1/4/11

Modern short story

Ernest Hemingway
-won Nobel Prize in Lit in 1954
“For his mastery of the art of narrative, most recently demonstrated in the old man and the sea, and for
the influence that he has exerted on contemporary style”
– 1899-1961
– The sun also rises; a farewell to arms;for whom the bell tolls
– short stories about boyhood and young manhood of Nick Adams(fictional char modeled after
himself)
– known as a “man's man”
– stylist
– a lot of technical things
– way he presents it
– Kills himself in 1961
Hills like white elephants
– pregnancy is elephant in their lives
– hills are like a baby bump
– working with dry, barren, hot imagery and damp imagery
– country-side is brown and dry
– dry side of the valley
– table in the shade
– fields of grain and a river
– water in their drinks
– Mood- doesn't think that ppl are happy after they have abortion
– Jig understands that they will have guilt
– life for them will never be the same
– setting- at a railroad station
– debating where to go
– suggestive of their mindset
– choose one way or another
1/6/11
– William Faulkner
– “the past is never dead. It's not even past”
– Gavin stevens
– 1897-1962
– Mississippi
– The sound and the fury, 1929( experimental form novel)
– Created fictional “county” Yoknapatawpha County, with its special history, significant families,
legends and set in many novels
– Won Nobel Prize in 1949, for which he gave his famous speech
“A Rose For Emily”
1. Photo of emily and her father (note the horsewhip in his hand)
1. Father is dominating picture
2. makes himself look more intimidating
2. Father dies (Emily keeps body)
 3. Emily is sick for a long time. When the townspeople see her again, she has cut her hair short

4. Homer Barron comes to town. He and Emily are seen riding in the buggy (Note the whip)
1. not suited for her
2. hes a laborer
3. a playboy
4. a yankee
5. Emily purchases 'rat poison'
6. The church ladies call her relatives to come and stay with her. After a time, they leave
7. Homer returns. Emily buys him presents
1. buys him toiletry set
8. Homer disappears and is never seen again
9. emily is not seen outside of house for 6 months
10. her hair turns grey and stays that way all her life
11. the townsmen sprinkle lime around her property to alleviate the smell
12. Now in her 40s, Emily gives painting lessons in her home
13. Emily has a conversation with the townsmen and refuses to pay taxes
1. has no taxes in Jefferson
14. Emily Dies
15. The townsmen discover the corpse
Consider
– Who is the narrator?
– Town of Jefferson
– Who are the townsmen?
– Consider the untold story of Tobe
– Are you surprised that this story was written in 1930? Why or why not?
– P. 410
1/7/11
Shirley Jackson
– 1919-1965
– Bennington, Vermont
– Housewife
– Frequently anthologized vs. canon author
“The lottery”
– what does heritage mean?
– Do we have belief systems that are in fact bad?
– Keep to them mindlessly
– community
– hard to live in a community with the dynamic where ur friends kill u
1/11/11
– William Carlos Williams
– 1883-1963
– Rutherford, NJ
– Pediatrician
– makes house calls
– Modernist
 – Imagist poet
The Use of Force
1. What did you assume about each team?
1. Teams would work together and against other teams
2. What do you assume the team members assumed about each other
1. 2 vs 2
2. had the same goal
3. How does the term divided mind apply to team members
4. How does the term apply to the doctor in the “use of Force”
1. wanted 2 mutually exclusive
1. wants to save her life
2. wants to hurt her
5. How does the term divided mind apply to the young girl
1. wants doctor to help her
2. doesn't want him to touch her
6. How does it apply to the parents?
1. wants the doctor to help their daughter
2. Not strong enough to implement healing
7. How might it apply to the reader?
1. Wanted the doctor to help her but not hurt her
1. got mad when he hurt her
2. we assume that doctors are there to help you
Comments
– no quotation marks
– entire scene is happening in his mind (memory)
– appreciative of her physical beauty and that she is spirited
– also being a brat, not letting him save her life
– emotionally irresponsible toward girl
– girl ended up having diphtheria
– end justified the means
1/13/11
James Thurber
– Thurber on humor....
– “Humor is a kind of emotional chaos told about calmly and quietly in retrospect”
– 1894- 1961
– Born and raised in Ohio
– suffered childhood accident that ultimately led to total blindness in the last decade of his life
– Author and cartoonist
– noted for his cartoons and short stories in The New Yorker magazine
1/14/11
Building your thesis statement
– Who- O. Henry
– What- short story
– Gift of the magi
– the furnished room
– How- technique, …..
– technique- one of my literay focuses
 1. What do they have in common
1. share same technique??( twist endings?)
EX: In narrative poems focused on a single character Edward Robinson created portraits of lost
opportunity and painful isolation
– Each part
– explained
– tied to all( or several) of stories
– tied to specific examples
– tied to critical references
SEE SLIDES ON HER WEBSITE
1/18/11
Time O'Brien
– 1946-
– vietnam veteran
– professor in the MFA program- Texas State University- San Marcos
The Man I Killed
– Response
– shocked by contrast between beauty and gore
– the amount of detail he goes into the death of the man at the beginning
– reminds you of brutality of war
– similarities to “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”
– both unhappy
– making up what kids life could be, fantasizing
– walter- war is glorious
– negative in “man I killed”
– Voice
– Tim the narrator
– on an adrenaline rush
– language is very hyped
– sentimental
– Kiowa is concerned with Tim's conflict
– voice of reason
– wants Tim to talk about it
– Action
– climax has already occurred after killing the man
– Characterization
– describes protagonist battling with guilt
– Kiowa tries to rationalize protagonists killing
– Conflict
– protagonist vs. guilt
– internal conflict
– Internal monologue
– guilty
– doesn't want to face reality
– nothing can ease pain of death
– impressionism
 – protagonist conflicted about war
– sympathy lies with Tim
– war is complicated--> fighting w/ other humans
– naturalism
– use of flowers
– unnaturalness of war within nature
– tone
– weary
– guilty
– remorseful
– stream of consciousness
– making up a story about a dead man
1/19/11
The Unicorn in The Garden
– by James Thurber
– typical Thurber woman
– battle of the sexes
– nagging, unimaginative
– two male protagonists have vivid imaginations
– in mitty and unicorn
– creative side being stifled by women
The Thesis Statement
#1
In his short stories Ray Bradbury creates characters that are lost in society either because they are a
unique species or bc the world's rapid progression has left them superfluous
– alone
– separated from society
– give background author info- time period, genre (relevant info)
#2
To explore human limitations, Nathaniel Hawthorne creates chars who suffer grotesque consequences
when they attempt to manipulate nature
#3
In his succinct poetry, stephen crane builds surrealistic mindscapes that mock human behavior and
beliefs
1/20/11
- what should happen when you read
– Read
– Think
– mark
– take notes
– respond
– discuss
– kinect/compare
– analyze
– research
– discover
Miniver Cheevy
– there is a rhyming scheme
– refuses to appreciate anything he has in life
– wants to live in the past
– daydreamer
– he is skinny
– he is scornful, he has been scorned
– had actually reasons, made up reasons
– passion is for the past
– thinking about times romantically but are really places of conflict
– wants to go back and be a rich person
– living in a fantasy world
– doesn't want to work for the money but he needs it
– life is poor bc of it
– doesnt do anything to change life only thinks about it
– knows he is sick and will die but is too lazy to do anything about it
– Tone:
– pessimistic
– use of irony
– sarcastic
– entitled
– Structure:
– rhyme scheme
1/21/11
20th Century poets
– Edward Arlington Robinson
– “ The world is not a prison house but a kind of spiritual kindergarten, where millions of
bewildered infants are trying to spell God with the wrong blocks”
– Richard Cory
– speaker is the ppl of the town
– respect him
– wish they had his life
– Cory is imperially slim
– Cheevy is lean
– doesnt look good in clothes
– both characters are dissatisfied w/ their lives
– both bring around their own death
– life Cheevy wants Corey has
– opposites on wealth spectrum
– both dont like their situation
– Corey is lonely
– Corey's clothes glitter
– has bling
– its cleaner
– Corey doesnt think he is above them
 – they are a community, he is alone
– doesnt fit into communal structure
– makes good use of connotation
– gentleman
– crown
– imperially
– richer
– king
– admirably
– Shift: “So on we worked...”
Mr. Flood's party
– alone
– no family or friends (used to)
– immediate condition
– drunk
– talking to himself
– Eben flood
– eb and flow
– tides
– measure time
– concept of plenty and dearth
– had many friends but now has none
– drinking during Prohibition
– allusion to bird of time
– his youth has flown away
– allusion to Roland's ghost
– has no friends to come
– He has experienced situation where things are certain are not certain
– kids killed in WW1?
1/24/11
Robert Frost
– “Writing free verse is like playing tennis w/o a net”
– w/o adherence to rules or an educated deliberate choice to selectively break them,
something is lost in an art
– Tradition is both accepted by and detrimental to society. Show how this theme is handled in
both the lottery and Mending wall
– In the lottery, society accepts the killing of others merely because it is tradition and thus
reduces the integrity of society. The people in the society can no longer have faith in a
society that advocates the killing of its own members
– In the Mending Wall, the neighbor just wants to have a wall because it is a tradition that is
widely accepted in society while the narrator feels that there is no need for the wall and the
neighbor's insistence on keeping with tradition disrupts the fabric of their social relationship
– speaker vs. narrator
– in mending wall narrator questions it
short stories
– Hills like white elephants
– A rose for Emily
– The lottery
– The use of force
– The secret life of Walter Mitty
– The man I killed
– The Unicorn in the Garden
– The use of force + The secret life of walter Mitty- divided mind
– The man I killed + secret life of Walter Mitty
– both unhappy
– making up what man's life could be, both fantasizing
– walter- war is glorious
– negative in “man I killed”
– The lottery + rose for emily
– foreshadowing
– Walter Mitty + unicorn in garden
– battle of sexes
– two male protagonists have vivid imaginations
– in mitty and unicorn
– creative side being stifled by women
– The man I killed + hills like white elephants
– opposing views on topic
– Azar likes war and everyone else is shameful of it
– he wants an abortion he doesnt
– he thinks things will return to normal, she doesnt
– Rose for emily + unicorn in the garden
– betrayal
– Unicorn in the garden + lottery
– ironic
– think lottery is good but turns out bad
– hills like white elephants + unicorn
– ambiguity
– not knowing where they are heading (suggestive of their mindset)
– dont know the man is really telling truth and if there is unicorn