Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing Book

PART I

The Process of Reading, Responding

to, and Writing About Literature

WHAT IS LITERATURE, AND WHY DO WE STUDY IT?

Types of Literature: The Genres

Reading Literature and Responding to It Actively

GUY DE MAUPASSANT The Necklace

To go to a ball, Mathilde Loisel borrows a necklace from a rich friend, but her rhapsodic evening has unforeseen consequences

Reading and Responding in a Computer File or Notebook

Sample Notebook Entries on Maupassant’s “The Necklace”

MAJOR STAGES IN THINKING AND WRITING ABOUT LITERARY TOPICS: DISCOVERING IDEAS, PREPARING TO

WRITE, MAKING AN INITIAL DRAFT OF YOUR ESSAY, AND COMPLETING THE ESSAY

Writing Does Not Come Easily—for Anyone

The Goal of Writing: To Show a Process of Thought

Discovering Ideas (“Brainstorming”)

Study the Characters in the Work

Determine the Work’s Historical Period and Background

Analyze the Work’s Economic and Social Conditions

Explain the Work’s Major Ideas

Describe the Work’s Artistic Qualities

Explain Any Other Approaches that Seem Important

Preparing to Write

Build Ideas from Your Original Notes

Trace Patterns of Action and Thought

The Need for the Actual Physical Process of Writing

Raise and Answer Your Own Questions

Put Ideas Together Using a Plus-Minus, Pro-Con, or Either-Or Method

Originate and Develop Your Thoughts Through Writing

Making an Initial Draft of Your Essay

Base Your Essay on a Central Idea, Argument, or Statement

The Need for a Sound Argument in Essays About Literature

Create a Thesis Sentence as Your Guide to Organization

Begin Each Paragraph with a Topic Sentence

Select Only One Topic—No More—for Each Paragraph

Referring to the Names of Authors

Use Your Topic Sentences as the Arguments for Your Paragraph Development

The Use of Verb Tenses in the Discussion of Literary Works

Develop an Outline as the Means of Organizing Your Essay

Illustrative Student Essay (First Draft): How Setting in “The Necklace” Is Related to the Character of Mathilde

Completing the Essay: Developing and Strengthening Your Essay Through Revision

Make Your Own Arrangement of Details and Ideas

Use Literary Material as Evidence to Support Your Argument

Always Keep to Your Point; Stick to It Tenaciously

Check Your Development and Organization

Try to Be Original

Write with Specific Readers as Your Intended Audience

Use Exact, Comprehensive, and Forceful Language

Illustrative Student Essay (Improved Draft): How Maupassant Uses Setting in “The Necklace”to Show the Character of

Mathilde

Commentary on the Essay

Essay Commentaries

A Summary of Guidelines

Writing Topics About the Writing Process

A SHORT GUIDE TO THE USE OF REFERENCES AND QUOTATIONS IN ESSAYS ABOUT LITERATURE

Integrate Passages and Ideas into Your Essay

Distinguish Your Thoughts from Those of Your Author

Integrate Material by Using Quotation Marks

Blend Quotations into Your Own Sentences

Indent Long Quotations and Set Them in Block Format

Use an Ellipsis to Show Omissions

Use Square Brackets to Enclose Words that You Add Within Quotations

Be Careful Not to Overquote

Preserve the Spellings in Your Source

PART II

Reading and Writing About Fiction

1 FICTION: AN OVERVIEW

Modern Fiction

The Short Story

Elements of Fiction I: Verisimilitude and Donnée

Elements of Fiction II: Character, Plot, Structure, and Idea or Theme

Elements of Fiction III: The Writer’s Tools

Visualizing Fiction: Cartoons, Graphic Narratives, Graphic Novels

Dan Piraro, Bizarro

Art Spiegelman, from Maus

STORIES FOR STUDY

AMBROSE BIERCE An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

EDWIDGE DANTICAT Night Talkers

WILLIAM FAULKNER A Rose for Emily

TIM O’BRIEN The Things They Carried

LUIGI PIRANDELLO War

ALICE WALKER Everyday Use

EUDORA WELTY A Worn Path

Plot: The Motivation and Causality of Fiction

Writing About the Plot of a Story

Illustrative Student Essay: The Plot of Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path”

Writing Topics About Plot in Fiction

2 POINT OF VIEW: THE POSITION OR STANCE OF THEWORK’S NARRATOR OR SPEAKER

An Exercise in Point of View: Reporting an Accident

Conditions That Affect Point of View

Point of View and Opinions

Determining a Work’s Point of View

Mingling Points of View

Point of View and Verb Tense

Summary: Guidelines for Points of View

STORIES FOR STUDY

RAYMOND CARVER Neighbors

SHIRLEY JACKSON The Lottery

LORRIE MOORE How to Become a Writer

JOYCE CAROL OATES The Cousins

Writing About Point of View

Illustrative Student Essay: Shirley Jackson’s Dramatic Point of View in “The Lottery”

Writing Topics About Point of View

3 CHARACTERS: THE PEOPLE IN FICTION

Character Traits

How Authors Disclose Character in Literature

Types of Characters: Round and Flat

Reality and Probability: Verisimilitude

STORIES FOR STUDY

RAYMOND CARVER Cathedral

SUSAN GLASPELL A Jury of Her Peers

KATHERINE MANSFIELD Miss Brill

AMY TAN Two Kinds

MARK TWAIN Luck

Writing About Character

Illustrative Student Essay: The Character of Minnie Wright in Glaspell’s “A Jury of Her Peers”

Writing Topics About Character

4 SETTING: THE BACKGROUND OF PLACE, OBJECTS, AND CULTURE IN STORIES

What Is Setting?

The Literary Uses of Setting

STORIES FOR STUDY

SANDRA CISNEROS The House on Mango Street

JOSEPH CONRAD The Secret Sharer

JOANNE GREENBERG And Sarah Laughed

JAMES JOYCE Araby

CYNTHIA OZICK The Shawl

Writing About Setting

Illustrative Student Essay The Setting of Conrad’s “The Secret Sharer”

Writing Topics About Setting

5 STRUCTURE: THE ORGANIZATION OF STORIES

Formal Categories of Structure

Formal and Actual Structure

STORIES FOR STUDY

RALPH ELLISON Battle Royal

THOMAS HARDY The Three Strangers

JAMAICA KINCAID What I Have Been Doing Lately

JOYCE CAROL OATES Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

TOM WHITECLOUD Blue Winds Dancing

Writing About Structure in a Story

Illustrative Student Essay: Conflict and Suspense in Hardy’s “The Three Strangers”

Writing Topics About Structure

6 TONE AND STYLE: THEWORDS THAT CONVEY ATTITUDES IN FICTION

Diction: The Writer’s Choice and Control of Words

Tone, Irony, and Style

Tone, Humor, and Style

STORIES FOR STUDY

KATE CHOPIN The Story of an Hour

WILLIAM FAULKNER Barn Burning

ERNEST HEMINGWAY Hills Like White Elephants

ALICE MUNRO The Found Boat

FRANK O’CONNOR First Confession

DANIEL OROZCO Orientation

JOHN UPDIKE A & P

Writing About Tone and Style

Illustrative Student Essay: Frank O’Connor’s Control of Tone and Style in “First Confession”

Writing Topics About Tone and Style

7 SYMBOLISM AND ALLEGORY: KEYS TO EXTENDED MEANING

Symbolism

Allegory

Fable, Parable, and Myth

Allusion in Symbolism and Allegory

STORIES FOR STUDY

AESOP The Fox and the Grapes

ANONYMOUS The Myth of Atalanta

ANITA SCOTT COLEMAN Unfinished Masterpieces

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE Young Goodman Brown

FRANZ KAFKA A Hunger Artist

LUKE The Parable of the Prodigal Son

GABRIEL GARCÍA MARQUEZ A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings

KATHERINE ANNE PORTER The Jilting of Granny Weatherall

JOHN STEINBECK The Chrysanthemums

Writing About Symbolism and Allegory

Illustrative Student

Essay (Symbolism): Symbols of Light and Darkness in Porter’s “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall”

Second Illustrative Student Essay (Allegory): The Allegory of Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”

Writing Topics About Symbolism and Allegory

8 IDEA OR THEME: THE MEANING AND THE MESSAGE IN FICTION

Ideas and Assertions

Ideas and Issues

Ideas and Values

The Place of Ideas in Literature

How to Find Ideas

STORIES FOR STUDY

JAMES BALDWIN Sonny’s Blues

TONI CADE BAMBARA The Lesson

ANTON CHEKHOV The Lady with the Dog

D. H. LAWRENCE The Horse Dealer’s Daughter

AMÉRICO PAREDES The Hammon and the Beans

Writing About a Major Idea in Fiction

Illustrative Student Essay: D. H. Lawrence’s “The Horse Dealer’s Daughter”as an Expression of the Idea that Loving Commitment is Essential in Life

Writing Topics About Ideas

9 A CAREER IN FICTION: FOUR STORIES BY EDGAR ALLAN POE WITH CRITICAL READINGS FOR RESEARCH

POE’S LIFE AND CAREER

Poe’s Work as a Journalist and Writer of Fiction

Poe’s Reputation

Bibliographic Sources

Writing Topics About Poe

FOUR STORIES BY EDGAR A. POE (IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER)

The Fall of the House of Usher (1839)

The Masque of the Red Death (1842)

The Black Cat (1843)

The Cask of Amontillado (1846)

Edited Selections from Criticism of Poe’s Stories

1. Poe’s Irony

2.The Narrators of “The Cask of Amontillado”and “The Fall of the House of Usher”

3. “The Fall of the House of Usher”

4.“The Black Cat”and “The Tell-Tale Heart”

5.“The Masque of the Red Death”

6. Symbolism in “The Masque of the Red Death”

7.“The Masque of the Red Death ”as Representative of a “Diseased Age”

8. Sources and Analogues of “The Cask of Amontillado”

9. Poe’s Idea of Unity and “The Fall of the House of Usher”

10.The Narrators of “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Black Cat”

11. Poe, Women, and “The Fall of the House of Usher”

12.The Deceptive Narrator of “The Black Cat”

10 SEVEN STORIES FOR ADDITIONAL ENJOYMENT AND STUDY

JOHN CHIOLES Before the Firing Squad

STEPHEN CRANE The Open Boat

ANDRE DUBUS The Curse

CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN The Yellow Wallpaper

FLANNERY O’CONNOR A Good Man Is Hard to Find

TILLIE OLSEN I Stand Here Ironing

PETRONIUS (GAIUS PETRONIUS ARBITER) The Widow of Ephesus

10A WRITING RESEARCH ESSAYS ON FICTION

Selecting a Topic

Setting up a Bibliography

Online Library Services

Important Considerations About Computer-Aided Research

Taking Notes and Paraphrasing Material

Being Creative and Original While Doing Research

Documenting Your Work

Strategies for Organizing Ideas in Your Research Essay

Plagiarism: An Embarrassing but Vital Subject—and a Danger to be Overcome

Illustrative Student Essay Using Research: The Structure of Katherine Mansfield’s “Miss Brill”

Writing Topics About How to Undertake Research Essays

PART III

Reading and Writing About Poetry

11 MEETING POETRY: AN OVERVIEW

The Nature of Poetry

BILLY COLLINS Schoolsville

LISEL MUELLER Hope

ROBERT HERRICK Here a Pretty Baby Lies

Poetry of the English Language

How to Read a Poem

Studying Poetry

ANONYMOUS Sir Patrick Spens

POEMS FOR STUDY

GWENDOLYN BROOKS The Mother

EMILY DICKINSON Because I Could Not Stop for Death

ROBERT FRANCIS Catch

ROBERT FROST Stopping by Woods on aSnowy Evening

THOMAS HARDY The Man He Killed

JOY HARJO Eagle Poem

RANDALL JARRELL The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner

BEN JONSON On My First Daughter

EMMA LAZARUS The New Colossus

LOUIS MACNEICE Snow

JIM NORTHRUP Ogichidag

NAOMI SHIHAB NYE Where Children Live

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Sonnet 55: Not Marble, Nor the Gilded Monuments

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY To — [“Music, When Soft Voices Die”]

ELAINE TERRANOVA Rush Hour

Writing a Paraphrase of a Poem

Illustrative Student Paraphrase: A Paraphrase of Thomas Hardy’s “The Man He Killed”

Writing an Explication of a Poem

Illustrative Student Essay: An Explication of Thomas Hardy’s “The Man He Killed”

Writing Topics About the Nature of Poetry

12 WORDS: THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF POETRY

Choice of Diction: Specific and Concrete, General and Abstract

Levels of Diction

Special Types of Diction

Syntax

Decorum: The Matching of Subject and Word

Denotation and Connotation

ROBERT GRAVES The Naked and the Nude

POEMS FOR STUDY

WILLIAM BLAKE The Lamb

ROBERT BURNS Green Grow the Rashes, O

LEWIS CARROLL Jabberwocky 663

HAYDEN CARRUTH An Apology for Using the Word “Heart” in Too Many Poems

E. E. CUMMINGS next to of course god america

JOHN DONNE Holy Sonnet 14: Batter My Heart, Three-Personed God

RICHARD EBERHART The Fury of Aerial Bombardment

BART EDELMAN Chemistry Experiment

THOMAS GRAY Sonnet on the Death of Richard West

JANE HIRSHFIELD The Lives of the Heart

A. E. HOUSMAN Loveliest of Trees, the Cherry Now

CAROLYN KIZER Night Sounds

DENISE LEVERTOV Of Being

EUGENIO MONTALE English Horn (Corno Inglese)

JUDITH ORTIZ [COFER] Latin Women Pray

HENRY REED Naming of Parts

EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON Richard Cory

THEODORE ROETHKE Dolor

STEPHEN SPENDER I Think Continually of Those Who Were Truly Great

WALLACE STEVENS Disillusionment of Ten O’Clock

MARK STRAND Eating Poetry

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH Daffodils (I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud)

Writing About Diction and Syntax in Poetry 679 • Illustrative Student

Essay: Diction and Character in Robinson’s ‘Richard Cory’

Writing Topics About the Words of Poetry

13 CHARACTERS AND SETTING: WHO, WHAT, WHERE, AND WHEN IN POETRY

Characters in Poetry

ANONYMOUS Western Wind, When Wilt Thou Blow?

ANONYMOUS Bonny George Campbell

BEN JONSON Drink to Me, Only, with Thine Eyes

BEN JONSON To the Reader

Setting and Character in Poetry

LISEL MUELLER Alive Together

POEMS FOR STUDY

MATTHEW ARNOLD Dover Beach

WILLIAM BLAKE London

ELIZABETH BREWSTER Where I Come From

ROBERT BROWNING My Last Duchess

WILLIAM COWPER The Poplar Field

ALLEN GINSBERG A Further Proposal

LOUISE GLÜCK Snowdrops

THOMAS GRAY Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

THOMAS HARDY The Ruined Maid

DORIANNE LAUX The Life of Trees

C. DAY LEWIS Song

ROBERT LOWELL Memories of West Street and Lepke

CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE The Passionate Shepherd to His Love

JOYCE CAROL OATES Loving

SIR WALTER RALEGH The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd

CHRISTINA ROSSETTI A Christmas Carol

JANE SHOREA Letter Sent to Summer

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey

JAMES WRIGHT A Blessing

Writing About Character and Setting in Poetry

Illustrative Student Essay: The Character of the Duke in Browning’s “My Last Duchess”

Writing Topics About Character and Setting in Poetry

14 IMAGERY: THE POEM’S LINK TO THE SENSES

Responses and the Writer’s Use of Detail

The Relationship of Imagery to Ideas and Attitudes

Types of Imagery

JOHN MASEFIELD Cargoes

WILFRED OWEN Anthem for Doomed Youth

ELIZABETH BISHOP The Fish

POEMS FOR STUDY

ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING Sonnets from the Portuguese, Number 14: If Thou Must Love Me

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE Kubla Khan

T. S. ELIOT Preludes

SUSAN GRIFFIN Love Should Grow Up Like a Wild Iris in the Fields

THOMAS HARDY Channel Firing

GEORGE HERBERT The Pulley

GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS Spring

A. E. HOUSMAN On Wenlock Edge

DENISE LEVERTOV A Time Past

THOMAS LUX The Voice You Hear When You Read Silently

EUGENIO MONTALE Buffalo (Buffalo)

MARIANNE MOORE The Fish

PABLO NERUDA Every Day You Play

EZRA POUND In a Station of the Metro

MIKLÓS RADNÓTI Forced March

FRIEDRICH RÜCKERT If You Love for the Sake of Beauty

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Sonnet 130: My Mistress’ Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun

JAMES TATE Dream On

DAVID WOJAHN “It’s Only Rock and Roll, but I Like It”: The Fall of Saigon

Writing About Imagery

Illustrative Student Essay: Imagery in T. S. Eliot’s “Preludes”

Writing Topics About Imagery in Poetry

15 FIGURES OF SPEECH, OR METAPHORICAL LANGUAGE: A SOURCE OF DEPTH AND RANGE IN POETRY

Metaphors and Similes: The Major Figures of Speech

Characteristics of Metaphorical Language

JOHN KEATS On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer

Vehicle and Tenor

Other Figures of Speech

JOHN KEATS Bright Star

JOHN GAY Let Us Take the Road

POEMS FOR STUDY

JACK AGÜEROS Sonnet for You, Familiar Famine

WILLIAM BLAKE The Tyger

ROBERT BURNS A Red, Red Rose

JOHN DONNE A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning

JOHN DRYDEN A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day

ABBIE HUSTON EVANS The Iceberg Seven-Eighths Under

THOMAS HARDY The Convergence of the Twain

JOY HARJO Remember

JOHN KEATS To Autumn

MAURICE KENNY Legacy

JANE KENYON Let Evening Come

HENRY KING Sic Vita

ROBERT LOWELL Skunk Hour

JUDITH MINTY Conjoined

PABLO NERUDA If You Forget Me

MARGE PIERCY A Work of Artifice

MURIEL RUKEYSER Looking at Each Other

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Sonnet 18: Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day?

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Sonnet 30: When to the Sessions of Sweet Silent Thought

ELIZABETH TUDOR, QUEEN ELIZABETH I On Monsieur’s Departure

MONA VAN DUYN Earth Tremors Felt in Missouri

WALT WHITMAN Facing West from California’s Shores

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH London, 1802

SIR THOMAS WYATT I Find No Peace

Writing About Figures of Speech

Illustrative Student Paragraph: Wordsworth’s Use of Overstatement in “London, 1802”

Illustrative Student Essay: A Study of Shakespeare’s Metaphors in Sonnet 30: “When to the Sessions of Sweet Silent Thought”

Writing Topics About Figures of Speech in Poetry

16 TONE: THE CREATION OF ATTITUDE IN POETRY

Tone, Choice, and Response

CORNELIUS WHUR The First-Rate Wife

Tone and the Need for Control

WILFRED OWEN Dulce et Decorum Est

Tone and Common Grounds of Assent

Tone in Conversation and Poetry

Tone and Irony

THOMAS HARDY The Workbox

Tone and Satire

ALEXANDER POPE Epigram from the French

ALEXANDER POPE Epigram, Engraved on the Collar of a Dog Which I Gave to His Royal Highness

POEMS FOR STUDY

WILLIAM BLAKE On Another’s Sorrow

JIMMY CARTER I Wanted to Share My Father’s World

LUCILLE CLIFTON homage to my hips

BILLY COLLINS The Names

E. E. CUMMINGS she being Brand /-new

BART EDELMAN Trouble

MARI EVANS I Am a Black Woman

SEAMUS HEANEY Mid-Term Break

WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY When You Are Old

DAVID IGNATOW The Bagel

YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA Facing It

ABRAHAM LINCOLN My Childhood’s Home

PAT MORA La Migra

SHARON OLDS The Planned Child

ROBERT PINSKY Dying

ALEXANDER POPE from Epilogue to the Satires Dialogue I

SALVATORE QUASÍMODO Auschwitz

ANNE RIDLER Nothing Is Lost

THEODORE ROETHKE My Papa’s Waltz

JANE SHOREA Letter Sent to Summer

JONATHAN SWIFT A Description of the Morning

DAVID WAGONER My Physics Teacher

C. K. WILLIAMS Dimensions

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH The Solitary Reaper

WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS When You Are Old

Writing About Tone in Poetry

Illustrative Student Essay: The Speaker’s Attitudes in Sharon Olds’s “The Planned Child”

Writing Topics About Tone in Poetry

17 PROSODY: SOUND, RHYTHM, AND RHYME IN POETRY

Important Definitions for Studying Prosody

Segments: Individually Meaningful Sounds

Poetic Rhythm

The Major Metrical Feet

Special Meters

Substitution

Accentual Strong-Stress, and “Sprung” Rhythms

The Caesura: The Pause Creating Variety and Natural Rhythms in Poetry

Segmental Poetic Devices

Rhyme: The Duplication and Similarity of Sounds

Rhyme and Meter

Rhyme Schemes

POEMS FOR STUDY

GWENDOLYN BROOKS We Real Cool

ROBERT BROWNING Porphyria’s Lover