Readings Flashcards
(25 cards)
Araby (PRACTICE)
-James Joyce
-1914 modern literature disillusionment
-Narrator, Uncle, Aunt, neighbor girl, shopkeeper
-Growing up, disappointment
-Disillusionment in youth loss of innocence
Sweat (PRACTICE)
-Zora Neale Hurston
-1926 Harlem Renaissance
-Delia, Sykes
-Woman persecuted in her marriage kills her husband with snake and gains independence
-liberation, men vs women, faith
High Holy Days (PRACTICE)
-Jane Shore
-1981 postmodern (meaning)
- young girl and family
- realization call to faith in Jewish religion
- faith, power
The Collar (PRACTICE)
- George Herbert
- 1633, Renaissance
- priest narrator, God
- devotional verse of priest longing for freedom but tied to God
- metaphor of dog like collar, faith restrictions, calling of God
The Most of It (PRACTICE)
- Robert Frost
- 1942, existelism (existence)
- narrator, nature, buck
- self discovery, expectations versus reality
- Making the most of it, fulfillment, search for meaning
Design (PRACTICE)
-Robert Frost
-1922 modernism (experimentation)
-spider, moth, narrator
-‘design’ of life as he observes spider catching moth on a flower
-God, symbol of the animals
The Story of an Hour (PRACTICE)
-Kate Chopin
-1894, naturalism
- Emotions as women thinks her husband is dead, and then dies as she finds him alive
-Freedom, imagery of the spring, irony in her joy which kills
Hedda Gabler (FRQ)
-Henrik Ibsen
-1891, naturalism
- Characters: Hedda, Tesman, Ejlbert, Thea, Judge Brack
- Theme: societal restraints, jealousy, combination of beautiful, funny, and tragic, idle rich
- Symbols: pistols of her father, alcohol and vine leaves for men’s drunkenness, manuscript for future and hope and child of Thea and Ejlbert’s love
- Plot:
ACT 1 marriage of Hedda and Tesman. Thea speaks of Eljbert and her affair and Hedda is the past lover.
ACT 2 Hedda plays with pistols and is unhappy. Judge Brack tells her to have children. Eljbert joins them.
ACT 3 Men go out all night. Eljbert is in distress. Brack tries to influence Hedda. Hedda gives Eljbert a pistol and burns his manuscript.
ACT 4 Eljbert shoots himself. Brack threatens Hedda because he knows the pistol. Hedda kills herself.
A Streetcar Named Desire (FRQ)
- Tennessee Williams
- 1947, modernism
- Characters: Stella, Blanche, Stanley, Mitch
- Theme: desire, men
- Symbols: the streetcar, polka and husband’s death, baths to clean away reality, lamps Blanche tries to hide under, alcohol and men’s power
- Plot:
ACT 1 Blanche arrives Stella is pregnant. Stanley hates Blanche and wants to expose her. Mitch loves Blanche. Stanley hits Stella at poker game.
ACT 2 Stanley questions Blanche. Blanche flirts with Mitch and thinks of her husband.
ACT 3 Stanley reveals Blanche giving her a ticket to leave. Stella has baby. Mitch reproaches Blanche. Stanley rapes Blanche. Blanche is taken to an asylum
Corinna’s Going A-Maying (PRACTICE)
- Robert Herrick
- 1648, Renaissance
- Carpe Diem as they seize the spring and new life
- Celebration, nature
The Sun Rising (PRACTICE)
-John Donne
- 1633, Renaissance
- Lovers lay in bed as the world urges them to move forward
- authority of love
To His Coy Mistress (PRACTICE)
-Andrew Marvell
- 1681
- Lover urges his lover to come to bed as she will miss out on the good things in life without him
- imagery of long life, imagery of grave, love and death
My Last Duchess (PRACTICE)
- Robert Browning
- 1842, Romantic period
- Duke speaks of his agreeable wife whom he proceeds his vainness and her demise
- couplets ironic, estate and manipulation of viewing, control, objectification of women
In Just by e. e. Cummings (PRACTICE)
- e. e. Cummings
- 1920, modernism
- balloon man whistles through a lifetime of fleeting childhood
- spring, luring away from childhood
Since Feeling is First (PRACTICE)
- e. e. Cummings
- 1926, modernism
- love letter that love is powerful over everything
- feeling over thinking, love
I Being Born a Woman and Distressed (PRACTICE)
-Edna St. Vincent Millay
- 1923, modernism, sonnet
- Compares her thoughts versus her biology and how she controls herself
- lust versus reason, joke as she calls herself a distressed woman
Girl Powdering Her Neck (PRACTICE)
- Cathy Song
- 1790, enlightenment (inquiry, liberty)
- written from a painting of a girl preparing herself in the mirror
- conflict imagery of lips not speaking, serenity versus self
Their Eyes Were Watching God (FRQ)
- Zora Neale Hurston
- 1937 Harlem Renaissance
- Characters: Janie, Logan, Joe, Tea Cake
- Themes: love, independence, gender roles, discrimination
- Symbols: Janie’s hair of identity and ‘whiteness’, pear tree of ideal of nature, hurricane destruction and chaos
- Plot:
Janie introduced as confident and gossiped women. Her nanny raised her to be different from her mother.
Janie arranged for Logan. Logan is reliable but unromantic and stifling.
Janie marries Jody ‘joe’. Joe is political and opens shop but removes Janie. She finally snaps and he beats her. He dies.
Janie marries Tea Cake. Steals from her but is exciting and moves to Everglades. During hurricane dog bites Tea Cake. Tries to kill her. Male jury finds her not guilty.
Hamlet (FRQ)
- William Shakespeare
- 1623, renaissance
- Characters: Hamlet, Queen, King, Ophelia, Polonius, Claudius, Laertes
- Themes: revenge, corruption, meaning
- Symbols: skull death and equality in afterlife, ghost is victory of evil, the mousetrap play to reveal Claudius trap
- Plot:
ACT 1 meets ghost father. Queen and uncle marry. Leartes is son and Ophelia daughter of Polonius.
ACT 2 Ophelia finds Hamlet distraught and tells father who spies. Puts on play to reveal uncle’s guilt
ACT 3 Hamlet wants to kill Claudius. Fights with his mother and kills Polonius on accident.
ACT 4 Ophelia goes insane. Leartes seeks revenge with Claudius.
ACT 5 Ophelia’s funeral, fight over her grave. Try to poison but kill the queen. Hamlet kills Claudius. Leartes dies asking for forgiveness. Hamlet dies.
Tess of the D’urbervilles (FRQ)
- Thomas Hardy
- 1891, naturalism
- Characters: Tess, Alec, Angel, John Durbeyfield
- Theme: injustice, fate, society, women
- Symbols: prince’s death as a beautiful creature, Brazil as an escape to find fortune and he almost dies
- Plot:
Tess meets Alec after finding they are part of the family. Gets a job, but troubles with family arise. Has Alec’s child named Sorrow and it dies.
Becomes a milkmaid and meets Angel. After married, he leaves her and goes to Brazil.
Forced to work in poor. Reverend Alec peruses her again. Father dies and is forced to marry him. Finds Angel and kills Alec.
Meet at Stonehenge. Tess is caught and killed.
Jane Eyre (FRQ)
- Charlotte Bronte
- 1847, Victorian
- Characters: Rochester, Bertha, Jane, Grace Poole, Helen Burns
- Themes: love, religion purging students of pride, class, anxiety
- Symbols: Bertha in growth obstacle, red-room overcoming exile, split tree breaking of relationship
Heart of Darkness (FRQ)
- Joseph Conrad
- 1899, Naturalism
-Characters: Marlow, Kurtz, cannibals, Russian trader, helmsman, African mistress, Kurtz’s intended - Themes: hypocrisy of imperialism, corruption, greed, fear
- Symbols: Fog, women as societal, river separates land and race,
- Plot: Marlow goes to Congo river. Stops at mining and sees slaves. Then goes to Central station with imperial enterprise. Kurtz is met as a God gone mad. Kurtz dies. Tells the intended that he died saying her name.
To Kill a Mockingbird
Author: Harper Lee
Time: 1960, southern gothic / Setting Great Depression
- Characters: Scout, Jem, Atticus, Boo, Ewells, Tom Robinson
- Themes: racism, loss of innocence, justice, courage
- Symbols: mockingbirds (Jem, Tom, Boo) being killed, name Finch of innocence, Boo represents growth in Scout and Jem, front porch as transitional space to discovery,
- Plot: Finch family live in Maycomb, Alabama. Great Depression wealthier. Discover Boo Radley next door. Boo give them gifts, mends Jem’s pants, and gives Scout a blanket.
Tom Robinson’s trial occurs and mobs are broken by Scout’s innocence. Convicted despite evidence, and shot. Jem is shook.
Mr. Ewell attacks Jem and Scout and Boo saves them. Scout understands sympathy, not prejudice, will save you.
Atonement
Author: Ian McEwan
Time: 2001 modernist / Setting WW2
- Characters: Briony, Cecilia, Robbie, Lola, Paul Marshall
- Themes: guilt, atonement, love, war, childhood
- Symbols: vase for Cecilia and Robbie’s relationship, temple island where the evidence is erased, The Trials of Arabella for Briony’s need to control and fix things
- Plot: Briony writes plays for visiting cousins and Paul Marshall visits. Robbie and Cecilia fall in love, Briony is confused with intentions. Lola in a search is raped, and Briony blames Robbie who is taken to jail. Robbie is sent to war and Briony becomes a nurse and discovers Lola’s truth. Briony reveals later she made up the ending and Bobbie and Cecilia are dead.
