American Literature PBA

Spring 2010

GOAL: Deepen your analysis of one or two texts from this semester. This paper will be 4-7 pages in length and will include quotations from TWO primary sources (any two novels we have read this year) and THREE secondary sources (literary criticism, historical information, authors’ biography, etc.). You are not handing in an official pre-write with this paper but this is a guide of the steps you must take to complete a strong paper. I will be assigning some of these steps as homework.

Step 1: Consider what we have read:

Middlesex Jeffrey Eugenides As I Lay Dying William Faulkner

The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald Name All the Animals Alison Smith

Song of Solomon Toni Morrison The Things They Carried Tim O’Brien

“The Birthmark” Nathaniel Hawthorne “The Cask of Amontillado” Edgar Allan Poe

“The Yellow Wallpaper” Charlotte Perkins Gillman

“To Build A Fire” Jack London Walden Henry David Thoreau

Step 2: What have I written about this year? What topics have I written about in my homework assignments and essays? What themes have emerged in these texts, and what theme will help me ask questions about American culture, or about America in general? What techniques of craft have I learned to notice and analyze? How do these technical aspects of the text support the larger truths or themes of the texts?

Step 3: Consider possible themes and questions to explore: Here are some possible topics that can get you to think about how to explore American literature and American culture. These are only examples and I haven’t referenced all texts under each topic.

TRANSFORMATION

1. How is “blackness” represented in American literature?

The Great Gatsby (Tom’s racist ideas, the African-American men and

women in the limo crossing the Queensboro Bridge, the “pale well-dressed Negro” who witnesses Myrtle’s death)

Song of Solomon (The Seven Days, relationships between men and women, conflicts between generations),

2. What is “other-ness” in American literature, and how is it

represented?

The Great Gatsby (Gatsby, Wilson, Nick, Wolfshiem, limited presence of people of color)

Song of Solomon (Pilate, Milkman)

Things They Carried “The Man I Killed,” “Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong”

As I Lay Dying Bundrens vs town folk, dialect of Anse, Darl’s spiritual and intellectual nature etc.

4.What are American myths?

The Great Gatsby (James Gatz-Jay Gatsby, Daisy, Myrtle and Tom, cars, East/West imagery)

Song of Solomon (The cave, the gold, the song, flying)

Things They Carried (romanticism of war-vs.-the truth of war)

As I Lay Dying Protestant work ethic and religious morality

GENDER

5. How is maleness represented in American literature?

The Great Gatsby (Nick and Gatsby’s relationship, Tom, Wilson)

Song of Solomon (Milkman, Macon, Guitar, Solomon/Jake)

Middlesex (Callie-Cal)

Things They Carried “Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong,” “On the Rainy River,”

“The Things They Carried”

6. How are women and how is the female body represented in American

literature?

The Great Gatsby (Daisy, Jordan, Myrtle)

Song of Solomon (Ruth, Pilate, Sweet, Corinthians, Hagar)

“Yellow Wallpaper” (the narrator)

Things They Carried (Linda, O’Brien’s daughter, Martha, Mary Anne)

As I Lay Dying Dewey Dell, Addie, Cora

7.Where are the fathers in American literature?

The Great Gatsby (Nick’s reference to his father, Gatsby’s unclaimed father)

Song of Solomon (Macon, Jake)

“The Yellow Wallpaper” (John)

As I Lay Dying Tull, Anse

8.Where/what are the mothers?

The Great Gatsby (Daisy)

Song of Solomon (Pilate, Pilate’s mom, Ruth)

“Yellow Wallpaper” (the narrator)

As I Lay Dying Cora, Addie, Dewey Dell (not yet though)

GEOGRAPHY

9.How is nature/the environment depicted in American Literature?

The Great Gatsby (water imagery, nature imagery, the ash-heaps, industrialization-vs-nature)

Song of Solomon (Milkman’s hunt in Shalimar, rose petals, Pilate’s house, Pilate and Macon’s journey in the woods, the cave, etc.)

Thoreau “The Bean Field”

Things They Carried (“On the Rainy River” slaughterhouse-vs-Canada, Vietnam as ‘wilderness’)

Step 4: Now return to the text. How are these themes conveyed? What techniques and choices did the author make about showing whatever you observe? How does the structure of the text support the ultimate truth or meanings you see? How are aspects of the text, like characterization or symbolism, achieved? Find examples and consider word-by-word, line-by-line what is going on. Make a list of your observations. You should have a list of at least 15 quotes or parts of the text. Use your homeworks as well as the text to find this. Consider: setting, scene vs summary, narrative sequence and breaks, characterization (via dialogue, detail, body language etc), metaphor/simile/allegory, point of view (indirect interior monologue, stream of consciousness etc), poetic literary devices used in the prose etc.

Step 5: Now return to the question we looked at all year: If I knew more about _______, how would this deepen my reading of the text? Make a list of possible topics and secondary sources to look for. Find secondary sources and take notes. Keep a working list of all your sources for your bibliography. Consider the following types of secondary sources we’ve looked at in class: craft analysis/techniques of writing, lenses (feminist, Marxist, psychoanalytic etc), literary criticism of the author, historical context etc. Return to our class notes and your homework from the last month.

Step 6: Now start to pair your secondary sources with your quotes from the original texts from the class. Start making an outline. Remember this general format:

THESIS/REVISED HYPOTHESIS

I. TOPIC SENTENCE #1

A) EVIDENCE

B) EVIDENCE

C) EVIDENCE

II. TOPIC SENTENCE #2

AND SO ON…

Step 7: Hand in your introduction and your outline on Friday, June 4^th.

Step 8: TWO COPIES OF PAPER WITH BIBLIOGRAPHY DUE ON MONDAY, JUNE 14^TH, 2010. G band – make sure you come find me to hand in the paper.

Step 10: YOUR PRESENTATION!!!

Day, Date and Time_____________________________________________