English 2132: American Literature II

First Day

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Welcome to your English 2132 course! I hope this semester will be both fun and challenging for you! Your professor's name is Dr. Matthew Horton (that's me!), but you can call him Dr. H. I have high hopes that this semester will help you improve your skills as a college-level reader and writer.

Click on these icons and see what you can do! This course is about reading great literature, but I also want to make you familiar with some useful technology that can help you discover new possibilities. Keep in mind, these tools are just for your benefit--the only required one is Google Drive:

Also, go ahead and look through some of the most important resources on this course website:

Read the syllabus
Check the calendar
Using Google Drive

Other resources are available by clicking the tabs across the top and various links in the right-hand margin. As much as you can, familiarize yourself with this course website. My contact info is in the right-hand margin at well, towards the top.

Syllabus - Fall 2015

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Description of Course
English 2132 is American Literature II, a 3-credit hour course offered by the English Department in the College of Arts and Letters that fulfills the Area C "Literature" requirement. You must have earned a "C" in English 1102 before you can take this course.

In this course, you can achieve the following goals:

Learn methods for measuring the value of selected works of American literature.
Understand the intersection between appreciation, evaluation, and enjoyment.
Apply characters and dramatic situations to important ethical questions:
- How do we define human goodness and excellence?
- In what ways do the standards of goodness and excellence shift and change?
- What sorts of conflict between values give rise to ethical crisis?
Interpret characters and dramatic situations as examples of ethical complexity:
- What sorts of choices do characters or speakers make?
- What sorts of values do characters or speakers defend?
- What motivates them to make those choices or hold those beliefs?
- Where does their confidence come from?
Become proficient in responsible reading.
Learn literary terms to help you engage with the literature we read
Analyze works of literature with thoughtful and developed written responses
Become proficient in identifying and describing various elements of film
Develop confidence discussing literature with your classmates

Texts and Materials

Texts include the Norton Anthology of American Literature, 8th Ed. Volumes C, D, E and some free e-texts
Access to online tools such as this blog, Google Drive, and UNG eLearning
Several working pens/pencils and lots of notebook paper

Course grading

Reading. This course involves more reading than writing. To keep up, you should read diligently, repeatedly, and not all in one sitting. I hope that, with dedicated reading, you will find a new passion, even if you have no plans ever to study literature again.
How your grade is calculated

Reading Notes
Quote Responses
Test One
Test Two
Test Three
Final Essay

25%
20%
15%
15%
15%
10%
Bonus Points. Earn extra points for discussion notes and outside reading.

Course Policies

Ask for help. If you are struggling or need help, tell me right away—we can meet for tutoring in my office. Please use extra time before class to ask me questions. If you seek help on assignments before they are due, you will see progress more quickly. Be sure to use your UNG email account if you send me an email.
Take notes. Organized notes taken during both class periods in a week can earn you bonus points. These notes must reflect your attentiveness for the entire class period on both days.
Participation. All students should try to take an active, constructive part in discussion in class. If the class desires, we will meet in group to discuss various questions. The best way to prepare for discussion is to read and think about the assigned work well before class. When you take reading notes, write down intelligent thoughts about what you are reading, and write down questions you want to ask or comments you want to make. If you would rather not speak during class, please turn in comments and questions that I can express for you. Even if you are shy, you can always engage with the reading actively, on an intellectual level.
Make-Up Work. Work for this class includes assignments done online as well as assignments turned in during class. If you are unexpectedly absent, you need proof of excuse to turn in work you missed or take a test you missed. If your absence is planned (and excusable), you should do the reading, turn in related assignments, or take the test before your planned absence. Late or not, all assigned Reading Notes and Quote Responses must be completed and turned in for you to keep any extra credit you earn. There is no credit for late work, but you can restore your EXTRA CREDIT by turning in missed work.
Turning in work. Reading Notes (written on notebook paper) will be turned in at the beginning of class. All Quote Responses will be typed in Google Drive; you must type your work, as you go, in a Google Document. Do not copy and paste into a Google Document from some other place. Be sure to confirm that you have met the word count/length requirement for each writing assignment. You will become proficient in using online technologies for writing, so you will need a working computer with decent internet speed. The computers in the labs here on campus work great if you don't have one at home. Do not use email to turn in any work, no matter the circumstances.
Email. The official form of communication at UNG is email. This policy protects all of us in the exchange of information. If you need to contact me about anything, whether personal or class related, please use your UNG email account to send a message to matthew.horton@ung.edu. This is my official UNG email address. Check your email two or three times a day for updates. Check it every hour if you have emailed me a question.
Disruptive behavior. Any behavior that interferes with my learning environment is grounds for dismissal from class. I emphasize the importance of sensitivity and respect in and out of class between you and me and between you and your classmates. Refrain from gestures, attitudes, tones, and words that are meant to be base, insulting, or provocative. Please do not express disagreement with my policies, decisions, or academic help in front of other students; I am happy to field complaints privately during my office hours, so you must set aside time to visit. You should, of course, disagree openly with my literary interpretations that you think are incomplete or misguided. I won't be angry at all; I will be quite pleased and take it as a sign of respect. If I disagree right back, don't get angry or feel embarrassed; just keep talking. Disagreement about literature is a sure sign of its value. Some other rules: if you come to class, don't leave early unless you have checked with me before class begins. You may have bottled water in the classroom, but food is too distracting.
Academic honesty. All work submitted to fulfill requirements of this class must meet UNG standards of academic honesty. Violations of these standards include receiving or giving assistance on any graded assignment without my permission (aka, cheating), fabricating evidence for use in an assignment (aka, lying), and using another person's words or thoughts in your assignment without giving that person credit (aka, plagiarism). Penalty for committing these acts could range from a zero on the assignment to an "F" in the course.
Withdrawal. Remember that you cannot withdraw from a class simply by not coming anymore; rather, you must withdraw yourself through Banner Web before the midpoint. Also, I reserve the right to request that you be withdrawn from the class if you miss more the 10% of the class meetings before or after midpoint. Please be familiar with the University Attendance Policies.
Disclaimer. This syllabus is subject to change to meet the needs of the course.

Supplemental Syllabus
Student IT support

Calendar

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Reading Notes for assigned readings are due at the beginning of class on their deadline days. Quote Responses will be submitted through Google Drive. Click on each agenda item to read additional details (if any) about the assignment. Please be aware that printing this calendar will hide the details for each item, so be sure to check the digital calendar often.

Page numbers refer to The Norton Anthology required for this course. When online versions are available, I will usually let you know in the description. If the assignment is a handout, you can get it here.

Using Google Drive

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Your quote responses this semester will be done on Google Drive. This online document creation and storage tool allows you to compose without any word processing software on your computer. The sharing feature allows you to collaborate with me and your classmates as you write your assignments.

In order for this tool to work for us, we will all have to cooperate, learn some new skills, and follow some rules. It might be a steep learning curve for some of you, but I think you'll be pleased with the results!

First, you'll need a Google account. If you have a Gmail account, then you already have a Google account, so all you need to do to get started is to sign in to Google Drive! If you don't have a Google account, the easiest way to start one is to sign up for Gmail! This link will allow you to designate a username for a Gmail account--I recommend using something like "LastName.FirstName" for your username.

Once you have your Google account, sign in to Google Drive so that you can configure some things. If you need any help along the way, just let me know. We'll go over some of this in class also:

Edit your Google profile and make sure your display name is "FirstName LastName"
In Google Drive, create a folder called "Lastname.Firstname.2132.Assignments.F15"
Share the folder with me and grant me "edit" privileges (I'll give you my sharing address during class)
Create a document in that folder called "Lastname.Firstname.My.Expectations.F15"
Now open this document and write a 300-word response answering both of these questions in as much detail as you can about your expectations for this course: Which elements of the course are you most looking forward to (read the website to learn about the course)? Which elements of the course are you most afraid of? Why?
When the time comes to do your first Quote Response, go to the template and "Make a copy" of it. Drag the copy into your assignments folder and rename the document "LastName.FirstName.QR1.F15"
Whenever you do a new Quote Response, you'll make a copy of the template, rename it appropriately, and move your new document into your assignments folder. Required Quote Responses will be "QR1, QR2, etc." and optional ones will be "Opt.QR.TitleofWork" like this: "LastName.FirstName.Opt.QR.TheAwakening.F15"

Quote Responses

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On days indicated on the calendar, you will submit a quote response on an assigned work. I say "submit," but because you will be writing these assignments in Google Drive, I will be able to see your work on them even before the due date. So the deadline is actually when you should be finished so that I can evaluate your writing.

The goal is to think about a work we are reading and write short paragraph responses to three different quotations. The exercise, therefore, has three sections. To earn credit for the assignment, please follow the requirements and guidelines. If the quote response is optional, you will not be penalized for not doing it; however, a higher grade on an optional Quote Response can replace a lower grade on a required one. However, optional quote responses cannot replace zeros on required quote responses.

Concern: Choose a sentence or two from the work that reveals the concern of a character or narrator (fiction) or the speaker (poetry). After typing your selection, describe how your selection helps you see that concern. Demonstrate your thought process. Do not identify a personality trait of the person--I am not asking you to explain what someone is like. Instead, identify an idea that motivates his or her behavior. For example, "This passage suggests that Edna wants the men in her life to serve her, just as she has been expected to serve them." This kind of direct statement should start your response. Then you would explain how your chosen passage actually reveals that idea to you. Where in the language does the author communicate that idea? How can you tell that the character of speaker has that concern? Be careful here. Don't chose a passage that reports a concern directly. Simply repeating what the passage says will not be enough. Look for implications.
Conflict: Choose a different sentence or two that contain evidence of an important conflict within or around a character, narrator, or speaker. After typing your selection, identify the conflict you see and how the language in your selection reveals it to you. Make sure you understand what "conflict" means before attempting this one. You need to internalize the following expression: "conflict between A and B ," the two blanks containing the specific concerns, choices, or attitudes that are in disharmony. It's not enough to write "conflict between Edna and Leonce." Be more specific: "This passage underscores a conflict between Edna's desire to free herself from social expectations and Leonce's need to maintain the status quo to secure his financial stability." This kind of direct statement should start your response. Then you would explain how your chosen passage actually helps you see that conflict. Again, be careful to look for implications, not direct reports.
Craft: Choose another sentence or two that showcases an interesting way that the author uses words to express an idea. After typing the quotation, describe the feature that attracted your attention and explain the effect it has on your experience as a reader. Do not interpret the passage; instead, show how the author's use of words creates an experience of meaning. For example, "This passage contains a metaphor comparing Edna's longing for freedom to the act of swimming in a great expanse of water." This kind of direct statement should start your response. Then you would have to explain how that comparison makes sense and affects your experience as a reader. Simply interpreting the passage will not be enough.

concern: an idea that guides an individual's behavior and choices. Concerns demonstrate our definitions of right and wrong, helpful and hurtful, etc. There is always a value system in or behind a work, and one way to make sense of a story is to identify the shape and size of that system. Even if we happen to disagree with the concerns of a character, narrator, or speaker, we can benefit from literature that helps us see another point of view more clearly.

conflict: Any clash between one attitude and another, one behavior and another, one desire and another, or one choice and another that leads to crisis (crisis being a point of anxiety and uncertainty). If you have ever asked yourself the question "What should I do now?" you might know something about crisis. In literature, conflicts between characters or conflicts within the mind of a character or speaker allow us to observe crisis from a distance, but we can still be affected.

craft: The way an author uses words should matter in a work of literature, and most of the time it does matter. So we must pay attention to the author's language. Word choice, tone of voice, the rhythm of phrases, the level of detail, figures of speech, etc. all contribute to our impression of an author's style. Style is important to analyze in literature because in the end, we are reading words crafted to create a memorable effect and thought-provoking meaning.

To receive full credit:

Choose three unique selections to quote. Each one must be thought provoking and reward close reading.
Compose and edit your responses carefully in a Google Document. Do NOT do your work outside of Google Drive and then copy and paste.
Fill in all parts of the quote response, including (a) the name of the work at the top, (b) the page numbers of your selections, and (c) other blanks where appropriate.
Use the quote response template to type your work. When you open this document, you can go to "File" to "Make a copy"; then rename the document appropriately and put it in your assignments folder in Google Drive. Leave the formatting in the quote response template as is.
Show me your unique thoughts. Tell me what YOU think, not something you found on Google.
Write no fewer than 100 words per response, no more than 150, not including the selections you choose from the work.
Dig deep in your interpretation instead of settling for obvious, superficial meanings.
Write clearly and proofread, just as your would for a formal essay. I am not expecting your voice to be "academic," but I am expecting your grammar and sentence structure to follow standard conventions of college-level writing.

Poorly written responses will receive low marks, and while you will have chances to improve your grades on required quote responses by doing optional ones, you will create more work for yourself if you rush through your work on these. I would say you need to give each one at least a solid, concentrated hour of your time (after selecting your lines). Less time spent now means more time spent later. Taking up space by building up to your response is not a good idea--plan ahead so that you can start specific. Summaries of the literature or general discussions about your opinions will not receive favorable credit.

Scoring Guide:

5 --> skillful, focused, impressive, and invested
4 --> complete, on topic, and clear, but less compelling
3 --> competent but lacking in content, depth, or clarity
2 --> incomplete, off-topic, or poorly written
1 --> same as 2 but worse
0 --> undone, unfinished, or plagiarized

Responsible Reading

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Some of you will be familiar and concerned with the following question:

How should I live my life?

If this question matters to you, then you can consider yourself, on some level, a responsible person. You are responsive to the world around you, the people you interact with, the influence you have on your environment, etc.

To be a responsible reader, you have to adopt a similar mindset about the language and ideas of an artist of words. You will ask a similar question:

How should I read this work?

If this question matters to you, then you will grow into being a responsible reader, and a better reader. If you are responsive to the world of the work, the characters who reside there, the influence of your interpretation on the way you judge the work, etc., then you might find that reading is, after all, extremely intense. If you are one of those people who claim to be "bad at reading," reconsider how your own attitude about reading might be getting in the way of a richer experience.

Reading Notes

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For this course, instead of quizzes, I require note-taking on the reading assignments so that you can demonstrate that you have done thorough reading of each work. Also, they will help you remember more of what you read, making you more confident during class discussions. When you come to class, please bring with you a substantial set of hand-written notes on standard notebook paper about the reading assignment on the calendar for that day.

Why?

To stay focused as you read so you can recall ideas for class discussion.
To record and remember specific details from your reading and create invaluable study materials for tests.
To collect text selections for your Quote Responses.

To receive full credit when we have a reading assignment, you have to

Be in class to discuss the reading!
Fill more than one side of standard notebook paper with at least 15 observations before class begins--these notes must show that you recorded observations throughout the reading assignment. Use the space wisely and completely--too much white space makes your notes incomplete. If you write "big," then you should adjust by filling additional pages. Your grade will depend on coverage, not just length.
Make a numbered list, counting up for each observation. Each numbered item should include three things, in this order:
1. Page number (or line number for poems) of an interesting line or two of text
2. Exact quote, in quotation marks, of your selection
3. Your thought in response to that selection. Keep your thought brief but be specific.
When you record an observation, you must write down the page number and then quote the exact text you've chosen. Then you provide a quick, brief comment to let me know how you interpret that moment in the text. What does the author achieve in terms of character or meaning? When responding, you don't need complete sentences--you just have to express specific thoughts. If you write comments that are too long, your notes will take more time to write than I intend for this assignment. Also, you might lack coverage and not get full credit.
The words you quote for each observation should create a significant experience of meaning for you, but that experience must be complex and thought provoking. If you settle for superficial, obvious comments, then you won't earn full credit. Look for examples of literary terms, imagery that seems packed with meaning, significant dialogue, expressions that point to compelling themes, raise questions, or highlight character dilemmas, conflicts, writing style features, etc. Collect a variety of observations. DO NOT summarize what you are reading; instead, select what is interesting and important to you, what you would bring up in class to discuss. Your notes must reflect that you read the ENTIRE assignment for that day. Your page numbers will help me see your coverage.
Make sure your notes are organized and readable. I don't mean "pristine," but don't just scribble meaningless phrases everywhere. Write slowly enough to be legible--if I cannot follow your writing, I cannot give you credit for your ideas. Use section and line numbers for poems, page numbers for fiction. Every single observation you record should be tied to a different quote from the work, so when you notice something interesting, write the page number, quote the selection from the work, and then provide your thought about it (be brief so that you have room to make many observations (at least 15), not just two or three for the whole assignment!). What does that selection show you? Why did you select it? Give your notes some structure so they are not just one big mass of words. Use underlining and boxes to emphasize and separate ideas, for instance. Use numbers to separate one observation from another. Your notes should show that you are thinking actively and making connections. Write notes in a way that you can easily study later on for exams. But again, make sure each observation first has a page number and a quote.
Put your name, date, title of work, and pages of the reading assignment at the top of the first page.
Turn these notes in at the beginning of class for me to evaluate.

The notes should not just be a summary of the story or a random list of points. This is not busy work, but a chance to show me your active engagement in the reading. The best sets of notes will show that you are responding to what you read, asking questions, noting significant moments, actively thinking. Remember, you are being graded on effort, so be sure that I can see your effort! Your notes are meant to prove that you responsibly read the entire assignment. It's better to have wider coverage than to write too much in response to any one selection.

Scoring Guide:

5 --> Everything for a 4, plus thoughtful, impressive, and invested
4 --> Good coverage, complete, all observations have a quote with a thought
3 --> Lacking coverage or length, sometimes missing quotes or thoughts
2 --> same as 3 but worse
1 --> same as 2 but worse

The Benefits of Note-Taking

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In order to earn bonus points, you have to take notes during our in-class discussions over reading assignments. You should fill more than one full side of notebook paper with observations on EACH of the two class meetings to earn bonus points for that week, but you must also take notes the whole period. You can write down things I say, things your classmates say, things you are thinking to yourself about the discussion, etc. Your notes will count for bonus points if they are detailed and full, you turn them in to me after each class, and you take notes this way in both class meetings in a week.

Discussion Notes

Conditions:

You must show me these notes at the end of each classroom meeting.
A page of notes with lots of white space or huge hand-writing is not really a full page, so fill more paper to account for lost space.
Your notes should reflect that you took notes all period, not stopping when you "have enough." Bonus points will be awarded only if your discussion notes show a serious effort to be attentive and active for the entire class period.
Balance your note-taking with participation in discussion.
Do not simply write group discussion questions from the website and answers for your notes. Your notes should be your observations from the start to the end of your time in the classroom.

Content:

Start a new sheet of paper for each day, and put the date of the class at the top.
Write down the main topics that come up in class.
Write down questions I ask the class and the various responses people make.
Write down questions that you or your classmates ask and the various responses.
Write down ideas that come to you about the work during our discussion.
DO NOT copy down the discussion questions on the website.

Values of Literature

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What is value?
The phrase "values of literature" refers to those qualities of poems, stories, novels, etc. that make them worthwhile to read. If we feel our time reading is well spent, we can say that a work has value for us. If reading the work was a complete waste, then we might say it has no value for us. And there is a spectrum between the two extremes. Of course, if you simply do not like reading, then you really have no say in the matter, right?

What is there to value?
A work of literature can be valuable in several ways. Open your mind:

Literature has . . .

entertainment value

political value

artistic value

cultural value

historical value

philosophical value

moral value

ethical value

if reading it . . .

is an enjoyable way to pass the time.

can change the way people live with and influence each other.

helps us contemplate the nature of beauty and human creativity.

sheds light on the place and time of the author of the work.

helps one understand the past and how the world has evolved.

explores human knowledge, how we know and what we know.

teaches a lesson that will inspire the reader to live a better life.

helps us asks questions related to the standards of a "good" life.

What value matters most?
It partly depends on what you are looking for and how you tend to interact with the world. And here is where things get interesting. . . . we do not all agree on what to look for or how we should interact with the world. How to read is a matter for debate.

Does any literature have no value?
Hard to say. There is certainly some that has no value for me. If I could somehow obtain evidence that no one who had ever read a particular work gained anything from it, I might be able to argue that the work was valueless. But then I would also have to prove that no one who might read it in the future would get anything from it either. And I cannot see beyond now.

entertainment value
Literature has entertainment value if reading it gives occasion to enjoy yourself. This type of value is inherently subjective because not everyone will enjoy the same kinds of stories, styles, or themes. Being entertained is important, but being bored does not give anyone license to reject a work outright. I can put the book down and not read it anymore, but I should be careful not to assume that my boredom is somehow a characteristic of the work I tried to read. Rather, I was bored, plain and simple. Someone else might not be. At the same time, if a work is awesome to me, exciting, intriguing, etc., I should not assume that my interest is somehow a characteristic of the work I enjoyed reading. Rather, I was interested, plain and simple. Someone else might not be.

political value
Literature has political value if reading it gives occasion to change how a person thinks or acts. Politics is about the management and flow of power. And power, like electricity, flows from one end of a circuit to another to make things happen. Reading a work can jolt someone into action. It can reveal an injustice, outrage its readers, give voice to the oppressed, ridicule those who are corrupt, etc. The main idea here is to think about what the work of literature is trying to do. It has political value if it attempts to persuade people or the world to start acting and thinking in "this" way. We can see the political leanings of a work without necessarily being persuaded ourselves. But most of the time, we will like a work for its political leanings if we are in fact persuaded to align ourselves with the author.

artistic value
Literature has artistic value if reading it gives occasion to contemplate the nature of beauty and human creativity. There are many works of literature that experiment with the limits of language and its expressive power. If I like how words can be manipulated to create beautiful works of art, then a work that tries to use words that way in a new and unique way will have artistic value for me. I would say that every work of literature that we read in this course has artistic value because they are all works that have remained important over the years for the way they extended the power of language in a new direction. If you don't like words, it will be difficult to see the artistic value of any poem or story. The value will still be there even if you don't see it, however.

cultural value
Literature has cultural value if reading it gives occasion to think about the place and time of the author at the time the work was written. Authors might seems like supernatural beings or at least people who are way above us, transcending the world down here to live among the heavens with their artistic visions, but they are actually regular people like the rest of us. They care about what is happening in the world around them, and they have experiences in life that shape their attitudes toward various issues. If their work addresses the attitudes, customs, and values of their time (or another time), then the work has cultural value. The work becomes a window into a world that is unfamiliar, and we are encouraged to compare cultural differences.

historical value
Literature has historical value if reading it gives occasion to think about the past, how things changes overtime, and how the world has evolved into what it is today. Historical value sometimes overlaps with cultural value; if a work is really old, then it can give us insight into a culture so far back that we can also think about how that culture might be a foundation for our own. The cliché about history is true--the less we now about how things were, the more likely we are to relive them. Of course, some things might be worth reliving, and we might regret some of the history we have left behind, but other things we want to avoid repeating. Works of literature can help us learn about the past, process the past, and use the past to our advantage. Sometimes the historical value of a work is that it shows us what we have gained and what we have lost.

philosophical value
Literature has philosophical value if reading it gives occasion to explore the nature of human knowledge, how we know and what we can know. These questions are central to the production of art because any artist must interact with the world in order to represent it, whether lyrically in a poem or through storytelling in fiction; he must, to some extent, know the world. But it is hard to be certain about what we know or even whether we can know anything at all. Some writers explore philosophical issues pretty deeply because they are often a source of crisis that can create great drama and raise intriguing questions. If a work invites us to think about perception, making sense of our place in the world, or self-awareness, then we can say that it has philosophical value. In response to such works, we tend to look inward and wonder, "who am I?"

moral value
Literature has moral value if reading it gives occasion to learn a lesson. If a story or poem TEACHES us how to live, or attempts to teach us, then it has a moral dimension. Is the work still valuable if we do not like the lesson it teaches? Perhaps so. The best readers will see the moral value of a work even if the morals it endorses are somehow distasteful to them. Moral value is a dangerous value to measure. The history of censorship, for instance, is based on the idea that if a work teaches the "wrong" thing, it should not be read at all. This idea goes all the way back to Plato, one of the earliest philosophers to explore the moral dimension of stories and poetry. We have to be careful, I think, not to hold moral value as the most important one. If we reduce a story or poem to a moral lesson, or require that a story or poem BE a moral lesson that we can endorse, then we are USING literature to back up our own beliefs. To avoid this mistake, we must learn to appreciate works of literature for its various kinds of value. "To appreciate" means "to measure the value of something," and we need to try to find value in a work if we are inclined to reject it simply because we think it teaches the wrong lesson. Here is where ethical value comes into play.

ethical value
Literature has ethical value if reading it gives occasion to think about ethical questions. If a story dramatizes conflicts and dilemmas, it is not necessarily teaching us how to live, but it encourages us to contemplate the codes that the characters live by. If a poem has a speaker who promotes a particular world view or seems conflicted about the world he lives in, the reader can try to look through the eyes of that speaker and see what he or she sees. We may not agree with a speaker's or character's morality, but seeing that morality in action can shed light on what it means or how it changes the world. If we reflect on a moral code, instead of simply rejecting it or embracing it, then we are thinking ethically, and literature that promotes such thinking is ethically valuable. Here are some important ethical questions: What is the good life? What is the excellent life? Where do the definitions of good and excellent come from? Why do different definitions come into conflict? On what basis do they conflict? Remember: works that raise questions do not always answer them. To measure the ethical value of a work of literature, we need to ask the following questions:

Do the characters make choices in the work? What are those choices?
Do the characters or speakers defend particular beliefs or points of view? What are they?
What motivates those choices or beliefs or points of view in the work?
Where does the confidence in that motivation come from in the work?
Is there a crisis in that confidence in the work? Why?
To what place do those choices or beliefs or points of view lead in the work?

Yes, we can appreciate literature in the negative: we CAN decide that it holds little to no value for us, ethically speaking. But we must be able to explain WHY it holds no value, the same way we have to explain WHY it does. Your goal this semester is to learn how to explain your evaluation one way or the other. Before you accept or reject a work of literature based on its ethical value for you, you must first actually MEASURE that value.

Literary Terms

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Poetry

speaker
persona
free verse
meter

caesura
enjambment
rhyme
diction

alliteration
negative capability
objective correlative
impersonal theory of poetry

Fiction

narrator
narrative
story
plot
setting
ellipsis

flashback
flashforward
character
point of view
free indirect discourse
Iceberg Principle

parable
allegory
epiphany
catharsis
climax

General

dramatic irony
situational irony
verbal irony
ethical significance
representation
ambiguity

juxtaposition
style
image
symbol
metaphor
motif

hyperbole
allusion
historical sense
"make it new"

Literary Movements

Romanticism
Realism
Impressionism

Naturalism
Modernism

Post-Modernism
Minimalism

How Your Grade is Calculated

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Grade calculation is pretty straightforward in this class: Reading Notes (25%), Quote Responses (20%), Test One (15%), Test Two (15%), Test Three (15%), Final Essay (10%).

Check your grades.

There is also extra credit that you can earn, but you need to be sure to do all of your required assignments, even if you do them late and get a ZERO. Furthermore, you will have the chance to do optional readings during the semester that can help out with poor grades. You will also have the chance to do optional Quote Responses during the semester that can replace lower grades on required Quote Responses. However, to replace a lower grade, you need to have done the original required Quote Response on time because zeros cannot be replaced.

Study Guides

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There will be THREE tests this semester, one for each third of the course. These tests will have quote identifications and short discussion questions. Full credit on quote IDs will be given for the correct FULL name of the author and title of the work, spelled and formatted correctly (i.e. quotation marks or underlining when necessary). In the discussion questions you will write about events, themes, and writing styles in the works; you will also be asked to define and give examples of literary terms. The third test will be considered the final exam, even though it will be formatted the same as the first two tests. A typed, out-of-class essay response to a larger cumulative question will be due on day of the final exam.

Use these study guides to prepare for each test:

Study Guide for Final Exam

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Review Questions

Flannery O'Connor (1925-1964)

"The Life You Save May Be Your Own" (1955)

How does Mr. Shiftlet's physical deformity represent a spiritual problem?
In what way is this story like a parable from the New Testament?
This story might seem to end without a resolution, but does it end without a purpose?

"Good Country People" (1955)

What does Hulga's wooden leg symbolize early in the story? How about at the end?
Why does O'Connor use an epiphany as the climactic moment of this story?
What is the role of the "bible salesman"? Does he have a religious purpose in the story?

from "Writing Short Stories"

What reason does O'Connor give to explain why "The Life You Save May Be Your Own" is a complete story? What keeps a short story from being short?
How does O'Connor describe the process by which she wrote "Good Country People"?
What does O'Connor mean when she says, "The fiction writer states as little as possible"?

Grace Paley (1922-2007)

"A Conversation with My Father" (1974)

What does the narrator mean by "Everyone, real or invented, deserves the open destiny of life"?
What effect does the narrator's story have on her father? What does she have to look "in the face"?

Denise Levertov (1923-1997)

"To the Snake" (1960)

How is this poem a different version of the temptation story in the Garden of Eden?
What is the speaker's attitude toward having no certainty or hope. What is the benefit of desire?

"The Jacob's Ladder" (1961)

Why is the staircase in this poem made of stone, "solidly built," instead of "radiant evanescence"?
Why does the poem ascend instead of descend? What is the speaker's attitude toward human endeavour?

"In Mind" (1964)

Who are the two women "in mind"? Is one more favored than the other by the speaker?
How is this poem, along with the previous two, ABOUT the writing of poetry?

John Updike (1932-2009)

"Separating" (1975)

Why is this story in third-person, though almost all the details give us Richard's point of view?
Why is the question "Why?" left unanswered at the end of the story? Is this ending optimistic?

Ann Beattie (1947- )

"Weekend" (1978)

Why is the tone of the narrator so detached in this story? Why is there no judgment?
Why is Lenore able to accept what George says over and over as the truth?
With what final impression of Lenore and George does the end of the story leave us?

Raymond Carver (1938-1988)

"Cathedral" (1983)

Why would this story be narrated by a man who is not good enough with words to describe a cathedral to a blind man?
What other kinds of blindness are revealed to the husband by the end of the story?
How does this story employ a minimalist style? Why is a minimalist style useful?

Tim O'Brien (1946- )

"Speaking of Courage" (1991)

Why does Norman struggle so much to tell his story? How does his struggle affect your experience being audience to the story you are reading?
What is the metaphoric unity between the lake and the shit field? Why is it important that Norman is driving around and around the lake?

"Notes" (1991)

What is O'Brien's view of his purpose in writing stories about the Vietnam War and the experiences he had there with his platoon?
What is the connection between Norman's inability to save Kiowa (which is made up by O'Brien, by the way) and O'Brien's failure to tell Norman's story the way he needed it to be told?
In what way can telling a story be an act of uncommon valor?

Sharon Olds (1942- )

"I Go Back to May 1937" (1987)
"Little Things" (1987)
"Adolescence" (1996)
"First Weeks" (2002)

How do these poems challenge the expectation that private, intimate thoughts about sex and the body are not suitable for public consumption? Do these poems have a limited audience, or are they designed to transform (seduce?) the unwilling reader into a willing participant?
What do these poems say about the purpose of writing poetry? Is there a reliable reference point for defining the "best reason" to write at all?
Like Whitman, Sharon Olds seems to value candor, but she also resists the idea that her poetry is personal . . . how can we reconcile these apparently contradictory positions?

Study Page for Test Two

2011-04-23T13:32:00.001-04:00

Review Questions

Robert Frost (1874-1963)

"Mending Wall" (1914)

Why does the speaker have such a conversational tone?
How do lines 14-16 mimic what the speaker is trying to say?

"Birches" (1916)

What is a "swinger of birches," and why does the speaker dream of being one again?
What is the alternative to accepting the truth about ice storm and birches bent low?

"Out, Out—" (1916)

Explain the word "So" in line 27. What is the purpose of the detached tone?
What do the last two lines suggest about the limits of poetry in the face of death?

"Fire and Ice" (1923)

What is fire and what is ice, and why could each cause an end to us?
Consider the length and straightforward words of the poem. Who is this speaker?

"The Figure a Poem Makes" (1939)

In what way can a poem be "a momentary stay against confusion"?
What kind of experience does Frost want to give the reader of his poems?

Wallace Stevens (1879-1955)

"The Snow Man" (1931)

What is a "mind of winter" and why, according to the speaker, must one have it?
How is a "mind of winter" related perhaps to the "impersonal theory of poetry"?

"The Death of a Soldier" (1931)

What attitude toward death does the speaker seem to hold?
How does this poem look for what will suffice? Why not glorify the death of a soldier?

"Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" (1931)

How does this poem explore the role of point of view in observation?
Does this poem look for what will suffice, or does it look for more? What is the role of "imagination"?

"Of Modern Poetry" (1942)

Written during WWII, how does this poem address the role of the poet during a war?
What does the speaker mean by "the act of finding what will suffice"?

"The Plain Sense of Things" (1954)

Why is the "plain sense of things" not as appealing as imagination?
How does this speaker respond to the idea that everything is falling apart and slowing down?

"A Note on Poetry" (1938)

What is the relationship between freedom and form for Stevens?
Can freedom as a poet be achieved by using a particular form?

"Poetry and War" (1942)

What affect does the "violent reality of war" have on the imagination of the poet?
Why must the poetry of war be "consciousness of fact as everyone is at least satisfied to have it be"?

"Poetry and Meaning" (1948)

What is the relationship between form and meaning in poetry (and music)?
How can poems have explicit meanings that are not explained by the poet?

T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)

"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (1915)

What kind of journey does the speaker of the poem want to take us on? Why?
Consider that the poem is Prufrock's attempt to be a poet. Does he have anything important to tell us?
What is an "objective correlative"? Does Prufrock manage to achieve this standard of poetry?

"Tradition and the Individual Talent" (1919)

What is the historical sense, and why does Eliot place so much emphasis on it?
Explain the significance of the shred of platinum in terms of writing poetry?
What is Eliot's "impersonal theory of poetry"? Why does it need to be impersonal in this way?

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)

"Babylon Revisited" (1931)

Why does Charlie believe in character again? Why is it the only thing that lasts?
How is this story about the word "dissipate"? What does the word mean?
What prevents Marion from trusting Charlie? How does SHE define the word "character"?

William Faulkner (1897-1962)

"Barn Burning" (1938)

In what way does this story use "outrageous overstatement" to create drama?
Who is the narrator (not the boy) and what is the narrative perspective in this story?
Considering the dilemma in this story, what is ironic about the last line, "He did not look back"?

Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)

"The Snows of Kilimanjaro" (1938)

What is the iceberg principle? How does the story create dramatic effect using this principle?
How is the act of writing related to Harry's central conflict in the story? How does he "write"?
Why doesn't Hemingway leave us with the pure and beautiful image of the snow on top of Kilimanjaro?

Study Page for Test One

2011-04-23T08:20:00.000-04:00

Review Questions

Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

Song of Myself (1881)

What is the speaker's attitude toward himself as a poet? How does he relate his "self" to others?
In what way does this poem communicate a Romantic outlook on the world? How is the poet a hero?
How does the form of the poem represent the speaker's way of looking at the world around him?
What kind of relationship does the speaker seem to want with the reader of his poetry?

“Preface to Leaves of Grass” (1855)

Why do Americans of the time have the "fullest poetical nature"? Why is America itself "the greatest poem"?
What are some qualities of "the great poet" who will best express the "poetical stuff" of America?
Why is candor so important in poetry, for Whitman? What role does the poet play in telling the truth?

Henry James (1843-1916)

“The Art of Fiction” (1884)

What, according to James, is "the supreme virtue of the novel"? Why is this quality so important?
In what ways can fiction tell the "truth"? What is the test of truth in a novel? Is it moral truth?
Why does the novel writer need freedom? By what standard should we measure the quality of a novel?
What is the responsibility of the novelist? What is the responsibility of the reader?

Kate Chopin (1850-1904)

The Awakening (1899)

What is the central dilemma of the protagonist in this novel? How does the novel handle this dilemma?
Why does the point of view of the narrator occasionally take on the thoughts and feelings of Edna?
What is the "awakening"? Whose awakening is it? How does Edna seem to handle her "awakening"?
What is the significance of Edna's efforts to be an artist? What does an artist need to thrive?
How does this novel exhibit the qualities of Realism? Does Edna have a choice in the end?

Stephen Crane (1871-1900)

“The Open Boat” (1897)

Who is the narrator and what is his point of view on the events, being told "after the fact"?
What is the conflict in this work? Are the four main characters in a position to choose their fate?
How does this narrative exhibit the qualities of Naturalism? What is the narrator's attitude toward nature?
How are the details in this work different from the details one might find in a newspaper account?

Jack London (1876-1916)

“To Build a Fire” (1908)

Who is the narrator and what is his point of view on the action? His attitude toward the man?
On what level is the man responsible for his own fate, and on what level is he not?
How does this narrative exhibit the qualities of Naturalism? What is the narrator's attitude toward nature?
How does the author capture the panic and desperation of the man "not much given to thinking"?

“What Life Means to Me” (1905)

In what way does this essay make Jack London seem more idealistic than he seems in "To Build a Fire"?
Does Jack London sympathize with human suffering? How then can he also be considered a Naturalist?

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935)

“The Yellow Wall-paper” (1892)

How do we account for the unconventional surface of this narrative? Is there a narrator, and if so, who is it? Does it have a recognizable plot and story?
How does Gilman help us think about the act of writing as we read this narrative?
How can it be, as we learn at the end of the work, that the woman behind the paper both is and is not, in some sense, Jane herself?

“Why I Wrote 'The Yellow Wall-paper'” (1913)

For what expressed purpose did Gilman write "The Yellow Wall-paper"?
What are some features of the narrative that account for its success in achieving this purpose?

Sharon Olds

2011-04-22T20:08:00.000-04:00

Background of the author

Salon interview with Sharon Olds

Some of Sharon Olds' thoughts:

"It's curious where different people think their mind is. I guess a lot of people believe that their mind is in their brain, in their head. To me, the mind seems to be spread out in the whole body — the senses are part of the brain. I guess they're not where the thinking is done. But poetry is so physical, the music of it and the movement of thought. Maybe we can use a metaphor for it, out of dance. I think for many years I was aware of the need, in dance and in life, to breathe deeply and to take in more air than we usually take in. I find a tendency in myself not to breathe very much. And certainly I have noticed, over the years, when dancing or when running, that ideas will come to my mind with the oxygen. Suddenly you're remembering something that you haven't thought of for years."

"I think that my work is easy to understand because I am not a thinker, I am not a . . . How can I put it? I write the way I perceive, I guess. It's not really simple, I don't think, but it's about ordinary things — feeling about things, about people. I'm not an intellectual, I'm not an abstract thinker. And I'm interested in ordinary life. So I think that our writing reflects us."

"There are some things that have to do with art that we can't control. This creature of the poem may assemble itself into a being with its own centrifugal force. That's what I'm thinking about when I'm trying to get out of art's way. Not trying to look good, if a poem's about me. Not trying to look bad. Not asking a poem to carry a lot of rocks in its pockets. But just being an ordinary observer and liver and feeler and letting the experience get through you onto the notebook with the pen, through the arm, out of the body, onto the page, without distortion. And there are so many ways I could distort. If I wrote in a sonnet form, I would be distorting. Or if I had some great new idea for line breaks and I used it in a poem, but it's really not right for that poem, but I wanted it, that would be distorting. It's kind of like ego in a way, egotism or narcissism. Where the self is too active."

"I don't know if it would feel accurate to me to say that I put myself into my poems. I don't know if that would describe what was happening in a poem that I wrote and that I liked. Someone is seeing, someone is thinking, dreaming, wondering, and remembering, in everybody's poems. Whether there's a speaker that has an explicit “I” or not, there is some kind of self or spirit or personality. . . . That's partly what craft is, I think. The body of the poem is the spirit of the poem. But I do sometimes make an effort to use the word “I” as little as possible. I would not have chosen to have that word appear so much in my poems. My poems — I don't even like the sound of that, in a way. Not that anyone else wrote them. But we know that only people who are really close to us care about our personal experience. Art is something else. It has something to do with wanting to be accurate about what we think and feel. To me the difference between the paper world and the flesh world is so great that I don't think we could put ourselves in our poems even if we wanted to."

Class Discussion Questions:

1. All of the poems we read have at least one characteristic in common: a first-person speaker. Yet Olds has said that her poems are only "apparently very personal"; what could she mean by this assertion?

2. In "Little Things," does the "duty to find things to love" reflect a duty to write poetry (as in "I Go Back to May 1937," the speaker says, "I will tell about it")? "Does it reflect a duty to read poetry?

3. How do you react to the open sexuality and graphic nature of "My Father Speaks to Me from the Dead?" Through whom does the father speak? What is "matter's love"?

4. What's the connection in "Adolescence" between a contraceptive device and the speaker's "own life"?

5. In "The Talkers," why does the speaker describe sentences as "delicate chains"?

6. "First Weeks" seems to be about two births; does this interpretation reflect an appropriate way to read the poem?

Tim O'Brien

2011-04-22T08:09:00.000-04:00

Background of the author

Class Discussion Questions:

1. What is significant about the repeated use of "would" in the story "Speaking of Courage"? How does this word capture the feelings of the narrator about Norman and his problem?

2. Why couldn't the town talk, and why wouldn't the town listen? Whom does Norman tell his story?

3. What is the fine distinction that Norman would have made, if there were anyone to listen?

4. In "Notes," what fine line does Tim O'Brien draw to help explain the purpose of storytelling for him?

5. What is wrong with the original version of "Speaking of Courage"? Why does O'Brien say that HE is the one who almost won the Silver Star for valor, not Norman?

Raymond Carver

2011-04-19T12:44:00.001-04:00

Background of the author

Class Discussion Questions:

1. Who is the narrator of this story? Explain how you know. What motivates the narrator to tell this story in the first place?

2. How does the seeing man first try to help the blind man to "see" a cathedral? How do they later learn to "see" one together?

3. Why does the seeing man keep his eyes closed at the end of the story? Give an elaborate answer to explain your thinking.

4. Describing the style of writing that Carver helped develop, John Barth came up with "Post-Alcoholic Blue-Collar Minimalist Hyperrealism." Explain this category one word at a time. What is the significance of such an extended term, with so many different descriptors?

5. What is minimalism? How does a story like "Cathedral" manage to mean so much without saying very much?

Ann Beattie

2011-04-17T17:59:00.000-04:00

Background of the author

"Where Characters Come From" by Ann Beattie

Like Updike's "Separating", Beattie's "Weekend" shows how intensely private and personal much of storytelling became in the second half of the 20th century. Both stories were written in the 70's, a period often associated with suburban angst and the steady disintegration of traditional family values. And both confront the pain of emotional loss with unflinching seriousness.

Class Discussion Questions:

1. In "Weekend," what chronic affliction does George have that bothers him periodically? Does this affliction have symbolic value, like in the O'Connor stories?

2. Why is Lenore so concerned with her daughter's imperfections?

3. What does Lenore show Julie to explain why she stays with George?

4. Describe Lenore's memory at the end of the story, when the narrator says, "She thinks of another time, when it was warm."

5. What allows Beattie to create such a gripping portrayal when the setting and characters are so familiar? I suppose we can ask again what Updike asked: is transcribing middleness "worth doing"?

John Updike

2011-04-14T09:58:00.000-04:00

Background of the author

Class Discussion Questions:

First, think about what John Updike has written about his artistic intentions:

from "The Dogwood Tree: A Boyhood" (1962)

He once said his aim was "to give the mundane its beautiful due."

"Blankness is not emptiness; we may skate upon an intense radiance we do not see because we see nothing else. And in fact there is a colour, a quiet but tireless goodness that things at rest, like a brick wall or a small stone, seem to affirm."

"To transcribe middleness with all its grits, bumps, and anonymities, in its fullness of satisfaction and mystery: is it possible or, in view of the suffering that violently colors the periphery and that at all moments threatens to move into the center, worth doing? Possibly not; but the horse-chestnut trees, the telephone poles, the porches, the green hedges recede to a calm point that in my subjective geography is still the center of the world."

1. Judging from the story we read, "Separating," is transcribing middleness "worth doing"? What does Updike mean by "periphery" and "center" when talking about suffering?

2. How can the intention to leave and the overwhelming urge to cry coexist in Richard? Consider both extremes and where they intersect.

3. Why does this story work so well in third-person, even though almost all of the details are meant to give us Richard's point of view?

4. Why is the question "Why?" left unanswered at the end of the story?

Denise Levertov

2011-04-10T19:01:00.001-04:00

Background of the author

Class Discussion Questions:

1. The speaker in "To the Snake" swears to her companions that the green snake was "harmless," but what is her motivation for holding it, to feel its "weight"?

2. What is the "dark morning"?

3. In "The Jacob's Ladder," explain the last line. How does "the poem" ascend? What about the poet?

4. In "In Mind," what is the crucial difference between the two women in the speaker's mind. Does the poem suggest that one is preferred?

5. How does Levertov explore the intersection between art and life in these poems? Are "art" and "life" conflicting or complementary terms?

Grace Paley

2011-04-10T19:00:00.001-04:00

Background of the author

Class Discussion Questions:

1. What does the narrator mean when she says that "Everyone, real or invented, deserves the open destiny of life" (387)? What does this idea have to do with storytelling?

2. Who is the "stubborn hero" with whom the author must reach agreement in this story (388)? Who is the protagonist in the finished story WE are reading?

3. Why can't the father in the story see beyond the ending of the story his daughter writes, even though she insists that her character could change (390)?

4. How does Paley explore the intersection between art and life in this story? Are "art" and "life" conflicting or complementary terms (390)?

Flannery O'Connor

2011-04-03T22:14:00.000-04:00

Background of the author

Class Discussion Questions:

"The Life You Save May Be Your Own"

1. How do you respond to the ending of this story? Is it a proper ending? What do you think motivated O'Connor to end the story with so little resolution, or is there resolution?

2. How does the ending change the otherwise simple sequence of events in the story? How does O'Connor create the added layers of complexity?

3. Besides not knowing what will happen next, how would you characterize the mysterious quality of this story? WHERE does O'Connor place the mystery; in other words, where does O'Connor expect us to find the mystery?

4. What do we experience in reading this story, even if we cannot "figure out" what it definitely means? Look beyond frustration here. What is the ethical benefit of our being perplexed? Think of what Tom T. Shiftlet says about the heart surgeon: "Why, if he was to take that knife and cut into every corner of it, he still wouldn't know no more than you or me. What you want to bet?" (438).

"Good Country People"

1. At the beginning of "Good Country People," the narrator describes Mrs. Freeman like a vehicle that travels down the road: "Her eyes never swerved to left or right but turned as the story turned as if they followed a yellow line down the center of it." Is this how O'Connor wants us to read her story? What does it mean to follow a "yellow line down the center of it"?

2. Where in the narrative do the primary events of this story actually first emerge in the telling? Why such a long build-up?

3. What are the afflictions in this story? In what way does Joy-Hulga's particular affliction(s) actually create the violent situation through which she might be healed?

4. What is an epiphany? Where does the epiphany occur in this story? What type of irony is used in a story when an epiphany occurs?

5. "True genius can get an idea across even to an inferior mind." Whose thought is this? How might the reader be the one with an inferior mind?

Ernest Hemingway

2011-03-21T08:01:00.015-04:00

Background of the author

Interview with Hemingway
Iceberg Principle

Class Discussion Questions:

1. Where in the narrative do we know for sure what is wrong with the man’s leg? Look for the moment. Then ask yourself, "Why don’t we know right away?"

2. How does this medical problem develop? Explain the cause.

3. What activity has the man always put off for a later time and now realizes he no longer can find the will to do? Find all the references to this activity.

4. What is the relationship between the man and the woman based on?

5. Although the narrator of this short story does seem tied to the point of view of a single character, how is that point of view unstable?

6. What do you think is going on in present time during the first italicized passage? Why does the author split the narrative in this way? Answer these two questions separately.

7. How does the mixture of past and present events demonstrate the distinction between plot and story, and how does this mixture help us see how the man deals with his impending death?

8. The man at one point says, "'I want to write,'" (836) and later says, "'I've been writing. But I got tired'" (840). What can he mean by these admissions?

9. Does it become clearer, as the story progresses, what the man in doing in his mind during the italicized passages? The narrator: "There wasn't time, of course, although it seemed as though it telescoped so that you might put it all into one paragraph if you could get it right" (836). Does Harry ever "get it right" and "put it all into one paragraph"?

10. What is the iceberg principle? What is the justification for following it?

Narrative map for "The Snows of Kilimanjaro":

826: Story begins with Harry lying on a cot in Africa--in the middle of a conversation
827: Conversation escalates into argument and Harry starts to drink
827: First breakaway to thought: "So now it was all over, he thought."
828: Comes out of it, probably drunk now, and insults/abuses Helen, continues to drink
828: Second breakaway to thought, first time in italics: "Now in his mind . . ." various images and memories associated with snow and Christmas
830: Comes out of it, asking about Paris, "now, in Africa"--the quarrel continues, and then sleep
830: Third breakaway to thought, not in italics:Alone after a long nap, but now more alert--thinks through his own downfall and hers, what brought them together.
833: Comes out of it, and once Helen returns from hunting, and they both slip back into the lie. And finally, "it occurred to him that he was going to die"--happy the quarreling is over at least: "he wore it all out."
834: Fourth breakaway to thought, second italics: Helen goes to bath, thinks more about what he could have written, his duty to do so.
836: Comes out of it, and says, "I want to write," suggesting that during the italicized passages, he has been doing something else. "I'm going to die tonight"--knows he's running out of time.
836: Fifth breakaway to thought, third italics: longest section, multiple attempts to write out stories, but still in his mind.
838: Comes out of it, just to ask for a drink.
838: Sixth breakaway to thought, fourth italics: shorter this time, two different ideas for stories he could have written.
839: Comes out of the italics but not back to the surface: "You tell them why" is a direct response to the question "Why?" in the italics. . . as if Harry on the cot and Harry in his mind are not the same person. Sort of stays in thought before . . .
840: Fifth italics: Williamson, pain, and death. The perfect paragraph . . . "There wasn't time, of course, although it seemed as though it telescoped so that you might put it all into one paragraph if you could get it right." It is a self-contained story, no commentary.
840: Comes out, still thinking about pain and death coming. And then back to the present again: "I've been writing. . . . But I got tired."
841: Second to last section: The rescue, the morning after, or at least that is one way to put it.
842: Final section: Still night, actually.

Hemingway on Endings and Rewriting
From The Paris Review, no. 18 (1958), interviewed by George Plimpton

INTERVIEWER

Do you do any rewriting as you read up to the place you left off the day before? Or does that come later, when the whole is finished?

HEMINGWAY

I always rewrite each day up to the point where I stopped. When it is all finished, naturally you go over it. You get another chance to correct and rewrite when someone else types it, and you see it clean in type. The last chance is in the proofs. You’re grateful for these different chances.

INTERVIEWER

How much rewriting do you do?

HEMINGWAY

It depends. I rewrote the ending to Farewell to Arms, the last page of it, thirty-nine times before I was satisfied.

INTERVIEWER

Was there some technical problem there? What was it that had stumped you?

HEMINGWAY

Getting the words right.

William Faulkner

2011-03-15T18:14:00.000-04:00

Background of the author

Class Discussion Questions:

1. In "Barn Burning," the narrator of this story uses an immense vocabulary. Look for some particularly heavy expressions that he uses to describe the feelings and observations of the boy. Write them down and then define them.

2. What does this vocabulary tell us about the narrator? What does it tell us about the boy?

3. What is the point of view of the narrator on the story? How can he know the present, past, and future of the boy?

4. The second time we see the father in front of a Justice of the Peace, he says to his boy, "Go back to the wagon." Why does he have to disobey and stay?

5. Explain the boy's mixed attitude toward his father. Is it as simple as loyalty vs. justice?

6. Explain the last line of the story: "He did not look back."