Which is one thematic similarity between "a man said to the universe" and "sympathy"?

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Explication

• The Use of Conventional Metaphors for Death in John Donne’s “Death Be Not Proud” (draft, outline, and fi nal paper) Ch. 30, p. 958

• A Reading of Emily Dickinson’s “There’s a certain Slant of light” Ch. 30, p. 962

Paper-in-Progress

• Explication: The Use of Conventional Metaphors for Death in John Donne’s “Death Be Not Proud” (draft, outline, and fi nal paper) Ch. 30, p. 958

Research Paper

• How William Faulkner’s Narrator Cultivates a Rose for Emily Ch. 32, p. 987

bedfordstmartins.com/rewritinglit

Check out our free and open visual tutorials, reference materials, and support for working with sources.

• VirtuaLit Tutorials for close reading

• AuthorLinks for research

• LitGloss for literary terms

• LitQuizzes for self-testing

• Sample Papers for MLA-style models

• Research and Documentation Online for research

• The Bedford Bibliographer for research

bedfordstmartins.com/videolit

Explore our growing collection of video interviews with today’s writers — on what they read, where they get their ideas, and how they refi ne their craft. Featured authors include T. C. Boyle, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Ha Jin, and Anne Rice.

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Literature to Go

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Literature to Go

MICHAEL MEYER University of Connecticut

BEDFORD / ST. MARTIN’S BOSTON ◆ NEW YORK

For Bedford/St. Martin’s

Executive Editor: Ellen Thibault Developmental Editor: Christina Gerogiannis Production Editor: Lindsay DiGianvittorio Production Supervisor: Jennifer Peterson Senior Marketing Manager: Adrienne Petsick Editorial Assistants: Sophia Snyder, Mallory Moore Production Assistant: Alexis Biasell Copyeditor: Hilly van Loon Senior Art Director: Anna Palchik Text Design: Claire Seng-Niemoeller Cover Design: Donna Lee Dennison Cover Art: Wisconsin and N Street, by Joseph Craig English. Used with permission. Original

illustration altered with permission of the artist. Composition: Glyph International Printing and Binding: Quad/Graphics Taunton

President: Joan E. Feinberg Editorial Director: Denise B. Wydra Editor in Chief: Karen S. Henry Director of Marketing: Karen R. Soeltz Director of Editing, Design, and Production: Susan W. Brown Assistant Director of Editing, Design, and Production: Elise S. Kaiser Managing Editor: Elizabeth M. Schaaf

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2010928943

Copyright © 2011 by Bedford/St. Martin’s

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except as may be expressly permitted by the applicable copyright statutes or in writing by the Publisher.

Manufactured in the United States of America.

4 3 2 1 0 e d c b a

For information, write: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 75 Arlington Street, Boston, MA 02116 (617-399-4000)

ISBN 10: 0–312–62412–3 ISBN 13: 978–0–312–62412–5

Acknowledgments

fiction T. Coraghessan Boyle. “Carnal Knowledge” from Without a Hero by T. Coraghessan Boyle.

Copyright © 1994 by T. Coraghessan Boyle. Used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

A. S. Byatt. “Baglady” from Elementals: Stories of Fire and Ice by Antonia Byatt. Reprinted by permission of SLL/Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc. Copyright by Peters Fraser & Dunlop A/A/F Antonia Byatt.

Raymond Carver. “Popular Mechanics” from What We Talk about When We Talk about Love by Raymond Carver. Copyright © 1974, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1981 by Raymond Carver. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.

Acknowledgments and copyrights are continued at the back of the book on pages 1013–18, which constitute an extension of the copyright page. It is a violation of the law to reproduce these selections by any means whatsoever without the written permission of the copyright holder.

For My Wife Regina Barreca

About Michael Meyer

Michael Meyer has taught writing and literature courses for more than thirty years — since 1981 at the University of Connecticut and before that at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and the College of Wil- liam and Mary. In addition to being an experienced teacher, Meyer is a highly regarded literary scholar. His scholarly articles have appeared in distinguished journals such as American Literature, Studies in the American Renaissance, and Virginia Quarterly Review. An internationally recognized authority on Henry David Thoreau, Meyer is a former president of the Thoreau Society and coauthor (with Walter Harding) of The New Thoreau Handbook, a standard reference source. His fi rst book, Several More Lives to Live: Thoreau’s Political Reputation in America, was awarded the Ralph Henry Gabriel Prize by the American Studies Association. He is also the editor of Frederick Douglass: The Narrative and Selected Writings. He has lectured on a variety of American literary topics from Cambridge University to Peking University. His other books for Bedford/St. Martin’s include The Bedford Introduction to Literature, Ninth Edition; The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature, Eighth Edition; Poetry: An Introduction, Sixth Edition; and Think- ing and Writing about Literature, Second Edition.

Preface for Instructors

Literature to Go is the long-trusted anthology, The Bedford Introduction to Literature, sized and priced to go. Created in response to instructors’ re- quests for an essential version of the full-length book — with a selection of literature that refl ects the classic canon and the new — Literature to Go is a brief and inexpensive collection of stories, poems, and plays, supported by class-tested, reliable pedagogy and unique features that bring literature to life for students. The hope is that the engaging selections and accessible instruction in Literature to Go will inspire students to become lifelong read- ers of imaginative literature, as well as more thoughtful and skillful writers. The text is designed to accommodate many different teaching styles and is fl exibly organized into four parts focusing on fi ction, poetry, drama, and critical thinking and writing. Creative chapters on the elements of litera- ture appear at the beginning of each genre section and cover such concepts as character, setting, confl ict, and tone, along with plenty of examples. Addi- tionally, case studies on major authors, including Flannery O’Connor and William Shakespeare, reveal writers as real people and literature as a living art form. And a unique, in-depth chapter on poet Billy Collins, created in collaboration with the poet himself, gives students an intimate look into the creative process of one of America’s most popular contemporary poets. In addition to offering literature from many periods, cultures, and diverse voices, including today’s wittiest writers, the book is also a surpris- ingly complete guide to close reading, critical thinking, and thoughtful writ- ing. Following the genre sections, the fourth part of Literature to Go provides detailed instruction on these crucial skills. Sample student papers and hun- dreds of assignments appear in the text, giving students the support they need. And two new online resources — Re:Writing for Literature, with lots of help for reading and writing about literature; and VideoCentral: Literature, a growing collection of exclusive interviews with today’s authors — offer even more options for teaching, learning, and enjoying literature.

FEATURES OF L ITER ATURE TO GO A wide and well-balanced selection of literature — sized and priced to go

34 stories, 202 poems, and 12 plays represent a variety of periods, nation- alities, cultures, styles, and voices — from the serious to the humorous, and from the traditional to the contemporary. Each selection has been

vii

viii preface for instructors

chosen for its appeal to students and for its effectiveness in demonstrat- ing the elements, signifi cance, and pleasures of literature. Canonical works by Ernest Hemingway, John Keats, Susan Glas pell, and many others are generously represented. In addition, there are many contemporary selections from writers such as Nilaja Sun, Ian McEwan, and Tim O’Brien, as well as a rich sampling of works by writers from other cultures. These selections ap pear throughout the anthology.

Many options for teaching and learning about literature

In an effort to make literature come to life for students, and the course a plea- sure to teach for instructors, Literature to Go offers these innovative features:

Perspectives on literature Intriguing documents — including critical essays, interviews, and contextual images — appear throughout the book to stimulate class discussion and writing.

Connections between “popular” and “literary” culture The poetry and drama introductions incorporate examples from popular culture, effectively introducing students to the literary elements of a given genre through what

they already know. For example, students are introduced to the elements of poetry through greeting card verse and song lyrics by Bruce Springsteen and to elements of drama through a television script from Seinfeld. Lively visuals throughout the anthology present images that demonstrate how literature is woven into the fabric of popular culture and art. These images help students recognize the imprint of literature on their everyday lives.

Case studies that treat authors in depth Each genre section includes a chapter that focuses closely on a major literary fi gure. Chapters on Flannery O’Connor, Billy Collins, and William Shakespeare are complemented by biographi- cal introductions (with author photographs),

critical perspectives, cultural documents (such as letters and draft manuscript pages), and images that serve to con- textualize the works. A vari- ety of critical thinking and writing questions follow the selections to stim ulate stu- dent responses. All these sup- plementary materials engage

From Chapter 9: “A Study of Flannery O’Connor.”

preface for instructors ix

students more fully with the writers and their works.

An in-depth chapter on Billy Collins — created with Billy Collins

Collins presents fi ve of his own poems in Chapter 20 alongside his own insights — written specifi cally for Michael Meyer’s anthologies — into each work, and shares photographs and pages from his notebooks. This case study reinforces Meyer’s empha- sis on poetry as a living, changing art form. Students will enjoy the oppor- tunity to have a major poet speak directly to them, in Collins’s one-of-a- kind style, about how he writes, why he writes, and the kinds of surprises that occur along the way.

Plenty of help with reading, writing, and research

Critical reading* Advice on how to read literature ap pears at the begin- ning of each genre section. Sample Close Readings of selections, in cluding Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” (Fiction), William Hathaway’s “Oh, Oh” (Poetry), and Susan Glas pell’s Trifl es (Drama), provide analyses of the language, images, and other literary elements at work in these selections. Interpretive an notations clearly show students the pro cess of close reading and provide examples of the kind of critical thinking that leads to strong academic writing. Later in the book, Chapter 28, “Reading and the Writing Process,” provides more instruction on how to read a work closely, annotate a text, take notes, keep a reading journal, and develop a topic into a the- sis, with a section on arguing persuasively about literature. An Index of Terms appears at the back of the book, and a glossary provides thorough explanations of more than two hundred terms central to the study of literature.

Kate Chopin (1851–1904)

The Story of an Hour 1894

Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death.

It was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken sen- tences; veiled hints that revealed in half concealing. Her hus- band’s friend Richards was there, too, near her. It was he who had been in the newspaper office when intelligence of the rail- road disaster was received, with Brently Mallard’s name lead- ing the list of “killed.” He had only taken the time to assure himself of its truth by a second telegram, and had hastened to forestall any less careful, less tender friend in bearing the sad message.

Sh did h h h h d h

The title could point to the brevity of the story — only 23 short paragraphs — or to the decisive nature of what happens in a very short period of time. Or both.

Mrs. Mallard’s first name, (Louise) is not given until paragraph 17, yet her sister Josephine is named immediately. This em- phasizes Mrs. Mal- lard’s married identity.

Given the nature of the cause of Mrs. Mallard death at the story’s end, it’s worth noting the ambiguous description that she “was afflicted with a heart trouble.” Is this one of Chopin’s

A Sample Close Reading

From Chapter 20, “A Study of Billy Collins: The Author Refl ects on Five Poems.”

*A reference chart on the book’s inside front cover outlines all of the book’s help for reading and writing about literature.

x preface for instructors

The writing and research process Five chapters (28–32) cover every step of the writing pro cess — from generating topics to documenting sources — while sample student papers model the results. Of these chapters, three — “Writing about Fiction” (29), “Writing about Poetry” (30), and “Writing about Drama” (31) — focus on genre-specifi c writing assignments. Six sample student papers — all with MLA-style documentation — model how to analyze and argue about literature and how to support ideas by citing examples. The papers are integrated throughout the book, as are “Questions for Writing” units that guide students through par- ticular writing tasks: reading and writing responsively, developing a topic into a revised thesis, and writing about multiple works by an author. Chapter 32, “The Literary Research Paper,” offers detailed advice for fi nding, evaluating, and incorporating sources in a paper and includes current, detailed MLA documentation guidelines.

Questions for critical reading and writing Hundreds of questions and assignments — “Considerations for Critical Thinking and Writing,” “Connections to Other Selections,” “First Response” prompts, and “Cre- ative Re sponse” assignments — spark students’ interest, sharpen their thinking, and improve their reading, discussion, and writing skills.

Literature to Go e-Book: The fi rst electronic anthology for literature

Bedford/St. Martin’s is pleased to introduce the Literature to Go e-Book, the fi rst electronic anthology for the literature course. Are you moving away from print books? Or perhaps want to supplement your course with digital material? The e-Book for Literature to Go includes all of the print book’s instruction and nearly all of the literature. It’s easy to use, environmentally sound, and nicely priced.

• To order the e-Book, packaged for fi ve dollars with the student edition of the print book, use package ISBN-10: 0-312-55777-9 or ISBN-13: 978-0-312-55777-5.

Bonnie Katz

Professor Quiello

English 109–2

October 26, 2010

A Reading of Emily Dickinson’s

“There’s a certain Slant of light”

Because Emily Dickinson did not provide titles for her poetry, editors

follow the customary practice of using the first line of a poem as its title.

However, a more appropriate title for “There’s a certain Slant of light,” one

that suggests what the speaker in the poem is most concerned about, can be

drawn from the poem’s last line, which ends with “the look of Death” (Dickin-

son, line 16). Although the first line begins with an image of light, nothing

bright, carefree, or cheerful appears in the poem. Instead, the predominant

mood and images are darkened by a sense of despair resulting from the

speaker’s awareness of death.

In the first stanza, the “certain Slant of light” is associated with “Win-

ter Afternoons” (2), a phrase that connotes the end of a day, a season, and

even life itself. Such light is hardly warm or comforting. Not a ray or beam,

this slanting light suggests something unusual or distorted and creates in the

speaker a certain slant on life that is consistent with the cold, dark mood that

winter afternoons can produce. Like the speaker, most of us have seen and felt

this sort of light: it “oppresses” (3) and pervades our sense of things when we

encounter it. Dickinson uses the senses of hearing and touch as well as sight

to describe the overwhelming oppressiveness that the speaker experiences.

The light is transformed into sound by a simile that tells us it is “like the Heft

/ Of Cathedral Tunes” (3–4). Moreover, the “Heft” of that sound -- the slow,

solemn measures of tolling church bells and organ music--weighs heavily on

our spirits. Through the use of shifting imagery, Dickinson evokes a kind of

spiritual numbness that we keenly feel and perceive through our senses.

By associating the winter light with “Cathedral Tunes,” Dickinson lets

us know that the speaker is concerned about more than the weather. What-

ever it is that “oppresses” is related by connotation to faith, mortality, and

Katz 1

Thesis providing overview of explication

Line-by-line explication of first stanza, focusing on connotations of words and imagery, in relation to mood and meaning of poem as a whole; supported with refer- ences to the text

A sample student explication on Emily Dickinson’s “There’s a certain Slant of light” includes parenthetical citations and a Works Cited page.

preface for instructors xi

• To purchase the e-Book as a standalone item (without the print book), use ISBN-10: 0-312-55242-4 or ISBN-13: 978-0-312-55242-8.

• To order the e-Book in CourseSmart format (as a PDF), use ISBN- 10: 0-312-55240-8 or ISBN-13: 978-0-312-55240-4.

YOU GET MORE DIGITAL CHOICES FOR LITER ATURE TO GO Literature to Go doesn’t stop with a book. Online, you’ll fi nd plenty of free and open resources to help students get even more out of the book and your course. You’ll also fi nd convenient instructor resources, and even a nationwide community of teachers. To learn more about or order any of the products below, contact your Bedford/St. Martin’s sales representative, e-mail sales support (sales_support@bfwpub .com), or visit the Web site at bedfordstmartins.com/meyertogo/ catalog.

xii preface for instructors

New! Re:Writing for Literature: Free and open resources

Send students to our best free and open resources (no codes required), or upgrade to an expanding collection of premium digital resources at bedfordstmartins.com/rewritinglit.

Students will fi nd easy-to-access visual tutorials, reference materials, and support for working with sources.

• VirtuaLit Tutorials for Close Reading (Fiction, Poetry, and Drama) • AuthorLinks and Biographies • Quizzes on Literary Works • A Glossary of Literary Terms • MLA-style sample student papers • Help for fi nding and citing sources, including Diana Hacker’s

Research and Documentation Online

New! VideoCentral: Literature: Interviews with today’s writers

VideoCentral: Literature — a Bedford/St. Martin’s production created with writer and teacher Peter Berkow — is a growing collection of more than fi fty video interviews with today’s writers, talking about their craft. Your students can hear from Ha Jin on how he uses humor and tension in his writing, Anne Rice on how she advances plot through dialogue, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni on how she writes from experience, and T. C. Boyle on how he creates memorable voices. Related assignments and activities

preface for instructors xiii

help students get the most out of these instructive videos and apply what they learn to their own thinking and writing.

To package VideoCentral: Litera- ture, free with student copies of Literature to Go, use pack- age ISBN-10: 0-312-54620-3 or ISBN-13: 978-0-312-54620-5.

Instructor Resources: bedfordstmartins.com/ meyertogo/catalog

You have a lot to do in your course. Bedford/St. Martin’s wants to make it easy for you to fi nd the support you need — and to get it quickly.

Resources for Teaching Literature to Go is available as a print manual or as a PDF that can be downloaded from the Bedford/St. Martin’s online catalog. This manual supports every selection in the book and has something to offer new and experienced instructors. Resources include commentary, biographical information, additional writing assign- ments, further connections among the selections, and tips from instruc- tors who have taught with Michael Meyer’s anthologies. For the PDF, go to bedfordstmartins.com/meyertogo/catalog. To order the print edition, use ISBN-10: 0-312-66697-7 or ISBN-13: 978-0-312-66697-2.

Teaching Central offers the entire list of Bedford/St. Martin’s print and online professional resources in one place. You’ll fi nd landmark refer- ence works, sourcebooks on pedagogical issues, award-winning collec- tions, and practical advice for the classroom — all free for instructors and available through the Student Center or at bedfordstmartins.com/ meyertogo/catalog.

Literature Aloud is a two-CD set of audio recordings featuring celebrated writers and actors reading stories, poems, and selected scenes included in Michael Meyer’s anthologies. This resource is free to instructors who adopt Literature to Go. To order the CD set, use ISBN-10: 0-312-43011-6 or ISBN-13: 978-0-312-43011-5.

The Bedford/St. Martin’s Video & DVD Library offers selected videos and DVDs of plays and stories included in Literature to Go, and is avail- able to qualifi ed adopters of the anthology. To learn more, contact your Bedford/St. Martin’s sales representative or e-mail sales support (sales_ support@bfwpub.com).

xiv preface for instructors

Literary Reprints Titles in the Case Studies in Contemporary Criti- cism series, Bedford Cultural Edition series, and the Bedford Shake- speare series can be shrink-wrapped with Literature to Go for instructors who want to teach longer works in conjunction with the anthology. (For a complete list of available titles, visit bedfordstmartins.com/ meyertogo/catalog.)

TradeUp

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book has benefi ted from the ideas, suggestions, and corrections of scores of careful readers who helped transform various stages of an evolv- ing manuscript into a fi nished book and into subsequent editions. I remain grateful to those I have thanked in previous prefaces, particularly the late Robert Wallace of Case Western Reserve University. In addition, many instructors who used the eighth edition of The Bedford Introduction to Literature responded to a questionnaire for the book. For their valuable comments and advice I am grateful to Sandra Allen-Kearney, Lincoln Park Academy; Jon W. Brooks, Okaloosa-Walton College; David Brumbley, Salisbury University; Robert Caughey, Torrey Pines High School; S. Elaine Craghead, Massachusetts Maritime Academy; Robert W. Croft, Gaines- ville State College; Allen Culpepper, Manatee Community College; Samir Dayal, Bentley College; Cheryl DeLacretaz, Dripping Springs High School; Janice Forgione, Salisbury University; Bernadette Gambino, University of North Florida; Sinceree Renee Gunn, University of Alabama in Hunts- ville; Cathy Henrichs, Pikes Peak Community College; Susan Hopkirk,

TradeUp Get 50% off all trade titles when packaged with your textbook!

Add more value and choice to your students’ learning experiences by packaging their Bedford / St. Martin’s textbook with one of a thousand titles from our sister publishers such as Farrar, Straus and Giroux and St. Martin’s Press — at a discount of 50% off the regular price.

preface for instructors xv

Middle Tennessee State University; Mary Lee Stephenson Huffer, Lake Sumter Community College; Michelle Green Jimmerson, Louisiana Tech University; Sharon Johnston, Spokane Virtual Learning/Spokane Public Schools; Tamara Kuzmenkov, Tacoma Community College; Catherine Shanon Lawson, Pikes Peak Community College; Manuel Martinez, Santa Fe Community College; Sarah McIntosh, Santa Fe Community College; Jim McKeown, McLennan Community College; Julie Moore, Green River Community College; Larry Moss, Young Men’s Academy for Academic and Civic Development at MacArthur South; Angelina Northrip-Rivera, Missouri State University; David Pink, Rock Valley College; Deidre D. Price, Okaloosa-Walton College; Katharine Purcell, Trident Technical Col- lege; Karin Russell, Keiser University; Holly Schoenecker, Milwaukee Area Technical College; Beth Shelton, Paris Junior College; Karen Stewart, Norwich University; John A. Stoler, University of Texas at San Antonio; James D. Suderman, Okaloosa-Walton College; Becky Talk; Gregory J. Underwood, Pearl River Community College — Forrest County Center; and Marva Webb, Clinton High School. I would also like to give special thanks to the following instructors who contributed teaching tips to Resources for Teaching Literature to Go: Sandra Adickes, Winona State University; Helen J. Aling, Northwestern College; Sr. Anne Denise Brenann, College of Mt. St. Vincent; Robin Calitri, Merced College; James H. Clemmer, Austin Peay State University; Robert Croft, Gainesville College; Thomas Edwards, Westbrook College; Elizabeth Kleinfeld, Red Rocks Community College; Olga Lyles, Uni- versity of Nevada; Timothy Peters, Boston University; Catherine Rusco, Muskegon Community College; Robert M. St. John, DePaul University; Richard Stoner, Broome Community College; Nancy Veiga, Modesto Junior College; Karla Walters, University of New Mexico; and Joseph Zeppetello, Ulster Community College. I am also indebted to those who cheerfully answered questions and generously provided miscellaneous bits of information. What might have seemed to them like inconsequential conversations turned out to be important leads. Among these friends and colleagues are Raymond Anselment, Barbara Campbell, Ann Charters, Karen Chow, John Chris- tie, Eleni Coundouriotis, Irving Cummings, William Curtin, Patrick Hogan, Lee Jacobus, Thomas Jambeck, Bonnie Januszewski-Ytuarte, Greta Little, George Monteiro, Brenda Murphy, Joel Myerson, Rose Qui- ello, Thomas Recchio, William Sheidley, Stephanie Smith, Milton Stern, Kenneth Wilson, and the dedicated reference librarians at the Homer Babbidge Library, University of Connecticut. I am particularly happy to acknowledge the tactful help of Roxanne Cody, owner of R. J. Julia Book- sellers in Madison, Connecticut, whose passion for books authorizes her as the consummate matchmaker for writers, readers, and titles. It’s a wonder that somebody doesn’t call the cops. I continue to be grateful for what I have learned from teaching my students and for the many student papers I have received over the years

xvi preface for instructors

that I have used in various forms to serve as good and accessible mod- els of student writing. I am also indebted to Stefanie Wortman for her extensive work on Resources for Teaching literature to go. At Bedford/St. Martin’s, my debts once again require more time to ack- nowledge than the deadline allows. Charles H. Christensen and Joan E. Feinberg initiated The Bedford Introduction to Literature and launched it with their intelligence, energy, and sound advice. This book has also ben- efi ted from the savvy insights of Denise Wydra and Steve Scipione. Ear- lier editions were shaped by editors Karen Henry, Kathy Retan, Alanya Harter, Aron Keesbury, and Ellen Thibault; their work was as fi rst rate as it was essential. As development editor for Literature to Go, Christina Gerogiannis expertly kept the book on track and made the journey a pleasure to the end; her valuable contributions richly remind me of how fortunate I am to be a Bedford/St. Martin’s author. Stephanie Naudin, associate editor, energetically developed the book’s instructor’s manual, and Sophia Snyder, editorial assistant, gracefully handled a variety of editorial tasks. Permissions were deftly arranged by Kalina Hintz, Arthur Johnson, Martha Friedman, and Susan Doheny. The diffi cult tasks of production were skillfully managed by Lindsay DiGianvittorio, whose attention to details and deadlines was essential to the completion of this project. Hilly van Loon provided careful copyediting, and Laura Dewey and Arthur Johnson did meticulous proofreading. I thank all of the people at Bedford/St. Martin’s — including Donna Dennison, who designed the cover, and Adrienne Petsick, the marketing manager — who helped to make this formidable project a manageable one. Finally, I am grateful to my sons Timothy and Matthew for all kinds of help, but mostly I’m just grateful they’re my sons. And for making all the difference, I thank my wife, Regina Barreca.

Brief Contents

Resources for Reading and Writing about Literature inside front cover

Preface for Instructors vii

Introduction: Reading Imaginative Literature 1

FICT ION 7

The Elements of Fiction 9 1. Reading Fiction 11 2. Plot 44 3. Character 64 4. Setting 115 5. Point of View 135 6. Symbolism 178 7. Theme 199 8. Style, Tone, and Irony 223

Fiction in Depth 255 9. A Study of Flannery O’Connor 257

A Collection of Stories 277 10. Stories for Further Reading 279

POETRY 339

The Elements of Poetry 341 11. Reading Poetry 343 12. Word Choice, Word Order, and Tone 375 13. Images 399 14. Figures of Speech 412 15. Symbol, Allegory, and Irony 428

xvii

xviii brief contents

16. Sounds 447 17. Patterns of Rhythm 464 18. Poetic Forms 481 19. Open Form 507

Poetry in Depth 523 20. A Study of Billy Collins: The Author Refl ects on Five Poems 525 21. A Thematic Case Study: Humor and Satire 550

A Collection of Poems 559 22. Poems for Further Reading 561

DR AMA 589

The Study of Drama 591 23. Reading Drama 593 24. Sophocles and Greek Drama 632 25. William Shakespeare and Elizabethan Drama 687 26. Henrik Ibsen and Modern Drama 788

A Collection of Plays 849 27. Plays for Further Reading 851

CRIT ICAL THINKING AND WRIT ING 927

28. Reading and the Writing Process 929 29. Writing about Fiction 942 30. Writing about Poetry 950 31. Writing about Drama 965 32. The Literary Research Paper 973

Glossary of Literary Terms 991

Index of First Lines 1019

Index of Authors and Titles 1023

Index of Terms 1034

Contents

Resources for Reading and Writing about Literature inside front cover

Preface for Instructors vii

Introduction: Reading Imaginative Literature 1 The Nature of Literature 1

Emily Dickinson • A NARROW FELLOW IN THE GRASS 2

The Value of Literature 3 The Changing Literary Canon 5

FICT ION 7

The Elements of Fiction 9

1. Reading Fiction 11 Reading Fiction Responsively 11

Kate Chopin • THE STORY OF AN HOUR 13 A young woman reacts to news of her husband’s death. “She had loved him — sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter!”

a sample close reading An Annotated Section of Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” 15 a sample student paper Differences in Responses to Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” 18

Explorations and Formulas 22 A Comparison of Two Stories 28

Karen van der Zee • FROM A SECRET SORROW 28 “Shut up and listen to me! . . . He was still breathing hard and he looked at her with stormy blue eyes.” A young couple debates their future, Harlequin romance style.

Gail Godwin • A SORROWFUL WOMAN 37 What happens when you’re a wife and mother — but it turns out that’s not what you really wanted?

xix

xx contents

2. Plot 44 Edgar Rice Burroughs • FROM TARZAN OF THE APES 46 Two wild creatures battle over a woman. “Against the long canines of the ape was pitted the thin blade of the man’s knife.”

Alice Walker • THE FLOWERS 53 A young girl gathers fl owers, farther from home than usual. “It seemed gloomy in the little cove. . . . The air was damp, the silence close and deep.”

William Faulkner • A ROSE FOR EMILY 55 In a tale that Faulkner called a ghost story, a woman breaks from traditions of the old South — mysteriously and gruesomely.

3. Character 64 Charles Dickens • FROM HARD TIMES 65 “Facts alone are wanted in life.” No one can take the joy out of learning like Dickens’s Mr. Gradgrind.

May-lee Chai • SAVING SOURDI 69 In the Killing Fields of Cambodia, Sourdi saves her sister Nea. Now in the U.S., Nea wants to save her sister’s happiness.

Herman Melville • BARTLEBY, THE SCRIVENER 85 “I would prefer not to.” The classic story of the most resistant offi ce worker in literature.

4. Setting 115 Ernest Hemingway • SOLDIER’S HOME 117 A young man comes home from war, detached from emotion and the values of those who want him to make something of himself.

Fay Weldon • IND AFF, OR OUT OF LOVE IN SARAJEVO 124 “I love you with inordinate affection!” A graduate student and her married professor travel to the Balkans to make a decision.

A. S. Byatt • BAGLADY 131 A morning of shopping in a luxurious mall in the Far East does not go well for Daphne Gulver-Robinson.

5. Point of View 135 Third-Person Narrator 136 First-Person Narrator 137

Anton Chekhov • THE LADY WITH THE PET DOG 139 “Anna Sergeyevna and he loved each other. . . . Fate itself had meant them for one another, and they could not understand why he had a wife and she a husband.”

Alice Munro • AN OUNCE OF CURE 168 A teenage girl’s fi rst experience with a broken heart leads to catastrophic consequences.

contents xxi

6. Symbolism 178

Ralph Ellison • BATTLE ROYAL 184 A young black man is humiliated, bloodied, and awarded a scholarship as he sets out on a path toward identity and equality in a racist society.

Peter Meinke • THE CRANES 196 People make many promises to the ones they love. Sometimes, there is no turning back.

7. Theme 199 Guy de Maupassant • THE NECKLACE 202 All Mathilde Loisel wants is a pretty necklace for the ball. When she borrows one from a friend, however, things do not go as expected.

Stephen Crane • THE BRIDE COMES TO YELLOW SKY 209 In this commentary on the Wild West, things change with the marriage of the lone marshal of a gunslinging town.

Dagoberto Gilb • LOVE IN L.A. 219 A man driving an unregistered, uninsured ’58 Buick dreams and deceives on the Hollywood Freeway.

8. Style, Tone, and Irony 223 Style 223 Tone 225 Irony 225

Raymond Carver • POPULAR MECHANICS 227 With extreme economy, Carver tells the story of a troubled family’s tug-of-war.

Susan Minot • LUST 229 “The more girls a boy has, the better. . . . For a girl, with each boy it’s as though a petal gets plucked each time.” A woman chronicles her early sexual encounters.

T. Coraghessan Boyle • CARNAL KNOWLEDGE 237 How far will a man go for love? “The turkeys must have sensed that something was up — from behind the long white windowless wall, there arose a watchful gabbling.”

Fiction in Depth 255

9. A Study of Flannery O’Connor 257 A Brief Biography and Introduction 258

Flannery O’Connor • A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND 261 A southern grandmother weighs in on the “goodness” of one of literature’s most famous ex-convicts.

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perspectives on o’connor Flannery O’Connor • On the Use of Exaggeration and Distortion 274 Josephine Hendin • On O’Connor’s Refusal to “Do Pretty” 274 Claire Katz • The Function of Violence in O’Connor’s Fiction 275 Time Magazine • On A Good Man Is Hard to Find 276

A Collection of Stories 277

10. Stories for Further Reading 279 Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni • CLOTHES 280 A young Indian woman sees her marriage, her move to America, and even her wardrobe (and a California 7-Eleven) in terms of possibility.

Nathaniel Hawthorne • THE BIRTHMARK 289 An eighteenth-century scientist seeks to obliterate imperfection.

James Joyce • EVELINE 302 How much should an obedient daughter sacrifi ce to fulfi ll her duty to her family and home?

Jamaica Kincaid • GIRL 306 “Always eat your food in such a way that it won’t turn someone else’s stomach.” A critical mother subjects her daughter to a long list of advice.

Ian McEwan • THE USE OF POETRY 308 When a science major meets a beautiful English student, he decides poetry might have some use after all.

Tim O’Brien • HOW TO TELL A TRUE WAR STORY 318 “If a story seems moral, do not believe it. . . . You can tell a true war story by its abso- lute and uncompromising allegiance to obscenity and evil.”

E. Annie Proulx • 55 MILES TO THE GAS PUMP 329 A brief, startling story of a rancher and his wife.

Mark Twain • THE STORY OF THE GOOD LITTLE BOY 330 Obedience is not exactly celebrated in this story about being too good.

John Updike • A & P 334 “In walks these three girls in nothing but bathing suits.” A teenaged Sammy makes a gallant move that changes his life.

POETRY 339

The Elements of Poetry 341

11. Reading Poetry 343 Reading Poetry Responsively 343

Lisa Parker • SNAPPING BEANS 344

Robert Hayden • THOSE WINTER SUNDAYS 345

John Updike • DOG’S DEATH 346

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The Pleasure of Words 347 William Hathaway • OH, OH 348

a sample close reading An Annotated Version of William Hathaway’s “Oh, Oh” 348

Robert Francis • CATCH 350 a sample student analysis Tossing Metaphors Together in Robert Francis’s “Catch” 351

Elizabeth Bishop • THE FISH 355

Philip Larkin • A STUDY OF READING HABITS 357

Robert Morgan • MOUNTAIN GRAVEYARD 358

E. E. Cummings • l(a 359

Anonymous • WESTERN WIND 360

Regina Barreca • NIGHTTIME FIRES 361 suggestions for approaching poetry 362

Billy Collins • INTRODUCTION TO POETRY 364

Poetry in Popular Forms 364 Helen Farries • MAGIC OF LOVE 366

John Frederick Nims • LOVE POEM 366

Bruce Springsteen • YOU’RE MISSING 368

Poems for Further Study 369 Alberto Ríos • SENIORS 369

Li Ho • A BEAUTIFUL GIRL COMBS HER HAIR 370

Peter Pereira • ANAGRAMMER 371

Robert Frost • DESIGN 372

Mary Oliver • THE POET WITH HIS FACE IN HIS HANDS 373

12. Word Choice, Word Order, and Tone 375 Word Choice 375

Diction 375

Denotations and Connotations 377

Randall Jarrell • THE DEATH OF THE BALL TURRET GUNNER 378

Word Order 380 Tone 380

Katharyn Howd Machan • HAZEL TELLS LAVERNE 380

Martín Espada • LATIN NIGHT AT THE PAWNSHOP 381

Paul Laurence Dunbar • TO A CAPTIOUS CRITIC 382

Diction and Tone in Four Love Poems 382 Robert Herrick • TO THE VIRGINS, TO MAKE MUCH OF TIME 383

Andrew Marvell • TO HIS COY MISTRESS 384

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Ann Lauinger • MARVELL NOIR 387

Sharon Olds • LAST NIGHT 388

Poems for Further Study 389 Thomas Hardy • THE CONVERGENCE OF THE TWAIN 389

David R. Slavitt • TITANIC 391

Gwendolyn Brooks • WE REAL COOL 391

Joan Murray • WE OLD DUDES 392

Louis Simpson • IN THE SUBURBS 393

Emily Dickinson • SOME KEEP THE SABBATH GOING TO CHURCH — 393

John Keats • ODE ON A GRECIAN URN 394

Poets at Play 396 Billy Collins • TAKING OFF EMILY DICKINSON’S CLOTHES 396

Joan Murray • TAKING OFF BILLY COLLINS’ CLOTHES 397

postcard: Billy Collins • TO JOAN MURRAY 398

13. Images 399 Poetry’s Appeal to the Senses 399

William Carlos Williams • POEM 400

Walt Whitman • CAVALRY CROSSING A FORD 400

Theodore Roethke • ROOT CELLAR 401

Matthew Arnold • DOVER BEACH 402

Jimmy Santiago Baca • GREEN CHILE 404

Poems for Further Study 405 Amy Lowell • THE POND 405

William Blake • LONDON 405

Emily Dickinson • WILD NIGHTS — WILD NIGHTS! 406

Wilfred Owen • DULCE ET DECORUM EST 407

Sally Croft • HOME-BAKED BREAD 408

John Keats • TO AUTUMN 409

Ezra Pound • IN A STATION OF THE METRO 411

14. Figures of Speech 412 William Shakespeare • FROM MACBETH (ACT V, SCENE V ) 413

Simile and Metaphor 414 Margaret Atwood • YOU FIT INTO ME 414

Emily Dickinson • PRESENTIMENT — IS THAT LONG SHADOW — ON THE LAWN — 415

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Other Figures 416 Edmund Conti • PRAGMATIST 416

Dylan Thomas • THE HAND THAT SIGNED THE PAPER 417

Janice Townley Moore • TO A WASP 418

J. Patrick Lewis • THE UNKINDEST CUT 420

Poems for Further Study 420 Gary Snyder • HOW POETRY COMES TO ME 420

Ernest Slyman • LIGHTNING BUGS 421

Judy Page Heitzman • THE SCHOOLROOM ON THE SECOND FLOOR OF THE KNITTING MILL 421

William Wordsworth • LONDON, 1802 422

Robert Frost • FIRE AND ICE 423

John Donne • A VALEDICTION: FORBIDDING MOURNING 423

Linda Pastan • MARKS 425

Kay Ryan • HAILSTORM 425

Elaine Magarrell • THE JOY OF COOKING 426

15. Symbol, Allegory, and Irony 428 Symbol 428

Robert Frost • ACQUAINTED WITH THE NIGHT 429

Allegory 431 Edgar Allan Poe • THE HAUNTED PALACE 431

Irony 433 Edwin Arlington Robinson • RICHARD CORY 433

Kenneth Fearing • AD 434

E. E. Cummings • NEXT TO OF COURSE GOD AMERICA I 435

Stephen Crane • A MAN SAID TO THE UNIVERSE 436

Poems for Further Study 437 Bob Hicok • MAKING IT IN POETRY 437

Kevin Pierce • PROOF OF ORIGIN 437

Carl Sandburg • BUTTONS 438

Wallace Stevens • ANECDOTE OF THE JAR 438

Jim Tilley • RICHTER 7.8 439

William Stafford • TRAVELING THROUGH THE DARK 440

Alden Nowlan • THE BULL MOOSE 441

Julio Marzán • ETHNIC POETRY 442

James Merrill • CASUAL WEAR 443

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Robert Browning • MY LAST DUCHESS 444

William Blake • THE CHIMNEY SWEEPER 445

16. Sounds 447 Listening to Poetry 447

John Updike • PLAYER PIANO 448

May Swenson • A NOSTY FRIGHT 449

Emily Dickinson • A BIRD CAME DOWN THE WALK — 450

Galway Kinnell • BLACKBERRY EATING 452

Rhyme 453 Richard Armour • GOING TO EXTREMES 453

Robert Southey • FROM “THE CATARACT OF LODORE” 454

Sound and Meaning 457 Gerard Manley Hopkins • GOD’S GRANDEUR 457

Poems for Further Study 458 Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) • JABBERWOCKY 458

Emily Dickinson • I HEARD A FLY BUZZ — WHEN I DIED — 459

Robert Frost • STOPPING BY WOODS ON A SNOWY EVENING 460

John Donne • SONG 461

Paul Humphrey • BLOW 462

Robert Francis • THE PITCHER 462

Helen Chasin • THE WORD PLUM 463

17. Patterns of Rhythm 464 Some Principles of Meter 464

Walt Whitman • FROM “SONG OF THE OPEN ROAD” 465

William Wordsworth • MY HEART LEAPS UP 468 suggestions for scanning a poem 469

Timothy Steele • WAITING FOR THE STORM 470

William Butler Yeats • THAT THE NIGHT COME 470

Poems for Further Study 471 Alfred, Lord Tennyson • BREAK, BREAK, BREAK 471

Alice Jones • THE FOOT 472

Rita Dove • FOX TROT FRIDAYS 473

Robert Herrick • DELIGHT IN DISORDER 474

Ben Jonson • STILL TO BE NEAT 474

William Blake • THE LAMB 475

William Blake • THE TYGER 476

contents xxvii

Carl Sandburg • CHICAGO 477

Robert Frost • “OUT, OUT — ” 478

Theodore Roethke • MY PAPA’S WALTZ 479

18. Poetic Forms 481 Some Common Poetic Forms 482

A. E. Housman • LOVELIEST OF TREES, THE CHERRY NOW 482

Robert Herrick • UPON JULIA’S CLOTHES 483

Sonnet 484

John Keats • ON FIRST LOOKING INTO CHAPMAN’S HOMER 485

William Wordsworth • THE WORLD IS TOO MUCH WITH US 486

William Shakespeare • SHALL I COMPARE THEE TO A SUMMER’S DAY? 487

William Shakespeare • MY MISTRESS’ EYES ARE NOTHING LIKE THE SUN 487

Edna St. Vincent Millay • I WILL PUT CHAOS INTO FOURTEEN LINES 488

Molly Peacock • DESIRE 489

Mark Jarman • UNHOLY SONNET 489

X. J. Kennedy • “THE PURPOSE OF TIME IS TO PREVENT EVERYTHING FROM HAPPENING AT ONCE” 490

Villanelle 491

Dylan Thomas • DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT 491

Sestina 492

Florence Cassen Mayers • ALL-AMERICAN SESTINA 492

Epigram 493

Samuel Taylor Coleridge • WHAT IS AN EPIGRAM? 494

A. R. Ammons • COWARD 494

David McCord • EPITAPH ON A WAITER 494

Paul Laurence Dunbar • THEOLOGY 494

Limerick 495

Anonymous • THERE WAS A YOUNG LADY NAMED BRIGHT 495

Laurence Perrine • THE LIMERICK’S NEVER AVERSE 495

Haiku 496

Matsuo Bash–o • UNDER CHERRY TREES 496

Carolyn Kizer • AFTER BASH – O 496

Sonia Sanchez • C’MON MAN HOLD ME 496

Elegy 497

Theodore Roethke • ELEGY FOR JANE 497

Brendan Galvin • AN EVEL KNIEVEL ELEGY 498

xxviii contents

Ode 499

Percy Bysshe Shelley • ODE TO THE WEST WIND 499

Baron Wormser • LABOR 502

Parody 503

Blanche Farley • THE LOVER NOT TAKEN 503 perspective Elaine Mitchell • Form 504

Picture Poem 505

Michael McFee • IN MEDIAS RES 505

19. Open Form 507 E. E. Cummings • IN JUST- 507

Walt Whitman • FROM “I SING THE BODY ELECTRIC” 508

Louis Jenkins • THE PROSE POEM 510

Galway Kinnell • AFTER MAKING LOVE WE HEAR FOOTSTEPS 511

Kelly Cherry • ALZHEIMER’S 512

William Carlos Williams • THE RED WHEELBARROW 513

Marilyn Nelson Waniek • EMILY DICKINSON’S DEFUNCT 513

Julio Marzán • THE TRANSLATOR AT THE RECEPTION FOR LATIN AMERICAN WRITERS 514

Anonymous • THE FROG 515

Julia Alvarez • QUEENS, 1963 515

Tato Laviera • AMERÍCAN 517

Peter Meinke • THE ABC OF AEROBICS 519

Found Poem 520

Donald Justice • ORDER IN THE STREETS 520

Poetry in Depth 523

20. A Study of Billy Collins: The Author Refl ects on Five Poems 525 A Brief Biography and an Introduction to His Work 526

introduction: Billy Collins • “HOW DO POEMS TRAVEL?” 531

poem: Billy Collins • OSSO BUCO 532

essay: Billy Collins • ON WRITING “OSSO BUCO” 533

poem: Billy Collins • NOSTALGIA 534

essay: Billy Collins • ON WRITING “NOSTALGIA” 535

poem: Billy Collins • QUESTIONS ABOUT ANGELS 537

essay: Billy Collins • ON WRITING “QUESTIONS ABOUT ANGELS” 538

poem: Billy Collins • LITANY 539

essay: Billy Collins • ON WRITING “LITANY” 540

contents xxix

poem: Billy Collins • BUILDING WITH ITS FACE BLOWN OFF 541 perspective (interview) On “Building with Its Face Blown Off ”: Michael Meyer Interviews Billy Collins 542

facsimile: Billy Collins • DRAFT MANUSCRIPT PAGE OF “BUSY DAY” 546 suggested topics for longer papers 547 questions for writing about an author in depth 548

21. A Thematic Case Study: Humor and Satire 550 Fleur Adcock • THE VIDEO 551

John Ciardi • SUBURBAN 552

Howard Nemerov • WALKING THE DOG 552

Linda Pastan • JUMP CABLING 553

Peter Schmitt • FRIENDS WITH NUMBERS 554

Martín Espada • THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE REVISES ITS CURRICULUM IN RESPONSE TO CHANGING DEMOGRAPHICS 555

Thomas Lux • COMMERCIAL LEECH FARMING TODAY 555

X. J. Kennedy • ON A YOUNG MAN’S REMAINING AN UNDERGRADUATE FOR TWELVE YEARS 557

A Collection of Poems 559

22. Poems for Further Reading 561 William Blake • INFANT SORROW 561

Robert Burns • A RED, RED ROSE 561

George Gordon, Lord Byron • SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY 562

Lucille Clifton • THIS MORNING (FOR THE GIRLS OF EASTERN HIGH SCHOOL) 563

Samuel Taylor Coleridge • KUBLA KHAN: OR, A VISION IN A DREAM 563

Emily Dickinson • BECAUSE I COULD NOT STOP FOR DEATH — 565

Emily Dickinson • HE FUMBLES AT YOUR SOUL 565

Emily Dickinson • I FELT A FUNERAL, IN MY BRAIN 566

Emily Dickinson • I STARTED EARLY — TOOK MY DOG — 566

Emily Dickinson • MY LIFE HAD STOOD — A LOADED GUN — 567

John Donne • THE APPARITION 568

John Donne • THE FLEA 568

T. S. Eliot • THE LOVE SONG OF J. ALFRED PRUFROCK 569

Robert Frost • MENDING WALL 573

Robert Frost • THE ROAD NOT TAKEN 574

Thomas Hardy • HAP 574

Gerard Manley Hopkins • PIED BEAUTY 575

A. E. Housman • TO AN ATHLETE DYING YOUNG 575

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Langston Hughes • HARLEM 576

Ben Jonson • TO CELIA 577

John Keats • LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI 577

John Keats • WRITTEN IN DISGUST OF VULGAR SUPERSTITION 579

Emma Lazarus • THE NEW COLOSSUS 579

John Milton • WHEN I CONSIDER HOW MY LIGHT IS SPENT 580

Christina Georgina Rossetti • SOME LADIES DRESS IN MUSLIN FULL AND WHITE 580

Siegfried Sassoon • “THEY” 581

William Shakespeare • THAT TIME OF YEAR THOU MAYST IN ME BEHOLD 581

William Shakespeare • WHEN, IN DISGRACE WITH FORTUNE AND MEN’S EYES 581

Percy Bysshe Shelley • OZYMANDIAS 582

Alfred, Lord Tennyson • ULYSSES 582

Alfred, Lord Tennyson • TEARS, IDLE TEARS 584

Walt Whitman • WHEN I HEARD THE LEARN’D ASTRONOMER 585

William Carlos Williams • THIS IS JUST TO SAY 585

William Wordsworth • A SLUMBER DID MY SPIRIT SEAL 586

William Wordsworth • THE SOLITARY REAPER 586

William Wordsworth • MUTABILITY 587

William Butler Yeats • LEDA AND THE SWAN 587

DR AMA 589

The Study of Drama 591

23. Reading Drama 593 Reading Drama Responsively 593

Susan Glaspell • TRIFLES 595 Did Mrs. Wright kill her husband? While the men investigate, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale reach their own conclusions.

a sample close reading An Annotated Section of Susan Glaspell’s Trifles 606

Elements of Drama 607 Joan Ackermann • QUIET TORRENTIAL SOUND 612 Two sisters in their thirties order at a café: one a hot fudge sundae and a Diet Coke, the other a decaf. In short order, the conversation turns to appetites.

Drama in Popular Forms 619 Larry David • “THE PITCH,” A SEINFELD EPISODE 622 Are our lives just a series of insignifi cant, mundane events? Of episodes in which nothing happens?

contents xxxi

24. Sophocles and Greek Drama 632 Theatrical Conventions of Greek Drama 633 Tragedy 636

Sophocles • OEDIPUS THE KING 639 In the greatest of the surviving Greek tragedies, a hero sets out to discover the truth about himself.

25. William Shakespeare and Elizabethan Drama 687 Shakespeare’s Theater 689 The Range of Shakespeare’s Drama: History, Comedy, and Tragedy 693 A Note on Reading Shakespeare 696

William Shakespeare • OTHELLO, THE MOOR OF VENICE 698 Jealousy proves to be the downfall of a Moorish general in this tragedy of love, betrayal, friendship, and race.

26. Henrik Ibsen and Modern Drama 788 Realism 788 Theatrical Conventions of Modern Drama 790

Henrik Ibsen • A DOLL HOUSE 792 “Yes, whatever you say, Torvald.” Can a nineteenth-century wife break from her dominating husband?

A Collection of Plays 849

27. Plays for Further Reading 851 Sharon E. Cooper • MISTAKEN IDENTITY 852 A Hindu lesbian and a clueless American go on a blind date.

David Henry Hwang • TRYING TO FIND CHINATOWN 857 “What — you think if I deny the importance of my race, I’m nobody?” Two young men have very different ideas about what makes us who we are.

Jane Martin • RODEO 864 When a closely knit community is corrupted in the name of progress and profi t, can it recover?

Jane Anderson • THE REPRIMAND 868 Mim and Rhona work through their professional power struggle. Sort of.

Nilaja Sun • NO CHILD . . . 905 When Ms. Sun arrives to direct a play with the worst class in school, her funny and frank students are more than a little skeptical.

xxxii contents

CRIT ICAL THINKING AND WRIT ING 927

28. Reading and the Writing Process 929 The Purpose and Value of Writing about Literature 929 Reading the Work Closely 930 Annotating the Text and Journal Note Taking 930

Annotated Text 931

Journal Note 931

Choosing a Topic 932 Developing a Thesis 933 Arguing about Literature 934 Organizing a Paper 935 Writing a Draft 936

Writing the Introduction and Conclusion 937

Using Quotations 937

Revising and Editing 939 questions for writing: a revision checklist 939

Types of Writing Assignments 941

29. Writing about Fiction 942 From Reading to Writing 942

questions for responsive reading and writing 943 Analysis 945

a sample student analysis John Updike’s “A&P” as a State of Mind 945

30. Writing about Poetry 950 From Reading to Writing 950

questions for responsive reading and writing 951

Explication 952

A Sample Paper-in-Progress 953 Mapping a Poem 953

John Donne • DEATH BE NOT PROUD 954

Asking Questions about the Elements 954 a sample fi rst response First Response to John Donne’s “Death Be Not Proud” 954

Organizing Your Thoughts 955 a sample informal outline Proposed Outline for Paper on John Donne’s “Death Be Not Proud” 956

contents xxxiii

The Elements and Theme 957 fi nal paper: a sample explication The Use of Conventional Metaphors for Death in John Donne’s “Death Be Not Proud” 957

A Sample Student Explication 961 A Reading of Emily Dickinson’s “There’s a certain Slant of light” 961

Emily Dickinson • THERE’S A CERTAIN SLANT OF LIGHT 961

31. Writing about Drama 965 From Reading to Writing 965

questions for responsive reading and writing 966 Comparison and Contrast 968

32. The Literary Research Paper 973 Choosing a Topic 974 Finding Sources 975

Electronic Sources 975

Evaluating Sources and Taking Notes 976 Developing a Thesis and Organizing the Paper 977 Revising 978 Documenting Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism 978

The List of Works Cited 980 Parenthetical References 985

a sample student research paper How William Faulkner’s Narrator Cultivates a Rose for Emily 986

Glossary of Literary Terms 991

Index of First Lines 1019

Index of Authors and Titles 1023

Index of Terms 1034

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1

THE NATURE OF LITER ATURE Literature does not lend itself to a single tidy definition because the mak- ing of it over the centuries has been as complex, unwieldy, and natural as life itself. Is literature everything that has been written, from ancient prayers to graffiti? Does it include songs and stories that were not written down until many years after they were recited? Does literature include the television scripts from Seinfeld as well as Shakespeare’s King Lear? Is litera- ture only writing that has permanent value and continues to move people? Must literature be true or beautiful or moral? Should it be socially useful? Although these kinds of questions are not conclusively answered in this book, they are implicitly raised by the stories, poems, and plays included here. No definition of literature, particularly a brief one, is likely to satisfy everyone because definitions tend to weaken and require qualification when confronted by the uniqueness of individual works. In this context it is worth recalling Herman Melville’s humorous use of a definition of a whale in Moby-Dick (1851). In the course of the novel, Mel- ville presents his imaginative and symbolic whale as inscrutable, but he begins with a quota tion from Georges Cuvier, a French naturalist who defines a whale in his nineteenth-century study The Animal Kingdom this

INTRODUCTION

Reading Imaginative Literature

© Jerry Bauer.

Literature has been the salvation of the damned; literature has inspired and guided lovers, routed despair, and can perhaps . . . save the world.

— JOHN CHEEVER

2 reading imaginative literature

way: “The whale is a mammiferous animal without hind feet.” Cuvier’s description is technically correct, of course, but there is little wisdom in it. Melville under stood that the reality of the whale (which he describes as the “un graspable phantom of life”) cannot be caught by isolated facts. If the full meaning of the whale is to be understood, it must be sought on the open sea of experience, where the whale itself is, rather than in exclusionary definitions. Facts and definitions are helpful; however, they do not always reveal the whole truth. Despite Melville’s reminder that a definition can be too limiting and even comical, it is useful for our purposes to describe literature as a fiction consisting of carefully arranged words designed to stir the imagination. Stories, poems, and plays are fictional. They are made up — imagined — even when based on actual historic events. Such imaginative writing differs from other kinds of writing because its purpose is not primarily to transmit facts or ideas. Imaginative literature is a source more of pleasure than of infor- mation, and we read it for basically the same reasons we listen to music or view a dance: enjoyment, delight, and satisfaction. Like other art forms, imaginative literature offers pleasure and usually attempts to convey a perspective, mood, feeling, or experience. Writers transform the facts the world provides — people, places, and objects — into experiences that suggest meanings. Consider, for example, the difference between the following factual de scription of a snake and a poem on the same subject. Here is Webster’s Eleventh New Collegiate Dictionary’s definition:

any of numerous limbless scaled reptiles (suborder Serpentes syn. Ophidia) with a long tapering body and with salivary glands often modified to produce venom which is injected through grooved or tubular fangs.

Contrast this matter-of-fact definition with Emily Dickinson’s poetic evocation of a snake in “A narrow Fellow in the Grass”:

A narrow Fellow in the Grass Occasionally rides — You may have met Him — did you not His notice sudden is —

The Grass divides as with a Comb — 5 A spotted shaft is seen — And then it closes at your feet And opens further on —

He likes a Boggy Acre A floor too cool for Corn — 10 Yet when a Boy, and Barefoot — I more than once at Noon

Have passed, I thought, a Whip lash Unbraiding in the Sun

the value of literature 3

When stooping to secure it 15 It wrinkled, and was gone —

Several of Nature’s People I know, and they know me — I feel for them a transport Of cordiality — 20

But never met this Fellow Attended, or alone Without a tighter breathing And Zero at the Bone —

The dictionary provides a succinct, anatomical description of what a snake is, while Dickinson’s poem suggests what a snake can mean. The defi nition offers facts; the poem offers an experience. The dictionary would probably allow someone who had never seen a snake to sketch one with reasonable accuracy. The poem also provides some vivid subjec- tive descriptions — for example, the snake dividing the grass “as with a Comb” — yet it offers more than a picture of serpentine movements. The poem conveys the ambivalence many people have about snakes — the kind of feeling, for example, so evident on the faces of visitors viewing the snakes at a zoo. In the poem there is both a fascination with and a horror of what might be called snakehood; this combination of feelings has been coiled in most of us since Adam and Eve. A good deal more could be said about the numbing fear that under- cuts the affection for nature at the beginning of this poem, but the point here is that imaginative literature gives us not so much the full, fac- tual proportions of the world as some of its experiences and meanings. Instead of de fining the world, literature encourages us to try it out in our imaginations.

THE VALUE OF LITER ATURE Mark Twain once shrewdly observed that a person who chooses not to read has no advantage over a person who is unable to read. In industri- alized societies today, however, the question is not who reads, because nearly everyone can and does, but what is read. Why should anyone spend precious time with literature when there is so much reading material available that provides useful information about everything from the daily news to personal computers? Why should a literary art- ist’s imagination compete for attention that could be spent on the firm realities that constitute everyday life? In fact, national best-seller lists much less often include collections of stories, poems, or plays than they do cookbooks and, not surprisingly, diet books. Although such fare may be filling, it doesn’t stay with you. Most people have other appetites too.

4 reading imaginative literature

Certainly one of the most important values of literature is that it nourishes our emotional lives. An effective literary work may seem to speak directly to us, especially if we are ripe for it. The inner life that good writers reveal in their characters often gives us glimpses of some portion of ourselves. We can be moved to laugh, cry, tremble, dream, ponder, shriek, or rage with a character by simply turning a page instead of turning our lives upside down. Although the experience itself is imag- ined, the emotion is real. That’s why the final chapters of a good adven- ture novel can make a reader’s heart race as much as a 100-yard dash or why the repressed love of Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is painful to a sympathetic reader. Human emotions speak a universal language regardless of when or where a work was written. In addition to appealing to our emotions, literature broadens our perspectives on the world. Most of the people we meet are pretty much like ourselves, and what we can see of the world even in a lifetime is astonishingly limited. Literature allows us to move beyond the inevitable boundaries of our own lives and culture because it introduces us to people different from ourselves, places remote from our neighborhoods, and times other than our own. Reading makes us more aware of life’s possibilities as well as its subtleties and ambiguities. Put simply, people who read literature experience more life and have a keener sense of a common human identity than those who do not. It is true, of course, that many people go through life without reading imaginative literature, but that is a loss rather than a gain. They may find themselves troubled by the same kinds of questions that reveal Daisy Buchanan’s restless, vague discontentment in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby: “What’ll we do with ourselves this afternoon?” cried Daisy, “and the day after that, and the next thirty years?” Sometimes students mistakenly associate literature more with school than with life. Accustomed to reading it in order to write a paper or pass an examination, students may perceive such reading as a chore instead of a pleasurable opportunity, something considerably less important than studying for the “practical” courses that prepare them for a career. The study of literature, however, is also practical because it engages you in the kinds of problem solving important in a variety of fields, from phi- losophy to science and technology. The interpretation of literary texts requires you to deal with uncertainties, value judgments, and emotions; these are unavoidable aspects of life. People who make the most significant contributions to their profes- sions — whether in business, engineering, teaching, or some other area — tend to be challenged rather than threatened by multiple possibilities. Instead of retreating to the way things have always been done, they bring freshness and creativity to their work. F. Scott Fitzgerald once astutely described the “test of a first-rate intelligence” as “the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.” People with such intelligence know how to read situations,

the changing literary canon 5

shape questions, interpret details, and evaluate competing points of view. Equipped with a healthy respect for facts, they also understand the value of pursuing hunches and exercising their imaginations. Reading literature encourages a suppleness of mind that is helpful in any discipline or work. Once the requirements for your degree are completed, what ultimately matters are not the courses listed on your transcript but the sensibili- ties and habits of mind that you bring to your work, friends, family, and, indeed, the rest of your life. A healthy economy changes and grows with the times; people do too if they are prepared for more than simply filling a job description. The range and variety of life that literature affords can help you to interpret your own experiences and the world in which you live. To discover the insights that literature reveals requires careful reading and sensitivity. One of the purposes of a college introduction to literature class is to cultivate the analytic skills necessary for reading well. Class discussions often help establish a dialogue with a work that perhaps otherwise would not speak to you. Analytic skills can also be developed by writing about what you read. Writing is an effective means of clarifying your responses and ideas because it requires you to account for the author’s use of language as well as your own. This book is based on two premises: that reading literature is pleasurable and that reading and understanding a work sensitively by thinking, talking, or writing about it increases the pleasure of the experience of it. Understanding its basic elements — such as point of view, symbol, theme, tone, irony, and so on — is a prerequisite to an informed appre- ciation of literature. This kind of understanding allows you to perceive more in a literary work in much the same way that a spectator at a ten- nis match sees more if he or she understands the rules and conventions of the game. But literature is not simply a spectator sport. The analytic skills that open up literature also have their uses when you watch a tele- vision program or film and, more important, when you attempt to sort out the significance of the people, places, and events that constitute your own life. Literature enhances and sharpens your perceptions. What could be more lastingly practical as well as satisfying?

THE CHANGING LITER ARY CANON Perhaps the best reading creates some kind of change in us: We see more clearly; we’re alert to nuances; we ask questions that previously didn’t occur to us. Henry David Thoreau had that sort of reading in mind when he remarked in Walden that the books he valued most were those that caused him to date “a new era in his life from the reading.” Readers are sometimes changed by literature, but it is also worth noting that the life of a literary work can also be affected by its readers. Melville’s Moby-Dick, for example, was not valued as a classic until the 1920s, when critics res- cued the novel from the obscurity of being cataloged in many libraries

6 reading imaginative literature

(including Yale’s) not under fiction but under cetology, the study of whales. In deed, many writers contemporary to Melville who were impor- tant and popular in the nineteenth century — William Cullen Bryant, Henry Wads worth Longfellow, and James Russell Lowell, to name a few — are now mostly unread; their names appear more often on elemen- tary schools built early in this century than in anthologies. Clearly, liter- ary reputations and what is valued as great literature change over time and in the eyes of readers. Such changes have steadily accelerated as the literary canon — those works considered by scholars, critics, and teachers to be the most impor- tant to read and study — has undergone a significant series of shifts. Writers who previously were overlooked, undervalued, neglected, or stu- diously ignored have been brought into focus in an effort to create a more diverse literary canon, one that recognizes the contributions of the many cultures that make up American society. Since the 1960s, for example, some critics have reassessed writings by women who had been left out of the standard literary traditions dominated by male writers. Many more female writers are now read alongside the male writers who traditionally populated literary history. Hence, a reader of Mark Twain and Stephen Crane is now just as likely to encounter Kate Chopin in a literary anthol- ogy. Until fairly recently, Chopin was mostly regarded as a minor local colorist of Louisiana life. In the 1960s, however, the feminist movement helped to establish her present reputation as a significant voice in Ameri- can literature owing to the feminist concerns so compellingly artic ulated by her female characters. This kind of enlargement of the canon also resulted from another reform movement of the 1960s. The civil rights movement sensitized literary critics to the political, moral, and aesthetic necessity of rediscovering African American literature, and more recently Asian and Hispanic writers have been making their way into the canon. Moreover, on a broader scale the canon is being revised and enlarged to include the works of writers from parts of the world other than the West, a development that reflects the changing values, concerns, and complexi- ties of recent decades, when literary landscapes have shifted as dramati- cally as the political boundaries of much of the world.

No semester’s reading list — or anthology — can adequately or accurately echo all the new voices competing to be heard as part of the mainstream literary canon, but recent efforts to open up the canon attempt to sensi- tize readers to the voices of women, minorities, and writers from all over the world. This development has not occurred without its urgent advo- cates or passionate dissenters. It’s no surprise that issues about race, gen- der, and class often get people off the fence and on their feet. Al though what we regard as literature — whether it’s called great, classic, or canoni- cal — continues to generate debate, there is no question that such con- troversy will continue to reflect readers’ values as well as the writers they admire.

F I C T I O N

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9

1. Reading Fiction 11

2. Plot 44

3. Character 64

4. Setting 115

5. Point of View 135

6. Symbolism 178

7. Theme 199

8. Style, Tone, and Irony 223

The Elements of Fiction

9

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READING FICT ION RESPONSIVELY Reading a literary work responsively can be an intensely demanding activity. Henry David Thoreau — about as intense and demanding a reader and writer as they come — insists that “books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written.” Thoreau is right about the necessity for a conscious, sustained involvement with a literary work. Imaginative literature does demand more from us than, say, browsing through People magazine in a dentist’s waiting room, but Thoreau makes the process sound a little more daunting than it really is. For when we respond to the demands of responsive reading, our efforts are usually rewarded with pleasure as well as understanding. Careful, deliberate reading — the kind that engages a reader’s imagination as it calls forth the writer’s — is a means of exploration that can take a reader outside whatever circumstance or experience previously defi ned his or her world. Just as we respond moment by moment to people and situations in our lives, we also respond to literary works as we read them, though we may

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1 Reading Fiction

To seek the source, the impulse of a story is like tearing a fl ower to pieces for wantonness.

— KATE CHOPIN

What we do might be done in solitude and with great desperation, but it tends to produce exactly the opposite. It tends to produce community and in many people hope and joy.

— JUNOT DÍAZ © Scott Lituchy/Star Ledger/ corbis.

Brought to you by LibraryPirate... 12 reading fiction

not be fully aware of how we are affected at each point along the way. The more conscious we are of how and why we respond to works in par- ticular ways, the more likely we are to be imaginatively engaged in our reading. In a very real sense both the reader and the author create the liter- ary work. How a reader responds to a story, poem, or play will help to determine its meaning. The author arranges the various elements that constitute his or her craft — elements such as plot, character, setting, point of view, symbolism, theme, and style, which you will be examin- ing in subsequent chapters — but the author cannot completely control the reader’s response any more than a person can absolutely predict how a remark or action will be received by a stranger, a friend, or even a family member. Few authors tell readers how to respond. Our sympa- thy, anger, confusion, laughter, sadness, or whatever the feeling might be is left up to us to experience. Writers may have the talent to evoke such feelings, but they don’t have the power and authority to enforce them. Because of the range of possible responses produced by imagina- tive literature, there is no single, correct, defi nitive response or inter- pretation. There can be readings that are wrongheaded or foolish, and some readings are better than others — that is, more responsive to a work’s details and more persuasive — but that doesn’t mean there is only one possible reading of a work. Experience tells us that different people respond differently to the same work. Consider, for example, how often you’ve heard Melville’s Moby-Dick described as one of the greatest American novels. This, how- ever, is how a reviewer in New Monthly Magazine described the book when it was published in 1851: It is “a huge dose of hyperbolical slang, maudlin sentimentalism and tragic-comic bubble and squeak.” Melville surely did not intend or desire this response; but there it is, and it was not a singu- lar, isolated reaction. This reading — like any reading — was infl uenced by the values, assumptions, and expectations that the readers brought to the novel from both previous readings and life experiences. The reviewer’s refusal to take the book seriously may have caused him to miss the boat from the perspective of many other readers of Moby-Dick, but it indicates that even “classics” (perhaps especially those kinds of works) can generate disparate readings. Consider the following brief story by Kate Cho- pin, a writer whose fi ction (like Melville’s) sometimes met with indifference or hostility in her own time. As you read, keep track of your responses to the cen- tral character, Mrs. Mallard. Write down your feelings about her in a substantial paragraph when you fi nish the story. Think, for example, about how you respond to the emotions she expresses concerning news of her husband’s death. What do you think of her feelings about mar- riage? Do you think you would react the way she does under similar circumstances?

WEB Explore contexts for Kate Chopin and approaches to this story at bedfordstmartins.com/ rewritinglit.

chopin / the story of an hour 13

Kate Chopin (1851–1904)

The Story of an Hour 1894

Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was affl icted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death. It was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken sentences; veiled hints that revealed in half concealing. Her husband’s friend Richards was there, too, near her. It was he who had been in the newspaper offi ce when intelligence of the railroad disaster was received, with Brently Mallard’s name leading the list of “killed.” He had only taken the time to assure himself of its truth by a second telegram, and had hastened to forestall any less careful, less tender friend in bearing the sad message. She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its signifi cance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms. When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow her. There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy arm- chair. Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul. She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which some one was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves. There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window. She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair, quite motionless, except when a sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams. She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength. But now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fi xed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of refl ection, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought. There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that fi lled the air. Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously. She was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was

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striving to beat it back with her will — as powerless as her two white slen- der hands would have been. When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: “free, free, free!” The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body. She did not stop to ask if it were or were not a monstrous joy that held her. A clear and exalted perception enabled her to dismiss the sug- gestion as trivial. She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fi xed and gray and dead. But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome. There would be no one to live for her during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature. A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination. And yet she had loved him — sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being! “Free! Body and soul free!” she kept whispering. Josephine was kneeling before the closed door with her lips to the keyhole, imploring for admission. “Louise, open the door! I beg; open the door — you will make yourself ill. What are you doing, Louise? For heaven’s sake open the door.” “Go away. I am not making myself ill.” No; she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window. Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her. Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long. She arose at length and opened the door to her sister’s importunities. There was a feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwit- tingly like a goddess of Victory. She clasped her sister’s waist, and together they descended the stairs. Richards stood waiting for them at the bottom. Some one was opening the front door with a latchkey. It was Brently Mallard who entered, a little travel-stained, composedly carrying his grip- sack and umbrella. He had been far from the scene of accident, and did not even know there had been one. He stood amazed at Josephine’s pierc- ing cry; at Richards’ quick motion to screen him from the view of his wife. But Richards was too late.

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chopin / the story of an hour 15

When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease — of joy that kills.

A SAMPLE CLOSE READING An Annotated Section of “The Story of an Hour”

Even as you read a story for the fi rst time, you can highlight passages, circle or underline words, and write responses in the margins. Subse- quent readings will yield more insights once you begin to understand how various elements such as plot, characterization, and wording build toward the conclusion and what you perceive to be the story’s central ideas. The following annotations for the fi rst eleven paragraphs of “The Story of an Hour” provide a perspective written by someone who had read the work several times. Your own approach might, of course, be quite different — as the sample paper that follows the annotated passage amply demonstrates.

Kate Chopin (1851–1904)

The Story of an Hour 1894

Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was affl icted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death. It was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken sentences; veiled hints that revealed in half concealing. Her husband’s friend Richards was there, too, near her. It was he who had been in the newspaper offi ce when intelligence of the railroad disaster was received, with Brently Mallard’s name leading the list of “killed.” He had only taken the time to assure himself of its truth by a second telegram, and had hastened to forestall any less careful, less tender friend in bearing the sad message. She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its signifi cance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild aban- donment, in her sister’s arms. When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow her. There stood, facing the open window, a comfort- able, roomy armchair. Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul.

The title could point to the brevity of the story — only 23 short paragraphs — or to the decisive nature of what happens in a very short period of time. Or both.

Mrs. Mallard’s fi rst name (Louise) is not given until para- graph 17, yet her sister Josephine is named immediately. This emphasizes Mrs. Mallard’s married identity.

Given the nature of the cause of Mrs. Mallard’s death at the story’s end, it’s worth noting the ambiguous description that she “was affl icted with a heart trouble.” Is this one of Chopin’s (rather than Jose- phine’s) “veiled hints”?

When Mrs. Mallard weeps with “wild abandonment,” the reader is again confronted with an ambiguous phrase: she grieves in an overwhelming manner yet seems to express relief at being abandoned by Brently’s death.

16 reading fiction

She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a dis- tant song which some one was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves. There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window. She sat with her head thrown back upon the cush- ion of the chair, quite motionless, except when a sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams. She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength. But now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fi xed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of refl ection, but rather indicated a sus- pension of intelligent thought. There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that fi lled the air. Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously. She was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will — as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been. When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: “free, free, free!” The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body. . . .

Do you fi nd Mrs. Mallard a sympathetic character? Some readers think that she is callous, selfi sh, and unnatural — even monstrous — because she ecstatically revels in her newly discovered sense of freedom so soon after learning of her husband’s presumed death. Others read her as a victim of her inability to control her own life in a repressive, male- dominated society. Is it possible to hold both views simultaneously, or are they mutually exclusive? Are your views in any way infl uenced by your being male or female? Does your age affect your perception? What

These 3 paragraphs create an increas- ingly “open” atmosphere that leads to the “delicious” outside where there are inviting sounds and “patches of blue sky.” There’s a defi nite tension between the inside and outside worlds.

Though still stunned by grief, Mrs. Mallard begins to feel a change come over her owing to her growing awareness of a world outside her room.

What that change is remains “too subtle and elusive to name.”

Mrs. Mallard’s confl icted struggle is described in pas- sionate, physical terms as if she is “possess[ed]” by a lover she is “powerless” to resist.

Once she has “aban- doned” herself (see the “abandonment” in paragraph 3), the reader realizes that her love is to be “free, free, free.” Her recognition is evident in the “coursing blood [that] warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.”

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about your social and economic background? Does your nationality, race, or religion in any way shape your attitudes? Do you have particular views about the institution of marriage that inform your assessment of Mrs. Mallard’s character? Have other reading experiences — perhaps a familiarity with some of Chopin’s other stories — predisposed you one way or another to Mrs. Mallard? Understanding potential infl uences might be useful in determin- ing whether a particular response to Mrs. Mallard is based primarily on the story’s details and their arrangement or on an overt or a subtle bias that is brought to the story. If you unconsciously project your beliefs and assumptions onto a literary work, you run the risk of distorting it to accommodate your prejudice. Your feelings can be a reliable guide to interpretation, but you should be aware of what those feelings are based on. Often specifi c questions about literary works cannot be answered defi nitively. For example, Chopin does not explain why Mrs. Mallard suffers a heart attack at the end of this story. Is the shock of seeing her “dead” husband simply too much for this woman “affl icted with a heart trouble”? Does she die of what the doctors call a “joy that kills” because she is so glad to see her husband? Is she so profoundly guilty about feeling “free” at her husband’s expense that she has a heart attack? Is her death a kind of willed suicide in reaction to her loss of freedom? Your answers to these questions will depend on which details you emphasize in your interpretation of the story and the kinds of perspectives and values you bring to it. If, for example, you read the story from a feminist perspective, you would be likely to pay close attention to Chopin’s comments about marriage in paragraph 14. Or if you read the story as an oblique attack on the insensitivity of physicians of the period, you might want to fi nd out whether Chopin

WEB

more help with close reading Close readings of Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour,” Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown,” and Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” are available at Re:Writing for Litera- ture (www.bedfordstmartins.com/ rewritinglit). Each story is annotated with critical interpretations and explanations of the literary elements at work.

www.bedfordstmartins.com/rewritinglit
www.bedfordstmartins.com/rewritinglit
18 reading fiction

wrote elsewhere about doctors (she did) and compare her comments with historic sources. Reading responsively makes you an active participant in the pro- cess of creating meaning in a literary work. The experience that you and the author create will most likely not be identical to another reader’s encounter with the same work, but then that’s true of nearly any experi- ence you’ll have, and it is part of the pleasure of reading. Indeed, talking and writing about literature is a way of sharing responses so that they can be enriched and deepened.

A SAMPLE STUDENT PAPER Differences in Responses to Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”

The paper on the next page was written in response to an assignment that called for a three- to four-page discussion of how different readers might interpret Mrs. Mallard’s character.

a sample student paper 19

Villa 1

Wally Villa

Professor Brian

English 210

March 12, 2010

Differences in Responses to

Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”

Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” appears merely to explore a woman’s

unpredictable reaction to her husband’s assumed death and reappearance, but

actually Chopin offers Mrs. Mallard’s bizarre story to reveal problems that are

inherent in the institution of marriage. By offering this depiction of a marriage

that stifles the woman to the point that she celebrates the death of her kind

and loving husband, Chopin challenges her readers to examine their own views

of marriage and relationships between men and women. Each reader’s judgment

of Mrs. Mallard and her behavior inevitably stems from his or her own personal

feelings about marriage and the influences of societal expectations. Readers

of differing genders, ages, and marital experiences are, therefore, likely to

react differently to Chopin’s startling portrayal of the Mallards’ marriage, and

that certainly is true of my response to the story compared to my father’s and

grandmother’s responses.

Marriage often establishes boundaries between people that make them

unable to communicate with each other. The Mallards’ marriage was evidently

crippled by both their inability to talk to one another and Mrs. Mallard’s

conviction that her marriage was defined by a “powerful will bending hers in

that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to

impose a private will upon a fellow-creature” (14). Yet she does not recognize

that it is not just men who impose their will upon women and that the problems

inherent in marriage affect men and women equally. To me, Mrs. Mallard is

a somewhat sympathetic character, and I appreciate her longing to live out

the “years to come that would belong to her absolutely” (14). However, I also

believe that she could have tried to improve her own situation somehow, either

by reaching out to her husband or by abandoning the marriage altogether.

Chopin uses Mrs. Mallard’s tragedy to illuminate aspects of marriage that are

harmful and, in this case, even deadly. Perhaps the Mallards’ relationship should

be taken as a warning to others: sacrificing one’s own happiness in order to

satisfy societal expectations can poison one’s life and even destroy entire

families.

Thesis providing writer’s interpreta- tion of story’s purpose

Introduction setting up other reader responses discussed later in paper

Analysis of story’s portrayal of marriage, with textual evidence

Analysis of character and plot, connecting with story’s purpose

20 reading fiction

Villa 2

When my father read “The Story of an Hour,” his reaction to Mrs. Mallard

was more antagonistic than my own. He sees Chopin’s story as a timeless

“battle of the sexes,” serving as further proof that men will never really be able

to understand what it is that women want. Mrs. Mallard endures an obviously

unsatisfying marriage without ever explaining to her husband that she feels

trapped and unfulfilled. Mrs. Mallard dismisses the question of whether or

not she is experiencing a “monstrous joy” (14) as trivial, but my father does

not think that this is a trivial question. He believes Mrs. Mallard is guilty of a

monstrous joy because she selfishly celebrates the death of her husband without

ever having allowed him the opportunity to understand her feelings. He believes

that, above all, Brently Mallard should be seen as the most victimized character

in the story. Mr. Mallard is a good, kind man, with friends who care about him

and a marriage that he thinks he can depend on. He “never looked save with

love” (14) upon his wife, his only “crime” (14) was his presence in the house,

and yet he is the one who is bereaved at the end of the story, for reasons he

will never understand. Mrs. Mallard’s passion for her newly discovered freedom is

perhaps understandable, but according to my father, Mr. Mallard is the character

most deserving of sympathy.

Maybe not surprisingly, my grandmother’s interpretation of “The Story

of an Hour” was radically different from both mine and my father’s. My

grandmother was married in 1936 and widowed in 1959 and therefore can

identify with Chopin’s characters, who live at the turn of the century. Her

first reaction, aside from her unwavering support for Mrs. Mallard and her

predicament, was that this story demonstrates the differences between the ways

men and women related to each other a century ago and the way they relate

today. Unlike my father, who thinks Mrs. Mallard is too passive, my grandmother

believes that Mrs. Mallard doesn’t even know that she is feeling repressed until

after she is told that Brently is dead. In 1894, divorce was so scandalous and

stigmatized that it simply wouldn’t have been an option for Mrs. Mallard, and

so her only way out of the marriage would have been one of their deaths. Being

relatively young, Mrs. Mallard probably considered herself doomed to a long

life in an unhappy marriage. My grandmother also feels that, in spite of all we

know of Mrs. Mallard’s feelings about her husband and her marriage, she still

manages to live up to everyone’s expectations of her as a woman both in life

and in death. She is a dutiful wife to Brently, as she is expected to be. She

weeps “with sudden, wild abandonment” when she hears the news of his death;

Contrasting summary and analysis of another reader’s response

Contrasting summary and analysis of another reader’s response

Cultural and historical background providing context for response and story itself

Analysis supported with textual evidence

a sample student paper 21

Villa 3

she locks herself in her room to cope with her new situation, and she has a fatal

heart attack upon seeing her husband arrive home. Naturally the male doctors

would think that she died of the “joy that kills” (15)—nobody could have

guessed that she was unhappy with her life, and she would never have wanted

them to know.

Interpretations of “The Story of an Hour” seem to vary according to the

gender, age, and experience of the reader. While both male and female readers

can certainly sympathize with Mrs. Mallard’s plight, female readers—as was

evident in our class discussions—seem to relate more easily to her predicament

and are quicker to exonerate her of any responsibility for her unhappy situation.

Conversely, male readers are more likely to feel compassion for Mr. Mallard,

who loses his wife for reasons that will always remain entirely unknown to him.

Older readers probably understand more readily the strength of social forces

and the difficulty of trying to deny societal expectations concerning gender

roles in general and marriage in particular. Younger readers seem to feel that

Mrs. Mallard is too passive and that she could have improved her domestic

life immeasurably if she had taken the initiative to either improve or end her

relationship with her husband. Ultimately, how each individual reader responds

to Mrs. Mallard’s story reveals his or her own ideas about marriage, society, and

how men and women communicate with each other.

Villa 4

Work Cited

Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour.” Literature to Go. Ed. Michael Meyer. Boston:

Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. 13–15. Print.

Conclusion summariz- ing reader responses explored in the paper

22 reading fiction

Before beginning your own writing assignment on fi ction, you should review Chapter 29, “Writing about Fiction,” as well as Chapter 28, “Reading and the Writing Process,” which provides a step-by-step expla- nation of how to choose a topic, develop a thesis, and organize various types of writing assignments. If you use outside sources, you should also be familiar with the conventional documentation procedures described in Chapter 32, “The Literary Research Paper.”

EXPLOR ATIONS AND FORMUL AS Each time we pick up a work of fi ction, go to the theater, or turn on the television, we have a trace of the same magical expectation that can be heard in the voice of a child who begs, “Tell me a story.” Human beings have enjoyed stories ever since they learned to speak. Whatever the motive for creating stories — even if simply to delight or instruct — the basic human impulse to tell and hear stories existed long before the develop- ment of written language. Myths about the origins of the world and leg- ends about the heroic exploits of demigods were among the earliest forms of storytelling to develop into oral traditions, which were eventually writ- ten down. These narratives are the ancestors of the stories we read on the printed page today. The stories that appear in anthologies for college students are gener- ally chosen for their high literary quality. Such stories can affect us at the deepest emotional level, reveal new insights into ourselves or the world, and stretch us by exercising our imaginations. The following chapters on plot, character, setting, and the other elements of literature are designed to provide the terms and concepts that can help you understand how a work of fi ction achieves its effects and meanings. It is worth acknowledg- ing, however, that many people buy and read fi ction that is quite differ- ent from the stories usually anthologized in college texts. What about all those paperbacks with exciting, colorful covers near the cash registers in shopping malls and corner drugstores? These books, known as formula fiction, are the adventure, western, detective, science fi ction, and romance novels that entertain millions of readers annually. What makes them so popular? What do their characters, plots, and themes offer readers that accounts for the tre- mendous sales of stories with titles like Caves of Doom, Silent Scream, Colt .45, and Forbidden Ecstasy? Many of the writers included in this book have enjoyed wide popularity and written best-sellers, but there are more readers of formula fi ction than there are readers of Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, or Joyce Carol Oates, to name only a few. Formula novels do provide entertainment, of course, but that makes them no different from serious stories, if entertainment means pleasure. Any of the stories in this or any other anthology can be read for pleasure.

explorations and formulas 23

Formula fi ction, though, is usually characterized as escape litera- ture. There are sensible reasons for this description. Adventure stories about soldiers of fortune are eagerly read by men who live pretty aver- age lives doing ordinary jobs. Romance novels about attractive young women falling in love with tall, dark, handsome men are read mostly by women who dream themselves out of their familiar existences. The excitement, violence, and passion that such stories provide are a kind of reprieve from everyday experience. And yet readers of serious fi ction may also use it as a refuge, a lib- eration from monotony and boredom. Mark Twain’s humorous stories have, for example, given countless hours of pleasurable relief to readers who would rather spend time in Twain’s light and funny world than in their own. Others might prefer the terror of Edgar Allan Poe’s fi ction or the painful predicament of two lovers in a Joyce Carol Oates story. Although the specifi c elements of formula fi ction differ depending on the type of story, some basic ingredients go into all westerns, mys- teries, adventures, science fi ction, and romances. From the very start, a reader can anticipate a happy ending for the central character, with whom he or she will identify. There may be suspense, but no matter what or how many the obstacles, complications, or near defeats, the hero or heroine succeeds and reaffi rms the values and attitudes the reader brings to the story. Virtue triumphs, love conquers all, honesty is the best pol- icy, and hard work guarantees success. Hence, the villains are corralled, the wedding vows are exchanged, the butler confesses, and gold is dis- covered at the last moment. The visual equivalents of such formula sto- ries are readily available at movie theaters and in television series. Some are better than others, but all are relatively limited by the writer’s goal of giving an audience what will sell. Although formula fi ction may not offer many surprises, it provides pleasure to a wide variety of readers. College professors, for example, are just as likely to be charmed by formula stories as anyone else. Readers of serious fi ction who revel in exploring more challenging imaginative worlds can also enjoy formulaic stories, which offer little more than an image of the world as a simple place in which our assumptions and desires are confi rmed. The familiarity of a given formula is emotionally satisfying because we are secure in our expectations of it. We know at the start of a Sherlock Holmes story that the mystery will be solved by that famous detective’s relentless scientifi c analysis of the clues, but we take pleasure in seeing how Holmes unravels the mystery before us. Similarly, we know that James Bond’s wit, grace, charm, courage, and skill will ulti- mately prevail over the diabolic schemes of eccentric villains, but we vol- unteer for the mission anyway. Perhaps that happens for the same reason that we climb aboard a roller coaster: No matter how steep and sharp the curves, we stay on a track that is both exciting and safe. Although excitement, adventure, mystery, and romance are major routes to escape in formula fi ction,

24 reading fiction

most of us make that trip only temporarily, for a little relaxation and fun. Momentary relief from our everyday concerns is as healthy and desirable as an occasional daydream or fantasy. Such reading is a form of play because we — like spectators of or participants in a game — experi- ence a formula of excitement, tension, and then release that can fasci- nate us regardless of how many times the game is played.

Many publishers of formula fi ction — such as romance, adventure, or detective stories — issue a set number of new novels each month. Readers can buy them in stores or subscribe to them through the mail. These same publishers send “tip sheets” on request to authors who want to write for a particular series. The details of the formula differ from one series to another, but each tip sheet covers the basic elements that go into a story. The following composite tip sheet summarizes the typical advice offered by publishers of romance novels. These are among the most pop- ular titles published in the United States; it has been estimated that four out of every ten paperbacks sold are romance novels. The categories and the tone of the language in this composite tip sheet are derived from a number of publishers and provide a glimpse of how formula fi ction is written and what the readers of romance novels are looking for in their escape literature.

A Composite of a Romance Tip Sheet

Plot

The story focuses on the growing relationship between the heroine and hero. After a number of complications, they discover lasting love and make a permanent commitment to each other in marriage. The plot should move quickly. Background information about the heroine should be kept to a minimum. The hero should appear as early as possible (pref- erably in the fi rst chapter and no later than the second), so that the hero’s and heroine’s feelings about each other are in the foreground as they cope with misperceptions that keep them apart until the fi nal pages of the story. The more tension created by their uncertainty about each other’s love, the greater the excitement and anticipation for the reader. Love is the major interest. Do not inject murder, extortion, inter- national intrigue, hijacking, horror, or supernatural elements into the plot. Controversial social issues and politics, if mentioned at all, should never be allowed a signifi cant role. Once the heroine and hero meet, they should clearly be interested in each other, but that interest should be complicated by some kind of misunderstanding. He, for example, might fi nd her too ambitious, an opportunist, cold, or fl irtatious; or he might assume that she is attached to someone else. She might think he is haughty, snobbish, power hungry, indifferent, or contemptuous of her.

explorations and formulas 25

The reader knows what they do not: that eventually these obstacles will be overcome. Interest is sustained by keeping the lovers apart until very near the end so that the reader will stay with the plot to see how they get together.

Heroine The heroine is a modern American woman between the ages of nineteen and twenty-eight who refl ects today’s concerns. The story is told in the third person from her point of view. She is attractive and nicely dressed but not glamorous; glitter and sophistication should be reserved for the other woman (the heroine’s rival for the hero), whose fl ashiness will compare unfavorably with the heroine’s modesty. When the hero- ine does dress up, however, her beauty should be stunningly apparent. Her trim fi gure is appealing but not abundant; a petite healthy appear- ance is desirable. Both her looks and her clothes should be generously detailed. Her personality is spirited and independent without being pushy or stubborn because she knows when to give in. Although sensitive, she doesn’t cry every time she is confronted with a problem (though she might cry in private moments). A sense of humor is helpful. Because she is on her own, away from parents (usually deceased) or other pro- tective relationships, she is self-reliant as well as vulnerable. The story may begin with her on the verge of an important decision about her life. She is clearly competent but not entirely certain of her own qualities. She does not take her attractiveness for granted or realize how much the hero is drawn to her. Common careers for the heroine include executive secretary, nurse, teacher, interior designer, assistant manager, department store buyer, travel agent, or struggling photographer (no menial work). She can also be a doctor, lawyer, or other professional. Her job can be described in some detail and made exciting, but it must not dominate her life. Although she is smart, she is not extremely intellectual or defi ned by her work. Often she meets the hero through work, but her major con- cerns center on love, marriage, home, and family. White wine is okay, but she never drinks alone — or uses drugs. She may be troubled, frustrated, threatened, and momentarily thwarted in the course of the story, but she never totally gives in to despair or desperation. She has strengths that the hero recognizes and admires.