
pated in plays, and
best remember Willa Cather for her por-
attended local opera
trayal of the pioneer life and landscape. During the
performances. In high
mid-twentieth century, the connection between
school, Cather gained a repu-
Cather’s writing and the prairie that inspired her
tation as both a remarkable student and a noncon-
began to undermine her literary status. Critics
formist. She enrolled at the University of Nebraska
labeled her a regional writer, criticizing her for
in 1891 and supported herself by writing bold liter-
“escapism” and for romanticizing the American past.
ary reviews that earned her statewide recognition.
Nonetheless, Cather’s books have never gone out of
print, and there has been a renewed interest in her Returning East After graduating in 1895, Cather
work over the past two decades. Cather is now rec- moved to Pittsburgh to begin editing for a woman’s
ognized as a writer who explored the complexities of magazine, Home Monthly. She published her first
American life and showed how the tendency to link poetry collection, April Twilights, in 1903 and a col-
one’s life to the past adds meaning—though not lection of stories, The Troll Garden, which includes
always happiness—to life in the present. “A Wagner Matinée,” in 1905. The head of the pro-
gressive magazine McClure’s was so impressed by The
Troll Garden that he offered Cather a job in New York
“So the country and I had it out City. She became the magazine’s managing editor by
1908 but felt unfulfilled because her position left little
together and by the end of the first time to work on her own writing. In 1911, at the urg-
autumn the shaggy grass country had ing of her friend and mentor Sarah Orne Jewett,
Cather left journalism to write fiction exclusively.
gripped me with a passion that I have
Although she never moved back to the prairie,
never been able to shake. It has been Cather’s memories of that vast landscape and the
the happiness and curse of my life.” endurance of its people inspired several works,
including O Pioneers! (1913), Song of the Lark
—Willa Cather (1915), and My Ántonia (1918). In her earlier sto-
ries, Cather focused on the desolation of pioneer life,
including the lack of access to art and music. In later
works, however, she celebrated the prairie landscape
The Vast Frontier Cather’s family moved from and the powerful dreams and illusions of those who
the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia to rural Red attempted to cultivate it. Cather is recognized for her
Cloud, Nebraska, when she was nine years old. complex treatment of human emotion, her under-
Cather remarked that she felt “a kind of erasure of standing of darker American themes, and her care-
personality” as she first encountered the Nebraskan fully crafted writing style.
prairie, a feeling that would later permeate the
characters in her fiction. In Red Cloud, Cather’s Willa Cather was born in 1873 and died in 1947.
initial homesickness gave way to curiosity about
the ethnically diverse frontier town. She gained
insight into the hardships of pioneer life and the Author Search For more about
intricate histories of her European immigrant Willa Cather,go
this author, gototowww.literature.glencoe.com.
www.glencoe.com.
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • analyzing point of view
• analyzing setting and time frame • identifying sequence
520 UNIT 4 R EG I O N A L I S M A N D RE AL IS M
The Heyden Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Whatever shock Mrs. Springer experienced at my conjugations,10 gently shaking me when my drowsy
aunt’s appearance, she considerately concealed. As head sank down over a page of irregular verbs. It
for myself, I saw my aunt’s battered figure with that was to her, at her ironing or mending, that I read
feeling of awe and respect with which we behold my first Shakspere, and her old text-book on
explorers who have left their ears and fingers north mythology was the first that ever came into my
of Franz-Joseph-Land,5 or their health somewhere empty hands. She taught me my scales and exercises
along the Upper Congo.6 My Aunt Georgiana had on the little parlor organ which her husband had
been a music teacher at the Boston Conservatory, bought her after fifteen years, during which she had
somewhere back in the latter sixties. One summer, not so much as seen a musical instrument. She
while visiting in the little village among the Green would sit beside me by the hour, darning and count-
Mountains7 where her ancestors had dwelt for gen- ing, while I struggled with the “Joyous Farmer.”11
erations, she had kindled the callow8 fancy of my She seldom talked to me about music, and I under-
uncle, Howard Carpenter, then an idle, shiftless boy stood why. Once when I had been doggedly beating
of twenty-one. When she returned to her duties in out some easy passages from an old score of
Boston, Howard followed her, and the upshot of this Euryanthe12 I had found among her music books, she
infatuation was that she eloped with him, eluding came up to me and, putting her hands over my eyes,
the reproaches of her family and the criticism of her gently drew my head back upon her shoulder, saying
friends by going with him to the Nebraska frontier. tremulously,13 “Don’t love it so well, Clark, or it
Carpenter, who, of course, had no money, took up a may be taken from you.”
homestead in Red Willow County, fifty miles from When my aunt appeared on the morning
the railroad. There they had measured off their land after her arrival in Boston, she was still in a
themselves, driving across the prairie in a wagon, to semi-somnambulant14 state. She seemed not to real-
the wheel of which they had tied a red cotton ize that she was in the city where she had spent her
handkerchief, and counting its revolutions. They youth, the place longed for hungrily half a lifetime.
built a dug-out in the red hillside, one of those cave She had been so wretchedly train-sick throughout
dwellings whose inmates so often reverted to primi- the journey that she had no recollection of anything
tive conditions. Their water they got from the but her discomfort, and, to all intents and purposes,
lagoons where the buffalo drank, and their slender there were but a few hours of nightmare between
stock of provisions was always at the mercy of bands the farm in Red Willow County and my study on
of roving Indians. For thirty years my aunt had not Newbury Street. I had planned a little pleasure for
been farther than fifty miles from the homestead. her that afternoon, to repay her for some of the glo-
I owed to this woman most of the good that ever rious moments she had given me when we used to
came my way in my boyhood, and had a reveren- milk together in the straw-thatched cowshed and
tial9 affection for her. During the years when I was she, because I was more than usually tired, or
riding herd for my uncle, my aunt, after cooking
the three meals—the first of which was ready at six
10. Declensions are different forms of nouns, pronouns, and
o’clock in the morning—and putting the six chil- adjectives. Conjugations are different forms of verbs.
dren to bed, would often stand until midnight at Students often memorize these forms when learning a new
her ironing-board, with me at the kitchen table language.
beside her, hearing me recite Latin declensions and 11. Joyous Farmer is one of a series of compositions for
children by Robert Shumann (1810–1856).
12. Euryanthe (ā u
r i a n tā) is an opera by the German
5. Franz-Joseph-Land is a group of islands in the Arctic Ocean. composer Carl Maria von Weber (1786–1826).
6. The Congo River in central Africa is also called the Zaire 13. Tremulously means “in a trembling or shaking manner.”
River. 14. Semi-somnambulant (sem ē som nam byə lənt) means
7. The Green Mountains extend from western Massachusetts “bewildered or dazed, as if sleepwalking.”
through Vermont and into Canada.
Literary Element Point of View How is your understand-
8. Callow means “inexperienced” or “immature.”
ing of this passage affected by the point of view of the story?
9. Reverential means “with a feeling of deep respect and awe.”
Vocabulary Vocabulary
reproach (ri prōch) n. an expression of disapproval; a doggedly (do id lē) adv. in a stubbornly persistent
reprimand manner; obstinately
Vocabulary
15. Huguenots (hū ə nots´) is a French opera by the German trepidation (trep´ ə dā shən) n. nervous anticipation;
composer Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791–1864). anxiety
16. Common refers to Boston Common, a public park.
522 UNIT 4 R EG I O N A L I S M A N D RE AL IS M
David David Gallery/SuperStock
Georgiana regarded them as though they had been and her musical education had been broader than
so many daubs of tube-paint on a palette. that of most music teachers of a quarter of a cen-
When the musicians came out and took their tury ago. She had often told me of Mozart’s operas
places, she gave a little stir of anticipation, and and Meyerbeer’s, and I could remember hearing her
looked with quickening interest down over the rail sing, years ago, certain melodies of Verdi.24 When I
at that invariable grouping, perhaps the first wholly had fallen ill with a fever in her house she used to
familiar thing that had greeted her eye since she sit by my cot in the evening—when the cool, night
had left old Maggie and her weakling calf. I could wind blew in through the faded mosquito netting
feel how all those details sank into her soul, for I tacked over the window and I lay watching a cer-
had not forgotten how they had sunk into mine tain bright star that burned red above the corn-
when I came fresh from ploughing forever and for- field—and sing “Home to our mountains, O, let us
ever between green aisles of corn, where, as in a return!” in a way fit to break the heart of a
treadmill, one might walk from daybreak to dusk Vermont boy near dead of homesickness already.
without perceiving a shadow of change. The clean I watched her closely through the prelude to
profiles of the musicians, the gloss of their linen, Tristan and Isolde, trying vainly to conjecture what
the dull black of their coats, the beloved shapes of that seething turmoil of strings and winds might
the instruments, the patches of yellow light on the mean to her, but she sat mutely staring at the vio-
smooth, varnished bellies of the ’cellos and the bass lin bows that drove obliquely downward, like the
viols in the rear, the restless, wind-tossed forest of pelting streaks of rain in a summer shower. Had
fiddle necks and bows—I recalled how, in the first this music any message for her? Had she enough
orchestra I ever heard, those long bow-strokes left to at all comprehend this power which had
seemed to draw the heart out of me, as a conjurer’s kindled the world since she had left it? I was in a
stick reels out yards of paper ribbon from a hat. fever of curiosity, but Aunt Georgiana sat silent
The first number was the Tannhauser over- upon her peak in Darien.25 She preserved this
ture. When the horns drew out the first strain utter immobility throughout the number from The
of the Pilgrim’s chorus, Aunt Georgiana Flying Dutchman, though her fingers worked
clutched my coat sleeve. Then it was I first real- mechanically upon her black dress, as if, of them-
ized that for her this broke a silence of thirty selves, they were recalling the piano score they
years. I saw again the tall, naked house on the had once played. Poor hands! They had been
prairie, black and grim as a wooden fortress; the stretched and twisted into mere tentacles to hold
black pond where I had learned to swim, its and lift and knead with; on one of them a thin,
margin pitted with sun-dried cattle tracks; the worn band that had once been a wedding ring.
rain gullied clay banks about the naked house,
the four dwarf ash seedlings where the dish-
cloths were always hung to dry before the 24. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (woolf an´ a´ mə dā
kitchen door. The world there was the flat əs mōt sart) (1756–1791) was an Austrian composer.
world of the ancients;23 to the east, a cornfield Giuseppe Verdi (j¯¯¯
oo zep pe ver dē) (1813–1901) was an
Italian composer of opera.
that stretched to daybreak; to the west, a corral
25. The phrase “peak in Darien” (dār´ ē en) alludes to the
that reached to sunset; between, the conquests poem “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer” by John
of peace, dearer-bought than those of war. Keats. The poem describes Spanish explorers on a
The overture closed, my aunt released my coat mountain in Darien, now Panama, who stand silently and
sleeve, but she said nothing. She sat staring dully at in awe, as the first Europeans to view the Pacific Ocean.
the orchestra. What, I wondered, did she get from Literary Element Point of View What effect does the
it? She had been a good pianist in her day, I knew, first-person point of view have on the depiction of the concert?
524 UNIT 4 R EG I O N A L I S M A N D RE AL IS M
A F T E R YO U R E A D
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond performance she saw in Paris? (b)Given Georgiana’s
reaction to the Wagner concert, how do concerts
1. How did the story affect your impressions of
probably affect her in general?
nineteenth-century frontier life?
6. Clark says of scenery on the farm: “one might walk
Recall and Interpret from daybreak to dusk without perceiving a shadow
2. (a)How does Clark react to the letter from his uncle? of change.” To whom might this statement be con-
(b)Why does he react so strongly to the letter? sidered false and why?
3. The narrator says that he owed to his aunt “most of 7. After his experience with Georgiana, how might
the good that ever came my way in my boyhood.” Clark perceive his access to concerts in Boston
How is her influence apparent in his adult life? differently?
4. (a)How does Georgiana behave after the concert Connect
ends? (b)What might the concert hall symbolize
for her? 8. Big Idea Regionalism The story contrasts the
limits of one region with the opportunities of
Analyze and Evaluate another. What might these two “regions” be in
5. (a)Georgiana seldom talks to Clark about music. Georgiana’s view, specifically? Support your claim
Why then does she tell Clark about the Huguenots with evidence from the story.
LI T E R A RY A N A LYS I S
Vocabulary Practice
Comparison Aunt Georgiana’s aged figure is com-
Practice with Analogies Choose the word that
pared to Clark’s memory of her.
best completes the analogy.
Evaluation Clark’s comment on his aunt’s figure
1. grandparent : legacy :: groom :
allows the reader to see that she has changed much
a. house c. bride
since he last saw her and that she looks different from
b. ring d. husband
the women in Boston. The comparison alludes to the
2. quickly : fast :: doggedly : amount of time they have spent apart and to the
a. stubborn c. obediently differences between frontier and city life.
b. proud d. docile
Write an essay evaluating how the use of comparisons
3. reproach : disapproval :: compliment :
in “A Wagner Matinée” contributes to the meaning of
a. criticism c. affection
the story. As you draft, follow the plan below to help
b. approval d. attention
organize your essay.
4. sweat : trepidation :: wink :
a. anxiety c. mischief
Introduction Present your evaluation.
b. blink d. eye
➧➧➧➧
Third Comparison
526 UNIT 4 R EG I O N A L I S M A N D RE AL IS M
B EF O R E YO U R E A D
I Will Fight
No More Forever
M E E T C H I E F J OSE PH
C
hief Joseph—whose given name was
Hinmaton Yalaktit (hin mə tō ya lakh´
tet) or “Thunder Rolling Down the
Mountain”—was born in the Wallowa Valley in
what is now northeastern Oregon. When his
father died in 1871, Joseph was elected to succeed
him as a chief of the Nez Percé (nez purs), the
largest and most powerful of the Sahaptin-speaking
tribes that lived in present-day central Idaho and
contiguous areas in Oregon and Washington.
Other Sahaptin-speaking tribes include the
Cayuse, Tenino, Wallawalla, and Yakima.
The Nez Percé were more warlike than neighbor-
ing tribes, especially after acquiring the horse from their families—on a long, grueling march toward
the Plains Indians in the early eighteenth century. the Canadian border. They trekked through
However, they had maintained peace with the Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana for
whites for decades, ever since the Lewis and Clark nearly three months, covering 1,000 miles as the
expedition in 1805, which was their first signifi- warriors successfully fought off U.S. troops. Within
cant contact with whites. Nevertheless, Joseph forty miles of their destination, in the Bear Paw
inherited a volatile situation. In 1863, following a mountains of Montana, the Nez Percé were sur-
gold rush into Nez Percé territory, the U.S. gov- rounded and forced to surrender. The chase and
ernment had reclaimed three quarters of the land intermittent skirmishes had claimed the lives of 239
it had ceded to the tribe in an 1855 treaty. Chief Nez Percé, many of them women and children, as
Joseph successfully resisted efforts to remove his well as the lives of 266 U.S. Army personnel.
band from the Wallowa Valley until 1877, when
the government threatened removal by force. Lasting Legacy Although Chief Joseph had
thought his people would be able to return home,
they were removed to Indian Territory, or present-
day Oklahoma, where many fell ill and died. In
“Hear me, my chiefs. I am tired; my 1885 some of the survivors were returned to the
heart is sick and sad.” Pacific Northwest, but about half, including Chief
Joseph, were taken to Colville reservation, a non-
—Chief Joseph Nez Percé reservation in Washington State. There
Chief Joseph died, according to his doctor, “of a
broken heart.” At a ceremony honoring him, a
Cooperator and Leader To avoid bloodshed, Nez Percé chief named Yellow Bull said, “Joseph is
Chief Joseph decided to cooperate, but as he led his dead, but his words will live forever.”
band toward a reservation in Idaho, he learned that
Chief Joseph was born around 1840 and died in 1904.
three of his braves, enraged at the government’s
action, had killed a group of white settlers and pros-
pectors. To escape retaliation by the U.S. Army, Chief Author Search For more about
Joseph led his people—some 200 to 300 warriors and Chief Joseph,
this author, gogo
toto www.glencoe.com.
www.literature.glencoe.com.
OB J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • analyzing tone
• relating a literary work to a historical period • evaluating style
1. General (Oliver Otis) Howard (1830–1909) had been a Union general in the Civil
Chief Joseph War. He sent troops to fight the Nez Percé in the Battle of White Bird Canyon.
2. Looking Glass was a respected leader of the Nez Percé. He took part in the 1877
S11-100-01C-635423 Mistral Mark U4T6 retreat.
3. Too Hul Hul Suit, or Tu Ku Lxu C’uut (t kl´ hu st), leader of the White Bird
tribe, was a member of the negotiating team that met with General Howard. He
favored fighting for the Nez Percé land rather than moving to a reservation.
4. [He who led . . . dead.] refers to Chief Joseph’s younger brother, Ollikut
(ōl okh ut).
Reading Strategy Evaluating Style What do the form and content of these two
sentences emphasize? How do you think they affect the listener or reader?
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond 5. (a)What words or phrases does Chief Joseph
repeat? (b)What effect does this repetition create?
1. If you could speak to Chief Joseph, what would
you say? 6. In this short speech, Chief Joseph explains a deci-
sion that will have an enormous impact on the
Recall and Interpret lives of his people. Would a longer, more detailed
2. (a)What has happened to the chiefs and the old men speech have been more effective? Explain.
of the tribe? (b)How might these developments have
affected Chief Joseph’s decision to surrender? Connect
3. (a)What words does Chief Joseph use to describe 7. Big Idea Regionalism According to one critic,
his heart? (b)How do the feelings he describes help “‘I Will Fight No More Forever’ . . . is a classic state-
you better understand the decision he has made? ment of Native American pride and resolve in the
midst of terrible suffering.” (a)How does Chief
Analyze and Evaluate Joseph display pride and resolve in this speech?
4. (a)What does Chief Joseph say about his (b)Which values of the Nez Percé does this speech
children? (b)Why does he want to look for them? reveal?
L I T E R A RY A N A LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
530 UNIT 4 R EG I O N A L I S M A N D RE AL IS M
P
PART 2
Realism
and Naturalism
531
The Newark Museum/Art Resource, NY
LITER ARY H I STORY
I
N THE LATE NINETEENTH AND EARLY
twentieth centuries, despite the emergence of a
growing middle class, rapid industrialization
created two sharply contrasting urban classes: wealthy
entrepreneurs and poor immigrants from Europe and
Asia who provided them with cheap labor. Although
dependent upon each other, these two groups seldom
met, as they lived in starkly different neighborhoods.
The wealthiest families established fashionable
districts in the hearts of cities, where they built
fabulous mansions.
By contrast, the majority of factory workers squeezed
into dark, overcrowded tenements where crime, violence,
fire, and disease were constant threats. U.S. writers
of the time responded to and reflected these urban
conditions in their novels, stories, essays, and articles.
532 UNIT 4 R EG I O N A L I S M A N D RE AL IS M
Photo Collection Alexander Alland, Sr./CORBIS
the slums of New York City. Although Crane later began to critically examine the social, economic,
turned to other subjects, he retained his sympathy and political system that created the huge gulf
for urban characters such as Maggie. between the rich and the poor. In his book How the
Other Half Lives (1890), Jacob Riis attracted the
Some writers focused their attention on the hardships of
attention of President Roosevelt to the squalor of
immigrants and ethnic groups who faced bigotry and
life in New York City slum tenements. The result
discrimination as well as poverty in U.S. cities. Anzia
was an improved water supply, child labor laws, and
Yezierska and Abraham Cahan wrote about the social,
other improvements. The Jungle (1906), Upton
cultural, and political tensions experienced by Eastern
Sinclair’s exposé of the brutal and degrading
European Jews living in New York’s Lower East Side.
working conditions in the meatpacking industry,
Perhaps the most famous writer to address the led to the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food
socioeconomic plight of the urban poor was and Drug Act of 1906.
Theodore Dreiser. Despite a mediocre education, his
writing propelled him to the pinnacle of American
Naturalism. In his first and perhaps greatest novel,
Sister Carrie (1900), Dreiser tells the story of Carrie
Meeber, a naïve country girl who comes to Chicago
looking for work. While there, she endures the
impersonal cruelty and loneliness of life in a large
U.S. city at the turn of the century.
R ES P O N D I N G AN D TH I N K I N G C R ITI CALLY
1. In Dreiser’s Sister Carrie, the protagonist believes that 2. What were Edith Wharton’s and Henry James’s main
the city will provide her with new opportunities and a criticisms of the wealthy upper class in the United States?
new life. Would you have wanted to live in a large city
3. What was the chief aim of the muckrakers? Do you
at the turn of the twentieth century? Why or why not?
think that they were successful? Explain.
O B J EC TIVES
• Analyze literary periods. • Connect to cultural events. • Understand Realism and Naturalism.
April Showers
M E E T E DI T H W H A R TON years later, The House of Mirth, which was both
popular and praised by critics, appeared.
E
dith Wharton is best known for her novels In 1907, after selling her home and separating from
depicting the intricate codes of conduct that her husband, Wharton permanently settled in Paris,
ruled the lives of New York City’s aristocracy where she felt female artists were more accepted.
at the end of the 1800s. Wharton felt that upper- As World War I raged in Europe, Wharton worked
class society discouraged both art and the artist. in support of the French cause—aiding Belgian refu-
gees and raising money from Americans. For this
she was given the Cross of the Legion of Honor, the
“Mrs. Ballinger is one of the ladies who highest honor awarded to a foreigner in France.
pursue Culture in Bands, as though it This was perhaps the most productive time in
Wharton’s life, during which she published some of
were dangerous to meet it alone.” her greatest novels, including Ethan Frome, The Reef,
—Edith Wharton The Custom of the Country, and Summer. The Age of
Innocence, probably Wharton’s best-known work,
Xingu and Other Stories, 1916
appeared in 1920. For this she became the first
woman to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
A Privileged Youth Edith Newbold Jones was born Edith Wharton’s greatness came from her ability to
into one of New York City’s wealthiest and most dis- depict the interplay between the life of the mind and
tinguished families. Taught by private tutors, she of society. Alternately tragic and satiric, Wharton’s
received an excellent education both in the United incisive fiction helped to establish Realism as the
States and abroad. When she was sixteen, Edith pri- most important movement of her day.
vately published her first book. Her mother may have
Edith Wharton was born in 1862 and died in 1937.
arranged the publication, hoping that Edith would
feel fulfilled, stop writing, and take up interests con-
sidered more suited to her social position.
In 1885 Edith married Edward Wharton, a wealthy
Boston banker. Shortly after, he began to suffer from
both mental and physical illnesses. It was during
this time that Wharton began seriously writing fic-
tion with the intention of publishing. She modeled
her work mostly after novelist Henry James—com-
bining complicated psychological portraits with cri-
tiques of social convention. Throughout the 1890s,
she contributed to various magazines and produced
two collections of short stories.
534 UNIT 4 R EG I O N A L I S M A N D RE AL IS M
Bettmann/CORBIS
L I T E R AT U R E P R E V I E W R E A D I N G P R EVI E W
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • making predictions
• analyzing literary periods • analyzing flashbacks
1. A reefer is a short, heavy jacket. Literary Element Flashback What does this sentence
2. Cod-liver oil is an unpleasant-tasting liquid rich in vitamins A
indicate about the paragraphs following it?
and D.
Big Idea Realism What can you infer about Theodora’s Vocabulary
view of herself from this comment? prosperous (pros pər əs) adj. wealthy or successful
536 UNIT 4 R EG I O N A L I S M A N D RE AL IS M
Private Collection, © Connaught Brown, London/Bridgeman Art Library
Kathleen Kyd! The famous “society novelist,” she remembered, with a touch of retrospective
the creator of more “favorite heroines” than all compassion, that George Eliot3 had not become
her predecessors put together had ever turned out, famous till she was nearly forty.
the author of Fashion and Passion, An American No, there was no doubt about the merit of
Duchess, Rhona’s Revolt. Was there any intelligent “April Showers.” But would not an inferior work
girl from Maine to California whose heart would have had a better chance of success? Theodora
not have beat faster at the mention of that name? recalled the early struggles of famous authors, the
“Why, yes,” Uncle James was saying, notorious antagonism4 of publishers and editors
“Kathleen Kyd lives next door. Frances G. to any new writer of exceptional promise. Would
Wollop is her real name, and her husband’s a it not be wiser to write the book down to the
dentist. She’s a very pleasant, sociable kind of average reader’s level, reserving for some later
woman; you’d never think she was a writer. Ever work the great “effects” into which she had
hear how she began to write? She told me the thrown all the fever of her imagination? The
whole story. It seems she was a saleswoman in a thought was sacrilege! Never would she lay
store, working on starvation wages, with a hands on the sacred structure she had reared;
mother and a consumptive sister to support. never would she resort to the inartistic expedient
Well, she wrote a story one day, just for fun, and of modifying her work to suit the popular taste.
sent it to the Home Circle. They’d never heard of Better obscure failure than a vulgar triumph.
her, of course, and she never expected to hear The great authors never stooped to such conces-
from them. She did, though. They took the story sions, and Theodora felt herself included in their
and passed their plate for more. She became a ranks by the firmness with which she rejected all
regular contributor and eventually was known all thought of conciliating5 an unappreciative pub-
over the country. Now she tells me her books lic. The manuscript should be sent as it was.
bring her in about ten thousand a year. Rather She woke with a start and a heavy sense of
more than you and I can boast of, eh, John? apprehension. The Home Circle had refused “April
Well, I hope this household doesn’t contribute to Showers”! No, that couldn’t be it; there lay the pre-
her support.” He glanced sharply at Theodora. “I cious manuscript, waiting to be posted. What was
don’t believe in feeding youngsters on sentimen- it, then? Ah, that ominous thump below stairs—
tal trash; it’s like sewer gas—doesn’t smell bad, nine o’clock striking! It was Johnny’s buttons!
and infects the system without your knowing it.” She sprang out of bed in dismay. She had been
Theodora listened breathlessly. Kathleen Kyd’s so determined not to disappoint her mother
first story had been accepted by the Home Circle, about Johnny’s buttons! Mrs. Dace, helpless from
and they had asked for more! Why should chronic rheumatism,6 had to entrust the care of
Gladys Glyn be less fortunate? Theodora had the household to her eldest daughter; and
done a great deal of novel reading—far more Theodora honestly meant to see that Johnny had
than her parents were aware of—and felt herself his full complement of buttons, and that Kate
competent to pronounce upon the quality of her and Bertha went to school tidy. Unfortunately,
own work. She was almost sure that “April the writing of a great novel leaves little time or
Showers” was a remarkable book. If it lacked memory for the lesser obligations of life, and
Kathleen Kyd’s lightness of touch, it had an Theodora usually found that her good intentions
emotional intensity never achieved by that bril- matured too late for practical results.
liant writer. Theodora did not care to amuse her
readers; she left that to more frivolous talents.
3. George Eliot (1819–1880) was the pen name of famed
Her aim was to stir the depths of human nature, British novelist Mary Ann Cross.
and she felt she had succeeded. It was a great 4. Antagonism means “hostility.”
thing for a girl to be able to feel that about her 5. Conciliating means “appeasing.”
first novel. Theodora was only seventeen; and 6. Rheumatism is an illness that causes discomfort in the joints
or muscles.
Vocabulary
Reading Strategy Making and Verifying Predictions obscure (əb skyoor) adj. little known or having an
What is your prediction of Gladys Glyn’s success? insignificant reputation
ED IT H WHARTON 537
Her contrition7 was softened by the thought that “No matter, dear. I suppose Johnny’s buttons
literary success would enable her to make up for all kept you. I can’t think what that boy does to his
the little negligences of which she was guilty. She clothes!”
meant to spend all her money on her family; and Theodora sat the tray down without speaking.
already she had visions of a wheeled chair for her It was impossible to own to having forgotten
mother, a fresh wallpaper for the doctor’s shabby Johnny’s buttons without revealing the cause of
office, bicycles for the girls, and Johnny’s establish- her forgetfulness. For a few weeks longer she
ment at a boarding school where sewing on his but- must bear to be misunderstood; then—ah, then
tons would be included in the curriculum. If her if her novel were accepted, how gladly would she
parents could have guessed her forget and forgive! But what if
intentions, they would not have it were refused? She turned
found fault with her as they did; aside to hide the dismay that
and Doctor Dace, on this partic- flushed her face. Well, then she
ular morning, would not have would admit the truth—she
looked up to say, with his “I suppose you would ask her parents’ pardon,
fagged,8 ironical air: and settle down without a mur-
“I suppose you didn’t get
didn’t get home mur to an obscure existence of
home from the ball till morn- from the ball till mending and combing.
ing?”
Theodora’s sense of being in
morning?” She had said to herself that
after the manuscript had been
the right enabled her to take sent, she would have time to
the thrust with a dignity that look after the children and
would have awed the unfeeling catch up with the mending;
parent to fiction. but she had reckoned without
“I’m sorry to be late, father,” she said. the postman. He came three times a day; for an
Doctor Dace, who could never be counted on hour before each ring she was too excited to do
to behave like a father in a book, shrugged his anything but wonder if he would bring an
shoulders impatiently. answer this time, and for an hour afterward she
“Your sentiments do you credit, but they moved about in a leaden stupor of disappoint-
haven’t kept your mother’s breakfast warm.” ment. The children had never been so trying.
“Hasn’t mother’s tray gone up yet?” They seemed to be always coming to pieces,
“Who was to take it, I should like to know? like cheap furniture; one would have supposed
The girls came down so late that I had to hustle they had been put together with bad glue. Mrs.
them off before they’d finished breakfast, and Dace worried herself ill over Johnny’s tatters,
Johnny’s hands were so dirty that I sent him back Bertha’s bad marks at school, and Kate’s open
to his room to make himself decent. It’s a pretty abstention9 from cod-liver oil; and Doctor
thing for the doctor’s children to be the dirtiest Dace, coming back late from a long round of
little savages in Norton!” visits to a fireless office with a smoky lamp,
Theodora had hastily prepared her mother’s called out furiously to know if Theodora would
tray, leaving her own breakfast untouched. As kindly come down and remove the “East, West,
she entered the room upstairs, Mrs. Dace’s home’s best” that hung above the empty grate.
patient face turned to her with a smile much In the midst of it all, Miss Sophy Brill called.
harder to bear than her father’s reproaches. It was very kind of her to come, for she was the
“Mother, I’m so sorry—” busiest woman in Norton. She made it her duty
to look after other people’s affairs, and there was
not a house in town but had the benefit of her
7. Contrition means “remorse.”
8. Fagged means “tired” or “weary.”
9. Abstention means “the act of refraining from something.”
Big Idea Realism How might a person’s behavior in real-
Vocabulary
ity differ from his or her behavior in a book? Are the charac-
ters in this story portrayed realistically? stupor (st¯¯¯
oo pər) n. a confused or dazed state of mind
538 UNIT 4 R EG I O N A L I S M A N D RE AL IS M
personal supervision. She generally came when spring—spring! Everything was crowding toward
things were going wrong, and the sight of her the light and in her own heart hundreds of germi-
bonnet on the doorstep was a surer sign of nating hopes had burst into sudden leaf. She won-
calamity than a crepe bow10 on the bell. After dered if the thrust of those little green fingers hurt
she left, Mrs. Dace looked very sad, and the doc- the surface of the earth as her springing raptures
tor punished Johnny for warbling down the hurt—yes, actually hurt!—her hot, constricted
entry: breast! She looked up through interlacing boughs
“Miss Sophy Brill at a tender, opaque blue sky full of the coming of
Is a bitter pill!” a milky moon. She seemed enveloped in an atmo-
while Theodora, locking herself in her room, sphere of loving comprehension. The brown earth
resolved with tears that she would never write throbbed with her joy, the treetops trembled with
another novel. it, and a sudden star broke through the branches
The week was a long nightmare. Theodora could like an audible “I know!”
neither eat nor sleep. She was up early enough, but Theodora, on the whole, behaved very well.
instead of looking after the children and seeing that Her mother cried, her father whistled and said he
breakfast was ready, she wandered down the road to supposed he must put up with grounds in his cof-
meet the postman, and came back wan and empty- fee now, and be thankful if he ever got a hot meal
handed, oblivious of her morning duties. She had again; while the children took the most deafening
no idea how long the suspense would last; but she and harassing advantage of what seemed a sudden
didn’t see how authors could live if they were kept suspension of the laws of nature.
waiting more than a week. Within a week everybody in Norton knew that
Then suddenly, one afternoon—she never Theodora had written a novel, and that it was
quite knew how or when it happened—she coming out in the Home Circle. On Sundays,
found herself with a Home Circle envelope in her when she walked up the aisle, her friends dropped
hands, and her dazzled eyes flashing over a wild their prayer books and the soprano sang false in
dance of words that wouldn’t settle down and her excitement. Girls with more pin money than
make sense. Theodora had ever dreamed of copied her hats
“Dear Madam:” (They called her Madam! And and imitated her way of speaking. The local paper
then; yes, the words were beginning to fall into asked her for a poem; her old school teachers
line now.) “Your novel, ‘April Showers,’ has been stopped to shake hands and grew shy over their
received, and we are glad to accept it on the usual congratulations; and Miss Sophy Brill came to
terms. A serial on which we were counting for call. She had put on her Sunday bonnet and her
immediate publication has been delayed by the manner was almost abject.11 She ventured, very
author’s illness, and the first chapters of ‘April timidly, to ask her young friend how she wrote,
Showers’ will therefore appear in our midsummer whether it “just came to her,” and if she had found
number. Thanking you for favoring us with your that the kind of pen she used made any difference;
manuscript, we remain,” and so forth. and wound up by begging Theodora to write a
Theodora found herself in the wood beyond sentiment in her album.
the schoolhouse. She was kneeling on the ground, Even Uncle James came down from Boston to
brushing aside the dead leaves and pressing her talk the wonder over. He called Theodora a “sly
lips to the little bursting green things that pushed baggage,” and proposed that she should give him
up eager tips through last year’s decay. It was her earnings to invest in a new patent greasetrap
company. From what Kathleen Kyd had told
him, he thought Theodora would probably get a
10. A crepe bow is a piece of black fabric displayed as a sign of
mourning.
thousand dollars for her story. He concluded by
ED IT H WHARTON 539
Trains at Paddington Station, London. 1910 .
suggesting that she should base her next romance when she reached home; but that didn’t mat-
on the subject of sanitation, making the heroine ter—nothing mattered now. She sank into her
nearly die of sewer gas poisoning because her seat, closing her eyes in the vain attempt to shut
parents won’t listen to the handsome young doc- out the vision of the last few hours; but minute
tor next door, when he warns them that their by minute memory forced her to relive it; she felt
plumbing is out of order. That was a subject that like a rebellious schoolchild dragged forth to
would interest everybody, and do a lot more good repeat the same detested “piece.”
than the sentimental trash most women wrote. Although she did not know Boston well, she
At last the great day came. Theodora had left an had made her way easily enough to the Home
order with the bookseller for the midsummer num- Circle building; at least, she supposed she had,
ber of the Home Circle and before the shop was open since she remembered nothing till she found her-
she was waiting on the sidewalk. She clutched her self ascending the editorial stairs as easily as one
precious paper and ran home without opening it. does incredible things in dreams. She must have
Her excitement was almost more than she could walked very fast, for her heart was beating furi-
bear. Not heeding her father’s call to breakfast, she ously, and she had barely breath to whisper the
rushed upstairs and locked herself in her room. Her editor’s name to a young man who looked out at
hands trembled so that she could hardly turn the her from a glass case, like a zoological specimen.
pages. At last—yes, there it was: “April Showers.” The young man led her past other glass cases
The paper dropped from her hands. What containing similar specimens to an inner enclo-
name had she read beneath the title? Had her sure which seemed filled by an enormous pres-
ence. Theodora felt herself enveloped in the
emotion blinded her?
presence, submerged by it, gasping for air as she
“April Showers, by Kathleen Kyd.”
sank under its rising surges.
Kathleen Kyd! Oh, cruel misprint! Oh, das-
Gradually fragments of speech floated to the
tardly typographer! Through tears of rage and dis-
surface. “‘April Showers?’ Mrs. Kyd’s new serial?
appointment Theodora looked again; yes, there
Your manuscript, you say? You have a letter from
was no mistaking the hateful name. Her glance me? The name, please? Evidently some unfortu-
ran on. She found herself reading a first paragraph nate misunderstanding. One moment.” And then
that she had never seen before. She read farther. a bell ringing, a zoological specimen ordered to
All was strange. The horrible truth burst upon unlock a safe, her name asked for again, the
her: It was not her story! manuscript, her own precious manuscript, tied
She never knew how she got back to the station. with Aunt Julia’s ribbon, laid on the table before
She struggled through the crowd on the plat- her, and her outcries, her protests, her interroga-
form, and a gold-banded arm pushed her into the tions, drowned in a flood of bland apology: “An
train just starting for Norton. It would be dark unfortunate accident—Mrs. Kyd’s manuscript
received the same day—extraordinary coinci-
Reading Strategy Making and Verifying Predictions dence in the choice of a title—duplicate answers
How does this turn of events compare with your predictions sent by mistake—Miss Dace’s novel hardly suited
about Theodora’s success? to their purpose—should of course have been
ED IT H WHARTON 541
A F T E R YO U R E A D
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. (a)How do you feel about Theodora? (b)Do you 5. (a)What tone does the narrator take toward
think she is a sympathetic character? Explain. Theodora, her novel, and her goals? (b)Do you think
the tone is appropriate? Why or why not?
Recall and Interpret
6. (a)How does Theodora feel about neglecting her
2. (a)At the start of “April Showers,” how does Theodora
responsibilities at home? (b)Is she right to feel this
feel about her novel? (b)How do you think the narra-
way? Explain.
tor feels about it? Explain.
7. (a)Irony occurs when what happens is the opposite of
3. (a)Describe Theodora’s reaction to both the letter
what is expected. What is ironic about the fact that
she receives from Home Circle and to the midsum- Theodora’s father meets her at the train station? (b)How
mer issue of the magazine. (b)In what ways are does your perception of his character change at the
these reactions similar? What does this tell you about end of the story?
Theodora’s character?
4. (a)When Theodora goes to Boston, what explanation Connect
does the editor at Home Circle give her for the con- 8. Would you advise Theodora to continue writing? Why
fusion over the novel? (b)What does this suggest to or why not?
you about the quality of Theodora’s novel?
9. Big Idea Realism In what ways does this story
demonstrate the techniques of Realism?
LI T E R A RY A N A LYS I S
Evidence Evidence
ED IT H WHARTON 543
Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz/Art Resource, NY
Vocabulary Workshop
Language Resources
Exercise
OB J EC TIVES 1. Using a thesaurus, find two synonyms for each word below. Then look
• Use research tools such as
up the definitions of those synonyms in a dictionary to identify the pre-
a thesaurus.
• Analyze why an author cise meaning for each one.
uses particular language. a. pathetic c. muffled e. prosperous
b. linger d. precious
2. Using the above list of words and the synonyms you have found, use
each word in a sentence. Be sure that your sentences reflect the slight
differences in meaning between each group of synonyms.
54 4 U N IT 4
Comparing Literature Across Time and Place
Kate Chopin
The Story of an Hour ............................................ short story .................. 548
One hour brings drastic changes
United States, 1894
Anton Chekhov
The Darling ................................................................. short story .................. 552
The engulfing power of love
Russia, 1899
Gabriela Mistral
Richness .................................................................................. poem .................. 560
Finding value in loss
Chile, 1922
K
years, Chopin published
ate Chopin (shō pan) was the first female
more than 100 short sto-
writer in the United States to portray
ries, two story collections,
frankly the passions and discontents of
and two novels. She earned
women confined to traditional roles as wives and
praise for early stories that captured
mothers. For this she was roundly condemned in
the local color of Louisiana. In later stories, Chopin
her time. Critics focused their wrath on the publi-
explored women’s issues considered controversial in
cation of her novel The Awakening, the story of a
her time. She modeled these stories on the work of
woman who abandons her husband and children to
Guy de Maupassant, the French master of the Realist
search for her true identity. Reviewers characterized
short story. Not surprisingly, she had difficulty finding
the novel as shocking, morbid, coarse, and vulgar.
magazines willing to publish her most daring pieces,
including “The Story of an Hour.”
Strong, Independent Women Chopin was born
Katherine O’Flaherty in St. Louis, Missouri. She grew Though acutely aware of the criticisms many of
up in the late Victorian period, a time when the ideal her stories received, Chopin was not prepared for
woman gave up her independence and devoted her- the reaction to The Awakening in 1899. The deluge
self to the will of her husband and to the welfare of of negative reviews destroyed her spirit. Chopin
her children. When Chopin was five, her father died continued to write, but by 1903 her health was
in a railroad accident—an event that is echoed in failing. After spending an entire day at the 1904
“The Story of an Hour.” She left school, and for the St. Louis World’s Fair, Chopin came home com-
next two years she studied at home with her mother, plaining of a severe pain in her head. Two days
grandmother, and great-grandmother. Growing up in later she died of a cerebral hemorrhage.
a household of strong, independent women did much
to shape Chopin as a person and a writer. Lonely Pioneer For more than fifty years after her
death, Chopin’s works were ignored. Then, in 1969,
at a time when the women’s movement in the
United States was gaining momentum, Per Seyersted
“The artist must possess the published a biography of Chopin and her complete
courageous soul that dares and defies.” works. His efforts galvanized modern readers hungry
to learn more about the woman who, according to
—Kate Chopin, The Awakening Chopin scholar Emily Toth, had written “the most
radical novel of the 1890s.” Today The Awakening is
one of the most read novels in colleges and universi-
At age twenty, Kate married Oscar Chopin and
ties across the United States. Kate Chopin is cele-
moved with him to New Orleans. Business prob-
brated as the lonely pioneer who dared to write
lems, however, soon forced them to move to Oscar’s
realistic portraits of women trapped and stifled by
rural hometown of Cloutierville, Louisiana, an area
the social conventions of their time.
that would later inspire many of Chopin’s stories.
When her husband died in 1882, Chopin was left Kate Chopin was born in 1850 and died in 1904.
with children to raise and support. She soon moved
back to St. Louis to be near her family. When her
mother died a year later, Chopin was overwhelmed
with grief. At her doctor’s advice, she turned to Author Search For more about
writing and published her first work in 1889. Kate Chopin, go to www.glencoe.com.
Big Idea Realism exalted (i zol təd) adj. elevated; p. 549 The
film star enjoyed the exalted status that fame
As you read, look for details that reveal Chopin’s realis-
afforded him.
tic description of Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts and emotions
when she learns of her husband’s death. perception (pər sep shən) n. an awareness; an
insight; p. 549 The music student acted modestly
Literary Element Conflict when she accepted the award in order to avoid the
perception that she had worked hard for it.
Conflict is the central struggle between two opposing
forces in a story or a drama. An external conflict exists persistence (pər sis təns) n. stubborn or deter-
when a character struggles against some outside force, mined continuance; p. 550 The reporter pursued
such as another person, nature, society, or fate. An the politician with a persistence that frustrated the
internal conflict is a struggle that takes place within campaign workers who tried to block his way.
the mind of a character who is torn between opposing
feelings, desires, or goals. As you read this story, deter- Vocabulary Tip: Antonyms Words that have
mine the types of conflict that are presented. opposite or nearly opposite meanings are called
antonyms. The words uplifting and degrading, for
• See Literary Terms Handbook, p. R4. example, are antonyms. Note that antonyms are
always the same part of speech.
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • applying background knowledge
• analyzing the characteristics of Realism • analyzing conflict
K AT E CHOPIN 549
She knew that she would weep again when “Go away. I am not making myself ill.” No;
she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; she was drinking in a very elixir of life6 through
the face that had never looked save5 with love that open window.
upon her, fixed and gray and dead. But she saw Her fancy was running riot along those days
beyond that bitter moment a long procession of ahead of her. Spring days, and summer days, and
years to come that would belong to her abso- all sorts of days that would be her own. She
lutely. And she opened and spread her arms out breathed a quick prayer that life might be long.
to them in welcome. It was only yesterday she had thought with a
There would be no one to live for her during shudder that life might be long.
those coming years; she would live for herself. She arose at length and opened the door
There would be no powerful will bending hers to her sister’s importunities.7 There was a
in that blind persistence with feverish triumph in her
which men and women eyes, and she carried herself
believe they have a right to unwittingly like a goddess of
impose a private will upon a
fellow-creature. A kind inten- “Free! Body Victory. She clasped her sis-
ter’s waist, and together
tion or a cruel intention made they descended the stairs.
the act seem no less a crime and soul free!” Richards stood waiting for
as she looked upon it in that them at the bottom.
brief moment of illumination. she kept Some one was opening
And yet she had loved the front door with a latch-
him—sometimes. Often she whispering. key. It was Brently Mallard
had not. What did it matter! who entered, a little travel-
What could love, the unsolved stained, composedly carrying
mystery, count for in face of his grip-sack8 and umbrella.
this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly He had been far from the scene of accident,
recognized as the strongest impulse of her being! and did not even know there had been one. He
“Free! Body and soul free!” she kept whispering. stood amazed at Josephine’s piercing cry; at
Josephine was kneeling before the closed door Richards’ quick motion to screen him from the
with her lips to the keyhole, imploring for admis- view of his wife.
sion. “Louise, open the door! I beg; open the But Richards was too late.
door—you will make yourself ill. What are you When the doctors came they said she had died
doing, Louise? For heaven’s sake open the door.” of heart disease—of joy that kills.
550 UNIT 4 R EG I O N A L I S M A N D RE AL IS M
A F TE R YO U R E A D
RESP ON DI NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. At what points in the story did you feel sorry for 5. What is your opinion of Mrs. Mallard? Support your
Mrs. Mallard? Explain. How did the end of the story evaluation with details from the story.
affect you?
6. How does Mrs. Mallard’s admission that often she
Recall and Interpret had not loved her husband affect your evaluation
of her character?
2. (a)How does Mrs. Mallard first react to the news
about her husband? (b)What does her reaction 7. How would this story be different if it were set in
indicate about her feelings toward him? the present rather than at the end of the nine-
teenth century? Explain.
3. (a)How do Mrs. Mallard’s feelings change while
she is in her room? (b)Why might she fear this Connect
change at first but later welcome it?
8. Big Idea Realism How does the central conflict
4. (a)What words does the narrator use to describe of this story illustrate the idea that Chopin wrote
Mrs. Mallard as she leaves her room? (b)How realistic portraits of women’s lives? Support your
might the others interpret her appearance? answer with details from the story.
Vocabulary Practice
Writing About Literature
Practice with Antonyms Find the antonym for
Evaluate Author’s Craft The original title of “The each boldfaced word.
Story of an Hour” was “The Dream of an Hour.”
1. elusive
How are the titles similar? Different? Why might
a. knowable b. vague
Chopin have chosen to change the title? Which title
2. tumultuously
do you think is more appropriate? Why? Write a
a. simply b. peacefully
paragraph or two in which you answer these ques-
3. exalted
tions.
a. lowered b. enchanted
4. perception
Web Activities For eFlashcards,
a. incomprehension b. awareness
Selection Quick Checks, and other Web activities, go to 5. persistence
www.glencoe.com. a. insistence b. reluctance
B EF O R E YO U R E A D
Building Background
Anton Chekhov studied both medicine and literature. receiving a medical scholarship and supported his
He eventually focused on his literary pursuits, becoming family by writing comic articles for newspapers and
a master of the short story as well as Russia’s most magazines. In medicine, his role models were doctors
revered playwright. His realistic stories, which focus on who worked for rural governments. He saw their work
atmosphere and character rather than plot and action, as altruistic. Later, Chekhov served as a doctor himself,
became an essential influence on modern literature. providing medical support during a cholera epidemic
Chekhov’s substantial place in literature comes in part in 1892. He died of tuberculosis.
from his ability to reveal how ordinary events can have
Anton Chekhov was born in 1860 and died in 1904.
a huge impact on people’s lives.
Born in southern Russia, Chekhov grew up apart from Author Search For more about
his parents. He rejoined them in Moscow after Anton Chekhov, go to www.glencoe.com.
Olenka,1 the daughter of retired collegiate assessor alone, and it was bliss to think it would soon be
Plemyannikov, sat on the porch in her yard, lost in evening. Dark rain-clouds were moving up from the
thought. It was hot, the flies wouldn’t leave her east, preceded by occasional wafts of humid air.
In the middle of the yard Snookin, manager-
proprietor of the Tivoli Pleasure Gardens, who
1. Olenka is a nickname for Olga. In Russia, people are often lodged across the yard in Olenka’s fliegel,2 stood
informally referred to by their given name and then a gazing at the sky.
patronymic, which is a variation of their father’s given name.
If the father’s name were Ivan, the son’s patronymic name
would be Ivanovich, and the daughter’s would be Ivanovna. 2. A fliegel is a small house on the property of a larger house
Semyonovna is Olga’s patronymic. that might be rented out.
552 UNIT 4 R EG I O N A L I S M A N D RE AL IS M
Scala/Art Resource, NY
“Not again!” he was saying in despair. “Not breathing with difficulty; then she had loved her
rain again! Day after day, day after day, rain, rain, aunt, who came to visit them every other year from
rain! Just my luck! What I have to put up with! Bryansk;5 and earlier still she had loved the French
I’m ruined! I’m losing huge sums every day!” master at her school. She was a quiet, good-
Throwing up his hands, he turned to Olenka natured, tender-hearted girl, with soft gentle eyes,
and said: and in the best of health. Looking at her plump
“You see what our life’s like, Olga Semyonovna. rosy cheeks and soft white neck with its dark birth-
Enough to make you weep! You work hard and do mark, at the innocent, kindly smile on her face
your best, you worry and have sleepless nights, whenever she was listening to something pleasant,
you’re always thinking of improvements—and men said to themselves, “yes, not a bad one, that,”
what’s the result? Take audiences for a start. and smiled, too, while her female visitors could not
They’re nothing but ignorant savages. I give them refrain from seizing her by the hand in the middle
the best operetta and pantomime, top-quality of a conversation and exclaiming with delight:
burlesque,3 but is that what they want? Do they “You’re such a darling!”
appreciate it? No, they want some vulgar little The house she had lived in all her life and was
peepshow. Then take the weather. Rain almost due to inherit stood on the edge of town in Gypsy
every evening. May 10th it started, and it’s been Lane, not far from the Tivoli, so that in the eve-
at it right through May and June. Appalling! The nings and at night, hearing the band playing and
public stays away, but who has to pay the rent, I the rockets going off with a bang, she imagined this
ask you? Who has to pay the performers?” was Snookin challenging his fate and taking his
Clouds began gathering at the same time chief enemy, the indifferent public, by storm; her
next day. heart would melt, she didn’t feel a bit sleepy, and
“Oh yes, let it all come!” Snookin said, laugh- when he returned home in the early hours, she
ing hysterically. “Let it flood the whole Gardens would knock softly on her bedroom window and,
and take me with it! I don’t deserve any happiness letting him see through the curtains only her face
in this world or the next! Let the performers take and one shoulder, smile affectionately. . . .
me to court! Why stop at that? Make it penal ser- He proposed and they were married. Now that
vitude in Siberia! The scaffold!4 Ha-ha-ha!” he could see her neck and both her plump healthy
It was the same next day. . . . shoulders properly, he threw up his hands and said:
Olenka said nothing but listened to Snookin “You darling, you!”
gravely, and sometimes tears came to her eyes. In He was happy, but since it rained on the wed-
the end his misfortunes moved her and she fell in ding day and on the wedding night, the look of
love with him. He was short and skinny, with a sal- despair never left his face.
low complexion and hair combed back off the tem- Life went well after the marriage. She sat in his
ples, he spoke in a high-pitched tenor, twisting his box office, supervised the Gardens, wrote down
mouth as he did so, and his face wore an expression expenses and paid out salaries, and you’d catch a
of permanent despair—yet he aroused in her deep glimpse of her rosy cheeks and sweetly innocent,
and genuine emotion. She was constantly in love radiant smile at the box office window one moment,
with someone and could not live otherwise. behind stage the next, and now in the refreshment
Previously she had loved her Papa, now an invalid bar. Already she was telling her friends that nothing
sitting in his armchair in a darkened room and in the world was so remarkable, so important and
necessary as the theatre, and only in the theatre
3. An operetta is a form of opera that includes elaborate
could you experience real enjoyment and become
dancing and music, as well as a romantic, usually comic plot. an educated, civilized human being.
A pantomime relies on body movement to tell a story. A “But does the public appreciate that?” she
burlesque, usually a series of comic short skits, uses would say. “What they want is a peepshow.
exaggeration to ridicule.
Yesterday we did Faust Inside Out and almost all
4. The governments of Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union
sent criminals to Siberia, an area known for being remote
and having a harsh climate. Here, scaffold refers to the
platform on which a criminal is executed. 5. Bryansk is a Russian city southwest of Moscow.
554 UNIT 4 R EG I O N A L I S M A N D RE AL IS M
Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz/Art Resource, NY
going to look after your poor wretched Olenka in the office until evening, doing the accounts
now you’ve abandoned her?” and dispatching orders.
Snookin was buried on the Tuesday at the “Timber’s going up by twenty percent a year
Vagankovo Cemetery in Moscow. Olenka now,” she would tell customers and friends. “In
returned home on Wednesday and as soon as she the past we used to get our timber locally, but
entered her room, flung herself down on the bed now, imagine, my Vasya10 has to fetch it every
and sobbed so loudly she could be heard in the year from Mogilyov Province. And the freight
street and the neighboring yards. charges!” she would say, covering both cheeks
“Poor darling!” the women neighbors said, with her hands in horror. “The freight charges!”
crossing themselves. “She is taking it badly, poor She felt that she had been dealing in timber
darling Olga Semyonovna!” for ages and ages, and it was the most vitally
Three months later Olenka, in full mourning, important thing in life, and the words joist,
was returning home sadly one day from church. batten, offcut, purlin,11 round beam, short
It so happened that a neighbor of hers, Vasily beam, frame and slab, were like dear old friends
Andreich Pustovalov, manager of the merchant to her. At night she dreamed of whole moun-
Babakayev’s timber yard, was also returning from tains of boards and battens, of never-ending
church and walking alongside her. He was wear- convoys of carts carrying timber somewhere
ing a straw hat and a white waistcoat9 with a far beyond the town; she dreamed of a whole
gold watch-chain, and looked more like a land- regiment of beams, thirty feet by nine inches,
owner than a tradesman. marching upright into battle against the tim-
“Everything has to take its proper course, Olga ber yard, and how beams, joists and slabs
Semyonovna,” he was saying soberly, with a sym- banged together with the resounding thud of
pathetic note in his voice, “and if someone dear dry wood, falling over and then righting
to us dies, that means it is God’s wish, so we must themselves, piling up on top of each other.
contain ourselves and bear it with resignation.” Olenka would cry out in her sleep and
After seeing Olenka to her gate, he said good- Pustovalov would say to her tenderly:
bye and walked on. For the rest of the day she “What’s the matter, Olenka dear? Better cross
kept hearing that sober voice, and she had only yourself!”12
to close her eyes to picture his dark beard to her- Whatever thoughts her husband had, she had
self. She liked him very much. Evidently she had also. If he thought the room was too hot or busi-
made an impression on him, too, for not long ness had become quiet, she thought the same.
afterwards an elderly lady, whom she scarcely Her husband did not like any entertainments
knew, came to drink coffee with her, and had no and on holidays stayed at home; so did she.
sooner sat down at the table than she started talking “You’re always at home or in the office,”
about Pustovalov, what a good, reliable man he was friends said to her. “You should go to the theatre,
and how any young lady would be delighted to have darling, or the circus.”
him for a husband. Three days later Pustovalov “Me and Vasya have no time for theatres,” she
himself paid her a visit, stayed no more than about replied soberly. “We’re working folk, we can’t be
ten minutes and said little, but Olenka fell for him bothered with trifles. What do people see in
so completely that she lay awake all night feeling those theatres, anyway?”
hot and feverish, and next morning sent for the On Saturdays she and Pustovalov attended the
elderly lady. The match was quickly arranged, then all-night vigil, and on feast days early-morning ser-
came the wedding. vice. Afterwards, walking home side by side, they
Life went well for Pustovalov and Olenka after
their marriage. He would usually stay at the tim- 10. Vasya is a nickname for Vasily.
ber yard until lunch and then go out on business, 11. A joist is a type of wood beam; a batten is a piece of wood
whereupon Olenka would take his place and stay used on a boat or in a floor; an offcut is a small piece of
wood; a purlin is a piece of wood used in a roof.
12. Pustovalov is suggesting that Olenka make the sign of a
9. A waistcoat is an ornamental vest worn under a jacket. cross to help keep away her nightmare.
556 UNIT 4 R EG I O N A L I S M A N D RE AL IS M
But this happiness did not
last long. The vet departed
with his regiment, and since
they had been transferred
somewhere very distant, practi-
cally to Siberia, his departure
was permanent.
Olenka was left on her own.
This time she was completely
on her own. Her father had
long since died, and his arm-
chair, with one leg missing, was
gathering dust in the attic. She
became plain and thin, and
people meeting her in the street
no longer looked at her and
smiled as they used to; her best
years were evidently gone for
Portrait of Vasily Mathé, 1902. Boris Kustodiev. Oil on canvas, good, now a new, unknown life
125 x 151 cm. The Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia. was beginning that did not bear thinking about.
In the evenings Olenka sat on her porch and
that she could not survive even for a year
could hear the band playing and the rockets
without an attachment and had found her new
going off at the Tivoli, but this no longer made
happiness in the fliegel next door. Anyone else
her think of anything. She gazed apathetically at
would have been condemned for this, but no one
her empty yard, had no thoughts or desires, and
could think ill of Olenka, her whole life was so
when night fell, went to bed and dreamed of her
transparent. She and the vet did not tell anyone
empty yard. She seemed reluctant even to eat or
about the change that had taken place in their
drink.
relationship and tried to conceal it, but without
But the worst thing of all was no longer
success, because Olenka could not keep a secret.
having any opinions. She saw objects round
When regimental colleagues came to visit him
her and understood everything that was going
and she was pouring out their tea or serving sup-
on, but she could not form opinions about
per, she would start talking about cattle plague,
anything and did not know what to talk about.
pearl disease,20 and the municipal slaughter-
How awful it is not to have an opinion! You
houses. This made him terribly embarrassed, and
see a bottle, for example, standing there, or
as they were leaving, he would seize her by the
the rain falling, or a peasant going along in his
arm and hiss angrily:
cart, but what the bottle or rain or peasant are
“Haven’t I told you before not to talk about
for, what sense they make, you can’t say and
things you don’t understand? When we vets are
couldn’t say, even if they offered you a thou-
talking shop, please don’t butt in. It’s extremely
sand roubles. In Snookin’s and Pustovalov’s
tedious.”
time, and then with the vet, Olenka could
She would look at him in alarm and astonish-
explain everything and give her opinion on
ment, and say:
any subject you liked, whereas now her mind
“But Volodya21 dear, what am I to talk about?!”
and heart were as empty as the yard outside. It
With tears in her eyes she embraced him
was a horrible, bitter sensation, like a mouth-
and begged him not to be angry, and they
ful of wormwood.22
were both happy.
558 UNIT 4 R EG I O N A L I S M A N D RE AL IS M
Sasha had begun attending the grammar school. and people meeting her in the street feel pleasure
His mother went away to her sister’s in Kharkov as they look at her, and say:
and did not come back, his father went off some- “Olga Semyonovna darling, good morning!
where every day to inspect herds and might be away How are you, darling?”
for three days at a time, and Olenka felt that Sasha “They have to work so hard at grammar school
was being completely neglected, his parents didn’t these days,” she tells them in the market. “It’s no
want him and he must be starving to death; so she laughing matter. Yesterday the first year had a fable
transferred him to her fliegel and fixed him up in a to learn by heart and a Latin translation and a math
little room there. problem. . . . How can a small boy cope?”
Six months have now passed since Sasha began She goes on to talk about teachers and lessons
living in her fliegel. Every morning Olenka goes and textbooks—repeating exactly what Sasha
into his room: he is fast asleep with his hand under tells her.
his cheek, breathing imperceptibly. She is sorry to Between two and three they have their meal
have to wake him. together, and in the evening they do Sasha’s home-
“Sashenka,” she says sadly, “get up, dear! Time work together and cry. Putting him to bed, she
for school.” spends a long time making the sign of the cross over
He gets up, dresses, says his prayers, and then sits him and whispering a prayer, then, on going to bed
down to drink tea; he drinks three glasses and con- herself, she pictures that distant hazy future when
sumes two large rolls and half a French loaf with Sasha has finished his degree and become a doctor
butter. Still not fully awake, he is in a bad mood. or an engineer, has his own large house with horses
“You didn’t learn your fable properly, you and a carriage, marries and has children. . . . She
know, Sashenka,” Olenka says, looking at him as falls asleep still thinking about it all, and tears run
if about to see him off on a long journey. “What down her cheeks from her closed eyes. The black
a worry you are to me. You must make an effort cat lies purring by her side: mrr, mrr, mrr. . . .
to learn, dear, and do as the teachers say.” Suddenly there’s a loud knock at the gate.
“Oh, stop nagging!” says Sasha. Olenka wakes up, too terrified to breathe. Her
Then he walks along the street to school, a heart is thumping. Half a minute passes, then
small boy in a big cap, with a satchel on his there’s another knock.
back. Olenka follows silently behind. “It’s a telegram from Kharkov,” she thinks, begin-
“Sashenka-a!” she calls. ning to tremble all over. “Sasha’s mother wants him
He looks round, and she pops a date or a cara- to live with her in Kharkov. . . . Oh heavens!”
mel into his hand. When they turn into the She is in despair. Her head, arms and legs
school street, he feels ashamed at being followed turn cold, she feels the unhappiest person in the
by this tall, stout woman, looks round and says: world. But another minute passes and she hears
“You go home now, Auntie, I’ll do the last bit voices. It’s the vet, he’s come back from his club.
on my own.” “Oh, thank God,” she thinks.
She stops and keeps her eyes fixed on him until Gradually the pressure on her heart eases and
he disappears through the school entrance. Oh, how she feels relaxed again. She lies down and thinks
she loves him! Not one of her previous attachments of Sasha, who is sleeping soundly in the room
has been so deep, never before has she surrendered next door. From time to time he starts talking in
herself so wholeheartedly, unselfishly and joyfully as his sleep:
now, when her maternal feelings are being kindled “I’ll show you! Get out! Stop fighting!”
more and more. For this boy, who is not hers, for his
cap and his dimpled cheeks, she would give away Quickwrite
her whole life, and do so with gladness and tears of
emotion. Why? Who can possibly say why? Olenka is described as being “constantly in love”
and unable to live without love. How does love
After seeing Sasha off, she returns home qui-
affect Olenka? In what ways is her need for love
etly, feeling so calm and contented, and overflow-
both beneficial and detrimental to her? Write a short
ing with love. In these last six months her face
response explaining your views.
has become younger, she is smiling and radiant,
B E F O R E YO U R EA D
Building Background
Gabriela Mistral (a brē ā la mēs tral) sat I have a faithful joy
unnoticed in the crowd when she received her and a joy that is lost.
first literary award. The 25-year-old was so shy One is like a rose,
that she had another poet accept it for her. In the other, a thorn.
1945, however, Mistral was in the center of the 5 The one that was stolen
literary spotlight when she became the first Latin I have not lost.
American writer to receive the Nobel Prize for I have a faithful joy
Literature. and a joy that is lost.
Mistral was born Lucila Godoy Alcayaga in I am as rich with purple
Vicuña, Chile, north of the capital city of Santiago. 10 as with sorrow.
Her pen name comes from two of her favorite Ay! How loved is the rose,
writers, the Italian poet Gabriele D’Annunzio and how loving the thorn!
the French Provençal poet Frédéric Mistral. Many Paired as twin fruit,
of her poems explore themes of suffering and I have a faithful joy
compassion, and the Bible was one of her most 15 and a joy that is lost.
important influences. Mistral spent her last years
in Long Island, New York.
Gabriela Mistral was born in 1889 and died
in 1957.
Quickwrite
Mistral describes two sides of experience in this
poem—joy and sorrow. She suggests the “richness”
of life includes both of these feelings. Describe how
Author Search For more about the poem links joy and sorrow, exploring how the
Gabriela Mistral, go to www.glencoe.com. imagery adds to the theme. Cite evidence from the
poem in your response.
“No, she needs the kind of love that will possess her
completely, mind and soul, that will provide her with
thoughts and a direction in life, and warm her aging
blood.”
—Anton Chekhov, “The Darling”
“One is like a rose, A Friendly Call, 1895. William Merritt Chase. Oil on canvas.
the other, a thorn.” National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.
—Gabriela Mistral, “Richness”
1. Compare and contrast the use of social context in the stories by Chopin and Chekhov.
2. How does the lack of social context affect the reader’s understanding of Mistral’s poem?
O B J EC TIVES
• Compare and contrast authors’ messages. • Evaluate narratives about relationships.
• Compare works associated with Realism. • Analyze social context.
T
hese words aptly describe the complex and Minors, came out
plight of Paul Laurence Dunbar. To in 1895 and was fol-
reach an audience for his poetry, he lowed by Lyrics of a Lonely
often felt he had to “sing” within the con- Life in 1896. He married Alice
straints of the taste and prejudice that domi- Ruth Moore, an African American poet, in
nated his times. 1898. When the influential writer and critic
William Dean Howells favorably reviewed
A Midwestern Childhood One of the first Majors and Minors, Dunbar found himself
African American writers to attain national famous and in great demand across the United
recognition, Dunbar was the son of formerly States and in England as a reader.
enslaved people. He grew up hearing their sto- Much to Dunbar’s despair, the poems he wrote
ries of pre-Emancipation days, which would in black dialect—he called them “jingles in a
later provide a wealth of material for his work. broken tongue”—were his best-received works.
Dunbar had a close relationship with his He also wrote novels, librettos, short stories,
mother throughout his life, but his father died and Standard English poems, but these received
when Dunbar was only twelve years old. little attention from critics and readers. His
Dunbar was the only African American student poetry eventually garnered him a clerkship at
at his Dayton, Ohio, high school. He excelled the Library of Congress. Toward the end of his
at his studies, edited the school paper, wrote life, he told James Weldon Johnson, “I have
plays for the drama club, and became class pres- never really gotten to the things I really wanted
ident. Despite his success in school, he could to do.” Despite this sentiment, he was the first
not afford college and had trouble finding a job African American who was able to live solely
in a newspaper or a legal office. He worked on the profits of his writing, and his home
instead as an elevator operator and spent time became the first state memorial to an African
writing between calls for the elevator. With American.
help from the Wright Brothers—who owned a Paul Laurence Dunbar was born in 1872 and died
printing business in addition to pioneering avia- in 1906.
tion—he published the Dayton Tattler, an
African American newsletter.
Dunbar the Poet Dunbar took out a loan Author Search For more about
in 1893 to publish his first volume of poetry, Paul Laurence
this author, go Dunbar, go to www.glencoe.com.
to www.literature.glencoe.com.
562 UNIT 4 R EG I O N A L I S M A N D RE AL IS M
Hulton Archive/Getty Images
L I T E R AT U R E P R E V I E W R E A D I N G P R EVI E W
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following:
• analyzing Naturalism • identifying rhyme scheme
• paraphrasing to clarify meaning • expanding vocabulary
Vocabulary
salient (sālyənt) adj. prominent or conspicuously
noticeable
tempest (tempist) n. a violent storm
dissension (di senshən) n. disagreement or discord
564 UNIT 4 R EG I O N A L I S M A N D RE AL IS M
Photograph Courtesy of Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence/Art Resource, NY
Paul Laurence Dunbar
Vocabulary
guile (̄l) n. deceit or slyness
vile (v̄l) adj. repulsive or disgusting
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. Which lines in these poems had the greatest 5. The speaker in “Douglass” addresses his words
emotional impact on you? Explain your choices. directly to Frederick Douglass, even though
Douglass had died by the time the poem was writ-
ten. What is the purpose of this apostrophe, or
Recall and Interpret direct address to an absent person?
2. (a)According to the speaker in “Douglass,” how
does the present time compare to Douglass’s 6. Evaluate how well the extended metaphor used by
time? (b)What does the speaker wish that the speaker in “Douglass” represents the struggle
Douglass could do? the speaker is describing.
3. (a)What words does the speaker in “We Wear the 7. Do you think the theme, or central message, of
Mask” use to describe the mask? (b)Who wears “We Wear the Mask” is relevant today? Explain.
the mask, and why must it be worn?
Connect
4. (a)What reality is hidden behind the mask?
8. Big Idea Naturalism Naturalist writers believed
(b)What words and images describe this reality?
social pressures shaped human destiny. Do you
see evidence of this belief in Dunbar’s poems?
Explain.
L I T E R A RY A N A LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
566 UNIT 4 R EG I O N A L I S M A N D RE AL IS M
B EF O R E YO U R E A D
E
dwin Arlington Robinson devoted his life became well known for his
almost exclusively to writing poetry, but poetic structure based on natural
recognition and success did not come easily. diction and skillful rhyming pat-
Describing his childhood in Gardiner, Maine, as stark terns within stanzas. His later works
and unhappy, he once wrote to a friend that by the include several long narrative poems in blank verse,
time he was six years old he wondered why he had which were often expanded versions of the psycholog-
been born. He began writing at an early age because ical portraits he wrote during his earlier period.
he felt “doomed, or elected, or sentenced for life, to Robinson was not an experimental poet, yet his
the writing of poetry.” As a high school student, he poems do break with the traditions of nineteenth-
practiced writing in intricate verse forms under the century romantic verse in their use of precise, conver-
guidance of a local poet. He continued to write during sational language and irregular lines.
the two years he attended Harvard University until Struggle for Recognition Robinson’s first two
family financial problems forced him to leave and books of poems, The Torrent and the Night Before and
return to a troubled home. Robinson’s father died in The Children of the Night, were published in 1896 and
1892, and his mother died of diphtheria in 1896. One 1897 at his friends’ expense. Robinson moved to New
of Robinson’s brothers became a drug addict, and the York City in 1897 when he was twenty-eight and
other became an alcoholic; both died early. poverty-stricken. He held a variety of jobs there but
made little money and was unable to get more of his
poems published. He was rescued from his desperate
“I used to read about clearness, force, state by President Theodore Roosevelt, who had read
and admired some of his work. Roosevelt arranged a
and elegance in the rhetoric books, but position for Robinson at the U.S. Customs House in
I’m afraid I go in chiefly for force. . . . New York, an easy job that enabled him to write
without worrying about money. Robinson dedicated
There are too many elegant men in the his third collection, The Town Down by the River, to
world just now and they seem to be the president. He left his position at the Customs
increasing.” House in 1909 to devote himself entirely to his
writing. Robinson was generally ignored by both
—Edwin Arlington Robinson critics and the public until relatively late in his
career. The first collection that brought him critical
acclaim was The Man Against the Sky, published in
1916. His later works include a trilogy based on
Hope and Despair The subjects of Robinson’s Arthurian legend, Merlin, Lancelot, and Tristram,
character studies are often people who feel defeated which was his biggest critical and popular success at
or frustrated by life and who lack a sense of direction. the time. Eventually, Robinson won three Pulitzer
Most of his poems are written with an ironic tone, Prizes and became one of America’s favorite poets.
contain philosophical themes, and end tragically. Edwin Arlington Robinson was born in 1869 and died
However, Robinson was not a true pessimist. He in 1935.
believed that life has meaning despite its hardships
and that there is hope beyond what he described as
“the black and awful chaos of the night.” Most of Author Search For more about
Robinson’s early poems are dramatic lyrics, and he Edwin Arlington Robinson, go to www.glencoe.com.
OB J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • analyzing irony
• understanding characteristics of Realism and Naturalism • making inferences about characters
Vocabulary
imperially (im pērē əl ē) adv. majestically; magnificently
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. What was your reaction to the last line in each 5. (a)What is ironic about Richard Cory’s life and
poem? Give reasons for your answer. death? (b)Do you find Cory a sympathetic figure?
Explain.
Recall and Interpret
6. (a)What is the speaker’s tone, or attitude, toward
2. (a)Summarize the speaker’s description of Richard the title character in “Miniver Cheevy”? (b)How
Cory. (b)In what ways does Cory’s life differ from does the speaker’s tone affect your own attitude
the lives of the “people on the pavement”? toward Cheevy?
3. (a)What does Richard Cory do “one calm summer
night”? (b)What does this action suggest about Connect
Cory’s quality of life? 7. Big Idea Naturalism Richard Cory has wealth;
4. (a)What does Miniver Cheevy blame for his Miniver Cheevy is obsessed with the art and culture
unhappiness? (b)What do you think is the real of the past. According to Robinson, why do money
reason he is unhappy? Explain. and art not necessarily make people happy or help
them overcome their limitations?
L I T E R A RY A NA LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
B
The Red Badge of
y the time he reached college, Stephen Crane
Courage: An Episode
was better known for his baseball-playing skills
of the American Civil
than for his scholarly achievements. Within a
War, appeared first
decade, however, Crane’s rebelliousness toward his
as a syndicated news-
schooling, his upbringing, and society at large would
paper feature in 1894
help shape a short but prolific literary career. In his
and became a best-
work, Crane embraced a pessimistic realism that
seller in 1895. At
undermined earlier, romanticized visions of human
age twenty-four, the
experiences. In fiction, as in journalism, Crane por-
struggling journalist
trayed life as it was, not as one wished it were.
had reached international fame with the novel’s
success. In The Red Badge of Courage, Crane
turned his power for acute observation inward,
“A man said to the universe: exploring the psychology of a Civil War soldier
‘Sir, I exist!’ who grapples with his fear, cowardice, and pride
in battle. Ironically, Crane became famous for
‘However,’ replied the universe, his realistic portrayal of a soldier during battle
‘The fact has not created in me even though he had not yet experienced war
firsthand and was born six years after the Civil
A sense of obligation.’” War ended. Nonetheless, many veterans
—Stephen Crane, “War Is Kind” applauded his ability to re-create the internal
tension experienced during combat. In late
1895, Crane published a book of poems, The
Black Riders and Other Lines, to less favorable
Bowery Life The fourteenth child of a Methodist reviews.
minister and his devout wife, Crane chafed against
Fascinated with danger and war, Crane covered
the constraints of structured family life. University
the Greco-Turkish War in Greece and the
life left him with much the same feeling, and he
Spanish-American War in Cuba. He then settled
attended classes sporadically before leaving college
in Sussex, England, in 1899, heavily in debt and
entirely to work as a newspaper writer. As a free-
ill with tuberculosis and recurrent malarial fever.
lance reporter, Crane lived in the Bowery district
Years of exposure, poor food, and lack of treat-
of Manhattan, reporting on the poverty of the dis-
ment ended Crane’s life at twenty-eight.
trict’s slums through firsthand experience. His
observations of Bowery life eventually became the Crane is known as a man who “lived quickly and
basis for his controversial first novel, Maggie: A wrote fast.” Despite a brief literary career, his stud-
Girl of the Streets (1893). Crane’s sympathetic but ies of characters overwhelmed by uncontrollable
starkly realistic portrayal of New York slum life circumstances still resonate today. As Sherwood
repelled publishers; he finally published the novel Anderson noted, “Stephen Crane was a craftsman.
at his own expense under the pseudonym Johnston The stones he put in the wall are still there.”
Smith. Crane’s harsh story did not sell well.
However, critics Hamlin Garland and William
Dean Howells noticed Crane’s talent and became Author Search For more about
his mentors. Stephen Crane,gogototowww.literature.glencoe.com.
Author Name, www.glencoe.com.
• How do one’s priorities change in times of great Reading Tip: Answering the 5 Ws Use a chart to
danger?
help you answer the who, what, where, when, and
• How much of survival depends on personal will, why questions about the passage you’re summarizing.
and how much depends on outside circumstances?
• See Literary Terms Handbook, p. R2. Vocabulary Tip: Context Clues Context clues are
the words and sentences around an unfamiliar
Interactive Literary Elements word that help you figure out the word’s meaning.
Handbook To review or learn more about the literary elements,
go to www.glencoe.com.
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • analyzing Naturalism
• understanding the literary movement of Naturalism • summarizing
A tale intended to be after the fact. Being the The oiler,2 steering with one of the two oars
experience of four men from the sunk steamer in the boat, sometimes raised himself suddenly
Commodore . . . to keep clear of water that swirled in over the
stern.3 It was a thin little oar and it seemed often
I ready to snap.
None of them knew the color of the sky. Their The correspondent, pulling at the other oar,
eyes glanced level, and were fastened upon the watched the waves and wondered why he was
waves that swept toward them. These waves there.
were of the hue of slate, save for the tops, which The injured captain, lying in the bow, was at
were of foaming white, and all of the men knew this time buried in that profound dejection and
the colors of the sea. The horizon narrowed and indifference which comes, temporarily at least, to
widened, and dipped and rose, and at all times its even the bravest and most enduring when, willy
edge was jagged with waves that seemed thrust nilly,4 the firm fails, the army loses, the ship goes
up in points like rocks. down. The mind of the master of a vessel is
Many a man ought to have a bathtub larger rooted deep in the timbers of her, though he
than the boat which here rode upon the sea. command for a day or a decade, and this captain
These waves were most wrongfully and barba- had on him the stern impression of a scene in
rously abrupt and tall, and each froth-top was the grays of dawn of seven turned faces, and later
a problem in small boat navigation. a stump of a top-mast with a white ball on it that
The cook squatted in the bottom and looked slashed to and fro at the waves, went low and
with both eyes at the six inches of gunwale1 lower, and down. Thereafter there was something
which separated him from the ocean. His sleeves
were rolled over his fat forearms, and the two
flaps of his unbuttoned vest dangled as he bent 2. The oiler is the person responsible for oiling machinery in
to bail out the boat. Often he said: “Gawd! That the engine room on a ship.
was a narrow clip.” As he remarked it he invari- 3. The stern is the rear part of a boat or ship.
4. Willy nilly means “whether one wishes it or not.”
ably gazed eastward over the broken sea.
Big Idea Naturalism How does this passage reflect
characteristics of Naturalism?
1. A gunwale is the upper edge of the side of a boat.
Vocabulary Vocabulary
uncanny (un kanē) adj. strangely unsettling; eerie emphatic (em fatik) adj. forceful
They informed the men in the boat that it was “If this wind holds and the boat don’t swamp,
making progress slowly toward the land. we can’t do much else,” said the captain.
The captain, rearing cautiously in the bow, The little boat, lifted by each towering sea,
after the dinghy soared on a great swell, said that and splashed viciously by the crests, made prog-
he had seen the lighthouse at Mosquito Inlet. ress that in the absence of seaweed was not
Presently the cook remarked that he had seen it. apparent to those in her. She seemed just a wee
The correspondent was at the oars, then, and for thing wallowing, miraculously, top up, at the
some reason he too wished to look at the light- mercy of five oceans. Occasionally, a great spread
house, but his back was toward the far shore and of water, like white flames, swarmed into her.
the waves were important, and for some time he “Bail her, cook,” said the captain, serenely.
could not seize an opportunity to turn his head. “All right, Captain,” said the cheerful cook.
But at last there came a wave more gentle than
the others, and when at the crest of it he swiftly III
scoured the western horizon.
It would be difficult to describe the subtle broth-
“See it?” said the captain.
erhood of men that was here established on the
“No,” said the correspondent, slowly, “I didn’t
seas. No one said that it was so. No one men-
see anything.”
tioned it. But it dwelt in the boat, and each man
“Look again,” said the captain. He pointed.
felt it warm him. They were a captain, an oiler, a
“It’s exactly in that direction.”
At the top of another wave, the correspondent
did as he was bid, and this time his eyes chanced Literary Element Author’s Purpose What is the function
on a small still thing on the edge of the swaying of the captain’s optimistic reply to the correspondent?
horizon. It was precisely like the point of a pin. It
Reading Strategy Summarizing What is the main idea
took an anxious eye to find a lighthouse so tiny.
expressed in this paragraph?
“Think we’ll make it, Captain?”
impudently (im pyə dənt lē) adv. in an offensively Reading Strategy Summarizing In your own words,
bold manner summarize what is happening in this paragraph.
580 UNIT 4 R EG I O N A L I S M A N D RE AL IS M
cern the little black figure. The cap-
tain saw a floating stick and they
rowed to it. A bath-towel was by
some weird chance in the boat, and,
tying this on the stick, the captain
waved it. The oarsman did not dare
turn his head, so he was obliged to
ask questions.
“What’s he doing now?”
“He’s standing still again. He’s look-
ing, I think. . . . There he goes again.
Toward the house. . . . Now he’s
stopped again.”
“Is he waving at us?”
“No, not now! he was, though.”
“Look! There comes another man!”
“He’s running.”
“Look at him go, would you.”
“Why, he’s on a bicycle. Now he’s
met the other man. They’re both wav-
ing at us. Look!”
“There comes something up the
Lord Ullin’s Daughter, before 1907. Albert Pinkham Ryder. Oil on canvas, beach.”
20 / x 18 / in. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of John Gellatly.
1
2
3
8 “What the devil is that thing?”
Viewing the Art: How does the painting convey a sense of the power of “Why, it looks like a boat.”
the sea?
“Why, certainly it’s a boat.”
“No, it’s on wheels.”
particularly obstreperous sea came inboard
28 “Yes, so it is. Well, that must be the
and drenched him once more. But these mat- lifeboat. They drag them along shore on a
ters did not annoy him. It is almost certain wagon.”
that if the boat had capsized he would have “That’s the lifeboat, sure.”
tumbled comfortably out upon the ocean as if “No, by——, it’s—it’s an omnibus.”29
he felt sure that it was a great soft mattress. “I tell you it’s a lifeboat.”
“Look! There’s a man on the shore!” “It is not! It’s an omnibus. I can see it plain.
“Where?” See? One of those big hotel omnibuses.”
“There! See ’im? See ’im?” “By thunder, you’re right. It’s an omnibus, sure
“Yes, sure! He’s walking along.” as fate. What do you suppose they are doing with
“Now he’s stopped. Look! He’s facing us!” an omnibus? Maybe they are going around col-
“He’s waving at us!” lecting the lifecrew, hey?”
“So he is! By thunder!” “That’s it, likely. Look! There’s a fellow
“Ah, now, we’re all right! Now we’re all right! waving a little black flag. He’s standing on the
There’ll be a boat out here for us in half an hour.” steps of the omnibus. There come those other
“He’s going on. He’s running. He’s going up to two fellows. Now they’re all talking together.
that house there.” Look at the fellow with the flag. Maybe he
The remote beach seemed lower than the ain’t waving it!”
sea, and it required a searching glance to dis- “That ain’t a flag, is it? That’s his coat. Why,
certainly, that’s his coat.”
28. Obstreperous (əb strep ər əs) means “unruly.”
30. A yawl is a sailboat with two masts, the large mast near
the front of the boat and the smaller one near the back. 31. Here, saffron means “yellow-orange in color.”
Literary Element Author’s Purpose What is the function Literary Element Author’s Purpose Why does Crane
of these lines at this point in the story? repeat this speech verbatim from page 580?
582 UNIT 4 R EG I O N A L I S M A N D RE AL IS M
This was surely a quiet evening. All save the called his name. “Will you spell me for a little
oarsman lay heavily and listlessly in the boat’s while?” he said, meekly.
bottom. As for him, his eyes were just capable “Sure, Billie,” said the correspondent, awaken-
of noting the tall black waves that swept forward ing and dragging himself to a sitting position.
in a most sinister silence, save for an occasional They exchanged places carefully, and the oiler,
subdued growl of a crest. cuddling down in the seawater at the cook’s side,
The cook’s head was on a thwart, and he seemed to go to sleep instantly.
looked without interest at the water under his The particular violence of the sea had ceased.
nose. He was deep in other scenes. Finally he The waves came without snarling. The obliga-
spoke. “Billie,” he murmured, dreamfully, “what tion of the man at the oars was to keep the boat
kind of pie do you like best?” headed so that the tilt of the rollers would not
capsize her, and to preserve her from filling when
V the crests rushed past. The black waves were
silent and hard to be seen in the darkness. Often
“Pie,” said the oiler and the correspondent, agitat- one was almost upon the boat before the oars-
edly. “Don’t talk about those things, blast you!” man was aware.
“Well,” said the cook, “I was just thinking In a low voice the correspondent addressed
about ham sandwiches, and—” the captain. He was not sure that the captain
A night on the sea in an open boat is a long was awake, although this iron man seemed to be
night. As darkness settled finally, the shine of the always awake. “Captain, shall I keep her making
light, lifting from the sea in the south, changed to for that light north, sir?”
full gold. On the northern horizon a new light The same steady voice answered him. “Yes.
appeared, a small bluish gleam on the edge of the Keep it about two points off the port bow.”32
waters. These two lights were the furniture of the The cook had tied a life belt around himself in
world. Otherwise there was nothing but waves. order to get even the warmth which this clumsy
Two men huddled in the stern, and distances cork contrivance could donate, and he seemed
were so magnificent in the dinghy that the rower almost stove-like when a rower, whose teeth
was enabled to keep his feet partly warmed by invariably chattered wildly as soon as he ceased
thrusting them under his companions. Their legs his labor, dropped down to sleep.
indeed extended far under the rowing seat until they The correspondent, as he rowed, looked down
touched the feet of the captain forward. Sometimes, at the two men sleeping under foot. The cook’s
despite the efforts of the tired oarsman, a wave came arm was around the oiler’s shoulders, and, with
piling into the boat, an icy wave of the night, and their fragmentary clothing and haggard faces,
the chilling water soaked them anew. They would they were the babes of the sea, a grotesque ren-
twist their bodies for a moment and groan, and sleep dering of the old babes in the wood.33
the dead sleep once more, while the water in the Later he must have grown stupid at his work,
boat gurgled about them as the craft rocked. for suddenly there was a growling of water, and a
The plan of the oiler and the correspondent crest came with a roar and a swash into the boat,
was for one to row until he lost the ability, and and it was a wonder that it did not set the cook
then arouse the other from his seawater couch afloat in his life belt. The cook continued to
in the bottom of the boat. sleep, but the oiler sat up, blinking his eyes and
The oiler plied the oars until his head drooped shaking with the new cold.
forward, and the overpowering sleep blinded
him. And he rowed yet afterward. Then he 32. The bow is the forward part of a boat or ship. The port
touched a man in the bottom of the boat, and bow, then, would be the left side of the forward part.
33. In the fairytale “Babes in the Wood,” two children are left
after their parents die. An uncle tries to have them killed,
but the children are spared. Alone in the woods, the
children are lulled to sleep by birds.
Big Idea Naturalism From your understanding of
Naturalism, why might discussion of food be dangerous, Reading Strategy Summarizing Summarize this para-
rather than pleasantly distracting, given the circumstances? graph. How have the crew’s challenges changed?
584 UNIT 4 R EG I O N A L I S M A N D RE AL IS M
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC/Art Resource, NY
people had drowned at sea since galleys35 schoolfellows had informed him of the soldier’s
swarmed with painted sails, but still— plight, but the dinning40 had naturally ended
When it occurs to a man that nature does by making him perfectly indifferent. He had
not regard him as important, and that she feels never considered it his affair that a soldier of the
she would not maim the universe by disposing Legion lay dying in Algiers, nor had it appeared
of him, he at first wishes to throw bricks at the to him as a matter for sorrow. It was less to him
temple, and he hates deeply the fact that there than the breaking of a pencil’s point.
are no bricks and no temples. Any visible Now, however, it quaintly came to him as a
expression of nature would surely be pelleted human, living thing. It was no longer merely a
with his jeers. picture of a few throes41 in the breast of a poet,
Then, if there be no tangible thing to hoot meanwhile drinking tea and warming his feet at
he feels, perhaps, the desire to confront a the grate; it was an actuality—stern, mournful,
personification and indulge in pleas, bowed to and fine.
one knee, and with hands supplicant, saying: The correspondent plainly saw the soldier. He
“Yes, but I love myself.” lay on the sand with his feet out straight and
A high cold star on a winter’s night is the still. While his pale left hand was upon his chest
word he feels that she says to him. Thereafter he in an attempt to thwart the going of his life, the
knows the pathos36 of his situation. blood came between his fingers. In the far
The men in the dinghy had not discussed Algerian distance, a city of low square forms was
these matters, but each had, no doubt, set against a sky that was faint with the last sun-
reflected upon them in silence and according set hues. The correspondent, plying the oars and
to his mind. There was seldom any expression dreaming of the slow and slower movements of
upon their faces save the general one of com- the lips of the soldier, was moved by a profound
plete weariness. Speech was devoted to the and perfectly impersonal comprehension. He was
business of the boat. sorry for the soldier of the Legion who lay dying
To chime the notes of his emotion, a verse in Algiers.
mysteriously entered the correspondent’s head. The thing which had followed the boat and
He had even forgotten that he had forgotten waited had evidently grown bored at the delay.
this verse, but it suddenly was in his mind. There was no longer to be heard the slash of the
cut water, and there was no longer the flame of the
A soldier of the Legion37 lay dying in long trail. The light in the north still glimmered,
Algiers,38 but it was apparently no nearer to the boat.
There was lack of woman’s nursing, Sometimes the boom of the surf rang in the corre-
there was dearth of woman’s tears; spondent’s ears, and he turned the craft seaward
But a comrade stood beside him, and he then and rowed harder. Southward, some one had
took that comrade’s hand, evidently built a watch fire on the beach. It was too
And he said: “I never more shall see my low and too far to be seen, but it made a shimmer-
own, my native land.”39 ing, roseate reflection upon the bluff back of it, and
this could be discerned from the boat. The wind
In his childhood, the correspondent had been came stronger, and sometimes a wave suddenly
made acquainted with the fact that a soldier raged out like a mountain cat and there was to be
of the Legion lay dying in Algiers, but he had seen the sheen and sparkle of a broken crest.
never regarded it as important. Myriads of his The captain, in the bow, moved on his water
jar and sat erect. “Pretty long night,” he observed
35. A galley is a medieval ship propelled by sails and a row
(or rows) of oars on either side.
36. Pathos means “deep sadness.” 40. Dinning means “insistent repetition.”
37. Legion refers to the French Foreign Legion, an army 41. Throes are pains.
composed mainly of foreign volunteers.
Reading Strategy Summarizing Summarize this passage.
38. Algiers (al jērz) is the capital of Algeria, a country in
Why has the correspondent’s reaction to the poem changed
northern Africa that was once ruled by France.
since he was a child?
39. This verse compresses the first stanza of “Bingen on the
Rhine” by English poet Caroline E. S. Norton (1808–1877).
ST EPHEN CRANE 585
to the correspondent. He looked at the shore. As he was rowing, the captain gave him some
“Those lifesaving people take their time.” whiskey and water, and this steadied the chills
“Did you see that shark playing around?” out of him. “If I ever get ashore and anybody
“Yes, I saw him. He was a big fellow, all right.” shows me even a photograph of an oar—”
“Wish I had known you were awake.” At last there was a short conversation.
Later the correspondent spoke into the bot- “Billie . . . Billie, will you spell me?”
tom of the boat. “Sure,” said the oiler.
“Billie!” There was a slow and gradual disen-
tanglement. “Billie, will you spell me?” VII
“Sure,” said the oiler.
When the correspondent again opened his eyes,
As soon as the correspondent touched the
the sea and the sky were each of the gray hue of
cold comfortable seawater in the bottom of the
the dawning. Later, carmine and gold was painted
boat, and had huddled close to the cook’s life
upon the waters. The morning appeared finally, in
belt he was deep in sleep, despite the fact that
its splendor, with a sky of pure blue, and the sun-
his teeth played all the popular airs. This sleep
light flamed on the tips of the waves.
was so good to him that it was but a moment
On the distant dunes were set many little
before he heard a voice call his name in a tone
black cottages, and a tall white windmill reared
that demonstrated the last stages of exhaustion.
above them. No man, nor dog, nor bicycle
“Will you spell me?”
appeared on the beach. The cottages might have
“Sure, Billie.”
formed a deserted village.
The light in the north had mysteriously van-
The voyagers scanned the shore. A conference
ished, but the correspondent took his course
was held in the boat. “Well,” said the captain, “if
from the wide-awake captain.
no help is coming, we might better try a run
Later in the night they took the boat farther
through the surf right away. If we stay out here
out to sea, and the captain directed the cook
much longer we will be too weak to do anything
to take one oar at the stern and keep the boat
for ourselves at all.” The others silently acquiesced
facing the seas. He was to call out if he should
in this reasoning. The boat was headed for the
hear the thunder of the surf. This plan enabled
beach. The correspondent wondered if none ever
the oiler and the correspondent to get respite
ascended the tall wind-tower, and if then they
together. “We’ll give those boys a chance to
never looked seaward. This tower was a giant,
get into shape again,” said the captain. They
standing with its back to the plight of the ants. It
curled down and, after a few preliminary chat-
represented in a degree, to the correspondent, the
terings and trembles, slept once more the dead
serenity of nature amid the struggles of the individ-
sleep. Neither knew they had bequeathed to
ual—nature in the wind, and nature in the vision
the cook the company of another shark, or
of men. She did not seem cruel to him then, nor
perhaps the same shark.
beneficent, nor treacherous, nor wise. But she was
As the boat caroused on the waves, spray occa-
indifferent, flatly indifferent. It is, perhaps, plausible
sionally bumped over the side and gave them a
that a man in this situation, impressed with the
fresh soaking, but this had no power to break their
unconcern of the universe, should see the innumer-
repose. The ominous slash of the wind and the
able flaws of his life and have them taste wickedly
water affected them as it would have affected
in his mind and wish for another chance. A dis-
mummies.
tinction between right and wrong seems absurdly
“Boys,” said the cook, with the notes of every
clear to him, then, in this new ignorance of the
reluctance in his voice, “she’s drifted in pretty
grave-edge, and he understands that if he were
close. I guess one of you had better take her to
given another opportunity he would mend his
sea again.” The correspondent, aroused, heard
the crash of the toppled crests.
586 UNIT 4 R EG I O N A L I S M A N D RE AL IS M
conduct and his words, and be better and
brighter during an introduction, or at a tea.
“Now, boys,” said the captain, “she is
going to swamp sure. All we can do is to
work her in as far as possible, and then
when she swamps, pile out and scramble
for the beach. Keep cool now, and don’t
jump until she swamps sure.”
The oiler took the oars. Over his shoul-
ders he scanned the surf. “Captain,” he
said, “I think I’d better bring her about, and
keep her head-on to the seas and back her
in.”
“All right, Billie,” said the captain.
“Back her in.” The oiler swung the boat
then and, seated in the stern, the cook
and the correspondent were obliged to
look over their shoulders to contem-
plate the lonely and indifferent shore.
The monstrous inshore rollers heaved
the boat high until the men were again
enabled to see the white sheets of water Veiled Moon, 1995. Jane Wilson. Oil on linen, 18 x 18 in. Fischbach Gallery, NY.
scudding up the slanted beach. “We
42 Viewing the Art: How is nature portrayed in the painting?
Vocabulary
coerce (kō urs) v. to force
588 UNIT 4 R EG I O N A L I S M A N D RE AL IS M
In his struggle to reach the captain and the long drag, and a bully heave at the correspon-
boat, he reflected that when one gets properly dent’s hand. The correspondent, schooled in the
wearied, drowning must really be a comfortable minor formulæ, said: “Thanks, old man.” But
arrangement, a cessation of hostilities accompa- suddenly the man cried: “What’s that?” He
nied by a large degree of relief, and he was glad pointed a swift finger. The correspondent said:
of it, for the main thing in his mind for some “Go.”
moments had been horror of the temporary In the shallows, face downward, lay the oiler.
agony. He did not wish to be hurt. His forehead touched sand that was periodically,
Presently he saw a man running along the between each wave, clear of the sea.
shore. He was undressing with most remarkable The correspondent did not know all that trans-
speed. Coat, trousers, shirt, everything flew magi- pired afterward. When he achieved safe ground he
cally off him. fell, striking the sand with each particular part of
“Come to the boat,” called the captain. his body. It was as if he had dropped from a roof,
“All right, Captain.” As the correspondent but the thud was grateful to him.
paddled, he saw the captain let himself down to It seems that instantly the beach was populated
bottom and leave the boat. Then the correspon- with men with blankets, clothes, and flasks, and
dent performed his one little marvel of the voy- women with coffeepots and all the remedies sacred
age. A large wave caught him and flung him to their minds. The welcome of the land to the
with ease and supreme speed completely over the men from the sea was warm and generous, but a
boat and far beyond it. It struck him even then still and dripping shape was carried slowly up the
as an event in gymnastics, and a true miracle of beach, and the land’s welcome for it could only be
the sea. An overturned boat in the surf is not a the different and sinister hospitality of the grave.
plaything to a swimming man. When it came night, the white waves paced
The correspondent arrived in water that to and fro in the moonlight, and the wind
reached only to his waist, but his condition brought the sound of the great sea’s voice to the
did not enable him to stand for more than a men on shore, and they felt that they could then
moment. Each wave knocked him into a be interpreters.
heap, and the undertow pulled
at him.
Then he saw the man who
had been running and undress-
ing, and undressing and run-
ning, come bounding into the
water. He dragged ashore the
cook, and then waded toward
the captain, but the captain
waved him away, and sent him
to the correspondent. He was
naked, naked as a tree in win-
ter, but a halo was about his
head, and he shone like a saint.
He gave a strong pull, and a
RESP ON DI NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond 6. How does Crane use foreshadowing to help pre-
pare the reader for future events? Give specific
1. How did you react when you realized the corre-
examples.
spondent survives but the oiler does not?
7. Could the emotional effect of this story be con-
Recall and Interpret veyed just as well in the form of a newspaper arti-
2. (a)Summarize the situation in which the four men cle about the shipwreck and the men’s struggle to
find themselves in part I. (b)From the discussion survive? Explain.
that three of the men have at the end of part I,
what might you infer about each man’s character?
Connect
3. (a)How does each man behave during the night at
8. Describe a time when you were part of a group in
sea (parts V and VI)? (b)What can you infer about
a difficult or dangerous situation. How did you feel
their characters from their actions?
about the others in the group as a result of your
4. (a)What is the outcome of the story? (b)How is shared experience?
the outcome ironic, and what might this imply
about nature? 9. Big Idea Naturalism How might being lost at
sea influence the crew’s view of nature in a way
Analyze and Evaluate that a less dangerous accident might not?
5. (a)List several similes and metaphors Crane uses in
the story. (b)What effect do these comparisons
have on the reader?
V I S UA L L I T E R AC Y: Fine Art
T he U nt ouc he d L andsc ap e
Moonlit Shipwreck at Sea was painted in 1901 by 3. (a)From what perspective is the viewer watch-
Thomas Moran, one of several American land- ing this scene? (b)How does this perspective
scape painters known collectively as the Hudson contribute to the mood of the painting?
River school. The Hudson River school artists
were known for their use of light and shadow
and their highly Romantic style. Their paintings
attempted to evoke a specific mood and emo-
tional state, often in order to express the sub-
lime in nature. Rarely were the paintings simple
observations.
To Build a Fire
M E E T JAC K LON DO N livelihood. In 1903, London published The Call
of the Wild, the novel that firmly established his
I
reputation. Before long, he became the country’s
n 1897 Jack London left college and went to
highest-paid author—a stunning reversal of fortune
the Yukon to join the Klondike gold rush. He
for the once-impoverished writer.
never found gold, but he did find something
that proved more precious to him: a wealth of raw
Struggle to Make Ends Meet Throughout his
material for the stories that eventually made him
life, London worked under pressure to support
famous.
not only himself but also numerous family members
and friends. He set himself the task of writing at
least a thousand
“I would rather be ashes than dust!” publishable words
every day, and he
—Jack London rarely deviated
from that schedule.
But despite pub-
An Adventurous Life Born in 1876 in San lishing more than
Francisco to an unstable mother and a father who fifty books and
refused to claim him, London was raised mainly by becoming the
a family friend and a stepsister. From the age of country’s first mil-
eleven, he worked to earn money to help put food lionaire author,
on his family’s table. London loved the sea, so he London habitually
hung around the harbor, doing odd jobs and learn- spent more money
ing to be an expert sailor. While still in his teens, than he earned, and
he signed on to a schooner sailing to Siberia. From he often wrote stories
that adventure came his first published story. in order to pay off
urgent debts.
At eighteen, London set off to ride the rails,
living the life of a drifter as he traveled across In the last years of
the country on freight trains. This journey his life, London
became a turning point in his life as he saw up bought a ranch
close the raw, painful lives of men and women who in northern
did not seem to belong anywhere in society. As a California and
result of the conditions he saw, London vowed to began building his
educate himself so he could survive by his mental dream house, Wolf
powers rather than by his physical strength. House, on it. In
After completing high school in just one year, 1913, shortly before he was to move into the
London attended the University of California at newly completed house, it burned down. The
Berkeley for a semester before rushing off to the fire devastated London both emotionally and
Klondike. He failed to strike it rich, however, financially. He continued to live on the ranch
so he came home and turned to writing for his but never rebuilt the house. Three years later,
plagued by severe health problems and financial
difficulties, London died. He was only forty
years old.
Author Search For more about Author Search For more about
Jack London, go to www.glencoe.com. Jackauthor,
this London was
go to born in 1876 and died in 1916.
www.literature.glencoe.com.
OB J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • evaluating cause-and-effect relationships
• analyzing characteristics of Naturalism • analyzing setting
Jack London
1. Here, Yukon refers to the Yukon River. The river was a major
route to the Klondike gold fields.
Vocabulary
intangible (in tan jə bəl) adj. not easily defined or eval-
uated by the mind
Vocabulary
6. A claim is a piece of land registered for mining rights.
immortality (im´ o r tal ə tē) n. the condition of having
7. A divide is a ridge of land that separates two river drainage
eternal life
systems.
596 UNIT 4 R EG I O N A L I S M A N D RE AL IS M
any visible or temperamental difference from its country, and he had been out before in two cold
brother, the wild wolf. The animal was depressed by snaps. They had not been so cold as this, he knew,
the tremendous cold. It knew that it was no time but by the spirit thermometer10 at Sixty Mile he
for traveling. Its instinct told a truer tale than was knew they had been registered at fifty below and at
told to the man by the man’s judgment. In reality, it fifty-five.
was not merely colder than fifty below zero; it was He held on through the level stretch of woods for
colder than sixty below, than seventy below. It was several miles and dropped down a bank to the fro-
seventy-five below zero. Since zen bed of a small stream. This
the freezing point is thirty-two was Henderson Creek, and he
above zero, it meant that one knew he was ten miles from the
hundred and seven degrees of forks. He looked at his watch. It
frost obtained. The dog did The dog had was ten o’clock. He was making
not know anything about ther- four miles an hour, and he cal-
mometers. Possibly in its brain learned fire, and culated that he would arrive at
there was no sharp conscious- the forks at half-past twelve. He
ness of a condition of very cold it wanted fire, or decided to celebrate that event
such as was in the man’s brain.
But the brute had its instinct.
else to burrow by eating his lunch there.
The dog dropped in again
It experienced a vague but
menacing apprehension that
under the snow at his heels, with a tail droop-
ing discouragement, as the
subdued it and made it slink and cuddle its man swung along the creek
along at the man’s heels, and bed. The furrow11 of the old
that made it question eagerly warmth away from sled trail was plainly visible,
every unwonted8 movement of but a dozen inches of snow
the man as if expecting him to the air. covered the marks of the last
go into camp or to seek shelter runners. In a month no man
somewhere and build a fire. had come up or down that
The dog had learned fire, and silent creek. The man held
it wanted fire, or else to burrow under the snow steadily on. He was not much given to thinking,
and cuddle its warmth away from the air. and just then particularly he had nothing to think
The frozen moisture of its breathing had settled about save that he would eat lunch at the forks
on its fur in a fine powder of frost, and especially and that at six o’clock he would be in camp with
were its jowls, muzzle, and eyelashes whitened by its the boys. There was nobody to talk to; and, had
crystalled breath. The man’s red beard and mus- there been, speech would have been impossible
tache were likewise frosted, but more solidly, the because of the ice muzzle on his mouth. So he
deposit taking the form of ice and increasing with continued monotonously to chew tobacco and to
every warm, moist breath he exhaled. Also, the increase the length of his amber beard.
man was chewing tobacco, and the muzzle of ice Once in a while the thought reiterated12 itself
held his lips so rigidly that he was unable to clear that it was very cold and that he had never experi-
his chin when he expelled the juice. The result was enced such cold. As he walked along he rubbed his
that a crystal beard of the color and solidity of cheekbones and nose with the back of his mittened
amber was increasing its length on his chin. If he hand. He did this automatically, now and again
fell down it would shatter itself, like glass, into brit- changing hands. But rub as he would, the instant he
tle fragments. But he did not mind the appendage.9
It was the penalty all tobacco-chewers paid in that 10. A spirit thermometer is an alcohol thermometer. It is used
in areas of extreme cold, where the more common
mercury thermometer would freeze.
8. Unwonted means “unusual.” 11. A furrow is a long, narrow groove or depression.
9. An appendage is something that is added on or attached. 12. Reiterated means “repeated.”
Big Idea Naturalism Why does the man still chew Reading Strategy Cause and Effect Why doesn’t the
tobacco even after ice forms on his chin? man seek shelter and build a fire?
598 UNIT 4 R EG I O N A L I S M A N D RE AL IS M
Viewing the Photograph: As you look at this photograph, jot down the first five words that
come to mind. Which of these words seems most applicable to the story? Explain.
ceased so quickly that he was startled. He had stamping his feet and threshing his arms, until
had no chance to take a bite of biscuit. He struck reassured by the returning warmth. Then he got
the fingers repeatedly and returned them to the out matches and proceeded to make a fire. From
mitten, baring the other hand for the purpose of the undergrowth, where high water of the previ-
eating. He tried to take a mouthful, but the ice ous spring had lodged a supply of seasoned twigs,
muzzle prevented. He had forgotten to build a fire he got his firewood. Working carefully from a
and thaw out. He chuckled at his foolishness, and small beginning, he soon had a roaring fire, over
as he chuckled he noted the numbness creeping which he thawed the ice from his face and in the
into his exposed fingers. Also, he noted that the protection of which he ate his biscuits. For the
stinging which had first come to his toes when he moment the cold of space was outwitted. The dog
sat down was already passing away. He wondered took satisfaction in the fire, stretching out close
whether the toes were warm or numb. He moved enough for warmth and far enough away to
them inside the moccasins and decided that they escape being singed.
were numb. When the man had finished, he filled his pipe
He pulled the mitten on hurriedly and stood and took his comfortable time over a smoke.
up. He was a bit frightened. He stamped up and Then he pulled on his mittens, settled the earflaps
down until the sting returned into the feet. It cer- of his cap firmly about his ears, and took the creek
tainly was cold, was his thought. That man from trail up the left fork. The dog was disappointed
Sulphur Creek had spoken the truth when telling and yearned back toward the fire. This man did
how cold it sometimes got in the country. And he not know cold. Possibly all the generations of his
had laughed at him at the time! That showed one ancestry had been ignorant of cold, of real cold, of
must not be too sure of things. There was no mis- cold one hundred and seven degrees below freez-
take about it, it was cold. He strode up and down, ing point. But the dog knew; all its ancestry knew,
and it had inherited the knowledge. And it knew
that it was not good to walk abroad in such fearful
Reading Strategy Cause and Effect Why does the man cold. It was the time to lie snug in a hole in the
suddenly recall the man from Sulphur Creek?
snow and wait for a curtain of cloud to be drawn
600 UNIT 4 R EG I O N A L I S M A N D RE AL IS M
He was safe. He remembered the advice of the out and involving the whole tree. It grew like an
old-timer on Sulphur Creek, and smiled. The avalanche, and it descended without warning upon
old-timer had been very serious in laying down the man and the fire, and the fire was blotted out!
the law that no man must travel alone in the Where it had burned was a mantle of fresh and dis-
Klondike after fifty below. Well, here he was; he ordered snow.
had had the accident; he was alone; and he had The man was shocked. It was as though he
saved himself. Those old-timers were rather wom- had just heard his own sentence of death. For a
anish, some of them, he thought. All a man had moment he sat and stared at the spot where the
to do was to keep his head, and he was all right. fire had been. Then he grew very calm. Perhaps
Any man who was a man could travel alone. But the old-timer on Sulphur Creek was right. If he
it was surprising, the rapidity with which his had only had a trail mate he would have been
cheeks and nose were freez- in no danger now. The trail
ing. And he had not thought mate could have built the
his fingers could go lifeless in fire. Well, it was up to him
so short a time. Lifeless they to build the fire over again,
were, for he could scarcely There was the and this second time there
make them move together to must be no failure. Even if
grip a twig, and they seemed fire, snapping he succeeded, he would
remote from his body and most likely lose some toes.
from him. When he touched and crackling and His feet must be badly fro-
a twig, he had to look and see
whether or not he had hold
promising life with zen by now, and there would
be some time before the sec-
of it. The wires were pretty
well down between him and
every dancing ond fire was ready.
Such were his thoughts,
his finger-ends. flame. but he did not sit and think
All of which counted for lit- them. He was busy all the
tle. There was the fire, snap- time they were passing
ping and crackling and through his mind. He made
promising life with every danc- a new foundation for a fire,
ing flame. He started to untie his moccasins. They this time in the open, where no treacherous tree
were coated with ice; the thick German socks were could blot it out. Next, he gathered dry grasses
like sheaths of iron halfway to the knees; and the and tiny twigs from the high-water flotsam.19 He
moccasin strings were like rods of steel all twisted could not bring his fingers together to pull them
and knotted as by some conflagration. For a out, but he was able to gather them by the
moment he tugged with his numb fingers, then, handful. In this way he got many rotten twigs
realizing the folly of it, he drew his sheath-knife. and bits of green moss that were undesirable, but
But before he could cut the strings, it happened. it was the best he could do. He worked methodi-
It was his own fault or, rather, his mistake. He cally, even collecting an armful of the larger
should not have built the fire under the spruce tree. branches to be used later when the fire gathered
He should have built it in the open. But it had been strength. And all the while the dog sat and
easier to pull twigs from the brush and drop them watched him, a certain yearning wistfulness20 in
directly on the fire. Now the tree under which he its eyes, for it looked upon him as the fire pro-
had done this carried a weight of snow on its vider, and the fire was slow in coming.
boughs. No wind had blown for weeks, and each
bough was fully freighted. Each time he had pulled a
twig he had communicated a slight agitation to the 19. Flotsam (flot səm) is floating debris, here left behind by a
river or stream in the spring when the water rises with the
tree—an imperceptible agitation, so far as he was runoff from melting snow and ice.
concerned, but an agitation sufficient to bring about 20. Wistfulness means “thoughtful sadness.”
the disaster. High up in the tree one bough capsized
Reading Strategy Cause and Effect Why does the man
its load of snow. This fell on the boughs beneath,
make a crucial mistake when his life is on the line?
capsizing them. This process continued, spreading
602 UNIT 4 R EG I O N A L I S M A N D RE AL IS M
burning hands were in the
way, absorbing most of the
flame.
At last, when he could
endure no more, he jerked
his hands apart. The blaz-
ing matches fell sizzling
into the snow, but the
birch bark was alight. He
began laying dry grasses
and the tiniest twigs on the
flame. He could not pick
and choose, for he had to
lift the fuel between the
heels of his hands. Small
pieces of rotten wood and
green moss clung to the
twigs, and he bit them off
as well as he could with his
teeth. He cherished the
flame carefully and awk-
wardly. It meant life, and it
must not perish. The with-
drawal of blood from the Timber wolf in snowstorm.
surface of his body now made
him begin to shiver, and he
grew more awkward. A large piece of green The sight of the dog put a wild idea into his
moss fell squarely on the little fire. He tried to head. He remembered the tale of the man,
poke it out with his fingers, but his shivering caught in a blizzard, who killed a steer and
frame made him poke too far, and he disrupted crawled inside the carcass, and so was saved.
the nucleus of the little fire, the burning He would kill the dog and bury his hands in
grasses and tiny twigs separating and scattering. the warm body until the numbness went out
He tried to poke them together again, but in of them. Then he could build another fire. He
spite of the tenseness of the effort, his shiver- spoke to the dog, calling it to him; but in his
ing got away with him, and the twigs were voice was a strange note of fear that frightened
the animal, who had never known the man to
hopelessly scattered. Each twig gushed a puff of
speak in such way before. Something was the
smoke and went out. The fire provider had matter, and its suspicious nature sensed danger—
failed. As he looked apathetically about him, it knew not what danger, but somewhere, some-
his eyes chanced on the dog, sitting across the how, in its brain arose an apprehension of the
ruins of the fire from him, in the snow, making man. It flattened its ears down at the sound of
restless, hunching movements, slightly lifting the man’s voice, and its restless, hunching move-
one forefoot and then the other, shifting its ments and the liftings and shiftings of its forefeet
weight back and forth on them with wistful became more pronounced; but it would not come
eagerness. to the man. He got on his hands and knees and
crawled toward the dog. This unusual posture
Literary Element Setting What does this detail tell you again excited suspicion, and the animal sidled
about the setting? mincingly24 away.
The man sat up in the snow for a moment
Vocabulary and struggled for calmness. Then he pulled on
apathetically (ap´ ə theti kal ē) adv. in a manner show-
ing little interest or concern 24. Sidled mincingly means “moved sideways in a careful
manner.”
25. Peremptorily (pə remp tə rə lē) means “authoritatively” or 26. Poignant (poin yənt) means “sharply felt” or “intensely
“dictatorially.” distressing.”
Reading Strategy Cause and Effect Why does the man Reading Strategy Cause and Effect Why does the man
forget that his hands are frozen? try to repress thoughts of his impending death?
604 UNIT 4 R EG I O N A L I S M A N D RE AL IS M
Giraudon/Art Resource, NY
and he wondered if Mercury felt as he felt bound to freeze anyway, and he might as well take it
when skimming over the earth. decently. With this newfound peace of mind came
His theory of running until he reached camp the first glimmerings of drowsiness. A good idea, he
and the boys had one flaw in it: he lacked the thought, to sleep off to death. It was like taking
endurance. Several times he stumbled, and an anaesthetic.27 Freezing was not so bad as peo-
finally he tottered, crumpled up, and fell. When ple thought. There were lots worse ways to die.
he tried to rise, he failed. He must sit and rest, He pictured the boys finding his body next
he decided, and next time he would merely walk day. Suddenly he found himself with them, com-
and keep on going. As he sat and regained his ing along the trail and looking for himself. And,
breath, he noted that he was feeling quite warm still with them, he came around a turn in the
and comfortable. He was not shivering, and it trail and found himself lying in the snow. He did
even seemed that a warm glow had come to his not belong with himself any more, for even then
chest and trunk. And yet, when he touched his he was out of himself, standing with the boys
nose or cheeks, there was no sensation. Running and looking at himself in the snow. It certainly
would not thaw them out. Nor would it thaw out was cold, was his thought. When he got back to
his hands and feet. Then the thought came to the States he could tell the folks what real cold
him that the frozen portions of his body must be was. He drifted on from this to a vision of the
extending. He tried to keep this thought down, old-timer on Sulphur Creek. He could see him
to forget it, to think of something else; he was quite clearly, warm and comfortable, and smok-
aware of the panicky feeling that it caused, and ing a pipe.
he was afraid of the panic. But the thought “You were right, old hoss; you were right,” the
asserted itself, and persisted, until it produced a man mumbled to the old-timer on Sulphur Creek.
vision of his body totally frozen. This was too Then the man drowsed off into what
much, and he made another wild run along the seemed to him the most comfortable and satis-
trail. Once he slowed down to a walk, but the fying sleep he had ever known. The dog sat
thought of the freezing extending itself made facing him and waiting. The brief day drew to
him run again. a close in a long, slow twilight. There were no
And all the time the dog ran with him, at his signs of a fire to be made, and, besides, never
heels. When he fell down a second time, it in the dog’s experience had it known a man to
curled its tail over its forefeet and sat in front of sit like that in the snow and make no fire. As
him, facing him, curiously eager and intent. The the twilight drew on, its eager yearning for
warmth and security of the animal angered him, the fire mastered it, and with a great lifting
and he cursed it till it flattened down its ears and shifting of its forefeet, it whined softly,
appeasingly. This time the shivering came more then flattened its ears down in anticipation of
quickly upon the man. He was losing in his bat- being chidden28 by the man. But the man
tle with the frost. It was creeping into his body remained silent. Later, the dog whined loudly.
from all sides. The thought of it drove him on, And still later it crept close to the man and
but he ran no more than a hundred feet, when caught the scent of death. This made the ani-
he staggered and pitched headlong. It was his mal bristle and back away. A little longer it
last panic. When he had recovered his breath delayed, howling under the stars that leaped
and control, he sat up and entertained in his and danced and shone brightly in the cold
mind the conception of meeting death with dig- sky. Then it turned and trotted up the trail in
nity. However, the conception did not come to the direction of the camp it knew, where were
him in such terms. His idea of it was that he had the other food providers and fire providers.
been making a fool of himself, running around
like a chicken with its head cut off—such was
27. An anaesthetic is something that produces a loss of
the simile that occurred to him. Well, he was
sensation.
28. Chidden (past participle of chide) means “scolded.”
Big Idea Naturalism What do these thoughts tell us Literary Element Setting Why does the author describe
about the man as he faces this hostile environment? the stars as leaping and dancing?
J ACK L O N D O N 605
A F T E R YO U R E A D
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. Which images from the story do you find the most 6. (a)Explain how the mood, or atmosphere, changes
vivid and memorable? as the story develops. (b)How are the events of
the story reflected in the change of mood?
Recall and Interpret
7. (a)What are two contrasting qualities of the dog
2. (a)Where is the man going and what is his atti-
and of the man? (b)What does the ending suggest
tude toward his journey? (b)What can you infer
about London’s view of these qualities and their
about the man’s personality and character based
relationship to survival in the natural world?
on the first five paragraphs?
8. Is the dog merely a foil, or a character used to con-
3. (a)Describe how the man’s dog behaves. (b)What
trast with another character, or is it an important
event does the dog’s behavior foreshadow?
character in its own right? Support your answer.
4. (a)What mishap occurs shortly after the man eats
lunch and resumes his journey? (b)What external Connect
and internal forces must the man struggle against? 9. Big Idea Naturalism (a)What elements of
5. (a)What happens to the man at the end of the story? Naturalism does the story contain? (b)How might
What happens to his dog? (b)What lesson or lessons the story have been different if it had been written
might be learned from reading this story? by a Romantic writer?
LI TE R A RY A N A LYS I S
606 UNIT 4 R EG I O N A L I S M A N D RE AL IS M
R E AD I N G A N D VO CA B U L A RY W R I T I N G A N D E XT E N D I N G
▲
Beginning your thesis, the opinion you
Vocabulary Practice intend to defend.
➧ ➧
Practice with Word Origins Dictionary entries
often include the etymology, which tells the origin
Middle
▲
Support your opinion with
of the word. For example: evidence.
im·mor·tal·ity Latin immortalis, deathless,
mors, death Close your essay with a parting
End
▲
thought about this character’s
This entry shows that the word immortality derives function and importance.
from the Latin word mors, which means “death.”
F INISH
Match each vocabulary word with its corresponding
Latin source. Use a dictionary for assistance. When you have finished, exchange your draft with a
1. intangible a. pellere, meaning “to drive” peer reviewer to evaluate each other’s work and to
suggest revisions. Then proofread and edit your draft
2. compel b. pathein, meaning “to suffer”
for errors in spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
3. intervene c. tangere, meaning “to touch”
4. apathetically d. venire, meaning “to come”
Academic Vocabulary
Here are two words from the vocabulary list
on page R86.
Barry Lopez
National Book Award Winner
Building Background
Writer and photographer Barry Lopez finds many of the
subjects for his writing in nature and the environment.
W e left our camp on Pingok Island1 one
morning knowing a storm was moving
in from the southwest, but we were not
worried. We were planning to work in open water
He is often drawn to extreme locales, describing his
own experiences in those harsh regions. In the follow- between the beach and the edge of the pack ice,2
ing passage from Arctic Dreams, Lopez describes his only a few miles out, making bottom trawls3 from
experiences working with scientists in the Arctic Ocean. an open 20-foot boat. The four of us were dressed,
as usual, in heavy clothes and foul-weather gear.
Set a Purpose for Reading You accept the possibility of death in such situ-
Read to learn about survival in the Arctic and what ations, prepare for it, and then forget about it. We
may compel a person to take on such an adventure. carried emergency and survival equipment in
addition to all our scientific gear—signal flares,
Reading Strategy survival suits, a tent, and each of us had a pack
Analyzing Relevance of Setting with extra clothing, a sleeping bag, and a week’s
worth of food. Each morning we completed a
Analyzing the relevance of setting involves gathering
checklist of the boat and radioed a distant base
information about the importance of time and place
camp with our day plan. When we departed, we
in a literary work. Remember that setting is not lim-
left a handwritten note on the table in our cabin,
ited to the characters’ physical surroundings. As you
read, take notes about the setting of both Arctic
saying what time we left, the compass bearing we
Dreams and “To Build a Fire.” Use a two-column
were taking, and when we expected to return.
chart like the one below.
Setting of “To Setting of Arctic 1. Pingok Island lies in the Beaufort Sea, which is a part of
Build a Fire” Dreams the Arctic Ocean.
2. Pack ice is ice formed in the sea from the crashing together
of floes and other ice masses.
3. Trawls are large nets that are dragged along the bottom of
a body of water to gather marine life.
R ES P O N D I N G AN D TH I N K I N G C R ITI CALLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. What part of this narrative did you find the most 4. How do Lopez’s descriptions at the end of this
engaging? Explain. excerpt compare with Jack London’s descriptions at
the end of “To Build a Fire”?
Recall and Interpret
5. Lopez recounts the stories of earlier arctic explorers.
2. (a)How does Lopez feel about the scientists with Do you agree that in these stories are “the threads
whom he worked? (b)Why is the quality of their of dreams that serve us all”? Why or why not?
relationships important?
3. (a)How does the boat become stuck in the ice? Connect
(b)What does this incident suggest about the arctic 6. Briefly describe some of the differences and similari-
environment? (c)What does it suggest about the ties in the settings of Arctic Dreams and “To Build a
expedition? Fire.” How do these settings affect the events of each?
O B J EC TIVES
• Read to enhance understanding of geography and American • Analyze the relevance of setting to a text’s meaning.
culture.
Support your analysis with ✓ Use evidence from the story to support
evidence and develop your analysis
✓ Use secondary sources such as
OB J EC TIVES dictionaries and literary criticism, if
• Write a literary analysis essay
applicable, as further support
to demonstrate an under-
standing of the author’s style
and an appreciation of the Organize your main points in a ✓ Organize your major points in
effects created. logical, effective order chronological order or in order of
• Advance a judgment of the
importance
text supported by evidence.
Write a literary analysis essay about a story from the unit that shows how You analyze all the time,
the author’s language, characters, plot, setting, themes, and other elements particularly when making
of the text contribute to the story’s meaning. As you move through the important decisions. If you
stages of the writing process, keep your audience and purpose in mind. were choosing which col-
lege to go to, for example,
you might consider sev-
Audience: peers, classmates, and teachers who are familiar with the story
eral separate angles first:
Purpose: to demonstrate an understanding of the author’s style and whether you liked the
appreciation of the effects created programs offered, the size
of the school, and the
location. Then, you could
determine whether the
Analyzing a Professional Model
complete package made
In her literary analysis essay, Bettina L. Knapp analyzes the effects of terror on the sense for you.
crew in Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat.” As you read the following passage,
note how Knapp uses direct evidence from the story and explains the significance
of that evidence. Pay close attention to the comments in the margin. They point
out features that you may want to include in your own literary analysis.
“None of them knew the color of the sky,” is perhaps one of the most cele-
brated opening lines of any short story. The opening line conveys the fierce
struggle between finite man and the infinitude that engulfs him—as in
Melville’s Moby-Dick. The sea for Crane, as it is for Melville, is “the image Thesis
of the ungraspable phantom of life.” Make a concise judgment
that analyzes a literary
The men’s agony at not knowing their fate is underscored by the power of
element, such as theme,
those surging waters—waves that could sweep the men under at any moment. throughout the story.
“The horizon narrowed and widened, and dipped and rose, at all times its edge
Major Points
was jagged with waves that seemed thrust up in points like rocks.” Make sure that your major
Man, like the helpless survivors in the boat, is thrust here and there and points support your thesis.
floats about in utter helplessness. No matter how hard people try to fix and
direct themselves, they are castaways. Salvation—if there is one—lies in the
bonds between men that assuage their implacable solitude.
The craft pranced and reared, and plunged like an animal. As each wave
came, and she rose for it, she seemed like a horse making at a fence out-
rageously high. The manner of her scramble over these walls of water
is a mystic thing, and moreover, at the top of them were ordinarily these
Crane’s use of changing rhythms throughout the tale points up the terror
Analysis of Literary Element
of the dinghy’s passengers and exemplifies the utter senselessness of exis-
Analyze language, set-
ting, character, and tence itself.
unique aspects of the Crane suggests that if an observer were to look upon the events objec-
text to show how these
tively, viewing them “from a balcony, the whole thing would doubtless have
elements contribute to
the story’s meaning as a been weirdly picturesque. But the men in the boat had no time to see it, and
whole.
even if they had had leisure, there were other things to occupy their minds.”
Primary Source Values of virtue, bravery, integrity were once of importance, but now are
Support your analysis meaningless in a godless universe where nature observes impassively human
with direct evidence
despair and frustration. Yet, the harrowing sea journey creates a new moral-
from the story.
ity, which gives fresh meaning to life: “the brotherhood of men . . . was
Explanation of Evidence
established on the seas. No one said that it was so. No one mentioned it. But
Draw connections
between your evidence it dwelt in the boat, and each man felt it warm him.” Comfort and feelings of
and your thesis, and well-being emerge as each helps the other assuage his growing terror.
explain the significance
to your reader.
In the midst of fear and harrowing terror, there is also irony and humor:
Comfortable on land, the narrator can indulge in the luxury of waxing poetic Draw your own conclu-
sions about your evi-
and thus transform subjective emotions into a work of art. dence, making sure to
Its poetry and rhythmic schemes make “The Open Boat” the match of connect it to your thesis.
Melville’s “White Jacket” and the best of Jack London and Joseph Conrad.
This tale’s unusually punctuated sentences of contrasting length simulate the
Conclusion
heart beat of a man under extreme stress, producing an incantatory quality.
Summarize your thesis
Crane’s sensual images of man struggling against the sea remain vivid long and major points, and
after the reading of “The Open Boat.” The salt spray and deafening roar of leave your reader with
something to think about.
the waves pounding against the dinghy can almost be tasted and heard.
Prewriting
Choose a Story to Analyze First decide which story in the unit to analyze.
It need not be the story you liked best or the one you understood the best. In
fact, the best essays often analyze challenging stories that initially leave the
reader with mixed feelings or unanswered questions. Choose a story that left
you with a strong impression and will give you enough to talk about in your
analysis.
Explore Your Story Once you select your story, review it to gain a com-
prehensive understanding of the text. Remember that analyzing a text means
looking at its separate parts individually and then determining how the parts
work together as a whole. Focus on a literary element—such as character,
setting, plot, theme, point of view, or style—to examine significant ideas
apparent throughout the text. For example, think about how a character
changes or how the setting or point of view influences the meaning of the
story. As you explore your story, look for patterns and recurring themes that
contribute to its overall meaning.
Clarify Your Thesis In a literary analysis essay, your thesis should be a concise
judgment that interprets, analyzes, and evaluates a specific element throughout
Multiple Interpretations the entire story. Your one- to two-sentence thesis statement should include the
element you will analyze and the conclusion you reached about the story.
Keep in mind that great
stories usually have
Gather Evidence As you develop your major points, remember to support your
many valid interpreta-
ideas and viewpoints with evidence—accurate, detailed references to the story.
tions. In your literary
The story will be your primary source, but you can use secondary sources such
analysis, briefly address
as dictionaries and literary criticism to reinforce your claims. A strong argument
other interpretations
depends on the ability to make clear to the reader connections between such
or counterarguments
evidence and the thesis. After giving evidence, explain its significance to your
but keep your analysis
argument, noting other possible interpretations.
focused. Use words
such as suggests in your
Organize Your Major Points In the body of your essay, organize your major
analysis to acknowledge
points in an effective, logical order. If you are analyzing a change that occurs in
that there may be other
the story, use chronological order. In other analyses, you may prefer to use order
valid interpretations.
of importance. Adjust the order to maximize the impact of your points.
Drafting
Present and Expand Your Points Present your major points in a straightforward,
logical way and back them up with direct evidence from the story. Maintain the pres-
ent tense throughout your literary analysis. Use direct quotations where appropriate,
especially to emphasize a point. As you discuss more complex interpretations and
connections, explain the significance of your evidence to the reader and clarify how
it supports your thesis. Using your thesis as a guide, revise your writing as necessary.
and reputations. Had the outcasts left Poker Flat and crossed over the Background
mountains, they would most likely have reached Sand Bar and continued Why is this information
important to the analysis?
to live as they had previously in Poker Flat. However, Mother Shipton,
the Duchess, and Billy become intoxicated along the way, and the group
is forced to stop for the night.
While the other members of the group act as might be expected of out-
Major Point
casts, Mr. Oakhurst shows signs of good judgment and concern for others.
How does this point help
He does not drink, and he remains cool and impassive during the journey.
develop the analysis?
While the others are forced to rest because of their drunken stupor, Mr.
Oakhurst contemplates “the loneliness begotten of his pariah trade, his habits
of life, his very vices,” and for the first time in his life, his behavior bothers Primary Source
him (508). Although he yearns for excitement, he does not desert “his weaker How do these quotations
contribute to the analysis?
and more pitiable companions” (508). The diction suggests that Mr. Oakhurst
sympathizes with the group, even as their irresponsibility puts his own life at
risk. Later, the narrator suggests that the gambler has “cachéd” his cards, and
the agony of others’ suffering. This final unspoken sacrifice, however, has
much in common with Mother Shipton’s sacrifice. Mr. Oakhurst leaves extra Counterargument
Why might the author
fuel for the others and spares the women from perceiving the grim reality
include a point that under-
of his mission. Assuming death to be inevitable, he confronts it calmly and mines his or her thesis?
directly, on his own terms. The tone of Mr. Oakhurst’s suicide note reflects
the attitude he adheres to before and throughout the snowstorm—namely,
that he is “too much of a gambler not to accept fate. With him life was at best
an uncertain game, and he recognized the usual percentage in favor of the
dealer” (507). The fact that Mr. Oakhurst recognized his “streak of bad luck”
and was able to accept his fate and “[hand] in his checks” suggests that sui-
cide, for him, was the most honest and honorable option (514).
Thus, the snowstorm and its aftermath, in “The Outcasts of Poker Restatement of Thesis
Flat,” reveal the true depth and complexity of the characters. The fatal Why might the author
restate the thesis in the
event shows that Billy’s weak character confirms his bad reputation,
conclusion of the analysis?
whereas the stronger characters of Mother Shipton and the Duchess belie
their reputations. Although he gives up playing cards and shows concern
for others over himself, Mr. Oakhurst retains the discretion, calm, and
Final Insight
acceptance of a gambler until his death. His reputation as a gambler is
How can adding a final
not so much contradicted as it is redefined. insight make an analysis
more compelling?
Conventions correct
Improving Sentence Variety and Style
spelling, grammar, As you revise, note the style and variety of your sentences. Do your sentences
usage, and mechanics flow smoothly from one idea to the next, or do they sound choppy? Combine
sentences and vary sentence structure to achieve more fluid, rhythmic sentences.
Presentation the way
words and design ele- Draft:
ments look on a page
For more information Billy is the same selfish thief that everyone thought he was. Mr. Oakhurst
on using the Traits of
is different. He takes charge of the group. He sets a tone that the others
Strong Writing, see
pages R33-R34 of the follow. He does not even “disclose Uncle Billy’s rascality” (511). Mr.
Writing Handbook. Oakhurst implies that Billy left to get provisions for the group. Letting the
animals escape was accidental.
Revision:
Billy is the same selfish thief on the inside that everyone saw on the
outside.1 Conversely,2 Mr. Oakhurst takes charge of the group and sets a
tone that the others adopt. Unable to “bring himself to disclose Uncle Billy’s
rascality,” Mr. Oakhurst implies that Billy left to get provisions for the group
and that letting the animals escape was accidental (511).3
1: Use parallelism to emphasize the relationship between ideas.
2: Use sentence openers on occasion to add stylistic interest.
3: Vary the length and structure of sentences by combining related sentences.
º Focus Lesson
The form of a verb must agree in person and number with its subject. It can Create an electronic
be difficult to identify the subject, however, when the subject is a collective word document of your
noun (a noun that names a group as a whole). A collective noun is usually essay and e-mail it to
considered singular. Note the examples. a peer reviewer. Ask
him or her to edit and
proofread the essay and
Problem: Incorrect identification of a collective noun as subject return the corrected
version to you.
While some of the group acts as might be expected of outcasts, Mr.
Oakhurst shows signs of good judgment and concern for others.
Solution: The plural indefinite pronoun some, not the singular collective
noun group, is the subject here and therefore requires a plural verb.
Presenting
Writer’s Portfolio
The Right Look Before you turn in your paper, make sure that it is neat and
presentable. Papers should be typed (double-spaced) and should have appropriate Place a copy of your
margins. Be sure to include an interesting title that catches your reader’s attention literary analysis in
from the start. Check with your teacher for additional presentation guidelines. your portfolio to
review later.
Assignment
▲
Facilitator
✓ Introduces the discussion topic ✓ Keeps track of the time
✓ Invites each participant to speak ✓ Helps participants arrive at a
✓ Keeps the discussion focused consensus
and interactive
Group Participants (All)
✓ Form ideas and questions about ✓ Support any opinions with facts
the literature before discussion ✓ Listen carefully to other group
✓ Contribute throughout the members
discussion ✓ Evaluate and respect the
✓ Avoid repeating what has been opinions of others
said earlier
Recorder
✓ Helps the group leader form ✓ Keeps track of the most
conclusions based on the important points
discussion ✓ Helps summarize the discussion
624 UNIT 4 R EG I O N A L I S M A N D RE AL IS M
Thinking About Your Topic
Let your mind play with the images of the story. What impressions do the images
spark in you? Begin with one particular event or image and let your responses branch
out from it. Use these responses to help you brainstorm about ideas for discussion. Show Respect
Group members will probably
Making a web diagram can be helpful in preparing your oral response to have different opinions about
literature. Below is the beginning of a web diagram for a scene from Jack elements of a text. However, it
London’s “To Build a Fire.” is important to let each person
have a turn to speak and to
1,000 feeling respect his or her views.
miles to go of isolation
The Octopus
Frank Norris (1901)
Frank Norris was the first notable Naturalist
writer in the United States. The Octopus was
the opening novel in an unfinished trilogy—he
died before the final book was written—that
examines the social forces that drive agriculture
and industry. In The Octopus, Norris describes
the struggle between the railroad companies and
California wheat farmers, exposing the dangers
of concentrated economic power. The railroads
have become a multi-tentacled monster,
dominating every aspect of life, from the state
legislature to the very land the farmers work.
Farmers fight back, only to learn that the
railroads have become the masters of those
The Ambassadors they were intended to serve.
626 UNIT 4 R EG I O N A L I S M A N D RE AL IS M
CRITICS’ CORNER
The Jungle
Upton Sinclair
This shocking story of
The Adventures of an immigrant family
Huckleberry Finn working in Chicago’s
meatpacking industry led
Mark Twain (1885) to the establishment of
In his novel The Adventures of Huckleberry the Food and Drug
Finn, Mark Twain describes the travels of the Administration.
runaway orphan Huck and his new friend Jim,
an African American fleeing slavery and the
South. Huck’s reflections on various aspects Heart of Darkness
of life in the prewar South are delivered in a Joseph Conrad
slangy, colloquial voice that will serve as a
model for later writers. The episodic story In this symbolic tale, a
moves between satire, slapstick, and touching man describes a dark and
portrayals of the relationship between Huck dangerous trip he took to
and Jim. investigate a Belgian trader
in the Congo.
TE S T P RE PA RATIO N A N D P RACTICE 6 29
different grades of the same abomination. Some sort
of an apology for a bed, with mattress and blanket,
15 represents the aristocratic purchase of the tramp
who, by a lucky stroke of beggary, has exchanged
the chance of an empty box or ash-barrel for shelter
on the quality floor of one of these “hotels.” A strip
of canvas, strung between rough timbers, without
20 covering of any kind, does for the couch of the seven-
cent lodger who prefers the questionable comfort of a
red-hot stove close to his elbow. . . . On cold winter
nights, when every bunk had its tenant, I have stood in
such a lodging-room more than once, and listening to
25 the snoring of the sleepers like the regular strokes of
an engine, and the slow creaking of the beams under
their restless weight, imagined myself on shipboard
and experienced the very real nausea of sea-sickness.
The one thing that did not favor the deception was
30 the air; its character could not be mistaken.
The proprietor of one of these seven-cent
houses was known to me as a man of reputed wealth
and respectability. He “ran” three such establishments
and made, it was said, $8,000 a year clear profit on
35 his investment. He lived in a handsome house quite
near to the stylish precincts of Murray Hill, where the
nature of his occupation was not suspected. A notice
that was posted on the wall of the lodgers’ room
suggested at least an effort to maintain his up-town
40 standing in the slums. It read: “No swearing or loud
talking after nine o’clock.” Before nine no exceptions
were taken to the natural vulgarity of the place; but
that was the limit.
There are no licensed lodging-houses known to
45 me which charge less than seven cents for even such
a bed as this canvas strip, though there are unlicensed
ones enough where one may sleep on the floor for
five cents a spot, or squat in a sheltered hallway for
three. The police station lodging-house, where the soft
50 side of a plank is the regulation couch, is next in order.
The manner in which this police bed is “made up” is
interesting in its simplicity. The loose planks that make
the platform are simply turned over, and the job is done,
with an occasional coat of whitewash thrown in to
55 sweeten things.
TE S T P RE PA RATIO N A N D P RACTICE 6 31
14. What literary device is Riis using when he 20. In this passage, which of the following do you
compares the snoring to the “strokes of an think best describes the main idea of How the
engine” in lines 25–26? Other Half Lives?
A. simile A. The slums are a terrible place, and the poor
B. metaphor are often mistreated.
C. allusion B. People choose to live in the slums, because
D. personification the slums offer a carefree lifestyle.
C. Although poverty is terrible, there is little
15. In the context of line 30, what does the word that anyone can do to prevent it.
character mean? D. The evils of poverty are often exaggerated.
A. personality
B. person Use the passages from The Jungle and How the Other
C. quality Half Lives to help you answer questions 21 and 22.
D. reputation
21. What do the passages from The Jungle and How
the Other Half Lives most strongly suggest?
16. What can you infer about Riis’s feelings toward A. Industrialization had overwhelmingly positive
the wealthy proprietor? results.
A. He finds him humorous. B. If the slums were destroyed, poverty would be
B. He thinks that the proprietor is a swindler. reduced.
C. He respects his position of authority. C. Poverty is entirely the fault of the poor.
D. He is envious of his wealth. D. The city is often brutal and unforgiving.
17. What is the tone of the sentence Before nine no 22. According to these passages, what did both Riis
exceptions were taken to the natural vulgarity of the and Sinclair hope to accomplish with How the
place; but that was the limit in lines 41–43? Other Half Lives and The Jungle?
A. reportorial A. to improve the living conditions of the poor
B. comic B. to increase the number of people migrating
C. ironic to the cities
D. angry C. to change people’s attitudes about the
meatpacking industry
18. What is the overall tone of this passage? D. to decrease the number of working people
A. reportorial
B. comic Use the visual representation (on page 630) to help
C. ironic you answer questions 23–25.
D. angry
23. Which of the following best describes Riis’s
purpose for taking this photograph?
19. In this passage, which of the following do you A. to illustrate the conditions of the poor
think best describes the author’s purpose in How B. to anger the wealthy
the Other Half Lives? C. to rouse public sentiment to help the poor
A. to entertain D. to educate the public about the dangers of
B. to persuade the city
C. to describe
D. to explain
24. What can you infer about the man in this
photograph?
A. He is happy with his surroundings.
B. He has injured himself and cannot work.
C. He is employed by the meatpacking industry.
D. He can afford only the worst type of lodging.
Essay
Write an essay explaining what it means to struggle against injustice. As you write, keep in
mind that your essay will be checked for ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence
fluency, conventions, and presentation.
634
Howard A. Thain/New York Historical Society, New York/Bridgeman Art Library
U N IT F IVE
BEGINNINGS
OF THE
MODERN AGE
1910–1930s
Looking Ahead
Modern American literature developed in a turbulent era characterized by
extremes—both despair and exuberance. The violence of World War I
caused many people to lose faith in traditional values. Following the war,
an economic boom ushered in an age of prosperity and confidence.
Writers of the time created new literary works that mirrored this period of
rapid change and clashing values.
O B J EC TI V ES
In learning about the beginnings of the modern age, you will focus on the following:
• analyzing the characteristics of a literary period and how the issues of this period influenced its writers
• clarifying and understanding informational texts
• evaluating the influences of the historical period that shaped literary characters, plots, settings, and themes
• connecting literature to historical contexts, current events, and your own experiences
6 35
TIMELINE Hemingway
AM E R I C AN L I T E R AT U R E
1910 1920
1910 1914 1919 1920
Twenty Years at Hull-House Tender Buttons Winesburg, Ohio by The Age of Innocence by
by Jane Addams by Gertrude Stein Sherwood Anderson Edith Wharton
1912 1916 1920
Harriet Monroe founds Chicago Poems Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
Poetry: A Magazine of Verse by Carl Sandburg
1921
1913 American Indian Stories
A Boy’s Will poetry by Zitkala-Sa
collection by Robert Frost
U N I T E D STAT E S E V E N TS
1910 1920
1910 1913 1920
W. E. B. Du Bois founds Henry Ford introduces Prohibition Amendment
the Crisis magazine assembly-line productivity 1916 outlaws the sale of alcohol
1911 1913 Great Migration begins 1920
National Urban League formed U.S. mint issues first “buffalo,” 1917 Nineteenth Amendment
to assist African Americans or “Indian head,” nickel United States declares war gives women the right
moving into cities on Germany to vote
1914
1911 Marcus Garvey founds 1919 1920
The Nestor Company builds Universal Negro Improvement Black Sox Scandal rocks The nation’s first commercial
the first Hollywood film studio Association American baseball radio station, KDKA, begins
broadcasting in Pittsburgh
WO R L D E VE N TS
1910 1920
1910 1912 1920
Mexican Revolution begins Titanic sinks after striking an First meeting of the League
iceberg near Newfoundland of Nations in Geneva,
1910
Switzerland
Japan takes over Korea 1913 1914 ▲
The Rite of Spring by Russian Panama Canal opens 1921
1911
composer Igor Stravinsky Diego Rivera begins work on
Manchu Dynasty 1914
marks the beginning of his first mural in Mexico
overthrown in China World War I begins
Modernism in music
1921
1912 1918
1913 Mongolia gains
Native American Jim Thorpe Armistice signed November
Marcel Proust publishes the independence from China
stars at the Olympic Games 11 in France, ending World
first volume of Remembrance
of Things Past War I
1930
1921 1923 1926 1930
All–African American Edna St. Vincent Millay The Weary Blues by Langston Flowering Judas by Katherine
musical Shuffle Along opens wins Pulitzer Prize in poetry Hughes ▲ Anne Porter
on Broadway
1925 1926 1936
1922 The New Yorker magazine The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Eugene O’Neill wins Nobel
The Waste Land by established Hemingway Prize in Literature
T. S. Eliot
1925 1928
1922 The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Home to Harlem by Claude
The Enormous Room Fitzgerald McKay
by E. E. Cummings
1930
1924 1927 1927 1931
Immigration Act bars nearly Conclusion of Sacco- First feature-length “talkie,” “The Star-Spangled Banner”
all Asians Vanzetti murder trial draws or talking motion picture, becomes national anthem
world attention The Jazz Singer, is released
1925 1935
Schoolteacher John Scopes 1927 ▲ 1929 George H. Gallup begins the
goes on trial for teaching Charles Lindbergh flies the League of United Latin Gallup Poll
evolution in Tennessee first nonstop solo flight American Citizens founded
1938
across the Atlantic Ocean
1926 1929 Minimum wage is
Jelly Roll Morton and his 1927 The stock market crashes; established in the Fair Labor
Red Hot Peppers begin a Babe Ruth hits 60 home Great Depression begins Standards Act
series of jazz recordings runs, a record until 1961
1930
1922 1928 1930
Irish writer James Joyce Fifteen countries sign the Mohandas K. Gandhi leads
publishes Ulysses Kellogg-Briand Pact, protest against British salt
condemning war monopoly in India
1926
Economic turmoil leads to a 1928
general strike in Britain Joseph Stalin starts
eliminating private ▲ Mohandas K. Gandhi
businesses in Soviet Union
Reading Check
Analyzing Graphic Information How many changes
Timeline Visit www.glencoe.com for of government throughout the world are shown on
an interactive timeline. this timeline?
$1,000
$900
$800
$700
$600
Cost
$500
$400
$300
$200
Germany 1,773,000 Romania 335,700
$100
Russia 1,700,000 Ottoman Empire 325,000
0 France 1,385,000 United States 107,000
Austria-Hungary 1,200,000 Bulgaria 87,500
1908 1912 1916 1920 1924 British Empire 908,400 Others 74,200
Source American Vision
Year Italy 650,000
Back in My Day Charles Lindbergh thrilled people • More than 17 million immi-
in the United States and abroad grants entered the United
The value of a dollar and the cost of in 1927 with his nonstop, 33½- States in the first quarter of
goods changed dramatically during hour flight from New York to the twentieth century.
the course of the twentieth century. Paris. Upon returning he received:
Here are some economic numbers • In 1921 Congress passed the
from 1915:
• ticker-tape parade in New Emergency Quota Act, restrict-
York City that used 1,800 ing newcomers from Europe
Average Yearly Income pounds of shredded paper to 3 percent of a nationality’s
• 7,000 job offers U.S. population in the 1910
• Workers in finance, insurance,
census. In 1924 this was cut
and real estate $1,040 • 3.5 million letters down to 2 percent and was
• Industrial workers $687 changed to reflect the 1890
• Retail trade workers $510 census population numbers to
• Farm laborers $355 GREAT MIGRATION further limit immigration.
• Domestic servants $342 • In 1910, 75 percent of African
• Public school teachers $328 Americans lived on farms, and THE SHORTENING SKIRT
90 percent lived in the South.
Price of Goods • In 1919, the average distance of
• In the late 1910s and the a skirt hem above the ground
• Bicycle $11.95 1920s, 1.5 million Southern in proportion to a woman’s
• Baseball $1.15 blacks moved to cities—a height was 10 percent.
• Hotel room $1.00 movement called the “Great
Migration.”
• In 1924, it was 15 percent.
• Dozen eggs .39
• In 1925, it was 20 percent.
• Glass of cola .50 • During this period, Chicago’s
• Large roll of toilet paper .70
black population increased by • In 1927, it surpassed 25 per-
148%, Cleveland’s by 307%, cent, reaching the knee.
and Detroit’s by 611%.
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B Women Walking with Girls in Harlem,
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C Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street in New
York City, photograph 1924. In 1920,
for the first time in the country’s
history, a majority of people lived in
cities instead of in rural areas.
Reading Check
Analyzing Graphic Information 3. What can you infer about the literature in this unit
1. Which nation had the greatest number of military from the images of Harlem and a rural farmhouse in
deaths during World War I? New Hampshire?
2. How much less did a Model T cost in 1920 than Maps in Motion Visit
in 1910? www.glencoe.com for an interactive map.
The Harlem
1 New Poetics 2 Modern Fiction 3 Renaissance
In the first part of the twenti- World War I created a genera- African Americans who
eth century, American poetry tion of writers who ques- flocked to New York City’s
pushed the boundaries of tioned traditional values. As a Harlem turned it into a center
subject matter, form, and result, many of them focused of creativity. Out of this cul-
style. Poets in this era found on social problems, a loss of tural whirlwind came litera-
inspiration in a wide range of belief in the old truths, and ture that both celebrated
sources and created new human despair. African American culture and
ways to capture individual See pages 644–645. emphasized the struggle
experience. against racial prejudice.
See pages 642–643. See pages 646–647.
H
ave you ever had a feeling that is both The Imagists
unusually strong and remarkably inex-
The Imagist movement (see pages 650–651), largely
pressible? Shortly before the turn of
founded by Ezra Pound, flourished after 1910. Imagist
the twentieth century, many U.S. poets
poets believed that traditional poetry wasted energy
tried new ways to express their feelings
by describing, generalizing, and rhyming. To reform
and observations. Their new, experimental ways of
poetry, they insisted on direct presentation of images.
writing became known as Modernism. Some people
“An ‘Image’ is that which presents an intellectual
thought the new poetics, or methods for writing
and emotional complex in an instant of time,”
poetry, were an assault on literature. To others, mod-
Pound wrote. He and other Imagist poets, such as
ern poetry spoke eloquently about the mind and the
Amy Lowell and H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), also wrote
heart of the individual, doing so in new ways linked
manifestos, statements explaining their artistic
to the groundbreaking work of earlier poets Walt
philosophy. Imagism strongly influenced William
Whitman and Emily Dickinson (see pages 394–440).
Carlos Williams (see pages 666–670), among others,
to expand the subject matter of poetry to include
New Directions visual impressions that capture the mysterious power
Writers in this period believed that American poetry of ordinary experience.
had become stagnant. As Ezra Pound (see pages 652–
655) said, the modern poets sought to “Make it new!” Eliot’s Perspective
Modern poets found inspiration in a wide range of
Modernism took a different form in the poetry of
sources beyond the traditional lyric and Romantic
T. S. Eliot (see pages 656–665). Wide-ranging allu-
poetry of England. The French Symbolist poets,
sions—references to history, art, and literature—are a
avant-garde, or experimental, painters such as Pablo
fundamental part of his poetic method. Eliot said:
Picasso, traditional Chinese and Japanese poetry, and
“The poet must become more and more comprehen-
everyday life all influenced the new poets.
sive, more allusive, more indirect, in order to force, to
dislocate if necessary, language into its meaning.”
Eliot believed that the effects of war and industry had
“A classic is classic not because it shattered the human spirit. His 1922 poem The Waste
Land, which takes a pessimistic view of civilization, is
conforms to certain structural rules, or considered the most influential poem of this period.
fits certain definitions (of which its
author had quite probably never heard). Breaking the Rules
It is classic because of a certain external E. E. Cummings (see pages 694–698) didn’t care for
the literary conventions that govern the arrangement
and irrepressible freshness. of words, punctuation, and capitalization—or the
—Ezra Pound increasing conformity of individuals in U.S. society
from ABC of Reading either. He insisted on an irregular use of capital and
lowercase letters, creating poems that looked ungram-
matical, and celebrating the individual—especially
the artist. Also a painter, Cummings drew inspiration
from the visual arts, using typography and layout in
new ways—both playful and serious.
W
hat is the best way to tell a story? The Jazz Age
How many ways are there to tell
F. Scott Fitzgerald (pages 742–761) gave the label “the
the same story? Modernist fiction
Jazz Age” to the period between the end of World
writers broke from tradition, as
War I and the beginning of the Great Depression. To
they omitted standard beginnings,
him, this time was both exuberant and mournful. In
transitions, and endings in order to tell stories that
his short life, Fitzgerald embodied the frantic pace and
reproduced the complex ways in which people think.
social ambitions typical of the Jazz Age. Yet, beneath
the surface, he believed that the United States was
The Shadow of War fundamentally in disarray. He said there was a new
War often leads to dramatic developments in art and “generation grown up to find all Gods dead, all wars
literature. World War I prompted many writers to fought, all faiths in man shaken.” In the United
question cultural traditions and the meaning of life, States, desire for consumer goods soared after the war,
turning quite a few youthful optimists into premature and symbols of success, such as cars, were everywhere.
cynics. One of them, John F. Carter, wrote in an issue But many writers were disgusted by what they viewed
of the Atlantic Monthly, “The older generation had as shallow materialism. In his novel The Great Gatsby,
certainly pretty well ruined this world before passing Fitzgerald memorably created glamorous and wealthy
it on to us. They give us this thing, knocked to characters who dash from one party to the next, yet
pieces, leaky, red-hot, threatening to blow up; and cannot find happiness.
then they are surprised that we don’t accept it with
the same attitude of pretty, decorous enthusiasm with
which they received it.” With this shattered world in “It seemed only a question of a few
view, modern fiction writers probed the complex
inner workings of the mind and the breakdown of tra- years before the older people would
ditional values in the modern age. step aside and let the world be run by
those who saw things as they were.”
The Lost Generation
Many writers left the United States during this
—F. Scott Fitzgerald
period and established new lives in Europe. This led from Echoes of the Jazz Age
to a more international perspective that contrasted
with the regionalism that had dominated American
literature after the Civil War. American poet Gertrude
Stein, a longtime resident of Paris, remarked to a new
Hemingway’s Prose
American expatriate, the writer Ernest Hemingway Ernest Hemingway wrote in a concise style influenced
(see pages 732–740), that the young people of the by his background as a newspaper reporter. His spare
time were a “lost generation.” This description became style was markedly different from the elaborate prose
a famous label for those who had lost faith in U.S. that short-story writers and novelists had often used
society and were unsure where to turn. The protago- in the 1800s. Through understatement and irony,
nist, or main character, in Hemingway’s novel The Sun Hemingway’s fiction suggests connections that the
Also Rises comments on this dilemma when he says, reader is left to infer. “I always try to write on the
“You can’t get away from yourself by moving from one principle of the iceberg,” he said. “There is seven-
place to another. There’s nothing to that.” In modern eighths of it underwater for every part that shows.”
fiction, themes of change, indecision, and broken Hemingway’s first novel, The Sun Also Rises, is about
attachments often replace those of stability, heroism, members of the lost generation. It is told by Jake
and love. Barnes, an American newspaperman who has been
wounded in World War I.
You paid some way for everything that was any good. I Perhaps that wasn’t true, though. Perhaps as you went
paid my way into enough things that I liked, so that I had along you did learn something. I did not care what it was
a good time. Either you paid by learning about them, or by all about. All I wanted to know was how to live in it.
experience, or by taking chances, or by money. Enjoying Maybe if you found out how to live in it you learned
living was learning to get your money’s worth and knowing from that what it was all about.
when you had it. You could get your money’s worth. The
world was a good place to buy in. It seemed like a fine
philosophy. In five years, I thought, it will seem just as silly
as all the other fine philosophies I’ve had.
Reading Check
Analyzing Cause and Effect How did World War I
affect fiction writing?
M
usic inspires many of today’s writers The Neighborhood
and artists, just as it did during the
Harlem Renaissance. Artists fed off Harlem became a main destination during the Great
the energy of jazz and their commu- Migration. Word about the vibrant community life
nity and changed American art. and affordable rents in this New York neighborhood
As Countee Cullen stated in his poem “I Have a quickly spread, attracting writers, artists, and musi-
Rendezvous With Life,” it was time to “face the road, cians. It was a haven where African Americans could
the wind and rain, / To heed the calling deep.” The escape the restrictions they faced in the rest of society.
Harlem Renaissance represented the coming-of-age In 1929, when the whole country felt the economic
of African American culture and the flowering of the shock of the stock market crash, there was less money
community’s creative impulses, especially for southern available to spend on the arts—and as a result, the
blacks, who had been exploited for generations in Harlem Renaissance was over. However, writers in the
the United States. 1930s and 1940s such as Richard Wright (see pages
900–908) and Ralph Ellison continued the artistic
coming-of-age that this movement had begun.
Speaking/Listening Working with several other students, create a brief presentation for your class
about how Modernism’s portrayals of life differ from traditional portrayals of the past. You can use
examples from literature, fine art, music, movies, or other kinds of expression.
Visual Literacy Create an illustrated graphic organizer that shows the various influences of World
War I on American literature and culture. You might show how writers responded to the effects of
war, as well as to the postwar economic boom.
Writing Review the political, social, cultural, and economic aspects of the modern period. How
many of these aspects are still a part of United States culture and literature today? Write a brief essay
exploring this question.
O B J EC TIVES
• Evaluate how a historical event shaped the literature of its time. Study Central Visit
• Read to associate literary experiences with contemporary issues. www.glencoe.com and click on Study Central
• Communicate a specific message by using a variety of media forms. to review the Beginnings of the Modern Age.
• Make informed, insightful, and effective presentations about a literary topic.
American Landscape, c. 1930. Charles Sheeler. Oil on canvas, 24 x 31 in. The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
649
The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA/Art Resource, NY
LITER ARY H I STORY
P
HOTOGRAPHERS CAPTURE MOMENTS
in time. Painters depict visual ideas through
arrangements of colors and shapes. What methods
allow writers to use words as someone else might use a
camera or a paintbrush? In the beginning of the modern
age, a group of poets called the Imagists developed new,
influential techniques for presenting visual impressions.
Much of their inspiration came from the Symbolists,
across the Atlantic Ocean, in France.
Imagist Principles
The Imagists issued manifestos, or public declarations
on their poetic principles. The following are sample
manifestos in the style of those issued:
• The image is the essence, the raw material, of
poetry.
Sudden Rain Shower on Ohashi Bridge, from One Hundred • Poetry should be expressed in brief, clear,
Views of Famous Places in Edo, 1850. Ando Hiroshige. concrete language that forms precise images.
Woodblock print. Musée des Arts Asiatiques-Guimet, Paris.
Viewing the Art: This wood-block print recalls the style of
• These images should instantly convey to the
reader the poem’s meaning and emotion.
Japanese haiku masters such as Basho. What does this
print have in common with Imagism? • The language of these poetic images should
sound like simple speech—not be made up of
In 1912 Pound submitted three poems by H.D. (Hilda predictable rhythms and rhymes but of freer,
Doolittle) to Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. One of the more-modern verse forms.
published poems was “Oread” (following). In Greek • Topics for poems need not be high-minded or
mythology, the Oreads were nymphs, minor female “poetic.” No topic is unsuitable for a poem.
divinities of nature, from the mountains. Notice the
irregular, jagged look of the lines and how the line
breaks are determined by the poet’s sense of imagery.
R ES P O N D I N G AN D TH I N K I N G C R ITI CALLY
1. Why did the Symbolist poets refrain from directly 3. What type of images does H.D. create in “Oread”?
explaining their themes? What impressions and associations do they evoke?
2. What did the Imagists want to eliminate from 4. Compare and contrast the ways in which the poems
poetry? Why? on these two pages reflect the themes of Imagist
poets. Which do you find most interesting?
O B J EC TI VES
• Compare and contrast authors’ messages.
• Analyze historical context. Literary History For more about
• Evaluate argument. Symbolist and Imagist poetry, go to www.glencoe.com.
LITERARY HISTO RY 6 51
Ando Hiroshige/Art Resource, NY
B EF O R E YO U R E A D
T
hough Ezra Pound’s literary accomplish-
ments were immense, many hated him. As
his friend and protégé William Carlos
Williams wrote, “Pound is a fine fellow, but not
one person in a thousand likes him, and a great
many people detest him.” Nevertheless, T. S.
Eliot claimed that Pound was “more responsible
for the twentieth-century revolution in poetry
than [was] any other individual.”
Imagism Pound was born in a small town in A Complex Writer Though Pound declared that
writers should “Make it new!” he did not believe in
Idaho, but two years later his family moved east.
newness for its own sake and relied heavily on the
When he was still young, he determined that “at
literature of the past. In The Cantos, his longest
thirty [he] would know more about poetry than
and best-known work, Pound combined materials
any living man.” Pound entered the University of
from different cultures and languages, historical
Pennsylvania at age fifteen but completed his
texts, and newspaper articles. The Cantos is an
undergraduate education at Hamilton College. As
extremely complex work, notorious for its diffi-
a student, he immersed himself in the Latin,
culty and uneven quality.
Greek, and French classics.
Politics, Prison, and Exile During World War
II, Pound supported Fascist Italian dictator Benito
“I have weathered the storm, Mussolini and made radio broadcasts openly criti-
cizing the United States and the efforts of the
I have beaten out my exile.” Allies in the war. After Italy fell, Pound spent six
months as a prisoner of war near Pisa. Here he
—Ezra Pound, “The Rest” wrote The Pisan Cantos, generally considered the
greatest section of his long work.
After receiving his master’s degree in 1906, Pound After being declared mentally unfit to stand trial for
briefly taught languages at a small Presbyterian treason, Pound was sent to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital
college in Indiana. His eccentric manner did not for the criminally insane in Washington, D.C. He
fit well with the school’s character, and, at the age spent the next twelve years at the hospital, after
of 23, Pound left for Europe. He settled first in which the charges against him were dropped. Pound
London, then Paris, and finally in Italy. There he then left the United States, returning to Italy, where
wrote poetry and criticism and translated verse he stayed until his death in Venice in 1972.
from nine languages. He also served as an overseas
editor for Poetry magazine—a position he used to Ezra Pound was born in 1885 and died in 1972.
nurture the careers of Robert Frost and T. S. Eliot,
among others. In 1912, Pound helped establish
Imagism’s manifesto. It called for “direct treatment
of the ‘thing’” and the use of “the language of Author Search For more about
common speech, but . . . always the exact word.” Ezra Pound, go to www.glencoe.com.
• Have you ever looked at something that you see Reading Tip: Taking Notes As you read “In a Station
every day as if for the first time? Explain.
of the Metro” and “A Pact,” note in a double-entry jour-
• How can striking images change the way we think nal any questions that occur to you.
about mundane aspects of the world?
Questions Answers
Building Background How does Pound
“In a Station of the Metro” and “A Pact” were originally feel about Walt
published together in Poetry in 1916. Pound was Whitman?
impressed with the brief but evocative Japanese haiku
form (see Literary Terms Handbook, p. R1). After
experiencing the moment that inspired “In a Station of
the Metro,” Pound composed a thirty-line poem. He Vocabulary
destroyed this first attempt, calling it a work “of second
intensity.” After two other tries, he created a short, haiku- apparition (ap´ ə rish ən) n. a ghostlike or
like poem with a single powerful image. nearly invisible appearance; p. 654 Those who
saw the shadowy apparition in the cemetery
believed it was a ghost.
Setting Purposes for Reading
bough (bou) n. tree branch; p. 654 The baby
Big Idea New Poetics bird clung to the bough as it waited for food.
As you read, notice how Pound employs free verse detest (di test ) v. to greatly dislike or loathe;
and the rules of Imagism in his work. p. 654 I have detested television ever since my
favorite show was canceled.
Literary Element Imagery sap (sap) n. a watery source of nutrients that
Imagery is the “word pictures” that writers create to flows through a plant’s circulatory system;
make their subject more vivid or to evoke an emotional p. 654 I decided never to park under a tree again
response in the reader. In creating effective images, writ- after finding my car covered in sap.
ers use sensory details, or descriptions that appeal to
commerce (kom ərs) n. exchange of ideas and
one or more of the five sense: sight, hearing, touch,
opinions; p. 654 Through lively debate and com-
taste, and smell. As you read the poems, examine how
merce, the two opposing political sides were able to
Pound uses imagery to heighten the effect of his words.
reach an agreement.
• See Literary Terms Handbook, p. R9. Vocabulary Tip: Context Clues When you look at
the words and sentences surrounding a new or
unfamiliar word to define it, you are using context
Interactive Literary Elements clues.
Handbook To review or learn more about the literary elements,
go to www.glencoe.com.
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • monitoring comprehension with questioning
• analyzing literary periods • analyzing imagery
EZRA POUND 6 53
S11-219-01C-635423 Ezra Pound
Kingsbury CnBkSG David Reed
Vocabulary
Ezra Pound
R ES P O N D I N G A N D T H I N K I N G C R I T I C A LLY
Respond 5. (a)What is the extended metaphor used in the
last four lines of “A Pact”? (b)What idea do you
1. Which of these poems do you think reveals more
think the speaker expresses in these lines?
about the poet? Explain.
T
. S. Eliot revolutionized poetry more than worked for Lloyds Bank. He also continued to write
any other twentieth-century writer. His poetry and literary essays. His best-known work, The
experiments in language and form and his Waste Land, was published in 1922; in it he
introduction of the scenes and concerns of every- expresses the disillusionment that many people felt
day life into poetry changed literary tastes and after World War I and decries the inability to find
influenced future poets. meaning and purpose in life. The work brought him
Eliot was born in St. Louis, Missouri, into a international acclaim, but not happiness. Eliot was
distinguished family that provided him with the facing great strain in his marriage and in his job.
best education available. In 1906 he matriculated at
Harvard, where he steeped himself in literature and
published his first poems. At Harvard, he studied “Genuine poetry can communicate
under Irving Babbitt, the New Humanist critic of
Romanticism, who helped Eliot develop his taste for before it is understood.”
classicism in literature. Eliot then studied —T. S. Eliot
philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris, at Harvard,
and at Oxford. He eventually settled in England.
Finding a Purpose Eventually, Eliot began a
The First Modernist Poet In his youth, Eliot was new, more satisfying career as a book editor and
influenced by the French Symbolist poets. In England, joined the Church of England. In Christianity he
Eliot met the Imagist poet Ezra Pound, another found a purpose in life, and in his poems, such as
American expatriate. Pound had an even stronger “The Hollow Men,” “Ash Wednesday,” and Four
influence on Eliot. He championed Eliot’s writing Quartets, he described the importance and diffi-
and served as his editor. In 1915 Pound per- culty of belief in a spiritually impoverished world.
suaded Poetry magazine to publish “The
Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” Often In his later years, Eliot wrote several plays,
called the first Modernist poem, attempting to adapt verse drama to the modern
“Prufrock” captures the emptiness and stage. Murder in the Cathedral (1935), about the
alienation many people experienced martyrdom of Saint Thomas à Becket, was a great
while living in impersonal modern cities. success in both England and the United States. He
The poem baffled and angered many also wrote literary criticism. In recognition of his
readers. They found its subject mat- achievements, he received the Nobel Prize in
ter “unpoetic,” its fragmented struc- Literature in 1948. Eliot’s poetry has been praised
ture off-putting, and its allusions, for the power of its symbolism, its precise, often
difficult to understand. ironic language, and its mastery of form. At the
time of his death in 1965, Eliot was considered by
The outbreak of World War I many to be the most important and influential
prevented Eliot’s return to poet and critic writing in the English language.
Harvard for his final doctoral
examinations. He remained T. S. Eliot was born in 1888 and died in 1965.
in England, where he mar-
ried Vivien Haigh-
Wood, taught Author Search For more about
school, and Author Name,
T. S. Eliot, go togowww.glencoe.com.
to www.literature.glencoe.com.
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following:
• interpreting literary allusions • understanding dramatic monologue
• analyzing visual images • writing a character analysis
T. S . ELIOT 6 57
Winter Night, 1928. Stefan Hirsch. Oil on panel, 221/2 x 19 3/4 in.
T. S. Eliot Collection of the Newark Museum.
S11-114-01C-635423
CG Greeting Momotone U5 T7
Vocabulary
insidious (in sidē əs) adj. slyly dangerous; deceitful
Big Idea New Poetics How does Eliot disregard traditional poetic elements in
these lines? What traditional element does he keep?
T. S. ELIOT 659
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
I know the voices dying with a dying fall
Beneath the music from a farther room.
So how should I presume?
Vocabulary
presume (pri zō¯ōm) v. to expect something without justification; to take for
granted
digress (d̄ res) v. to depart from the main subject; to ramble
malinger (mə linər) v. to pretend incapacity or illness to avoid work
Rainy Night, 1930. Charles Burchfield. Watercolor, 30 x 42 in. San Diego Museum of Art.
85 And I have seen the eternal Footman10 hold my coat, and 10. The eternal Footman is Death.
snicker,
And in short, I was afraid.
T. S. ELIOT 661
After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets,
After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail
along the floor—
And this, and so much more?—
It is impossible to say just what I mean!
Literary Element Allusion What does this allusion tell the reader about how
Prufrock sees himself?
Big Idea New Poetics How is this line an example of the new poetics of Modernism?
Vocabulary
deferential (def´ə renshəl) adj. yielding to someone else’s opinions or wishes
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. What image does the name J. Alfred Prufrock con- 5. (a)What are being compared in the extended
jure up for you? How does Prufrock, as his charac- metaphor in lines 15–22? (b)How does this
ter and personality are expressed throughout the metaphor contribute to the meaning of the poem?
poem, illustrate this image?
6. (a)In lines 26–27, Prufrock says that there will be
Recall and Interpret time “To prepare a face to meet the faces that you
meet.” For what occasions does one “prepare a
2. (a)In lines 1–9, what do the images that Prufrock
face”? Explain. (b)What is the difference between
uses to describe the evening and the places he
meeting a “face” and meeting a person?
will travel through evoke? (b)What do these
descriptions suggest about his state of mind? 7. (a)What, in your opinion, is Prufrock’s
“overwhelming question” (lines 10 and 93)?
3. (a)What kinds of activities does Prufrock say he will
(b)Why does Prufrock never ask the question?
have time for in lines 26–48? (b)What does he
mean by “Do I dare/Disturb the universe”? 8. (a)What does the allusion to mermaids (lines
124–130) suggest about Prufrock’s state of
4. (a)How does Prufrock describe himself and his
mind? (b)What is the function of the final line of
life in lines 49–74? (b)What does Prufrock’s
the poem?
description of his life suggest about his personal
self-assessment? Connect
9. Big Idea New Poetics (a)How does this “love
song” differ from traditional love poetry?
(b)How is the title of the poem ironic?
V I S UA L L I T E R AC Y: Fine Art
Study the painting Rainy Night below. The painter, representative of the second phase of the artist’s
Charles Burchfield (1893–1967), is known for his career, when he painted scenes depicting the
watercolors. This work was painted in 1930 and is bleakness of city life.
T. S. ELIOT 663
San Diego Museum of Art. Gift of Anne R. and Amy Putnam.
L I T E R A RY A NA LYS I S R EAD I N G AN D VO CAB U L ARY
T. S. ELIOT 665
B EF O R E YO U R E A D
W
illiam Carlos Williams led a double life established himself as a
as a doctor and an award-winning poet. major voice in modern
Often he would write between seeing poetry. However,
patients, sometimes even jotting down poems on Williams soon began to drift away from Pound and
prescription pads. Despite the fact that his atten- mainstream Imagism. He felt that Pound’s ideas
tion was divided, Williams managed to write some were too rooted in the cultural values of Europe,
of the most memorable poems of the Imagist and not those of the United States, which
movement. In his poetry, he captured America’s Williams so adored.
colloquial speech and presented everyday events in
During the 1920s and 1930s, Williams published
powerful, compact lines.
several books, including two collections of poetry,
Kora in Hell and Spring and All; a book of essays, In
the American Grain; and a novel, White Mule,
“Eyes stand first in the poet’s which was the first in a trilogy telling the story of
an American family. From 1946 through 1958,
equipment.” Williams worked on his masterpiece, Paterson.
—William Carlos Williams This epic poem, which spans five volumes,
mythologizes the world of northern New Jersey. In
1963 Williams was awarded a posthumous Pulitzer
Prize for his collection Pictures from Brueghel and
Doctor and Poet Williams was born in Other Poems.
Rutherford, New Jersey, and came from a diverse
background: his mother was born in Puerto Rico, Visionary and Legacy Believing that poetry
and his father was British. Williams began writing should be grounded in everyday things and scenes,
poetry in high school and soon settled on the goal Williams was famous for saying, “No ideas but in
of becoming both a doctor and a writer. things.” He explored the world around him, writ-
While attending the University of Pennsylvania ing of New Jersey’s gritty, industrial landscape and
Medical School, Williams wrote many of the of his patients and neighbors, many of whom were
poems that would appear in his first book, Poems, impoverished immigrants struggling to succeed in
published in 1909. At school he also met and the United States. Williams left an impressive leg-
befriended the poet Ezra Pound. Pound would acy of work that had an enormous influence on the
become a great influence on the young Williams, writers of the 1950s and 1960s and continues to be
even arranging for the publication of his second very important to poets today. Somehow, while
collection, The Tempers, in 1913. accomplishing so much as a writer, he also man-
aged to deliver more than two thousand babies.
After completing his internship in New York and
further study in advanced pediatrics in Leipzig, William Carlos Williams was born in 1883 and died in
Germany, Williams returned to Rutherford, where 1963.
he began his medical practice and continued to
write. In his next book, Al Que Quiere! (To Him
Who Wants It!), published in 1917, Williams drew Author Search For more about
upon his Spanish and Puerto Rican heritage and William Carlos Williams, go to www.glencoe.com.
• See Literary Terms Handbook, p. R7. Vocabulary Tip: Antonyms When two words have
opposite or nearly opposite meanings, they are
called antonyms. Note that antonyms are always
the same part of speech.
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • analyzing form
• analyzing literary periods • recognizing an author’s purpose
a red wheel
barrow
Vocabulary
depend (di pend ) v. to rely on
glazed ( lāzd) adj. covered with a smooth, glossy coating
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
5 and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
10 they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond 5. (a)What does the speaker want from the person
being addressed? (b)What is described in the final
1. What feelings do the images, tones, and word
lines of the poem? Why do you think these things
choice in these poems evoke?
are described?
Recall and Interpret
Analyze and Evaluate
2. What do the first two lines of “The Red
6. (a)Williams carefully arranges his words, including
Wheelbarrow” suggest about the speaker’s
breaking up the words rainwater and wheelbarrow.
response to the scene?
How, in your opinion, does the breaking of these
3. (a)What does Williams describe in stanzas 3 and 4? words across lines affect their meaning? (b)What
(b)What do you think Williams is saying by intro- do you think of this technique? Explain.
ducing these elements into his poem?
7. (a)What is the tone of “This Is Just to Say”? (b)Why
4. (a)In “This Is Just to Say,” what does the speaker is this tone appropriate?
admit to in the first two lines of the poem?
(b)What does this admission suggest about the Connect
speaker’s relationship with the person being
8. Big Idea New Poetics How are these poems
addressed?
innovative in their subject matter and style?
L I T E R A RY A N A LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
1. Briefly describe the forms used in “The Red 2. What do you think is the author’s purpose in “This
Wheelbarrow” and “This Is Just to Say.” Is Just to Say”? What evidence do you find for this
purpose in the poem?
2. Why do you think Williams used these forms?
Examples
º Reading Handbook
The meanings of many compound words are obvious from the parts
For more about compound
that make up the word. For example:
words, see Reading
• What is sawdust? Handbook, p. R20.
It is the dust created by sawing wood.
• What is a look-alike?
It’s someone or something that looks just like someone or something else.
• What is a natural resource?
It is a naturally occurring material that is useful to humans, such as mineral
deposits, forests, or water.
The meanings of other compound words, however, may be less obvious. To learn
the meaning of less familiar compound words, you should consult a dictionary.
B. Define the following compound words based on their word parts. Discuss
your definitions with a partner. Then check your definitions.
1. ivory tower 3. icebox
2. dark horse 4. green revolution
671
B EF O R E YO U R E A D
A
collection North of Boston in the New Republic.
my Lowell was a brash, controversial,
uncompromising woman, and one of the
Poetic Influence Lowell’s growing influence
most important poets of the Imagist within the Imagist movement caused Pound to
movement. Her promotion of Imagism in the remove himself from it. He would later sarcastically
United States, along with her irreverent person- refer to the group as “Amygism” after it had fully
ality, turned Lowell into one of the most well- come under Lowell’s influence. Over the next sev-
known poets of her generation. eral years, she edited three volumes of the annual
Amy Lowell was born in Brookline, Massachusetts. anthology Some Imagist Poets. Before 1920 she pub-
Her family was wealthy and socially prominent: lished many more books of poetry and prose,
Lowell was related to Fireside poet James Russell including Can Grande’s Castle, Tendencies in Modern
Lowell (see pages 200–201), her brother Abbott American Poetry, and Men, Women, and Ghosts.
served as the president of Harvard University from
1909 to 1933, and her brother Percival was a famed
astronomer. Lowell spent her first twenty-eight “Why should one read Poetry? That
years like most women in her social set. She trav-
eled, was educated in private schools in Boston, and seems to me a good deal like asking:
considered prospects for marriage. However, in Why should one eat?”
1902, Lowell chose a new path and dedicated her
life to poetry. —Amy Lowell
Lowell also began to Amy Lowell was born in 1874 and died in 1925.
make friends with
many literary figures, Author Search For more about
including Robert Frost Amy Lowell, go to www.glencoe.com.
672
Bettmann/CORBIS
L I T E R AT U R E P R E V I E W R E A D I N G P R EVI E W
Setting Purposes for Reading pepper (pe pər) v. to shower with small objects;
p. 675 The crowd was peppered with candy from
Big Idea Modern Poetry the passing parade floats.
As you read, notice how Lowell uses imagery to con-
crimson (krim zən) adj. a bright purplish red;
vey emotions and ideas.
p. 675 The girl’s crimson coat caught the eye of
many people.
Literary Element Enjambment
azure (ā zhər) adj. a light purplish blue; p. 675
Enjambment is the continuation of a sentence across a The azure sky was a beautiful sight.
line break without a punctuated pause between lines. A
poet may choose to use enjambment for a number of mount (mount) v. to ascend or to soar; p. 675
reasons: to maintain a rhyme scheme or a rhythm, to As the rocket mounted, the crowd began to cheer.
increase readability, or to create exciting juxtapositions of
language or ideas. As you read, pay attention to Lowell’s Vocabulary Tip: Synonyms
use of enjambment and how it affects the poems. When two words have nearly the same meaning,
they are called synonyms. Note that synonyms
• See Literary Terms Handbook, p. R5. always have the same part of speech.
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • interpreting imagery
• analyzing literary periods • expanding vocabulary
• understanding enjambment
Literary Element Enjambment Why do you think Lowell chose to use enjambment
in lines 9–10?
Vocabulary
pepper (pepər) v. to shower with small objects
crimson (krimzən) adj. a bright purplish red
azure (āzhər) adj. a light purplish blue
mount (mount) v. to ascend or to soar
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond 5. (a)What does the speaker claim to do in the win-
dow and to the trees? (b)In your opinion, how
1. In your opinion, which poem expresses the
does this image affect the following line?
speaker’s emotion most effectively? Explain.
L I T E R A RY A N A LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
Archibald MacLeish
Ars Poetica ............................................................................ poem .................. 680
Defining poetry
United States, 1920s
Mark Strand
Eating Poetry ....................................................................... poem .................. 684
A hunger for words
United States, 1968
Ishmael Reed
beware: do not read this poem ................................ poem .................. 686
Poetry—a warning
United States, 1972
Ars Poetica
M E E T A RC H I BA LD M AC LE ISH two small children to Paris. MacLeish pursued his
writing there and published four poetry collections
A
in five years. In 1928 MacLeish returned with his
rchibald MacLeish was a poet with a pur-
family to the United States, where he continued
pose. He believed that, through love and
writing poetry. In 1933 he won his first Pulitzer Prize
awareness, U.S. citizens could achieve the
for Conquistador, an epic poem about the conquest of
goals of freedom and equality set down in the
Mexico by the Spanish.
Declaration of Independence. MacLeish’s idealism is
evident both in his poetry and in his public life. Public Interests Concerned about the nation’s
social problems, MacLeish also wrote journalistic
articles and supported President Franklin D.
“But what, then, is the business of Roosevelt’s New Deal economic reforms and anti-
poetry? Precisely to make sense of the Hitler stance. Critic David Luytens called MacLeish
“the poet laureate of the New Deal.” In the 1940s,
chaos of our lives.” MacLeish served as director of a wartime office of
propaganda, as assistant secretary of state, and as a
—Archibald MacLeish
librarian of Congress. He was also chairman of the
U.S. delegation for the founding conference of
Creative Echoes Born in the late 1800s in UNESCO (the United Nations Educational,
Glencoe, Illinois, MacLeish was keenly aware of Scientific, and Cultural Organization) in 1945.
both the traditional world and the constantly evolv- Through all these diplomatic commitments,
ing cultural landscape of the early twentieth century. MacLeish continued to write poetry as well as
After attending Yale University, where he played drama. His first play to be produced—Panic: A Play
football, MacLeish entered Harvard Law School at in Verse—was based on the biblical story of Cain but
the age of twenty-three. Being at Harvard further was set in the Great Depression. MacLeish, who was
enlivened his interest in, as MacLeish put it, “the also on the editorial board of the business magazine
vision of mental time, of the interminable journey of Fortune, lamented the economic hardship and grow-
the human mind, the ing despair brought on by the Depression.
great tradition of the In the 1950s, MacLeish won two more Pulitzer
intellectual past which Prizes: one for poetry and one for drama. Between
knows the bearings of 1944 and 1954—during what has been called his
the future.” Within the “second renaissance” as a poet—he published more
next two years, he mar- than eighty poems. MacLeish’s later works continued
ried singer Ada to explore both the poetic expression of the myster-
Hitchcock and enlisted in ies and feelings of the poet’s inner world, and of the
the army. After World core meaning of U.S. citizenship as passed down
War I, he through the founders of the nation. Critic Hayden
became a suc- Carruth said, “MacLeish wrote not as a personal cru-
cessful lawyer, sader, never as a political crank or lonely visionary,
but he soon but instead as the spokesman of the people.”
quit his job
to move Archibald MacLeish was born in 1892 and died
with his in 1982.
wife and
Author Search For more about
Archibald MacLeish, go to www.glencoe.com.
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • analyzing theme
• relating literature to historical periods • analyzing style
For love
The leaning grasses and two lights above the sea—
Vocabulary
palpable (palpə bəl) adj. tangible; able to be touched or felt
mute (mūt) adj. silent
entangled (en tanəld) adj. twisted together; caught
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. Which image in the poem could you see, feel, or 5. In your opinion, how effective are the images in
hear most vividly in your imagination? Why? this poem in appealing to the senses? Explain.
Recall and Interpret 6. How does the repetition in lines 9–10 and lines
15–16 contribute to the poem?
2. (a)What five adjectives in lines 1–8 describe what
a poem should be? (b)What is ironic about the 7. In your opinion, do lines 20 and 22 adequately cap-
use of these words to describe a poem? ture the emotions of grief and love? Why or why not?
3. (a)To what does the speaker compare poetry in 8. A simile is a figure of speech in which things are
lines 9–16? (b)What does this image suggest compared through the use of words such as like or
about the function of poetry? as. How do the similes in “Ars Poetica” contribute
to the effectiveness of the poem?
4. (a)How does the speaker suggest that grief and
love should be represented in poetry? (b)What can Connect
you infer from this suggestion about the way
poems should express emotions? 9. Big Idea New Poetics MacLeish was a believer
in both tradition and innovation. What traits of
Modernism do you see in “Ars Poetica”?
A R C H I B AL D M AC L E I S H 6 81
B EF O R E YO U R E A D
Building Background
Rainer Maria Rilke was born in 1875 in Prague, which Rilke wrote to Franz Xaver Kappus, an aspiring poet.
was then part of Austria-Hungary and is now the The letters were written during a five-year period that
capital of the Czech Republic. He spoke and usually started in 1903, when Rilke was in Paris. In these
wrote in German. In 1902 Rilke went to Paris to write letters, Rilke passed on to Kappus the bravado and
a book about Auguste Rodin, the great French sculptor. confidence that he had learned from Rodin. Rilke said,
Rodin quickly became Rilke’s friend and mentor, “Love consists in this, that two solitudes protect and
sharing with the young poet a creative methodology touch and greet each other.” Rilke died in Switzerland
based on an ethic of hard work and dedication to in 1926, but his letters and poetry continue to
minute detail. Rodin’s theories about the creative influence many writers here and abroad.
process ran counter to the popular idea that art is an
Rainer Maria Rilke was born in 1875 and died in 1926.
inspiration that comes from a muse, or an outside
force or spirit long depicted in female form.
Author Search For more about
The following selection is from a collection of letters Rainer Maria Rilke, go to www.glencoe.com.
Rainer Maria Rilke The Heart Called “Rancho Pastel”, Jim Dine. Private collection.
You ask whether your poems are good. You send the deepest place of your heart? Can you avow2
them to publishers; you compare them with that you would die if you were forbidden to
other poems; you are disturbed when certain write? Above all, in the most silent hour of your
publishers reject your attempts. Well now, since night, ask yourself this: Must I write? Dig deep
you have given me permission to advise you, I into yourself for a true answer. And if it should
suggest that you give all that up. You are looking ring its assent, if you can confidently meet this
outward and, above all else, that you must not do serious question with a simple, “I must,” then
now. No one can advise and help you, no one. build your life upon it. It has become your neces-
There is only one way: Go within. Search for sity. Your life, in even the most mundane and
the cause, find the impetus1 that bids you write. least significant hour, must become a sign, a tes-
Put it to this test: Does it stretch out its roots in timony to this urge.
R A I N E R M AR I A R I L K E 683
B EF O R E YO U R E A D
Building Background
Mark Strand developed as a writer during the 1960s—a exploration of the power of presence and absence
period when, he later noted, “Poets were underground in life. Critic Jane Candia Coleman commented that
pop stars.” Strand was born on Canada’s Prince Edward although Strand’s poetry can be abstract and difficult,
Island in 1934 and grew up in various cities in the “the reader who delves, who meets the poet halfway,
United States. Strand is a noted poet, public reader, and will be rewarded by glimpses of a different world,
translator who has taught at numerous universities— that changeable one of dreams and the elusive
including Harvard, the University of Utah, and the beauty that haunts us all.”
University of Iowa (where he also received a master’s
Mark Strand was born in 1934.
degree in creative writing). He was named U.S. Poet
Laureate in 1990 and won a Pulitzer Prize for his
collection of poetry Blizzard of One in 1999.
Influenced by the work of Archibald MacLeish, Author Search For more about
Strand’s poetry is noted for its surreal imagery and Mark Strand, go to www.glencoe.com.
Mark Strand
I am a new man.
I snarl at her and bark.
I romp with joy in the bookish dark.
Quickwrite
Strand has said, “A poem may be the residue of an inner urgency, one through which
the self wishes to register itself, write itself into being, and, finally, to charm another
self, the reader, into belief.” Strand’s description of the speaker in “Eating Poetry” is
purposefully ambiguous. Write a paragraph in which you interpret the character of the
speaker in this poem. Identify the poet’s purpose and cite evidence from the text to
support your view.
M A RK S T RA ND 685
Images.com/CORBIS
B EF O R E YO U R E A D
Building Background
Ishmael Reed has described his eclectic writing style as In his poems, Reed’s innovative approach is obvious.
“Neoamerican hoodooism,” an expression that implies a He purposely omits vowels, uses ampersands instead
melding of the magic healing in African folk culture and of the word and, and inserts punctuation at
many other U.S. cultural elements. Reed was born in unexpected places. One effect of his techniques is to
1938 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, but he grew up in quicken and vary the pace of his poetry. The following
Buffalo, New York, where he studied at the University of selection is included in Reed’s second book of poetry,
Buffalo. He later moved to New York City. Throughout Conjure. The book, published in 1972, was nominated
his career, Reed has shown a razor-edged satirical wit, for a National Book Award.
often addressing the failures he sees in the cultural and
Ishmael Reed was born in 1938.
political institutions of his country. Reed’s style blends
European and African traditions and showcases his
broad-ranging cultural and historical knowledge. Author Search For more about
Ishmael Reed, go to www.glencoe.com.
Ishmael Reed
Quickwrite
The title of this selection naturally attracts the reader’s
interest. Despite the fact that the title warns the
reader not to continue reading, the poem focuses on
the relationship that exists in poetry between the
reader and the writer. Write a paragraph in which you
discuss how this selection develops the idea that
“this poem is the reader & the / reader this poem.”
I SH M A EL R EED 687
Wrap-up: Comparing Literature Across Time and Place
1. Which writer’s statement about what poetry should be appeals to you most? Explain why.
2. In what ways does each selection break the traditional rules of poetry?
3. How does each writer demonstrate what the experience of poetry should be for both reader
and writer, and how does each provide criteria for evaluating poetry?
“A poem should not mean Full Moon at Takanawa, from Celebrated places in the Eastern
But be” Capital of Edo, 1832. Ando or Utagawa Hiroshige. Woodblock color
—MacLeish, “Ars Poetica” print, 10 x 15 in. Brooklyn Museum of Art, NY.
O B J EC TIVES
• Compare and contrast authors’ messages. • Compare works from different eras that address
• Analyze historical context. similar themes.
• Compare literary trends.
F
or a poet with such a powerful imagination, recognizable and
Wallace Stevens led an outwardly quiet and important work.
uneventful life. His entire professional It shows the
career was spent as an employee of an insurance influence of both
company. In his journals he expressed embarrass- the French
ment about writing poems: “Keep all this a great Symbolists and
secret. There is something absurd about all this the English
writing of verses; but the truth is, it elates and Romantics, particularly Wordsworth and
satisfies me to do it.” Coleridge. The volume was reissued in 1931 and
then again in 1947. In this book, Stevens illus-
trates his belief that “the imagination is man’s
power over nature.”
“How full of trifles everything is! It is
only one’s thoughts that fill a room Maturity and Acceptance During the 1930s,
Stevens published three more books, Ideas and
with something more than furniture.” Order, Owl’s Clover, and The Man with the Blue
—Wallace Stevens Guitar, which reveal the progressive development
of his poetic style. By the 1940s, Stevens had
entered the most creatively fertile time in his life.
He gradually abandoned the intricate forms and
Youth Stevens was born in Reading, Pennsylvania. lavish imagery of his early work in favor of a more
His father was a country lawyer, and his mother was concise, abstract style. In 1954 Stevens’s Collected
a teacher. Stevens enrolled at Harvard College in Poems appeared. With this publication, shortly
1897, where he became friends with the philoso- before his death, Stevens attracted widespread
pher George Santayana, who encouraged Stevens attention for the first time. The Collected Poems
to publish his early poems in the Harvard Advocate. was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1955.
Stevens left school abruptly after only three years,
failing to complete his degree. He moved to New Poet of the Imagination Central to all of
York City and worked briefly as a reporter for the Stevens’s poetry is the primacy of the creative
Herald Tribune. Then, after enrolling at the New imagination. According to Stevens, the role of the
York Law School, he acquired his degree and was poet is to use the imagination to “become the light
admitted to the bar in 1904. For the next several in the minds of others” by helping people to dis-
years, Stevens worked for various law firms cover new ways of viewing reality and to experi-
throughout the city before moving to Connecticut ence a sense of order in a chaotic world devoid of
where he worked for the Hartford Accident and a clear spiritual definition. His best work explored
Indemnity Company until his death. the complex relationship between the shaping
power of the imagination and the physical world.
In 1914 Poetry magazine published four of
Stevens’s poems. These poems were eventually Wallace Stevens was born in 1879 and died in 1955.
included in his first book, Harmonium, which
appeared in 1923. It was well received by critics
but sold only one hundred copies. However, Author Search For more about
Harmonium contains some of Stevens’s most Wallace Stevens, go to www.glencoe.com.
• See Literary Terms Handbook, p. R11. Vocabulary Tip: Synonyms Synonyms are words
that have the same or similar meanings. Synonyms
are always the same part of speech.
Interactive Literary Elements
Handbook To review or learn more about the literary elements,
go to www.glencoe.com.
OB J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • analyzing motif
• analyzing literary periods • recognizing author’s purpose
Opusculum paedagogum.1
The pears are not viols,2
Nudes or bottles.
They resemble nothing else.
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. Which of these poems do you prefer? Explain. 5. (a)Why do you think Stevens chose to divide “Study
of Two Pears” into multiple sections? How does this
Recall and Interpret structure affect the poem’s meaning? (b)Do you
2. (a)In the final stanza of “Study of Two Pears,” what think that dividing the poem into sections strength-
does the speaker mean by saying that the pears ens or weakens the poem? Explain.
are not seen as the observer wills? (b)How does
6. (a)How does Stevens use rhyme in “The Man with
this statement relate to the speaker’s assertion in
the Blue Guitar”? Why do you think that Stevens
the first stanza?
chose to employ this rhyme scheme? (b)Do you
3. (a)In “The Man with the Blue Guitar,” what do the find the rhyme scheme effective? Explain.
listeners accuse the guitarist of doing? How does
7. (a)In “The Man with the Blue Guitar,” the listeners
the guitarist respond? (b)What does this exchange
demand that the guitarist play “a tune beyond us,
tell you about the guitar and the guitarist?
yet ourselves.” What do you think this demand
4. (a)What do the listeners tell the guitarist to do in means? (b)In your opinion, what kinds of art may
the last two stanzas? (b)The guitarist does not reply. fulfill this dual function?
If he did reply, what do you think he would say?
Connect
8. Big Idea New Poetics How do these two
poems illustrate various aspects of Modernism?
L I T E R A RY A NA LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
Vocabulary Practice
Reading Further
Practice with Synonyms Find the synonym for
Look for these works by or about Wallace Stevens:
each vocabulary word from “Study of Two Pears.”
Poetry Collections Wallace Stevens: Collected Poetry
1. bulge a. shrink b. protrude
and Prose, published by the Library of America.
2. taper a. narrow b. race
Biographies Souvenirs and Prophecies: The Young
Wallace Stevens by Holly Bright Stevens (1977) 3. glisten a. shine b. disappear
Bettmann/CORBIS
somewhere i have never
travelled,gladly beyond and
anyone lived in a pretty how town
M E E T E . E . C U M M I N GS
E
dward Estlin Cummings coined the term
“mostpeople” to describe conformists.
Throughout his life, Cummings rebelled
against the authoritarian forces that tend to sup-
press uniqueness. Challenging the social norms of Art and Poetry After the war, Cummings settled
the day, he married three times and only briefly in New York City’s Greenwich Village, studied art
held a regular job. Friends and family came to his in Paris, and published his first book of poetry,
rescue when he needed money. “I’m living so far Tulips and Chimneys (1923). In New York City, he
beyond my income,” he once wrote, “that we may continued his experiments with free verse and
almost be said to be living apart.” His rebellion painted in the Cubist style, exhibiting his work
against authority took radical form in his poetry. regularly. He traveled in Europe in the 1920s and
People often view language as a fixed system. divided his time between New York City and a
Cummings did not see it that way; he saw language farm in New Hampshire owned by his family. In
as a flexible tool. In his poems, he combined 1925, two more volumes of his verse were pub-
words, playing with punctuation and syntax to lished, and Cummings received a $2,000 award
create unique forms of poetic expression. from Dial magazine. In 1928 the Provincetown
Playhouse produced a Cummings play called Him,
which ran for 27 performances. Most critics hated
it, but audience response was more favorable.
“To be nobody-but-myself—in a world
which is doing its best, night and day, to Applause at Last Cummings continued to pub-
lish his poetry throughout the 1930s and 1940s. His
make me everybody else—means to Collected Poems (1938) received generally good
fight the hardest battle which any human reviews but sold poorly. He had won a Guggenheim
Fellowship in 1933, but it was not until the 1950s
being can fight and never stop fighting.” that he received more recognition, winning the
—E. E. Cummings Harriet Monroe Prize in 1950, another Guggen-
heim Fellowship in 1951, and the Bollingen Prize
in Poetry in 1958. He also began to read his poetry
to enthusiastic audiences, and in 1952–1953 he
Cummings was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, lectured at Harvard. Biographer Richard S. Kennedy
the son of a Unitarian minister and a mother who summed up Cummings’s work by writing “What he
encouraged him to write and keep a journal. A year produced will long amuse, titillate, thrill, provoke,
after receiving a master’s degree from Harvard or enthrall his readers.”
University in 1916, Cummings volunteered to
Edward Estlin Cummings was born in 1894 and died
serve as an ambulance driver in World War I. He
in 1962.
and a friend were wrongly arrested and imprisoned
in France on charges of spying. A few months later,
they were released, and Cummings wrote about his Author Search For more about
experiences there in The Enormous Room (1922). E. E. Cummings, go to www.glencoe.com.
O B J EC TIVES
In studying these selections, you will focus on the following: • understanding rhythm
• relating literature to the historical period • understanding style
E. E. CUMMINGS 695
Open Door on the Beach. Konstantine Rodko.
Private collection, New York.
somewhere 5
or which i cannot touch because they are too near
never 10
or if your wish be to close me,i and
my life will shut very beautifully,suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
gladly
the power of your intense fragility:whose texture
15 compels me with the colour of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing
Big Idea New Poetics What images recur in this poem? How are
these images connected?
Vocabulary
render (ren dər) v. to reproduce or depict in verbal or artistic form
5 Women and men(both little and small) how children are apt to forget to remember
cared for anyone not at all with up so floating many bells down)
they sowed their isn’t they reaped their same
sun moon stars rain 25 one day anyone died i guess
(and noone stooped to kiss his face)
children guessed(but only a few busy folk buried them side by side
10 and down they forgot as up they grew little by little and was by was
autumn winter spring summer)
that noone loved him more by more all by all and deep by deep
30 and more by more they dream their sleep
when by now and tree by leaf noone and anyone earth by april
she laughed his joy she cried his grief wish by spirit and if by yes.
15 bird by snow and stir by still
anyone’s any was all to her Women and men(both dong and ding)
summer autumn winter spring
someones married their everyones 35 reaped their sowing and went their came
laughed their cryings and did their dance sun moon stars rain
(sleep wake hope and then)they
20 said their nevers they slept their dream
stars rain sun moon Reading Strategy Analyzing Style Cummings uses famil-
(and only the snow can begin to explain iar words in unfamiliar ways. What effect does this stylistic
element have on your understanding of the poem?
Reading Strategy Analyzing Style What features of
Cummings’s poetry stand out from the other poetry you Literary Element Rhythm What effect does the rhythm
have read? have on the overall tone of the poem?
Vocabulary Vocabulary
reap (rēp) v. to gather, as in harvesting a crop apt (apt) adj. likely; having a tendency
E. E. C UMMINGS 697
Archivo Iconografico, S.A./CORBIS
A F T E R YO U R E A D
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond 6. (a)What happens to children as they grow up?
(b)What is Cummings suggesting about the differ-
1. What was your first reaction to the strange syntax and
ence between children and adults?
the other unusual features in Cummings’s poems?
L I T E R A RY A N A LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
A
lthough influenced by Ezra Pound and the
Imagists, Carl Sandburg broke away from
them. He sought to reach a wider audience—
and he did. From the 1916 publication of Chicago
Poems until his death in 1967, Sandburg was one of
America’s most popular and successful poets.
Carl Sandburg collected material for his poetry
Sandburg’s poems, and with the publication of
from his broad and varied life experience. Besides
Chicago Poems two years later, Sandburg emerged
being a poet and biographer, he worked as a milk-
as one of Chicago’s literary giants. Dubbed “the
truck driver, bricklayer, and traveling salesman.
Bard of the Midwest,” he soon wrote three more
volumes of poetry that established his national rep-
utation as a poet: Cornhuskers (1918), Smoke and
“Time is the coin of your life. It is the Steel (1920), and Slabs of the Sunburnt West (1922).
only coin you have, and only you can Critics, however, were divided over Sandburg’s poetic
merits. Supporters praised his original subject matter
determine how it will be spent. Be and voice, while detractors criticized his free-verse
careful lest you let other people spend technique and focus on social issues. In response,
Sandburg wrote that his goal in writing poetry was
it for you.”
simply “to sing, blab, chortle, yodel, like people.”
—Carl Sandburg
The People’s Poet A great admirer of Walt
Whitman, Sandburg might be considered Whitman’s
Sandburg grew up in Galesburg, Illinois, the son of successor in his enthusiasm for the common people.
Swedish immigrants. He quit school after eighth Sandburg’s poems, like Whitman’s, are noted for
grade and took odd jobs to help support his family. their use of the rhythms of everyday speech and for
When he was nineteen, he set out to explore the their democratic subjects and themes. They also
United States, joining the many hoboes of the include colorful use of sayings and anecdotes.
period who hitched rides on freight trains. Later
An extremely popular performer, Sandburg fre-
he fought in the Spanish-American War, attended
quently traveled throughout the United States,
college, and then moved to Chicago. There he
lecturing on the lives of Whitman and Abraham
became a journalist, learning to write clearly and
Lincoln, reading his poems aloud, and singing folk
protesting social and racial injustices. He also
songs while playing the guitar. Sandburg won the
began to contribute poems to Poetry magazine.
Pulitzer Prize for his biography of Lincoln in 1940
and for his Complete Poems in 1951. He continued
Literary Giant In the early twentieth century,
to write throughout his final years.
Chicago was a vibrant place for a poet to live. It
was home not only to the influential Poetry maga- Carl Sandburg was born in 1878 and died in 1967.
zine, founded in 1912 by Harriet Monroe, but also
to notable writers such as Sherwood Anderson,
Theodore Dreiser, Vachel Lindsay, and Edgar Lee Author Search For more about
Masters. In 1914 Poetry magazine published six of Carl Sandburg, go to www.glencoe.com.
OB J EC TIVES
In studying these selections, you will focus on the following: • understanding apostrophe
• analyzing literary periods • making inferences about theme
Vocabulary
10 I am the grass.
Let me work.
Big Idea New Poetics How would you describe the speaker’s
attitude toward the dead?
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Grass
1. Which images in these poems impress you the Recall and Interpret
most? Explain. 5. (a)Who is the speaker in this poem? (b)What does
the speaker want to do?
Chicago
6. (a)Why does the speaker mention famous battle
Recall and Interpret sites from different wars? (b)What battle sites
2. (a)What names does the speaker give Chicago in would you add to the speaker’s list?
the first five lines? (b)What do these names reveal?
Analyze and Evaluate
3. (a)List some of the positive adjectives the speaker
7. (a)Why does the speaker describe passengers on a
uses to describe Chicago. (b)What do these words
train in lines 7–9? (b)How well does this image
reveal about the city’s inhabitants and the speaker’s
support the view of war presented in the poem?
attitude toward them?
Connect
Analyze and Evaluate
4. How well does Sandburg’s diction, or word choice, 8. Big Idea New Poetics Ezra Pound stated that
help create a vivid image of the city? Explain. modern poets should “Make it new!” What do you
find new about Sandburg’s poems?
L I T E R A RY A NA LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
C AR L SANDBURG 703
B EF O R E YO U R E A D
R
obert Frost—a poet of dignity, simplicity, fellow New Englanders. In 1912, unable to get his
and ambiguity—was one of the most poems published in the United States, he sold his
honored poets of the twentieth century. farm and moved his family to England.
A four-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for
Poetry, Frost received special recognition from Success and Enduring Acclaim In London
Congress in 1960. The following January, at age Frost became acquainted with Ezra Pound and
eighty-six, he had the honor of reciting his other Modernist poets. He was able to publish
poem “The Gift Outright” at President John F. his first volume of poetry, A Boy’s Will, in 1913,
Kennedy’s inauguration. and North of Boston soon after. Praised by poet
Amy Lowell in a review, North of Boston was
Although closely associated with New England, soon published in the United States and sold
Frost spent his first eleven years in San Francisco. well. By the time Frost returned to New England
After his father died in 1885, his mother moved in 1915, at the start of the First World War, he
Frost and his sister to the gritty industrial city of was well on the road to fame. Prominent
Lawrence, Massachusetts. She taught school and publishers backed his work, and prestigious
wrote poetry, introducing Frost to the work of the universities sought him to teach.
English Romantic writers, the New England
Transcendentalists, and the poets of her native
Scotland. Frost graduated from high school and
went off to Dartmouth College, but he left the “[A poem] begins in delight and ends
school after less than a year.
in wisdom . . . in a clarification of
Farming and Teaching Frost married Elinor life—not necessarily a great
White in 1895. (They had been co-valedictorians of clarification, . . . but in a momentary
their high school class.) They had six children, two
of whom died young. stay against confusion.”
Frost supported his
—Robert Frost
growing family by
farming and teaching
school. At age
twenty-six, Frost Frost’s later years were filled with accolades. He
moved his family to a received more awards than any other twentieth-
farm near Derry, New century poet and was chosen as poetry consultant
Hampshire, where he to the Library of Congress. By the time of his
got to know the rug- death, his poetry had deeply embedded itself in the
ged landscape and American imagination, and it continues to live
inhabitants of rural there today.
New England. There,
between farm chores, Robert Frost was born in 1874 and died in 1963.
Frost wrote poems
describing the
region’s often harsh
conditions and the Author Search For more about
experiences of his Robert Frost, go to www.glencoe.com.
O B J EC TIVES
In studying these selections, you will focus on the following: • comparing and contrasting speakers
• relating literature to the historical period • analyzing dramatic poetry
• understanding blank verse • evaluating characterization
ROBERT F ROST 70 5
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT. Gift
The Last Stone Walls, Dogtown, 1936–37. Marsden Hartley. Oil on canvas, 171/2 x 231/2 in. Yale University Art
Gallery, New Haven, CT. Gift of Walter Bareiss, B.A. 1940.
Viewing the Art: In what ways might this wall be like the one in “Mending Wall”? In what ways might it
be different?
Robert Frost
S11-125-01C-635423 Kent
S
Koch Antiqua U5 T8
Big Idea New Poetics What do these lines tell you about the
relationship between the two neighbors?
Literary Element Blank Verse How does the rhythm of these lines
help create a conversational tone?
Vocabulary
Literary Element Blank Verse Which syllables are
stressed in this sentence? enamel (i naməl) n. a cosmetic or paint that gives a
smooth, glossy appearance
bracken (brakən) n. a type of fern that grows in
humid, temperate areas
1. Subdued means “brought under control” or “conquered.” Reading Strategy Comparing and Contrasting Speakers
What does the speaker admire about the boy who swings on
Big Idea New Poetics Why does the poet include these
birches?
details about the boy?
Vocabulary
poise (poiz) n. a state of balance
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Birches
1. Which images from the poems do you find the Recall and Interpret
most powerful? Explain. 6. (a)What does the speaker want to think has caused
the birches to bend? What has really caused them
Mending Wall to bend? (b)Why might the speaker want to
believe in the imaginary cause?
Recall and Interpret
2. (a)According to the speaker, what causes a wall to 7. (a)To what does the speaker compare the ice that
fall apart? (b)To what might the “something” that falls from birches? To what does he compare their
“doesn’t love a wall” refer? trunks and leaves? (b)What can you infer about
the speaker’s feelings regarding the birches?
3. (a)Describe how the speaker and the neighbor fix
the wall. (b)How do their opinions differ? Analyze and Evaluate
8. (a)In describing the boy who lives “too far from
Analyze and Evaluate town to learn baseball,” whom is the speaker really
4. (a)What does the speaker suggest by describing describing? (b)What kinds of activities might swing-
the neighbor as “an old-stone savage”? (b)How ing on birches represent?
does dialogue help emphasize the differences
between the speaker and the neighbor? 9. Big Idea New Poetics In “Birches,” Frost com-
pares life to a pathless wood. Do you think this is an
5. (a)Why does the speaker refer to this spring ritual as
appropriate simile? Why or why not?
“another kind of out-door game” (line 21)? (b)What
might walls and fences symbolize in this poem?
L I T E R A RY A N A LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. Which lines from the poem did you find most 5. (a)How does the setting of the poem contribute to
powerful or meaningful? Explain. its meaning? (b)What might the woods symbolize?
Recall and Interpret 6. (a)Why does the speaker not embrace the peace-
ful escape offered by the woods? (b)How does the
2. (a)Where does the owner of the woods live, and
repetition in the final lines affect their meaning?
what will he not see? (b)Why might the speaker
care that the owner will not see this? Connect
3. (a)According to the speaker, what must the horse 7. Big Idea New Poetics What themes of modern
think? (b)How might the horse’s instincts differ poetry does “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy
from those of the speaker? Evening” reflect?
4. (a)What adjectives describe the woods in line 13?
(b)What mood do these words create?
L I T E R A RY A N A LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
Park Row, Leeds, England, 1882. John Atkinson Grimshaw. Oil on canvas. 1. Luminary means “giving light.”
Private Collection. 2. Proclaimed means “declared publicly.”
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. Which image from this poem is most memorable? 5. (a)What is the night in this poem like? (b)What do
you think “the night” symbolizes?
Recall and Interpret
6. Why does Frost repeat line 1 in line 14?
2. (a)When and where has the speaker walked in
lines 1–3? What has he seen in line 4? (b)Why 7. How does Frost create a mood of loneliness or
might the speaker be out walking alone at night? isolation in this poem?
3. (a)What does the speaker do when passing the watch- Connect
man? (b)Why does the speaker choose to do this?
8. Big Idea New Poetics What Modernist themes
4. (a)What does the clock proclaim? (b)Why does the does Frost explore in this poem?
speaker not reveal the exact time?
L I T E R A RY A N A LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
3. What effects does Frost create in the final stanza? 2. What sets this speaker apart from the other speak-
ers created by Frost?
Performing
Academic Vocabulary
Choose a Robert Frost poem, or a section of a poem,
that you like or feel particularly strongly about to read Here are two words from the vocabulary list
in front of your class or a small group. To prepare for on page R86.
your reading, identify the sound devices the poem
uses, such as its rhyme scheme. Practice your reading feature (fēchər) n. a quality or attribute of
in front of a mirror beforehand, paying attention to something
your pronunciation, speed, and gestures.
perceive (pər sēv) v. to become aware of some-
thing by way of the senses, or in one’s mind
• See Literary Terms Handbook, p. R5. and say about that character. As you read, notice the
details Frost uses to reveal the hired man’s personality
and consider how well they work.
Corbis
Jack Delano. Silver gelatin print.
Vocabulary
coax (kōks) v. to persuade gently
“But little.”
“Warren!”
4. Here, ditch means “to dig long, narrow channels.” These channels, or
ditches, are often used for drainage or irrigation.
5. Queer means “odd” or “strange.”
6. Ran on means “talked continuously about.”
Vocabulary
kin (kin) n. relatives, or a group of people with common
ancestry
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond you describe the differences between Mary and
Warren? (b)Why does Frost associate Mary with
1. How do you feel about the characters in this poem?
moonlight in lines 108–109 and lines 170–171?
Recall and Interpret 7. In this poem Frost presents two different definitions
2. (a)Describe what Mary does and says upon of home. Which definition do you prefer, and why?
Warren’s return in lines 1–10. (b)Why does she
8. (a)What does the end of the poem suggest about
feel the need to put Warren “on his guard”?
Warren’s feelings toward Silas? (b)Could Frost have
3. (a)How does Silas look when Mary first sees chosen a better ending for the poem? Support your
him? (b)Why does Warren refuse to believe that evaluation.
Silas will tackle the chores he says he will?
9. How does Frost’s use of dialogue affect the tone of
4. (a)Who is Harold Wilson, and what does Silas the poem?
dislike about him? (b)What do Silas’s thoughts and
emotions regarding Harold reveal about Silas’s Connect
personality? 10. Big Idea New Poetics “The Death of the Hired
5. (a)According to Mary, why has Silas come to the Man,” contends scholar C. M. Bowra, “is about the
house? (b)Why does Silas avoid asking his brother pathos of men who have no roots and no ties
for help? and no firm grip on life.” Which of the themes of
modern poetry does Bowra’s reading illustrate? Do
Analyze and Evaluate you agree with Bowra’s comment? Explain why or
6. (a)From your reading of lines 1–30, how would why not.
DA I LY L I F E A N D C U LT U R E
Academic Vocabulary
Here are two words from the vocabulary list on
page R86.
Reading Further
If you are interested in reading more by or about
Activity In “The Death of the Hired Man,” Frost often
Robert Frost, look for the following:
uses prepositional phrases, sometimes to describe
Poetry Collections: Robert Frost: Collected Poems, actions or reinforce the somber mood:
Prose and Plays, edited by Richard Poirier and Mark
“She ran on tip-toe down the darkened passage”
Richardson, is a comprehensive collection of Frost’s
work published by The Library of America. “Its light poured softly in her lap”
Poems by Robert Frost: A Boy’s Will and North of Identify other examples of prepositional phrases in the
Boston (2001), introduction by William H. Pritchard, is poem and indicate whether each phrase functions as
a one-volume collection of Frost’s early works. an adjective or an adverb. Read your list to the class.
Biographies: Frost: A Literary Life Reconsidered
(1993), by William H. Pritchard, is a narrative exploring Revising Check
the interaction between Frost’s life and work.
Punctuation Work with a partner to review and
Robert Frost: A Life (1999), by Jay Parini, provides an revise the punctuation of commas after introductory
analysis of Frost’s poetry and a balanced look at his life. prepositional phrases in your essay for “The Death of
the Hired Man.”
R OB E RT F R O S T 725
Informational Text
Many years ago, Woodrow Wilson said, what
good is a political party unless it is serving a
great national purpose? And what good is a pri-
vate college or university unless it is serving a
great national purpose? The Library being con-
structed today, this college, itself—all of this, of
course, was not done merely to give this school’s
graduates an advantage, an economic advantage,
in the life struggle. It does do that. But in return
for that, in return for the great opportunity
which society gives the graduates of this and
related schools, it seems to me incumbent4 upon
this and other schools’ graduates to recognize
their responsibility to the public interest.
Privilege is here, and with privilege goes
responsibility. And I think, as your president
said, that it must be a source of satisfaction to
you that this school’s graduates have recognized
it. I hope that the students who are here now
will also recognize it in the future. Although
Amherst has been in the forefront of extending
aid to needy and talented students, private col-
leges, taken as a whole, draw 50 percent of their
students from the wealthiest 10 percent of our
President John F. Kennedy delivers a speech in 1962.
Nation. And even State universities and other
public institutions derive 25 percent of their stu-
labored so long and hard, Governor Stevenson’s3 dents from this group. In March 1962, persons of
assistant during the very difficult days at the 18 years or older who had not completed high
United Nations during the Cuban crisis, a public school made up 46 percent of the total labor
servant for so many years, asks or invites the force, and such persons comprised 64 percent of
President of the United States, there is only one those who were unemployed. And in 1958, the
response. So I am glad to be here. lowest fifth of the families in the United States
Amherst has had many soldiers of the king had 4 1/2 percent of the total personal income,
since its first one, and some of them are here the highest fifth, 44 1/2 percent. There is inher-
today: Mr. McCloy, who has long been a public ited wealth in this country and also inherited
servant; Jim Reed who is the Assistant Secretary poverty. And unless the graduates of this college
of the Treasury; President Cole, who is now and other colleges like it who are given a run-
our Ambassador to Chile; Mr. Ramey, who ning start in life—unless they are willing to put
is a Commissioner of the Atomic Energy back into our society, those talents, the broad
Commission; Dick Reuter, who is head of the sympathy, the understanding, the compassion—
Food for Peace. These and scores of others down unless they are willing to put those qualities back
through the years have recognized the obliga- into the service of the Great Republic, then
tions of the advantages which the graduation obviously the presuppositions upon which our
from a college such as this places upon them to democracy are based are bound to be fallible.
serve not only their private interest but the pub- The problems which this country now faces are
lic interest as well. staggering, both at home and abroad. We need
the service, in the great sense, of every educated
3. Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965) served as governor of Illinois
man or woman to find 10 million jobs in the next
from 1948 to 1952 and as the U.S. delegate to the United
Nations during the Kennedy administration. John McCloy
served as Stevenson’s assistant during the Cuban missile crisis. 4. Here, incumbent means “imposed.”
R ES P O N D I N G AN D TH I N K I N G C R ITI CALLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. What is your opinion of Kennedy’s claim that “soci- 4. (a)Why do you think Kennedy claimed that “a good
ety must set the artist free to follow his vision many preferred to ignore [Frost’s] darker truths”?
wherever it takes him”? Are there limits to artistic (b)Do you agree with Kennedy that Frost’s poems
expression? Explain. often hold “darker truths”? Why or why not?
5. (a)Why do you think Kennedy began his address
Recall and Interpret by discussing economics and education? (b)What
2. (a)According to Kennedy, the artist becomes the do you think of this portion of the address?
last champion of what? (b)How might this champi-
oning help to bring about Kennedy’s vision of Connect
America in the future? 6. Briefly compare and contrast Kennedy’s arguments
3. (a)In Kennedy’s view, art is never a form of what about artists and society with the beliefs held by
type of information? (b)Why do you think he made particular literary movements of other arguments
this statement? you’ve read by literary figures.
729
Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH/Bridgeman Art Library
LITER
LIT ER ARY H I STORY
STO RY
R ES P O N D I N G AN D TH I N K I N G C R ITI CALLY
1. What factors inspired writers in the modern period to 3. Look back at one of the short stories in Unit Two:
revamp the short story? American Romanticism. How is it similar to and
different from one of the modern short stories in
2. (a)What is stream of consciousness?
Unit Five?
(b)What influenced its emergence in modern fiction?
L I TER A RY HI ST O RY 731
University of South Carolina
B EF O R E YO U R E A D
In Another Country
M E E T E RN EST H E M I NGWAY and artists who, disillusioned by the war but reluc-
tant to leave the continent where they had fought
B
it, chose to live as expatriates. Many expatriates
ig-game hunters, deep-sea fishermen,
often gathered at the Paris home of American
soldiers, boxers, bullfighters—these are
author Gertrude Stein, who coined the term lost
the types of characters found in Ernest
generation to describe the alienated writers and art-
Hemingway’s fiction. Yet the Hemingway hero is
ists of the post–World War I era.
not the typical action-adventure daredevil. Strong
but sensitive, brainy as well as brawny, he is usually
A Celebrity Author In 1925, encouraged by
someone who has been wounded by life, though he
Stein and others, Hemingway published In Our
keeps his suffering to himself. Inextricably linked
Time, a story collection that established his pres-
to Hemingway’s own adventurous life and person-
ence as an important new writer. He followed with
ality, the Hemingway hero captured the public’s
The Sun Also Rises (1926), a novel of the lost gen-
imagination and granted the author celebrity status
eration in 1920s Paris and Spain, and A Farewell to
that extended beyond the world of literature. His
Arms (1929), a tragic World War I love story.
style and depiction of characters has been widely
imitated by generations of writers. Hemingway drew on his per-
sonal adventures as he wrote
Coming of Age Born in the Chicago suburb of his fiction and won fame for
Oak Park, Illinois, Ernest Hemingway spent large his lifestyle as much as for his
chunks of his childhood camping, hunting, and writing style. He wrote his
fishing with his father. He began writing in high bullfighting novel, Death in
school and upon graduating landed a job as a cub the Afternoon (1932), after
reporter for the Kansas City Star. Soon after, attending bullfights in Spain,
when the United States entered World War I, and his story “The Snows of
Hemingway was determined to be part of the Kilimanjaro” (1936) came
action. Rejected by the U.S. military because of an after he went on safari in
eye defect, he volunteered to serve as a Red Cross Africa. In 1952 Hemingway
ambulance driver near the battlefront in Italy, and published The Old Man and
was seriously wounded less than a month before the Sea, a short novel that
his nineteenth birthday. The injury, said critic drew on his own experiences
Alfred Kazin, “was a shock that went straight into as a deep-sea fisherman off
Hemingway’s early stories and fables of the war.” the coast of Cuba. In 1954
Hemingway won the Nobel
Prize for Literature “for his
mastery of the art of narra-
“A man can be destroyed but not tive, most recently demonstrated in The Old Man
defeated.” and the Sea, and for the influence that he has exerted
—Ernest Hemingway on contemporary style.” He is one of fewer than ten
from The Old Man and the Sea U.S. writers to be presented with a Nobel Prize.
Ernest Hemingway was born in 1899 and died in 1961.
After medical treatment in Italy and recuperation
back home, Hemingway accepted a job as foreign
correspondent for the Toronto Star. Settling in Author Search For more about
Paris, he joined the colony of American writers Ernest Hemingway, go to www.glencoe.com.
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • analyzing the author’s style
• analyzing literary time periods • identifying the author’s purpose
gli ufficiali!”5 as we passed. Another boy who went to South America and worked in a bank.
walked with us sometimes and made us five But this was a long time ago, and then we did
wore a black silk handkerchief across his face not any of us know how it was going to be
because he had no nose then and his face was afterward. We only knew then that there was
to be rebuilt. He had gone out to the front6 always the war, but that we were not going to
from the military academy and been wounded it any more.
within an hour after he had gone into the We all had the same medals, except the boy
front line for the first time. They rebuilt his with the black silk bandage across his face,
face, but he came from a very old family and and he had not been at the front long enough
they could never get the nose exactly right. He to get any medals. The tall boy with a very
pale face who was to be a lawyer had been a
5. In Italian, A basso gli ufficiali! (a ba sō lyē oo
¯¯¯ fē cha lē)
lieutenant of Arditi7 and had three medals of
means “Down with officers!” the sort we each had only one of. He had lived
6. The front is the line or area of conflict between opposing a very long time with death and was a little
armies.
Literary Element Style How would you describe the tone 7. The Arditi (ar dē tē) was a corps of soldiers specially
in which this gruesome information is relayed?
selected for dangerous operations.
came directly toward my machine and put his Reading Strategy Recognizing Author’s Purpose What
arm on my shoulder. might the unexpected death of the major’s wife reveal about
“I am so sorry,” he said, and patted me on the author’s purpose?
the shoulder with his good hand. “I would not
be rude. My wife has just died. You must for- Big Idea Modern Fiction How is Hemingway’s omission
give me.” of facts about the machines, the photos, and the fate of the
major characteristic of the Modernist approach to fiction?
10. Signor Maggiore (sē nyor ma jō rā) means “Mr. Major.” Vocabulary
In Italy, one said Signor before an officer’s rank as a sign of resign (ri z̄n) v. to make oneself accept something
respect.
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. How did you react to the end of the story? Explain. 5. (a)To what type of bird does the narrator compare
the three young Italian men with medals? (b)How
Recall and Interpret does this comparison affect your view of the three
2. (a)Why do the narrator and the others go to the young men, and how does it stress the difference
hospital every afternoon? (b)What might the between them and the narrator?
machines represent?
6. (a)What is ironic about the bad news that the
3. (a)What is the effect of the narrator’s grammar major receives? (b)How realistic do you find his
lessons? (b)Based on this effect, what generaliza- reaction to this news?
tion can you make about the narrator’s views on
7. (a)Besides their physical injuries, how might the
the world?
narrator and the other soldiers be wounded?
4. (a)What makes the narrator suspicious of the (b)How effectively does the story convey their
machines? (b)What do his suspicions show about attitudes?
his attitude toward authority and the likelihood of
his recovery? Connect
8. Big Idea Modern Fiction How is the portrayal
of war in this story different from heroic depictions
in times past?
L I T E R A RY A N A LYS I S
1. How do Hemingway’s fragmentary presentation Before you begin drafting, prewrite by jotting down
and lack of a clear resolution help convey his your reasons for agreeing or disagreeing with the
themes about modern life and modern warfare? major’s views. Then, to support your reasons, list
examples from personal experience and analogies, or
2. Would you say that the story is without a climax? comparisons that clarify the main quality of one thing
Explain. by comparing it to another.
Model Analogy
Vocabulary Practice
Not marrying because you fear loss of a loved one
Practice with Antonyms Find the antonym for
each vocabulary word from “In Another Country” is like
listed in the first column below. Use a dictionary or
a thesaurus if you need help. Not using a new mug because you fear you might break it
Literary Criticism
Academic Vocabulary Group Activity “I always try to write on the principle
of the iceberg,” Hemingway once noted. “There is
Here are two words from the vocabulary list on seven-eighths of it underwater for every part that
page R86. These words will help you think, shows.” Meet with classmates and discuss how “In
write, and talk about the selection. Another Country” illustrates Hemingway’s iceberg prin-
ciple. In your discussion, consider at least five details in
despite (di sp¯t ) prep. in spite of; regardless the story and discuss the underlying meaning of
each one.
resolve (ri zolv ) v. to solve, settle, or answer
º Language Handbook
For more on coordinating
Exercise conjunctions, see
Language Handbook,
Inserting Conjunctions Rewrite the following sentences, combining the
p. R47.
sentence parts by using one of the coordinating conjunctions in parentheses.
1. A woman sold chestnuts, (and, but) we didn’t buy them often.
2. The doctor told the men to exercise (or, and) face the consequences. eWorkbooks To link to
3. The hospital was old, (so, and) it was beautiful. the Grammar and Language
eWorkbook, go to
4. The major had neither confidence (or, nor) the ability to fence again. www.glencoe.com.
5. We were glad to be safe in the city, (so, for) there was still fighting
elsewhere.
OB J ECTI V ES
6. The people hated us, (yet, so) they were not violent. • Use coordinating conjunc-
tions correctly.
7. I could speak Italian, (but, and) the major tried to correct my grammar.
• Demonstrate control of
8. The major’s wife had died, (for, so) he cried and looked out the window. grammar and sentence
structure.
Winter Dreams
M E E T F. SCOT T F I T ZG E R A LD
F.
Scott Fitzgerald once wrote that “all the sto- revised his most successful novel, The Great Gatsby
ries that came into my head had a touch of (1925). He and Zelda lived lavishly, both in the
disaster in them . . . I was pretty sure living United States and abroad, and spent most of the
wasn’t the reckless, careless business these people money Fitzgerald earned from his writing. They reg-
thought.” Many of Fitzgerald’s stories and novels ularly moved from Paris to various cities on the
describe the reckless lifestyles of young, wealthy French Riviera and then back to Paris. But when the
Americans in the 1920s. frantic decade ended with the stock market crash in
1929, Fitzgerald’s private life and prosperous career
also crashed. His lucrative writing career began to
“Show me a hero and I will write you dry up with the onset of the Depression. In 1930
Zelda suffered a series of nervous breakdowns and
a tragedy.” was hospitalized in Europe and the United States.
—F. Scott Fitzgerald, from Notebooks
Later Years Though Fitzgerald struggled in the
1930s with alcoholism and with his marriage, he
continued to write stories and novels. Tender Is
Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota. He
the Night was published in 1934, and under con-
attended Princeton University, where he wrote for
tract with MGM, Fitzgerald worked on several
the newspaper and participated in the drama club.
screenplays in Hollywood. He was working on
Fitzgerald joined the army before graduating, and
his fifth novel, The Last Tycoon, when he died in
while stationed in the South in 1918, he met
Hollywood of a heart attack at the age of 44. Zelda
Zelda Sayre at a country club dance. He fell in
died in a hospital fire in North Carolina in 1948.
love, but Zelda was at first reluctant to marry him.
That same summer, a New York publisher rejected Fitzgerald’s works, and his life with Zelda, have
the manuscript of his novel The Romantic Egotist. inspired more than
twenty films of varying
Literary Success Following his stint in the army, success. There have
Fitzgerald settled in New York City, where he been three film versions
worked for an advertising agency, but he eventu- of The Great Gatsby
ally returned home to St. Paul to begin revising his alone. Reviews were
novel. The publisher accepted the revision of his mixed of all of the movie
book, retitled This Side of Paradise, and Fitzgerald versions of the novel.
was ecstatic. He and Zelda were married in 1920, There are few dissenters
and in 1921 they made their first trip to Europe, about the book itself,
returning to St. Paul for the birth of their only however. Tobias Wolff
child, daughter Frances Scott (Scottie). says that Fitzgerald “saw
our American world . . .
Fitzgerald’s second novel, The Beautiful and the with clearer eyes than any
Damned, and “Winter Dreams” were published in of his contemporaries.”
1922. While in France and Italy, he wrote and
F. Scott Fitzgerald was
Author Search For more about born in 1896 and
F. Scott Fitzgerald, go to www.glencoe.com. died in 1940.
Building Background Reading Tip: Taking Notes Use a chart like the one
Many of Fitzgerald’s stories, including “Winter Dreams,” below to record the sensory details you find as you read.
are somewhat autobiographical. In 1915 he met
Ginevra King at a party in St. Paul. She lived in Lake
Detail Sense It Appeals To
Forest, Illinois, north of Chicago, and was attending
school in Connecticut. She was sixteen and he was “desolate sand- sight
eighteen and in his sophomore year at Princeton. The boxes knee-deep
attraction was instant. Fitzgerald and Ginevra corre- in crusted ice”
sponded regularly, and Ginevra kept a diary in which
she recorded that she was “madly in love with him.”
Ginevra had other boyfriends, however, and Fitzgerald
was jealous. The romance was doomed. Ginevra
ended up marrying a wealthy Lake Forest stockbroker,
Vocabulary
and shortly after, Scott married Zelda. Critics see
aspects of Ginevra in most of Fitzgerald’s heroines, grimace ( rim is) n. facial expression showing
however, including Judy Jones in “Winter Dreams.” contempt, disgust, or pain; p. 745 The doctor’s
needle made the child grimace.
Setting Purposes for Reading
ominous (om ə nəs) adj. threatening; p. 746
Big Idea Modern Fiction Black clouds in the west looked ominous.
As you read “Winter Dreams,” notice what it reveals perturbation (pur´tər bā shən) n. state of being
about romantic feelings and relationships during the perturbed, anxious, or uneasy; p. 746 The clerk
Jazz Age. showed perturbation when the police appeared.
ingenuous (in jen ū əs) adj. lacking in sophisti-
Literary Element Motivation
cation; naïve; p. 747 Her argument with the
Motivation refers to the stated or implied reason or judge was ingenuous, to say the least.
cause for a character’s actions. It is often revealed
through a combination of the character’s desires and
mundane (mun dān ) adj. ordinary; p. 751
morals and the circumstances in which the character
The mundane details disappointed them.
finds himself or herself. As you read “Winter Dreams,”
Vocabulary Tip: Word Parts If a word has a suffix,
think about what motivates the two main characters.
you can usually tell what part of speech that word
• See Literary Terms Handbook, p. R11. is. For example, the suffix -ous forms adjectives
(ambitious) and -ly forms adverbs (merrily). The
suffixes -ion or -ian form nouns (musician). The
Interactive Literary Elements
Handbook To review or learn more about the literary elements,
suffix -er forms nouns (driver).
go to www.glencoe.com.
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • understanding motivation
• relating literature to the historical period • evaluating sensory details
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD 74 3
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Reading Strategy Evaluating Sensory Details What Literary Element Motivation Why do you think Dexter
details in this paragraph help you visualize the gloomy setting? has these particular daydreams?
ill at ease and trying to conceal the fact by grimace (rimis) n. facial expression showing contempt,
engaging her nurse in an obviously unnatural disgust, or pain
Literary Element Motivation What is Dexter’s motivation ingenuous (in jenū əs) adj. lacking in sophistication;
for seeking “the glittering things”? naïve
Reading Strategy Evaluating Sensory Details What do Reading Strategy Evaluating Sensory Details What
these two images tell you about Dexter’s attitude toward Irene? does this emphasis on gold seem to symbolize?
Literary Element Motivation Why do you think Dexter Literary Element Motivation Why does Dexter agree to
decides not to tell Judy that he is engaged? go in after his earlier doubts?
E
February with the Devlin with no partic-
intention of selling
ven the ultimate falsity of ular interest; “Judy
out his laundries and the grounds upon which Jones she was once.”
settling in New “Yes, I knew her.”
York—but the war 16 Judy terminated the engagement A dull impatience
came to America in spread over him. He
March and changed
that she did not want to “take him had heard, of course,
his plans. He returned away” from Irene—Judy, who that she was mar-
to the West, handed ried—perhaps deliber-
over the management had wanted nothing else—did not ately he had heard no
of the business to his
partner, and went
revolt him. He was beyond any more.
“Awfully nice girl,”
into the first officers’ revulsion or any amusement. brooded Devlin mean-
training-camp in late inglessly, “I’m sort of
April. He was one of sorry for her.”
those young thousands who greeted the war with “Why?” Something in Dexter was alert, recep-
a certain amount of relief, welcoming the libera- tive, at once.
tion from webs of tangled emotion. “Oh, Lud Simms has gone to pieces in a way.
I don’t mean he ill-uses her, but he drinks and
VI runs around—”
“Doesn’t she run around?”
This story is not his biography, although things “No. Stays at home with her kids.”
creep into it which have nothing to do with “Oh.”
those dreams he had when he was young. We are “She’s a little too old for him,” said Devlin.
almost done with them and with him now. There “Too old!” cried Dexter. “Why, man, she’s only
is only one more incident to be related here, and twenty-seven.”
it happens seven years farther on. He was possessed with a wild notion of rush-
It took place in New York, where he had ing out into the streets and taking a train to
done well—so well that there were no barriers Detroit. He rose to his feet spasmodically.
too high for him. He was thirty-two years old, “I guess you’re busy,” Devlin apologized
and, except for one flying trip immediately after quickly. “I didn’t realize—”
“No, I’m not busy,” said Dexter, steadying his
16. The war refers to World War I, which the United States
voice. “I’m not busy at all. Not busy at all. Did
entered in 1917. you say she was—twenty-seven? No, I said she
was twenty-seven.”
Big Idea Modern Fiction Do you think Dexter really
“Yes, you did,” agreed Devlin dryly.
feels this way, or is he fooling himself?
“Go on, then, Go on.”
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond simply trying to fit in? Explain. (b)Why does he tell
Judy that he is making “more money than any man
1. At the end of the story, Dexter is obviously under-
his age in the Northwest”?
going a significant life crisis. What would you tell
him if you were with him? 7. Why do you think Dexter becomes engaged to
Irene?
Recall and Interpret
8. In Part VI, after Dexter learns about Judy’s marriage,
2. (a)What are Dexter’s winter dreams? (b)What do
why is he so disturbed?
these dreams tell you about him?
9. (a)Do you think Dexter really loves Judy? Explain.
3. In giving up caddying, “Dexter was unconsciously
(b)Do you think Dexter would have been happier
dictated to by his winter dreams.” Explain how
if he had married Judy? Why or why not?
these dreams affected his decision.
4. (a)What is the point of view of this story? (b)How Connect
does this point of view affect the plot? 10. Big Idea Modern Fiction Is Judy’s reckless
disregard for the feelings of others a symptom of
Analyze and Evaluate the Jazz Age, or could her character appear in a
5. How do Dexter’s laundry business and his round of story from any period? Explain.
golf in Part II tell you that he is still under the influ-
ence of his winter dreams? 11. In what ways is this short story more modern than
traditional short stories like those in Unit Four?
6. (a)In Part III, is Dexter becoming a snob, with his
emphasis on clothes and his hometown, or is he
V I S UA L L I T E R AC Y: Graphic Organizer
THEME CHART
The theme is the central message of a work of literature Passage from the Story Relationship to Theme
that readers can apply to life. Some works directly state
1. “and sometimes he ran
the theme. More often, however, the theme is implied,
up against the mysterious
and it is up to the reader to figure it out based on denials and prohibitions
events, dialogue, or descriptions in the text. A literary in which life indulges. It is
work may have more than one theme. with one of those denials
and not with his career as
You may find it helpful to isolate key passages from the text a whole that this story
deals.” (page 747)
that can help you uncover the theme. Use a chart such as
the one at right to list significant passages from “Winter 2.
Dreams.” In the second column of the chart, identify how
each passage is related to the theme of the story. Then fill
in additional passages from the story that you find.
Group Activity
Discuss the following questions with classmates. Use your
3.
chart to support your views.
1. What do you think is the theme of “Winter Dreams”?
2. Do you think this theme is specific to the time and
place of this story, or does it apply today?
Academic Vocabulary
Here are two words from the vocabulary list on
page R86.
unknown.
quits caddying “Their engagement was to be announced in a week
now—no one could be surprised at it.” (p. 754)
In this example, the person who will announce the
➧
passive verb.
Activity For each sentence below, identify the voice
as passive or active.
1. A ball came bouncing onto the green.
➧
After you complete your draft, meet with a peer Revising Check
reviewer to evaluate each other’s work and to suggest
Using Active and Passive Voice Work with a part-
revisions. Then proofread and edit your draft for errors
ner to review and revise passive sentences that would
in spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
be more appropriate in active voice in your essay for
“Winter Dreams.”
Guggenheim Fellow
S
F. Scott Fitzgerald met Ginevra King, a woman who
would influence him for the rest of his life, in 1915,
when he was only eighteen. King became the model
for some of Fitzgerald’s most memorable characters, cott met Ginevra in St. Paul on the eve-
including Judy Jones in “Winter Dreams,” and, most ning of Monday, January 4, 1915. She was in the
famously, Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby. Her city to visit Marie (“Bug”) Hersey, a classmate at
recently discovered diary and letters to Fitzgerald shed
Westover1 who had been one of Scott’s child-
light on their previously mysterious relationship. The
hood sweethearts. Ginevra was sixteen years old;
following selection from The Perfect Hour, James L.
Scott, then eighteen, was midway through his
W. West’s discussion of their romance and its effect
second year at Princeton. The two met at an
on Fitzgerald’s fiction, describes their first meeting and
the start of their correspondence.
informal party at Marie’s house on Summit
Avenue. Scott was scheduled to take the
Setting a Purpose for Reading Pullman2 east that night; his Christmas vacation
Read to find out more about the inspiration for Judy was over, and he was due back at Princeton for
Jones in Fitzgerald’s “Winter Dreams.” classes. He was so smitten with Ginevra, how-
ever, that he decided to postpone the journey for
Reading Strategy twenty-four hours. He wanted to spend Tuesday
afternoon with her and to attend a dance being
Evaluating Historical Influences
Evaluating historical influences involves examining
how the social influences of a historical period affect
1. Westover was a boarding school founded in 1910, in
the characters, plots, and settings of a literary work. As Middlebury, Connecticut.
you read, take notes on how Ginevra King and her 2. The Pullman is a train’s sleeping car intended for overnight
relationship with Fitzgerald influenced “Winter Dreams.” travel.
76 2 UNIT 5 B EG I N N I N G S O F T H E M O D E RN A G E
Bettmann/CORBIS
Informational Text
given in her honor Tuesday evening by Elizabeth guests. At eleven o’clock he stood with her in
(“Lib”) McDavitt, another local girl. Ginevra the front hall of the McDavitt house. They
was flattered: “Scott perfectly darling,” she wrote squeezed hands and exchanged regretful glances;
in her diary that night. “Am dipped about.”* he promised to write, and she promised to
They spent the afternoon of January 5th answer. The next day she set down her impres-
crowded next to each other in the back seat sions of the party in her diary. “Danced and sat
of Reuben Warner’s car. (Reuben, a rival for with Scott most all evening,” she wrote. “He left
Ginevra’s affections, was taking some teen- for Princeton at 11—oh—!”
agers for an auto ride across the river to see . . . As soon as he was back at Princeton, he
Minneapolis.) They were together again that sent her a special-delivery letter. It was the cus-
evening at Lib McDavitt’s dance: this time, how- tom then that if one met a young woman and
ever, Scott had to catch his train. He had hoped meant to pursue her seriously, one sent her a
for time alone with Ginevra at the dance, but he “special-dellie” almost immediately after the first
was unable to pry her away from the other party encounter. The letter reached Ginevra on
Thursday, January 7th, while she was still visiting
in St. Paul. She made a matter-of-fact note of its
*
The diaries are original documents in Ginevra’s hand and are arrival in her diary: “Got a Special Delivery from
quoted verbatim. The letters are transcriptions by a typist:
Scott this morning.”
obvious errors have been corrected and a few marks of
punctuation added for readability.
Henri Lerolle/Musee des Beaux-Arts, Pau, France, Giraudon/†Bridgeman Art Library
As a popular girl, pursued by many boys, popularity was measured in part by which boys
Ginevra might have expected to receive Scott’s wrote to her and how many letters she received.
special delivery as a matter of course, but she There was much banter3 about who was writing
surely did not anticipate the deluge of mail that to whom and how often the letters were arriving.
would follow. Letters began to arrive from her Many weekday evenings were taken up with let-
Princeton admirer frequently and in bulk, and ter-writing; popular girls learned to complain
her diary entries became more intense with each about how many boys they had to correspond
letter. She received “a sweet one from Scott” on with. Girls would wander in and out of one
January 14th. Another arrived on the fifteenth: another’s rooms during letter-writing sessions.
“Wonderful letter from Scott again to-day!” she One girl might look over another’s shoulder as
notes in surprise. On January 23rd: “Wonderful she wrote and, if she knew the boy, might pick
one from Scott (he is so darling).” And on January up a pen and (with permission) add marginalia4
28th: “Long wonderful letter from Scott this morn.” or a postscript.
On February 6th there arrived a “marvelous won- Girls would give readings to their friends
derful heavenly letter from Scott—24 pages— from letters they had received; often the girl
cheered me up immensely.” And on February would supply running commentary on the boy
12th, “24 pages from Scott. Thrills.” Her affec- who had written the letter. Certain parts of
tions, she wrote him on February 7th, were
“thriving under the stimulus of so much mail.”
The dynamics of letter-writing for teenagers of 3. Banter means “quick-witted conversation.”
Scott and Ginevra’s time were elaborate. A girl’s 4. Marginalia are notes written in the margins of printed pages.
the letters (the affectionate or intimate bits) Ginevra does not seem to have worried
would be omitted, although if the boy had overly much about this sort of thing. Once
been fresh or the girl had a perverse streak, she was sure of Scott’s interest, she came to
these passages might be read aloud and giggled enjoy writing to him. “You know, it’s queer,
over. The boys who wrote the letters were but I’ve always been able to write reams to
aware that this might happen, and they knew you and never get bored or tired,” she told
to be careful about what they put in their him on October 13th. He might have said the
letters. Girls knew it too: boys would show same thing. So lengthy were his epistles to her
letters to their friends as trophies or would that he sometimes had to send them in two
read the sentimental passages aloud—to the envelopes, marked “Part I” and “Part II.”
accompaniment of eye-rolling and guffaws. Letter-writing provided Ginevra with an
No girl wanted to have her personal feelings escape. She was not happy about going back
exposed in this way. Thus there was wariness to Westover; she made this clear to Scott in
on both sides until a boy and a girl felt they her first letter, written on January 11th. “I
could trust each other. Only then would they dread school,” she said. “I simply cant go
begin to include confidences or confessions of back. I loathe the thought. I curse the fates
emotion in their letters. that call for my education. I rebel at another
Scott soon learned that his romance with . . . and we got started laughing and then of
Ginevra was causing a stir at Westover. On course lost all our strength—I was screaming—
February 6th he received a cryptic telegram tell- So Midge said—‘Well, it’s my fault, now I’ll send
ing him not to expect his usual letter from her a telegram and tell him he wont get his daily let-
the following day. “G.K.’S DAILY DELAYED. ter.’ . . . I said all right, so she went and did it.”
UNAVOIDABLE. REASON EXPLAINED LATER,” read This was heady stuff for an eighteen-year-old col-
the wire. A special delivery from Ginevra arrived lege boy. He was becoming, in absentia14, a
the next day to explain what had happened. One celebrity at Westover.
of her friends from down the hall had wandered Ginevra knew how to provoke Scott. In a
into her room while she was composing a letter January 25th letter she recalled their farewell in
to him. The girl had wanted to read the letter, St. Paul and his failure to kiss her. “I hear you had
but Ginevra had refused to show it to her. The plans for kissing me goodbye publicly,” she wrote
girl had tried to snatch it, precipitating13 a play- him. “My goodness, I’m glad you didn’t—I’d have
ful tussle. “In the scramble I shut up the letter in had to be severe as anything with you!” Though
the desk-drawer, and it went so tight that no perhaps not, to judge from her next sentence:
amount of pulling would open it,” she explained. “Ans. this— Why didn’t you? (KISS ME).”
“I only had 15 minutes to get it in the last mail
R ES P O N D I N G AN D TH I N K I N G C R ITI CALLY
Respond (b)Is West’s characterization of Fitzgerald’s
“fascination” believable? Why or why not?
1. What aspect of King and Fitzgerald’s relationship
interested you the most? Explain. 5. (a)Ginevra came from a far wealthier family than
Fitzgerald’s. How do you think this affected their
Recall and Interpret relationship? (b)How do you think it affected his
2. (a)According to West, why did young people have representation of her in his stories? (c)From what
to be careful about what they included in letters to you learned about Ginevra in this excerpt from The
members of the opposite sex? (b)What does this Perfect Hour, do you think Fitzgerald’s representation
suggest about young people’s motivation for writing of her in “Winter Dreams” is accurate? Explain.
these letters?
3. (a)How did students at Westover react to Ginevra Connect
and Fitzgerald’s relationship? What does West think 6. How does Fitzgerald’s semiautobiographical style
Fitzgerald’s reaction to this was? (b)What does relate to developments in Modernist fiction?
Fitzgerald’s response suggest about his personality?
O B J EC TIVES
• Read to enhance understanding of an author’s influences. • Evaluate historical influences.
Hulton Archive
Soldiers of the Republic
M E E T DO ROT H Y PA R K E R
A
s a writer, editor, and critic, Dorothy
Parker was both famed and feared for her
scathing commentary. She once infa-
mously dismissed Katharine Hepburn’s acting per-
formance as running “the whole gamut of emotion
from A to B.” Withering comments such as this
one were hallmarks of Parker’s fiction, poetry, and
especially her criticism. as screenwriters on a number of lucrative projects,
including the hit 1937 film A Star Is Born.
In 1934 Parker married actor and writer Alan Dorothy Parker was born in 1893 and died in 1967.
Campbell and the couple left New York City for Holly-
wood shortly thereafter. Despite the fact that Parker Author Search For more about
Author Search For more about
hated Hollywood, she and Campbell collaborated Dorothy Parker, go to www.glencoe.com.
Author Name, go to www.literature.glencoe.com.
• Why do you think a person might tell a stranger a Reading Tip: Taking Notes Use a chart like the one
personal story during wartime?
below to record what you visualize in each paragraph
• Why might a person hold back a personal story from of the story.
a close friend or family member during wartime?
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • analyzing setting
• analyzing modern fiction • visualizing a story
DO ROTHY PARKER 76 9
Dorothy Parker
D O R OT HY PARKER 771
of poverty. Their village was next that one where had such beautiful eyes, he said—from a brother-
the old men and the sick men and the women in-law in France. They were all alive then, he
and children had gone, on a holiday, to the bull- was told, and had a bowl of beans a day. But his
ring; and the planes had come over and dropped wife had not complained of the food, he heard.
bombs on the bullring, and the old men and the What had troubled her was that she had no
sick men and the women and the children were thread to mend the children’s ragged clothes. So
more than two hundred. that troubled him, too.
“She has no thread,” he kept telling us. “My
They had all, the six of them, been in the war for wife has no thread to mend with. No thread.”
over a year, and most of that time they had been
in the trenches. Four of them were married. One We sat there, and lis-
had one child, two had three
“
tened to what the Swedish
children, one had five. They girl told us they were say-
had not had word from their
families since they had left
he has no ing. Suddenly one of them
looked at the clock, and
for the front. There had
been no communication; thread,” he kept then there was excite-
ment. They jumped up, as
two of them had learned to
write from men fighting next telling us. “My a man, and there were
calls for the waiter and
them in the trench, but they
had not dared to write home. wife has no rapid talk with him, and
each of them shook the
They belonged to a union,8
and union men, of course, thread to mend hand of each of us. We
went through more swim-
are put to death if taken. S11-266-01C-635423
ming motions toKent
The village where their
families lived had been cap-
with. No thread.” Precolater
explain
bold that they were to
to them
take the rest of the ciga-
tured, and if your wife gets a rettes—fourteen cigarettes
letter from a union man, for six soldiers to take to
who knows but they’ll shoot war—and then they shook
her for the connection? our hands again. Then all of us said “Salud!”9 as
They told about how they had not heard from many times as could be for six of them and three
their families for more than a year. They did not of us, and then they filed out of the café, the six
tell it gallantly or whimsically or stoically. They of them, tired and dusty and little, as men of a
told it as if—Well, look. You have been in the mighty horde are little.
trenches, fighting, for a year. You have heard noth- Only the Swedish girl talked, after they had
ing of your wife and your children. They do not gone. The Swedish girl has been in Spain since the
know if you are dead or alive or blinded. You do not start of the war. She has nursed splintered men, and
know where they are, or if they are. You must talk she has carried stretchers into the trenches and,
to somebody. That is the way they told about it. heavier laden, back to the hospital. She has seen
One of them, some six months before, had and heard too much to be knocked into silence.
heard of his wife and his three children—they Presently it was time to go, and the Swedish
girl raised her hands above her head and clapped
8. The Republicans belonged to trade unions. them twice together to summon the waiter. He
Literary Element Setting What details of the war setting came, but he only shook his head and his hand,
in this paragraph make you feel sympathy for the soldiers? and moved away.
The soldiers had paid for our drinks.
Vocabulary
whimsically (hwim zik lē) adv. in a quaintly humor- 9. Salud! (sa l¯¯¯
ood), meaning “Health!” is a toast, like Cheers!
ous manner
stoically (stō ik l ) adv. calmly and unemotionally, Reading Strategy Visualizing How do you imagine the
especially despite pain or suffering soldier looks as he tells the narrator about his wife?
RESP ON DI NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond other people who face danger, or do they handle
their situation differently? Explain.
1. What surprised you most about the story? Explain.
6. (a)How does the narrator feel about herself in
Recall and Interpret relation to the people of Valencia? (b)In your
2. (a)What difficult circumstances do the people of opinion, why does she feel this way?
Valencia and the soldiers in the café face? (b)What
7. What did you find most puzzling about the narra-
attitude do they have toward these circumstances?
tor? Put your thoughts in the form of a question.
3. (a)How do the soldiers react to the gift of ciga-
rettes? (b)How do you explain their reactions? Connect
8. This story shows the basic decency, almost nobility, of
Analyze and Evaluate ordinary soldiers during wartime. How do you think
4. (a)How do you think the author wants readers to the story would change had Parker decided to focus
feel about the people of Valencia and the soldiers? on a group of high-ranking military officers instead?
(b)Do you think the author was successful in mak-
ing you feel a certain way? Use examples from the 9. Big Idea Modern Fiction Irony, the contrast
story to support your answer. between appearance and reality, is a basic charac-
teristic of modern fiction. How does this story dis-
5. In your opinion, are the soldiers in this story like play irony?
Bettmann/Corbis
K
atherine Anne Porter, who published her
first collection of short stories when she was
forty, described herself as “a late starter.”
But “a late finisher” might be more accurate.
During her long career, she tended to write and
rewrite her stories, sometimes putting them aside
for many years. Porter sought to tell each story “as
clearly and purely and simply as I can.”
come back from it, you are no longer Porter published several collections of short stories,
starting with Flowering Judas (1929). Although it
like other people.” was her novel, Ship of Fools (1962), that became a
—Katherine Anne Porter best seller, Porter was primarily a practitioner of the
short story. Many of her stories, including “The
Jilting of Granny Weatherall,” are set in the South
Shortly after moving to Dallas, Texas, in 1915, and feature women who have profound self-
Porter became ill with tuberculosis and believed she realizations at crucial moments in their lives. At
had only a few months to live. She recovered only age seventy-six, two years after the publication of
to be hit by the World War I flu epidemic, and she twenty-seven of her stories in The Collected Stories
came so close to death that her family finalized her of Katherine Anne Porter, Porter received a Pulitzer
burial arrangements. Porter’s struggle to survive, the Prize and the National Book Award.
close friendships she formed with other young
Katherine Anne Porter was born in 1890 and died
women in a sanatorium in Texas, and the opportu-
in 1980.
nities she had to reflect on her life during this
period were to have a profound effect on her cre-
ative activities. She emerged from several years of Author Search For more about
illness with a new career goal: to be a writer. Katherine Anne Porter, go to www.glencoe.com.
774 U N IT 5 B E G I NN IN G S OF TH E M O DERN A G E
L I T E R AT U R E P R E V I E W R E A D I N G P R EVI E W
Literary Element Stream of Consciousness dutiful (dō¯ō ti fəl) adj. careful to fulfill obliga-
tions; p. 777 Only a dutiful person could take
Stream of consciousness is a technique that a writer care of a farm and raise several children.
uses to imitate the flow of thoughts, feelings, images,
and memories of a character in a literary work. Stream vanity (van i tē) n. excessive pride, as in one’s
of consciousness replaces traditional chronological looks; p. 779 The man’s vanity made it hard for
order with a seemingly random collection of impres- him to see why he had not received the award.
sions, forcing the reader to piece together the plot or jilt (jilt) v. to drop or reject as a sweetheart;
theme of the work. Porter uses stream of conscious- p. 779 None of her children had been jilted; they
ness to represent Granny’s thoughts and memories as had all married their first loves.
well as her overall state of mind. As you read, you
might want to create a timeline to help you under- piety (p¯ ə tē) n. religious devoutness; good-
stand when the events in the story take place. ness; p. 781 Piety was a common response to the
moral issues raised by the war.
• See Literary Terms Handbook, p. R17.
Vocabulary Tip: Context Clues You often can
determine the meaning of an unfamiliar word by
Interactive Literary Elements looking at the words that surround it.
Handbook To review or learn more about the literary elements,
go to www.glencoe.com.
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • analyzing stream of consciousness
• relating literature to the historical period • drawing conclusions about the protagonist
tactful (takt fəl) adj. able to speak or act without Literary Element Stream of Consciousness In what
offending others way is this paragraph an unpredictable flow of feelings,
dutiful (dō¯ō ti fəl) adj. careful to fulfill obligations thoughts, memories, and images?
5. A noggin is a small mug or cup. Reading Strategy Drawing Conclusions About the
6. A hot toddy is a drink made with liquor, hot water, sugar,
Protagonist How does Granny view herself as a mother?
and spices.
Big Idea Modern Fiction How is this method of showing vanity (van i tē) n. excessive pride, as in one’s looks
Granny’s thoughts related to Modernism? jilt (jilt) v. to drop or reject as a sweetheart
“Here’s Doctor Harry.” on Hapsy’s arm was Hapsy and himself and her-
“I won’t see that boy again. He just left five self, all at once, and there was no surprise in the
minutes ago.” meeting. Then Hapsy melted from within and
“That was this morning, Mother. It’s night turned flimsy as gray gauze and the baby was a
now. Here’s the nurse.” gauzy shadow, and Hapsy came up close and said,
“This is Doctor Harry, Mrs. Weatherall. I “I thought you’d never come,” and looked at her
never saw you look so young and happy!” very searchingly and said, “You haven’t changed
“Ah, I’ll never be young again—but I’d be a bit!” They leaned forward to kiss, when
happy if they’d let me lie in peace and get Cornelia began whispering from a long way off,
rested.” “Oh, is there anything you want to tell me? Is
She thought she spoke up loudly, but no one there anything I can do for you?”
answered. A warm weight on her forehead, a Yes, she had changed her mind after sixty
warm bracelet on her wrist and a breeze went on years and she would like to see George. I want
whispering, trying to tell her something. A shuf- you to find George. Find him and be sure to tell
fle of leaves in the everlasting hand of God, He him I forgot him. I want him to know I had my
blew on them and they danced and rattled. husband just the same, and my children and my
“Mother, don’t mind, we’re going to give you a house, like any other woman. A good house too
little hypodermic.” “Look here, daughter, how do and a good husband that I loved and fine chil-
ants get in this bed? I saw sugar ants yesterday.” dren out of him. Better than I hoped for, even.
Did you send for Hapsy too?
It was Hapsy she really wanted. She had to go
a long way back through a great many rooms to Reading Strategy Drawing Conclusions About the
find Hapsy standing with a baby on her arm. She Protagonist In this paragraph, is Granny thinking about the
seemed to herself to be Hapsy also, and the baby past or present? How do you know?
Literary Element Stream of Consciousness What 11. Frippery is a showy, useless display.
causes this shift in Granny’s thoughts? 12. A nimbus is a disk or ring of light; a halo.
Big Idea Modern Fiction How is the characterization in Literary Element Stream of Consciousness What is
this story different from traditional characterization? unclear about this moment in the story?
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. What was your reaction to Granny Weatherall’s train 5. (a)In your opinion, did Granny live a full life?
of thought throughout the story? Support your answer with details from the story.
(b)What is symbolic about the name Weatherall?
Recall and Interpret
6. (a)How do the present and past merge when the
2. (a)At the beginning of the story, what attitudes
priest appears? (b)How does Porter use religion to
does Granny have toward Dr. Harry, Cornelia, and
add an extra layer of meaning to the story? Explain.
her own illness? (b)What do Granny’s attitudes
reveal about her state of mind? 7. Evaluate whether Porter brings this story to an
effective close. Explain your answer using details
3. (a)Who is Hapsy, and where does Granny see
from the story.
her? (b)How does this experience relate to what
occurs at the end of the story? Connect
4. (a)Which event does Granny recall with particular 8. Big Idea Modern Fiction How does the stream
anger and sadness? (b)What does her “message” of consciousness technique that Porter uses to tell
for the person involved allow you to infer about her the story clarify the role that memories, experiences,
feelings toward him? and inner and outer worlds play in one’s life?
L I T E R A RY A N A LYS I S
Literary Element Stream of Consciousness Partner Activity Work with a classmate to review
how you learned about Cornelia as you read the story.
By using stream of consciousness, Porter takes the
Create a web diagram like the one below, adding new
reader deep into the mind of Granny Weatherall and
circles with specific information from the story.
presents a vivid picture of death. Look back at the time-
line you created as you answer the following questions:
1. What kinds of clues help the reader distinguish the descriptive Cornelia’s
details actions
past from the present?
2. Is stream of consciousness a good technique for
Cornelia
telling the story of the hours and minutes leading
up to death? Why or why not? Granny’s
Cornelia’s comments
words about her
Review: Characterization
Characterization refers to the various methods that a
writer uses to develop the personality of a character.
These include description, dialogue, the character’s
actions, and sometimes, as in this story, the character’s
thoughts.
1. What are two important events in Granny’s life that List the events, feelings, and memories that you wish
illustrate her independence? to write about from your character’s point of view.
Then create a flow chart like the one below to show
2. Near the end of her life, how does Granny’s desire how you will connect them. Link the events with
to remain independent affect her attitudes toward memories and feelings.
Cornelia, Dr. Harry, and George?
SEQUENCE OF EVENTS
Vocabulary Practice
Practice with Context Clues Read each of the
following sentences and then decide which of the
➧
choices is closest in meaning to the boldfaced word.
1. Annette was very tactful and complimented
each of her friends.
a. blunt b. polite
2. We wanted to leave a dutiful caretaker in ➧
charge of the animals so they would all remain
healthy.
a. conscientious b. quick
3. My uncle’s vanity was great enough that he felt
➧
sure he’d win the contest.
a. enthusiasm b. conceit
4. My sister cried for three days after she was
jilted by her boyfriend.
a. praised b. rejected
5. Joseph, who always carried a rosary, was known
After you complete your draft, have a peer read it and
for his piety.
suggest revisions. Then proofread and edit your work
a. religious faith b. personal style
for errors in spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
The Bitter Nest, Part II: The Harlem Renaissance Party, c. 1988. Faith Ringgold. Acrylic on canvas with
printed, dyed, and pieced fabric, 94 x 83 in. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC.
My City
M E E T JA M ES W E LDO N J O H NSON
B
oth as an artist and an activist, James During the 1920s, Harlem
Weldon Johnson spent his life introducing became “the recognized
the United States to the creative voice of Negro capital,” and the
African Americans while fighting the racism and passionate innovations in
the social injustices he believed hindered their African American music,
progress. For Johnson, writing poetry and fighting art, and literature that
for equality served the same goal: winning a developed there became
respected place in society for African Americans. known as the Harlem
Renaissance. Johnson was
Born in Jacksonville, Florida, Johnson grew up in
involved in the movement not only as an author
a stable middle-class home and was raised to have
but also as a mentor of young writers, such as
an appreciation of the arts and a love of learning.
Claude McKay and Langston Hughes. He urged
Later, as a student at Atlanta University, he
artists to find their inspiration in real-life African
embraced the school’s philosophy that educated
American communities. In these artists he saw “a
African Americans should devote their lives to
group whose ideals are becoming increasingly more
public service—and he did just that.
vital than those of the traditionally artistic group,
even if its members are less picturesque.” In 1922,
Johnson published his widely acclaimed anthology,
“I believe that the richest contributions the The Book of American Negro Poetry.
Negro poet can make to the American Devoted to Public Service Though most
literature of the future will be the fusion famous for his literary contributions, Johnson’s
work outside the creative sphere was equally
into it of his own individual artistic gifts.” impressive and, in some ways, groundbreaking.
—James Weldon Johnson Johnson was the first African American lawyer to
“Preface,” The Book of American Negro Poetry be admitted to the bar in Florida, and as a leader
in the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP), he was instrumental
in helping the organization become a national
Born to be a New Yorker In 1900, he and
force capable of lobbying in Washington. He
his brother Rosamond composed the spiritual-
played an integral role in bringing attention to the
influenced song “Lift Every Voice and Sing,”
issues of social desegregation and the abolishment
which would later be referred to as “the Negro
of discrimination in housing, education, employ-
National Anthem.” Shortly after that, the brothers
ment, and voting. Johnson’s contributions as a
began writing hit songs for Broadway musicals and
Civil Rights activist, poet, and novelist continue
the stage. They quickly realized that living in
to impact modern society.
Florida was a disadvantage for that profession, and
by 1902 Johnson resigned his post as principal of James Weldon Johnson was born in 1871 and died
Stanton School and the brothers relocated to New in 1938.
York City. For Johnson, New York City proved
“an alluring world, a tempting world, a world of
greatly lessened restraints . . . but, above all, a Author Search For more about
world of tremendous artistic potentialities.” James Weldon Johnson, go to www.glencoe.com.
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • understanding and interpreting imagery
• analyzing characteristics of the Harlem Renaissance • analyzing sonnets
James Weldon Johnson Private collection. Courtesy Terry Dintenfass Gallery, New York.
Big Idea The Harlem Renaissance How do you think the speaker
feels toward Manhattan’s “shining towers” and “slums”?
Vocabulary
subtle (sə təl) adj. faint; barely noticeable; not obvious
stark (stark) adj. absolute; complete
unutterable (un ə tə rə bəl) adj. too deep or great to be put into
words
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. How did “My City” make you feel about New York 5. (a)What, according to the speaker, is “the stark,
City as it was during the Harlem Renaissance? unutterable pity” (line 13)? (b)Why might the
speaker feel this way about the city?
Recall and Interpret
6. (a)How does the rhyme scheme connect to what
2. (a)What question does the speaker pose for
the poem says? (b)Would the poem have the same
himself at the beginning of the poem? (b)Is the
effect if it didn’t have a rhyme scheme? Explain.
speaker’s age implied in this question? If so, how?
7. (a)A caesura is a pronounced pause in the middle
3. (a)What possible answers to his question does the
of a line of poetry that is often indicated by punctu-
speaker first explore? (b)Why might he propose
ation. Where does Johnson use caesuras in the
these answers?
poem? (b)What is the effect of these pauses?
4. (a)What answer does the speaker finally provide?
(b)What reasons does he give? (c)What does this Connect
answer tell you about the speaker’s personality? 8. Big Idea The Harlem Renaissance (a)How
does Johnson’s poem reflect the general mood of
the Harlem Renaissance? (b)Why do you think he
titled the poem “My City”?
L I T E R A RY A NA LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
I
so put together
n 1973, writer Alice Walker traveled to Fort
that I do not
Pierce, Florida, to visit Zora Neale Hurston’s
have much of a
grave. According to Walker, what she found
herd instinct. Or
looked “more like an abandoned field” than a
if I must be con-
cemetery. Walker ordered a headstone to mark
nected with the
Hurston’s grave. “I wanted to mark Zora’s grave so
flock, let me be
that one day all our daughters and sons would be
the shepherd my
able to locate the remains of a human mountain in
ownself. That is
Florida’s and America’s so frequently flat terrain,”
just the way I am
Walker explains.
made.” Her ideas
sometimes got her into trouble with her fellow
Introduction to Folklore Zora Neale Hurston
writers, some of whom felt that documenting the
grew up in Eatonville, Florida, one of the first
speech and folkways of small-town African
incorporated black towns in the United States,
Americans could expose the community to ridi-
where her father was the mayor. Only thirteen
cule. Over the years Hurston’s popularity declined.
years old when her mother died, Hurston spent the
By the time of her death in a Florida retirement
next two decades working as a waitress, a manicur-
home, she was penniless.
ist, and a maid, while trying to complete a high
school education. Finally she enrolled in Howard Today, thanks to Walker and other admirers,
University, and later Barnard College. There, she Hurston’s books are widely read. She is remembered
came to the attention of celebrated anthropologist for her ability to capture the rich traditions and
Franz Boas, who invited Hurston to become for- poetic speech of southern African American cul-
mally trained as an anthropologist and a folklorist. ture. Her book Mules and Men is recognized as the
first history of African American folklore written
After completing her studies, Hurston used her
by an African American, and her most admired
training to collect the folklore of Eatonville and
novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, has sold more
other southern African American communities.
than a million copies since its republication in 1969.
She later used this material as a source for much of
Hurston’s work is rich in human insights about
the fiction writing she pursued when not docu-
both community and the individual, and fre-
menting folklore.
quently portrays characters with complex longings
for a free and wide-ranging way of life. In her auto-
biography, Hurston recalled, “I used to climb to
“There is no agony like bearing an the top of one of the huge chinaberry trees which
guarded our front gate and look out over the
untold story inside you.” world. The most interesting thing I saw was the
—Zora Neale Hurston horizon. . . . It grew upon me that I ought to walk
out to the horizon and see what the end of the
world was like.”
Literary Success and Obscurity Although Zora Neale Hurston was born in 1891 and died in 1960.
considered an important figure in the Harlem
Renaissance, Hurston was a fierce individualist who Author Search For more about
resisted membership in any one school of thought. Author Name,
Zora Neale go to www.literature.glencoe.com.
Hurston, go to www.glencoe.com.
Building Background Reading Tip: Reading Slowly When you read mate-
rial that contains unfamiliar words, phrases, or con-
This excerpt takes place about 1900 in Eatonville,
cepts, slow down your reading rate to aid
Florida. Zora Neale Hurston frequently celebrated the
comprehension.
customs and speech of her hometown in her writing.
Although the autobiography Dust Tracks on a Road is
fascinating for what it reveals about Hurston and her Vocabulary
background, it conceals much about her life at the
same time. Hurston never tells when she was born, brazenness (brā zən nəs) n. defiant behavior;
never mentions her second marriage, and contradicts boldness; p. 792 We laughed at the comic’s bra-
details about her life that she wrote about in private zenness when he ridiculed the mayor.
letters to friends. exalt (i zolt ) v. to lift up; to put in high spir-
its; p. 793 I always exalt the influence of my
Setting Purposes for Reading mother.
Big Idea The Harlem Renaissance snicker (sni kər) n. a snide, partly suppressed
Although Hurston resisted being defined by any laugh, often expressing disrespect; p. 794 When
particular literary movement, she participated in New the actor forgot his lines, a man in the audience let
York musical and literary scenes and, with other out a snicker.
Harlem intellectuals, helped to create a vibrant culture.
indifferent (in dif ər ənt) adj. lacking feeling or
Her works were among the first to celebrate Southern
concern; p. 796 Jim played for the joy of it; he was
African American life. As you read, notice details of
completely indifferent to whether he won or lost.
Southern life that Hurston considered worthy of
recording and celebrating.
Vocabulary Tip: Analogies Analogies are compari-
sons that show similarities between two things that
Literary Element Voice are otherwise dissimilar. An analogy can help
The voice of a literary work is the distinctive use of explain something unfamiliar by comparing it to
language that conveys the author’s or narrator’s per- something familiar.
sonality to the reader. Voice is determined by elements
of style such as word choice and tone. As you read,
pay attention to what the narrator’s voice reveals about
her personality and background.
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • recognizing an author’s voice in a literary work
• interpreting modern fiction • analyzing language
1. Hail means “to greet.” brazenness (brā zən nəs) n. defiant behavior; boldness
Vocabulary
Reading Strategy Analyzing Language Why does the
author include phrases such as “lick the calf”? exalt (i zolt) v. to lift up; to put in high spirits
14. In Norse mythology, Thor is the god of thunder. His 18. David was the second king of Judah and Israel. He killed
magical hammer returns to him like a boomerang after the giant Goliath.
being thrown. 19. Smiting means “striking hard, as with a hand or a weapon,
15. Odin (¯ōdin), the father of Thor, is the supreme god in so as to cause serious injury or death.”
Norse mythology and the creator of the first man and 20. Luke and Paul were authors of much of the New
woman. Odin traded an eye for a drink from the well of Testament of the Christian Bible.
wisdom, which was guarded by a giant. 21. Laid about means “hit out in all directions.”
16. Resolved means “decided.” 22. Roast is slang for “burn in hell.”
17. Passed is short for “passed on” or “passed away” and
means “died.” Reading Strategy Analyzing Language Why is the
language in this passage humorous?
Vocabulary
indifferent (in difər ənt) adj. lacking feeling or Literary Element Voice What do you infer about Hurston
concern from the language in this passage?
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond 6. Think back to what you were like in the fifth grade.
Do you think Hurston accurately recreates the
1. How did you react to the narrator? Cite passages to
thoughts of a fifth grader? Support your answer
support your response.
with examples.
Recall and Interpret 7. (a)When Hurston reads aloud from the story of
2. (a)What does the young Hurston do at the begin- Persephone, what does she reveal about her per-
ning of the selection? (b)What does this action tell sonality and abilities? (b)Where else in the selec-
you about her character? tion does she reveal these traits? Explain the overall
impression of Hurston that you received.
3. (a)How do the teachers and students react to the
white visitors? (b)Why do you think they behave Connect
this way?
8. Big Idea The Harlem Renaissance
4. (a)Which gifts from the white women does
The Harlem Renaissance emphasized the value of
Hurston enjoy most? (b)What do those gifts pro-
African Americans’ contributions to the country as a
vide for her that the other gifts do not?
whole. How is this emphasis reflected in the selec-
Analyze and Evaluate tion? Explain.
LI TE R ARY AN ALYS I S
Review: Allusion
An allusion is a reference in a work of literature to a
character, place, or situation from history or from
music, art, or another work of literature.
Z O R A NE AL E HUR S T O N 797
R E AD I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY WRITI NG AN D EXTEN DI NG
Literature Groups
Academic Vocabulary Evaluating an Autobiography Critics have com-
plained that Hurston’s autobiography is not always fac-
Here are two words from the vocabulary list on tual. In a small group, discuss the following: Does it
page R86. These words will help you think, matter to you if Hurston’s autobiography is absolutely
write, and talk about the selection. true or not? What reasons might a writer have for dis-
torting the facts in his or her autobiography? Do you
range (rānj) n. extent to which or limits think these are valid reasons? Why or why not? Share
between which something varies your conclusions with the class.
complex (compleks) adj. difficult to under-
stand, analyze, or execute
Understanding Homonyms
“Often the white travelers would hail me, but more often I hailed them, and º Test-Taking Tip
asked, ‘Don’t you want me to go a piece of the way with you?’” To determine the meaning
Connecting to Literature Homonyms are words that sound alike but have differ- of a homonym, use con-
ent meanings and sometimes different spellings. They can also be different parts text clues. The part of
of speech. For example, the words hail and hale are homonyms. Consider Zora speech can sometimes
Neale Hurston’s use of the word hail in the quote from Dust Tracks on a Road help you understand the
above. We know from the context that here hail is a verb and means “to greet intended meaning.
someone.” The word hail as a noun means “pellets of ice.” º Reading Handbook
The English language is full of homonyms. Here is a sample list. For more about hom-
onyms, see Reading
Word Meaning Example Handbook, p. R20.
bear an animal The brown bear came dangerously close to our campsite.
bear to endure The entire team must bear the burden of defeat
bank a mound or border We stood on the river’s bank and watched the swift current.
bank a place where money is kept My bank informed me that my account was overdrawn.
break to crack, split, or smash Enslaved people endeavored to break their bonds.
brake to stop a movement The negligent driver failed to brake for the pedestrian.
hear to listen In the village, we could hear the pealing of church bells.
here in this place I am resolved to remain here until I am evicted.
10. The teacher could not be heard in the back of the room because he • Recognize homonyms.
• Distinguish meanings of
was a little (horse, hoarse). homonyms.
79 9
B EF O R E YO U R E A D
S
ome critics have identified the publication of race, their class, their roots in the soil . . . I could not
“If We Must Die” in 1919 as the spark that feel the reality of them without that. So likewise I
ignited the Harlem Renaissance. Though he could not realize myself writing without conviction.”
was not an innovator in modern verse—his son- A later work, Home to Harlem, follows a protagonist,
nets were strongly influenced by British literary Jake, through Jazz-Age Harlem, as he explores its
traditions—McKay’s focus on the African seedy cabarets, poolrooms, and dining cars. With its
American experience distinguished him as a new, focus on the racial and social realities of the United
outspoken voice in American literature. The poets States, Home to Harlem reached the best seller list—
of the Harlem Renaissance, such as Langston the first novel by an African American to do so.
Hughes and Countee Cullen, hailed McKay as a
leader because of his frank approach to racial and
social issues in his work.
“All my life I have been a troubadour
McKay was born and educated in rural Jamaica.
His brother Uriah Theophilus, a schoolteacher,
wanderer, nourishing myself mainly on
and Englishman Walter Jekyll, a British scholar the poetry of existence. And all I offer
collecting Jamaican folklore, encouraged McKay’s here is the distilled poetry of my
creativity. With access to their books, McKay read
Victorian authors, as well as the medieval Italian experience.”
writer Dante and the French poet Baudelaire.
—Claude McKay
Culture Shock After winning
an award for his poetry in 1912,
McKay used the money to come Lost and Then Found McKay truly represented
to the United States. McKay was the spirit of the “New Negro.” Through his poem “If
drawn to this country, seeing it We Must Die,” he captured a universal sentiment of
as “a new land to which all peo- resistance in the face of injustice. So universal was
ple who had youth and a youth- this theme that Winston Churchill quoted the poem
ful mind turned,” and believing to rally the British people during World War II.
that “surely there would be By the time of his death, McKay had become
opportunity in this land, even virtually unknown. It was only years later that he
for a Negro.” However, when was rediscovered and fully recognized for his
McKay arrived, he was shocked achievements. In 1973 author Jean Wagner
by the blatant racism and vio- concluded that “McKay remains beyond a doubt
lence he found, and he spent the immediate forerunner and one of the leading
much of his life looking for ways forces of the Renaissance, the man without whom
to counter the “ignoble cruelty” it could never have achieved what it did.”
of racism through his poetry and
Claude McKay was born in 1890 and died in 1948.
his actions.
McKay admired poets who wrote about their own
struggles in society, and he strove to do the same in Author Search For more about
his own writing: “In their poetry I could feel their Claude McKay, go to www.glencoe.com.
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • understanding and analyzing meter
• analyzing characteristics of the Harlem Renaissance • analyzing tone
CLAUDE MC KAY 8 01
Collection of Martin & Sondra Sperber, New York. Courtesy Heritage Gallery, Los Angeles.
Two Heads, 1946. Charles White. Watercolor, 163/4 x 241/4 in. Collection of Martin & Sondra Sperber,
New York. Courtesy Heritage Gallery, Los Angeles, CA.
Vocabulary
nobly (nō blē) adv. with superior morals or character
constrained (kən strānd) v. forced or limited
kinsmen (kinz men) n. those who share the same racial or
cultural background as another
Big Idea The Harlem Renaissance How does this detail reflect
the African American experience during the Harlem Renaissance?
Vocabulary
benediction (ben´ ə dik shən) n. a blessing or something
Claude McKay that fosters goodness
RESP ON DI NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. (a)Which images from the poems stand out in 6. Some critics believe the publication of “If We Must
your mind? (b)What effects do these images Die” marked the beginning of the Harlem
have on you? Renaissance. Why might this poem have led to
such a creative outpouring?
Recall and Interpret
7. In “The Tropics in New York,” how does McKay use
2. (a)In “If We Must Die,” what two animals does the
sensory details to convey his meaning? Explain.
speaker name? Which animals are the hunters, and
which are the hunted? (b)With which animals does 8. “The Tropics in New York” is broken into three stanzas.
the speaker identify? Explain. What does each of the stanzas present? Why do you
think McKay chose to organize the poem in this way?
3. (a)How does the speaker want his kinsmen to
behave? (b)Why is this important to him? Connect
4. (a)In “The Tropics in New York,” what does the 9. Big Idea The Harlem Renaissance The think-
speaker see in the window? (b)What memories ers, writers, and artists of the Harlem Renaissance
does that sight bring? struggled with problems of racism and identity.
5. (a)How does the speaker react when he recalls his (a)What lesson about racism does McKay present in
homeland? (b)Why might he have this reaction? “If We Must Die”? (b)What message about identity is
implied in “The Tropics in New York”?
Vocabulary Practice
Writing About Literature
Practice with Word Origins Match each word
Evaluate Sound Devices Writers use sound devices
with the meaning of its root. Use a dictionary for
to enhance the sense of rhythm, to emphasize particu-
assistance.
lar sounds, or to add a musical quality to their writing.
Examples of sound devices are alliteration, assonance, 1. nobly a. “to constrict”
consonance, onomatopoeia, and rhyme. Write a brief
essay comparing the sound devices used in these two 2. kinsmen b. “notable”
poems. 3. constrained c. “to speak well”
4. benediction d. “birth or race”
Web Activities For eFlashcards,
Selection Quick Checks, and other Web activities, go to
www.glencoe.com.
Media Link to
African American
Culture
Preview the Article
STANZAS FROM
BLACK
In “Stanzas from a Black Epic,” the author
A
describes how Harlem artist Jacob
Lawrence depicted the Great Migration,
the mass movement of African Americans
from the South to the North during the
early 1900s.
EPIC
1. Examine the title. What might the
author mean by a “black epic”?
2. Look at the paintings on pages 806–
808. What can you predict about the
content of the article from these
images?
T
HE SIXTY PAINTINGS THAT MAKE UP JACOB LAWRENCE’S
Reading Strategy Migration series are works that anyone interested in
Scanning Text to Find Specific Information African American cultural history—or, in a wider way,
Scanning is the process of searching the story of American painting as a whole—should see.
quickly through text for a particular fact.
When you scan text, your eyes sweep More than 60 years have passed American art is sown with attempts,
across a page in search of key words and since Lawrence made these little varying between saccharine senti-
specific information. pictures, on store-bought panels in mentality and stunning success, to
his Harlem studio; and they are of image forth the American story.
Scan the article for the key words Harlem far greater power than almost all the And for reasons that are sadly obvi-
and painting. What do you learn about acreage of Works Progress ous, few of these were created by
these topics? Use a graphic organizer to Administration (WPA) murals that African Americans, until Lawrence
record information. preceded them in the 1930s. They appeared.
were almost immediately bought, Younger than the painters and
Word Information half by the Phillips Collection in writers who took part in the Harlem
Harlem Lawrence—younger Washington, D.C., and half by the Renaissance of the 1920s, Lawrence
than and different Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) was also at an angle to them: He was
from Harlem in New York City, and were in fact not interested in the kind of ideal-
Renaissance artists the first paintings by a black artist ized portrayals of African Americans
to enter MOMA’s collection. It that others tended to produce.
seemed to the directors of both These fake-primitive images were
museums that Lawrence’s series rep- being created as an antidote to the
resented a unique combination of vile stereotypes with which white
African American experience, his- popular art had flooded the culture
O B J EC TIVES
tory painting, and a modernist style. since Reconstruction. Nevertheless,
• Scan text to locate specific information.
They were right. From Benjamin Lawrence gained self-confidence
• Clarify understanding of informational texts
by creating graphic organizers. West to Robert Rauschenberg, from the cultural climate of
They Were Very Poor Panel 10 from the Migration series by Jacob Lawrence. The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by
SCALA/Art Resource, New York.
And the Migration Spread Panel 23 from the Migration series by Jacob Lawrence.
The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC.
Lawrence’s style gives his pic- These themes are integral to the American historical experience by
tures a solid gravity. His dense and African Americans depicted an African American artist.
well-locked compositions are prime throughout Lawrence’s Migration —Updated 2006,
illustrations of the permanence and series—the first, and arguably still from TIME, December 6, 1993
resistance that are his key themes. the best, treatment of the African
R ES P O N D I N G AN D TH I N K I N G C R ITI CALLY
I
n 1921 Langston Hughes moved to New York
City and enrolled at Columbia University to
learn more about poetry—in the nightclubs
and streets of Harlem. “To see Shuffle Along was
the main reason I wanted to go to Columbia,”
Hughes said. “When I saw it, I was thrilled and
delighted.” The first musical written and per-
formed by African Americans, Shuffle Along to pay his college tuition if Hughes left the United
became a Broadway sensation and launched sev- States. He refused, wanting to try life in New York
eral careers. Many African Americans were mov- City. The city captivated him, but he was unhappy
ing north for good-paying jobs and vibrant city at school. He dropped out—later he would finish
life, yet Hughes knew their life was bittersweet. his degree elsewhere—and worked odd jobs while
The remnants of slavery and the struggle with seg- traveling to Africa and France.
regation held back African Americans from the
American dream that was readily available to Harlem’s Bard Returning to the United States,
many whites during the Roaring Twenties. Hughes worked as a hotel busboy in Washington,
D.C. In 1925 he left three poems by the plate of
Hughes’s writing celebrated the dignity of ordinary,
well-known poet Vachel Lindsay, who was
working-class African Americans, helping many
astounded by Hughes’s work. Newspapers reported
realize that black was beautiful. “They seemed to
the next day that Lindsay had discovered an aston-
me like the gayest and the bravest people possi-
ishing poet, who happened to be an African
ble—these Negroes from the Southern ghettos—
American busboy. Hughes soon moved back to
facing tremendous odds, working and laughing and
Harlem, able to support himself through his writing.
trying to get somewhere in the world,” Hughes
His career began in 1926 with the publication of a
said. This sentiment fit into the Modernist notion
book of his poetry, The Weary Blues. Hughes, con-
that everyday images, speech, and events belong in
sidered the poet laureate of Harlem, also wrote
the highest forms of literature.
novels, nonfiction, plays, and children’s books.
Even death could not dampen his sense of humor.
Many Homes Born in Joplin, Missouri, Hughes
Hughes arranged for a jazz trio to play the Duke
lived in six different cities by the time he was
Ellington tune “Do Nothing Till You Hear from
twelve. It was a childhood of books, music, and
Me” at his funeral in New York City.
poverty. His father moved to Mexico, and his
mother moved frequently in search of employ- His legacy as a spokesperson of the Harlem
ment. When his mother sought work, Hughes Renaissance lives on in contemporary culture.
stayed in Lawrence, Kansas, with his grandmother. Critic Kevin Powell writes, “The very people that
he documented so well . . . were the people who
After finishing high school, he visited his father,
created hip-hop. . . . We’re still asking the same
by then a prosperous lawyer in Mexico. Crossing
questions that Langston Hughes was asking.”
the Mississippi River on the train gave Hughes the
inspiration for his poem “The Negro Speaks of Langston Hughes was born in 1902 and died in 1967.
Rivers.” “I put it down on the back of an envelope
I had in my pocket, and within the space of ten or
fifteen minutes, as the train gathered speed in the Author Search For more about
dusk, I had written this poem.” His father offered Langston Hughes, go to www.glencoe.com.
Big Idea The Harlem Renaissance lull (lul) v. to soothe or cause to sleep; p. 812
As you read, notice how Hughes insists not only on The mother rocked her baby to lull him to sleep.
the place of African Americans in American culture but bosom (booz əm) n. the chest or heart;
insists as well on the beauty and dignity of African p. 812 The frantic woman pressed her child to her
American people. bosom once she found him again.
dusky (dus kē) adj. murky or dark in color;
Literary Element Repetition p. 812 The sailors could not see the bottom of the
Repetition is the recurrence of sounds, words, muddy, dusky water.
phrases, lines, and other elements in a literary work.
Repetition increases the sense of unity in a work and Vocabulary Tip: Denotation and Connotation
can call attention to particular ideas. As you read, The denotation is the literal definition of a word. The
notice how Hughes uses repetition to create refrains. connotation is its implied meaning. For example,
dark can have a negative connotation suggesting
• See Literary Terms Handbook, p. R15. mysteriousness or wickedness.
OB J EC TIVES
In studying these poems, you will focus on the following:
• analyzing literary periods Interactive Literary Elements
• making and verifying predictions about theme Handbook To review or learn more about the literary elements,
• analyzing repetition go to www.glencoe.com.
I,
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
5 But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
Too
I’ll be at the table
10 When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
Then.
15 Besides,
Langston Hughes They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—
I, too, am America.
1. The Euphrates (yō¯ō frā tēz) River flows from Turkey through Syria and Iraq. Many
ancient civilizations flourished in the area between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers.
2. The Congo, also called the Zaire, is a river in central Africa.
3. The Nile, which runs through northeast Africa, is the longest river in the world.
4. According to legend, Abraham Lincoln decided that slavery should be abolished after
witnessing his first slave auction in New Orleans, Louisiana, along the Mississippi River.
Reading Strategy Making Predictions About Theme What do you expect this
poem to be about, after reading the title and the first line?
Literary Element Repetition What idea does the repetition in line 10 emphasize?
Vocabulary
lull (lul) v. to soothe or cause to sleep
bosom (boozəm) n. the chest or heart
dusky (dus kē) adj. murky or dark in color
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. Which lines from the poems would you most like 6. (a)How would you describe the mood of “I, Too”?
to have Langston Hughes explain? Put your (b)What elements of the poem contribute to
response in the form of a question. this mood?
Recall and Interpret 7. (a)What historical realities does the poem “I, Too”
reflect? (b)In what ways has the speaker in “The
2. (a)What is the identity of the speaker and of the
Negro Speaks of Rivers” been affected by the
other people in “I, Too”? (b)Does the speaker feel
history of his people?
at one with these people or separate from them?
8. (a)One of these poems looks toward the future,
3. (a)How is the speaker treated? (b)How does the
and one looks toward the past. Which of these
speaker respond to this treatment?
positions do you find more persuasive? Why?
4. (a)How does the speaker in “The Negro Speaks (b)Which of these poems do you think might
of Rivers” describe the rivers he has known? have found more acceptance among the white
(b)For what reason might he emphasize their age? Americans of the 1920s? Why?
5. (a)What do the activities associated with these rivers Connect
communicate about the history of African Americans?
(b)In your opinion, what do the rivers symbolize, or 9. Big Idea The Harlem Renaissance How do
stand for? these poems affirm the place of African Americans
in the cultural history of this country?
L I T E R A RY A NA LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
OB J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • analyzing concrete details
• analyzing literary periods • responding to juxtaposition
The 1920’s were the years of Manhattan’s black second act. Trixie Smith sang “He May Be Your
Renaissance. It began with Shuffle Along, Running Man But He Comes to See Me Sometimes.” And
Wild, and the Charleston.1 Perhaps some people Caterina Jarboro, now a European prima donna,3
would say even with The Emperor Jones, Charles and the internationally celebrated Josephine
Gilpin, and the tom-toms at the Provincetown. Baker were merely in the chorus. Everybody was
But certainly it was the musical revue, Shuffle in the audience—including me. People came back
Along, that gave a scintillating send-off to that to see it innumerable times. It was always packed.
Negro vogue in Manhattan, which reached its To see Shuffle Along was the main reason I
peak just before the crash of 1929, the crash that wanted to go to Columbia. When I saw it, I was
sent Negroes, white folks, and all rolling down the thrilled and delighted. From then on I was in the
hill toward the Works Progress Administration.2 gallery of the Cort Theatre every time I got a
Shuffle Along was a honey of a show. Swift, chance. That year, too, I saw Katharine Cornell
bright, funny, rollicking, and gay, with a dozen in A Bill of Divorcement, Margaret Wycherly in
danceable, singable tunes. Besides, look who were The Verge, Maugham’s The Circle with Mrs.
in it: The now famous choir director, Hall Leslie Carter, and the Theatre Guild production
Johnson, and the composer, William Grant Still, of Kaiser’s From Morn Till Midnight. But I remem-
were a part of the orchestra. Eubie Blake and ber Shuffle Along best of all. It gave just the
Noble Sissle wrote the music and played and proper push—a pre-Charleston kick—to that
acted in the show. Miller and Lyles were the com- Negro vogue of the 20’s, that spread to books,
ics. Florence Mills skyrocketed to fame in the African sculpture, music, and dancing.
Put down the 1920’s for the rise of Roland
1. The Charleston is an energetic dance to jazz music. The Lindy Hayes, who packed Carnegie Hall, the rise of Paul
Hop and the black-bottom, mentioned later, are similar dances.
Robeson in New York and London, of Florence
2. The Works Progress Administration was a government agency
established in 1935 to give employment to out-of-work people.
3. A prima donna (prē mə don ə) is a principal or featured
Vocabulary woman singer.
scintillating (sin tə lā´ tin) adj. brilliant; sparkling Big Idea The Harlem Renaissance What factors helped
vogue (vō) n. fashion; style make New York the center of African American culture?
But, as often as not, to have a get-together of Reading Strategy Analyzing Concrete Details What do
the details Hughes shares about rent parties tell you about
the reason for their success?
9. During Prohibition, speakeasies were secret clubs where
alcoholic drinks were sold illegally.
Big Idea The Harlem Renaissance What does Hughes’s
Big Idea The Harlem Renaissance How does Hughes experience at rent parties say about the reasons Harlem
portray the effects of the Harlem Renaissance on society? became the center of African American culture?
Vocabulary Vocabulary
millennium (mi le nē əm) n. a period of great impromptu (im promp tō¯ō) adj. offhand; without
happiness, peace, or prosperity preparation
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond 6. (a)What did the “ordinary Negroes” who lived in
Harlem think about the Renaissance? (b)Why did
1. If you had lived in Harlem in the 1920s, what
they think that way?
aspect of its culture do you think you would have
enjoyed most? Explain. 7. (a)What happened to the career of Gladys
Bentley? (b)How does Hughes respond to the
Recall and Interpret change in Gladys Bentley’s fortune?
2. (a)How was the musical Shuffle Along instrumental
8. (a)What did it mean for “the Negro” to be “in
in Hughes’s move to Harlem? (b)According to
vogue”? (b)Put together what Hughes has to
Hughes, what was the musical’s importance to the
say about this vogue with what you know about
African American community?
vogues to write a generalization about why the
3. How did the Jim Crow policy operate in the Cotton Harlem Renaissance did not last.
Club? (b)How did the residents of Harlem respond
to the Jim Crow policy? Connect
9. Think about how Langston Hughes might respond
4. (a)What were house-rent parties? (b)How does
to certain African American artists today. Put your
Hughes compare them to other forms of
response in the form of a question to Hughes.
entertainment?
10. Big Idea The Harlem Renaissance What
Analyze and Evaluate
expectations did some Harlemites have about
5. (a)How did the coming of white spectators to how the Renaissance would affect race relations?
Harlem affect business there? (b)How did the regu- Were they realistic?
lar club patrons respond to the coming of the whites?
DA I LY L I F E A N D C U LT U R E
H A R LE M
By the middle of the 1920s, Harlem had become the
largest community of people of African ancestry in
the world. The 1920 census reported that over
150,000 African Americans lived in New York City.
˘ ˘ ˘ ˘ ˘ ˘
They send me to eat in the kitchen
Body Show influence on each
▲
˘
Briefly summarize what you And eat well,
Conclusion
▲
F IN I S H
Activity Copy a few lines of one of the poems and
mark the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables.
After you complete your draft, meet with a peer
Does the pattern create a rhythm? Emphasize particu-
reviewer to evaluate each other’s work and to suggest
lar words? Now experiment with rephrasing the lines
revisions. Then proofread and edit your draft for errors
you copied to keep the meaning but change the
in spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
rhythm. How does the rephrased version compare
with the original?
Interdisciplinary Activity: Art
Work with a small group of classmates to research a Revising Check
Harlem Renaissance artist, such as Jacob Lawrence,
Rhythm in Prose Reread the essay you wrote about
Aaron Douglas, Palmer Hayden, Malvin Gray Johnson,
author’s purpose. Do you see any opportunities for add-
Hale Woodruff, or Augusta Savage. Plan a brief pre-
ing rhythmic language by repeating similar sentence
sentation that includes music from the time or a dra-
structures? Decide whether such rhythm would enhance
matic reading about the artist.
the effect of your writing or would interfere with what
you have to say. Revise your essay accordingly.
Your World
M E E T G EO RGI A DO U GL A S
J O H NSON
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • analyzing mood
• analyzing characteristics of the Harlem Renaissance • visualizing text
Vocabulary
encircle (en sur kəl) v. to create a circle around
immensity (i men sə tē) n. greatness in size and degree
batter (bat ər) v. to beat with blows; to attack fiercely
and repeatedly
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. Which images in the poem remind you most of 5. How well does the speaker support the belief that
feelings that you have had in your own life? Explain. “Your world is as big as you make it”? Use details
from the poem in your response.
Recall and Interpret
6. (a)How do you visualize the speaker at the end of
2. (a)To what does the speaker compare herself or
the poem? (b)Compare that image with the way in
himself? (b)How does the metaphor in the poem
which you visualized the speaker in the first stanza
match the speaker’s message?
and explain why the images might be different.
3. (a)Alliteration is the repetition of the consonant
7. Read aloud the last two lines of the poem and
sounds at the beginnings of words. Find an exam-
assess how the rhythm contributes to the poem’s
ple of alliteration in the first stanza of “Your World.”
emotional effect. Summarize your ideas.
(b)How does it contribute to the poem’s effect?
4. (a)What does the speaker see in the second stanza? Connect
(b)How does the mood change in this stanza? 8. Big Idea The Harlem Renaissance In what
ways might historical events have influenced the
author’s attitudes?
L I T E R A RY A NA LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
A
s a historian, an educator, and an author
of poems, plays, and novels, Arna
Bontemps helped draw attention to the
misleading education he felt many U.S. citizens
had received about the heritage and accomplish-
ments of African Americans. He has been credited
with helping to create the “trickle of interest in
Negro American literature—that trickle which is
now a torrent.” Bontemps wrote, “Had I not gone
home summers and hobnobbed with Negroes, . . . I
would have come out [of college] imagining that
the story of the Negro could be told in two short When Bontemps was a student at UCLA, he dis-
paragraphs: a statement about jungle people in covered a book by Claude McKay, a poet whose
Africa and an equally brief account of the slavery work eventually helped to spark the Harlem
issue in American history.” Renaissance. Bontemps read McKay’s book twice in
one day and then “began telling everybody I knew
about it.” In 1923, when he moved to New York,
he became friends with Langston Hughes, Countee
“In the Harlem Renaissance poetry led Cullen, and other Harlem Renaissance artists.
the way for the other arts. It touched
Adult Achievements Bontemps’s father wished
off the awakening that brought his son would become a mason, but Bontemps pre-
novelists, painters, sculptors, dancers, ferred to try his luck as a writer. He believed that
literature could both educate and empower. Soon
dramatists, and scholars of many kinds after his arrival in Harlem, he won recognition for
to the notice of a nation that had his poetry and for his first novel, God Sends Sunday.
He also began writing literature for children.
nearly forgotten about the gifts of its
In 1943 Bontemps became the librarian at Fisk
Negro people.” University in Nashville, Tennessee, where he
—Arna Bontemps devoted himself to recording the history of African
Americans. He said that his book The Story of the
Negro “consists mainly of things I learned after I
A Childhood Teacher Bontemps was born in left school that I wish I had known much earlier.”
Alexandria, Louisiana, but racism there led his Bontemps went on to write more than twenty-five
father to take the family to Los Angeles, California, books, including The Harlem Renaissance
when Bontemps was three years old. During Remembered and Golden Slippers, the first children’s
Bontemps’s childhood, his great-uncle Buddy anthology of African American poetry.
shared with Bontemps his love of variety shows,
Arna Bontemps was born in 1902 and died in 1973.
folk stories, and dialect, all of which were staples of
African American culture at the time. Bontemps
would go on to incorporate the rich cultural Author Search For more about
achievements of African Americans in his work. Arna Bontemps, go to www.glencoe.com.
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • understanding and analyzing extended metaphors
• analyzing characteristics of the Harlem Renaissance • connecting to personal experiences
ARNA BONTEMPS 8 27
(c)Estate of Robert Gwathmey/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY/San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA, Museum purchase with funds provided by Mrs. Leon D. Bonnet
Share Croppers, c. 1941. Robert Gwathmey. Watercolor,
45 x 32.4 cm. ©Estate of Robert Gwathmey/Licensed by VAGA,
New York/San Diego Museum of Art. Museum purchase with
funds provided by Mrs. Leon D. Bonnet.
Arna Bontemps
S11-147-01C-635423 AlOz Brush 1.Chris
Glean means “to gather grain left on a field after reaping.”
Vocabulary
sown (sōn) v. planted
lean (lēn) adj. unproductive; lacking
reap (rēp) v. to gather or to harvest
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond ideas might Bontemps be trying to emphasize
through his use of rhyme?
1. How did this poem affect you? Explain.
6. African American author James Baldwin wrote,
Recall and Interpret “Color is not a human or a personal reality; it is a
2. (a)What is the work done by the speaker in the political reality.” How well does this poem illustrate
poem? (b)How would you explain the fears and Baldwin’s point? Explain.
concerns expressed in the first stanza?
7. How well does the title of the poem help you
3. (a)Who are “my brother’s sons,” and what are they understand the poem’s overall meaning? Explain.
doing? (b)Why do you think they are able to act in Cite details from the poem in your answer.
such a way?
Connect
4. (a)What does the speaker mean by “my children
glean in fields they have not sown”? (b)What might 8. Big Idea The Harlem Renaissance The
be the “bitter fruit” the children feed on? Explain. Harlem Renaissance encouraged authors to make
the experiences and concerns of African Americans
Analyze and Evaluate central to their writing. In what ways does this
5. In this poem, Bontemps uses end rhyme, or words poem reflect both the history of African Americans
that rhyme at the end of each line of poetry. What and the goals of the Harlem Renaissance?
L I T E R A RY A NA LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
AR NA BONTEMPS 829
B EF O R E YO U R E A D
P
esteemed African American poet of his time.
robably more than any other writer during the
Harlem Renaissance, Countee Cullen embod-
ied the ideal of the “New Negro” and fulfilled
the goals of African American leaders W. E. B. “I shall not write of Negro subjects for
DuBois and James Weldon Johnson. He successfully
reached both African American and white audi- the purpose of propaganda. That is not
ences and eloquently addressed the issues of racism what a poet is concerned with. Of
and injustice in the United States. Though some
argued that Cullen spurned his African American
course, when the emotion rising out of
heritage because he considered himself simply a poet the fact that I am a Negro is strong, I
and not an African American poet, he never denied express it.”
his African American culture. His verse—even as it
showed the influence of English Romantic poetry— —Countee Cullen
echoed the struggle and violence of the times.
Cullen was born Countee Porter. His birthplace
remains a mystery, but most scholars believe it was Contradictions Unlike some of his contempo-
Louisville, Kentucky. Cullen was raised by a raries, Cullen wrote his poems in highly structured
woman who was thought to be his grandmother, and traditional European forms. He wanted to
and when she died in 1917, he went to live with prove that African Americans could write poetry
Reverend Frederick A. Cullen, pastor of the Salem as well as whites could. His belief in art’s ability to
Methodist Episcopal unite people of all races often prompted him to
Church in Harlem, and caution other African American poets, such as
his wife, Carolyn. Langston Hughes, against becoming “racial poets.”
Although not legally Although James Weldon Johnson understood
adopted by the Cullens, Cullen’s desire to avoid the “Negro poet” label, he
he eventually took their also noted the paradox between Cullen’s beliefs
last name. and his work, observing, “Strangely, it is because
Cullen excelled in Cullen revolts against . . . racial limitations—
school and won several technical and spiritual—that the best of his poetry
poetry awards, including is motivated by race.”
a citywide contest.
Before he graduated Legacy Cullen published several collections of
from New York poetry after Color. Although critical acclaim for his
University, his first book works waned in later years, Cullen’s popularity never
of poems, Color, was suffered, and today his literary legacy remains due to
published to good the eloquent, artfully crafted poems that he wrote
during the Harlem Renaissance.
Countee Porter Cullen, 1925. Winold Reiss. Pastel on artist
board. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Countee Cullen was born in 1903 and died in 1946.
Washington, DC.
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • understanding and analyzing stanzas
• analyzing characteristics of the Harlem Renaissance • connecting to contemporary issues
COUNTEE CULLEN 8 31
The ills I sorrow at
National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC/Art Resource, NY
Not me alone
Like an arrow,
Pierce to the marrow,
5 Through the fat
And past the bone.
Vocabulary
fused (fūzd) adj. blended
diverse (di vurs) adj. composed of different
elements
unique (ū nēk) adj. unusual
unsheathed (un shēthd) adj. removed from a
protective case
Countee Cullen Kent
S11-145-01C-635423
AlOz Brush U5 T8
832 UNIT 5 B EG I N N I N G S O F T HE MODE RN AGE
A F T E R YO U R E A D
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. (a)What did you first think of when you read the 6. (a)What comparisons are introduced in the last
poem’s title? (b)How did your response change stanza? (b)Why might Cullen have selected those
after you read the poem? particular comparisons?
L I T E R A RY A NA LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
Revising
Connecting to Literature In the passage above, John F. Kennedy examines
➥ Focus Lesson: Sharpening
the Precision of Word the aspects of Frost’s character revealed through his poetry in order to honor
Choice Frost’s achievement as a whole. Similarly, in a literary analysis, you examine
the parts of a text to understand better the meaning of the text as a whole. The
Editing & Proofreading rubric below will help you learn the goals and strategies for writing a successful
expository literary analysis of a poem.
➥ Focus Lesson: Embedding
Quotations in Text
Goals Strategies
To analyze the meaning and ✓ Show how form, meter, language, and
techniques used in a poem speaker contribute to meaning
Writing Models For models To write a concise interpretation of ✓ In your introduction, state your
and other writing activities, go to the poem interpretation of the poem’s meaning
www.glencoe.com. ✓ In the conclusion, summarize your
interpretation and major points
OB J EC TIVES
To support your analysis with ✓ Use direct quotations and concrete
• Analyze a poem to demon-
strate an understanding of evidence examples from the poem for support
the poem’s meaning and
appreciation of the effects
that create that meaning. To organize your analysis logically ✓ Organize your discussion of elements in
• Advance a judgment of a a logical, coherent way
poem supported by evidence.
nent and perhaps less important than something else. For all practical purposes
this particular wall is not needed. But the project of mending it has taken on
significance: “Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder / If I could put a
notion in his head . . . ”
Reading-Writing Connection Think about the writing techniques that you just
encountered and try them out in the expository literary analysis essay you write.
Prewriting
Choose a Poem to Analyze When choosing a poem to write about, think
about a poem in this unit you find provocative or challenging, one that you
would like to understand better. Make sure that the poem you choose is substan-
tive enough to discuss in your essay.
Explore Your Poem After you select a poem, explore its meaning and the
techniques the poet uses to convey that meaning. You may find it helpful to
make a copy of the poem to mark up as you analyze. Try these strategies: Every Word Counts
Poets choose each
º Paraphrase the poem’s general meaning in your own words. Then focus on word in a poem specifi-
specific words, punctuation, sounds, and figures of speech. Analyze the ways cally to give the poem
these elements contribute to the meaning of the poem. meaning and impact.
Always look for multi-
º Reread the poem. You probably will not notice everything at once.
ple meanings of a word
º Focus on smaller sections of the poem in detail. Explore the images in each and note how different
section and think about how they bring out the poet’s message. meanings may enhance
or complicate the
Analyze the Elements Remember that when you analyze something, you break meaning of the poem.
it into parts and examine each part, determining how the parts work together as a Test Prep
whole. A chart like the one below can help you work out your analysis of a poem
and can serve as evidence to support your thesis in your draft. When you analyze a
poem for a timed test,
examine the literary
Poem “I, Too” by Langston Hughes elements first. This
Form 5 stanzas; 18 lines analysis will form the
Rhyme Scheme unrhymed support for your thesis.
Clarify Your Thesis Look at your analysis chart and decide which elements
are most important in the poem you chose. You need not discuss every element
in your analysis, only the most important ones. Then examine your paraphrase
and the notes in your chart to sum up your interpretation of the meaning of the
poem in a thesis statement. Your thesis should explain how particular literary
elements illustrate or contribute to the theme of the poem.
Make a Plan As you write, use the elements in your chart to support your thesis.
Organize your major points so that your analysis follows a logical, effective order.
Quotation
Revision:
Line 17 ends abruptly with a dash,1 however, suggesting that the speaker
suddenly doubts his own statement.2 This dash serves to undercut the proud,
confident, determined tone of the speaker in the first three stanzas, each
of which ends in a period.3
º Focus Lesson
Solution: Place quotation marks around the quotation and set off with
commas the introductory remark from the actual quotation.
Hughes describes an ambiguous “they who send the speaker away when
company comes,” segregating and hiding him from other people (lines 3, 4).
Solution: Place quotation marks around only quoted material, using two or
more sets of quotation marks if necessary.
Writer’s Portfolio
Presenting Place a clean copy of
your literary analysis
in your portfolio to
The Final Touch After you finish editing and proofreading your analysis, and review later.
check that all quotations are cited correctly, focus on presentation. Make sure
your analysis is typed in a legible font and type size, with reasonable margins and
spacing. Give your analysis an interesting title that will make your essay stand
out. Check with your teacher about any additional presentation guidelines.
What are some of the How can I find or What artifacts can I
memorable images or create visual display to highlight
ideas in the poem? representations of those those images or ideas?
images or ideas?
“No amount of analysis can convey the quality of ‘The Sun Also Rises.’ It is a truly gripping story, told in a
lean, hard, athletic narrative prose that puts more literary English to shame. Mr. Hemingway knows how not
only to make words be specific but how to arrange a collection of
words which shall betray a great deal more than is to be found in the
individual parts. It is magnificent writing, filled with that organic
action which gives a compelling picture of character.”
—The New York Times, October 31, 1926
Ethan Frome
By Edith Wharton
A tragic love triangle
between the title character,
his ailing wife, and her
young cousin.
My Ántonia
By Willa Cather
A young boy moves west
from Virginia to the
The Sun Also Rises Nebraska plains and must
By Ernest Hemingway (1926) adjust to life on the
American frontier.
World War I, though long over, casts a deep
shadow over this story of young people
physically and perhaps psychologically damaged
by the war. Set in the cafés of Paris and the
All Quiet on the
bullrings of Spain, Hemingway’s novel paints in
Western Front
poignant detail the aimless lives of a group of By Erich Maria Remarque
disillusioned characters. The story focuses on
A German soldier
narrator Jake Barnes, a wounded war veteran,
experiences the horrors of
and Lady Brett Ashley, the love of his life.
battle during World War I
Barnes’s love for Lady Brett and resentment
and later struggles to adjust
toward her fiancé, Mike Campbell, fuel this
upon his return home.
story of longing and loss.
846 UNIT 5 BE G IN N IN G S O F T HE M O D E RN A GE
30 “You’re looking very . . .” (he wanted to say
old) “. . . well,” he said.
She understood. Under the trees in
Washington Square, she found herself desperately
reaching back into the past. She had been older than
35 he then in Ohio. Now she was not young at all. Bill
was still young.
“We live on Central Park West,” she said.
“Come and see us sometime.”
“Sure,” he replied. “You and your husband
40 must have dinner with my family some night. Any
night. Lucille and I’d love to have you.”
The leaves fell slowly from the trees in the
Square. Fell without wind. Autumn dusk. She felt a
little sick.
45 “We’d love it,” she answered.
“You ought to see my kids.” He grinned.
Suddenly the lights came on up the whole
length of Fifth Avenue, chains of misty brilliance in
the blue air.
50 “There’s my bus,” she said.
He held out his hand, “Good-bye.”
“When . . . ” she wanted to say, but the bus
was ready to pull off. The lights on the avenue
blurred, twinkled, blurred. And she was afraid to
55 open her mouth as she entered the bus. Afraid it
would be impossible to utter a word.
Suddenly she shrieked very loudly, “Good-
bye!” But the bus door had closed.
The bus started. People came between them
60 outside, people crossing the street, people they
didn’t know. Space and people. She lost sight of
Bill. Then she remembered she had forgotten to
give him her address—or to ask him for his—or tell
him that her youngest boy was named Bill, too.
TE S T P RE PA RATIO N A N D P RACTICE 8 47
1. What caused Bill and Mary to end their 9. Why do you think Mary is “afraid it would be
relationship? impossible to utter a word”?
A. She impulsively married another man. A. Because Bill is bitter toward women, she is
B. They stopped speaking. afraid of upsetting him.
C. They both moved to New York. B. She is aware that Bill sees her as old.
D. Something came between them. C. She senses that they can no longer really
communicate.
2. Why do you think Mary unconsciously lifts her D. She thinks that Bill will ignore anything she
face as though wanting a kiss? might say.
A. She is still in love with Bill.
B. She is unhappy to see Bill in New York. 10. In the paragraph beginning in line 57, which is
C. She has momentarily forgotten the past. an example of connotative language?
D. She hopes to make Bill less bitter. A. very
B. closed
3. Of what is the title of the story most symbolic? C. shrieked
A. changing weather in New York D. good-bye
B. the changing of a relationship
C. the ages of Bill and Mary 11. Of what are the “space and people” in line 61
D. the time of the meeting most symbolic?
A. the emotional distance between Bill and
4. To what element of the story does the paragraph Mary
beginning in line 24 contribute? B. Bill’s and Mary’s children and spouses
A. characters C. Bill and Mary’s youthful relationship
B. setting D. the movement of the bus as it pulls away
C. plot
D. conflict 12. In this passage, how does Hughes reveal the
personality of Mary?
5. What does Mary “understand” in line 32? A. metaphor
A. that Bill has a better life than hers B. symbolism
B. that Bill has noticed her age C. direct characterization
C. that Bill is wealthy D. indirect characterization
D. that Bill is unhappy
13. From what point of view is this passage written?
6. Where did Mary and Bill first meet? A. first person
A. in Ohio B. second person
B. in Washington Square C. third-person omniscient
C. in New York City D. third-person limited
D. in Central Park
14. What is the overall tone of this passage?
7. What literary element is most evident in the A. serious
sentence beginning in line 47? B. humorous
A. allusion C. mischievous
B. imagery D. furious
C. metaphor
D. simile 15. Short Response In a short paragraph, describe
the theme of this story. Support your answer
8. In the context, what does the word brilliance in with details from the story.
line 48 mean?
A. intelligence
B. sharpness
C. preciousness
D. brightness
1. Ezra Pound believed in the creation of a 6. With the spread of jazz came a great deal of
new, modern poetry built on the literature of the and disapproval among older people,
past. who felt it was corrupting the youth.
A. whimsically A. vanity
B. stoically B. piety
C. vehemently C. patronage
D. tactfully D. perturbation
2. Much of the U.S. public was to the 7. The Jazz Age gradually eased, rather than ,
conflict in Europe until the United States entered to a close as the Second World War approached.
the war. A. lurched
A. indifferent B. exalted
B. ingenious C. jilted
C. withered D. jostled
D. dutiful
8. There was a on the face of many people
3. Many critics were unimpressed by the bold in the United States the day the stock market
declarations and the of some of the crashed.
Modernist writers. A. millennium
A. piety B. snicker
B. dissembling C. contrivance
C. brazenness D. grimace
D. snickers
9. Many African Americans felt and
4. The writers of the Harlem Renaissance refused to alienated from the mainstream culture in the
themselves to second-class citizenship. United States.
A. jostle A. withered
B. resign B. tactful
C. jilt C. dutiful
D. exalt D. detached
5. In their writing, Imagists often tried to transform 10. Many were shocked by E. E. Cummings’s unusual
elements from the , everyday world into and often use of punctuation, grammar,
something remarkable. and syntax.
A. ominous A. ominous
B. mundane B. withered
C. withered C. ingenious
D. ingenious D. tactful
(1) The opening line immediately signals the reader that this poem will disclose something important.
(2) That something—later revealed to be the wheelbarrow the white chickens, and rainwater—is
supporting “so much.” (3) The line stands out too, because it was the only line not dedicated to
imagery. (4) Also, by never identifying what actually “depends,” Williams creates a host of possible
interpretations for his poem.
(5) Williams dedicates the next three stanzas almost entirely to the eye. (6) Each adds a detail to
the poem’s imagery, each drops another puzzle piece into place. (7) The wheelbarrow is presented first.
(8) Williams described it outright, without embellishment. (9) However, he unexpectedly breaks the word
wheelbarrow between two lines. (10) By breaking this compound noun into its composite parts, the poet
draws the reader’s attention to the word itself, more than to the word’s meaning. (11) The wheelbarrow
is simultaneously an actual physical thing and the words that are used to describe it.
(12) The next stanza, “which tells us that the wheelbarrow is glazed with rain / water,” similarly
breaks the word rainwater between lines. (13) This, even more than the last, creates a situation in which
things, and the language used to describe those things, become confused. (14) Williams is aided by the
closeness in meaning of the words rain and water. (15) One is a component of the other, rain itself can
never really be separated from the water that makes it up.
(16) William Carlos Williams’s “The Red Wheelbarrow” is a deceptively simple poem. (17)
Deceptively simple in that, although it is succinct and its imagery plain and concrete, it expresses
complex ideas. (18) Williams has written a very simple poem. (19) In eight lines Williams created a poem
that shines a light on the underlying notions of language, literature, and representation.
1. Which of the following is the best revision of 2. Which of the following is the best revision of
sentence 2? sentence 3?
A. That something—later revealed to be the A. The line stands out too, because it was not
“wheelbarrow the white chickens and dedicated to imagery.
rainwater”—is supporting “so much.” B. The line stands out too, because it is the only
B. That something—later revealed to be the line not dedicated to imagery.
wheelbarrow the white chickens and C. These lines were the only lines not dedicated
rainwater—is supporting so much. to the creation of the poem’s central image.
C. That something—later revealed to be the D. This was the only line without imagery.
wheelbarrow, the white chickens, and
rainwater—is supporting “so much.” 3. Which of the following errors appears in
D. That something later revealed to be the sentence 6?
wheelbarrow the white chickens and rainwater A. run-on sentence
is supporting “so much.” B. incorrect parallelism
C. sentence fragment
D. incorrect verb tense
8 50 U N IT 5 BE G I NN I NG S O F T H E M O D E R N A GE
4. Which of the following is the best revision of 7. What information would best fit in a new paragraph
sentence 8? inserted between the third and fourth paragraphs?
A. Williams describes it outright, without A. biographical information about William Carlos
embellishment. Williams
B. Outright, Williams described it, without B. a discussion of the poem’s final stanza
embellishment. C. a discussion of other poems by Williams
C. Williams, describing it outright, without D. more background information concerning the
embellishment. writing of the poem
D. Williams is without embellishment.
8. Which of the following sentences adds the least to
5. Which of the following is the best revision of the last paragraph?
sentence 12? A. 16 C. 18
A. The next stanza, which tells us that the B. 17 D. 19
wheelbarrow is glazed with rain / water, similarly
breaks the word rainwater between lines. 9. Which of the following is the best revision of
B. The next stanza, “which tells us that the sentence 19?
wheelbarrow is glazed with rain / water,” A. Williams created a poem that shines a light on
similarly breaks the word rainwater across lines. the underlying notions of language literature
C. The next stanza, which tells us that the and representation.
wheelbarrow is glazed with rain / water, similarly B. In eight lines Williams created a poem that
breaks the word rainwater between lines. shines a light on the underlying notions of
D. The next stanza, which tells us that the language, and literature, and representation.
wheelbarrow is “glazed with rain / water,” C. Williams shines a light on the underlying
similarly breaks up the word rainwater between notions of literature.
lines. D. In eight lines, Williams created a poem that
shines a light on the underlying notions of
6. Which of the following errors appears in sentence 17? language, literature, and representation.
A. run-on sentence
B. incorrect parallelism 10. What is most noticeably missing from this essay?
C. sentence fragment A. a concluding paragraph
D. incorrect verb tense B. an opening paragraph
C. evidence
D. a visual aid
852
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC/Art Resource, NY
U N IT SIX
from
Depression
to Cold War
1930S –1960S
Looking Ahead
During this period, the United States faced extraordinary challenges. In
the 1930s, people in the United States struggled with the effects of the
Great Depression, the worst economic crisis in U.S. history. U.S. entry into
World War II in 1941 signaled the beginning of global responsibilities for
the United States. The postwar world brought the United States an
uneasy peace marked by anxiety about nuclear conflict.
OBJECTIVES
In learning about the period from the Depression to the Cold War, you will:
8 53
timeline
1930S –1960S
AM E R I C AN L I T E R AT U R E
1930 1940
1930 1937 1940
Sinclair Lewis becomes first Their Eyes Were Watching Native Son by 1945
U.S. citizen to win Nobel God by Zora Neale Hurston Richard Wright Black Boy by Richard Wright
Prize for Literature
1938 1943 1945
1936 Thornton Wilder stages Oklahoma! opens A Street in Bronzeville by
Absalom, Absalom! by Our Town on Broadway Gwendolyn Brooks
William Faulkner
1939 1945 1947
The Grapes of Wrath by Tennessee Williams stages Tennessee Williams stages
John Steinbeck The Glass Menagerie A Streetcar Named Desire
U N I T E D STAT E S E V E N TS
1930 1940
1930 1934 1941 1944
Depression deepens; bank Dust Bowl begins in the Japan attacks Pearl Harbor; D-Day invasion begins in
failures increase southern Great Plains United States enters World northern France
War II
1932 1935 1945
Franklin D. Roosevelt is Social Security Act is passed 1942 President Roosevelt dies;
elected president Internment of Americans Vice President Harry S.
of Japanese descent begins Truman becomes president
1933
New Deal is launched 1943 1945
Race riots occur in Detroit; United States drops atomic
Zoot Suit Riots occur bombs on Japan
in Los Angeles
WO R L D E VE N TS
1930 1940
1930 1937 1940 United Nations logo
Mohandas Gandhi leads Salt Pablo Picasso paints France surrenders to Germany
March in India Guernica
1940 1943
1933 1939 Battle of Britain begins Soviets defeat Germans
Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Germany invades Poland; at Stalingrad
party come to power in World War II begins 1942
Germany Nazi “final solution” 1945
establishes concentration and Germany surrenders;
1935 extermination camps for Jews Allied forces liberate Nazi
Nazis deprive German Jews death camps
of citizenship with the
Nürnberg Laws
1936 Emblem required by Nazis Timeline Visit www..glencoe.com
Spanish Civil War begins to be worn by Jews for an interactive timeline.
1950 1960
1949 1952 1955 1960
Arthur Miller’s Death of a Invisible Man by Notes of a Native Son by To Kill a Mockingbird by
Salesman is staged Ralph Ellison James Baldwin Harper Lee
1949 1955 1957 1961
William Faulkner wins A Good Man Is Hard to Find On the Road by Jack Kerouac Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Nobel Prize in Literature by Flannery O’Connor
1959
Lorraine Hansberry’s A
Raisin in the Sun is staged
1950 1960
1946 1950 1955 1962
First electronic digital Senator McCarthy charges Montgomery bus boycott Cuban Missile Crisis occurs
computer begins operation that Communists staff the begins
1963
U.S. State Department
1947 President John F. Kennedy
Jackie Robinson is first 1954 is assassinated; Vice
African American to play Supreme Court rules school President Lyndon Johnson
Major League Baseball segregation unconstitutional becomes president
in Brown v. Board of
1949
Education of Topeka
North Atlantic Treaty Organ-
ization (NATO) is founded
1950 1960
1945 1950 1957 1961
United Nations Charter Korean War begins Soviet Union launches Soviets erect Berlin Wall
signed Sputnik 1 and Sputnik 2, to separate East Germany
1953
which carried a dog named from the West
1945 Watson and Crick crack
Laika
Japan surrenders; DNA code
World War II ends 1959
Fidel Castro overthrows
1948
Batista government in Cuba
U.N. establishes State
of Israel
1949
People’s Republic of China
Reading Check
established Analyzing Graphic Information Which events on the
timeline show the effects of Nazi racial policies?
THE DUST BOWL • In 1934 there were 22 dust THE SECOND GREAT
storms; in 1937 there were 72. MIGRATION
• During 1933 and 1935, unusu-
ally dry weather began to turn • Throughout most of the 1930s, • The Depression slowed the
parts of the Great Plains into millions of tons of airborne Great Migration of rural African
a desert. topsoil buried crops and killed Americans from the South to
livestock. the North that had begun dur-
• Between 1934 and 1939, ing World War I.
nearly 350,000 farm families • Westerly winds carried dust as
left the Dust Bowl; most of far as the Atlantic Ocean. • War production during World
them migrated to California. War II created new jobs,
prompting a “Second Great
Migration.”
AUTO PRODUCTION TANK PRODUCTION
1941–1945 1941–1945 • Mechanization of southern
4
farming in the 1950s forced
3,779,628
30 29,497 more rural southern African
Automobiles Produced (in millions)
3
25
23,884
Americans to move north
20
seeking work.
17,565
2 15 • The African American popula-
10
11,184 tions of big cities in the North
1 and West increased greatly. The
5 4,203
222,862 black population of Chicago,
139 610 70,001
for example, grew from
1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 278,000 to 813,000 between
Year Year 1940 and 1960.
Source Historical Statistics of the United States: Source Historical Statistics of the United States:
Colonial Times to 1970 Colonial Times to 1970
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Reading Check 2. In what year during World War II were the fewest
automobiles and the most tanks produced?
Analyzing Graphic Information:
1. How many more dust storms were there in 1937 3. What effect did unemployment and lower wages
than in 1934? have on automobile sales? See diagram on p. 856.
Persistent Racism
Although decades removed from slavery, African
Americans and other minority groups, such as Jews
and Native Americans, continued to suffer prejudice
and segregation. The New Deal failed to enact pro-
grams that challenged racism. For example, the
Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) did not provide
Man in a Dust Storm, c. 1930. Black and white photograph. loans to African American sharecroppers in the
The crisis of the Depression During the first half of the In 1941 aggression by the
encouraged a revival of twentieth century, the big cit- Axis Powers forced the United
Regionalism in literature. ies of the United States were States to enter World War II.
Some writers saw the values magnets for foreign-born The end of the war saw the
of ordinary people in the immigrants and rural U.S. citi- development of the Cold War
United States as a source of zens, who came seeking bet- between the United States
strength in hard times. Other ter lives for themselves and and the Soviet Union.
writers examined how char- their families. Responding to American writers examined
acters’ lives were shaped— modern urban life, American both wartime struggles and
and sometimes distorted—by writers portrayed both its rich- postwar anxieties.
the history and culture of ness and its problems. See pages 864 – 865.
their regions. See pages 862– 863.
See pages 860–861.
T
he word “America” means something writers focused on the South’s relationship to its
different to each person in the United complex, often bitter history and on the interaction
States. Among the many factors that between Southern whites and blacks. The most
shape its meaning are the communities famous of these Southern writers, William Faulkner
that people come from—their histories, (see pages 876–889), used carefully detailed regional
traditions, customs, and values. During the Great settings and situations to present universal themes,
Depression, some American writers rediscovered such as the burden of the past, the complexity of
Regionalism, the literary movement that places human relationships, the nature of time and history,
emphasis on the themes, characters, and settings of and the loneliness and alienation of modern life. In
a particular geographical region. Unlike the local order to analyze the effects that Southern history had
colorists of the late 1800s (see pages 480–481), the on its people, Faulkner created a fictional Mississippi
Regionalists of the mid-twentieth century were less region he called Yoknapatawpha County. He popu-
concerned with peculiarities of local dialect or dress lated it with former slaves, poor white families,
than with the deeper impact of setting on character. wealthy businessmen, and plantation owners. As the
county begins to change and slowly absorb Northern
influences, its citizens struggle to either resist or keep
John Steinbeck and up with the outside world. In his brilliant experimen-
Migrant Workers tal novel The Sound and the Fury, Faulkner used a
During the Depression, the morale of people in the series of interior monologues to portray the psycho-
United States weakened and many lost faith in logical deterioration and moral decay of a once proud
national institutions, such as the federal government aristocratic family, the Compsons, whose members
and big business. As a result, some writers turned to cannot face the changing realities of race, class, cul-
regional traditions and the values of ordinary people ture, and economics in the modern South.
as sources of continuity and strength. California
writer John Steinbeck (see pages 868–874) found an Flannery O’Connor and
enduring humanity in the struggles of Dust Bowl
migrants. Steinbeck’s most famous novel, The Grapes Southern Gothic
of Wrath, describes the effects of the Depression and One category of modern writing is sometimes referred
Dust Bowl on farmers from the southern Great Plains to as Southern Gothic. Southern Gothic literature
(derisively called “Okies” since many of them were has some of the same elements as the Gothic litera-
from Oklahoma), who traveled westward to seek work ture of the Romantic period. The characters are simi-
as migrant laborers in California. The toughness and lar to those in Edgar Allan Poe’s stories: sometimes
optimism of these Okies in the face of hardship and weird, alienated, and prone to strange actions and
discrimination reflects the spirit of the New Deal era bizarre thoughts. Yet the reader is meant to feel sym-
and Steinbeck’s belief in the ability of ordinary peo- pathy for these characters and to understand what has
ple to defeat despair and rebuild their lives by achiev- blighted their lives. Another Southern writer,
ing a sense of community. Flannery O’Connor (see pages 913–925), sought to
shock her readers through “distortions of modern
life.” Her characters often encounter a force that
William Faulkner and threatens to change their lives and beliefs forever.
Yoknapatawpha County When critics claimed that her stories were grotesque,
One part of the United States where Regionalism O’Connor responded, “I have found that anything
was particularly active was the South. The richness that comes out of the South is going to be called gro-
of modern Southern writing has caused some literary tesque by the Northern reader, unless it is grotesque,
historians to speak of the Southern Literary in which case it is going to be called realistic.”
Renaissance in the twentieth century. Many of these
The cars of the migrant people crawled out of the side In the evening a strange thing happened: the twenty
roads onto the great cross-country highway, and they families became one family, the children were the chil-
took the migrant way to the West. In the daylight they dren of all. The loss of home became one loss, and the
scuttled like bugs to the westward; and as the dark golden time in the West was one dream. And it might be
caught them, they clustered like bugs near to shelter and that a sick child threw despair into the hearts of twenty
to water. And they were lonely and perplexed, because families, of a hundred people; that a birth there in a tent
they had all come from a place of sadness and worry kept a hundred people quiet and awestruck through the
and defeat, and because they were all going to a new night and filled a hundred people with the birth-joy in the
mysterious place, they huddled together; they talked morning. A family which the night before has been lost
together, they shared their lives, their food, and the and fearful might search its goods to find a present for
things they hoped for in the new country. Thus it might the new baby. In the evening, sitting about the fires, the
be that one family camped near a spring, and another twenty were one.
camped for the spring and for company, and a third
because two families had pioneered the place and found
it good. And when the sun went down, perhaps twenty
families and twenty cars were there.
Reading Check
Making Inferences Why do you think a preoccupa-
tion with the past was a major characteristic of
Southern Regionalist writing?
A
s the historian Richard Hofstadter Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man
famously observed in 1955, “The United
Decades after the Civil War, African Americans still
States was born in the country and has
suffered from prejudice and segregation. To Ralph
moved to the city.” Over the last hun-
Ellison, the African American man remained an
dred years, U.S. life has been shaped by
“invisible man,” marginalized by mainstream white
cities, which have given direction to the economy,
society and uncertain of his own role and identity.
politics, and culture of the United States. The rapid
The nameless narrator and protagonist of Ellison’s
urbanization of U.S. society had already begun in the
award-winning novel Invisible Man struggles vainly to
late nineteenth century, as immigrants to the United
overcome racial and social stereotypes and to be per-
States swelled urban populations and rural citizens
ceived as an individual. Finally, he comes to realize
also began migrating to the cities. By 1920, the
the absurdity of his situation and goes underground,
urban population of the United States exceeded the
living in an abandoned basement that he symboli-
rural population.
cally fills with lightbulbs. “In my novel,” Ellison
Modern U.S. cities became busy, exciting places, wrote, “the narrator’s development is one through
but were also crowded, dirty, and often dangerous. blackness to light; that is, from ignorance to enlight-
Large urban populations encouraged the growth of enment: invisibility to visibility.”
a varied, dynamic cultural life that ranged from muse-
ums and opera houses to movie theaters and night-
clubs. However, the same rapid growth also produced
Bernard Malamud and Brooklyn
slums and crime. In the twentieth century, many The parents of Bernard Malamud (see pages 940–956)
writers explored both the vitality and the malaise were Russian Jews who had emigrated to the United
of U.S. cities. States and settled in the New York City borough of
Brooklyn. Malamud’s fiction has typically focused on
the experience of urban Jews in the United States.
His work often combines sharply contrasting ele-
“The city is like poetry: it compresses all ments—humor and pain, fantasy and realism—as he
life, all races and breeds, into a small explores a character’s ability to overcome isolation
and suffering. His family’s difficult experiences in
island and adds music and the Brooklyn are clearly evident in his stories. “People say
accompaniment of internal engines.” I write so much about misery, but . . . no matter how
much happiness or success you collect, you cannot
—E. B. White, “Here Is New York” obliterate your early experience.”
Reading Check
Analyzing Cause and Effect How did cities affect
the development of American literature in the mid-
twentieth century?
C
an you remember where you were when ment gathered 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry—
you first learned of the 9/11 terrorist 77,000 of whom were United States citizens—and
attacks? Psychologists describe how the forced them into internment camps in early 1942.
experience of a deeply felt or traumatic The renewed migration of African Americans from
event can produce an intense “flashbulb the South to big cities in the North and West some-
memory.” For millions of U.S. citizens who were alive times resulted in racial violence, as in Detroit,
on December 7, 1941, the Japanese attack on Pearl Michigan, where 25 African Americans and 9 whites
Harbor produced such a memory. were killed during riots in June of 1943. During that
same month, riots in Los Angeles occurred after hun-
dreds of U.S. soldiers and sailors attacked a group of
The Good War young Mexican American men.
World War II has become enshrined in American
public memory as the “good war”—a heroic crusade
against an evil enemy. However, most people in the The Holocaust
United States were strongly opposed to U.S. military Shortly after seizing power in the 1930s, the Nazis
involvement following the outbreak of war in Europe began a brutal campaign of violence against Jews and
in September 1939. This attitude changed abruptly other groups that they considered subhuman. During
after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and the United the early years of World War II, the Nazis rounded up
States mobilized for war against the Axis powers, and shot large numbers of Jews, Communists,
which included Japan, Germany, and Italy. On the Unitarians, Gypsies, and Slavs in conquered areas.
battlefront, U.S. forces turned the tide in both Europe Later, they expanded this program of genocide into
and the Pacific and played a crucial role in the victory the “final solution,” a huge project of “ethnic cleans-
of the Allies. On the home front, U.S. workers ing” that involved a network of death camps in
quickly transformed the U.S. economy into the most which millions of disabled persons, Jews, Poles,
productive and efficient war machine in the world. Russians, Gypsies, and other non-Aryans were sys-
tematically killed. In only a few years, the Jewish
communities of Europe, which had existed for more
than 1,000 years, were largely obliterated in what has
“We are now in this war. We are all in become known as the Holocaust.
it — all the way. Every single man,
woman, and child is a partner in the The Cold War
most tremendous undertaking of our The years after World War II brought changes to the
United States. Many U.S. citizens began to chal-
American history.”
lenge racial discrimination at home. The devastation
— Franklin D. Roosevelt, wartime radio broadcast in Europe allowed U.S. industries to dominate world
December 9, 1941 markets, and the wartime economic boom continued
through the 1950s. However, the United States and
the Soviet Union—wartime allies in the struggle
against the Axis Powers—became tense Cold War
Tension on the Home Front rivals in a worldwide struggle for power between cap-
Wartime production helped restore prosperity to the italism and communism. The two world superpowers
United States after the long years of the Depression. never went to war, but they continued to develop
Although minorities shared in this wartime prosper- and stockpile nuclear weapons. An anxious world
ity, racism and ethnic animosities persisted. Following now lived under a new cloud—the mushroom cloud
the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. govern- of the atomic age.
In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we The fourth is freedom from fear—which, translated into
look forward to a world founded upon four essential world terms, means a worldwide reduction of armaments
human freedoms. to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no
The first is freedom of speech and expression—every- nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical
where in the world. aggression against any neighbor—anywhere in the world.
The second is freedom of every person to worship That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a defi-
God in his own way everywhere in the world. nite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time
The third is freedom from want, which, translated into and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis
world terms, means economic understandings which will of the so-called new order of tyranny which the dictators
secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its seek to create with the crash of a bomb.
inhabitants everywhere in the world.
Reading Check
Analyzing Cause and Effect How did World War II
lead to the development of the United States as
a superpower?
Connect to Today »
Use what you have learned about the
period to do one of these activities.
1. Speaking/Listening Work with a small group to research music from one of the decades from
the 1930s to 1960s. Find connections among the social, cultural, and musical styles of the decade
that you choose. For example, you might research the songs of Woody Guthrie about the Dust Bowl
period. Present your findings to the class, and, if possible, play recordings of some of the music.
2. Visual Literacy One of the New Deal’s enduring cultural programs was the decoration of public
buildings (often post offices) throughout the United States with murals and sculptures. View and
take photographs of examples in your area of the art produced by the Works Progress Administration
(WPA). Assemble a photo album to present to the class.
3. Writing Research the conditions of homeless people and migrant workers in the United States
today and any state or federal programs designed to help them. Write an editorial for your school or
local newspaper in which you assess these programs.
OB J EC TIVES
American Gothic, 1930. Grant Wood. Oil on beaverboard, 29 x 25 in. Art Institute of Chicago.
Breakfast
M E E T J O H N ST E I N BEC K These life experiences furnished Steinbeck with
material for his novels and stories. His fourth
O
work, the novel Tortilla Flat (1935), was his first to
n October 25, 1962, during the Cuban
receive public acclaim. Set in his familiar Salinas
missile crisis, John Steinbeck turned on
Valley, it vividly and humorously depicted the joys
his television set to see “if the world was
and sorrows of a group of unemployed men. Several
still turning.” He was greeted by a news flash
literary successes followed it: In Dubious Battle (1936),
announcing that he had just been awarded the
which included realistic and violent scenes based
Nobel Prize in Literature. Often during his long
on labor strikes in California; Of Mice and Men
career, Steinbeck enjoyed both critical acclaim
(1937), which described the tragic friendship of
and enormous popularity. His greatest work, The
two migrant workers; and Travels with Charley
Grapes of Wrath (1939), was among the most
(1962), a nonfiction work that recounted the
widely read novels of the twentieth century.
author’s journey across the United States in a
pickup truck with his poodle, Charley.
Steinbeck’s fiction offers a strong sense of social jus-
“The writer is delegated to declare and tice, a heightened sensitivity to the colors and tex-
to celebrate man’s proven capacity for tures of the U.S. landscape, and compelling plots.
His characters often are society’s forgotten people,
greatness of heart and spirit—for struggling to survive and to preserve their humanity
gallantry in defeat, for courage, amid harrowing social and environmental condi-
tions. Memorable and authentic, Steinbeck’s char-
compassion, and love.” acters seem to step right off the page.
—John Steinbeck
Literary Distinction Steinbeck wrote his master-
from his Nobel Prize banquet speech
piece, The Grapes of Wrath (1939), when the
United States was recovering from the Great
Depression of the 1930s. This 1940 Pulitzer Prize
Crusader for Social Justice John Steinbeck was winner traces a dispossessed Oklahoma family’s
born and raised in Salinas, California, a small town migration to California in search of a better life.
nestled in a sprawling valley of lettuce farms. Bright There the family and others like it suffer tragically
and popular in high school, Steinbeck was accepted from injustice meted out by powerful landowners
to Stanford University but yearned for and corrupt officials. Today The Grapes of Wrath is
universally respected for its depiction of the indi-
more life experiences. He drifted in
vidual’s quest for justice and dignity.
and out of college, never earning a
degree. Instead he wrote and A little more than two decades after publishing The
worked, taking an assortment of Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel
jobs that included ranch Prize in Literature. Six years after receiving this
hand, fruit picker, factory award, Steinbeck died in New York City. He remains
worker, salesclerk, one of the most popular and respected authors of the
freelance newspa- twentieth century.
per writer, con-
John Steinbeck was born in 1902 and died in 1968.
struction worker,
and farm
Author Search For more about
laborer.
John Steinbeck,
Author Name, gogototowww.literature.glencoe.com.
www.glencoe.com.
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • inferring theme
• understanding Regionalism • connecting personal experiences to literature
This thing fills me with pleasure. I don’t know shoulders up and scuffled my feet on the ground.
why, I can see it in the smallest detail. I find Down in the valley where I was, the earth was
myself recalling it again and again, each time that lavender gray of dawn. I walked along a
bringing more detail out of a sunken memory, country road and ahead of me I saw a tent that
remembering brings the curious warm pleasure. was only a little lighter gray than the ground.
It was very early in the morning. The eastern Beside the tent there was a flash of orange fire
mountains were black-blue, but behind them seeping out of the cracks of an old rusty iron
the light stood up faintly colored at the moun- stove. Gray smoke spurted up out of the stubby
tain rims with a washed red, growing colder, stovepipe, spurted up a long way before it spread
grayer and darker as it went up and overhead out and dissipated.
until, at a place near the west, it merged with I saw a young woman beside the stove, really
pure night. a girl. She was dressed in a faded cotton skirt
And it was cold, not painfully so, but cold
enough so that I rubbed my hands and shoved
Vocabulary
them deep into my pockets, and I hunched my
scuffle (skufəl) v. to move with a slow, heavy, shuf-
fling gait
Reading Strategy Connecting to Personal Experience dissipate (disə pāt´) v. to cause to scatter and gradu-
What pleasant memories can you recall in great detail? ally vanish; to break up and drive off
Big Idea Return to Regionalism What can you infer Literary Element Implied Theme How does this detail
about the family’s experiences until recently? provide a clue to the theme of the story?
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. How did you react to the characters in this story? 5. Steinbeck wrote about migrant workers who lived
Explain. in small, supportive communities. In what ways
does he portray the narrator as part of such a
supportive community?
Recall and Interpret
6. The reader never learns why the narrator is walking
2. (a)What are the first things the narrator describes?
on a country road or where he is going. Why do
(b)What do these descriptions tell you about the
you think Steinbeck chose not to reveal much
narrator?
about the narrator?
3. (a)What observations does the narrator make
7. (a)What are some of your favorite sensory details
about the family of migrant workers? (b)What
in this story? (b)How did these sensory details
seems to be important to the family? Explain.
affect your reading of the story?
4. (a)What does the narrator say about his memory at
the end of the story? (b)What might his attach-
ment to this memory suggest about his life? What Connect
deeper understanding or awareness of life does he 8. Big Idea Return to Regionalism Which values
seem to gain? of migrant people does Steinbeck highlight in
this story?
L I T E R A RY A N A LYS I S
Literary Element Implied Theme Partner Activity With a partner, examine the word
choice and the dialogue in “Breakfast.” Create a chart
In “Breakfast,” the implied theme is built around the
like the one started below, and fill it in with examples
narrator’s warm recollection of an encounter with a
of effective word choice and dialogue. Then answer
family of migrant workers.
the following question: What tone is conveyed by the
1. What is the implied theme, or message about life, family’s words and actions?
in this selection?
2. What details and descriptions support this theme?
Tone
Review: Tone
Tone is a reflection of a writer’s or a speaker’s attitude
toward the subject matter, as conveyed through ele- Word Choice
ments such as word choice, punctuation, sentence
structure, and figures of speech. A writer’s tone might
convey a variety of attitudes, such as sympathy, objec-
tivity, or humor.
º Reading Handbook
For more about roots,
prefixes, and suffixes,
Exercise see Reading Handbook,
For each item below, refer to the prefixes, roots, and suffixes in the chart to p. R20.
help you select the best answer.
1. During the Great Depression, some authors wrote of particular
geographical regions. Geographical regions are
a. particular b. beside the c. in the d. particular places eFlashcards For eFlashcards
times. ocean. mountains. on Earth. and other vocabulary activities, go
to www.glencoe.com.
2. John Steinbeck writes about the human cost of the Dust Bowl migrants’
displacement from their homes. Displacement means
a. being moved b. being put c. being d. being invited
away. in prison. confused. to stay.
3. Flannery O’Connor contradicted Northern critics who called her stories
grotesque. O’Connor OB J ECTI VES
a. agreed with b. disagreed c. ignored d. complimented • Learn to recognize common
her critics. with them. them. them. word roots.
• Use word parts to help you
4. Steinbeck drew inspiration from the migrants who shared their breakfast understand unfamiliar
with him. The migrants words.
875
B EF O R E YO U R E A D
A
New Orleans, Louisiana, where he became
s a young man, William Faulkner did not
acquainted with Sherwood Anderson and other
seem destined for literary renown. He was
writers. It was here that he began to write seriously.
both a high school and college dropout.
His first book, a poetry collection entitled The
His neighbors nicknamed him “Count No’count,”
Marble Faun, was less than successful. Anderson
and few guessed that this seemingly lazy youth was
advised him to attempt fiction. Faulkner published
a literary genius who would one day write fiction
his first novel, Soldier’s Pay, in 1926, and his second
that captured the struggles of the human heart and
novel, Mosquitoes, the following year.
immortalized a region of rural America.
Author
Author Search
Search For
For more
more about
about
William Faulkner,
Author Name, go go to www.glencoe.com.
to www.literature.glencoe.com.
➧ ➧
Native Americans, as well as African Americans who Emily’s father Homer Barron Emily’s cous-
had endured first the dehumanization of slavery and dies. arrives in ins come to
town. advise her.
then the discrimination of Jim Crow.
The language in Faulkner’s work reflects the vernacular
and dialect of the South in his era. Modern readers may Vocabulary
be shocked or offended by his use of racial slurs in this
selection. Faulkner, like Mark Twain, does not use this sluggishly (slu ish lē) adv. slowly; without
language to offend or shock. He uses it merely to reflect strength or energy; p. 879 The exhausted hikers
the language of the time and place he describes. crawled sluggishly into their tents.
vindicate (vin də kāt´) v. to justify; to prove
Setting Purposes for Reading correct in light of later circumstances; p. 881
Big Idea Return to Regionalism Winning the competition vindicated her efforts.
As you read, imagine the people and the circum- haughty (ho tē) adj. conceited; arrogant;
stances that Faulkner presents. Do they mesh with p. 882 The haughty old woman would never admit
what you think a small southern town would have a mistake.
been like one hundred years ago?
circumvent (sur´ kəm vent ) v. to get around
or to avoid by clever maneuvering; p. 883 We
Literary Element Foreshadowing had to circumvent the usual procedure in order to
Foreshadowing is the use of clues by the author to pre- finish the job quickly.
pare readers for events that will happen later in the story. virulent (vir yə lənt) adj. extremely poisonous
In “A Rose for Emily,” for example, the bad smell coming or harmful; p. 883 After World War I, a virulent
from Miss Emily’s house foreshadows death and decay. strain of influenza killed more than 20 million people.
As you read, consider which events might foreshadow
important plot developments. Vocabulary Tip: Connotation and Denotation
• See Literary Terms Handbook, p. R7. The connotation of a word is its suggested or
implied meaning. The denotation is its literal defi-
nition.
Interactive Literary Elements
Handbook To review or learn more about the literary elements,
go to www.glencoe.com.
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • analyzing foreshadowing
• understanding the historical period • identifying sequence
A neighbor, a woman, complained to the “Dammit, sir,” Judge Stevens said, “will you
mayor, Judge Stevens, eighty years old. accuse a lady to her face of smelling bad?”
“But what will you have me do about it, So the next night, after midnight, four men
madam?” he said. crossed Miss Emily’s lawn and slunk about the
“Why, send her word to stop it,” the woman house like burglars, sniffing along the base of
said. “Isn’t there a law?” the brickwork and at the cellar openings while
“I’m sure that won’t be necessary,” Judge Stevens one of them performed a regular sowing
said. “It’s probably just a snake or a rat that nigger motion with his hand out of a sack slung from
of hers killed in the yard. I’ll speak to him about it.” his shoulder. They broke open the cellar door
The next day he received two more complaints, and sprinkled lime there, and in all the out-
one from a man who came in diffident depreca- buildings.16 As they recrossed the lawn, a
tion.15 “We really must do something about it, window that had been dark was lighted and
Judge. I’d be the last one in the world to bother Miss Emily sat in it, the light behind her,
Miss Emily, but we’ve got to do something.” That and her upright torso motionless as that of an
night the Board of Aldermen met—three gray- idol. They crept quietly across the lawn and
beards and one younger man, a member of the into the shadow of the locusts17 that lined the
rising generation. street. After a week or two the smell went
“It’s simple enough,” he said. “Send her word away.
to have her place cleaned up. Give her a certain
time to do it in, and if she don’t . . .”
16. Outbuildings are separate buildings, such as a woodshed
or barn, associated with a main building.
17. Locusts are deciduous trees. Several varieties have thorns
15. Diffident deprecation means “timid disapproval.” and fragrant flowers that hang down in clusters.
Big Idea Return to Regionalism What does this pas- 21. The French expression noblesse oblige (nō bles ō blēzh)
sage reveal about the social and economic status of most suggests that those of high birth or rank have a responsibility
people in the town as opposed to that of Miss Emily? to act kindly and honorably toward others.
each piece. Two days later we learned that she Homer Barron was back in town. A neighbor saw
had bought a complete outfit of men’s clothing, the Negro man admit him at the kitchen door at
including a nightshirt, and we said, “They are dusk one evening.
married.” We were really glad. We were glad And that was the last we saw of Homer
because the two female cousins were even more Barron. And of Miss Emily for some time. The
Grierson than Miss Emily had ever been. Negro man went in and out with the market
So we were not surprised when Homer Barron— basket, but the front door remained closed. Now
the streets had been finished some time since—was and then we would see her at a window for a
gone. We were a little disappointed that there was moment, as the men did that night when they
not a public blowing-off,24 but we believed that he sprinkled the lime, but for almost six months
had gone on to prepare for Miss Emily’s coming, or she did not appear on the streets. Then we
to give her a chance to get rid of the cousins. (By knew that this was to be expected too; as if
that time it was a cabal,25 and we were all Miss that quality of her father which had thwarted
Emily’s allies to help circumvent the cousins.) Sure her woman’s life so many times had been too
enough, after another week they departed. And, as virulent and too furious to die.
we had expected all along, within three days
Vocabulary Vocabulary
circumvent (sur´ kəm vent) v. to get around or to virulent (vir yə lənt) adj. extremely poisonous or
avoid by clever maneuvering harmful
everywhere upon this room decked and furnished body had apparently once lain in the attitude of
as for a bridal:31 upon the valance curtains of an embrace, but now the long sleep that outlasts
faded rose color, upon the rose-shaded lights, love, that conquers even the grimace of love,
upon the dressing table, upon the delicate array had cuckolded32 him. What was left of him, rot-
of crystal and the man’s toilet things backed with ted beneath what was left of the nightshirt, had
tarnished silver, silver so tarnished that the become inextricable from the bed in which he
monogram was obscured. Among them lay a col- lay; and upon him and upon the pillow beside
lar and tie, as if they had just been removed, him lay that even coating of the patient and bid-
which, lifted, left upon the surface a pale cres- ing dust.
cent in the dust. Upon a chair hung the suit, Then we noticed that in the second pillow
carefully folded; beneath it the two mute shoes was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted
and the discarded socks. something from it, and leaning forward, that
The man himself lay in the bed. faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nos-
For a long while we just stood there, looking trils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair.
down at the profound and fleshless grin. The
32. Cuckolded means “betrayed,” in the sense of a husband
31. Here, bridal means “wedding.” deceived by an unfaithful wife.
I feel that this award was not made to me as a is ephemeral4 and doomed—love and honor and
man, but to my work—a life’s work in the agony pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice.
and sweat of the human spirit, not for glory and Until he does so, he labors under a curse. He
least of all for profit, but to create out of the writes not of love but of lust, of defeats in which
materials of the human spirit something which nobody loses anything of value, of victories without
did not exist before. So this award is only mine in hope and, worst of all, without pity or compassion.
trust. It will not be difficult to find a dedication His griefs grieve on no universal bones, leaving no
for the money part of it commensurate1 with the scars. He writes not of the heart but of the glands.
purpose and significance of its origin. But I would Until he relearns these things, he will write as
like to do the same with the acclaim too, by using though he stood among and watched the end of
this moment as a pinnacle2 from which I might man. I decline to accept the end of man. It is easy
be listened to by the young men and women enough to say that man is immortal simply because
already dedicated to the same anguish and tra- he will endure: that when the last ding-dong of
vail,3 among whom is already that one who will doom has clanged and faded from the last worthless
some day stand here where I am standing. rock hanging tideless in the last red and dying eve-
Our tragedy today is a general and universal ning, that even then there will still be one more
physical fear so long sustained by now that we can sound: that of his puny inexhaustible voice, still
even bear it. There are no longer problems of the talking. I refuse to accept this. I believe that man
spirit. There is only the question: When will I be will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is
blown up? Because of this, the young man or immortal, not because he alone among creatures has
woman writing today has forgotten the problems of an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a
the human heart in conflict with itself which alone spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and
can make good writing because only that is worth endurance. The poet’s, the writer’s, duty is to write
writing about, worth the agony and the sweat. about these things. It is his privilege to help man
He must learn them again. He must teach endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the
himself that the basest of all things is to be courage and honor and hope and pride and compas-
afraid; and, teaching himself that, forget it for- sion and pity and sacrifice which have been the
ever, leaving no room in his workshop for any- glory of his past. The poet’s voice need not merely
thing but the old verities and truths of the heart, be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the
the old universal truths lacking which any story pillars to help him endure and prevail.
Big Idea Return to Regionalism How might stories such Reading Strategy Identifying Sequence Why might
as “A Rose for Emily” reflect Faulkner’s desire to write about Faulkner have chosen to place this statement at the end and
“the human heart in conflict with itself”? not the beginning of his speech?
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. Were you surprised by the ending of the story? 6. (a)In “A Rose for Emily,” what was the effect
Why or why not? of Emily’s father on her relationships with men?
(b)What clues does Faulkner use to reveal this effect?
Recall and Interpret
7. (a)How would you characterize the narrator of “A
2. (a)How did Miss Emily receive the delegation that
Rose for Emily”? (b)What can you infer about the
came to explain that she must pay taxes? (b)What
narrator’s attitude toward Miss Emily? Explain.
does her behavior demonstrate about her character?
8. (a)In Faulkner’s speech, what is his view of our
3. (a)What happens when Miss Emily’s house begins
future and of the writer’s role in that future? (b)Do
to smell and when her father dies? (b)How does
you agree with this view? Explain.
the community interpret her response to these
incidents? Connect
4. (a)In Faulkner’s “Address upon Receiving the Nobel 9. (a)How do you think the events of Faulkner’s
Prize in Literature,” what are modern writers con- time influenced this speech? (b)How are his
cerned with, according to Faulkner? (b)Why is this views still relevant today?
problematic?
10. Big Idea Return to Regionalism In “A Rose for
5. In the speech, what does Faulkner say is the only Emily,” how do the southern traditions and attitudes
thing worth writing about? Why? of her neighbors affect Miss Emily?
YO U ’ R E T H E C R I T I C : Similar Viewpoints
WO RK O R PLE A SU RE ?
William Faulkner has a
“And at once, if one considers these queer sentences
reputation for prose that not simply by themselves, as monsters of grammar or
is difficult to follow. First, awkwardness, but in their relation to the book as a
he does not unfold his plots in a linear fashion. As whole, one sees a functional reason and necessity for
Dean Morgan Schmitter explains in his essay “The their being as they are. They parallel in a curious
Faulkner Legend”: and perhaps inevitable way, and not without
aesthetic justification, the whole elaborate method of
deliberately withheld meaning, of progressive and
“Another feature of Faulkner’s style is the manner in partial and delayed disclosure, which so often gives
which he releases information, sometimes preventing the characteristic shape of the novels themselves.”
the reader from having full perspective on what is
happening. Although the reader accumulates
Nobel Foundation
The second reason that Faulkner’s writing is hard to 1. What examples can you find of confusing
follow is that his sentences are often long and ram- sequences of events and rambling sentences in
bling, as though he wants to present entire human “A Rose for Emily”?
experiences within a single written breath. As Conrad 2. (a)Do you find the story difficult to follow?
Aiken writes, (b)Is it worth the effort? Explain.
A Worn Path
M E E T E U DO R A W E LT Y
E
udora Welty admitted to living a sheltered during the Great
life. Born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi, Depression, gave
she lived in her family’s house there until people work on pub-
her death at age ninety-two. Welty maintained, lic projects, such as
though, that “a sheltered life can be a daring life constructing roads
as well. For all serious daring starts from within.” and buildings, clear-
ing trails in parks,
Pleasant Childhood Welty’s parents filled their and painting murals.
house with books and loved to read on their own Welty traveled around Mississippi and wrote articles
and to their children. Once she learned to read about WPA projects in the state. Welty later said
herself, Welty read everything she could get her that, through her travels, she gained her first
hands on. Her mother, however, put one restriction glimpses of the very different ways in which people
on her reading. She told the town librarian that live. Her musings and imaginings about the people
Eudora could read anything in the library except she saw, talked to, and photographed inspired her
the then-popular novel Elsie Dinsmore. When writing throughout her life.
Eudora asked why, her mother explained that the
main character fainted and fell off her piano stool Successful Writing Career Welty had her first
after being made to practice for a long time. Her short story published when she was twenty-seven.
mother told Eudora that she was too impression- Five years later, she published A Curtain of Green, a
able: “You’d read that and the very first thing you’d collection of short stories in which “A Worn Path”
do, you’d fall off the piano stool.” Thereafter, Welty first appeared. In her thirties, she published her first
could never hear the word impressionable without novels, The Robber Bridegroom (1942) and Delta
calling up the image of falling off a piano stool. Wedding (1946). Welty went on to write award-
winning fiction for many years, until severe arthri-
tis forced her to give up writing at age eighty-five.
“Writing a story is one way of Southern Charm At Welty’s funeral, her agent,
discovering sequence in experience, Timothy Seldes, told a revealing story about
Welty’s last words. He said that when her doctor
of stumbling upon cause and effect in leaned over her bed and asked if there was any-
the happenings of a writer’s own life. thing he could do for her, she replied, “No, but
thank you for inviting me to the party.” This polite
This has been the case with me. response illustrates Welty’s southern charm and
Connections slowly emerge.” gracious warmth—qualities that Welty brought to
her writing. Her compassionate portrayals of peo-
—Eudora Welty ple living in the deep South powerfully illuminate
their shared values and complicated history.
Eudora Welty was born in 1909 and died in 2001.
Work with the WPA Welty’s love of reading and
her lively imagination inspired her decision to
become a writer for the Works Progress Admin- Author Search For more about
istration (WPA). This government agency, founded Eudora Welty, go to www.glencoe.com.
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • expanding vocabulary
• relating literature to historical period • reviewing archetypes
• analyzing description • comparing and contrasting characters
• visualizing scenes and characters
EUDO RA WELTY 8 91
Eudora Welty
Day’s End, Jackson, 1930s. Eudora Welty. Photograph.
Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Jackson, MS.
I
Eudora Welty Collection.
t was December—a bright frozen day in the Her skin had a pattern all its own of numberless
early morning. Far out in the country there was branching wrinkles and as though a whole little
an old Negro woman with her head tied in a red tree stood in the middle of her forehead, but a
rag, coming along a path through the pinewoods. golden color ran underneath, and the two knobs
Her name was Phoenix Jackson. She was very of her cheeks were illumined by a yellow burning
old and small and she walked slowly in the dark under the dark. Under the red rag her hair came
pine shadows, moving a little from side to side in down on her neck in the frailest of ringlets, still
her steps, with the balanced heaviness and light- black, and with an odor like copper.
ness of a pendulum in a grandfather clock. She Now and then there was a quivering in the
carried a thin, small cane made from an umbrella, thicket. Old Phoenix said, “Out of my way, all
and with this she kept tapping the frozen earth you foxes, owls, beetles, jack rabbits, coons
in front of her. This made a grave and persistent and wild animals! . . . Keep out from under
noise in the still air, that seemed meditative like these feet, little bob-whites1. . . . Keep the big
the chirping of a solitary little bird. wild hogs out of my path. Don’t let none of
She wore a dark striped dress reaching down those come running my direction. I got a long
to her shoe tops, and an equally long apron of way.” Under her small black-freckled hand her
bleached sugar sacks, with a full pocket: all neat cane, limber as a buggy whip, would switch at
and tidy, but every time she took a step she the brush as if to rouse up any hiding things.
might have fallen over her shoelaces, which
dragged from her unlaced shoes. She looked
straight ahead. Her eyes were blue with age. 1. Bob-whites, also called quails or partridges, are birds with
mottled brown plumage and white markings.
“Throat never heals, does it?” said the nurse, “All right.” The nurse was trying to hush her
speaking in a loud, sure voice to old Phoenix. By now. She brought her a bottle of medicine.
now she had a card with something written on “Charity,” she said, making a check mark in a book.
it, a little list. “Yes. Swallowed lye. When was Old Phoenix held the bottle close to her eyes,
it?—January—two-three years ago—” and then carefully put it into her pocket.
Phoenix spoke unasked now. “No, missy, he “I thank you,” she said.
not dead, he just the same. Every little while his “It’s Christmas time, Grandma,” said the
throat begin to close up again, and he not able attendant. “Could I give you a few pennies out of
to swallow. He not get his breath. He not able to my purse?”
help himself. So the time come around, and I go “Five pennies is a nickel,” said Phoenix stiffly.
on another trip for the soothing medicine.” “Here’s a nickel,” said the attendant.
“All right. The doctor said as long as you Phoenix rose carefully and held out her hand.
came to get it, you could have it,” said the nurse. She received the nickel and then fished the
“But it’s an obstinate case.” other nickel out of her pocket and laid it beside
“My little grandson, he sit up there in the house the new one. She stared at her palm closely, with
all wrapped up, waiting by himself,” Phoenix went her head on one side.
on. “We is the only two left in the world. He suffer Then she gave a tap with her cane on the floor.
and it don’t seem to put him back at all. He got a “This is what come to me to do,” she said. “I
sweet look. He going to last. He wear a little patch going to the store and buy my child a little wind-
quilt and peep out holding his mouth open like a mill they sells, made out of paper. He going to
little bird. I remembers so plain now. I not going find it hard to believe there such a thing in the
to forget him again, no, the whole enduring time. world. I’ll march myself back where he waiting,
I could tell him from all the others in creation.” holding it straight up in this hand.”
She lifted her free hand, gave a little nod, turned
around, and walked out of the doctor’s office. Then
Big Idea Return to Regionalism What do you infer
about the situation of Phoenix and her grandson?
her slow step began on the stairs, going down.
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond 7. In Greek mythology, the phoenix is a bird that, at
the end of its life, burns itself to death; from its
1. What is your favorite incident or image from “A
ashes, a new phoenix rises. Why may Welty have
Worn Path”? What is it about the image or incident
named her main character Phoenix?
that especially appeals to you?
8. (a)An author uses description to create a picture
Recall and Interpret of a person, place, or thing. In your opinion, how
2. (a)What does Phoenix Jackson look like? (b)What effective are Welty’s descriptions in creating a
does Phoenix Jackson’s appearance tell you believable portrait of Phoenix Jackson? (b)How
about her? effective is Welty’s writing in creating a vivid pic-
ture of the “worn path”?
3. (a)Describe in detail the path Phoenix is taking.
(b)From its description, what can you infer about Connect
the path? Explain what the path may symbolize, or
9. Refer to your response to the Connecting to
represent. Support your answer.
the Story activity on page 891. Would you add
4. (a)What is Phoenix’s destination and purpose? Phoenix Jackson to your list? Why or why not?
(b)At what point in the story do you learn this?
10. Big Idea Return to Regionalism What does
5. What does the purpose of Phoenix’s trip tell you
“A Worn Path” reveal about the way conditions in
about her character?
the South during the 1930s affected the lives of
Analyze and Evaluate people there?
LI T E R A RY A N A LYS I S
Vocabulary Practice
Practice with Analogies Choose the word that
best completes each analogy.
1. practice : competence :: study : Then follow the writing path shown here as you write
a. books your first draft.
b. comprehension
c. mathematics
Make a general statement
2. party : festive :: funeral : Introduction
▲
c. ceremony
3. serious : trivial :: informal : Body
Develop the comparison and
▲
A
s a writer, Richard Wright wanted to
“wage a war with words,” and he suc-
ceeded, becoming one of the first major
African American literary figures. His books are
raw and forceful—whether they are portraying life
in the urban ghettos of the North or the oppres-
sion of African Americans in the South.
claimed that “In Black Boy Wright has used his
Wright’s first book, Uncle Tom’s Children, was own life to probe what qualities of will, imagina-
praised by critics, and Malcolm Cowley of the New tion, and intellect are required of a Southern
Republic claimed it was “heartening, as evidence of Negro in order to possess the meaning of his life
a vigorous new talent, and terrifying as the expres- in the United States.”
sion of a racial hatred that has never ceased to
grow and gets no chance to die.” However, Wright Born in 1908 in Mississippi, Wright experienced
was dissatisfied with the book, because he felt that fear and oppression early. He first witnessed racial
it did not adequately portray the reality of racism violence at the age of eight when his uncle was
and violence in the United States. “I had written a lynched by a group of white men. Throughout his
book [Uncle Tom’s Children] which even banker’s life, Wright repeatedly saw members of his race
daughters could read and weep over and feel good. degraded by whites, yet he refused to believe that
I swore to myself that if I ever wrote another book, African Americans were inferior. He began read-
no one would weep over it; that it would be so hard ing and educating himself, and at nineteen he left
and deep that they would have to face it without for the North, mistakenly believing that he could
the consolation of tears.” His next work was Native live a life without discrimination there.
Son—a book that would change U.S. culture for-
ever through its portrayal of a man who has suf- Outspoken Expatriate Realizing that social con-
fered the injustices of racism, poverty, and despair. ditions for African Americans were not changing
for the better, Wright moved his family to Paris,
France, in 1947. He published no books for seven
years but instead wrote articles on politics. While in
“It’s strong, it’s raw—but it’s life as I France, he became friends with the writers Jean
see and lived it.” Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, and André Gide. Their
existential views influenced his later work.
—Richard Wright
Wright’s reputation and literary influence declined
during the 1950s, as young African American writers
Literature from Life In the opinion of many, such as James Baldwin and Ralph Ellison emerged.
Black Boy is Wright’s most important work because Amid the Black Arts movement of the 1960s, how-
it was not only his autobiography but a social doc- ever, Wright’s work was rediscovered, inspiring and
umentary of the hardships caused by racism. Ralph influencing a new generation of African Americans.
Ellison, who was strongly influenced by Wright, Unfortunately, Wright died before he could take part
in this emerging black unity and pride and the fight
for equality that he yearned for.
Author Search For more about
Richard Wright, go to www.glencoe.com. Richard Wright was born in 1908 and died in 1960.
• What events have influenced your beliefs? Reading Tip: Venn Diagrams As you read, use Venn
• How do you think your childhood will affect what diagrams to compare and contrast characters.
you do later in life?
1. Physical Appearance
Building Background
Richard Wright’s father was a sharecropper near
Natchez, Mississippi. Although he received a small Wright Both Father
cabin and some income from the cotton crop, he had
a difficult time making ends meet. Eventually Wright’s
family was forced to give up sharecropping and moved
within the city limits. However, their luck was not much
better inside Natchez, and Wright’s father abandoned
them when Wright was six. Wright, his mother, and his
Vocabulary
brother were left with little income and a life marked
by hunger and fear. Their struggles and the events that futile (f ū til) adj. serving no practical purpose;
followed their abandonment are detailed in this selec- useless; worthless; p. 903 Trying to lift the chair
tion from Black Boy. was futile because it was nailed to the floor.
Setting Purposes for Reading hostile (host əl) adj. feeling or showing hatred;
antagonistic; p. 903 The woman became hostile
Big Idea Life in the City when the salesclerk refused to answer her questions.
As you read, notice how Wright examines the impact vindictive (vin dik tiv) adj. desiring revenge;
of segregation and racism on his life. p. 903 He was known for displaying vindictive
behavior when he felt betrayed.
Literary Element Flash-forward
poised (poizd) adj. having a calm, controlled,
A flash-forward is an interruption in the chronological
and dignified manner; composed; p. 906
sequence of a narrative to leap forward in time. A
Though angry, she remained poised when her boss
writer may signal a flash-forward with a new para-
questioned her about her work.
graph or with a description of a new setting. As you
read Black Boy, notice how Wright uses flash-forward alien (ā lē ən) adj. strange; unfamiliar; foreign;
to signal events that take place in the future. p. 906 The alien surroundings of her new town
made her uncomfortable.
• See Literary Terms Handbook, p. R7.
Vocabulary Tip: Context Clues When you see an
unfamiliar word, pay attention to its context, or the
words around it. The context provides clues to the
Interactive Literary Elements
Handbook To review or learn more about the literary elements,
meaning of the word.
go to www.glencoe.com.
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • analyzing flash-forward
• analyzing literary periods • comparing and contrasting characters
RICHARD WRIGHT 9 01
Richard Wright
When I awakened one morning my mother glad when we were outside in the sunny streets.
told me that we were S11-163-01C-635423
going to see a judge Back at home U6T9
my mother wept again and talked
loire ital/ sombre
who would make my father support me and a n n e t te
complainingly about the unfairness of the judge
my brother. An hour later all three of us were who had accepted my father’s word. After the
sitting in a huge crowded room. I was over- court scene, I tried to forget my father; I did not
whelmed by the many faces and the voices hate him; I simply did not want to think of him.
which I could not understand. High above me Often when we were hungry my mother would
was a white face which my mother told me was beg me to go to my father’s job and ask him for a
the face of the judge. Across the huge room sat dollar, a dime, a nickel . . . But I would never
my father, smiling confidently, looking at us. consent to go. I did not want to see him.
My mother warned me not to be fooled by my My mother fell ill and the problem of food
father’s friendly manner; she told me that the became an acute, daily agony. Hunger was with
judge might ask me questions, and if he did I us always. Sometimes the neighbors would feed
must tell him the truth. I agreed, yet I hoped us or a dollar bill would come in the mail from
that the judge would not ask me anything. my grandmother. It was winter and I would buy
For some reason the entire thing struck me as a dime’s worth of coal each morning from the
being useless; I felt that if my father were going to corner coalyard and lug it home in paper bags.
feed me, then he would have done so regardless of For a time I remained out of school to wait
what a judge said to him. And I did not want my upon my mother, then Granny came to visit us
father to feed me; I was hungry, but my thoughts of and I returned to school.
food did not now center about him. I waited, grow- At night there were long, halting discussions
ing restless, hungry. My mother gave me a dry sand- about our going to live with Granny, but nothing
wich and I munched and stared, longing to go came of it. Perhaps there was not enough
home. Finally I heard my mother’s name called; she money for railroad fare. Angered by having
rose and began weeping so copiously1 that she could been hauled into court, my father now spurned
not talk for a few moments; at last she managed to us completely. I heard long, angrily whispered
say that her husband had deserted her and her two conversations between my mother and grand-
children, that her children were hungry, that they mother to the effect that “that woman ought to
stayed hungry, that she worked, that she was trying be killed for breaking up a home.” What irked
to raise them alone. Then my father was called; he me was the ceaseless talk and no action. If
came forward jauntily, smiling. He tried to kiss my someone had suggested that my father be killed,
mother, but she turned away from him. I only heard I would perhaps have become interested; if
one sentence of what he said. someone had suggested that his name never be
“I’m doing all I can, Your Honor,” he mum- mentioned, I would no doubt have agreed; if
bled, grinning. someone had suggested that we move to another
It had been painful to sit and watch my city, I would have been glad. But there was only
mother crying and my father laughing and I was endless talk that led nowhere and I began to
keep away from home as much as possible,
Reading Strategy Comparing and Contrasting Big Idea The New Regionalism and the City Why, as
Characters How does Wright react to his parents’ a boy, would the narrator have been glad to move to
differences in court? another city?
Reading Strategy Comparing and Contrasting Literary Element Flash-forward Why does Wright tell the
Characters How does Wright compare his father’s girlfriend reader that he continued to think about his father and that
with his mother?
night for years?
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. What was your reaction to the events of Wright’s 6. Does Wright’s father become more or less sympa-
life? Explain. thetic as the story progresses? Explain.
LI T E R A RY A N A LYS I S
▲
how you are going to com-
1. Going to court was futile because my father pare the two homes.
was never going to help feed us.
➧
a. helpful c. scary
Use each body paragraph to
b. pointless d. interesting compare and contrast certain
Body
▲
2. After seeing my father with that woman, I elements. Use descriptions
and quotes from the story to
became hostile and threatened to hit him support your comparisons.
with a poker.
➧
a. aggressive c. annoyed
Conclude with Wright’s feelings
b. friendly d. sad
Conclusion about both homes by summa-
▲
3. Many of the children in the orphan home were rizing your comparisons.
vindictive, and sought revenge against those
they didn’t like.
a. sentimental c. friendly After completing your draft, meet with a peer reviewer
b. cooperative d. vengeful to evaluate each other’s work and to suggest revisions.
4. I spoke with him in a poised and controlled Then proofread and edit your draft for errors in spell-
voice, even though the sight of him filled me ing, grammar, and punctuation.
with anger and hatred.
a. delighted c. reckless
Reading Further
b. self-assured d. hateful
5. My alien surroundings scared me, and I wanted If you enjoyed this excerpt from Black Boy, you may
to run to the safety of my home. enjoy these other works by Richard Wright.
a. normal c. dirty Novel Native Son, by Richard Wright, tells the story of
b. comfortable d. unfamiliar a man who is driven to desperate acts after being sub-
jected to a life of racism and poverty.
Short Stories Eight Men: Short Stories, by Richard
Wright, includes “The Man Who Lived Underground”—
Web Activities For eFlashcards,
Selection Quick Checks, and other Web activities, go to the story of a man on the run after he is accused of a
www.glencoe.com. murder he did not commit.
Iron Mountain, Tennessee, 1937. Margaret Bourke-White. Silver gelatin print. Time
O. Henry Prize Winner & Life Pictures.
Building Background
Photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White documented
some of the most important events of the twentieth
century, including the liberation of Nazi concentration
T HE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY DELTA
and the Black Belt1 of Alabama are two
sections of the South that still produce
cotton in abundance. It grows, matures, and yields
camps and the Korean War. In 1937 Bourke-White and without fertilizer and without effort. The soil
her future husband, novelist Erskine Caldwell, collabo- there will be deep, fertile, and productive for a
rated on You Have Seen Their Faces. This book power- long time to come. Elsewhere the sub-soil, both
fully depicts the plight that southern sharecroppers faced. sand and clay, is being plowed up to be mixed
with the little top-soil that remains in an effort to
Set a Purpose for Reading make plants grow. There is no fertility in sub-soil,
Read to learn about the sharecropping system. but when brought to the surface it gives the
appearance of fertility and, when mixed with
Reading Strategy fertilizer, will produce enough cotton, providing
Analyzing the Purpose of Historical that the rains and sun are not extreme, to pay for
Texts and Photographs the fertilizer in normal times. Farming in sand or
clay is a back-breaking, spirit-crushing existence.
Analyzing the purpose of historical texts and photo-
There are reasons for this impoverishment2 of
graphs involves examining the ideas and culture pre-
the soil that go deep into the economic life of
sented by texts and images. As you read, use a chart
the South. The successful cotton-raisers have
to take notes about the selection and the photographs
always been plantation-owners. The plantations
in order to determine their purpose.
were large, generally from five hundred to five
Text Passage and Purpose Photograph and Purpose
1. The Black Belt is a strip of land with black, fertile soil across
central Alabama and Mississippi.
2. Impoverishment means “the state of being drained of
essential nutrients.”
in buildings that are detrimental to gelatin print. Time & Life Pictures.
health, and it forces them to exist
on food that is insufficient. Worse
still, it continues in operation year after year, himself from the hole he stands in. There is cotton
wringing dry the bodies and souls of men, to be raised, and he has trained himself to raise
women, and children; dragging down to its own it. That is his specialty. It is his life and, if share-
level from higher economic planes new numbers cropping continues as an institution, it will
to take the places of those crushed and thrown become his death.
aside; breeding families of eight, ten, twelve, The tenant farmer in the South is trying to
fourteen, sixteen, and more, in order to furnish hold onto a spinning world until by some
an ever-increasing number of persons necessary means he is enabled to get a grip on a better
to supply the rent-cotton for the landlord. way of life. He knows he cannot buy land of
It is foolish to ask a tenant farmer why he his own from the profits of sharecropping. He
remains where he is. He does move from farm to knows just as well that he cannot save until
farm from time to time, but only rarely can he he earns, and that he cannot earn much more
improve his status. Such a question is usually than a bare living from sterile, barren land.
asked with the purpose of covering up an inabil- He does well, under the circumstances, to
ity to suggest what the farmer could do to lift hold on at all.
ERSKINE CALDWELL AND MARGARET BOUR K E-WHITE 911
Time Life Pictures/Getty Images
Informational Text
Now that his condition has sunk to depths
that stop just short of peonage,8 there has
appeared the first sign of hope. What there
is in store for him in the future remains to
be seen, but now for the first time there is
hope. There has been talk, from one end of
the South to the other, of joining with other
tenant farmers to take collective action
against the institution of sharecropping.
The day when it was a sacred bull has passed.
The sign of its passing was when the landlords
R ES P O N D I N G AN D TH I N K I N G C R ITI CALLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. In your opinion, do the photographs or the text bet- 4. (a)In a short paragraph, describe how the images
ter convey the hardships experienced by sharecrop- add to your understanding of sharecropping.
pers? Explain. (b)Which image most enhances your understand-
ing of the institution? Explain.
Recall and Interpret
5. (a)What is the main idea of this selection? (b)Do
2. (a)According to Caldwell and Bourke-White, what you think that Caldwell and Bourke-White are suc-
caused the soil’s impoverishment? (b)What does cessful in conveying this idea? Why or why not?
this suggest to you about the rise of the sharecrop-
ping system?
Connect
3. (a)What effect did sharecropping have on the size of 6. Based on this selection and its images, in what
families? Of what did sharecropping deprive children? ways has your opinion of Richard Wright’s father—
(b)What might be the outcome of these two as he is depicted in Black Boy—changed? Explain.
effects?
OB J EC TIVES
• Read to enhance understanding of history and U.S. culture. • Distinguish the purposes of various media forms.
• Analyze relationships, ideas, and cultures as represented in
various media.
A
ward-winning author Flannery O’Connor
often delighted in telling friends and
interviewers that the highlight of her life
occurred when, as a five-year-old, she taught a
chicken to walk backwards. It was on such odd yet
ordinary experiences that O’Connor later based
her work.
Building Background Reading Tip: Using a Preview Chart Skim the story
for information about the setting, characters, and possi-
Widespread unemployment during the Great Depression
ble conflicts in the story. Use a preview chart like the
brought hard times to many. Unemployed men, and
one below to record details from the story and from
occasionally women, often became wanderers, referred
your background knowledge.
to as “tramps” or “hoboes.” They went from city to city
and house to house, particularly in rural areas, seeking
odd jobs in return for food, clothes, or shelter. When Details What I Know
World War II began, many regularly employed workers rural setting fewer people, less
joined the armed forces. As a result, the previously technology
unemployed, and men wounded and sent home from Great Depression people needed money
the war, frequently filled in at temporary jobs. and work
OB J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • applying background knowledge
• analyzing literary periods
• evaluating dialogue
Literary Element Dialogue What does this exchange Literary Element Dialogue How does this statement
reveal about Mr. Shiftlet? make you feel about Mr. Shiftlet?
Reading Strategy Applying Background Knowledge Big Idea Return to Regionalism Why does the author
Should the old woman trust Mr. Shiftlet or not? Explain. include these details?
8. Placid means “calm” or “peaceful.” 9. Mobile (mōbēl) is a port city in southwestern Alabama.
Literary Element Dialogue Why does Mrs. Crater think Big Idea Return to Regionalism How do these details
Mr. Shiftlet will “do right” by her daughter? contribute to the setting?
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. What was your reaction to the outcome of the 6. Whom do you think O’Connor intended to be the
story? Explain. protagonist of the story? Support your interpretation.
V I S UA L L I T E R AC Y: Graphic Organizers
Academic Vocabulary
Here are two words from the vocabulary list on
page R86.
Introduce your topic and then Mr. Shiflet said that the trouble with the world was
Introduction
▲
In the evenings Mr. Shiftlet sat on the porch steps and talked.
The introductory prepositional phrase in the evenings is short, so it needs no comma.
In the afternoon of the next day, Mr. Shiftlet got the car to start.
A comma is necessary after the two introductory prepositional phrases.
“If you come out here to work, I’ll be able to feed you and give you a place to sleep.”
eWorkbooks To link to If you come out here to work is an introductory clause, so it needs a comma after it.
the Grammar and Language
eWorkbook, go to
www.glencoe.com.
Exercise
Combine each pair of sentences by changing one of them into an intro-
ductory phrase or clause.
OB J EC TIV ES
• Understand introductory 1. O’Connor was disabled by lupus in 1952. She spent the remainder of
phrases and clauses.
her life on her mother’s farm.
• Recognize and correct
errors in grammar. 2. Mr. Shiftlet came up the road for the first time. The old woman and her
daughter were sitting on their porch.
3. Eudora Welty was raised in the South. Much of her work was inspired
by Southern settings.
926 UNIT 6
B EF O R E YO U R E A D
A
Magazine from
lthough the beloved children’s classics
1938 to 1943,
Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little remain
writing the col-
two of Elwyn Brooks (E. B.) White’s best-
umn “One
known works, he is also highly acclaimed for his
Man’s Meat.”
essays and short stories. In fact, it was while working
for The New Yorker magazine in his late twenties On the farm, he
that White first captivated the American public. penned his
There, he worked with other legendary writers such famed children’s
as James Thurber, Dorothy Parker, and Robert stories. The first
Benchley to create a sophisticated and clever “New one, Stuart Little, features an adventurous mouse-
York” voice for the new magazine. child, born into a human family. The second,
Charlotte’s Web, is about the friendship between
The Road to The New Yorker The youngest Wilbur, a young pig, and Charlotte, a spider who
child in a large, affectionate family, White was saves his life through her clever web weavings. The
born in rural Mount Vernon, a suburb of New York third, The Trumpet of the Swan, tells the story of a
City. In 1921 he graduated from Cornell mute swan who becomes a celebrity after learning
University. At Cornell he received the nickname to trumpet. The themes of friendship, tolerance,
Andy, by which he was known for the rest of his loyalty, and rural living are common threads in
life. (All Cornell students named White were these books.
dubbed “Andy,” after the university’s co-founder,
Andrew Dickson White.)
After college, Andy White traveled and worked “I arise in the morning torn between a
at a series of miscellaneous jobs for about five
years. Returning to New York, he worked in an
desire to improve (or save) the world and
ad agency and began sending manuscripts to The a desire to enjoy (or savor) the world.
New Yorker. The editor of the magazine, Harold
Ross, recognized talent when he saw it, and he
This makes it hard to plan the day.”
soon hired White as a staff writer. White married —E. B. White
Katherine Sergeant Angell, the magazine’s liter-
ary editor, in 1929. According to Brendan Gill,
a fellow New Yorker staff member, Andy and White was awarded the Presidential Medal of
Katherine worked so closely together over the Freedom in 1963 and the Laura Ingalls Wilder
years that most people thought of them as one Award from the American Library Association in
person, referred to as “the Whites.” 1970. In 1973 he was elected to the American
Academy of Arts and Letters.
On the Farm In 1938 the Whites decided to
leave the city and return to a simple rural life, this E. B. White was born in 1899 and died in 1985.
time in North Brooklin, Maine. Andy kept animals
on their farm there, some of which made their way
into his stories and books. He remained on the staff
of The New Yorker, continuing to produce essays Author
Author Search
Search For
For more
more about
about
and his unsigned column “Notes and Comments.” E. B. White,
Author Name, go go
to to
www.glencoe.com.
www.literature.glencoe.com.
E. B. WHITE 927
Hulton Archive/Getty Images
L I T E R AT U R E P R E V I E W READI NG PREVI EW
OB J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • understanding plot
• relating literature to the historical period • analyzing text structure
“Ever have any bizarre thoughts?” asked the doctor. thoughts and amorphous fears. Poor fellow,
Mr. Trexler failed to catch the word. “What thought Trexler. Out there all alone in that mis-
kind?” he said. shapen antechamber,1 staring at the filing cabi-
“Bizarre,” repeated the doctor, his voice steady. net and wondering whether to tell the doctor
He watched his patient for any slight change of about that day on the Madison Avenue bus.
expression, any wince. It seemed to Trexler that Let’s see, bizarre thoughts. Trexler dodged back
the doctor was not only watching him closely but along the dreadful corridor of the years to see
was creeping slowly toward him, like a lizard what he could find. He felt the doctor’s eyes upon
toward a bug. Trexler shoved his chair back an him and knew that time was running out. Don’t
inch and gathered himself for a reply. He was be so conscientious, he said to himself. If a bizarre
about to say “Yes” when he realized that if he thought is indicated here, just reach into the bag
said yes the next question would be unanswerable. and pick anything at all. A man as well supplied
Bizarre thoughts, bizarre thoughts? Ever have any with bizarre thoughts as you are should have no
bizarre thoughts? What kind of thoughts except difficulty producing one for the record. Trexler
bizarre had he had since the age of two? darted into the bag, hung for a moment before
Trexler felt the time passing, the necessity for one of his thoughts, as a hummingbird pauses in
an answer. These psychiatrists were busy men, the delphinium. No, he said, not that one. He
overloaded, not to be kept waiting. The next darted to another (the one about the rhesus mon-
patient was probably already perched out there key), paused, considered. No, he said, not that.
in the waiting room, lonely, worried, shifting
around on the sofa, his mind stuffed with bizarre
1. An antechamber, or waiting room, is a smaller room serving
as an entrance to a larger or main room.
Vocabulary
Literary Element Plot How would you describe
Mr. Trexler’s internal conflict at this point? amorphous (ə mor fəs) adj. without definite form
E. B. WHITE 929
Julian Barrow/Private Collection/Bridgeman Art Library
Trexler knew he must hurry. He had already used out. Trexler got up, knocked the ashes out of his
up pretty nearly four seconds since the question had brain, and waited. The doctor smiled warmly and
been put. But it was an impossible situation—just stuck out his hand. “There’s nothing the matter
one more lousy, impossible situation such as he was with you—you’re just scared. Want to know how
always getting himself into. When, he asked him- I know you’re scared?”
self, are you going to quit maneuvering yourself into “How?” asked Trexler.
a pocket? He made one more effort. This time he “Look at the chair you’ve been sitting in! See
stopped at the asylum, only the bars were lucite2— how it has moved back away from my desk? You
fluted, retractable. Not here, he said. Not this one. kept inching away from me while I asked you
He looked straight at the doctor. “No,” he said questions. That means you’re scared.”
quietly. “I never have any bizarre thoughts.” “Does it?” said Trexler, faking a grin. “Yeah, I
The doctor sucked in on his pipe, blew a plume suppose it does.”
of smoke toward the rows of medical books. Trexler’s They finished shaking hands. Trexler turned
gaze followed the smoke. He managed to make out and walked out uncertainly along the passage,
one of the titles, The Genito-Urinary System. A then into the waiting room and out past the next
bright wave of fear swept cleanly over him and he patient, a ruddy pin-striped man who was seated
winced under the first pain of kidney stones.3 He on the sofa twirling his hat nervously and staring
remembered when he was a child, the first time he straight ahead at the files. Poor, frightened guy,
ever entered a doctor’s office, sneaking a look at the thought Trexler, he’s probably read in the Times
titles of the books—and the flush of fear, the shirt that one American male out of every two is
wet under the arms, the book on t.b.,4 the sudden going to die of heart disease by twelve o’clock
knowledge that he was in the advanced stages of next Thursday. It says that in the paper almost
consumption,5 the quick vision of the hemorrhage. every morning. And he’s also probably thinking
Trexler sighed wearily. Forty years, he thought, and I about that day on the Madison Avenue bus.
still get thrown by the title of a medical book. Forty A week later, Trexler was back in the patient’s
years and I still can’t stay on life’s little bucky horse. chair. And for several weeks thereafter he con-
No wonder I’m sitting here in this dreary joint at tinued to visit the doctor, always toward the end
the end of this woebegone6 afternoon, lying about of the afternoon, when the vapors hung thick
my bizarre thoughts to a doctor who looks, come to above the pool of the mind and darkened the
think of it, rather tired. whole region of the East Seventies.7 He felt no
The session dragged on. After about twenty better as time went on, and he found it impossi-
minutes, the doctor rose and knocked his pipe ble to work. He discovered that the visits were
becoming routine and that although the routine
2. Lucite is the trademark name of a transparent plastic. was one to which he certainly did not look for-
3. Kidney stones are small, hard calcium deposits that ward, at least he could accept it with cool resig-
sometimes form in the kidneys and cause pain. nation, as once, years ago, he had accepted a
4. Tuberculosis, a disease that often affects the lungs, is
long spell with a dentist who had settled down to
sometimes referred to as t.b.
5. Consumption is another name for tuberculosis. a steady fooling with a couple of dead teeth. The
6. Woebegone means “sorrowful” or “filled with grief”; it can visits, moreover, were now assuming a pattern
also suggest “dreary and miserable.” recognizable to the patient.
Reading Strategy Analyzing Text Structure How do
Each session would begin with a resumé of symp-
you know the author is using chronological order to organize toms—the dizziness in the streets, the constricting
the story?
Literary Element Plot In what way is Mr. Trexler trying 7. Most of the streets that run east to west in Manhattan are
to resolve his internal conflict? identified by numbers rather than names. East Seventies
refers to the section of streets from 70–79 that are on the
Vocabulary east side of Manhattan.
retractable (ri trak tə bəl) adj. capable of being drawn Reading Strategy Analyzing Text Structure About how
back or in
much time has passed since the opening scene of the story?
hemorrhage (he mə rij) n. a severe discharge of blood How do you know?
Big Idea Life in the City How does this paragraph give Vocabulary
the reader an idea of what it would be like to live in a big
city such as New York? inquisitor (in kwi zə tər) n. one who asks questions
E. B. WHITE 931
Bill Jacklin/Private Collection/Bridgeman Art Library
Better not lose possession of the ball. And could sometimes pick out from the unregenerate
besides, he thought, what the hell goes on here, ranks the ones who had not forgotten, gazing
anyway—me paying fifteen bucks a throw for steadily into the bottoms of the glasses on the long
these séances10 and then doing the work myself, chance that they could get another little peek at it.
asking the questions, weighing the answers. So Trexler found himself renewed by the remembrance
he wants a new wing! There’s a fine piece of the- that what he wanted was at once great and micro-
atrical gauze for you! A new wing. scopic, and that although it borrowed from the
Trexler settled down again and resumed the role nature of large deeds and of youthful love and of old
of patient for the rest of the visit. It ended on a songs and early intimations, it was not any one of
kindly, friendly note. The doctor reassured him that these things, and that it had not been isolated or
his fears were the cause of his sickness, and that his pinned down, and that a man who attempted to
fears were unsubstantial. They shook hands, smiling. define it in the privacy of a doctor’s office would fall
Trexler walked dizzily through the empty wait- flat on his face.
ing room and the doctor followed along to let Trexler felt invigorated. Suddenly his sickness
him out. It was late; the secretary had shut up seemed health, his dizziness stability. A small tree,
shop and gone home. Another day over the dam. rising between him and the light, stood there satu-
“Goodbye,” said Trexler. He stepped into the rated with the evening, each gilt-edged leaf per-
street, turned west toward Madison, and thought fectly drunk with excellence and delicacy. Trexler’s
of the doctor all alone there, after hours, in that spine registered an ever so slight tremor as it picked
desolate hole—a man who worked longer hours up this natural disturbance in the lovely scene. “I
than his secretary. Poor, scared, over-worked guy, want the second tree from the corner, just as it
thought Trexler. And that new wing! stands,” he said, answering an imaginary question
It was an evening of clearing weather, the Park from an imaginary physician. And he felt a slow
showing green and desirable in the distance, the last pride in realizing that what he wanted none could
daylight applying a high lacquer to the brick and bestow, and that what he had none could take
brownstone walls and giving away. He felt content to be sick, unembarrassed
the street scene a luminous at being afraid; and in the jungle of his fear he
and intoxicating splendor. glimpsed (as he had so often glimpsed them before)
Trexler meditated, as he the flashy tail feathers of the bird courage.
walked, on what he wanted. Then he thought once again of the doctor,
Visual Vocabulary
“What do you want?” he and of his being left there all alone, tired,
Brownstone is the heard again. Trexler knew frightened. (The poor, scared guy, thought
name of a reddish- what he wanted, and what, in Trexler.) Trexler began humming “Moonshine
brown sandstone general, all men wanted; and Lullaby,” his spirit reacting instantly to the
as well as a type of
he was glad in a way, that it hypodermic of Merman’s11 healthy voice. He
house made with it.
was both inexpressible and crossed Madison, boarded a downtown bus,
unattainable, and that it and rode all the way to Fifty-second Street
wasn’t a wing. He was satisfied to remember that it before he had a thought that could rightly
was deep, formless, enduring, and impossible of ful- have been called bizarre.
fillment, and that it made men sick, and that when
you sauntered along Third Avenue and looked
through the doorways into the dim saloons, you 11. Ethel Merman (1909–1984) was an American actress and
singer known for her powerful voice.
10. A séance is a meeting in which people attempt to Literary Element Plot How has Mr. Trexler resolved his
communicate with the spirits of the dead. Here, Trexler is internal conflict?
questioning the scientific validity of his psychiatric sessions.
Vocabulary
Big Idea Life in the City What elements in this paragraph
are unique to the city and would not be found in the country? intimation (in´ tə mā shən) n. a hint; a suggestion
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. What questions would you like to ask Mr. Trexler? 5. Is Trexler’s reaction to his discovery of what he
Explain. wants in life realistic? Why or why not?
Recall and Interpret 6. (a)Why do you think Trexler pities others? (b)Do
you think his observations are accurate? Explain.
2. (a)What question does the doctor ask Mr. Trexler
at the beginning of the story? What is Trexler’s 7. (a)What personality traits—both positive and nega-
answer? (b)In your opinion, what does Trexler’s tive—does Trexler exhibit? (b)On the basis of these
reaction to the doctor’s first question reveal about traits, do you find Trexler to be a sympathetic char-
Trexler’s state of mind? acter? Explain.
LI T E R A RY A N A LYS I S
E. B. WHITE 933
R E AD I N G A N D VO CA B U L A RY WRITI NG AN D EXTEN DI NG
T
he sounds, sights, and rhythm of urban life
pour out of the poetry of Gwendolyn
Brooks. As Brooks once said, “I wanted to
write poems that I could take into the streets.”
With an ear for the beat of the city and the hum
of everyday life, Brooks re-created the lives of
African Americans in the city and elsewhere. struggles of the black community and express the
black experience in a time of rapid change.
Although she was born in Topeka, Kansas, Brooks
grew up in Chicago. A shy girl, Gwendolyn Brooks Poetic Transformation In 1945 Brooks’s first
spent much of her childhood alone reading books and book, A Street in Bronzeville, was published to rave
writing poetry. “My mother says I began rhyming at reviews. In her early work, Brooks wrote poetic
seven. . . . Of course I would be a poet! Was a poet! narratives, using traditional verse forms—such as
Didn’t I write a poem every day? Sometimes two the sonnet and ballad. In the 1960s, however, her
poems?” Her mother’s belief in her talent gave her the voice and style changed, and she brought a new
confidence she needed to keep writing, and Brooks consciousness of her racial identity to her work.
published her first poem, “Eventide,” when she was Inspired by black activism, Brooks began to overtly
thirteen. By the late 1930s, she had published address political issues, especially the need for
seventy-five poems in the Chicago Defender. racial unity. As she became more involved with
the Black Arts movement in Chicago, Brooks
moved from major publishing houses to smaller
“I want to write poems that will be ones run by African Americans. Although her
commitment to racial unity was evident and her
meaningful . . . things that will touch verse powerful, her poetry was never bitter.
[readers].”
Role of the Poet Success and recognition didn’t
—Gwendolyn Brooks change Brooks’s outlook. In fact, it made her more
committed to art and to helping young artists. With
the publication of her second book, Annie Allen, she
became the first African American to win the Pulitzer
Literary Influences Brooks’s mother took her to see Prize. She would later be named Poet Laureate of
poets read whenever they came to Chicago. Two of Illinois, poetry consultant to the Library of Congress,
these poets—James Weldon Johnson and Langston and a member of the National Women’s Hall of
Hughes—became important influences on her career Fame. Most important to Brooks were her visits to
and writing. Johnson played the role of advisor, urging local schools and the classes and contests she spon-
her to read modern poets such as T. S. Eliot and E. E. sored to help urban children “see” the poetry in the
Cummings—poets whose styles would be reflected in world around them. Today, Brooks remains one of
her later work. When Brooks was sixteen, she went to America’s most beloved and inspirational poets.
see Langston Hughes read. After the reading, she gave
Gwendolyn Brooks was born in 1917 and died in 2000.
him some of her poems, which he read immediately.
He encouraged her to continue writing and would
later become her close friend and inspiration. As a Author
Author Search
Search For
For more
more about
about
poet, Brooks shared Hughes’s ability to respond to the Gwendolyn Brooks,
Author Name, go to go to www.glencoe.com.
www.literature.glencoe.com.
OB J EC TIVES
In studying these selections, you will focus on the following: • understanding rhyme scheme
• analyzing literary periods • evaluating language
5 Beautiful. Impudent.
Ready for life.
A tied storm.
10 Sometimes in life
things seem to be moving
and they are not
and they are not Hombre ante el infinito (Man before the infinite). Rufino Tamayo.
there. Musée d’Art Moderne, Brussels, Belgium.
15 You are there.
Reading Strategy Evaluating Language Why do you think Brooks uses the word impudent to
describe the man?
Vocabulary
impudent (im pyə dənt) adj. cocky, bold
tribute (tri byut) n. something given to show affection, gratitude, or respect
consolidation (kən sa lə da shən) n. the process of uniting or merging
GWENDOLYN BROOKS 9 37
Art Resource, NY
Gwendolyn Brooks
Onion Tears, 1929. Cagnaccio di San Pietro. Camera di Lavoro, Trieste, Italy.
And remembering . . .
10 Remembering, with twinklings and twinges,
As they lean over the beans in their rented back room that
is full of beads and receipts and dolls and cloths,
tobacco crumbs, vases and fringes.
Big Idea City Life What is city life like for the bean eaters?
Vocabulary
twinge (twinj) n. a sudden, sharp physical or
emotional pain
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. Would you like to meet the man described in “To 5. A word’s connotation is its suggested or implied
Don at Salaam”? Explain. meanings. (a)Name four or more words in “The
Bean Eaters” that have meanings beyond their dic-
Recall and Interpret tionary definitions. (b)Explain how the connotations
2. (a)What is the setting in “The Bean Eaters”? of the word yellow help to describe the couple.
(b)What do the details of the setting show? 6. (a)How would you describe the tone of “The Bean
3. (a)How does Brooks describe the characters in Eaters”? (b)How does the tone help you under-
“The Bean Eaters”? (b)What do the couple’s stand the meaning of the poem?
actions suggest about them? 7. (a)How does Brooks use imagery to describe the
4. (a)In “To Don at Salaam,” what adjectives or adjec- man in “To Don at Salaam”? (b)How well do these
tive phrases does the speaker use to describe the images tell you what the speaker sees in the man?
man? (b)What do these modifiers suggest about
the man? (c)What do they suggest about the Connect
speaker? 8. Big Idea Life in the City What aspects of life
in a big city does “The Bean Eaters” show?
L I T E R A RY A NA LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
B
ernard Malamud was born to Russian
Jewish immigrants who worked sixteen
hours a day in their small grocery store on
New York City’s Lower East Side. Reflecting on
his childhood, he would recall that there were
no books in his home, no records or musical
instruments, and no pictures on the walls. He
would, however, recall the generosity of his
father, who bought him the twenty-volume Book
of Knowledge in 1923, when he was a nine-year-
old recovering from pneumonia.
Inspired by his father’s stories of life in czarist
Russia, Malamud began creating stories of his
own for his boyhood friends. He graduated from religious creed. To be Jewish, he felt, was to
City College of New York and Columbia struggle with life’s limitations and responsibili-
University, and while teaching evening classes ties. Malamud said that he wrote about Jews
he wrote short stories that appeared in Harper’s “because they set my imagination going. I know
Bazaar and other magazines. His first novel, something about their history, the quality of
written in 1952 when he was in his late thirties, experience and belief, and of their literature,
was The Natural, the story of the rise and fall of though not as much as I would like.”
a baseball player. The novel was later made into He saw himself as a storyteller whose fictions
a popular movie starring Robert Redford. His were about “simple people struggling to make
second novel, The Assistant, written in 1957, their lives better in a world of bad luck.” His
brought him fame as a major Jewish American characters are often pursued by a sense of injus-
writer. His novel of injustice in czarist Russia, tice, burdened with grief, and strengthened by
The Fixer (1966), won both the National Book their own persistence. They are intensely aware
Award and the Pulitzer Prize. of the past as they try to make a life for them-
selves in the modern world. The mixture of vic-
tory and defeat in their lives endows Malamud’s
“People say I write so much about work with a tragicomic character.
misery, but you write about what you Malamud won highest acclaim as a writer of short
stories, and “The Magic Barrel” is considered one
know best.” of his best. His stories contain a robust humor,
—Bernard Malamud striking contrasts, a strong sense of compassion,
and a complete understanding of his characters
and their way of life.
Bernard Malamud was born in 1914 and died in 1986.
Master of Characterization Though most
of the characters in his stories and novels are
Jewish, Malamud thought of Jewishness as a spiri- Author
Author Search
Search For
For more
more about
about
tual condition rather than as a cultural heritage or Bernard Malamud,
Author Name, go togo to www.glencoe.com.
www.literature.glencoe.com.
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • understanding dialect
• relating literature to historical period • analyzing characterization
BERNARD MALAMUD 9 41
Bernard Malamud
Intensive study, 1910. Unknown. Oil on canvas, 321/4 x 29 in. Judaica Coll. Max Berger,
Vienna, Austria.
through eyeglasses he had just slipped on, to felt he had told the marriage broker more than
be engaged in scanning the writing on the was absolutely necessary.
cards, stole occasional glances at the young He hesitantly inquired, “Do you keep photo-
man’s distinguished face, noting with pleasure graphs of your clients on file?”
the long, severe scholar’s nose, brown eyes heavy “First comes family, amount of dowry,6 also
with learning, sensitive yet ascetic4 lips, and a what kind promises,” Salzman replied, unbuttoning
certain, almost hollow quality of the dark cheeks. his tight coat and settling himself in the chair.
He gazed around at shelves upon shelves of “After comes pictures, rabbi.”
books and let out a soft, contented sigh. “Call me Mr. Finkle. I’m not yet a rabbi.”
When Leo’s eyes fell upon the cards, he Salzman said he would, but instead called him
counted six spread out in Salzman’s hand. doctor, which he changed to rabbi when Leo was
“So few?” he asked in disappointment. not listening too attentively.
“You wouldn’t believe me how much cards I Salzman adjusted his horn-rimmed spectacles,
got in my office,” Salzman replied. “The drawers gently cleared his throat and read in an eager voice
are already filled to the top, so I keep them now the contents of the top card:
in a barrel, but is every girl good for a new rabbi?” “Sophie P. Twenty-four years. Widow one
Leo blushed at this, regretting all he had year. No children. Educated high school and
revealed of himself in a curriculum vitae5 he two years college. Father promises eight thou-
had sent to Salzman. He had thought it best sand dollars. Has wonderful wholesale busi-
to acquaint him with his strict standards ness. Also real estate. On the mother’s side
and specifications, but in having done so, comes teachers, also one actor. Well known on
Second Avenue.”
Leo gazed up in surprise. “Did you say a widow?”
4. Here, ascetic means “severe” or “stern.”
5. A curriculum vitae (kə ri kyə ləm vē t̄) is a summary of a
person’s education and work experience, usually given to a
prospective employer. Finkle has provided Salzman with 6. A dowry is money or property a woman brings to her
a summary of the “highlights” of his life. husband at the time of marriage.
Reading Strategy Analyzing Characterization What do Big Idea Life in the City What information about New
these details reveal about Finkle and Salzman? York City can you infer from this passage?
failure to produce a suitable bride for him. He Reading Strategy Analyzing Characterization How
did not care for his type of clientele. But when does this description of Salzman differ from the description
of him when he first entered Finkle’s home?
Literary Element Dialect How would this passage be Literary Element Dialect What inversion does
written in Standard English? Salzman make?
Big Idea Life in the City Which details depict a stroll in Reading Strategy Analyzing Characterization What
New York City rather than in the country? does this passage reveal about Finkle’s state of mind?
Big Idea Life in the City How do the descriptions of city Reading Strategy Analyzing Characterization Why is
life here enhance the tone? Finkle experiencing fear here?
BERNARD MALAMUD 9 51
address. He was not listed, nor was his office. She stared at him a long minute. “Of course.”
Neither was he in the Manhattan book. But Leo He felt embarrassed. “Is he in?”
remembered having written down the address “No.” Her mouth, though left open, offered
on a slip of paper after he had read Salzman’s nothing more.
advertisement in the “personals” column of “The matter is urgent. Can you tell me where
the Forward. He ran up to his room and tore his office is?”
through his papers, without luck. It was exasper- “In the air.” She pointed upward.
ating. Just when he needed the matchmaker he “You mean he has no office?” Leo asked.
was nowhere to be found. “In his socks.”
Fortunately Leo remembered He peered into the apartment. It was sun-
to look in his wallet. There less and dingy, one large room divided by a
on a card he found his name half-open curtain, beyond which he could see
written and a Bronx address. a sagging metal bed. The near side of a room
No phone number was was crowded with rickety chairs, old bureaus,
Visual Vocabulary
listed, the reason—Leo now a three-legged table, racks of cooking utensils,
A skullcap,
or yarmulke
recalled—he had originally and all the apparatus of a kitchen. But there
(ya mə kə), is a communicated with Salzman was no sign of Salzman or his magic barrel,
brimless cap by letter. He got on his coat, probably also a figment of the imagination.
worn by many put a hat on over his skullcap An odor of frying fish made Leo weak to the
Jewish men and and hurried to the subway knees.
boys, especially
station. All the way to the far “Where is he?” he insisted. “I’ve got to see
during religious
services.
end of the Bronx he sat on your husband.”
the edge of his seat. He was At length she answered, “So who knows
more than once tempted to where he is? Every time he thinks a new
take out the picture and see if the girl’s face was thought he runs to a different place. Go home,
as he remembered it, but he refrained, allowing he will find you.”
the snapshot to remain in his inside coat pocket, “Tell him Leo Finkle.”
content to have her so close. When the train She gave no sign she had heard.
pulled into the station he was waiting at the He walked downstairs, depressed.
door and bolted out. He quickly located the But Salzman, breathless, stood waiting at
street Salzman had advertised. his door.
The building he sought was less than a block Leo was astounded and overjoyed. “How did
from the subway, but it was not an office building, you get here before me?”
nor even a loft, nor a store in which one could “I rushed.”
rent office space. It was a very old tenement20 “Come inside.”
house. Leo found Salzman’s name in pencil on a They entered. Leo fixed tea, and a sardine
soiled tag under the bell and climbed three dark sandwich for Salzman. As they were drinking
flights to his apartment. When he knocked, the he reached behind him for the packet of pic-
door was opened by a thin, asthmatic, gray-haired tures and handed them to the marriage broker.
woman in felt slippers. Salzman put down his glass and said
“Yes?” she said, expecting nothing. She listened expectantly, “You found somebody you like?”
without listening. He could have sworn he had “Not among these.”
seen her, too, before but knew it was an illusion. The marriage broker turned away.
“Salzman—does he live here? Pinye Salzman,” “Here is the one I want.” Leo held forth the
he said, “the matchmaker?” snapshot.
Salzman slipped on his glasses and took the
picture into his trembling hand. He turned
20. A tenement is an apartment building or rooming house
that is built or maintained poorly and is often overcrowded.
ghastly and let out a groan.
“What’s the matter?” cried Leo.
Big Idea Life in the City What details set the scene in “Excuse me. Was an accident this picture.
New York City?
She isn’t for you.”
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. Were you surprised by the outcome of the story? 5. Why might Finkle have responded so strongly to
Explain why or why not. the snapshot of Stella?
Recall and Interpret 6. How does the setting of Salzman’s apartment add
to the author’s characterization of the matchmaker?
2. (a)Why does Leo Finkle decide to consult a mar-
Explain with details from the selection.
riage broker, or matchmaker? (b)What do you think
consulting a marriage broker represents for Finkle? 7. Imagine that you are buying something and the
salesperson uses methods like Salzman’s. How
3. (a)Who are the first three women Salzman
would you respond? Explain your answer.
describes? (b)How does Finkle react to the
description of each? (c)What does Finkle’s attitude 8. How does Malamud use suspense to draw the
toward the women reveal about his personality? reader into the story? Support your response.
Support your answer with evidence from the story. city environment shape and influence Finkle’s life?
LI T E R A RY A N A LYS I S
Literary Element Dialect Group Activity Meet with a small group to discuss
the motivations of Leo Finkle in “The Magic Barrel.”
In “The Magic Barrel,” Salzman speaks in a dialect of
Create a chart like the one shown, and fill it in by
English influenced by Yiddish grammar and syntax. For
identifying the motivation for each action listed.
example, he says “She lived with her husband maybe
four months. He was a sick boy she made a mistake
LEO F INKLE
to marry him.” In Standard English, this passage might
read, “She lived with her husband for perhaps four Motivation Actions
Review: Motivation
5. falls in love with
Motivation is the reason or cause for a character’s Stella’s snapshot
actions. The cause may be internal (for example, a
character’s ambition, fear, or love) or external (for
example, societal pressure or danger). Most characters
are motivated by both internal and external factors.
2. Identify the method used to reveal character in 2. Marriage brokers play an important role in the social
each instance: for example, through the character’s life of the community. What does this tell you about
thoughts, words, actions, or appearance or through the community’s attitude toward marriage and the
what other characters think and say about that family?
character. 3. What qualities does Salzman esteem in a wife? What
3. Write a brief sketch of Salzman’s character based does this suggest about the community’s values?
on these passages. Before you begin your first draft, complete a chart like
the one started below. List the qualities valued by
Finkle and Salzman, the representatives of the culture.
Vocabulary Practice
Practice with Word Origins You know that Latin Rabbis and Marriage and Qualities
roots form the basis of many English words and Religion Family Desirable in a
Wife
that the meaning of an English word is related to
Finkle’s wants to be
the meaning of its root. Study the meanings of
Attitude a rabbi but
these Latin roots: has conflicted
feelings about
ami(c)—”friend” anim—”mind; soul” amat or God
amor—”to love” Salzman’s respects rabbis
Attitude
Now notice how the roots affect the meanings of
three vocabulary words from the selection:
amiable—”friendly” After you complete your first draft, get together with a
classmate to evaluate each other’s work and to sug-
animated—”full of life, or soul”
gest revisions. Then proofread and edit your draft for
enamored—”filled with love” errors in spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
Write each word below and underline its Latin
root. Then tell how the root contributes to the Learning for Life
meaning of the word.
Group Activity For many people who are busy or shy,
1. amateur or who have trouble meeting romantic partners for other
2. amicable reasons, dating services have taken the place of match-
3. amity makers. Imagine yourself as the owner of a dating service.
4. magnanimous Write the text for a brochure to persuade people like Leo
5. amorous Finkle and Lily Hirschorn to use your service. Keep in mind
that such a brochure would be a form of persuasive writing.
The Rockpile
M E E T JA M ES BA LDW I N
• When is it justified to break the rules? Reading Tip: Taking Notes In a chart, record details
• What would you risk to keep your word to someone? and generalizations about the main characters.
OB J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • making generalizations about characters
• analyzing literary periods • writing an evaluative essay
• recognizing a character foil • understanding analogies
James Baldwin
Vocabulary
Reading Strategy Making Generalizations About
Characters From this detail, what generalizations might grapple (rapəl) v. to struggle in hand-to-hand com-
you make about Roy? bat; to wrestle
downstairs.”
“No,” she said, “you ain’t got nothing that Delilah would awaken Paul and she hurried
to worry about. You just tell your Daddy the truth.” into the bedroom. She tried to soothe Delilah back
He looked directly at her, and she turned to the to sleep. Then she heard the front door open and
window, staring into the street. What was Sister close—too loud, Delilah raised her voice, with an
McCandless saying? Then from her bedroom she exasperated sigh Elizabeth picked the child up. Her
heard Delilah’s thin wail and she turned, frowning, child and Gabriel’s, her children and Gabriel’s: Roy,
looking toward the bedroom and toward the still Delilah, Paul. Only John was nameless and a
open door. She knew that John was watching her. stranger, living, unalterable testimony to his moth-
Delilah continued to wail, she thought, angrily, er’s days in sin.
Now that girl’s getting too big for that, but she feared “What happened?” Gabriel demanded. He stood,
enormous, in the center of the room, his black
lunchbox dangling from his hand, staring at the sofa
4. To raise cain is an idiom meaning “to make a great
disturbance” or “to lose one’s temper.”
Reading Strategy Making Generalizations About Reading Strategy Making Generalizations About
Characters What generalizations can you make about Characters From these details, what generalizations can
Sister McCandless from this comment? you make about John’s status in the family?
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. Describe your emotional response to this story. 5. Using foreshadowing, a writer provides hints to events
that will occur later in the story. (a)What event or
Recall and Interpret events are foreshadowed in “The Rockpile”? (b)What
2. (a)Why is the rockpile so tempting for Roy? (b)Why effect does this foreshadowing have on the story?
do you think that John is not tempted by it?
6. (a)What do you think the rockpile symbolizes?
3. (a)How do the adults in the story see themselves as (b)Do you find this symbol effective? Explain.
different from other people in the neighborhood?
7. (a)What is the main source of conflict between
(b)How is their self-image reflected in their actions?
Gabriel and Elizabeth in the story? (b)Is this conflict
4. (a)What important fact is revealed about Gabriel just resolved at the end of the story? Explain.
before he arrives home? (b)How does this fact
explain Gabriel’s attitude toward his two sons? Connect
8. Big Idea Life in the City How important is the
setting to this story? What picture of city life does
the author create with this setting?
L I T E R A RY A N A LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
Vocabulary Practice
Writing About Literature
Practice with Analogies Choose the word that
Evaluate Author’s Craft In “The Rockpile,” James best completes the analogy.
Baldwin uses a number of symbols, or things that
stand for something beyond themselves. Write a brief 1. engrossed : fascinated :: expedient :
essay in which you evaluate Baldwin’s use of symbol- a. convenient c. fortuitous
ism throughout the story and how it contributes to the b. coincidental
story’s meaning. After you complete your draft, meet 2. loiter : stand :: search :
with a partner to revise each other’s work. a. find c. seek
b. collect
3. jubilant : pleased :: terrified :
a. anxious c. sorrowful
Web Activities For eFlashcards, b. frozen
Selection Quick Checks, and other Web activities, go to
www.glencoe.com.
Three Flags, 1958. Jasper Johns. Encaustic on canvas, 30 7/8 x 45 x 5 in. Fiftieth Anniversary Gift of the Gilman
Foundation, Inc., The Lauder Foundation, A. Alfred Taubman, an anonymous donor, and purchase 80.32
967
Collection of Whitney Museum of American Art, NY, Photography by Geoffrey Clements, NY
B EF O R E YO U R E A D
F
ranklin D. Roosevelt was an intensely
competitive and social person. His charis-
matic demeanor, rich voice, and wide smile
expressed confidence and optimism and gave
him the power to be very persuasive. In the dark
days of the Great Depression and World War II,
his buoyant leadership was one of the United Franklin Roosevelt was again active in the
States’ greatest assets. Democratic Party and was elected governor of New
York. While governor, he gained great popularity by
cutting taxes for farmers, reducing the rates charged
by public utilities, and giving aid to unemployed
“Let me assert my firm belief that New Yorkers.
the only thing we have to fear is fear Roosevelt’s popularity paved the way for his presi-
itself—” dential win in 1932. Many people in the United
States applauded Roosevelt’s use of power to help
—Franklin D. Roosevelt people in economic distress. In the first three
First Inaugural Address months of his presidency, Congress passed fifteen
major acts to provide economic relief to the nation,
later known as the First New Deal. Roosevelt’s pop-
Roosevelt was a distant cousin of Theodore ular relief programs helped him win reelection
Roosevelt, the twenty-sixth president of the United three times. He has the remarkable legacy of being
States. He was born into a wealthy New York family the only president to serve more than two terms.
and educated at Harvard University and Columbia
Law School. While at Harvard, he became Tension in Europe Meanwhile, World War II
acquainted with Theodore Roosevelt’s niece, Eleanor. officially began when Germany invaded Poland on
Soon afterward, Franklin and Eleanor were married. September 1, 1939. After the horrors of World
War I, most U.S. citizens were in favor of remain-
Political Gains and Personal Setbacks Shortly ing neutral during the war. On December 7, 1941,
after leaving law school, Roosevelt entered politics Japanese fighter pilots made a surprise attack
and won a seat in the New York State Senate. He on Pearl Harbor. The damage was severe and
earned a reputation as a progressive reformer will- crippling. Roosevelt quickly changed his mind
ing to stand up to the party bosses. In 1921, he about the war. The following day, he delivered his
contracted a fever and soon felt numbness in his famous “War Message to Congress.” But President
legs. He had contracted the disease known as Roosevelt did not live to see victory; he died from
polio. Although there was no cure, Roosevelt a stroke just months before the war’s end.
refused to give up and began a vigorous exercise Franklin D. Roosevelt was born in 1882 and
program to restore some of his muscle control. died in 1945.
While recovering from polio, Roosevelt depended on
his wife to keep his name prominent in the New York
Democratic Party. Eleanor Roosevelt became an effec-
tive orator, and her efforts during this time kept her Author Search For more about
husband’s political career alive. By the mid-1920s, Franklin D. Roosevelt, go to www.glencoe.com.
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • distinguishing fact and opinion
• relating literature to a historical period • analyzing public documents
• evaluating author’s purpose
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. What was your reaction to Roosevelt’s speech? 5. (a)What does Roosevelt mean when he says, “The
people of the United States have already formed
Recall and Interpret their opinions”? (b)What do you think he is trying
2. (a)Why, according to Roosevelt, was the United States to accomplish with this statement?
unprepared for the attack on Pearl Harbor? (b)How
6. (a)How does Roosevelt assure the public of a war
do you think this information might have influenced
victory? (b)Why do you think he does this?
Congress?
3. (a)Why does Roosevelt claim it was obvious that Connect
the attack on Pearl Harbor was planned “many 7. Big Idea The United States and the World
days or weeks ago”? (b)How do you think this Explain whether you feel the president did an accu-
influenced the president’s reaction to the attack? rate job of addressing both the political and human
4. (a)Which places does Roosevelt say Japan has consequences of declaring war on Japan in “War
attacked? (b)What effect does Roosevelt seem to Message to Congress.”
want this information to have on his audience?
L I T E R A RY A N A LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
astro- star; celestial body; -pede foot For more about interpret-
astr- outer space ing unfamiliar math and
-gon a figure having a specified science terms, see
milli- thousand kind or number of angles Reading Handbook,
p. R20.
hydro- water; liquid -nomy body of knowledge about a
hydr- specific field
poly- more than one; many; much -sphere a celestial body, such as a
planet or star
penta- five
eFlashcards For eFlashcards
and other vocabulary activities, go
to www.glencoe.com.
Exercise
Answer the following questions by combining two word parts from the list
above. Consult a dictionary to check your answers. Write the answers on a
piece of paper.
1. What is the word for a small animal that has an external skeleton and
numerous feet?
2. What is the word for the scientific study of the planets and stars in outer
OB J EC TI V ES
space?
• Use word parts to help
3. What is the word for a closed plane figure bounded by straight lines? you understand math and
science terms.
4. What is the word for water vapor in Earth’s atmosphere?
• Verify word meanings by
5. What is the word for a five-sided polygon? using a dictionary.
973
B EF O R E YO U R E A D
R
timization of women
andall Jarrell’s influence on other writers in
and children.
the mid-twentieth century was enormous.
His work as a critic, teacher, novelist, and When the war ended,
poet helped define poetry’s path during the 1950s Jarrell taught for a year
and early 1960s. Jarrell’s longtime friend and fel- at Sarah Lawrence
low poet Robert Lowell observed, “His gifts . . . College. He later trans-
were wit, pathos, and brilliance of intelligence.” lated his teaching
experiences at the
Jarrell was born in Nashville, Tennessee, but spent
women’s academy into
most of his youth in Long Beach, California. Jarrell’s
the satirical novel
interest in poetry began during his time at Vanderbilt
Pictures from an
University. There he studied under notable southern
Institution. After a year
writers John Crowe Ransom and Robert Penn
at Sarah Lawrence, Jarrell took a professorship at the
Warren, who nurtured Jarrell’s skills as a poet and
University of North Carolina in Greensboro. From
critic. After earning BA and MA degrees from
1956 until 1958, he served as poetry consultant to the
Vanderbilt, Jarrell began a career as a professor
Library of Congress.
of English literature, first at Kenyon College and
then at the University of Texas.
Critical Acclaim In the two decades after World
War II, Jarrell produced several collections of verse
and commentary. His criticism was some of the most
“If I can think of it, it isn’t what I want. shrewd and acerbic of its day. Jarrell could be brutal,
and he often lambasted mediocre poetry. As many
I want . . . I want a ship from some have noted, however, the fierceness of Jarrell’s reviews
near star was not a display of aggression but, rather, a measure
To land in the yard” of his love for poetry. He was a passionate advocate
for verse that met his high standards. Robert Frost,
—Randall Jarrell, “A Sick Child” William Carlos Williams, and Walt Whitman all met
these standards and therefore received revitalized
acclaim as a result of Jarrell’s critical attention.
Military Life In 1942, when Jarrell published his In 1965, Jarrell was struck and killed by a car. It is
first book of poems, Blood for a Stranger, the United unclear whether his death was accidental or whether
States had just entered World War II. That same year, Jarrell, like so many poets of his generation, chose
he joined the war effort by enlisting in the Army Air suicide. Whatever the cause of his death, his impor-
Forces. He served as a control tower operator and tance is unquestionable. Jarrell’s poetry captured what
trained B-29 bomber pilots. World War II had a pro- poet Karl Shapiro called “the common dialogue of
found effect on Jarrell, inspiring him to write with Americans,” a dialogue that modulates from weariness
great rancor, pity, and drama about the evils of war. to terror, from hopefulness to ecstasy.
Many of his greatest poems appear in Little Friend, Randall Jarrell was born in 1914 and died in 1965.
Little Friend (1945) and Losses (1948). Both books
deal extensively with themes of dehumanization, war,
and violence. Jarrell also displayed great compassion Author Search For more about
in his portraits of people trapped in meaningless lives. Randall Jarrell, go to www.glencoe.com.
• Do the circumstances of someone’s death change Reading Tip: Taking Notes In a web diagram, record
the meaning of that person’s death?
powerful images and other images connected to them.
• What is your view of war? Can war be justified?
Building Background
The aircraft that Jarrell mentions in his note were long-
range bombers that the U.S. Army used in bombing raids
over Europe and the Pacific during World War II. The B-17
was called the Flying Fortress, because it could withstand
severe damage and still remain aloft. The B-24, known as
the Liberator, was developed a few years later. Its wing-
span was slightly longer than that of the B-17, and it had a
greater range. Both the B-17 and B-24 had Plexiglas ball
turrets that housed machine gunners. Although both were Vocabulary
powerful aircraft, these ball turrets made them vulnerable turret (tur it) n. a small, rotating domelike
to attack. In his poem, Jarrell describes the life and death structure that is mounted with guns and
of a turret gunner aboard one of these aircraft. Although attached to the body of an aircraft; p. 976 The
Jarrell himself was not a crew member of a U.S. bomber, turret turned and the gunner began firing on the
he had a great sense of compassion and love for the approaching enemy planes.
men that he trained.
Plexiglas (plek si las´) n. a light and very
Setting Purposes for Reading durable transparent plastic; p. 976 Due to its
low cost and light weight, Plexiglas is often used in
Big Idea The United States and the World manufacturing.
As you read, consider how Jarrell’s “The Death of the
Ball Turret Gunner” represents the human story of
gunner ( un ər) n. an airman or a soldier who
World War II.
operates a gun; p. 976 The gunner aimed at the
enemy aircraft and fired, scoring a direct hit.
Literary Element Imagery fetus (fē təs) n. an unborn child that has been
in utero for at least eight weeks; p. 976 The
Imagery is the “word pictures” that writers create to family breathed a collective sigh of relief after learn-
evoke an emotional response. In creating imagery, writ- ing that the fetus was perfectly healthy.
ers use sensory details, or descriptions that appeal to
one or more of the five senses. Imagery is often an
integral part of modern and contemporary poetry. As
you read “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner,” exam-
ine how Jarrell uses imagery to establish his setting
and generate emotion. Interactive Literary Elements
Handbook To review or learn more about the literary elements,
• See Literary Terms Handbook, p. R9. go to www.glencoe.com.
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • visualizing
• analyzing literary periods • expanding vocabulary
• interpreting imagery
RESP ON DI NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. Which phrase or image was the most potent for 5. What is ironic about Jarrell’s comparison of the ball
you? Why? turret gunner and a fetus in the womb?
Elie Wiesel
from All Rivers Run to the Sea .......................... memoir .................. 981
The Holocaust—an unfathomable tragedy
Poland, 1940s
Garrett Hongo
from Kubota ..................................................................... memoir .................. 990
Bringing Japanese American internment to light
Hawaii, 1940s
Art Spiegelman
from Maus: A Survivor’s Tale .................. graphic novel ................995
Picturing a father’s memories
Poland, 1940s
A
s a Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel has a
vision of a future with deep ties to past
generations. Called the “conscience of the
Holocaust,” Wiesel believes that memory can be a
powerful foundation for unity. This notion echoes his
personal struggle with the past and illustrates his
attempt to transform his struggle into a universal fight
against oppression and indifference. Wiesel gave a stir- Giving Voice to Memory After the liberation,
ring speech at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Wiesel vowed to keep silent about the horrors he had
dedication in 1993. His famous words are engraved in witnessed. He evacuated to France, where he contin-
stone at the museum’s entrance, encouraging future ued his education. While studying in Paris, he began
generations to recognize this collective duty: work as a journalist, writing stories for the Yiddish
newspaper Zion in Kamf and the Israeli newspaper
Yedi’ot Akharonot. Journalism put him in contact with
a crucial figure, French writer François Mauriac. In
“For the dead and the living, we must 1954, at Mauriac’s behest, Wiesel broke his silence
bear witness.” and finally gave voice to his memories. Wiesel wrote
and published his Yiddish memoir, Un Di Velt Hot
—Elie Wiesel Geshvign (“And the World Kept Silent”), in 1956.
Under Mauriac’s guidance, Wiesel revised the text
and translated it into French under the title La Nuit
The Holocaust Wiesel spent his childhood in in 1958; in 1960 this seminal work was translated into
Sighet, Romania, where he gained a deep understand- English as Night.
ing of Jewish identity. Synagogues, day schools, and
Wiesel moved to the United States in 1956 and was
Jewish newspapers flourished in Sighet during Wiesel’s
naturalized as a citizen in 1963. As a result of his pro-
youth, reflecting a vibrant Jewish community. Wiesel
lific writing and lecturing, Wiesel has become one of
began attending kheder (religious elementary school)
the most visible and renowned Holocaust survivors,
when he was three years old. He studied secular sub-
eventually winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. In
jects, played the violin, and eventually found a local
his Nobel acceptance speech, Wiesel acknowledged
scholar with whom he could study Kabbalah, a mystical
the problem of oppression, but even more so, the
interpretation of Hebrew Scriptures.
danger of indifference: “we must always take sides.
In the spring of 1944, Wiesel’s life changed forever. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.
Fifteen-year-old Wiesel and his family were deported Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tor-
from Sighet to the death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau mented. Sometimes we must interfere.” By con-
in Poland. Wiesel was separated from his mother and fronting and exploring his own horrific past, Wiesel
sisters—his mother and youngest sister were immedi- has transformed his experiences into collective
ately gassed to death. Wiesel remained with his father understanding, dialogue, and action.
at Auschwitz and later at Buchenwald, another con-
Elie Wiesel was born in 1928.
centration camp. Tragically, his father died just
months before the liberation of the camp in 1945.
Wiesel survived the horrors of the concentration Author Search For more about
camps and was later reunited with his older sisters. Elie Wiesel, go to www.glencoe.com.
O B J EC T IV ES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following:
Interactive Literary Elements • relating literature to a historical period
Handbook To review or learn more about the literary elements, • analyzing a narrator
go to www.glencoe.com. • activating prior knowledge
ineffably (in efə blē) adv. to a degree that is impossible Reading Strategy Activating Prior Knowledge What
to express; indescribably memories are forever etched in your mind?
ELIE WIESEL 9 81
Nathan Benn/CORBIS
the forbidden broadcasts of Radio London and sky, the pitiless sky that numbs us with an unsea-
Radio Moscow that we listened to at night, sonable and stifling heat. And the sun? Will it keep
curtains drawn and shutters closed. I picture its secret? The night before, very late, like make-
myself sitting under an acacia tree, a book in my shift gravediggers, we had dug a dozen holes under
hands, talking to the clouds. Tsipouka is playing the trees to bury what remained of our jewelry, pre-
with a hoop. “Come and play with me,” she says, cious objects, and money. I buried the gold watch I
but I don’t feel like it. And now, as I write these had been given as a bar mitzvah7 present.
words, my heart is pounding. I should have For years I dreamed of returning to my native
closed my book and stopped my dream, dropped town. It was an obsession. It took two decades, and
everything to play with my little sister. Other that trip has now been added to my obsessions. It
images rise up: the sleigh in winter, the horse was night. There was a sleeping town and a sleeping
and carriage in summer; a cousin’s funeral (a for- house which hadn’t changed: the same gate, same
tune-teller is said to have foretold her death); garden, same well. Choked with fear, as though
Bea sick with typhus:4 she lies in a room of her caught in a whirlwind of hallucinations, I wondered
own, feverish and contagious, hovering between whether it had all been a dream, whether our Jewish
life and death. My grandmother asks me to go neighbors were still there, and my parents and my
with her to the synagogue. It is night. She opens sisters too. Terror swept me away and carried me
the Holy Ark5 and sobs, “Holy Torah, intercede back. I waited for a window to open and for a boy
on behalf of Batya, daughter of Sarah. She is who looked like the child I had been to call out to
young and can still accomplish many good deeds me: Hey, mister, what are you doing in my dream?
for your glory. Tell the Lord, blessed be His But strangers were living in my house. They
name, to let her live. She will be more useful to had never heard my name. Inside, nothing had
Him than I.” She closes the Ark and backs changed: the same furniture, the same tile stove
slowly to the door. There she stops and says, “If I my father had borrowed money to buy; the beds,
have any years to live, Lord, give them to her. I tables, and chairs were ours, still in the same
exchange my future for hers. Let that be my gift.” places. My feverish eyes wandered left and right,
When Bea takes a few steps, I glance at my up and down. Was it possible that not a single
grandmother. She has offered her life. What will trace of us remained? But there was one, just one.
become of her now? I picture our house and see On the wall above my bed had been a photograph
Hilda inside, Hilda the oldest of the children, of my beloved master, Rebbe Israel of Wizhnitz. I
whose radiant beauty drew all the matchmakers6 remember it well: I had hung it there the day he
of the region. died, the second day of the month of Sivan.8 I can
I see the people who came through that door day see myself standing there, a heavy hammer in my
and night to consult with my father—my father hand, driving in the nail and hanging the frame.
who now, bent under the weight of his pack, knows As I write these words, I suddenly realize that my
not to whom he might turn for advice. And my mother died eight years later on exactly the same
mother, always gracious and brave, afraid to look at day, along with my little sister and Grandma
us, afraid to see the house, afraid to burst into tears Nissel. I cried for the Rebbe’s death as I hung his
only to find she can never stop. So she looks at the photograph above my bed. The nail was still
there. A huge cross was hanging from it.
“We must go now,” my mother said. “We must
4. Typhus is a disease characterized by high fever and stay together.”
delirium.
5. The Holy Ark is a cabinet in a synagogue where the scrolls of
the Torah, or the first five books of the Hebrew scriptures, 7. A bar mitzvah is a celebration of a Jewish boy’s thirteenth
are stored. birthday, marking the beginning of his adult and religious duties.
6. Matchmakers are people who set up marriages. 8. Rebbe means “Rabbi,” a Jewish spiritual teacher. Sivan is the
ninth month in the Jewish year.
Big Idea The United States and the World What effect
do you think international news can have on acts of injustice Literary Element Narrator What do you know about the
carried out by a government? narrator at this point? What type of perspective does he have?
Vocabulary
Literary Element Narrator What qualities make Wiesel
succumb (sə kum) v. to give in or submit to an effective storyteller of the Holocaust?
18. A postulate is a truth, or basic principle. 19. Schweinehunde, meaning “pig dogs,” is a German word
expressing a stereotypical insult.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
trepidation (trep´ə dā shən) n. a feeling of alarm or
apprehension; dread curt (kurt) adj. rudely brief, or short; terse
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond 6. Why do you think Wiesel decides not to describe
the gas chambers?
1. How did you react to Wiesel’s account of the
Holocaust? 7. How do the interludes in which Wiesel describes
conversations with fellow Holocaust survivors add
Recall and Interpret to his memoir?
2. (a)How does Wiesel’s family handle the order to
8. How do you reconcile Wiesel’s final statement in this
leave their home? (b)What do you think their
selection, “Perhaps there was nothing to understand”?
response shows about them?
3. (a)How has Wiesel’s home changed when he Connect
returns to it years later? (b)What does this suggest 9. Big Idea The United States and the World
about the power of memory? Wiesel describes the concentration camp as a
4. (a)When is Wiesel separated from his sister and his world of its own, operating on a system of values
mother? (b)What does this say about the nature of totally foreign to the outside world. How does he
life for Jewish people during this era? respond to this environment?
LI T E R A RY A N A LYS I S
Literary Element Narrator 1. How does Wiesel’s memoir All Rivers Run to the
Sea differ from a traditional autobiography? Think
In a memoir such as Wiesel’s, the writer is the narrator.
about Wiesel’s use of flashback.
This creates a first-person point of view that offers the
reader a distinct insight into the narrator’s experiences. 2. Do you think that Wiesel wrote this memoir for
himself or for others? Explain.
1. (a)How does Wiesel offer a unique perspective on the
Holocaust? (b)What does he leave out of his account? Partner Activity All Rivers Run to the Sea hinges
on Wiesel’s skillful melding of childhood recollec-
2. (a)What method of storytelling does Wiesel employ
tions with reflections as an adult on the past. Both
as a narrator? (b)How does this method contribute
contribute to a picture of Wiesel as a person. Meet
to the selection?
with another classmate to discuss your impressions
of Wiesel’s character and personality. Then present
Review: Autobiography your findings to the class.
▲
the quotation and the position
classmate to discuss your experience of reading about
you plan to defend.
the atrocities of the Holocaust.
➧ ➧
Body Add supporting evidence.
▲
Paragraph(s)
Vocabulary Practice
Practice with Word Parts Below are three Briefly summarize your
Conclusion position and consider offering
▲
Building Background
Although Garrett Hongo was born in Hawaii in 1951, the United States to enter World War II. Although
his family moved to southern California when he was Hongo was not alive during this attack, his family was
six. On the mainland, he interacted with many groups deeply affected by it. During the war, more than
of immigrants, each with rich, diverse cultures. His 120,000 Japanese Americans were forced to live in
town of Gardena, California, had the largest Japanese internment camps set up by the U.S. government.
American population of any other city except for Decades later the government apologized for this
Honolulu, Hawaii. Hongo’s poetry frequently touches injustice and paid reparations.
on the difficulties immigrants face in U.S. society and
Garrett Hongo was born in 1951.
the bitterness of prejudice.
Hongo’s memoir Kubota addresses the Japanese Author Search For more about
military attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii that prompted Garrett Hongo, go to www.glencoe.com.
It was a Monday night, the day after Pearl Harbor, air station near the fishing grounds my grandfa-
and there was a rattling knock at the front door. ther loved and destroyed a small gun battery
Two FBI agents presented themselves, showed there, killing three men. Kubota3 was known to
identification, and took my grandfather in for have sponsored and harbored Japanese nationals
questioning in Honolulu. He didn’t return home in his own home. He had a radio. He had whole-
for days. No one knew what had happened or what sale access to firearms. Circumstances and an
was wrong. But there was a roundup going on of all undertone of racial resentment had combined
those in the Japanese-American community sus- with wartime hysteria in the aftermath of the
pected of sympathizing with the enemy and worse. tragic naval battle to cast suspicion on the loyal-
My grandfather was suspected of espionage,1 ties of my grandfather and all other Japanese
of communicating with offshore Japanese subma- Americans. The FBI reached out and pulled
rines launched from the attack fleet days before hundreds of them in for questioning in dragnets
the war began. Torpedo planes and escort fight- cast throughout the West Coast and Hawaii.
ers, decorated with the insignia of the Rising My grandfather was lucky; he’d somehow been
Sun, had taken an approach route from north- let go after only a few days. Others were not as
west of Oahu directly across Kahuku Point and fortunate. Hundreds, from small communities in
on toward Pearl. They had strafed2 an auxiliary Washington, California, Oregon, and Hawaii,
were rounded up and, after what appeared to be
routine questioning, shipped off under Justice
1. Espionage means spying.
2. Strafed means “attacked with machine guns from low-flying
aircraft.” 3. Kubota (k¯¯¯
oo bōta)
hauled him off to Honolulu for questioning, and about the evacuation and relocation for very
held him without charge for several days. I long. It wasn’t in our history books, though we
thought he was lying. I thought he was making were studying World War II at the time. It
up a kind of horror story to shock me and give wasn’t in the family albums of the people I
his moral that much more starch. But it was knew and whom I’d visit staying over weekends
true. I asked around. I brought it up during with friends. And it wasn’t anything that the
history class in junior high school, and my family talked about or allowed me to keep
teacher, after silencing me and stepping me off bringing up either. I was given the facts, told
to the back of the room, told me that it was sternly and pointedly that “it was war” and that
indeed so. I asked my mother and she said it “nothing could be done.” “Shikatta ga nai”11 is
was true. I asked my schoolmates, who laughed the phrase in Japanese, a kind of resolute and
and ridiculed me for being so ignorant. We determinist pronouncement on how to deal
lived in a Japanese-American community, and with inexplicable tragedy. I was to know it but
the parents of most of my classmates were the not to dwell on it. Japanese Americans were
nisei9 who had been interned10 as teenagers busy trying to forget it ever happened and were
all through the war. But there was a strange having a hard enough time building their new
silence around all of this. There was a hush, as lives after “camp.” It was as if we had no his-
if one were invoking the ill powers of the dead tory for four years and the relocation was some-
when one brought it up. No one cared to speak thing unspeakable.
But Kubota would not let it go. In session
after session, for months it seemed, he pounded
9. The Japanese word nisei (nē sā) refers to children of away at his story. He wanted to tell me the
Japanese immigrants; that is, the first generation of
Japanese Americans born in the United States.
10. Interned means “confined or restricted to a particular place,
especially during war.” 11. “Shikatta ga nai” is pronounced (shē ka ta a n̄ ).
slauson to the funky chicken. We did well in They were mainland-born. Their parents had
chemistry and in math, no one who was Japa- been in camp, had been the ones to suffer the
nese but me spoke in English class or in his- complicated experience of having to distance
tory unless called upon, and no one talked themselves from their own history and all things
about World War II. The day after Robert Japanese in order to make their way back and
Kennedy was assassinated, after winning the into the American social and economic main-
California Democratic primary, we worked on stream. It was out of this sense of shame and a
calculus and elected class coordinators for the fear of stigma I was only beginning to understand
prom, featuring the 5th Dimension.17 We that the nisei had silenced themselves. And, for
avoided grief. We avoided government. We their children, among whom I grew up, they
avoided strong feelings and dangers of any wanted no heritage, no culture, no contact with a
kind. Once punished, we tried to maintain a defiled history. I recall the silence very well. The
concerted emotional and social discipline and Japanese-American children around me were bur-
would not willingly seek to fall out of the nar- dened in a way I was not. Their injunction was
row margin of protective favor again. silence. Mine was to speak.
But when I was thirteen, in junior high, I’d not
understood why it was so difficult for my class- Quickwrite
mates, those who were themselves Japanese
American, to talk about the relocation. They had Is Kubota right to urge his grandson to discuss what
cringed, too, when I tried to bring it up during our happened to Japanese Americans during World War II?
discussions of World War II. I was Hawaiian-born. Why do you think some people seem to disagree
with this stance? Write a short response in which you
explain your position. Support your argument with
17. The 5th Dimension was a popular music group in the details from the selection and historical information.
late 1960s.
B EFO R E YO U R E A D
Building Background
Art Spiegelman learned to read by reading comics and, Spiegelman portrays not only his father’s experiences
in turn, has taught a generation of readers that the comic but also his relationship with his father, both when he
book, or graphic novel, format can be as powerful as any was a child and when he was an adult. Throughout the
other form of literature. He observes, “There’ve been books, Spiegelman represents the Jews as mice and
lots of rotten novels and paintings, and zillions of rotten the Nazis as cats. Other groups are represented by
comics. But in the hands of someone who knows how different animals. In 1992 Spiegelman was awarded a
to use their medium, great things can happen.” Born in Pulitzer Prize for Maus, the first time a graphic-novel
Stockholm, Sweden, Spiegelman came to the U.S. as a artist had received this award.
child. In high school he studied cartooning. At sixteen,
There are several unfamiliar terms and people mentioned
he started drawing professionally, and, after leaving
in the excerpt that follows. The German word gemeinde
college, he soon became an important figure in the
refers to a Jewish committee within the community.
underground comics movement of the late 1960s.
Richieu is the first son of Vladek and Anja, Spiegelman’s
Born in Poland, Spiegelman’s Jewish parents were both parents. Richieu was sent to live with relatives during
sent to Auschwitz by the Nazis. Though they survived, the war, but he did not survive the Holocaust. Lolek
Spiegelman’s mother, Anja (to whom Maus is dedicated), and Lonia are cousins of the Spiegelmans. Tosha and
eventually committed suicide in 1968. During the 1970s, Wolfe are Anja’s older sister and her husband.
Spiegelman began to create comics based on his
Art Spiegelman was born in 1948.
father’s (Vladek’s) memories of the Nazi occupation of
Poland. Between 1980 and 1986, these efforts grew
into Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, a full-length graphic Author Search For more about Art
novel. He published a sequel, Maus II, in 1991. Spiegelman, go to www.glencoe.com.
Graphic novels combine words and pictures. In the work of some comic artists,
graphic elements dominate; in the work of others, words have greater impor-
tance. Look over these panels from Maus to determine the balance between words
and pictures in Art Spiegelman’s work. With a group of classmates, discuss how the
imagery and words work together and how one panel transitions into the next.
A RT SP I EG EL MAN 997
Wrap-Up: Comparing Literature Across Time and Place
COM PAR I NG TH E Big Idea The United States and the World
Group Activity Multiculturalism is an increasingly important and respected feature of U.S.
society. With a group of classmates, discuss the following questions.
1. In what ways do Wiesel and Spiegelman address the need to tell the truth about the
establishment of concentration camps by the Nazis in the 1930s and 1940s?
2. What does Kubota hope to accomplish by asking Hongo to tell his story about Japanese
American internment?
3. Evaluate the statements about history and personal expression made in these selections.
Which of them did you find most powerful? Explain.
“Well . . . It’s enough for today. Yes, Artie?” Children liberated from a Nazi concentration camp show
the numbers tattooed on their arms.
—Art Spiegelman, Maus
O B J EC TIVES
• Compare and contrast authors’ messages. • Evaluate narrators.
• Analyze historical context.
from Hiroshima
M E E T J O H N H E R SE Y
J
ohn Hersey spent his adult life bearing
witness to some of the pivotal events of the
twentieth century. Hersey was born in China
to missionary parents, but he spent most of his
life writing about the United States’ military
influence in other countries.
After Hersey’s father died from an illness he
Although much was written about the event at the
contracted in China, the family settled in New
time, most of those articles were recitations of facts
York. Hersey attended Yale University, where he
and statistics. Hersey wanted to alert the public to
studied English literature and began his profes-
the nightmarish aftermath of the bombing and its
sional career working for the Yale Daily News. His
human and moral consequences.
first job after college was as private secretary to the
Nobel Prize-winning writer Sinclair Lewis. Hersey spent several weeks interviewing people in
Japan and writing about the devastation he witnessed
in Hiroshima. A few months later, the New Yorker, a
publication renowned for its literary quality, devoted
“Journalism allows its readers to all of its editorial space to Hersey’s piece. The work
witness history; fiction gives its readers created an unprecedented amount of interest in
the publishing world. The book’s publication not
an opportunity to live it.” only established Hersey’s literary reputation but also
—John Hersey originated a new type of literary journalism that went
beyond mere reporting of events to capture the hu-
man toll of a wartime incident. Hiroshima’s focus on
the human costs of war prompted years of discussion
On the War Front Between 1937 and 1946, about nuclear weapons and their moral implications.
Hersey worked for Time and Life magazines as a Truth as Fiction Hersey wrote that he believed
foreign correspondent in the Pacific. To write that fiction better allowed him to depict reality.
his first book, Men on Bataan, he combined his “It makes truth plausible,” he wrote. Hersey con-
own experience with other sources, including tinued to write books that dealt with important
letters, speeches, and memos written by the sol- issues of his times: war, education, racism, and pol-
diers stationed in the Pacific. One aspect of the itics. Hersey was such an important literary figure
book that captured the attention of critics was that his death in 1993 was front-page news. New
Hersey’s ability to combine fictional tech- York Times writer Richard Severo described him
niques—such as characterization, description, “not only as a first-rate reporter but also as a story-
and foreshadowing—with factual reporting. His teller who nurtured the idea that writers had to
later experiences in Italy were reshaped into his pursue a moral goal.”
first novel, A Bell for Adano, for which Hersey
was awarded the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. John Hersey was born in 1914 and died in 1993.
OB J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • using word origins to expand vocabulary
• understanding literary conventions, such as point of view • writing in a voice and style appropriate to your audience
• drawing conclusions about author’s beliefs and purpose
At exactly fifteen minutes past eight in the young member of the surgical staff of the city’s
morning, on August 6, 1945, Japanese time, large, modern Red Cross Hospital, walked along
at the moment when the atomic bomb flashed one of the hospital corridors with a blood specimen
above Hiroshima, Miss Toshiko Sasaki, a clerk for a Wassermann test2 in his hand; and the
in the personnel department of the East Asia Reverend Mr. Kiyoshi Tanimoto, pastor of the
Tin Works, had just sat down at her place in Hiroshima Methodist Church, paused at the door of
the plant office and was turning her head to a rich man’s house in Koi, the city’s western suburb,
speak to the girl at the next desk. At that same and prepared to unload a handcart full of things he
moment, Dr. Masakazu Fujii was settling down had evacuated from town in fear of the massive B-
cross-legged to read the Osaka Asahi on the porch 29 raid which everyone expected Hiroshima to suf-
of his private hospital, overhanging one of the fer. A hundred thousand people were killed by the
seven deltaic1 rivers which divide Hiroshima; atomic bomb, and these six were among the survi-
Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura, a tailor’s widow, stood vors. They still wonder why they lived when so
by the window of her kitchen, watching a many others died. Each of them counts many small
neighbor tearing down his house because it items of chance or volition—a step taken in time,
lay in the path of an air-raid-defense fire lane;
Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge, a German priest
2. A Wasserman test is a blood test once widely used to
of the Society of Jesus, reclined in his under- diagnose syphilis.
wear on a cot on the top floor of his order’s
Literary Element Point of View Based on your reading of
three-story mission house, reading a Jesuit
the first paragraph, what kind of point of view does Hersey use?
magazine, Stimmen der Zeit; Dr. Terufumi Sasaki, a
Vocabulary
1. Deltaic refers to a delta that forms at the mouth of a river. evacuate (i vakū āt´) v. to vacate or leave a place
The city of Hiroshima straddles six channels and several
volition (vō lish ən) n. act of choosing or deciding
islets that make up the delta at the mouth of the Ota River.
Rain falls on buildings reduced to rubble by an atomic bomb blast a few months after the
U.S. attack that led to the end of World War II. October 1945.
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. (a)What was your initial reaction to Hersey’s 5. Which characters did you find most sympathetic
unemotional retelling of the events? (b)What was and why?
your response to the number of details that he
6. Do you think that Hersey’s detailed style was the
included about the people who lived in Hiroshima
best way to recount what happened, or would
and their culture?
some other way have been more effective? Explain.
Recall and Interpret 7. What are some details that show Hersey’s interest in
2. (a)What were the professions of the six people? exploring morality as well as in traditional reporting?
(b)Why would Hersey choose to focus on these
people? Connect
8. Why do you think people still read Hiroshima six
3. (a)Does Hersey ever explain why the atomic bomb
decades after it was first written?
was dropped on Hiroshima? (b)How does this
affect the narrative? 9. Big Idea The United States and the World
4. (a)Even before the bomb dropped, how had the In what ways is Hiroshima written not only for the
war affected people? (b)Why do you think Hersey United States but also for the world?
might have included this information?
P R I M A RY S O U RC E Q U O TAT I O N
On August 6, 1945, President Harry Truman Group Activity Discuss the following questions
announced that the United States had bombed with classmates. Refer back to the quotation and
the city of Hiroshima. Read the following excerpt cite evidence from Hiroshima for support.
from President Truman’s speech, keeping in mind
what you have already learned about the bombing 1. After reading the excerpt from Hiroshima,
of Hiroshima. how would you respond to President
Truman’s statement?
2. How do you think President Truman would
“Sixteen hours ago an American airplane dropped
respond to Hersey’s narrative? Explain.
one bomb on Hiroshima, an important Japanese
army base. That bomb had more power than
20,000 tons of T.N.T. It had more than two
thousand times the blast power of the British
‘Grand Slam’ which is the largest bomb ever yet
used in the history of warfare.
“The Japanese began the war from the air at Pearl
Harbor. They have been repaid many fold. And the
end is not yet. With this bomb we have now added
a new and revolutionary increase in destruction to
supplement the growing power of our armed
forces.”
—President Harry Truman
The Enola Gay. The B-29 bomber, which dropped the first atomic
bomb on Japan, stands on the runway at Tinian following the raid.
August 1945.
1010 UNIT 6 F RO M D E P R E S S I ON TO COL D WAR
CORBIS
L I T E R A RY A N A LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
Partner Activity Meet with another classmate and 1. evacuate a. vol, meaning “to wish”
identify Hersey’s purpose in writing Hiroshima. Find 2. volition b. term, meaning “end,” or
at least three details that support your response. “boundary”
Afterward, compare your conclusions with those of
your classmates and discuss. 3. terminus c. vacuus, meaning “to empty”
The Portrait
M E E T TOM Á S R I V E R A
T
he life of Tomás Rivera, the “Dean of
Mexican American Literature,” is a true
rags-to-riches story. From modest begin-
nings, Rivera became a successful writer and edu-
cator—an inspiration to many. He was born in
Crystal City, Texas, the son of two agricultural
workers. After graduating from high school,
Rivera, like his parents, began working as a
migrant worker. Until he reached his early twen- meant to support any particular political point of
ties, Rivera traveled with other migrant workers, view, but instead to reflect a world and experiences
picking fruit and vegetables across the United that Rivera knew well. Y no se lo trago la tierra won
States from Texas to the Midwest. the prestigious Quinto Sol Award in 1971. The
Despite all his traveling, Rivera managed to earn a success of Rivera’s novel inspired other Mexican
formal education by attending different schools. Americans to add their voices to the literature of
He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the United States.
English education from Southwest Texas State Besides providing inspiration, Rivera also helped
University. After a stint teaching in public schools people in direct ways, serving on the boards of
and at Southwest Texas Junior College in Uvalde, numerous Mexican American organizations. He
he attended the University of Oklahoma, where also had a distinguished academic career, eventu-
he earned a master’s degree in Spanish literature, ally becoming chancellor of the University of
and, in 1969, a doctorate in Romance languages California at Riverside. He was one of the found-
and literature. ers of the National Council of Chicanos in Higher
Education. Both President Jimmy Carter and
President Ronald Reagan appointed Rivera to
commissions on higher education.
“He searched for stories about his
Rivera was working on a new book when he died
people and finally gave their words in Fontana, California. After his death, the
sound, wrote the books he didn’t have, University of Texas at Austin inaugurated the
Tomás Rivera Professorship in Spanish Language
we didn’t have . . .”
and Literature. It is a fitting tribute to a generous
—Pat Mora man who sought, according to one source, to
develop “hospitable and fertile space for Hispanic
Americans in America’s institutions.”
In 1971 Rivera published his only novel, y no se Tomás Rivera was born in 1935 and died in 1984.
lo trago la tierra, also known as And the Earth Did
Not Devour Him. Originally written in Spanish,
the book was published in both Spanish and
English. It is an unconventional novel, made
up of twenty-seven interrelated stories and
sketches that describe, often grimly, the indomitable Author
Author Search
Search For
For more
more about
about
spirit of migrant farm workers. The novel was not Tomás
Author Rivera,
Name, gogo to
to www.glencoe.com.
www.literature.glencoe.com.
OB J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • understanding idioms
• analyzing literary periods • responding to plot and characters
1. Here, the Spanish word vieja (vē ā ha´) is used as a term of
Literary Element Idiom What does the phrase “rake endearment; literally, it means “old” or “old woman.”
in” mean?
Vocabulary
Reading Strategy Responding to Plot and Characters installment (in stol mənt) n. one part of a payment
Why might the salesman feel frightened or timid? that has been divided
Vocabulary
Reading Strategy Responding to Plot and Characters
swindle (swin dəl) v. to cheat someone out of money How likely is it that the salesman will be able to create a
or property realistic portrait of Don Mateo’s son?
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. What would you say to Don Mateo about the 5. (a)How does Don Mateo feel about what he finally
portrait of his son? Why would you choose those receives from the salesman? (b)What does this
words? reaction tell you about Don Mateo?
Recall and Interpret 6. (a)What does the dialogue reveal about Don
Mateo and “vieja”? (b)How effective is the dia-
2. (a)What do Don Mateo and “vieja” finally decide to
logue in conveying the message of this story?
do with the photograph of their son? (b)What
deeper meaning might this offer have for them? 7. (a)How would you describe the role and perspec-
tive of the narrator throughout this story? (b)In
3. (a)What happens to the photographs the salesman
your opinion, how effective is this kind of narrator
collects? (b)How would you explain Don Mateo’s
in telling the story?
strong feelings and his decisive action?
4. (a)What happens when Don Mateo finds the Connect
salesman? (b)Why do you think the salesman 8. Big Idea The United States and the World Is
follows Don Mateo’s orders? Don Mateo a casualty of the Korean War even
though he never fought on the battlefield? Support
your answer.
LI T E R A RY A N A LYS I S
▲
portrait he had ordered? PARAGRAPH cific, arguable statement,
or a thesis, about the
2. What character traits did Don Mateo reveal during main conflict in this story.
his search for the man who had cheated him? Don Mateo
and “vieja”
3. Do you think that Don Mateo goes through a signif-
icant change because of the events in this story?
➧
Why or why not?
Explain how each of the
the salesman main characters views the
▲
MIDDLE
Vocabulary Practice PARAGRAPHS
PARAGRAP HS
conflict.
➧
Practice with Context Clues Use context clues
to figure out the meaning of each boldfaced
vocabulary word in the sentences below.
the narrator
1. He bought the car on an installment plan and
will pay 300 dollars a month. Restate the thesis, echo
your main points, and
2. I felt swindled once I realized that the necklace
F INAL ▲ close the essay with a
was worth far less than what I paid for it. PARAGRAPH final thought about con-
flicts and the personal dis-
coveries they may bring.
Academic Vocabulary
Literature Groups
Here are two words from the vocabulary list on
With a small group of your classmates, debate this
page R86. These words will help you think,
question: Does Don Mateo really get what he wants
write, and talk about the selection.
or does he remain the victim of a swindler? Support
your opinion by citing evidence from the story.
dispose (di spōz) v. to get rid of; to finish or settle
Summarize the results of your debate for the rest of
fee (fē) n. a charge for a service or privilege your class.
I
N THE LATE 1940s, WRITERS JACK KEROUAC
and John Clellon Holmes were searching for a way
to capture the essence of their generation. They
saw a nation slowly emerging from years of war and
economic depression, years during which it seemed
that most people held similar opinions and led
predictable, responsible lives. For Kerouac and
Holmes, postwar society was epitomized by
anonymous dress, as in the uniform suits of office
workers, and by conventional taste. But they saw
young people rejecting conformity and turning to
creativity. In pursuit of unique identities, the young
looked for more artistic and less money-driven lives.
Kerouac and Holmes decided that this trend was Legendary Beat writers stand outside Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s
encapsulated by one word: Beat. City Lights bookstore in San Francisco in 1956. Pictured
left to right: Bob Donlin, Neal Cassady, Allen Ginsberg, Robert
LaVinge, Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Photograph by Allen Ginsberg.
“How to even begin to get it all down Ferlinghetti (founder of the innovative City Lights
and without modified restraints and all Press and bookstore in San Francisco), Diane Di
Prima, and Anne Waldman. Rejecting the prevailing
hung-up on like literary inhibitions dictates of style and topic, these writers were
and grammatical fears . . .” unabashed experimenters who addressed issues
previously considered taboo. Their fearlessness
—Jack Kerouac, from On the Road
appealed to a newly arising community of bohemians,
people who pursued artistic or literary interests and
lived nonconformist lives.
Beat had many connotations, ranging from the sordid to
the sublime. Kerouac first heard the term from the street Howl
hustler Herbert Huncke, who used it as slang for “tired A central work in the Beat Movement is Allen
and beaten down.” Kerouac saw in Beat a suggestion of Ginsberg’s book-length poem Howl (1956), which
beatitude, saintly or otherworldly beauty and happiness. created a stir with critics, the public, and even law
Poet Allen Ginsberg said, “The point of Beat is that you enforcement. (For selling the book, Lawrence
get beat down to a certain nakedness where you actually Ferlinghetti was briefly held under arrest.) In a free
are able to see the world in a visionary way.” verse style strongly influenced by Walt Whitman,
Howl catalogs the wonders and horrors of U.S. society
The core group of Beat Generation writers—Kerouac,
in dizzying abundance:
Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs—met in New
York City in the areas around Columbia University
and in Greenwich Village. The movement soon “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by
attracted attention throughout the country, madness, starving hysterical naked, . . .
establishing hubs in both New York City and San angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly
Francisco. Other leading writers of the new movement connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery
were Gary Snyder, Gregory Corso, Lawrence of night . . .”
Wild Form
For many, the word Beat is synonymous with Jack
Kerouac’s novel On the Road. Kerouac published his
novel in 1957, after years of rejections from publishers.
While traveling and living in a variety of places,
Kerouac wrote multiple drafts. He revised his drafts into
their final form in one three-week sprint, during which
he typed nearly nonstop on a continuous, 120-foot-long
scroll of paper he fed through his typewriter.
City Lights Bookstore,1969. Sal Veder. Black and white photograph.
On the Road is essentially a roman à clef, a novel
about real events and people whose names have been
changed. The long, rhythmic, bebop-jazz inflected sentences that owed more to vernacular and to
sentences of On the Road capture a series of road trips the jazz spirit than they did to Establishment polish,
Kerouac took with his friend and Beat Generation he did. Kerouac wrote in a letter, “[W]hat I am
icon Neal Cassady (called Dean Moriarty in the beginning to discover now is something beyond the
novel). On the Road expresses Kerouac’s openness to novel and beyond the arbitrary confines of the story . . .
the nation’s desolate places as well as its exciting wild form, man, wild form . . .”
cities and to its humble people as well as its mighty.
Kerouac had a talent for communicating impulsive from On the Road
generosity and a spirit of fun. For readers who were
“[T]he only people for me are the mad ones, the ones
exhausted by societal complacence and stodginess,
who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved,
Kerouac’s adventures were revolutionary.
desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who
Kerouac’s style was influenced by other writers, never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn,
particularly the American novelist Thomas Wolfe. burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding
As did Wolfe, Kerouac insisted on pushing like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the
boundaries. If he wished to write long, breathless blue centerlight pop and everybody goes ‘Awww!’”
R ES P O N D I N G AN D TH I N K I N G C R ITI CALLY
1. Why were the members of the Beat Generation 3. What methods did Jack Kerouac employ in his writing?
considered cultural rebels?
2. What significance did Allen Ginsberg’s poetry have Literary History For more about
for his early readers? the Beat Generation, go to www.glencoe.com.
O B J EC TIVES
• Analyze various literary periods, movements, and trends. • Analyze the power and effect of language.
• Connect literature to historical context.
LITERARY HISTO RY 10 21
AP Photo/Sal Veder
B EF O R E YO U R E A D
A
s a young boy, Arthur Miller sat in the
Shubert Theater on Lennox Avenue in
New York City, completely entranced.
A new world had opened up before him. Years
later, in his autobiography, Miller remarked,
“And so I learned that there were two kinds of
reality, but that of the stage was far more real.”
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • practicing with prefixes
• drawing conclusions about characters • connecting to contemporary issues
• analyzing the use of dialogue
ARTHUR MILLER 10 23
Arthur Miller
1024
(bkgd)Daniel Root/Photonica/Getty Images, (inset)20TH CENTURY FOX/THE KOBAL COLLECTION/BARRY WETCHER
CHARACTERS
(in order of appearance)
REVEREND PARRIS MERCY LEWIS FRANCIS NURSE
BETTY PARRIS MARY WARREN EZEKIEL CHEEVER
TITUBA JOHN PROCTOR MARSHAL HERRICK
ABIGAIL WILLIAMS REBECCA NURSE JUDGE HATHORNE
SUSANNA WALCOTT GILES COREY DEPUTY GOVERNOR DANFORTH
MRS. ANN PUTNAM REVEREND JOHN HALE SARAH GOOD
THOMAS PUTNAM ELIZABETH PROCTOR HOPKINS
Act One
(An Overture) TITUBA. [Already taking a step backward.] My
[A small upper bedroom in the home of REVEREND Betty be hearty soon?
SAMUEL PARRIS, Salem, Massachusetts, in the PARRIS. Out of here!
spring of the year 1692. TITUBA. [Backing to the door.] My Betty not goin’
There is a narrow window at the left. Through die . . .
its leaded panes the morning sunlight streams. A
candle still burns near the bed, which is at the right. PARRIS. [Scrambling to his feet in a fury.] Out of
A chest, a chair, and a small table are the other fur- my sight! [She is gone.] Out of my—[He is over-
nishings. At the back a door opens on the landing come with sobs. He clamps his teeth against them
of the stairway to the ground floor. The room and closes the door and leans against it, exhausted.]
gives off an air of clean spareness. The roof raf- Oh, my God! God help me! [Quaking with fear,
ters are exposed, and the wood colors are raw mumbling to himself through his sobs, he goes to the
and unmellowed. bed and gently takes BETTY’s hand.] Betty. Child.
As the curtain rises, REVEREND PARRIS is discovered Dear child. Will you wake, will you open up your
kneeling beside the bed, evidently in prayer. His eyes! Betty, little one . . .
daughter, BETTY PARRIS, aged ten, is lying on the [He is bending to kneel again when his niece, ABI-
bed, inert. GAIL WILLIAMS, seventeen, enters—a strikingly
REVEREND PARRIS is praying now, and, though we beautiful girl, an orphan, with an endless capacity
cannot hear his words, a sense of his confusion for dissembling.3 Now she is all worry and appre-
hangs about him. He mumbles, then seems about hension and propriety.]
to weep; then he weeps, then prays again; but his ABIGAIL. Uncle? [He looks to her.] Susanna
daughter does not stir on the bed. Walcott’s here from Doctor Griggs.
The door opens, and his Negro slave enters.
PARRIS. Oh? Let her come, let her come.
TITUBA1 is in her forties. PARRIS brought her with
him from Barbados,2 where he spent some years ABIGAIL. [Leaning out the door to call to SUSANNA,
as a merchant before entering the ministry. She who is down the hall a few steps.] Come in, Susanna.
enters as one does who can no longer bear to be
barred from the sight of her beloved, but she is
also very frightened because her slave sense has 3. Dissembling means “concealing one’s true motives.”
warned her that, as always, trouble in this house Literary Element Dialogue Tituba’s way of speaking
eventually lands on her back.] helps us understand something that Miller has already men-
tioned about her in the stage directions. What is it?
Big Idea The United States and the World What word Reading Strategy Drawing Conclusions About
might a U.S. citizen, watching this play in the 1950s, have Characters What can we learn about Reverend Parris from
substituted for “witchcraft?” this remark?
PUTNAM. Why aren’t you home? Who’s walk like a dead one since last night.
with Ruth? ABIGAIL. [Turns at once and goes to BETTY, and
MERCY. Her grandma come. She’s improved now, with fear in her voice.] Betty? [BETTY doesn’t
a little, I think—she give a powerful sneeze move. She shakes her.] Now stop this! Betty! Sit
before. up now!
MRS. PUTNAM. Ah, there’s a sign of life! [BETTY doesn’t stir. MERCY comes over.]
MERCY. I’d fear no more, Goody Putnam. It MERCY. Have you tried beatin’ her? I gave Ruth
were a grand sneeze; another like it will shake a good one and it waked her for a minute. Here,
her wits together, I’m sure. [She goes to the bed let me have her.
to look.] ABIGAIL. [Holding MERCY back.] No, he’ll be
PARRIS. Will you leave me now, Thomas? I comin’ up. Listen, now; if they be questioning
would pray a while alone. us, tell them we danced—I told him as much
ABIGAIL.Uncle, you’ve prayed since midnight. already.
Why do you not go down and— MERCY. Aye. And what more?
PARRIS. No—no. [To PUTNAM.] I have no ABIGAIL. He knows Tituba conjured Ruth’s sis-
answer for that crowd. I’ll wait till Mr. Hale ters to come out of the grave.
arrives. [To get MRS. PUTNAM to leave.] If you will,
MERCY. And what more?
Goody Ann . . .
ABIGAIL. He saw you naked.
PUTNAM. Now look you, sir. Let you strike out
against the Devil, and the village will bless you MERCY. [Clapping her hands together with a fright-
for it! Come down, speak to them—pray with ened laugh.] Oh, Jesus!
them. They’re thirsting for your word, Mister!
Surely you’ll pray with them.
17. Trepidation means “fear” or “anxiety.”
Reading Strategy Drawing Conclusions About Reading Strategy Drawing Conclusions About
Characters What sort of a friend do you think Abigail would Characters How does this remark illustrate the irony in
make? Explain. Miller’s stage directions when Mercy first enters?
Reading Strategy
[Everything is quiet. REBECCA walks across the
Drawing Conclusions About
Characters In your opinion, does Proctor show strength or room to the bed. Gentleness exudes25 from her.
weakness in this denial? BETTY is quietly whimpering, eyes shut. REBECCA
simply stands over the child, who gradually quiets.]
Literary Element Dialogue In your opinion, is Abigail MRS. PUTNAM. [Astonished.] What have you done?
sincere in this speech? Explain.
PROCTOR. Aye, that’s the truth of it, Rebecca. MRS. PUTNAM. [With a growing edge of sarcasm.]
But I must! You think it God’s work you should
MRS. PUTNAM. This is no silly season, Rebecca.
never lose a child, nor grandchild either, and I
My Ruth is bewildered, Rebecca; she cannot eat.
bury all but one? There are wheels within wheels
REBECCA. Perhaps she is not hungered yet. [To in this village, and fires within fires!27
PARRIS.]I hope you are not decided to go in PUTNAM. [To PARRIS.] When Reverend Hale
search of loose spirits, Mr. Parris. I’ve heard comes, you will proceed to look for signs of
promise of that outside. witchcraft here.
PARRIS. A wide opinion’s running in the parish PROCTOR. [To PUTNAM.] You cannot com-
that the Devil may be among us, and I would mand Mr. Parris. We vote by name in this
satisfy them that they are wrong. society, not by acreage.
PROCTOR. Then let you come out and call them PUTNAM. I never heard you worried so on this
wrong. Did you consult the wardens26 before you society, Mr. Proctor. I do not think I saw you
called this minister to look for devils? at Sabbath meeting since snow flew.
PARRIS. He is not coming to look for devils! PROCTOR. I have trouble enough without I come
PROCTOR. Then what’s he coming for? five mile to hear him preach only hellfire and bloody
damnation. Take it to heart, Mr. Parris. There are
PUTNAM. There be children dyin’ in the village, many others who stay away from church these days
Mister! because you hardly ever mention God any more.
PROCTOR. I seen none dyin’. This society will not
be a bag to swing around your head, Mr. Putnam.
[To PARRIS.] Did you call a meeting before you—? 27. The expression wheels within . . . fires! means “things are
not so simple or innocent as they seem.”
PUTNAM. I am sick of meetings; cannot the man
turn his head without he have a meeting? Reading Strategy Drawing Conclusions About
Characters Why does Proctor listen to Rebecca with respect?
PROCTOR. He may turn his head, but not to Hell!
Big Idea The United States and the World What dan-
ger might Rebecca be referring to? Why is it safer to “blame
26. The church wardens were members who managed the ourselves”?
congregation’s business affairs.
Reading Strategy Drawing Conclusions About Reading Strategy Drawing Conclusions About
Characters How do the Putnams and Rebecca disagree on Characters What do we learn about Reverend Parris’s
the subject of witchcraft? priorities as a minister from Proctor’s accusation?
PARRIS. [Now aroused.] Why, that’s a drastic PARRIS. Where is my wood? My contract pro-
charge! vides I be supplied with all my firewood. I am
REBECCA. It’s somewhat true; there are many
waiting since November for a stick, and even
that quail28 to bring their children— in November I had to show my frostbitten
hands like some London beggar!
PARRIS. I do not preach for children, Rebecca.
It is not the children who are unmindful of GILES. You are allowed six pound a year to
their obligations toward this ministry. buy your wood, Mr. Parris.
REBECCA. Are there really those unmindful? PARRIS. I regard that six pound as part of my
PARRIS. I should say the better half of Salem salary. I am paid little enough without I spend
village— six pound on firewood.
PUTNAM. And more than that! PROCTOR. Sixty, plus six for firewood—
PARRIS. The salary is sixty-six pound, Mr. Proctor!
I am not some preaching farmer with a book under
28. To quail is to hesitate, to lose heart, or to retreat in fear. my arm; I am a graduate of Harvard College.
We are not Quakers here yet, Mr. Proctor. have only last month collected four pound
And you may tell that to your followers! damages for you publicly sayin’ I burned the
roof off your house, and I—
PROCTOR. My followers!
PARRIS. [Now he’s out with it.] There is a party
in this church. I am not blind; there is a fac- 30. For the Puritans, charity was Christian love, including
tion and a party. mercy, forgiveness, kindness, and trust.
31. An attack on one’s good name or reputation is an act of
PROCTOR. Against you?
defamation (def´ ə mā shən).
Literary Element Dialogue How does Miller use dialogue Literary Element Dialogue How does Miller engage the
on this page to advance the plot? audience’s sympathy for Proctor in this line of dialogue?
morning on the highroad, waving her arms as are prepared to believe me if I should find no
though she’d fly. bruise of hell upon her.
HALE. [Narrowing his eyes.] Tries to fly. PARRIS. It is agreed, sir—it is agreed—we will
PUTNAM. She cannot bear to hear the Lord’s abide by your judgment.
name, Mr. Hale; that’s a sure sign of witchcraft HALE. Good then. [He goes to the bed, looks down
afloat. at BETTY. To PARRIS.] Now, sir, what were your
HALE. [Holding up his hands.] No, no. Now let first warning of this strangeness?
me instruct you. We cannot look to supersti-
PARRIS. Why, sir—I discovered her—[Indicating
tion in this. The Devil is precise; the marks of
ABIGAIL.]—and my niece and ten or twelve of
his presence are definite as stone, and I must
the other girls, dancing in the forest last night.
tell you all that I shall not proceed unless you
HALE. [Surprised.] You permit dancing?
Big Idea The United States and the World How might PARRIS. No, no, it were secret—
Miller’s 1950s audiences have connected Reverend Hale’s
MRS. PUTNAM. [Unable to wait.] Mr. Parris’s slave
use of the word superstition to contemporary events?
has knowledge of conjurin’, sir.
Literary Element Dialogue What is Tituba accusing Big Idea The United States and the World How is the
Abigail of in this dialogue? Do you think she will be believed? assumption that Tituba is guilty similar to assumptions made
Explain. during the McCarthy “witch hunts”?
TITUBA. It was black dark, and I— times he bid me kill you, Mr. Parris!
PARRIS. You could see him, why could you not PARRIS. Kill me!
see her? TITUBA. [In a fury.] He say Mr. Parris must be
Big Idea The United States and the World How is this Reading Strategy Drawing Conclusions About
tactic similar to that used by the House Un-American Characters What is going on in Tituba’s mind that she
Activities Committee? would make up information like this?
pearly light.] I want the light of God, I want ABIGAIL. I saw Goody Sibber with the Devil! [It
the sweet love of Jesus! I danced for the Devil; is rising to a great glee.]
I saw him; I wrote in his book; I go back to PUTNAM. The marshal, I’ll call the marshal!
Jesus; I kiss His hand. I saw Sarah Good with
the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the [PARRIS is shouting a prayer of thanksgiving.]
Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil! BETTY. I saw Alice Barrow with the Devil!
[As she is speaking, BETTY is rising from the bed, [The curtain begins to fall.]
a fever in her eyes, and picks up the chant.] HALE. [As PUTNAM goes out.] Let the marshal
BETTY. [Staring too.] I saw George Jacobs with bring irons!
the Devil! I saw Goody Howe with the Devil!
ABIGAIL. I saw Goody Hawkins with the Devil!
PARRIS. She speaks! [He rushes to embrace
BETTY. I saw Goody Bibber with the Devil!
BETTY.] She speaks!
HALE. Glory to God! It is broken, they are free!
ABIGAIL. I saw Goody Booth with the Devil!
BETTY. [Calling out hysterically and with great
[On their ecstatic cries.]
relief.] I saw Martha Bellows with the Devil!
THE CURTAIN FALLS
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. Which characters or situations in Act One do you 5. (a)How would you classify the atmosphere, or
find it easiest to identify with? Explain. mood, of Act One? (b)What techniques does Miller
use to create this mood?
Recall and Interpret
6. (a)How does Miller dramatize the behavior of the
2. (a)What is Reverend Parris praying for at the begin-
young girls in Act One? (b)Do you find their behav-
ning of Act One? (b)What else might explain why
ior believable? Explain.
he is praying so desperately?
7. Act One ends with Betty and Abigail as the center
3. (a)What reasons does Abigail give Parris for her dis-
of interest. (a)How is their behavior the same?
charge as the Proctors’ servant? (b)What might be
How is it different? (b)Do you find their behavior
another reason?
believable? Explain.
4. (a)How does Tituba first respond to Hale’s accusa-
tion of witchcraft? How does she change her Connect
response? (b)Why might Tituba, as well as Abigail 8. Big Idea The United States and the World
and Betty, make accusations at the end of Act One? Arthur Miller drew a connection between the Salem
witch hunts of 1692 and the Communist “witch
hunts” in the 1950s. Under what circumstances might
a similar situation arise in the United States today?
L I T E R A RY A NA LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
Vocabulary Practice
Writing About Literature
Practice with Word Parts Each of the vocabulary
Analyze Plot Miller called Act One an overture—an
words selected from Act One begins with a familiar
introduction. In literary terms, it would be called an
prefix. Use a dictionary or a thesaurus to find other
exposition. Write two or three paragraphs analyzing
words that use the same prefixes and match the
how Miller has “set the stage” for the rest of the play
definitions below. Each answer will have one of the
with the setting, characters, and plot of Act One.
following prefixes: com-, con-, sub-, pre-.
Describe what, for you, is the narrative hook.
1. to stop something happening
2. a town lying outside a city
Web Activities For eFlashcards, 3. to throw someone out of a residence
Selection Quick Checks, and other Web activities, go to
www.glencoe.com.
OB J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • practicing with analogies
• recognizing bias • connecting to contemporary issues
• analyzing stage directions
PROCTOR. [Going to the table.] Oh, is it! In you come with me, and we’ll walk the farm
Jonathan’s trap? together; I never see such a load of flowers on
the earth. [With good feeling he goes and looks up
ELIZABETH. No, she walked into the house this at the sky through the open doorway.] Lilacs have
afternoon; I found her sittin’ in the corner like
she come to visit.
PROCTOR. Oh, that’s a good sign walkin’ in. Reading Strategy Recognizing Bias How does Miller
want the reader to feel about Elizabeth? Explain.
Vocabulary
Literary Element Stage Directions What does John’s
behavior suggest about his relationship with Elizabeth? reprimand (rep rə mand´) v. to reprove or correct sharply
Literary Element Stage Directions How do the two pre- Big Idea The United States and the World How do
vious stage directions help explain the sudden change in you think that Miller wants his audience to respond to what
Proctor’s attitude? is happening in Salem?
Big Idea The United States and the World Many U.S.
citizens opposed to Senator McCarthy accused him of pro-
Literary Element Stage Directions What does this stage moting his own career in hunting for Communists. What is
direction indicate? similar about the situation described here?
ELIZABETH. I think she sees another meaning in PROCTOR. Woman, am I so base? Do you truly
that blush. think me base?
PROCTOR. And what see you? What see you, ELIZABETH. I never called you base.
Elizabeth? PROCTOR. Then how do you charge me with
ELIZABETH.[“Conceding.”] I think you be some- such a promise? The promise that a stallion gives
what ashamed, for I am there, and she so close. a mare I gave that girl!
PROCTOR. When will you know me, woman? ELIZABETH. Then why do you anger with me
Were I stone I would have cracked for shame when I bid you break it?
this seven month! PROCTOR. Because it speaks deceit, and I am
ELIZABETH. Then go and tell her she’s a whore. honest! But I’ll plead no more! I see now your
Whatever promise she may sense—break it, spirit twists around the single error of my life,
John, break it. and I will never tear it free!
PROCTOR. [Between his teeth.] Good, then. I’ll go. ELIZABETH. [Crying out.] You’ll tear it free—
[He starts for his rifle.] when you come to know that I will be your only
wife, or no wife at all! She has an arrow in you
ELIZABETH. [Trembling, fearfully.] Oh, how
yet, John Proctor, and you know it well!
unwillingly!
[Quite suddenly, as though from the air, a figure
PROCTOR. [Turning on her, rifle in hand.] I will
appears in the doorway. They start slightly. It is
curse her hotter than the oldest cinder in hell.
But pray, begrudge me not my anger!
ELIZABETH. Your anger! I only ask you— Literary Element Stage Directions How does this stage
direction help to develop plot and atmosphere?
Vocabulary
covet (kuv it) v. to desire, especially to an excessive Literary Element Stage Directions What is the signifi-
degree, something belonging to another cance of this stage direction?
PROCTOR. She told me the day you came, sir. speaks of witches, and I will not deny them.
HALE. [Suspiciously.] Why—why did you keep this? HALE. And you, woman?
PROCTOR. I never knew until tonight that the ELIZABETH. I—I cannot believe it.
world is gone daft12 with this nonsense. HALE. [Shocked.] You cannot!
HALE. Nonsense! Mister, I have myself examined PROCTOR. Elizabeth, you bewilder him!
Tituba, Sarah Good, and numerous others that ELIZABETH. [To HALE.] I cannot think the Devil
have confessed to dealing with the Devil. They may own a woman’s soul, Mr. Hale, when she keeps
have confessed it. an upright way, as I have. I am a good woman, I
PROCTOR. And why not, if they must hang for den- know it; and if you believe I may do only good
yin’ it? There are them that will swear to anything work in the world, and yet be secretly bound to
before they’ll hang; have you never thought of that? Satan, then I must tell you, sir, I do not believe it.
HALE. I have. I—I have indeed. [It is his own sus- HALE. But, woman, you do believe there are
picion, but he resists it. He glances at ELIZABETH, witches in—
then at JOHN.] And you—would you testify to ELIZABETH. If you think that I am one, then I
this in court? say there are none.
PROCTOR. I—had not reckoned with goin’ into HALE. You surely do not fly against the Gospel,
court. But if I must I will. the Gospel—
HALE. Do you falter here?
PROCTOR. She believe in the Gospel, every word!
PROCTOR. I falter nothing, but I may wonder
ELIZABETH. Question Abigail Williams about the
if my story will be credited in such a court. I Gospel, not myself!
do wonder on it, when such a steady-minded
minister as you will suspicion such a woman [HALE stares at her.]
that never lied, and cannot, and the world PROCTOR. She do not mean to doubt the Gospel,
knows she cannot! I may falter somewhat, sir, you cannot think it. This be a Christian house,
Mister; I am no fool. sir, a Christian house.
HALE. [Quietly—it has impressed him.] Proctor, HALE. God keep you both; let the third child be
let you open with me now, for I have a rumor quickly baptized, and go you without fail each
Sunday in to Sabbath prayer; and keep a solemn,
quiet way among you. I think—
12. Daft means “without sense or reason,” “crazy,” or “silly.” [GILES COREY appears in doorway.]
Literary Element Stage Directions Why do you think
that Miller included a pause here?
Reading Strategy Recognizing Bias Judging from this
Big Idea The United States and the World What does remark and from Elizabeth’s character, where do you think
Proctor mean by “such a court,” and why would he hesitate Miller would have stood on the issue of feminism and
to tell the truth? women’s rights? Explain.
ELIZABETH. They’ve surely gone wild now, Mr. Believe me, Mr. Nurse, if Rebecca Nurse be
Hale!
Reading Strategy Recognizing Bias How do you think
FRANCIS. [Going to HALE.] Reverend Hale! Can
Miller wants his audience to react to Francis’s mockery?
you not speak to the Deputy Governor? I’m sure
he mistakes these people— Literary Element Stage Directions How do these words
in the stage direction affect Hale’s speech?
HALE. Pray calm yourself, Mr. Nurse.
Big Idea The United States and the World Making the
Vocabulary accused person prove a negative statement to establish
ineptly (i nept lē) adv. incompetently; awkwardly; innocence is typical of a miscarriage of justice. What is
clumsily Elizabeth going to be asked to prove here?
PROCTOR. And how did it come into this May it be, perhaps, that someone conjures you
house? even now to say this?
MARY WARREN. [Glancing about at the avid MARY WARREN. Conjures me? Why, no, sir, I am
faces.] Why—I made it in the court, sir, and— entirely myself, I think. Let you ask Susanna
give it to Goody Proctor tonight. Walcott—she saw me sewin’ it in court. [Or better
still.] Ask Abby, Abby sat beside me when I made it.
PROCTOR. [To HALE.] Now, sir—do you have it?
PROCTOR. [To HALE, of CHEEVER.] Bid him
HALE. Mary Warren, a needle have been begone. Your mind is surely settled now. Bid
found inside this poppet. him out, Mr. Hale.
MARY WARREN. [Bewildered.] Why, I meant no ELIZABETH. What signifies a needle?
harm by it, sir.
HALE. Mary—you charge a cold and cruel
PROCTOR. [Quickly.] You stuck that needle in murder on Abigail.
yourself?
MARY WARREN. Murder! I charge no—
MARY WARREN. I—I believe I did, sir, I— HALE. Abigail were stabbed tonight; a needle
PROCTOR. [To HALE.] What say you now? were found stuck into her belly—
HALE. [Watching MARY WARREN closely.] Child, ELIZABETH. And she charges me?
you are certain this be your natural memory? HALE. Aye.
HERRICK. I have nine men outside. You cannot GILES. And yet silent, minister? It is fraud, you
keep her. The law binds me, John, I cannot budge. know it is fraud! What keeps you, man?
PROCTOR. [To HALE, ready to break him.] Will [PROCTOR is half braced, half pushed into the
you see her taken? room by two deputies and HERRICK.]
HALE. Proctor, the court is just— PROCTOR. I’ll pay you, Herrick, I will surely
pay you!
PROCTOR. Pontius Pilate! God will not let you
wash your hands of this!16 HERRICK. [Panting.] In God’s name, John, I can-
not help myself. I must chain them all. Now let
you keep inside this house till I am gone!
16. [Pontius Pilate . . . this!] According to the Christian Bible, [He goes out with his deputies.]
the Roman official Pontius Pilate consented to the
[PROCTOR stands there, gulping air. Horses and a
crucifixion of Jesus despite the lack of formal charges or
evidence. Pilate then washed his hands and declared wagon creaking are heard.]
himself innocent of shedding Jesus’ blood. HALE. [In great uncertainty.] Mr. Proctor—
Literary Element Stage Directions What does this stage PROCTOR. Out of my sight!
direction mean?
Reading Strategy Recognizing Bias Do you think that Literary Element Stage Directions How do the stage
Proctor is expressing Miller’s views in this passage? Explain. directions contradict Elizabeth’s statement?
HALE. Charity, Proctor, charity. What I have strikes upon the world. [He goes to GILES and
heard in her favor, I will not fear to testify in FRANCIS.] Let you counsel among yourselves;
court. God help me, I cannot judge her guilty or think on your village and what may have drawn
innocent—I know not. Only this consider: the from heaven such thundering wrath upon you
world goes mad, and it profit nothing you should all. I shall pray God open up our eyes.
lay the cause to the vengeance of a little girl. [HALE goes out.]
PROCTOR. You are a coward! Though you be ord- FRANCIS. [Struck by HALE’s mood.] I never heard
ained in God’s own tears, you are a coward now! no murder done in Salem.
HALE. Proctor, I cannot think God be provoked PROCTOR. [He has been reached by HALE’S words.]
so grandly by such a petty cause. The jails are Leave me, Francis, leave me.
packed—our greatest judges sit in Salem now— GILES. [Shaken.] John—tell me, are we lost?
and hangin’s promised. Man, we must look to
PROCTOR. Go home now, Giles. We’ll speak on
cause proportionate. Were there murder done,
perhaps, and never brought to light? Abomi- it tomorrow.
nation? Some secret blasphemy17 that stinks to GILES. Let you think on it. We’ll come early, eh?
Heaven? Think on cause, man, and let you help PROCTOR. Aye. Go now, Giles.
me to discover it. For there’s your way, believe it,
there is your only way, when such confusion GILES. Good night, then.
Images.com/CORBIS
[GILES COREY goes out. After a moment.] MARY WARREN. [In terror.] I cannot, they’ll turn
on me—
MARY WARREN. [In a fearful squeak of a voice.] Mr.
Proctor, very likely they’ll let her come home [PROCTOR strides and catches her, and she is
once they’re given proper evidence. repeating, “I cannot, I cannot!”]
PROCTOR. You’re coming to the court with me, PROCTOR. My wife will never die for me! I will
Mary. You will tell it in the court. bring your guts into your mouth but that good-
MARY WARREN. I cannot charge murder on ness will not die for me!
Abigail. MARY WARREN. [Struggling to escape him.] I cannot
PROCTOR. [Moving menacingly toward her.] You do it, I cannot!
will tell the court how that poppet come here
and who stuck the needle in. PROCTOR. [Grasping her by the throat as though
he would strangle her.] Make your peace with it!
MARY WARREN. She’ll kill me for sayin’ that! Now Hell and Heaven grapple on our backs,
[PROCTOR continues toward her.] Abby’ll charge and all our old pretense is ripped away—make
lechery18 on you, Mr. Proctor! your peace! [He throws her to the floor, where
PROCTOR. [Halting.] She’s told you! she sobs, “I cannot, I cannot . . .” And now, half
MARY WARREN. I have known it, sir. She’ll ruin to himself, staring, and turning to the open door.]
you with it, I know she will. Peace. It is a providence, and no great change;
we are only what we always were, but naked
PROCTOR. [Hesitating, and with deep hatred of him-
now. [He walks as though toward a great horror,
self.] Good. Then her saintliness is done with.
facing the open sky.] Aye, naked! And the wind,
[MARY backs from him.] We will slide together into
God’s icy wind, will blow!
our pit; you will tell the court what you know.
[And she is over and over again sobbing, “I can-
not, I cannot, I cannot . . .”]
18. Lechery means “excessive indulgence of sexual desire.” In
Salem, this was sinful and, therefore, illegal.
THE CURTAIN FALLS
Reading Strategy Recognizing Bias How does Miller
gain the audience’s sympathy and admiration for Proctor in
this speech?
R ESP ON D I NG A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T IC A LLY
Respond Analyze and Evaluate
1. What event in Act Two surprised you the most? 5. (a)Analyze how events in Salem have spiraled out of
Explain. control between Acts One and Two. (b)Do you find
what has happened believable? Explain.
Recall and Interpret
6. (a)What questions does Hale ask the Proctors in
2. (a)Why might Proctor have previously hesitated to
order to test their virtue? (b)Do his methods strike
tell the members of the court what Abigail told him
you as reasonable and justified? Explain.
about witchcraft? (b)What does this hesitation sug-
gest about his character? 7. (a)How does John Proctor’s behavior compare with
that of his wife? (b)Which character do you think
3. (a)What does the court accept as evidence that
behaves more wisely? Explain.
someone is a witch? (b)Which characters seem
to consider this evidence valid, and which do not? Connect
(c)What do you think accounts for their differences
of opinion? 8. Big Idea The United States and the World
(a)How does fear influence the way people behave in
4. (a)Why does Hale come to the Proctors’ house?
Act Two of The Crucible? (b)Give an example from
(b)How does Hale seem to feel about his own
your own experience or from your knowledge
judgment and the court’s? Explain.
of current events of how the power of fear can affect
a person’s ability to make sound decisions.
L I T E R A RY A N A LYS I S R E A D I N G A N D VO C A B U L A RY
As you read Act Three, notice how Miller intensifies the guile ( ¯l) n. cunning; deceit; slyness;
conflicts he introduced in the previous two acts. p. 1078 Through a combination of charm and guile,
he persuaded his grandmother to include him in her will.
• See Literary Terms Handbook, p. R13. contemplation (kon´ təm plā shən) n. the act
of thinking about something long and seriously;
p. 1079 Our summer cabin is the perfect place for
reading and contemplation.
unperturbed (un pər turbd ) adj. undisturbed;
calm; p. 1084 Unperturbed by his seemingly
Interactive Literary Elements stressful day, John slept soundly.
Handbook To review or learn more about the literary elements,
go to www.glencoe.com.
O B J EC TIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the foll