40

AMERICAN LITERATURE FROM 1850 UP TO

1900
1.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION: THE NEW CONSCIOUSNESS OF A POST-WAR AMERICA

Historical context
As for the historical context, the American Civil War began in 1861 and finished in
1914. The year of its beginning is considered to be the year that a new consciousness was starting to emerge.
In the struggle in question there were two main divisions or confronted groups: the confederalists and the
unionists. On the one hand, the former were eleven Southern states who were slave-owners; whereas the
latter were the non-slave-holder states. The president in those times was Abraham Lincoln1, who felt
confident enough to reshape the cause of the war from union to abolishing slavery. The American Civil War
was also called the war of secession since their main aim was to get separated from the rest of the states. As
the law that Abraham Lincoln wanted was approved, he was assassinated just after winning the cause.
Literary context
The American Civil War produced some kind of literature, i.e., war literature
concerning battles, struggles and quarrels. It comprised Herman Melville and Walt
Whitman as its main writers. Civil War (1861) fiction: Melvilles Battle-Pieces (1866); Whitmans DrumTaps (1865) and When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomd. In 1861, Washington Irving, James F. Cooper
and Edgar Allan Poe were all dead. Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry David Thoreau died before the end of
the war. Melville is the only one (from the authors studied in the previous course American Literature up to
185O) who lived throughout the whole war. Whitman helped the injured people during the war.
[Slide: Walt Whitman (1819 1892) Leaves of Grass
Drum-Taps
To the drum-taps prompt,
The young men falling in and arming,
The mechanics arming, (the trowel, the jack-plane, the blacksmiths
hammer, tost aside with precipitation,)
The lawyer leaving his office and arming, the judge leaving the court,
The driver deserting his wagon in the street, jumping down, throwing
the reins abruptly down on the horses backs,
The salesman leaving the store, the boss, book-keeper, porter, all leaving;
Squads gather everywhere by common consent and arm,
The new recruits, even boys, the old men show them how to wear their
1 Abraham Lincoln (18O9 1865) was the 16th president of the United States. He preserved the
Unionduring the U.S. Civil War and brought about the emancipation of slaves. Abraham Lincoln is
regarded as
one of America's greatest heroes due to both his incredible impact on the nation and his unique appeal.
His is a remarkable story of the rise from humble beginnings to achieve the highest office in the land;
then, a sudden and tragic death at a time when his country needed him most to complete the great task
remaining before the nation. Lincoln's distinctively human and humane personality and historical role as
savior of the Union and emancipator of the slaves creates a legacy that endures. His eloquence of
democracy and his insistence that the Union was worth saving embody the ideals of self-government
that all nations strive to achieve. Key words: Civil Rights Activist, Lawyer, U.S. President, U.S.
Representative.

40

accoutrements, they buckle the straps carefully,

Outdoors arming, indoors arming, the flash of the musket-barrels,
The white tents cluster in camps, the armd sentries around, the sunrise
cannon and again at sunset,
Armd regiments arrive every day, pass through the city, and embark
from the wharves,
(How good they look as they tramp down to the river, sweaty, with
their guns on their shoulders!
How I love them! how I could hug them, with their brown faces and
their clothes and knapsacks coverd with dust!)
The blood of the city up-armd! armd! the cry everywhere,
The flags flung out from the steeples of churches and from all the
public buildings and stores,
The tearful parting, the mother kisses her son, the son kisses his mother,
(Loth is the mother to part, yet not a word does she speak to detain him,)
The tumultuous escort, the ranks of policemen preceding, clearing the way,
The unpent enthusiasm, the wild cheers of the crowd for their favorites,
The artillery, the silent cannons bright as gold, drawn along, rumble
lightly over the stones,
(Silent cannons, soon to cease your silence,
Soon unlimberd to begin the red business;)
All the mutter of preparation, all the determind arming,
The hospital service, the lint, bandages and medicines,
The women volunteering for nurses, the work begun for in earnest, no
mere parade now;
War! an armd race is advancing! the welcome for battle, no turning away!
War! be it weeks, months, or years, an armd race is advancing to welcome it.
There is a listing of things, elements and people. Walt Whitman uses constantly
parallel structures and lists of numerous things. He reiterates the actions that
these people are doing. The focus is on how everybody is armed. Besides, he talks
about himself by talking about everybody 1st lines of Song of Myself prove so.
Walt Whitman is the democrat poet of excellence. ]
[Slide: Walt Whitman (1819 1892) When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloomd
(stanzas 1, 2, 6 & 1O)
Walt Whitman who was a fighter against slavery absolutely loved Abraham Lincoln, Whitman was one of his
favourite admirers. And indeed he dedicated a series of poems to Lincoln when he was assassinated in
spring when flowers begin to bloom as citizens felt they had become orphans since Lincoln had passed
away.
Walt Whitman recalls Lincoln when flowers are springing up since it was then when the president was
assassinated. In Hojas de hierba, the translation appears as it follows below:
Cada vez que regrese la primavera volver a estar de luto. In other words, every
spring, the lilacs synecdoche of nature and three more thoughts would come
to Whitmans mind. By means of o, o, o at the beginning of each verse of the 2nd
stanza, a representation of a tearful state is achieved. In the 6th stanza, there are many parallel structures
which are an anticipation of what Whitman would be later writing about. In the 1Oth stanza, Whitman
depicts the loss of his friend, namely, Abraham
Lincoln. The conclusion out from this poem is that Abraham Lincoln was a loved politician
in the United States.]
Social panorama: antebellum and post-bellum of the United States
When the American Civil War began, there were fewer than one hundred millionaires in the United States.
Fifteen years later, the number had multiplied per ten. It was the Gilded Age, when the ideal could become

40

real, the era of the millionaires. The myth of the West Frontier had been declared finished. The new hero
of this literature is no longer a romance of the West world, but a business man in large cities, such as
Chicago, with skyscrapers. That would be the kind of literature of the Gilded Age. In 1898, there was a
relevant event, i.e., the Spanish American War in which Spain lost Cuba. By 19OO, the United States had
entered the era of national power and they had become having a national power. The physical aspect of the
country changed abruptly not only because of the movements of the citizens to the cities but of the masses of
immigrants who arrived in the States during forty years (186O 19OO).
[Digression: the Melting Pots expression. It started to emerge during those years as a metaphor to describe
how America, with all the migration in those hectic decades, received people from all over the world. It is
also related to the American Adam who was an idealised version of the American man. They wanted to
integrate into that society, but they wanted to preserve their customs. So to speak, ghettos started to emerge
because people wanted to live together with their own people and tradition and so on and so

forth. The metaphor has changed to American being described as a Melting Pot
depicted as a salad bowl Americas multi-culturality and diversity nowadays in
which everything continues being what it is without change.
Melting Pot

Everything mixes.

Salad Bowl

There is no mixture. The lettuce stays the same, the tomato

too, and so on.]

The rail roads were also multiplying, a sense of optimism, an expansion of the population due to its
movements. If you were rich, it meant that you had been touched by God Puritan idea.
What literature did this era produce?
1. Literature of protest. Writers very seldom wrote about societys advantages, but about its drawbacks,
errors, mistakes, and injustices in the Gilded Age. The hero is a national one who is a business man, i.e.,
a cruel character exploiting workers. For instance, The Gilded Age (Mark Twain), The Octopus (Frank
Norris, 19O1), Maggie: a Girl of the Streets (Stephen Crane, 1893), The Titan (Dreiser, 1914), Rebecca
Harding Davis2 Life in the Iron Mills (1816). All these titles point at the consequences of the Gilded Age,
as an analysis of the injustices of this period. They wanted to highlight how horrible it was to dwell in
those conditions. Harriet Beecher Stowes Uncle Toms Cabin explained the story of a slave who was
abused by his owner. Eventually, he died of harsh and it was such a power sensitive novel. The novel had
to do with slavery and its horrors since people became defenders of abolitionism after having read the
novel in question. So, literature acted as a powerful weapon to change society since the novel achieved
many people against slavery. Sociologists of literature claim that Uncle Toms Cabin achieved more
abolitionists after the reading of the novel.
2. The rise of Realism in which Pragmatism was the philosophical movement.
For example, they are the works about the America of the Gilded Age,
William Dean Howells, Mark Twain, Henry James, Edith Wharton, and so on
and so forth.
Realism as a literary movement refers to showing the reality of things. The movement in question affects two
parts of literature, namely, both the how and the what. How is connected to the idea that Realism
portrays habits, ways of speaking, dressing and so on the form. What has reference to that Realism speaks
of the here and the now. It does not speak about imaginary lands in the past or in the future, but about the
physical, common facts which could contain psychological facts. Realism arrived in America much later than
2 Rebecca Harding Davis is the successor of novels written by women which started to bloom

40

in Europe in the hands of Balzac. Flaubert and the rest of people in the movement were already dead when
this current arrived in the States. Realist writers such as Mark Twain devoted their novels to portray realistic
issues. In the 189Os, Realism would be expanded to its most extreme called Naturalism, which arrived in the
hands of Emile Zol and Emilio Pardo Bazn. Stephen Crane and these authors were naturalists since they
adopted a Darwinian way of life. People moved by animalistic instinct. They presented human beings as
puppets. For example, some naturalist writers were Frank Norris, Stephen Crane and Theodore Dreiser.
There were novels centred on slums suburbs and some of their writers were journalists before they had
started writing novels. It was like reportage fiction.
3. The concern with the novel as an art form. This idea comes from Gustave Flaubert, in France. The
transcendentalists considered them story tellers, but not writers in its wide sense. For example: Edith
Wharton and Henry James, their appearance means an stylistic sophistication. It was such a very
complex movement to read/interpret. Every novel has a form, so to speak, cause-effect episodes. The
novel gains in stylistic sophistication and/or excellence with the presence of Henry James and Edith
Wharton. It has a complex movement and the novel really becomes a form of art much more difficult to
read and to interpret.
4. Parallel to the interest in Realism, the Great American Novel. There are some authors such as Dreiser
and his An American Tragedy, Dos Passos Although America wanted their own eneid general
perspective: epopeya after the nation had suffered that tremendous war that never happened. What
happened was the emergence of writers who wrote about the society which was emerging. They were not
epopees, but novels on the other side of the Gilded Age. The American tragedy in Dreisers novel was a
phenomenon related to his journalist career. Some crimes were continuously the same: children growing
up at school were falling in love with each other; afterwards they would get married. Later on, once they
had been married, the woman would stay the same whereas the man would improve with regard to his
physical aspect and so on. Eventually, those men used to kill their couples in order to marry someone
wealthier. So, Dreiser started to write about these crimes occurring in America, the injustices of the
Gilded Age.
5. As a result of this, local-color/regionalist fiction appeared. For instance: New England (Rose Terry
Cooke, Mary Wilkins Freeman, Sarah Orne Jewett), the West (Bret Harte), the Middle West (Hamlin
Garland, E. William Howells), the South (George Washington Cable, Joel Chandler Harris and
Thomas Nelson Page). Literature depicted the idiosyncrasies of particular regions of America. Kate
Chopin was from the South and wrote many short stories depicting life in her homeland.
6. The New Women of the end of the 19th century would be the equivalent of the Feminists nowadays.
Examples of writers belonging to this group are: Kate Chopins The Awakening, Charlotte Perkins
Gilmans The Yellow Wallpaper. When a woman married, she lost her possessions to the husband. So
some women defended themselves and wrote about education, which was a new womens literature. Kate
Chopin belongs both to this group and to the previous one.
7. Literature of black America towards the end of the 19th century. Writers of this groups were the ones
such as Du Bois The Souls of Black Folk, among others. It was a folk literature of occupation, of
railroading, mining, ranching, and so on. Du Bois wrote folk literature of occupation, how African
Americans lived in the rail roads and so on during slavery. Some abolitionists were Quakers and changed
their names and identities to start a new life in the North since they were run-away slaves. They wrote
about the horrible hazardous treatment they were subjugated to; however, their stories were not written
by them, but by abolitionists who were not illiterate as the slaves were. Exceptions: Fredrick Douglass
and a woman, they both learn to write and read during their slave period. Besides, they wrote their own
biography concerning slavery and the treatment they suffered.

40

AMERICAN LITERATURE FROM 1850 UP TO

1900
2.

THE CREATION OF AMERICAN POETRY

2.1. WALT WHITMAN (1819 1892)3

Leaves of Grass (52 sections/poems)
What does the title tell you? A leaf of grass is walked on it, we lay down on it to sunbathe, it is something
very insignificant as we do not pay attention to it. For an insect, a leaf of grass is something crucial.
Basically, it all depends on the eyes through which you look at things. Furthermore, the idea is that human
beings have lost their capacity to find the miraculous thing and people ought to look at things with different
eyes.
Biographical data
Walt Whitman was born in Brooklyn in a humble family. They were nine (brothers and sisters). Its poor
background made Whitman abandon school when he was twelve since he had no money at all. He read all
the classics while he worked as a printer and he did not go to university. Whitman worked for several
newspapers and got a first-hand experience in the South (Louisiana). In 1855, he published Leaves of
Grasss first edition, which had twelve untitled poems and the Preface. He published the volume himself and
sent it to Ralph Waldo Emerson, who wrote an essay called The Poet and he invited Americans to become
the voice/poet as a visionary, shaman of America. Whitman wanted to be what Emerson was claiming.
Emerson was fascinated about Whitmans publication. What is more, in 1866, Whitman would publish
Leaves of Grasss second edition with thirty-three
poems with the inclusion of Emersons response. Whitman never published anything else concerning poetry
apart from Leaves of Grass which underwent nine successively larger, revised, and reorganized different
editions between 1855 and 1892 throughout his life.
After the Civil War (1861), Whitman took care of the wounded in Washington in hospitals and he was also
caring after his brother. He did not have any money but he was there helping, namely, he lived a life of
constant struggle against poverty. He neither married nor had children.
As a summary, it could be concluded that: he worked as a printer in New York. Journalism as a full-time
career: Long-Islander and New Orleans Crescent. 1855: first edition of Leaves of Grass (12 untitled poems
and a Preface).Job as a clerk for the Department of the Interior. He started to write from Dante to
Shakespeare. He never went to university. In 1855, when he was 35 years old, he published the first edition
of Leaves of Grass. He published the volume by himself and he sent it to Emerson. When the Civil War
started, he helped the people who had been injured during the battles. He never married.
3Walt Whitman celebrated America as the great democracy where each individual, over time,
couldevolve to spiritual perfection. Declaring the human body to be the equal of the soul and asserting
the
equality of men and women and of all races and conditions, he found his truth in the light that came
directly from his soul, independently of rational analysis.

40

2.1.1. Poetry
Walt Whitman is very much the focus of some studies with regard to
homoeroticism4. His lifes achievement was Leaves of Grass.
Leaves of Grass (1855)
Leaves of Grass (1856): added 2O poems
Leaves of Grass (186O): added 7O poems
Drum Taps (1865)
Sequel to Drum Taps (1865)
Leaves of Grass (1867): added the poems called Calamus
Leaves of Grass (187O)
Passage to India (187O)
Leaves of Grass (1876)
Leaves of Grass (1881)
Good-Bye, My Fancy (1891)
Leaves of Grass (1891)
2.1.1.1. Section 31
Poem 31 and Serrats translation into Spanish.
2.1.1.2. Section 6
The 1st stanza from lines 1 to 8 tells what a leaf of grass may signify and imply since it contains the world
through Whitmans vision. The next stanza contains another ingredient of Whitmans philosophy: everyone
is EQUAL. Whitman is the most democratic poet. Grass metaphor grows everywhere and is available to
everybody since it is in the South, North and so on and so forth. In the 3rd stanza, Whitman is addressing
the grass. The last stanza says that death brings life and that grass shows there is no death. It is a dialogue
between the self and the world. The I becomes America, i.e., dialectical relationship between the self and
the world, the I with the all.
2.1.1.3. Features related to Leaves of Grass
Leaves of Grass is a process as Walt Whitman spent his whole life re-writing his poetry, he changed poetry
altogether and modified its conventions. Whitmans poetry was an attempt to break down conventional
categories of experience.
In sections 14 and 15 there is a dialectical relationship between the self and the world, the I with the all.
The I is identified with the all. The very last line of poem 14 illustrates so as it is a crucial verse. Readers
perceive Whitmans poetic method: LISTS of characters the + noun (job). The very last stanza of poem
14 is read since the next poem (15) is rather longish. Another Whitmans feature is the one connected to
pairs of OPPOSITES, antonyms, because everything is included black and white, President and
prostitute; embrace of opposites: the sacred and the profane, male into female These are clearly seen
in section 16.
Whitman produces a poetic persona that is an image of the unified man, multiple, open, androgynous,
optimistic, etc., i.e., the self being a multiple persona.
Walt Whitman eagerly identifies with slave, lonely women, a bridegroom, trapper, bereaved wife, mutineer,
convict, fireman, prostitute For instance, check sections 15, and 19 as well.
In poem 19, the listings of all these characters constitute the self. Absolute equality is aimed at and
postulated by juxtaposing the lowest and the mightiest in the American society. There is EQUALIZATION
not only in lexical content terms, but also syntactical form. Whitmans personhood is very elusive and
4 Homoeroticism. Eroticism centre don or aroused by persons of ones own sex. Concerning
homosexuallove and desire.

40

complex to grasp since he hides behind a mask when presenting characters. A paradox: although being
elusive, readers get to know his personality at the end of the reading.
Main characteristics
The main features with regard to Walt Whitmans poetry are the ones that follow below: repetitions, parallel
structures, verbal ellipsis, juxtaposition of images and characters in the same level, comedy, sexual and
psychological complexities and intricacies due to ambiguity or different ways of understanding it,
presentation of his own body in section 19: lips, hands, face, hair
Preface to Leaves of Grass
It is a kind of manifesto which must be read since Whitman explains the philosophy of his long poem. Some
of the ideas presented in the Preface are:
The United States is the greatest poem since it gives the poem everything to write the poem part 1
of the Preface
Catalogue of things that are unrhymed poetry is seen in the last line of the second part of the
Preface. It defends free verse and Whitman speaks of conventional rhymes as outdated since
Americas poetry requires new forms. Walt Whitman, as an American citizen, was an idealist, a
democrat, fighting for slavery, proud of his humble origins, defender of equality, and all these
elements together create his conceptions about America.
the American poets are to enclose old and new: for the United States is the race of races part 4 of
the Preface. The poet responds to his countrys spirit, to its geography even part 4 too. When he
talks about the poet, he is talking about his own project.
he was a lover of the universe part 6 of the Preface; Whitman does not moralize part 1O; he
knows the soul
the POET part 5 of the Preface is described by Whitman as:
o equable man line 4 in 5th part
o arbiter of the diverse
o equalizer of his age
o supplier of wants
o master of obedience
o his brain is the ultimate brain
o he sees eternity in men and women
o he is a seer, an individual, complete
liberty is indispensable part 17 of the Preface.
Song of Myself5
Walt Whitman completed the last edition the day before his death. With regard to Song of Myself,
it is about the birth of a poet section 1 line 9, a Poet in Emersonian terms, the eyeball
idiosyncratic from of free verse
rhapsodic, celebratory and declamatory style. Whitman follows the movements of an era.
he spiritualizes everything: he is the poet of dream. In section 2, last two stanzas. Apart from being a
spiritual poem, it is also a material one.
5 Song of Myself. The longest and among the best of his poems, in which the poets soul records
ina succession of vignettes and reflective interludes the picturesque surface of America and its
democratic
values, including his conviction that all mankind is immortal and evolving over time (however great)
toward perfection.

40

Whitman is talking about listening to all sights and seeing them from yourselves, i.e., to believe in our
potential. The idea that he is conveying is that if we feel proud, then we are poets.
Whitman thought poetry as a musical or oratory or song. It has musical quality.
he was the precursor of the great modernist experimentalists
Whitman focuses on the ordinary democratic man, the poet who creates himself. He identifies with
the nation, with all mankind, and ultimately with God. The traditional heroes of epics are ancient
heroes. So Walt Whitman creates an epic of the common men. According to him, the hero is the
ordinary man and woman.
he urges us to passionate acceptance of the miracle of the ordinary, a renewal of our capacity of
wonder. In section 5, there are constant references to mystic experiences that inspired this longlasting poem. The author is having a conversation with his inner genius/power the relationship
with his inner power.
there is an erotic scene in 3rd stanza of the 5th section. He is making love with his creative power
which is his inner genius
the movement of Song of Myself is circular rather than linear =progressive, returning upon
itself in evocation of ecstasy and confession
Song of Myself does not tell a story in conventional terms. It is written in the present tense.
Whitmans perception, thoughts and inner world are explored within the present moment.
the poem is about emotional pulsations, shifting responses, attitudinal posturing These are the
features that portray the Poet in Emersonian
terms. They are not Whitmans features, but the Poets ones.
Song of Myself is divided into three parts:
o sections 1 17: first process a man becomes a poet
section 3, 9th stanza: Whitman is welcoming his body as well as the rest of the world
section 4, 1st stanza: he includes his family, there are autobiographical elements. He is referring very
sadly to his mother, his brother and his familys lack of money. Not only bad things are Whitmans
inspiration, but other gay, happy
things and issues.
section 8, 3rd and 4th stanzas: the author is talking about scenes and experiences he has seen. There
are lists enumerating groups of people with pairs of opposites. From the very beginning, Whitman is
including ALL people.
section 17: it is like the summary of the first part of Song of Myself. Whitman mentions the grass as
a metaphor that is everywhere and includes everyone, This little section absolutely encompasses
everything.
o sections 18 32: revelation of the human aspects of the poet
section 2O: Whitman asks rhetorical questions concerning philosophical issues. He is talking about
himself but also about all of us, i.e., an incorporation of us into his discourse constantly.
section 21, 1st and 2nd stanzas: he is presenting himself as a democratic poet.
section 24, 1st and 2nd stanzas: the most biographical section. Whitman mentions his name for the
first and unique time throughout the whole poem. He also presents himself as a democratic poet
again.
section 24, 9th and 1Oth stanzas: he is spiritualizing everything, he is giving the poem God-like
attributes
o sections 33 end: the apotheosis: the shaman, the healer, the director of souls, mystic and
visionary
section 33: the longest section of Song of Myself. There are relevant quotations. Parallel structures
are included. Where is repeated again and again, concerning space and time. In page 24, I at the
beginning of each line, and he also begins with I am, i.e., there are identifications such as metaphors
A is B. In page 25, the last stanza in this page refers to the American Civil War and Whitman depicts
the horrors of the war. The last line of the poem refers to Whitmans participation in all the activities
concerning the war: helping the wounded in hospitals.

40

Formal aspects of Song of Myself

Walt Whitman achieves an effect of poetic construct by allowing a conventional line of verse to be followed
by or merged into a longer line in which the basic meter is partly broken. For instance, section 8. That is the
movement repeated throughout all sections by Whitman. It is free verse, but not chaotic; there is a sense of
coherence, both semantic and syntactic.
Other themes in Song of Myself

fraternity and love section 5

the poet as seer and as worlds EYE: the miraculous perception in the leaves of grass section 31:
the grandiosity of the trivial
rejection of the sentimental piety of the say section 31 and 32. Whitman is incorporating ancient
Gods. Furthermore, he is mentioning all religious beliefs, modern and ancient; not any particular
religion
there are moments of death and darkness; the emergent poet suffers moments of doubt or anxiety,
even panic and a sense of frustration which is very much more present in other poets of the same
authorsection 38, 1st and last stanzas6

As I Ebbd With the Ocean of Life

It talks about both physical and emotional death that is converted into the source of poetry. The poem is of a
mid-life crisis since it is a dejection4 poem. It describes a walk along the beach of Paumanok and the poet is
invaded by a feeling of doubt since his poetry is not reaching the universe. In the 2nd stanza, it talks about
the junk that the sea brings on to the shore by means of the waves; so the poet feels identified with this
rubbish as he thinks his poetry is not worthwhile. The same idea is conveyed in the 3rd stanza as well.
Whitman describes himself as a disaster with regard to writing poetry, the incapability of expressing ideas.
When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomd
The poem in question is about the itinerary that Lincolns coffin took, it basically moved from Washington to
Springfield Illinois. It passed several cities in a train, going along cities, stations and so on. The poem is a
private response Walt Whitmans grief to a public event Abraham Lincolns death. Every spring lilacs,
flowers, will continue blooming whereas Lincoln will be no longer there, i.e., it is a contrast between life and
death. The President is seen as a guiding star. In section 4, thrush as an element of nature reappears in
section 9. In section 14, the bird sings a song; the singing bird appears as reconciliation with death. There
is a clear identification with death in the following stanza:
and the charm...
as I held as if...
and the voice...
The phrase strong deliveress also refers to death. In section 15, the author comes back to reality. In the next
section, the unity is totally impermanent:
lilac (nature) + star (President Abraham Lincoln) + bird = trinity
The three of them come together since it is a re-union. When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomd is a song
of consolation for Walt Whitmans grief for Lincolns assassination.
O Captain! My Captain!
6Samuel Taylor Coleridge had a poem which was called Dejection Ode and it is attributed to
theincapacity to write poetry.

40

The following poem is an elegy and a musical poem as well. In other words, it is a poem about the
celebration of Abraham Lincolns victory in slavery and in the American Civil War. Lincoln was the 16th
president of the United States who was assassinated while he was watching a play in theatre. In the poem,
Lincoln is the captain of a ship which symbolizes the United States. In the 1st section, Lincoln achieved his
promise to his country by means of: the fearful trip refers to the end of the American Civil War and the
prize we sought is won is connected to the end of slavery. In spite of the happiness, the President has died.
Whitman is converting the theatre the real place for Lincolns assassination into the deck the poetic
place for his death.
By the end of the second stanza, Walt Whitman wants to believe that Lincolns death is a dream, he feels like
this death is a product of his imagination. In the third section, although the President has achieved his
promise to the United States, he is actually dead. It is Walt Whitmans most famous poem written
immediately after Abraham Lincolns assassination. American kids at school have to know the poem by
heart.
2.2. EMILY DICKINSON (183O 1886)7
2.2.1. Emily Dickinsons introduction
Emily Dickinson belongs to the American Renaissance, a period in which gigantic figures Henry David
Thoreau, Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Ralph Waldo Emerson of the
American literature emerged (184O 187O). Although Emily Dickinson belongs chronologically to the
American Renaissance, there is no connection between her poetry and the period in which she dwelled. She
does not thematically belong to the period in question. During Dickinsons lifetime, she decided not to
publish her works; however, she had written 2OOO poems approximately.
2.2.2. Emily Dickinsons life
She was born in Amherst, Massachusetts. According to some scholars, Emily Dickinson was considered a
timeless poet. She has been given several names such as the myth-in-white since she almost always was
dressing in white, the pearly poet due to her whiteness and her short poems. She was also given the
following two names: the poet-recluse and an island in the American lands. How a woman who had a little
connection with the world outside wrote so much? She always remained alone, lived alone and kept apart.
Her father was a very prominent lawyer who sent his daughter to a boarding school but she returned earlier
since she felt homesick. She was agoraphobic8 since she feared society and the whole world outside. That
was one of her first trips when she was seventeen. The second and last trip she took was to the
ophthalmologist in Philadelphia. She was bipolar according to psychologists. Emily Dickinson did some
7 Emily Dickinson was born in the western Massachusetts village of Amherst. Except for brief visits
toBoston and to Washington, D.C. and a year at Mount Holyoke, she spent her life there, mainly within
the
grounds of the family mansion. Despite such limited experience she produced 1,775 poems, only seven
of which (and these over her protest) were published during her lifetime. For the first two or three years
of her career, she wrote nearly a poem a day, and altogether, she produced verse of such quality that
she is placed with Walt Whitman in the first rank of nineteenth century American poets.
Emily Dickinsons poetry was inspired by Emily Brnte.

8 According to Real Academia Espaola, agoraphobic (Del gr. 'plaza pblica' y fobia). 1. f. Med.
Enpsiquiatra, sensacin morbosa de angustia o miedo ante los espacios despejados, como las plazas,
las
avenidas, etc.

40

outings to the shops and so on, but when she was thirty she stopped going out and receiving visits from her
acquaintance. She loved gardening and baking; in fact, her father only ate the bread she baked. There were
three important essential people in Dickinsons life: - Reverend Charles Wadsworth. He was a married man
who Emily considered as her impossible love. He was a source of inspiration for her until he moved to San
Francisco. Then, it was when he inspired her sad poems. Emily refused living the life of a Victorian woman
as she did not want to marry and preferred spending the whole day writing. As a matter of fact, she never
gave titles to her poetry; moreover, she did not want anybody to title them. The numbers given to the poems
depend on the editions: some editors number the poems by name whereas some others just classify them
chronologically. Poem 3O3 illustrates Emily Dickinson as a person. She shut the door to the people she did
not want to socialize with. Her soul was isolated, agoraphobic. What is more, she felt very well accompanied
with her own self.
- Thomas Wentworth Higginson9: correspondences. He wrote in a journal called The Atlantic Monthly
which Emily widely read. Besides, in a publication he gave advice to young novel writers. Afterwards. Emily
felt that she wanted to publish her poetry; however, she did not dare to go to a publishing house since she
was agoraphobic. Although, she wrote to the journal and attached some of her poems.

Wentworth gave her an appalling response on which he stated that her poetry was not
understandable at all and considered it as extremely erotic. Furthermore, he advised
her not to publish. In spite of that, they maintained a correspondence between years
as she considered him her mentor. They met twice because Thomas visited her twice
in Amherst. When she was about to die, she asked her sister Lavinia to burn everything, so the
correspondence was completely lost.
-

Edward Dickinson: Emilys father. He was a very prominent lawyer who was involved in politics.
When he passed away, his daughter was totally devastated. She did not have a close relationship with her
mother. Emilys siblings her brother Austin and her sister Lavinia were not only her siblings, but her
intellectual companions. Austin married Susan Gilberg and it is strongly believed and thoroughly
analyzed by scholars that Emily was bisexual. Her sister-in-law was perhaps her platonic love during her
life; Susan also inspired some Dickinsons poems. With regard to Dickinsons sources of inspiration, her
family mansion and its garden in Amherst are considered the poets universe.
2.2.3. Emily Dickinsons poetry
Juan Ramn Jimnez10 quotes the following excerpt on Emily Dickinson: Una Santa Teresa laica
presumida y coqueta de alma, que se jacta para la posteridad de demasiada confianza con Dios y se lleva
a la tierra el secreto de esa confianza (...) es frecuente, casi constante, suponer que el poeta mejor es el ms
extenso. Pero un poeta es un ser en gracia que da destellos y permanece lleno de su secreto, que nace, vive,
muere y permanece como un tesoro del que regalar joyas menores, que lleva su reserva mayor a la nada
9Despite a long career as a leading radical voice against slavery and for women's suffrage, in addition
toserving as the commanding officer of the first Black military regiment in U.S. history, Higginson is
most
often recalled today as the editor who corresponded with Emily Dickinson and co-edited with Mabel
Loomis Todd the publication of Dickinson's first collections of poetry. Dickinson sent Higginson some of
her poems after she read his 1862 essay, "Letter to a Young Contributor," which offered generic advice
to writers submitting their first manuscripts. Though she initiated this correspondence in the same year
Higginson joined the Army to fight in the Civil War, he nevertheless maintained contact with her in a
correspondence that lasted until her death in 1886. He first met Dickinson in person in 1870, after he
had published his own first novel, Malbone, in 1869. Although a poet and novelist himself, Higginson's
most significant literary achievements were his correspondence with Dickinson, the memoir he
published about her, and the publication of her first two volumes of poetry.

10 Juan Ramn Jimnez was a Spanish poet and received the Nobel Prize in Literature.

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para enriquecerla; esto es, un poeta enriquecedor, un abolidor verdadero de la nada (...). Emily Dickinson
fue eso: una mujer en gracia que se llev el secreto del mundo a la eternidad, por si estaba vaca (...) Su
poesa es como la de una esencia o un color muy concentrados, que pueden teir o perfumar hasta lo
infinito....
With the previous quotation, Juan Ramn Jimnez hints at three or four important ideas, especially with the
words in bold. Dickinson had various mystic aspects, apart from living the life of a nun. This idea is
connected to poem 288. In this poem, the poets hermit condition is highlighted because she wanted to be
nobody. She was eclipsed by the gigantic figure of Walt Whitman. In poem 1129, slant is a very used word
more than twice in her poetry by Dickinson which means sesgado, parcial, no en su totalidad.
Dickinsons two main features are the ones that follow below. Her peculiar use of dashes has drawn critics
attention. They have not agreed to the use of dashes and her peculiar capitalization. The other characteristic
is the constant use of ellipsis since she left verbs in this way. Emily Dickinsons poetry reflects her loneliness,
seclusion. Her poems reflect her necessity as well as a lack of something. Her poems are an intimate
recollection of inspirational moments such as a bird, the wrinkle of water, and so on. The possibility of
happiness in little things was explored by the poet. She was able to see the world with the eyes of wonder in
very trivial and minute things. The poet in question was influenced by the Metaphysical poets of the 17th
century England such as John Donne and some others who Emily extensively read. Furthermore, it is fair to
consider her reading of the Book of Revelation and her upbringing in a Puritan New England town which
encouraged a Calvinist,
orthodox, and conservative approach to Christianity. As the Bible was influential for her, her poetry contains
biblical language. The first volume of her work was published posthumously in 1890 and the last in 1955.
Upon her death, Dickinson's family discovered 40 hand bound volumes of nearly 1800 of her poems, or
"fascicles" as they are sometimes called. These booklets were made by folding and sewing five or six sheets of
stationery paper and copying what seem to be final versions of poems in an order that many critics believe to
be more than chronological. The handwritten poems show a variety of dash-like marks of various sizes and
directions (some are even vertical). The poems were initially unbound and published according to the
aesthetics of her many early editors, removing her unusual and varied dashes and replacing them with
traditional punctuation. The current standard version replaces her dashes with a standard "n-dash," which is
a closer typographical approximation of her writing. Furthermore, the original order of the works was not
restored until 1981, when Ralph W. Franklin used the physical evidence of the paper itself to restore her
order, relying on smudge marks, needle punctures and other clues to reassemble the packets. Since then,
many critics have argued for thematic unity in these small collections, believing the ordering of the poems to
be more than chronological or convenient.
2.2.4. Characteristics of Emily Dickinsons poetry
In poem 249, there is an expression of homoerotic love to Dickinsons sister-inlaw, i.e., Susan and/or
Austins wife. It can also be a heterosexual poem because it does not speak of a receiver. For biographical
reasons, it has been ascribed to a lesbian theme. The editors also preserved the dashes.
Emily Dickinsons poems are a challenge to the reader: she confuses by the
1. Use of paradox, ambiguity and irony. Her poems are compressed, oracular, telegraphic messages.
2. Extravagant metaphorical flourishes: disorienting synaesthetic effects, rare associations of elements,
objects
3. Her peculiar punctuation and syntax: her system of dashes, capitalizations, unorthodox phrasing,
broken rhyme and meter. Once you think you have mastered the rhyme, Dickinson changes it.
4. Experimentation: the discourse is structured around key words (in Capitals), suppressing
Verbs/suppressing TIME. Ellipsis insinuation, ambiguity, silence is as important as the word. She
uses enjambment.

40

5. Moving back and forth between abstractions and sensual images.

6. Stanzaic pattern: echoes of the Hymn Book. She was brought up in a very Calvinist environment.
7. Fictionalization of herself: she plays roles, wears different masks. For instance, some of the roles she
plays are exemplified in poems 754, 1138, 271, 441 and 632. Guessing at her identity is pretty
complex, everything is so slippery and you cannot really know her.
Emily Dickinsons themes:

Life: 67, 258, 241, 341, 4O5, 536 & 65O.

Love: 3O3, 249, 511 & 1O78.
Nature: 285, 52O, 1138, 13O, 314, 328, 978 & 986.
Time, death and eternity: 28O, 51O, 1O99, 49, 5O, 214 & 216.
Death: 5O & 712.
Silence & alienation: 28O, 3O5(a very elliptical poem about fear), 435 & 51O.
Renunciation and happiness: 67, 241 & 11OO.

With regard to poem 258, the term slant is used again, as a noun in this case.
In poem 754, the role Emily Dickinson adopts here is that of a loaded gun. The I of the speaker is the loaded
gun. The Vesuvian is a very aggressive active volcano in Italy; in the poem, a physical eruption which
metaphorically implies passion, fire and so on. Dickinson surprises us by adopting a masculine role. There is
an image of power since she hunts, she is violent, she is like a volcano in action since she is the image of a
loaded gun. The gun could be interpreted as a phallic symbol. In other poems, Dickinson plays the role of a
powerless woman.
In poem 1138, Emily Dickinson is playing the role of a spider. It is almost like a HQ, so dense. It is a poem
about a spider sewing at night without a light. Spinster comes from spin, like a spider that is spinning. Her
final victory as a spinster or spinner is in another poem.
In poem 271 Dickinson calls herself a woman in white with all its connotations such as youth, innocence,
virginity and also death.
In poem 441, Dickinson adopts the role of an intermediary between the world and nature, i.e., how she felt
as an island.
In poem 632, the poet adopts the role of the transcendentalist philosophers. There are echoes of Ralph
Waldo Emerson and his transcendentalist thoughts: limitless. It is a very rhythmic poem: there is rhyme and
rhythm, octosyllables and hexasyllables. Dickinson is proclaiming to the world the power of the brain. The
poet is like a pearl in her oyster.
In poem 4O5 loss, very often failure, suffering and no faith bring more satisfaction than complete
happiness. Loneliness as a comparison. Even peace would be a disturbance to Dickinsons quietness and
solitude. The last verse in the 2nd stanza in which Him is used, it could be God in religious terms, but
Dickinson was not religious at all. She uses religious words such as sacrament, blaspheme, ordained so
some critics believe that this ecclesiastical language may be a reference to Reverend Charles Wadsworth.
Perhaps the poem is about the loss of love. It is really ambiguous since there is no final meaning but
attempts to decipher Dickinsons poetry.
In poem 49 loss, it is an elusive poem very difficult to grasp. The I is lost and is a beggar subjugated to
God. The I tries to escape but discovers that the speaker is poor once more. Loss facing the world of adults.

40

Poem 5O is about death. Dickinson is constantly flirting with the idea of death which is very powerfully
evident in this poem. Some of Dickinsons biographers state that she attempted to suicide, but it

is not proved enough. Dickinson is talking about gossip in very little towns. Remember
this poem for the study of Mary Wilkins Freeman. Emily calls herself shy and ignorant,
perhaps it was the image that the rest had about her since it was the just the contrary.
We never know what Dickinson is trying to say: enigmatic.
Poem 712 is also about death. This theme is usually thought of as a woman, but in
this poem death is a he. It is an imaginary journey with death. Dickinson is describing
in a way what the ancient religions believed. In silence and alienation poems, a mad
agoraphobic woman is losing her identity. An alienated person since Dickinson was
afraid of being and/or becoming mad.
One of the most powerful poems is 28O.
In poem 28O, Dickinson is describing the religious service or funeral of her brain until
her numb was going numb. The space, as bells, tolls. Dickinson has become an ear.
The last sentence is ambiguous since it can be interpreted in a twofold way: I lost my
mind and reason or I became aware of what the rest of the world is about. They are
two opposite views and there are echoes of Poes poetry and madness.
In poem 435, Dickinson is ahead in her conception of madness. When women in
Emilys times had post-partum depressions, they were put in asylums and were called
hysterics. According to the anti-psychiatry movement, what people considered
madness was rebelliousness.
Poem 51O offers various images. The last stanza is like a shipwreck of the mind.
Dickinson has fallen into total despair and depression.
Poem 67 and its translation into Spanish: pain is what guarantees authenticity.
Sometimes desire is more appealing and intense than satisfaction. To renounce
something is to gain it. Privation causes appetite.
In poem 241, agony is more truthful than the look of happiness. Turning upside down
negative thoughts. With respect to nature, the environment in question is a very
important element in Dickinsons poetry. The poet wrote poems to her huge dog and
her garden was a source of inspiration to the artist.
Poem 328 is a very well-known not complex poem about a bird in which Dickinson
describes the movements of the bird. It has a very clear rhythm and rhyme scheme. It
is a rather simple poem about the life of a bird that does not feel happy about contact
with human beings, in other words, it is about a bird eating a worm. The poem has a
breath-taking description of flying.
Poem 986 is about a narrow fellow in the grass. What does a narrow fellow suggest
you? It could be a worm, a snake, a snail There is no explicit reference to any
particular animal. Although the last verse is a very interesting one, we do not know
exactly what it means. In the 3rd stanza, the poet adopts the role of a boy and uses the
past tense. The poem has been object to many interpretations, as well as a sexual one
due to its phallic elements because a boy could be exploring his sexual organs. It could
be interpreted as a metaphysical loss. However, there are extra free interpretations. It

40

is as plain as day that it is an exploration between the human and the natural, a fight
between nature as a gift to human beings and nature with another meaning. The
metaphors drawn by Dickinson are pretty complex to grasp.
Poem 448

2.2.5. Comparison between Ralph Waldo Emerson and Emily Dickinson

Emerson

Dickinson

They are almost opposites in many ways.

The ordinary world dissolves into spirituality
and the experience of flying, lightness and
transparency.
His intuitions are those of potency and
possibility

The ordinary world dissolves into

madness, nightmare, the dark night of
soul, zero at the bone (986)
Her intuitions are those of death and
cosmic emptiness.

Idealizes the self (Transcendentalism).

Refuses idealization of the self.

2.2.6. Comparison between Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson

Whitman

Dickinson

They were contemporaries living in the East Coast. Whitman did not know about
Dickinson since she kept apart dwelling in a very narrow Calvinistic family.
Whitman certainly never read her. Besides, Dickinson probably never read
Whitman because her father chose for her what to read.
As a poet, he represents EVERYBODY.
As a poet, she represents NOBODY.
Poet in the middle of society; merging
with it.
Poet outside in contact with the world

Poet kept apart; poet recluse.

Autobiographical I = lyrical selfassertion

of the male poet

Autobiographical I = fictions of the self.

The self always under threat of
annihilation or breakdown.
Fragmented voices of various
selves/masks
Intuition of limitation and impotence

Unified voice; consolidated poetic

identity
Sense of infinite possibility and
triumphant self-realization
The public poet, giving voice to the
Americans
The town-crier

Whitmans poems

Poet inside interior world

The private poet, giving voice to her

inner selves
The keeper of secrets

Dickinsons poems

40

The all-inclusive poem. Song of Myself

includes everything.

The almost exclusive poem since they

contain very few elements.

The huge, extensive poems

The tiny, intensive poems

Whitman is the continent, in

metaphorical terms.
I celebrate myself and sing myself

Dickinson is the island, in metaphorical

terms.
I am nobody / Who are you? (288)

Although Emily Dickinson is erotically and sexually charged, there is always

ambiguity between the homosexual and heterosexual interpretations. However, she
was wearing different masks and it is pretty difficult to establish he and she.
According to recent feminist critics, Dickinson had a platonic love with her sisterin-law,
Susan Gilberg. For instance, in Paula Bennets The Pea that Duty Locks essay, she
refers to some of Dickinsons poems such as 1377 and 1722 in which Bennet speaks of
a clitorocentric typology and provides an analysis which contains these elements that
resemble a clitoris: peas, berries, pearls and so on.
In poem 1377, the pea is something unlawful, forbidden which is included in its pod.
Furthermore, the pea acts as if it was the clitoris and the pod as the vagina. Of
course, it is Bennets own interpretation which can be either homosexual or
heterosexual. In poem 1722, Dickinson is talking about a feminine face. Bennet claims
that a bed of hair refers to pubic hair. Whether you agree or not, interpretation is
free!

AMERICAN LITERATURE FROM 185O UP TO

19OO
3.

AMERICAN HUMOUR AND THE RISE OF THE WEST

3.1. MARK TWAIN (1835 191O)11

Mark Twain is a pen name for Samuel Langhorne Clemens. The author was born in the town of Florida,
Missouri, and is an icon for American popular culture. There are many sentences about him. For example, in
Green Hills of Africa, Ernest Hemingway quoted about Mark Twain what follows below "All modern
American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn." William Faulkner called
Twain the father of American Literature. So, Twain was the central figure of the period that we are studying.
He also constantly used aphorisms such as the next ones:
- A classic is something that everybody wants to have read but nobody has read.
- Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you
did do. So throw off the bowlines.
11Samuel L. Clemens grew up in the river town of Hannibal, Missouri. For three years before the
CivilWar, he piloted a Mississippi steamboat and found on the river his pen name Mark Twain. Shortly
after the outbreak of war he went west by stagecoach, finding literary gold on the mining frontiers of
Nevada and California. Out of these experiences came work so rich in regional flavor and the spirit of
the
times that he has been called with justice our most American writer. The world delighted in his humour
tempered by the pathos of his view of the human condition.

40

- Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isnt.

- Forget and forgive. This is not difficult when properly understood. It means forget inconvenient duties,
then forgive yourself for forgetting.
- By rigid practice and stern determination, it comes easy.
- If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.
- It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.
- In Paris they simply stared when I spoke to them in French; I never did succeed in making those idiots
understand their own language.
Mark came from a fairly affluent and humble family who had to move to Hannibal when Mark was only four
years old. Twain had little schooling, he worked for a printer as an apprentice and then, once he finished his
apprenticeship, he learnt journalism through setting type for his brother. Later on, he gave up his printing
career in order to work on the Mississippi, on the riverboats. Moreover, he eventually became a riverboat
pilot. It is also crucial to mention that his years on the river were a great influence for him and gave him
material for several of his works, i.e., the raft scenes of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
He had a horrible distaste for the millionaires that were emerging after the American Civil War. Afterwards,
he married a wealthy woman in 187O; namely, Mark Twain is a man of contrasts! He went on working on
the river until the Civil War exploded across the country and shut down the Mississippi for shipping and
travel. Twain joined a Confederate cavalry division; however, he was no ardent Confederate. When Twains
division deserted en masse, he also did the same.
It is not peripheral to argue that Twain gave the audience whatever they demanded. He wrote books for
children, detective stories, and so on and so forth. Twain used a dialect12 which made him famous as he had a
deft ear for language and dialect. Finally, perhaps he is universally known for The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn since it is a crucial anti-slavery document. Its author emphasized increasingly on the
institution of slavery and the South. He conveyed the brutality and cruelty about the life in the South that he
knew so well. As America prospered and made its way economically in the post-Civil War period, so did
Mark Twain. This period was known as the Gilded Age, coined by Twain.
There are three different Mark Twain: the Comedian, the Protester and the Romancer, it depends on the
work you are reading. However, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn reunite the three variants because it
was written in the 188Os but it happened forty years before, that is, when the Civil War had not started yet.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a very tragic book, but so funny. Tolstoi said Si quieres ser
universal, describe tu aldea. That is what Twain did by describing little villages, he was depicting the world.
Works by Mark Twain
The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County (1865)
The Innocent Abroad (1869)
Old Times in the Mississippi Tom Sawyer (1876): a hymn to the illusion of a real
Hannibal
The Prince and the Palper (1881)
Life on the Mississippi (1883)
A Tramp Aboard
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)
A Connecticut Yankee in king Arthurs Court (1889): Arthurian England (6th C.)
Puddnhead Wilson (1894)
Mark Twain wrote about himself: I am the entire human race compacted together.
12 When you read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in Spanish, you lose the essence of the
vernacular.In the English version, Jim speaks Black English while in the Spanish translation Huck looks
like a
professor in a faculty.

40

I have found that there is no ingredient of the race which I do not possess in either a small way or a large
way. When it is small, as compared with the same ingredient in somebody else, there is still enough of it for
all the purposes of examination. In my contacts with the species I find no one who possess a quality which I
do not myself possess.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is one of the top five American Classics, if you wish to call them like
that.
- A heros effort to preserve individual freedom and integrity by withdrawing from civilization, society,
authority, knowledge, rationality.
- Classic American theme: the tension between personal freedom and authoritarian control. It brings echoes
of Thoreaus Walden, who wrote about his two-year experience out of civilization in Walden Pond living in a
hut.
- Hucks humour because he has no humour. He is attacked by people who laugh at him, an innocent kindhearted boy speaking factually.
- Hucks values are very American in the way that they are very pragmatic.
Huck rejects religion because it does not simply do any good to him. American Pragmatism13 is one of the
tenets in America. Huck is attracted by the magic, superstition since it provides good grounds to be similar
to Jim.
- Huck, the child as the representative of nature, innocence and the uncorrupted. Twains fierce indignation
at the corruption of the South, its brutality and its medievalism. 14
- Vernacular or folk voice of the ill-educated child
- Its vernacular realism, its self-creating voice and the childlike naturalness.
- general eclecticism: the picaresque, the epistolary, the autobiography, the adventure story and the fugitive
slave narrative. That is why the story is so rich. Mark Twain is very much a realist and a local colourist.
After The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain published only two more books. Its author died in
191O, there were almost sixteen years between his last book and his death. Two of his daughters died, his
wife became an invalid and he underwent a stroke. In other words, Twain suffered many familiar tragedies
which stopped his literary career.
The Gilded Age (1873) was a novel written by Twain in collaboration with Charles Dudley Warner. They
looked at the period 186O 1865 as one which:
Uprooted institutions that were centuries old, changed the politics of a people, transformed the
social life of half the country, and wrought so profoundly upon the entire national character that the
influence cannot be measured short of two or three generations.
Howells quoted he called Mark Twain the Lincoln of our Literature:

13 American Pragmatism. A movement consisting of varying but associated theories, originally

developedby Charles S. Peirce and William James and distinguished by the doctrine that the meaning of
an idea or
a proposition lies in its observable practical consequences.

14 Jean Jacques Rousseau (AO) and John Locke (they both dismounted the previous religious dogma
thatwe are all sinners) stated that people were born as tabula rasa (good, transparent creatures) and
that it
is society which corrupts the human being. Mark Twain shares Rosseaus take since Huckleberry is a
neat person dwelling in a hypocrite society with slavery and so on.

40

The inventions, the appliances, the improvements of the modern world invaded the hoary eld of his
rivers and forests and prairies, and while he was still a pioneer, a hunter, a trapper, he found himself
confronted with the financier, the scholar, the gentleman. They seemed to him, with the world they
represented, at first very roll, and he laughed. Then they set him thinking, and as he never was afraid
of anything, he thought over the whole field, and demanded explanations of all his prepossessions, of
equality, of humanity, of representative government and revealed religion. When they had not their
answers ready, without accepting the conventions of the modern world as solutions or in any manner
final, he laughed again, not mockingly, but patiently, compassionately. Such, or somewhat like this,
was the genesis and evolution of Mark Twain.
In this excerpt, Twain is presented as an idealist, who fought against slavery throughout his whole life.
Geography
This field is very important in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as it can be checked in the following
maps and/or documents:
MAP 1: Illinois as a free state whereas Alabama was a Confederate one. General view of the different states in
America.
MAP 2: Path of Huckleberry and Jim. The river is also drawn.

Plot
Although later readers discover Huck has a father, he is an orphan. Furthermore, he is adopted by Miss
Watson. Jim and Huck undergo a physical and spiritual journey in which Huck will experience moral
lessons. In the end, some friends betray Jim and sell him. Huck feels he has to try to rescue his friend Jim,
who is eventually liberated, and the main character meets his friend Tom and new adventures are achieved.

40

1. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as a book of escape from society into the wilderness.
2. The use of the child as a Romantic metaphor. The roots of this use are connected to European
Romanticism. William Wordsworths Songs of Innocence and Experience perfectly describe Huck.
Mark Twain was borrowing features from the European Romanticism.
3. Plot and the narrative structure of the novel. There are three main parts in which the novel can be
divided.
3.1.

3.2.

3.3.

From chapter I to XVI. In chapter XVI, Huck undergoes a moral dilemma for the first
moment in the whole novel. He would have to decide between what he has been
taught by society or betraying the laws of the South. The question that Huck has to
face is whether to follow individual creeds or social ones! Reference: chapter VI, 3rd
paragraph []that you could see[] In the end, they went off and I got aboard of the
raft at the time, he decides to betray his friend Jim and tells a lie when saying that
Jim is not black but white! His inner consciousness does not match societys rules.
From chapter XVII to XXXI. The journey on the raft with Jim takes place in this
second section. Chapter XXXI marks the second time in which Huck undergoes
another dilemma. Reference: chapter XXXI. Huck decides he has to give Jim up to
authorities and he even writes a letter to Miss Watson. After havind written the note, a
very important long passage follows it where I felt good and. Huck made many
mistakes when speaking as he is an uneducated man. For example, all verbs are made
regular even if they are irregular, such as know-*knowed. Huck would prefer to go to
hell rather than being unfaithful to his friend: that is the CLIMAX of the novel. In
chapter XXXI, the King and the Duke have betrayed Jim.
From chapter XXXII to 43. Jim is the prisoner of Mister Phelps. This part is a kind of
returning to the first section. Despite this section is funny, it is believed to be
unsatisfactory and unacceptable by many critics.

Mark Twain wrote the first two parts in two months. He took the novel again seven years later to write the
ending of the story. The public was accustomed to reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and they would
have not enjoyed a tragic ending in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. So, Twain decided a lighter and
funny ending, instead of a tragic one. According to some critics, its author sold himself to audiences

demand. The second and/or central part constitutes the core narrative, it is a
picaresque narrative15.
Huck is the rogue in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, there is no cause-effect structure. Besides, Twain
provided the reader a broad variety of characters that represent vices such as cruelty, hypocrisy of the old
values preserved in the South.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a bildungsroman a novel of maturation as well as growing up
as the novel focuses on Hucks education, development from being a poor orphan illiterate boy who
becomes an adult, mentally speaking, an integral person who can no longer stay in this society. Reference:
chapter 43. what a trouble was to make a book End of the novel: the hero is abandoning and lighting out
15 Picaresque narrative, such as Lazarillo de Tormes. Its structure is not a chronological linear causeeffectsequence, but a composition of little anecdotes. Picaresque narratives have many characters who
do
not have connections to each other, they disappear but they never reappear again. They are not round
characters, but (stereo)types, there is a wide variety of them which represent societys vices.

40

society. Huck is educated by means of his experience in the raft, which symbolizes a microcosms where he
feels educated and being himself.
4. Symbolism of the river and the shore. Rivers are very symbolic in literature. In The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn, the river is the ultimate symbol of freedom. For Jim, the river means physical
freedom whereas for Huck it means freedom from his brutal father. The river means change and flus
since las aguas de un ro nunca son las mismas. In the story, Huck learns from Jim and vice versa.
There is trouble when an outsider enters their realm of tranquility. The river also has its drawbacks:
it takes them towards slaveholder states since they made a mistake. There are very lyrical
descriptions of the river and there are constant intrusions of strangers along their journey. The river,
of course, has its pros and cons. Lionel Trillings Form and Symbol: the River and the Shores essay
quotes:
T. S. Elliots The Dry Salvages (Four Quartets)
I do not know much about gods; but I think that the river,
Is a strong brown god
almost forgotten
By the dwellers in cities ever, however, implacable,
Keeping his seasons and rages, destroyer, reminder of
What men chose to forget. Unhonoured, unpropitiated

By worshippers of the machine, but waiting, watching and waiting.

T. S. Elliot refers to the artery which divides the United States. How the Civil War
changed the landscape of America! So, the river God is angry as civilization has killed
the real nature of the river.
L. Trilling says things about The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn which are
selfexplanatory since they do not need extra explanations.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a great book because it is about a god a power
which seems to have a mind and will of its own, and which, to men of moral
imagination, appears to embody a great moral idea.... Huck himself is the servant of
the river-god: he lives in a perpetual adoration of the Mississippi's power and charm.
After every escape into the social life of the shore, H. returns to the river with relief
and thanksgiving, and at each return, ... there is a hymn of praise to the god's beauty,
mystery, and strength, and to his noble grandeur in contrast with the pettiness of
men.... generally the god is benign, a being of sunny days and spacious nights. But,
like any god, he is also dangerous and deceptive. He generates fogs which bewilder,
and he contrives echoes and false distances which confuse". (e.g. 96-97)
"Against the money-god stands the river-god, whose comments are silent sunlight, space, uncrowded time, stillness and danger"
Trilling is describing what one perceives from the river as it gives Huck and Jim a nice
friendship and so on, despite the storms, the fog and other negative features of the
river.
Reference: chapter XVIII, last paragraph. We said there warnt no home like a raft . . .
The raft is thought to be as their home. Reference: chapter XIX begins with a poetic
lyrical depiction of the river: Two or three days and nights went by . . . Huck is

40

describing his beloved river. In the same chapter, sometimes on the water you could
see a spark or two . . .
5. Huck as a character: his moral dilemma between his duty to submit himself to
the law and his respect for Jim. Huck is fourteen when the novel begins, he is
living in Saint Petersburg with Miss Douglas, who wants to civilize and educate
him. His natural wisdom reveals that he does not need clear expressions of
education. Hucks natural goodness really moves the reader. Despite his shabby
looking, Huck is a kind hearted person. The novel shows that behind Hucks dirty
aspect, there lays a clean heart.
Reference: chapter XXII, p. 249 to 251. Reference: chapter XXXIII, p. 39O. Huck is
such a good and decent character that the contact with the rest of characters is
sharper since they are corrupted. Reference: chapter XVIII, p. 194 and 195. Huck
is witnessing bad situations which are examples of inhumanity, cruelty and
brutality. He acts with sorrow and he does not understand how people behave
the way they do. He wishes going back to the raft since he cannot stomach what
he sees in society. Reference: chapter XXI, p. 243.
6. Paradigmatic couple: Jim and Huck, their relationship. Comparison with other
literary masculine pairs, such as Quijote Sancho; Joseph Andrews Parson
Adams; Robinson Friday.
If Mark Twain borrowed from the picaresque narrative, he also referred to Don Quijote.
Jim is Miss Watsons negro and one of Twains most memorable creations. Jim wants
to reach Illinois to reunite the whole family together. Jim is a very primitive man who
believes in superstitious explanations and magic. Jim and Huck teach each other in
their own version of history. Hucks teachings are rather imprecise. Jim is presented
with great dignity in spite of his simplicity. He becomes the figure of Hucks father.
There are many memorable moments in which Jim saves Huck from solitude and his
orphan condition, and Huck also saves him from slavery.
Reference: chapter XV, p. 146 to 147. It is an instance of Jims language. Huck
understands that he has downgraded Jim and admits Jim is a human being despite his
condition. Furthermore, Huck used to play tricks on Jim while he did not realize so.
Reference: chapter IX by and large. Jim shows his sensitivity when hiding from other
people. Reference: chapter XIV. Jim is reduced to the level of a stupid fool in the hands
of Huck. Later on, he is beginning to realize Jim as an intelligent human being and not
only a compassionate father. Jim is a fugitive. Moreover, the Duke and the King sold
him for $4O. Judas sold Jesus to the Romans for 4O coins, too. It is a clear parallelism.
Reference: chapter XXIII. Jim is actually crying when telling his personal story which
is very moving to Huck. He was separated from his wife and it constitutes an
instance of Jims humanity, concern, nobility for Huck. The relationship between Huck
and Tom and El Quijote. Tom reads adventure books all times, so in that way Tom
resembles Don Quijote as both of them believed they were knights. They confuse
literature and reality. Tom takes Huck and Jim into trouble since he wants to enact what
he reads throughout literature. Sancho Panza is Huck since they are realist characters.

40

7. Role of the minor characters: Hucks father as a drunkard, Miss Douglas, Miss
Watson, Toms aunts Sally and Polly as mere clowns, the King and the Duke as
funny characters rehearsing a Shakespeares play and the family that represents
the South, outdated and with aristocratic ideas about honour. The rest of
characters except for Huck and Jim are flat characters, i.e., stereotypes since
they do not resemble human beings. In other words, they are one dimension
figures. Twain presented them as only stereotypes because they represented
hypocrisy and a southern society that allowed slavery, corruption, and wrong
doings and so on. Twain presented a gallery of characters describing vices. All of
them are vehicles for the satire of society that Mark Twain wants to give the
reader. He uses them to mock a very ill society that permits slavery.
8. The use of dialect in the novel is justified and elaborated in the Explanatory Note
on page 3. Twain was not totally original since he used elements of the
picaresque and took other stuff from Don Quijote. What was exclusively new was
the language he used. Twains concern with the language was not random nor
casual, but well-thought. He used seven dialects since he knew them as he grew
up in Missouri. Language in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the great
achievement of its author and also a vehicle for transmitting how people really
are. Hucks language is indicative of his mood. On the contrary, other characters
will use a bombastic language which clearly depicts their hypocrite nature.
Reference: chapter XXV, p. 277. The King is using empty language full of long
words, lie after lie. His language is expressive of his corrupt nature. Huck is
aware of the emptiness in the Kings language. That language says nothing, but
lies! Huck distrusts large abstractions, he is on the world, a down-to-earth
person. Reference: chapters XIV, XV & XVI, p. 134 to 136. There is a funny
explanation of Louis XVI by Huck when he has a moving conversation with Jim.
Chapter XVI shows their simple plain language. They learn from each other. In
the book, there are many examples of malapropisms. Reference: chapter XXXIII,
p. 388 to 389. There is a tiny malapropism, putrified instead of petrified.
Reference: chapter XXV, p. 283. There is a bigger malapropism made by the
King, afterwards he wants to compensate his mistake. He said funeral orgies
rather than obsequies. Another malapropism is the diseased.
9. In a way, it is also giving us a parody of popular romance novels. They base their
lives in stereotypes. A member of family G bases her desires on what she writes,
she ends up dead. It is another ingredient of the criticism; however, it is one of
the most anti-slavery novels, together with Uncle Toms Cabin, already
discussed. Albeit most critics argue that Mark Twain is defending abolition,
others think it is insufficient, specially claimed by African-American critics.

40

AMERICAN LITERATURE FROM 1850 UP TO

1900
4. AMERICAN REALISM.
4.1. REALISM IN AMERICAN LITERATURE (186O 189O)
(from Richard Chase, The American Novel and its introduction)
Where romanticists transcend the immediate to find the ideal, and naturalists plumb the actual or
superficial to find the scientific laws that control its actions, realists centre their attention to a remarkable
degree on the immediate, the here and now, the specific action, and the verifiable consequence (A
Handbook to literature 428)GENRE

AN AUTHOR

PERCEIVED THE
INDIVIDUAL AS...

Romantics

R.W. Emerson

a god

Realists

Henry James, William Dean

Howells, Mark Twain

simply a person

Naturalists

Stephen Crane, Frank Norris

a helpless object

Characteristics of realism:
Renders reality closely and in comprehensive detail.
Realism is a technique which consists in presenting reality in detail. It is also a subject matter
because it is a presentation of a middle-class life, whereas naturalism presents a low-class life.
Selective presentation of reality with an emphasis on verisimilitude, even at the expense of a wellmade plot.
Character is more important than action and plot; complex ethical choices are often the subject.
Characters appear in their real complexity of temperament and motive; characters do not achieve
excellent deeds but they take decisions living under the threats of evil intentions. Henry James is
concerned with a Patrician society, i.e., high-class people and the reader has to read deeply to go
beneath the characters.
Characters are in an explicable relation with nature, to each other, to their social class, to their own
past.
Class is important; the novel has traditionally served the interests and aspirations of an insurgent
middle class. American Realism
Events will usually be plausible. Realistic novels avoid the sensational, dramatic elements of
naturalistic novels and romances.
Realism is a strategy for imagining and managing the threat of social change.
Diction is natural vernacular, not heightened or poetic; tone may be comic, satiric, or matter-of-fact.
Objectivity in presentation becomes increasingly important; even authorial comments or intrusions
diminish as the century progresses.

40

In Daisy Miller, the narrator never judges Daisy but he is objective. The reader decides to what point of
view(s) he sticks to since many opinions are presented. Henry James never directs the reader to a particular
perspective, but leaves an open umbrella.
Interior or psychological realism: beneath the outwardly uneventful days, it detects and traces the
outlines of the spirits that are hidden there; the changes on their growth.
In short, realism reveals apart from telling.
4.2. HENRY JAMES (1843 1916)16
- Father of Modernism - Bridge between Romanticism and Modernism
- Writer of continuous search of originality, exploring differents possibilities of fiction.
- Stylistic devices.
- Referential ambiguity (in later works, not so much in Daisy).
- Nothing is ever really finished in his work (sentences, storiesetc).
- Autobiographical writer: uses of thoughts of his life.
- A personal + highly subjunctive style.
- Visual sensations, but the content is fundamentally concerned with understanding and emotional derived
from Experience.
-

THEMES: problems, situations, dilemmas, Nature and love, relationships, manners,

behavious..largest, most passionate, most deeply significant human themes.
Constant concern to discover the most effective means of crating the illusionism of the reality of life. The
tensions of civilization: men + women struggling to control their emotions + passions within the morals.

Henry James case is similar to T. S. Elliot. Henry James was born in America but
later moved to London. He decided to live in France and in England. In his
lifetime and later on, Henry James was accused of literary absenteeism for writing
everything about Europe.
Stephen Crane, Edith Wharton, Ernest Hemingway, and Scott Fitzgerald: these American writers were
disillusioned with the post-war America, after the I World War. These writers migrated to Europe. Mark
Twain and Henry James are studied together since they were contemporaries and friends. But in questions
of style and interest, they were opposites.
MARK TWAIN

HENRY JAMES

Redskin according to some critics.

Pale face according to some critics.

Realism applied to post-war material:

confusions, contradictions, fears,
nostalgias...

Realism applied to moral psychological

and aesthetic complexities.

Opened American writing to a freer

voice.

Opened it to a deeper art, art as a quest

for knowledge of self and the wider
world.

16

40

4.2.1. Henry James biographical data

He was born in Cambridge (MA). Cultivated and rich man: Henry Jamess father. Henry James had a
sensuous education to swallow everything from Europe and its museums and so on and so forth. He
graduated in Harvard. When 21, went to Paris and Italy for a long time where he met all the important
writers publishing fiction in Europe: Flaubert, Goncourt, Maupassant, Emile Zola, Turgenev. London was
his ultimate goal and said about it: My choice is the Old World my choice, my need, my life. The death of
tuberculosis of his cousin Minnie Temple at 24 atrongly influenced him. Some biographies say Minnie was
his unique love, others say that Henry James was homosexual. He eventually established himself in London,
became and observer/watcher of America and Europe and then began writing. He could compare the two
worlds: Old World = Europe & New World = America, from his perspective as an expatriate. His 21 novels. I
aspire to write in such a way that it would be impossible to the outsider to say whether I am at a given
moment an American writing about England or an Englishman writing about America (dealing as I do with
both countries), [...] highly civilised.
4.2.2. Phases in Henry James literary lifetime
1st PHASE17 (to 1885): International Theme (America in Europe; Europe in
America).
Roderick Hudson
The American: (Christopher Newman [he represents the New Adam] and Claire de
Cintr)
The Europeans
Daisy Miller: Daisy-Winterbourne-Giovanelli
Washington Square
The Portrait of a Lady (1881): Isobel Archer-Gilbert Ormond-Madame Merle)
-A woman affronting her destiny.
-Isobel: the Emersonian unconditional self, a transcendental character for a
noun of psychological insight.
2nd PHASE18 (1885 1895): social and political currents; theatre; artists and society; novel: social form
(the illusion of reality); moral form (left life); aesthetic form (a composed impression)
The Bostonians (1886)
The Princess Casamassima (1886)
The Liar (1888)
The Aspern Papers (1888)
The Reverberator (1888)
A London Life (1889)
3rd PHASE19 (1895 1916): International Theme, Cosmopolitan subjects, troubled
17 His early work was simple and direct as much Victorian writing of the time was.
18 In his second phase, he wrote more short stories and dramatic literature.
19 In his third incarnation, he wrote long, serialized novels.

40

psychologists (esp. children). Experimental.

What Maisie Knew (1897)
The Turn of the Screw (1898)
The Sacred Fount (1901)
The triad of the major phase:
The Wings of the Dove (19O2)
The Ambassadors (19O3)
The Golden Bowl (19O4)
The American Scene (19O7)
Autobiographies: there are three of them.
American purity innocence being attacked by European complexities, corruptions, cruelties. That was the
International Theme of most of James novels.
Henry James is a different writer and has very complex novels. He is usually seen as a problem for readers.
His syntax tends to be intricate. His writing is comparable to an impressionist painter. He is considered a
snob because he wrote about rich people and many readers do not like this feature about him.
4.2.3. Jamesian archetypes
-AMERICANS: nave, uneducated, ignorant but noble.
-EUROPEANS: wise, cunning, learned, cynical, declined, dubious not transparent intentions.
Innocent Girl (America)

This triangle appears very often in Henry James novels; however, it is not the strict case in Daisy Miller but
there are certain similitudes.
4.2.4. Jamesian contrasts
-innocence vs. experience. A very American theme
-ordinary American life vs. rich, artistic Europe
-plain present vs. dusky, deep past
4.2.5. Jamesian narrative principles
Henry James thought that fiction was ART!

40

-impressionism: according to Henry James, the artist gives an IMPRESSION (the edges of an image, not a
full image of reality. It is the reader who has to complete the full image/reality. The novel is seen as a social
form of reality, according to Henry James.
-point of view: objective observer as narrator (often, limited omniscient point of view).
-felt life: a novel presents a world dilemma to which we bring out own value system. The Portrait of a Lady
is one of Henry James best novel. It is very interesting that a man writes so deeply about a woman. It has a
Preface which is a kind of manifesto of Henry James art. When reading Henry James, the reader has to
work to get a full image about the incomplete image of reality that he presents.
Read The Portrait of a Ladys Preface (1st
paragraph)
-psychology: novel as exploration of psychological depths of characters.
4.2.6. Compare and contrast
Henry James is a particular kind of realist, not in a standard sense:

Henry James HOUSE OF FICTION: each reader looks through a different window
different interpretation of the same reality position determines point of view.
The windows are our eyes: metaphor! Thats why Henry James is not an easy writer
Read The Portrait of a Ladys Preface (2nd paragraph)
Henry Jamess novel can be read at 4 levels:
1. literal, surface level
2. social level (novel as social commentary. His irony Daisy Miller is very IRONICAL; his subtle
humour).
3. psychological level (problems, characters needs and reasons).
4. philosophical cultural level Henry James stories matter at a grand level: uses people as
representatives of nations. James novels are much more than simple stories.
Henry James was very much against happy endings simply because he thought that the period was realism
and life was not easy but consisted of overcoming several circumstances. He was also ironic when depicting
his descriptions throughout his works. The Art of Fiction is a book of literary criticism by the British novelist
David Lodge, where there is an essay which acts as a response to a previous essay.
4.3.

Daisy Miller: a study

Classical Henry James: From big descriptions to little ones.

NEW WORLD vs. OLD WORLD is a constant topic. Comparing Europe with America. International theme.
Clash between 2:
- The Millers: American in attitude, manners and language. Randolph represents the Patriotic.
- Winterbourne comments: The cynical. Concerned with Daisys attitude and claims to be a gentlemen.
- Europeanized Americans:
Daisy is beardheaded: No hat in 19th century. Always with parasol. FREE.
Garden: Original sinnature. They met in the garden. Daisies mean friendship and love. (she loves me, she
not..)
Winterbourne studies Daisy: She is different from European Girls.
More on Daisy Miller:
Fever: to go crazy.
Colloseum: sacrifice, showdown, death
Winterbourne: Old World: American tainted by too many years in Europe.

40

Daisy: New World.

Additional Questions on Daisy Miller:
Daisy: Superficial + Unmalicious.
Romantic ideas in Daisy Miller: Byron is mentioned (realist work).
Shelley + Keats: Buried in the same cemetery as she s when 30 or so. All rebels against English connection
with society, morality, etc
Shelleys: Adonis elegy on beauty, youth
Byron died on Malaria. He also wrote a poem about the Chillo Castle where D.M went.
Daisy might be considered as Romantic (connections with Lord Byron etc).
Ihab Hassan, Radical innocence: 3 american characters: Daisy Miller, Huck Finn, Henry Fleming
(protagonist of Cranes The red badge of courage).
All young protagonists faced with their first existentialist or deal, crisis or encounter with experience.
- Idea of innocence: Virtue or wilfull ignorance?
Innocence: as a child of nature (America) New world condemns Europe Old world prejudice.
D. Miller becomes prototype of International Theme that James explored in later novels: The portrait of
the lady.
Presence of Italy: Renaissance. James first cosmopolitan writer. New world: Morally healthier.
Daisy: cynical attitude about relations between American women and European men.
Figure of the American girl: Constant figure of his work. Complex figure, eager for experience but unable
because of fear, nervous
Jaes considered feminine novelist (own peculiar problems).
Women protect their own freedom + integrity against violation by the world + n conflict with the another.
A moral spontaneity: Contantly doing stuff (positive aspects of American characters).
- Daisys sexuality:
Sexlesnes.
Free spirits: bring her into trouble in the Old World (influence of James cousin).
Debate on good/bad character: a contrary girl
Resistance to clash between Am and Europe.
Gringo Viejo: What mightve happened to Ambrose when he went to Mexico.
End of 19th century: sex-relationships between different races, womens freedom, but tabu subjects.
The story in question is a very silly one if you actually think about it, but you need
to read between the lines to get more stuff. Within these very few pages, a lot of
things are told and make the novel a full one.

It is a typical 19th century novel about social manners such as the upper-classes of the European elite
in social situations.

Daisy is very independent and very strong-willed, punishment is there since the individual is confronting
society. In the end, it is kind of ironic since Daisy experiences a tragic ending. Daisy represents the
prototypical American heroine as she is independent and cannot preserve her integrity. The hypocrisy of the
society in which the individual fights against society is also a theme in the novel.

The crude and charming girl from Schenectady whose moral spontaneity earns her abuses. Who
abuses Daisy? Ms. Costello and everybody maltreat her. They try to guide her to a specific behavior
which she does not follow nor understand. Daisy Miller received a lot of condemnation and
complaints since critics thought that Daisy was an insult to American girlhood: clumsy, coquette.
However, this initial interpretation turned upside down.

A type of the New World female: socially inexperienced, audacious and pure, without deceit;
touching and doomed from the very beginning, readers know she is going to have a tragic ending.
Furthermore, Daisy, who really gains readers sympathy, is fated by destiny. She is going to have a

40

downfall. The way she behaves will trigger an unhappy ending. This female character will be a
prototype (innocent) which will reappear again and again.
Love and Death in the American Novel, by Leslie Fielder. In her book, she talks about American literature in
general, and, by and large, about literature. She establishes a paradigmatic relationship as can be seen in the
chart that follows below:

FAIR/PALE/BLOND
MAIDEN

nice girl

DARK LADY20

sinister
sexuality

FAIR/PALE/BLON
D
MAIDEN

America

DARK LADY

Europe

21

Puritan

embodiment

of

Catholic or Jew, Latin or

Oriental

innocence, chastity,
immaculate virgin
(death/renuntiation
)

Principessa
Americana:
heiress,
wealth

experience,
cynicism,
moral improvisation

hungry for
money
(expatriate)

Daisy Miller22,
Isabel Archer,
Millie Threale
(wings of the
dove),Maggie,
Verver.
Mme.
Merle,
Kate Croy,
Charlotte
Stant

In the description of Daisy, when she appears in scene, she is depicted as she is presented as a fair country
woman. In this archetypical chart by Fielder, Daisy fulfills the role of the fair maiden (nice virginal girl). The
Dark Lady also represents religion; race and class link together in the characteristics of the dark lady as
opposed to the blond maiden who displays the Anglo-Saxon Puritanism. Henry James came to associate the
fair girl archetype with the myth of the innocent. In his novels, these prototypes will represent specific
characteristics and he will eventually associate death with innocence. These people will end either dying or
living a life of renunciation. On the contrary, the dark lady represents experience, moral improvisation.
Henry James introduces a further element which is money. The myth of the West had become the myth of
the innocent. We have the money provided by the fair maiden and the willing for
money by the dark lady. So to speak, in other words, el hambre y las ganas de comer. These polarities are
often present(ed) in Henry James novels. The introduction of money and/or class in this duality as well as
20 The Dark Lady displays everything that America has rejected.
21 The allegorical interpretation of characters as countries is the first most relevant thing in Henry
James novels. Afterwards, the introduction of money is also important. Furthermore, the idea of
innocence versus experience is another issue.

22 Daisy is not only a coquette, but a natural spontaneous person.

40

innocence versus experience are of vital importance in all of his novels. They are also present in Benito Prez
Galds Fortunata y Jacinta, i.e., two opposed archetypes.
4.3.1. Important issues in Daisy Miller

Narrator:

limited omniscient centered in Winterbournes and Daisys

consciousness: showing rather than telling; distant and unnamed; impartial and fair. Readers see the
world from what Winterbourne and Daisy talk about. In many ways, it is a play since there are many
interruptions throughout the novel. The characters are moving, talking and interrupting each other. That is
why we say that Henry James shows rather than tells as the reader has to infer many things out of the novel.
For example, in Chapter IV, page 6. This kind of narrator admits the presence of the I which can be
considered Henry James, but he has not a name. It is a very interesting narrative point of view. This I
presents with the perspective of gossip which is a key feature in the novel. In this excerpt, there are many
adjectives light, childish, uncultivated, unreasoning and provincial for Daisy. The narrator narrating the
story from Winterbournes point of view, he is confused since he is not really sure of how to evaluate Daisys
character. The narrator does not judge but presents views so that the reader can choose what (s)he thinks.
Moreover, in Chapter I, page 1, it is the first time in which the I appears in the novel. The narrator presents
the reader two opposed views: what some people think versus what other people think, it can be seen in
Chapter I, page 1. We do have a narrator saying what people positively thought about the same character.

Setting.
The novel has two parts: Geneva as for the first one, Rome it gathers art, history and corruption
for the second one. There is a confrontation between two different cultures: America and Europe.
From Geneva Calvinism, the novel moves to Rome which is the city of Catholicism. Daisy Miller
has to be read allegorically/symbolically instead of deeply reading the story of a coquette called
Daisy. For instance, in Chapter IV, page 8, Daisy as a martyr falling in the house of this corrupted
society. We can interpret this illness as malaria. The setting is very symbolic and allegorical.
Furthermore, in Chapter IV, page What a little. . ., the society symbolically infects Daisy Roman
fever or Roman malaria and she eventually dies.

Themes23
Daisy represents America because she is like America, she would be the
embodiment of female character of the nation.
a. Tensions between Europe and America. International theme, innocence and experience.
b. Is Daisy responsible for her downfall? The theme of the coquette. Is this the novel about a
coquette? That is the great question we have to reply ourselves. There are many arguments
for in favor it and many against it. Once in Rome, do as the Romans do which means
Donde fueres, haz lo que vieres. The theme in the novel is much updated. There is a film
which also reflects this situation, S. Coppolas Lost in Translation. On the one hand, Daisy is
totally incapable of translating her manners and habits. On the other hand, she is a
spontaneous natural fresh girl who does not care about some habits since she does not believe
in some stupidities. For instance, in Chapter III, page 5 and in the same chapter I have
23 Three themes are of principal importance:- The international theme American innocence,
inexperience, and cultural ignorance
confronted by European moral relativism, social sophistication, sense of tradition, and
knowledge of a rich culture.
- The nature of art the creative process and the artists conflict with social convention, false
values and limited imagination.
- The individual in search of a richer life.

40

never. . ., Daisy does not understand the ways of the Old World since there is no meaning in
them, they are useless.
Allegories
All the names in Daisy Miller are very allegorical. Daisy means a delicate, innocent, pure girl. Miller
represents the New World in which there is movement and where technologies are present. Ms. Costello
represents the ancient culture of medieval castles. Giovanelli -Don Juan acts as one who wants to make
profit of Daisy. In other words, names are very indicative in this novel.
Symbols: characters representing larger ideas. Daisy Miller is full of
allegories.
a. Daisy: the America of her time (name: simple, unpretentious). Daisy represents America
because she is like America. The myth that Leslie Fielder has created around Henry James
and his works. Daisy is infected by Roman fever at the Colosseum.
b. Winterbourne a winter-born person who represents coldness, Ms. Costello, Mrs. Walker:
an older American sentiment/Europe. They have become absolutely Europeans.
c. The Colosseum: the most carnal aspect of European life. It represents two things: martyrdom
and carnality.
d. Illnesses: Mrs. Costello, Mrs. Miller, Daisy.

Traditional interpretation: Daisy represents the willful ignorance of young Americans in the late 19th
century. James is condemning the lack of respect in young Americans. Daisy is to be blamed for her
innocence and her incapability to adapt to the customs of Europe. Henry James says that Daisy
remains stubborn to other customs, so she is responsible for her downfall. In a way, she is guilty for
her own tragedy.

A more feminist interpretation: Daisy has simply fallen victim to an overly conservative and
unforgiving time for women. Daisy as a victim, too rebellious in her nature, too strong-willed who
simply did not fit in that ultra-conservative world, a woman ahead of her time who would be happy
living nowadays rather than in the 19th century. For instance, in Chapter IV, five pages before the
end, it says After this, Daisy has never been at home

Readers decide their OWN INTERPRETATION. Henry James offers different perspectives but does
not tell. Henry James only shows rather than tells. It is that what makes him not a judge. The
audience can stick to either a concrete interpretation or to another one. Furthermore, the public can
choose a mixture of both, i.e., ambivalence. Maybe Daisy is the victim of the too reckless men; in a
way, Daisy becomes Giovanellis toy. He does not rescue her, he subjugates himself to other ladies.

4.4. Edith Wharton (1862 1937)24

4.4.1. Biographical context
24Edith Wharton devoted her attention mainly to the struggles of individual members of
exclusivesocieties to fulfill themselves within the rigid behavioral demands of their class. Born into
wealth and
privilege in New York City, she wrote as an insider principally of characters whose lives were patterned
of those of New Yorks four hundred socially preeminent families. She was an excellent craftsman but
the importance of her many books is limited by her conviction that society as an exclusive elite, in
America and elsewhere, was indispensable to civilization. As for her narrative method, Edith Whartons
literary roots are in the 19th century. She was not an originator but followed the example of the writers
most esteemed during her formative years. One of these was Henry James, and although it is inaccurate
to speak of her as the female Henry James, she wrote with Jamesian precision and with his control of
the fictional point-of-view.

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In 1862, the American Civil War had already begun. Edith was born in Patrician New York upper-middle
class New York society, the nearest to aristocracy. America does not have aristocracy, but money. She
belonged to a well-off family and it was so odd for a rich girl to become a writer. Wharton felt that because
she was a woman from the upper-class, she felt trapped. Her tragedy came from her sense of social and
sexual imprisonment. A rich lady should not work, but find a suitable marriage: that was what women in
America were supposed to do. Edith felt herself imprisoned in the social context in which she was born.
When Edith was 23, she had a loveless marriage with Edward Robins Wharton. The author in question, like
Henry James, would go to Europe very often with her parents. She spent six years there with her family and
afterwards returned to Europe again for six months with her husband. So Europe was as much as America as
her homeland. Henry James was the literary giant and figure who eclipsed Edith, who remained in the
shadow during her lifetime. After her death, she was rediscovered as one of the most important American
writers. So Henry James was a positive influence for her and also negative since he eclipsed her.
Edith Wharton and her husband dwelled in a sphere with a lack of literary environment, namely, it was a
circle of anti-intellectual and unimaginative friends. In 19O2, she divorced from him after having been 2O
years married. (Torn between her private-life social demands and her literary ambition.) When she was 4O
years old, she published her first novel called The Valley of Decision.
The book was not a good idea, it was a historical romance set in 18th century Italy and it was not a real
success, but the other way round. Henry James read Ediths novel because they were good friends and
advised her by saying Do NY the first hand account is precious. The rest of her novels were about
Patrician New York and its context. In The House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence, she wrote about
Patrician New York.
4.4.1. Themes
Edith Wharton wrote novels of manners, about the moral challenge of adultery something she knew very
well: the problems and dissatisfactions of marriage since she had love affairs with literary men. The House
of Mirth has many elements that Daisy Miller has. Neither Henry James nor Edith Wharton never asked the
passionate question Why dont you marry me? and so on and so forth. The erotic strategy failed. The fatally
bad timing destroys the hopes of lovers. You only have to watch any romantic film to see how bad timing
never works. All bad timing situations are present in Edith Whartons novels. Women searching for a
husband in some novels, too. Opposite to Henry James, the heroines in Edith Whartons novels are poor and
impoverished as the novel progresses, they become less powerful. In other words, interplay between social
change and the impoverished individual life. Her fiction derives directly from her own life experience, i.e.,
every variety of the private relation between men and women in a very circumscribed American social
setting. Class (within the American society) is very relevant in Edith Whartons novels.
The author in question is considered to be the finest social historian in American literature. It seems that the
richer you are, the upper you are in the social scale in America. However, it does not happen in Europe.
The setting for Edith is a moral and dramatic reality since it is America upper-class society. It happens so in
many of her novels such as The House of Mirth. Her manipulation of place to present a scene or setting as a
palpable moral and dramatic reality.
4.4.2. Novels
The House of Mirth (19O5) was a tremendous success since Wharton followed Henry James advices. The
novel made the author famous in America and in Europe. It is the story of Lily Bart who is the main
character. Although it is a long novel, it barely lasts one year. The protagonist is 29, a very attractive member
of the American society who is desperately seeking a man in order to avoid a spinster and being able to have
everything she wants. All the candidates she met were awfully unattractive for her. In the end, she met a
lawyer.

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After this huge success, Edith wrote 14 more novels, 2 books of poetry and 8 volumes of short stories. The
Custom of the Country (1913) was an international novel of manners. A Backward Glance (1934) and The
Age of Innocence (192O).
4.4.3. Edith Whartons realism

finely observed details of manners and dress. She was not as universal as Henry James was. She is
much more of a local writer. She does not have the mythical relevance of Henry James.
carefully identified time and place
in modes of speech
in the look of streets and houses
in matters they had personally experienced
the sense of change is always portrayed in her novels

All of her novels display the following dichotomy/clash:

actual life according to Edith, it is false cannot be escaped
interior life according to Edith, it is real cannot be realized
4.4.4. The House of Mirth
The House of Mirth is a novel of manners. Why? It is widely considered a novel of manners because it
presents the personal struggle of a woman to fit into society and to get married. It is similar to Jane Austens
Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility The House of Mirth explores the life of a woman in society and
it deeply analyzes the social effects of marriage. Although Lily Bart is a very superficial person who loves
gambling and dressing awesome, she is deep on the inside due to her artistic sensibility like The
Awakening and The Yellow Wall-Paper: a woman of artistic sensibility whose potential is not fulfilled. It is
also a novel of manners because it follows many of the conventions of the novel of manners of the 19th
century. The relationship between the different social classes is very evident. The novel also presents both
social and personal realities. The millionaires were born in a way that within years they achieved socially
higher positions. The novel of manners was very English; it initially developed in 19th century Britain. Did it
fit to the American reality? Edith Wharton managed to adapt and create Austens creations in an American
urban context different to the English rural environment.
4.4.4.1. Introduction to The House of Mirth
The House of Mirth is about a woman whose ambitions are not fulfilled. She is told what she should do. The
novel is full of metaphors, exactly like The Awakening. Lily is very seldom outdoors, but in enclosed spaces:
gardens, houses She is also in a yacht. For example, the first glimpse of Lily Bart in the novel is in Part I,
Chapter I, pages 3 to 5. The novel is constructed totally around dialogues, there is an immense quantity of
them.
4.4.4.2. Characters in the novel
The novel tells the story of Lily Bart within the noveau rich and the old rich in New York. The novel is
structured around houses, i.e., closed living spaces. What would you say the biggest problem Lily has? Some
of Lilys flaws could be her indecisiveness, lack of clear ideas about life. She also relies too much on her
potential as a woman.

Lily Bart: her flaws (Greek term: hamartia) that lead to tragedy. Lilys biggest problem in life not
her biggest flaw is that she has no money but likes to belong to a higher class in society. Her life is a
constant struggle searching for money in order to enjoy the life she would like to have. Tanto tienes,
tanto vales. She has dreams of being independent, but she depends on everyone around her. The
working woman in the novel is Neti Strader. Between marriage and death, as the only two solutions

40

for a woman, is a world of struggle and dependence which Lily cannot surpass. For example, Part I,
Chapter I, page Dont you ever mind, she asked suddenly, not being rich enough to buy all the
books you want? A girl must, a man may if he chooses it is the difference between men and
women.
Another example can be found in Part II, Chapter XI, page The arguments pleading for it We are
the product of our habitat genetic inheritance. Inherited tendencies. It is a key to interpret the
novel. Lily was compared to an organism. In a way, the narrator asks readers whether Lily is guilty
for her downfall rather than a victim of the society in which she dwells. Edith Wharton of course does
not answer this question. There is an instance of Lilys background in Part I, Chapter III. Lilys idea
of having inherited certain features from her parents is not a peripheral issue. It is explored in Part I,
Chapter III. Her mother was sure that her daughter would manage herself to find a suitable husband.
In a way, she was a failure since she did not accomplish what her mother wanted.
a. Biblical allusions
Where does the title come from?
Eclesiasts, 7
Contraste entre la sabidura y la insensate
7:1 Mejor es la buena fama que el buen perfume, y mejor el da de la muerte que el da del nacimiento.
7:2 Mejor es ir a la casa del luto que a la casa del banquete, porque aquello es el fin de todos los hombres, y el
que vive lo tendr presente en su corazn.
7:3 Mejor es el pesar que la risa; porque con la tristeza del rostro se enmendar el corazn.
7:4 El corazn de los sabios est en la casa del luto; mas el corazn de los insensatos, en la casa de la alegra.
7:5 Mejor es or la reprensin del sabio que la cancin de los necios.
7:6 Porque la risa del necio es como el estrpito de los espinos debajo de la olla. Y tambin esto es vanidad.
7:7 Ciertamente la opresin hace entontecer al sabio, y las ddivas corrompen el corazn.
7:8 Mejor es el fin del negocio que su principio; mejor es el sufrido de espritu que el altivo de espritu.
7:9 No te apresures en tu espritu a enojarte; porque el enojo reposa en el seno de los necios.
The House of Mirth has to be interpreted as the biblical house of mirth. It is New York, a house of vanity,
superficiality, materialism. So the problem is that Lily is incapable of going beyond the house of New York
society. There is no exit sign in this house and she feels trapped.
Lily Bart is a very symbolic name which also comes from the Bible:
Mateo, 26
Dios y las riquezas
6:24 Nadie puede servir a dos amos, porque odiar a uno y querr al otro, o ser fiel a uno y despreciar al
otro. No se puede servir a Dios y a las riquezas.
6:25 Por lo tanto, yo les digo: No se preocupen por lo que han de comer o beber para vivir, ni por la ropa que
necesitan para el cuerpo. No vale la vida ms que la comida y el cuerpo ms que la ropa?
6:26 Miren las aves que vuelan por el aire: no siembran ni cosechan ni guardan la cosecha en graneros; sin
embargo, el Padre de ustedes que est en el cielo les da de comer. Y ustedes valen ms que las aves!

40

6:27 En todo caso, por mucho que uno se preocupe, cmo podr prolongar su vida ni siquiera una hora?
6:28 Y por qu se preocupan ustedes por la ropa? Fjense cmo crecen los lirios del campo: no trabajan ni
hilan.
6:29 Sin embargo, les digo que ni siquiera el rey Salomn, con todo su lujo, se vesta como uno de ellos.
6:3O Pues si Dios viste as a la hierba, que hoy est en el campo y maana se quema en el horno, con mayor
razn los vestir a ustedes, gente falta de fe!
6:31 As que no se preocupen, preguntndose: Qu vamos a comer? o Qu vamos a beber? o Con qu
vamos a vestirnos?
6:32 Todas estas cosas son las que preocupan a los paganos, pero ustedes tienen un Padre celestial que ya
sabe que las necesitan.
6:33 Por lo tanto, pongan toda su atencin en el reino de los cielos y en hacer lo que es justo ante Dios, y
recibirn tambin todas estas cosas.
Bart, which is Lilys surname, comes from barter10 which contains the idea of market/mercantile
transactions. Lily Bart overestimates the power of the game of sexual attraction. In the end, she thinks that
her integrity is not in her freedom, but in money: and that is what causes her tragedy.
b. Setting: the Houses
The House of Mirth is a realistic novel: many houses are described in detail. They are
emblematic of the house of mirth. The book has both biblical and mythological allusions a
nymph, as Lily Bart is hunting her future plausible husband.

the Benedick. It appears early in the novel Part I, Chapter I, page 2. It is also a current building in
New York conceived for single men. It was basically for young single professional men.
Bellomont. Lily has many friends husband-wife couples. Gus likes her a lot and he is her
financial advisor. Part I, Chapter III, 3rd paragraph. In this passage, Gus sends Lily a letter in which
he invites her to his house to have a snack with his wife as well. Of course, Gus knew he would be
alone at home when he planned the date in order to have sexual affairs with Lily.
Lily Barts aunts house which is a luxurious one.

What is the most interesting part of the novel is Lilys evolution. Part I is set in New York whereas Part II
starts on a steam boat as she goes on a cruise to Europe. She moves from houses to movable ones which are
the boats. Her friends betray her: it is the beginning of her spiral downfall. Lilys development as a woman is
structured around houses, nasty spaces which symbolize the very ending of her tragedy. All these houses are
little bits of the House of Mirth, i.e., New York.
Lily is incapable of surviving in the cold weather of poverty. She continually tries to avoid being at home. For
example, []they knew her by heart[]remote and[]she could not figure herself[] This example is
another key to her name.

New York to Long Island, Monte Carlo and Sicily. Part II represents a move from security to
insecurity (the steam boat moves and Lily is kicked out from this house. She is betrayed by her
friends. The movement from luxury houses to a boat marks a point in the novel as Lily Barts final
degradation and/or her downfall which is symbolically represented by the use of several spaces.

Lawrence Selden. He is an important character in the novel: he is the only man who has a job.
Besides, he dwells in the Benedick. He is the observer/outsider with amazement. Readers perceive
the world through his eyes. Lawrence has flaws and is to be blamed for Lilys downfall. On the one

40

hand, he tries to help Lily. On the other hand, he is distant and aloof to her. It is an instance of bad
timing: by the time he decides he is going to declare his love to Lily, he eventually realizes and finds
her dead. Both Lily and Lawrence are the two most important characters. They are round characters
which evolve. The rest of characters are flat ones, namely, stereotypes who do not change, such as the
suitors.

the suitors: Simon Rosedale and Percy Gryce. Americas classes are ruled by money. Lily
contemplates the idea of marrying Simon.

the friends: the Dorsets and the Trenors. They cannot be called real friends since they are there
with Lily only when she is facing good circumstances. However, they betray her in the end. These
characters are the antagonists.

the aunt: Mrs. Peniston. She is the surrogate mother to Lily. Her figure and the reversal of the
prodigal son parable11 is another biblical allusion in the novel in Part II, Chapter XV.

4.4.4.3. Themes in The House of Mirth

individual vs. society. Lily fighting for her success in New York Patrician society

friends who should be depicted as false ones. In a materialistic world, the more you have, the more
you count.
money. Supposedly, money provides freedom but in actual fact Lily is a slave to it.
the novel features naturalistic elements: we are victims of our environment and habitat. However, it
is a very negative perspective. Lily portrays the American Dream idea: she cannot escape her fate
and/or destiny.

4.4.4.4. The scene of the Tableau Vivant

In this scene, Lily is trapped in a close society and one of her tragedies is that her artistic potential dies
without having been used. There are many instances in which Lily appears as an artist such as in: Book I,
chapter VI. It was the unconscious prolongation [] effects
extemporaneously.
Book I, chapter IX. In her own room Lily [] distinction to her leisure!
Book I, chapter XII. It is the clearest example of the tableau vivant. Mrs. Fisher, to whom they had
entrusted [] like the real Lily the Lily I know. When she is wearing as a real Roman inhabitant, she is the
real Lily wearing a tunic. All the rest is vulgarized by this New York society.
4.4.4.5. The ending
Lily takes an overdose of sleeping pills and she never wakes up. It is a very open ending: is it a suicide? She
knows that she is putting herself at risk, she does so since she feels too despair. Lawrence Selden rushes to
Lilys hotel but finds her dead. Perhaps Lily settled everything before the overdose she took in order to feel at
peace and then vanish. Maybe it was not suicide per se, but flirting with death. In any case, the very
enigmatic word word appears in a very symbolic way. As can be seen in Book II, chapter XIII, She met his
eyes [] for the13 word to break the spell. For example, in the same chapter, She stirred once [] As she
lay there she said to herself [] into it, and slept. Lily has changed absolutely: she no longer thinks about
jewelry. In Book II, chapter XIV, Nine oclock was an early
hour for a visit [] It was not a word for twilight, but for the morning.
As for the last sentence of the novel in which Lawrence arrived late bad timing to solve some affairs with
Lily: and if the moment had been fated to pass from them before they could seize it, he saw now that, for
both, it had been saved whole out of the ruin of their lives. It was the moment of love [] them the word
which made all clear. Lily is not the only one to be blamed for her downfall, but also Lawrence Selden.

40

Moreover, the house of mirth is what kills Lily since she feels like escaping from there. It is a novel in which
the word is not expressed, whatever the word may mean.

AMERICAN LITERATURE FROM 185O UP TO

19OO
5. LOCAL COLOR WRITING/FICTION
5.1. INTRODUCTION TO LOCAL COLOR WRITING
It used to be a matter of no little jealousy to us, I remember, that the manners, customs, thoughts and
feelings of New England country people filled so large a place in books, while our life, not less interesting,
not less romantic, and certainly not less filled with humorous and grotesque material, had no place in
literature. It was as though we were shut out of good society. (Edward Eggleston 25) Literature was
dominated by the East Coast, i.e., New England, Massachusetts.
[] Regional writing has made our literature national by the only process available for the "great American
novel," for which prophetic critics yearned so fondly twenty years ago, is appearing in sections. One of the
tendencies of this period was like writing a great national American Novel which was never written
completely, but in sections. Some French writers wrote coleur local such as Victor Hugo.
Local colour writing is very much the outcome of the new realist trend initiated in
the United States after the American Civil War. Local colour fiction is a fiction that celebrates the
idiosyncrasies of a particular region in America.
5.2. DEFINITION
Local colour fiction focuses on the characters, dialect, customs, topography, and other features, particular to
a specific region. Every novel has its own features, but there are some generalisations found.
5.3. CHARACTERISTICS
Dual influence of romanticism and realism
Nostalgia or sentimentality. There is a sense of nostalgia for the past. For example, it is the case
of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn which is also alocal color novel since it has its dialect, the
customs of its people It contains descriptions of minute details. In this case, missing a rural
past.
Its customary form is the sketch or short story. Local colorists prefer writing so rather than
novels.
Contributed to the reunification of the country after the Civil War and to the building of national
identity towards the end of the 19th century. In other words, many critics believed that local
colour writing contributed to build a sense of national identity and establish a division of regions.
25 Edward Eggleston (1837 19O2). U.S. novelist and historian. He became an itinerant preacher at
age19; he later held various pastorates and edited several periodicals. He realistically portrayed
backwoods
Indiana in The Hoosier School-Master (1871). His other novels include The End of the World (1872), The
Circuit Rider (1874), Roxy (1878), and The Graysons (1888). He then turned to writing history; his
Beginners of a Nation (1896) and Transit of Civilization from England to America (1900) contributed to
the growth of the study of social history.

40

5.3.1. SETTING
The emphasis is frequently on nature and the limitations it imposes. The setting is integral to the story. You
will find local color fiction about rural areas and the setting is as relevant as characters.
5.3.2. CHARACTERS
Local color stories tend to be concerned with the character of the district or region rather than
with the individual: characters may become character types, sometimes quaint or stereotypical.
They are the product of their environment, instead of having specific traits.
The characters are marked by their adherence to the old ways, by dialect, and by particular
personality traits central to the region.
In women's local color fiction, the heroines are often unmarried women or young girls.

5.3.3. NARRATOR
The narrator is typically an educated observer from the world beyond who learns something from the
characters while preserving a sometimes sympathetic, sometimes ironic distance from them. The narrator
serves as mediator between the rural folk of the tale and the urban audience to whom the tale is directed.
5.3.4. PLOT
It has been said that "nothing happens" in local color stories by women authors, and often very little does
happen. Stories may include lots of storytelling and revolve around the community and its rituals. Namely,
what counts is the descriptions of the communities that are being described and how people suffer.
5.3.5. THEMES
There are some themes which are more frequent than others.
Many local color stories share an antipathy to change and a certain degree of nostalgia for an
always-past golden age. This is the case of Under the Lions Paw.
A celebration of community and acceptance in the face of adversity characterizes women's local
color fiction. Some women rebel against their lives, but this is not very often the case.
Thematic tension or conflict between urban ways and old-fashioned rural values is often
symbolized by the intrusion of an outsider or interloper who seeks something from the
community. This is a further elaboration of the first theme. Very few urban ways shall we see in
local color fiction. In The Awakening, Edna faces this clash.
5.3.6. TECHNIQUES
Use of dialect to establish credibility and authenticity of regional characters. It was clearly seen in
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and also in Kate Chopins The Awakening for the creole
that French people used.

Use of detailed description, especially of small, seemingly insignificant details central to an

understanding of the region. Details are of a vital importance. As can be seen in New Englands
Nun, these details although they may seem rather insignificant, they tell much more than what
we (may) think about characters and the environment which surrounds them.
Frequent use of a frame story26 in which the narrator hears some tale of the region.
5.3.7. THE WEST
Hamlin Garland: Under the Lions Paw (1891). He, rather than creating the myth of the West,
(he) destroyed it. So James Fenimore Cooper was destroyed by Garland. His prose was a lyric of
protest.
Bret Harte: The Luck of Roaring Camp (187O). He is very well-known for his novels. He travelled
to the mining camps in California. It was a literature of social protest.
5.3.8. NEW ENGLAND

26 A frame story is a story within a story.

40

Harriet Beecher Stowe: Uncle Toms Cabin (1852), The Ministers Wooing (1859), Oldtown Folks
(1869) and Poganuc People (1878). Uncle Toms Cabin is a pre-Civil War novel, so it is not
considered a local color fiction novel. There are many descriptions of people living in these areas.
Mary Wilkins Freeman: Pembroke (1894), A New England Nun27 and The Revolt of Mother.
5.3.9. THE SOUTH
Kate Chopin. The Awakening (1899)
George Washington. Old Creole Days (1879) and The Gradissimes (188O)
Joel Chandler. Uncle Remus (187O)
Charles Chestnutt28
5.4. IS LOCAL COLOR FICTION THE SAME AS REGIONALISM?
Local color fiction is sometimes opposed to Regionalism. On the other hand, some scholars state that they
are two words to refer to the same idea. However, whatever it may be either a distinction between two
different ideas or a different word to express the same, they are defined as follows below:
Local color fiction: term applied to fiction which emphasizes its setting, being concerned with the
character of a district or of an era, gp marked by its customs, dialect, costumes, landscape or
other particularities. It came into prominence in the US after the Civil War, perhaps as an
attempt to recapture the . . . to the past.
Regionalism: literature . . . or anthropologist.
5.5. MARY WILKINS FREEMAN (1852 193O)
Mary Wilkins Freeman basically wrote many sketches which she compiled in books. Many of them are about
women with a strong sense of independence. They claimed to be controllers over the domestic spheres in
which they dwelled. They preserved their integrity against suitors, neighbors, boyfriends, and so on and so
forth. Mary Wilkins Freeman published 2O volumes of short stories, 6 volumes of kids stories and she also
wrote gothic stories. Together with Edith Wharton, was she considered a national literary award for her
production.
5.5.1. A NEW ENGLAND NUNS INTRODUCTION.
It is a sort of a love story comprised in a triangle where its three vertexes correspond to a man and two
women Joe Dagget and Louisa Ellis and Lily Dyer. What happens is not of vital importance, but the
environment, the vices and virtues the characters represent. It is a simple story full of details! Traditional
novels and traditional stories follow the Freytag 29 Pyramid, an odd one which follows the typical three-act
progression:

27 The title itself displays a paradox since the religion in New England was either Puritanism or
Protestantism whereas the religion of a nun was Catholicism. So, it was an impossibility.

28 Prominent African-American writers such as Charles W. Chesnutt and Frances E. W.Harper

demythologize and satirize portions of the "plantation tradition" in their works. See especially
Chesnutt's "The Goophered Grapevine," the first story published by an African American in the Atlantic
Monthly Magazine (1887), and the stories in his The Conjure Woman(1899).

29 In his book Technique of the Drama (1863), The German critic Gustav Freytag proposed a method
ofanalyzing plots derived from Aristotle's concept of unity of action that came to be known as Freytag's
Triangle or Freytag's Pyramid. In the illustration above, the graphic can be employed to analyze the
structure and unity of a narrative's plot.

40

The presentation of one of the main characters, Louisa Ellis, is the stable situation.
There are moments of complication through the rising action. Then suddenly some complications begin to
occur/happen, such as the appearance of Joe in Louisas tranquility. Another one is Joes fight to unchain
Caesar since he believes the dog must be liberated. The wedding is another complication as well as Lilys
appearance. As for the climax, it is the discovery that there is another woman in Joes life, i.e., Lily Dyer. The
falling action is a tiny part. The return to stability has to do with Louisas return to her typical daily life. The
most important thing in the whole story is Louisa. A New England Nun presents an internal and/or
intellectual conflict that Louisa feels inside, she is late
twenties or early thirties although readers are not told so. Louisa enjoys a comfortably established life. She
has to choose whether to follow the path of marriage or to remain single. The narrator is a 3rd person
omniscient who narrates the story which does not present types.
5.5.2. A NEW ENGLAND NUNS CHARACTERS
Louisa Ellis. In the story there are some depictions which characterize
Louisa.
1st paragraph. A description of very soft and pleasant sounds which are premonitory of rest and hash, that
is, what her life is all about. Louisa is described at length; however, it is an indirect description by means of
being told what she usually does. The description is done in terms of synecdoche 30. Readers are told about
her apron, the way she drinks tea, how she eats lettuce, etc.
All these details represent the whole which is Louisa. She does not use one apron, but three simultaneously.
It reveals readers a perfectionist person, a change averse, meticulous habits, structured. These adjectives are
gathered by means of what this character does throughout the story. As she uses china, it reveals Louisa has
an artist inside her as she puts creativity in the typical activity of drinking tea. It speaks of her aesthetic
enjoyment as she feels comfortable being surrounded by beauty. She likes beauty in sensory perceptions.
30 Synechdoche. It is a figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole or the whole for a part;
thespecial for the general or the general for the special. For instance, Tocamos a 2O por barba, in
which
barba represents a whole person.

40

Every little object in Louisas house is very symbolic. There are also two more protagonists: her dog Caesar
and the canary how Louisa feels when Joe came. There is an identification between Louisa and her pets.
4th paragraph. Louisas way of drinking tea is thoroughly depicted. She eats like a
bird pecking. Joe suggests the dog should be free without its chain. This causes consternation in Louisa
because she feels identified with the dog. The chained dog
in a way represents the voluntary chained stages of Louisa. The canary bird can also be identified with
Louisa. The bird feels disturbed and then moves its wings when it is not in a peaceful atmosphere. By
contrast, Louisa does the same but in a voluntary way. This story subverts the negative connotations of the
old maiden, which was a stigma in those times because being thirty without having been married was not
positive at all.
Readers are told how Louisa cleans her house and the disturbance of all the elements. Joes intrusion in her
house is like a bear in a china-shop, i.e., un elefante en una cacharrera. It is found two paragraphs above
[5]. It is extreme perfectionism, purity and cleanliness.
Joe Dagget
[7] 3rd paragraph. Louisa feels consternation contrary to what any woman of her age would feel as well
as surprise. In those fourteen years she has changed her mind.
Joe is a very good guy very concerned about Louisa. The reason why she rejects him is because he has chosen
a different kind of life. He is a noble character, a little bit clumsy.
The inner conflicts that Louisa creates inside her mind: She will have to move to Joes house when they
would get married, namely, from a perfect domesticity to a loss of power and/or independence. She would
no longer be powerful over the domestic setting because the mistress of the house would be the domineering
mother-in-law who represents a type and a real threat in Louisas life.
[9] 2nd paragraph. Does this paragraph have another symbolic interpretation besides the literal one? Joe
Dagget is the masculinity disturbing Louisas inner peace. Perhaps she is a virgin because nuns remain
celibate (sexual interpretation).
As for the climax, it comes when there is an epiphany a sudden revelation or
discovery when Louisa discovers that there is someone in Joes life, as can be seen in [13] 5th paragraph.
Louisa never mentions she has discovered them (Joe and Lily) because she is spiritually elegant, she prefers
not to mention that scene. With regard to the denouement it is located in [16] 7th paragraph. The old
maiden can feel like a queen in her domestic domain. In a way, Louisa suffers agoraphobia as she refuses
social contact. Of course, this idea is linked to Caesar but not to Louisa; however, it can be applied to her as
well. Concerning the last word of the story, being a nun is an impossibility in Puritan New England. The
word in question applies to the life nuns dwell in convents. For some people nowadays, it would be a
nightmare. To them, that life was perfect. Louisa has chosen to live the life of a nun, which implies celibacy.
Mary Wilkins Freeman presents readers an incipient version of what would be later called feminists or new
women. In a way, the attitude, paradoxically, implies a final lesson. Louisa has made a decision that goes
against what expected in Puritan England. Perhaps it is uninteresting to our sights of the 21st century, but it
was what she chose. Louisa is a woman with a strong character with sway in her domestic sphere, i.e., she
was the queen of her kingdom; however, it was a very tiny one. Her house was her castle where she could
have power. Louisa as a character has many points in common with Emily Dickinson.
5.5.3. THE REVOLT OF MOTHER
Something very thought-provoking about the title is that the word mother is written between inverted
commas. A mother should be married and submissed to a husband. Furthermore, she should behave as a
good proper Puritan mother. However, the mother in this story is a very orthodox one. Thus, Mother is
written in an ironic sense; a sense of protest to the author since she is a very special sort of mother she is
not the conventional mother; it is not a mother in the religious sense and she does not play the
subordinate role of Puritan patriarchy. Sarah Penn is a beautiful Puritan mother married to Adoniram Penn.
Her husband promised her that they were going to build a nice house, but in fact he was only interested in
making money, so Sarah rebelled against the situation. She takes the opportunity of being alone and takes
the power of herself and her own decisions. As for the structure of the story,

40

The story in question has a modern structure which begins in medias res. Then, some important situations
occur before the first climax takes placewhich corresponds to the move from the house. As can be seen in
the following quotation, the things get more and more complicated in the situation until the possible climax.
Mrs. Penn's face, as she worked, changed, her perplexed forehead smoothed, her eyes were
steady, her lips firmly set. She formed a maxim for herself, although incoherently with her unlettered
thoughts. "Unsolicited opportunities are the guideposts of the Lord to the new roads of life," she
repeated in effect, and she made up her mind to her course of action.
"S'posin' I had wrote to Hiram," she muttered once, when she was in the pantry -- "s'posin' I
had wrote, an' asked him if he knew of any horse? But I didn't, an' father's goin' wa'n't none of my
doin'. It looks like a Providence." Her voice rang out quite loud at the last.
This passage shows a clear comparison of her as a providence. After the move, the
story continues a bit more until the end in which a stable situation goes on.
The story articulates around three pillars:
problem of gender, i.e., women vs. men
who has the power
architecture as the place to live
5.5.3.1. IS THIS SHORT STORY A FEMINIST ONE?
On the one hand, it is considered a feminist story by many protestant women (from the Status Quo), since
the woman in question, Sarah Penn the motherdecided to turn upside down the situation in a rural
puritan New England. Moreover, as the story was written at the end of the 19th century, it is considered a
very revolutionary story which protests.
the phenomenal of defers
the spirit and determination of Sarahs actions catch the attention of domestic
issues as violence and also it is a matter concerning the women of all the
times Mary Wilkinson Freeman is seen as the creator of a strong, independent own woman.
On the other hand, it is not viewed as a feminist story since The Revolt of the Mother can cause father
submission. It handles a matter of how things can change, how roles are inverted. Despite the title, it is
about all the family not just the mother, but also father. The reader should focus in the idea shown in the last
part to defend this point of view.
All through the meal he stopped eating at intervals, and stared furtively at his wife; but he
ate well. The home food tasted good to him, and his old frame was too sturdily healthy to be affected
by his mind. But after supper he went out and sat down on the step of the smaller door at the right of
the barn, through which he had meant his Jerseys to pass in stately file, but which Sarah designed for
her front house door, and he leaned his head on his hands.
After the supper dishes were cleared away and the milk-pans washed, Sarah came out to him. The
twilight was deepening. There was a clear green glow in the sky. Before them stretched the smooth
level of field; in the distance was a cluster of hay-stacks like the huts of a village; the air was very cool
and calm and sweet. The landscape might have been an ideal one of peace.
Sarah bent over and touched her husband on one of his thin, sinewy shoulders. "Father!"
The old man's shoulders heaved: he was weeping.
"Why, don't do so, father," said Sarah.
"I'll -- put up the -- partitions, an' -- everything you -- want, mother."
Sarah put her apron up to her face; she was overcome by her own triumph.

40

Adoniram was like a fortress whose walls had no active resistance, and went down the instant the
right besieging tools were used. "Why, mother," he said, hoarsely, "I hadn't no idee you was so set on't
as all this comes to."
In the passage, we see the father weeping, i.e., crying. So that, some critics say that it is not a feminist piece
of work; in fact it is a novel of nostalgia.
5.5.3.2. CHARACTERS
Narrator
It is a 3rd person narrator. Is the narrator omniscient? It can be considered so since we hear the rural society
of New England Incorporation of idiosyncratic as in local color fiction (as in The Adventures of Huck Finn)
and there is an indirect revelation of the characters. The narrator leads them to act, speak, etc. On the other
hand, the narrator is not omniscient because, up to a point, the narrator tells us what characters are and do;
like a camera that is just simply filming what they are doing.
Sarah
At the beginning

After

patient
tolerant
hard-working
caring
beautiful
submissive
strong-will *

proud
rebellious
resolute
cunning = intelligent
determinate
strong & independent
strong-will

* in the first column, strong-will is the only feature that does not characterize
a puritan mother from that time.
There are interesting ways of describing Sarah in the story: when she is compared with biblical characters
and historical strong men. The former deals with the following quotes that refer to biblical allusion:
Sarah Penn's face as she rolled her pies had that expression of meek vigor which might have
characterized one of the New Testament saints. She was making mince-pies[]
[]"I want to know what you're buildin' that new barn for, father?"
"I 'ain't got nothin' to say about it."
"It can't be you think you need another barn?"
"I tell ye I 'ain't got nothin' to say about it, mother; an' I ain't goin' to say nothin'."
"Be you goin' to buy more cows?" 6
Adoniram did not reply; he shut his mouth tight.
"I know you be, as well as I want to. Now, father, look here" -- Sarah Penn had not sat down;
she stood before her husband in the humble fashion of a Scripture woman [] (A
comparison is stablished)
As for the latter is concerned, the following quotes are an allusion to historical characters.
During the next few hours a feat was performed by this simple, pious New England mother
which was equal in its way to Wolfe's storming of the Heights of Abraham.[]
Depiction as simple, pious New England mother. It is important to know that Wolfe was a military officer of
the British army who defeated the French and established a new rule. The heights of Abraham was the name
of the battle in which he beat the French with an small army.

40

Friday the minister went to see her. It was in the forenoon, and she was at the barn door
shelling pease for dinner. She looked up and returned his salutation with dignity, then she went on
with her work. She did not invite him in. The saintly expression of her face remained fixed, but there
was an angry flush over it.
The minister stood awkwardly before her and talked. She handled the pease as if they were bullets. At last
she looked up, and her eyes showed the spirit that her meek front had covered for a lifetime.
"There ain't no use talkin', Mr. Hersey," said she. "I've thought it all over an' over, an' I believe I'm doin'
what's right. I've made it the subject of prayer, an' it's 12 betwixt me an' the Lord an' Adoniram. There
ain't no call for nobody else to worry about it."
"Well, of course if you have brought it to the Lord in prayer, and feel satisfied that you are doing right,
Mrs. Penn," said the minister, helplessly. His thin gray-bearded face was pathetic. He was a sickly
man; his youthful confidence had cooled; he had to scourge himself up to some of his pastoral duties as
relentlessly as a Catholic ascetic, and then he was prostrated by the smart.
"I think it's right jest as much as I think it was right for our forefathers to come over from the old
country 'cause they didn't have what belonged to 'em," said Mrs. Penn. She arose. The barn threshold
might have been Plymouth Rock from her bearing. "I don't doubt you mean well, Mr. Hersey," said she,
"but there are things people hadn't ought to interfere with.
Some important ideas are highlighted, but in fact ht emost important is that they
took possession of a new land and then colonized, so she did. This was her act, strong-will as a puritan father
though she is a mother. However, she behaves as a founding father. She believes in the power of words.
5.5.3.3. CLICHS WOMEN AND MEN
Sarah as a woman believes that things have to be discussed; whereas Adoniram, as
a man, passes over it disrespectfully like it is shown in the following scene at the
beginning of the story in which Sarah is interested in having a conversation and it
is after three times that he answers.
"Look here, father, I want to know what them men are diggin' over in the field for, an'
I'm goin' to know."
"I wish you'd go into the house, mother, an' 'tend to your own affairs," the old man said then. He ran
his words together, and his speech was almost as inarticulate as a growl.
But the woman understood; it was her most native tongue. "I ain't goin' into the house till you tell me
what them men are doin' over there in the field," said she.
Then she stood waiting. She was a small woman, short and straight-waisted like a child in her brown
cotton gown. Her forehead was mild and benevolent between the smooth curves of gray hair; there
were meek downward lines about her nose and mouth; but her eyes, fixed upon the old man, looked as
if the meekness had been the result of her own will, never of the will of another. []
"Father! said she.
The old man pulled up. "What is it?"
"I want to know what them men are diggin' over there in that field for."
"They're diggin' a cellar, I s'pose, if you've got to know."
"A cellar for what?"
"A barn."
"A barn? You ain't goin' to build a barn over there where we was goin' to have a house, father?"
The old man said not another word. He hurried the horse into the farm wagon, and clattered out of the
yard, jouncing as sturdily on his seat as a boy.
Adjectives for Adoniram

40

irrespectful
stubborn
abusive
pretentious
uncaring
inflexible
untruthful
so much concerned about money and with what society will say
Adoniram with all of these adjectives represents the father we see during the whole story until the end that
he becomes flexible, respectful, submissive, caring, obedient, tender and even pathetic. Adoniram is seen as
the supervisor of a worker who is his wife and a supervisor of his house. Also, he has a biblical name. In
this sense the reader can see how The Revolt Mother is a story of gender and power; and how can them be
removed and changed in question of days. Reversible facts & different roles mother/woman vs.
father/man are two of the main themes/topics. Nevertheless, gossip is also an interesting ingredient.
There is a clear allusion to it more or less at the end of the story in which it is presented a little village in
which people should follow some rules.
At six o'clock the stove was up in the harness-room, the kettle was boiling, and the table set
for tea. It looked almost as home-like as the abandoned house across the yard had ever done. The
young hired man milked, and Sarah directed him calmly to bring the milk to the new barn. He came
gaping, dropping little blots of foam from the brimming pails on the grass. Before the next morning he
had spread the story of Adoniram Penn's wife moving into the new barn all over the little
village. Men assembled in the store and talked it over, women with shawls over their heads scuttled
into each other's houses before their work was done. Any deviation from the ordinary course of life in
this quiet town was enough to stop all progress in it.
Adjectives to depict the minister
nosy = gossip
traditional
clumsy
inefficient when having to solve
problematic situations.
Apart from the gossip topic, it is also central to mention the matter of providence
that indicates submission.
The mother plunged her hands vigorously into the water, the girl wiped the plates slowly and
dreamily. "Mother," said she, "don't you think it's too bad father's goin' to build that new barn, much
as we need a decent house to live in?"
Her mother scrubbed a dish fiercely. "You 'ain't found out yet we're women-folks, Nanny Penn," said
she. "You 'ain't seen enough of men-folks yet to. One of these days you'll find it out, an' then you'll know
that we know only what men-folks think we do, so far as any use of it goes, an' how we'd ought to
reckon men-folks in with Providence an' not complain of what they do any more than we do of the
weather."
As can be seen in the previous quote, there is no a good use if you complain; in other words, complaining is
useless. This is a piece of warning mother gives to her daughter when she replies something as what is
father? and her mum answered do not complaint! your father is a good father.

40

5.6. HAMLIN GARLANDS INTRODUCTION31 (186O 194O)32

In the late 1880s, when American local-color writers began to depict the brutal, dehumanizing aspects of
life, the work which most effectively expressed the hardships of farmers of the northern prairies was Hamlin
Garland's Main Traveled Roads (1891). Garland was born near West Salem, Wisconsin. Garland's father was
an industrious farmer who moved his family from farm to farm in Wisconsin, Iowa, and South Dakota,
hoping to wrest a better living from the fertile but unreliable fields. The successive homesteads Garland
later described them as "bare as boxes, dropped on the treeless plains" provided little in the way of
literature, but what little was available young Hamlin read with enthusiasm. His parents encouraged his
literary interests and helped him get as much education as the area and his necessary work on the farm
would allow. Whenever possible he devoted 14 hours a day to reading. However polished his exterior,
Garland's stories were intentionally plain and rough. This was apparent in his first and best book, Main
Traveled Roads. His objective was to convey the hard, unromantic truth of life on the plains, and he
accomplished it effectively. His hostility toward landowners is manifest in one of the best stories in this
collection, "Under the Lion's Paw." A poor man with a sick wife and hungry children rents a dilapidated farm
from a greedy town merchant who turns farmers' misery to his profit. The tenant farmer has the owner's
promise that he can buy the property at a reasonable price if he can make it pay, and so he and his family
slave for 3 years to improve the house, barn, and fences which will one day be their own. But when they have
doubled the value of "their" farm, the owner doubles the price, ensuring that both land and tillers will
remain mortgaged to him forever. Garland dedicated the book to his parents "whose half century pilgrimage
on the main roads of life has brought them only toil and deprivation."
5.6.1. CONTEXT: FARMS
Hamlin Garland knew from first-hand experience what he was telling the audience
with regard to farming activities.
Fully nine-tenths of all Americans were farmers in 1776. There were some features
which deserve special attention, such as:
Farm as an ideal, nearly ranking with God, motherhood. It was an ideal in the United States.
The ideology of the family farm: an amalgam and/or conglomerate of many of the traditional
frontier values.
The self-made man is thought to be better than the well-born one. The present statement is
another idealization behind the previous one. Every man should have his own land to provide the
survival of the whole family.
The family farm was the cornerstone of society: Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the USA
during the very beginning of the 19th century, who defended that a truly democracy could only
take place in farms.
The myth of the yeoman farmer persisted.
By and large, three doctrines fostered this agrarian idealism:
o Agriculture was basic and superior to other occupations bacause it provided means of
survival for the nation. It was a way to employ the ex-slaves into the American society.
o Farming was not considered a business, but a way of living, close to nature and, therefore, to God.

31 The professor has not given the students any biographical data concerning this author. The
informationin this epigraph has been taken out from the Internet. The following website
<http://www.answers.com/topic/garland-hannibal-hamlin> was consulted [3OABR.13!].

32 Hamlin Garland. American author, augmented local-color writing by the new naturalistic
techniquesthat combined realism with a sense of the individual's overwhelming struggle against a
hostile
environment.

40

o Cities were considered the dens of corruption iniquity, and urbanization brought moral decay.
There was an idealization of rural life.
The Homestead Act (1862) was approved by Abraham Lincoln. The government would give American
citizens free federal land in vast parts of America to cultivate. There were some conditions for those who
wanted to own some lands:
It was necessary to be an American citizen never up in arms against US
Having a family was indispensable. Single men could not opt to this.
Being over 21 was another requirement.
Minimum of 5 years, and do improvements to the farm.
Many of the people who had access to those lands started to speculate with them, i.e., the case of Butler in
Under the Lions Paw. It looks like laws are there to be disobeyed, so to speak, Hecha la ley, hecha la
trampa.
5.6.1. MAIN-TRAVELLED ROADS

The map above shows the Midwest states of the USA in which Hamlin Garlands
short stories were set: MN, SD, NE, IA and WI.
The following quotation is of vital importance when reading Main-Travelled Roads
as can be seen below: "To my father and mother, whose half-century pilgrimage on
the main travelled road of life has brought them only toil and deprivation, this book of stories is dedicated by
a son to whom every day brings a deepening sense
of his parents' silent heroism"33. Main-Travelled Roads was first published in 1891. Furthermore, its stories
are set in the Middle Border: northwestern prairie states of Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota and
33 Hamlin Garlands Main-Travelled Roads (1995), page 7.

40

South Dakota. It is a compilation of eleven stories in which Under the Lions Paw is included. Garland
explores the hardships of agrarian life, deconstructs the conventional myth of the American prairie while
highlights the economic and social conditions that characterized agricultural communities in the rural
Midwest. There are two main big dramas.
5.6.1.2. UNDER THE LIONS PAW
Under the Lions Paw has some issues in common with The Grapes of Wrath34 (1939). In both stories, the
American Dream is turned nightmare. Demythologization and deromantization are two features with regard
to Under the Lions Paw.
As for the titles suggestion, a lion has power, control, subjugation, strength, viciousness, fierceness, hunger,
and so on and so forth. Those are the characteristics of the lion in this short story which can be found in
Butler, speculating over another character. Stephen Council can be considered a Biblical
representation the Good Samaritan. It is a four-act play that clearly accomplishes Freytags Pyramid. In
Part I, as for stability, it is for Stephen Council. Complications are present in the good sense such as Haskins
renting of some properties. In Part II, Haskins begins up a new life. In Part III, it is depicted how Haskins
works and exploits the land, namely, a positive rising of the story. In Part IV, three years later,
the biggest complication is Butlers appearance. As for the climax, the outcome of his appearance is defiance.
The ending is Haskins thinking about the nothing he has, just the same he was at the beginning of the story.
The last intervention in the story is ambiguous in terms of who said so; however, readers are told who said
each excerpt. Throughout the rising action, the following situations must be placed: Stephen Council,
poverty, rents property, improves the land, buy land and Butler.

5.6.1.3. UNDER THE LIONS PAWS THEMES

The land is inhabited by lions; in other words, it is a story about dichotomies involving moral attitudes:
abuse vs. dignity, power and absence of sway, and so on and so forth. It is also about the strength of the
community. Apart from defending American individualism, all the Americans belong to different groups or
associations which means that the value of neighborhood is very tied. The idea of how we cannot live in
isolation, but with the idea of community. There are attacks to the Orthodox religion since it was a story set
in a Puritan society. The whole story is constructed around opposite moral values that prevent the
American Dream being a reality. Nostalgia for the rural society against the greed of the
urban life is the third theme. Rural values are represented by ______. Butler represents the New America
which is corrupted.
With respect to some quotations,
in page 11 there is a very Darwinian theme which has to do with naturalism or the survival of the
fittest;
When Butler is introduced in page 6, readers are told that land poor is something ironic because
he has made a business out of the land. Things turned upside down, all of the myths are
subverted.
34 The Grapes of Wrath is an American realist novel written by John Steinbeck.

40

Page 1 is a clear example of how the story begins in a very traditional manner as opposed to The
Revolt of Mother that begins in medias res. Under the Lions Paw lasts three years, very odd for
a short story.
5.7. KATE CHOPIN (185O 19O4)
Kate Chopin belonged to the Victorian Americanism35. Besides, she was a local
color writer. According to some critics, she is believed to be a feminist.
Nevertheless, she did not consider herself a feminist. She was born in Saint Louis. When she was 2O, she
married her husband. By 28, she had six children. She moved to Louisiana, where most of her fiction is set.
Moreover, most of her bestknown work focuses on the lives of sensitive, intelligent women. Eventually, she
went back to Missouri. She published two chief novels: The Awakening36 and The Storm. The first one was a
scandal because in Louisiana there were many Catholics. Not many writers of the period were used to the
subjects she wrote about. With respect to Chopins response, Having a group of people at my disposal [the
characters in the novel], I thought it might be entertaining (to myself) to throw
them together and see what would happen. I never dreamed of Mrs. Pontellier making such a mess of things
and working out her own damnation as she did37.
In his 1969 biography, Per Seyersted argues that Chopin broke new ground in American literature. She
was the first woman writer in her country to accept passion as a legitimate subject for serious, outspoken
fiction. Revolting against tradition and authority; with a daring which we can hardy fathom today; with an
uncompromising honesty and no trace of sensationalism, she undertook to give the unsparing truth about
womans submerged life. She was something of a pioneer in the amoral treatment of sexuality, of divorce,
and of womans urge for an existential authenticity. She is in many respects a modern writer, particularly in
her awareness of the complexities of truth and the complications of freedom.(198)
She was born Katherine OFlaherty in 1850 in St. Louis of French and Irish ancestry. She graduated from the
St. Louis Academy of the Sacred Heart in 1868 and two years later she got married with Oscar Chopin and
went to live with him in New Orleans. They had five sons and lived for some time in the French village of
Natchitoches Parish; their last child and only daughter was born in 1879. Oscar died in 1882 and after that
Kate Chopin had a romance with a married neighbor but in the end she decided to come back to St. Louis in
1884. Some critics have considered a feminist but she did not consider herself so, she only took seriously
womens issues. She was a prolific author but is best known for her novel The Awakening which was highly
scandalous for her time because of the defiance of the rules embodied by the main character. It is very
important to say that Kate Chopin grow up in an intellectual environment.
MAP (US states). the story in The Awakening takes place in Grand Isle (LO).
With reference to the setting, the novel is set in 1899, at a time when the Industrial Revolution and the
feminist movement were beginning to emerge yet were still overshadowed by the prevailing attitudes of the
nineteenth century. The novel opens on Grand Isle, a popular summer vacation spot for wealthy Creoles
from New Orleans. The second half of the novel is set in New Orleans, mainly in the
35 The Victorian Era is a name after the period from 1837 to 1901, the length of the rule of Britain's
Queen Victoria. American Victorianism was an offshoot of this period and lifestyle that occurred in the
United States, chiefly in heavily populated regions such as New England and the Deep South. The name
was derived from the reign of Queen Victoria, which reflected the heavy British cultural influence on the
nation during the time.

36 The Awakening is a novel by Kate Chopin. She began writing it in 1897, and finished it in January
1898. It was first published by Herbert S. Stone & Company of Chicago in April 1889. The Awakening
was a controversial novel due to the subject matter. Among its detractors was well known author Willa
Cather, who called it trite and sordid. Others labeled it morbid, vulgar, and disagreeable.

37 Book News: July 1899.

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Quartier Franais, or French Quarter.

5.7.1. CHARACTERS IN THE AWAKENING
Madame Ratignolle Edna Pontellier Mademoiselle Reisz38
Leonce Pontellier
Robert Lebrun
Alce Arobin
5.7.1.1. FEMALE CHARACTERS IN THE AWAKENING
Edna Pontellier is a respectable woman of the late 1800s who not only acknowledges her sexual desires, but
also has the strength and courage to act on them. Breaking through the role appointed to her by society, she
discovers her own identity independent of her husband and children. Yet although the text never presents
Ednas escape from tradition as heroic, it also never declares her actions
shameful. The narrative may sometimes portray Edna as selfish in the ways she acts out her defiance of
convention, but it never portrays Ednas defiance itself as intrinsically wrong.
Mademoiselle Reisz is an unconventional and unpopular older woman who serves as an inspiration to Edna
throughout her gradual awakening. A small, homely woman, Mademoiselle Reisz is distant and reserved in
her interaction with the other guests on Grand Isle. Mademoiselle Reisz is the woman that Edna could have
become, had she lived into her old age and remained independent of her husband and children.
Mademoiselle functions as a sort of muse for her young companion, acting as a living example of an entirely
self-sufficient woman, who is ruled by her art and her passions, rather than by the expectations of society.
A foil for Mademoiselle Reisz, Adle is a devoted wife and mother, the epitome of nineteenth-century
womanhood. Adle spends her days caring for her children, performing her domestic duties, and ensuring
the happiness of her husband. Ironically, while Adle is comfortable and happy with her simple, conformist
existence, she unintentionally catalyzes Ednas movement away from such a lifestyle with her manner of
speech: because she and her fellow Creole women are so clearly chaste and irreproachably moral, society
allows them to speak openly on such matters as pregnancy, undergarments, and romantic gossip.
There are two paradigms of female behavior Ratignole and Reisz. If readers go through the text, Reisz does
not seem such a nice person, so lonely. None of these two characters are truly ideal. In pages 67, The
mother-women seemed to prevail that summer at Grand Isle. It was easy to know them, fluttering about
with extended, protecting wings when any harm, real or imaginary, threatened their precious brood. They
were women who idolized their children, worshiped their husbands, and esteemed it a holy privilege to
efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels. There is no much space in there to
develop themselves.
As for the story of the protagonist, check page 15 in which says: Her marriage to
Leonce Pontellier was purely an accident, in this respect resembling many other marriages which
masquerade as the decrees of Fate. It was in the midst of her secret great passion that she met him. He fell in
love, as men are in the habit of doing, and pressed his suit with an earnestness and an ardor which left
nothing to be desired. He pleased her; his absolute devotion flattered her. She fancied there was a sympathy
of thought and taste between them, in which fancy she was mistaken. Add to this the violent opposition of
her father and her sister Margaret to her marriage with a Catholic, and we need seek no further for the
motives which led her to accept Monsieur Pontellier. for her husband. How is Edna described? She is
impulsive since she does not think things carefully, she is rather capricious, ambitious, vain, reckless, and so
on and so forth.
5.7.1.2. MALE CHARACTERS IN THE AWAKENING

38 She is the woman artist, so independent. She does not care about conventions

40

Lonce Pontellier is a wealthy New Orleans businessman, is Ednas husband. Although he loves Edna and
his sons, he spends little time with them because he is often away on business or with his friends. Very
concerned with social appearances, Lonce wishes Edna to continue the practices expected of New Orleans
women despite her obvious distaste for them. His relationship with Edna lacks passion and excitement, and
he knows very little of his wifes true feelings and emotions.
Robert Lebrun is the man with whom Edna falls in love. Dramatic and passionate, he has a history of
becoming the devoted attendant to a different woman each summer at Grand Isle. Robert offers his
affections comically and in an overexaggerated manner, and thus is never taken seriously. As the friendship
between Robert and Edna becomes more intimate and complex, however, he realizes that
he has genuinely fallen in love with Edna. The seductive, charming, and forthright Alce Arobin is the Don
Juan of the New Orleans Creole community. Arobin enjoys making conquests out of married
women, and he becomes Ednas lover while her husband is on a business trip to New York.
Doctor Mandelet is Lonce and Ednas family physician. He is a fairly enlightened man, who silently
recognizes Ednas dissatisfaction with the restrictions placed on her by social conventions.
In page 2, "You are burnt beyond recognition," he added, looking at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece
of personal property which has suffered some damage. She held up her hands, strong, shapely hands, and
surveyed them critically, drawing up her fawn sleeves above the wrists. Looking at them reminded her of her
rings, which she had given to her husband before leaving for the beach. She silently reached out to him, and
he, understanding, took the rings from his vest pocket and dropped them into her open palm. She slipped
them upon her fingers; then clasping her knees, she looked across at Robert and began to laugh. The rings
sparkled upon her fingers. He sent back an answering smile. It is clear that Mr.Pontellier views his wife as a
piece of property rather than as an equal partner or individual. In the novel, this character Leonce is a
businessman; however, by means of glimpses, readers can have a depiction of him.
5.7.2. QUESTIONS ON THE AWAKENING CHECK THE QUESTIONS ON THE PHOTOCOPY.
QUESTION 1. Why, as the title evidences, has The Awakening being described as a
Novel of Awakening. What are the themes of the novel? Note how frequently the
word awake appears in the novel, and explain this process of awakening.
The different types of awakening that we find in the novel could be: the sexual, the
artistic and the individual as this novel is a bildungsroman. It is also called the
awakening because the protagonist awakens on several spheres: sexuality,
individuality, viz., the protagonist discovers her inner self. Kate Chopin defies
conventions, blatantly refuses what society offers.
QUESTION 2. Describe Edna, and the two other types of women between which she
lives: Adle Ratignolle (the angel in the house, or mother-woman) and Mmelle.
Reisz (the woman artist). What type of woman is presented as ideal (if any)?
It has been explained above.
QUESTION 3. Now comment on the male characters: Mr. Pontellier (the husband),
Ednas lovers, and Dr. Mandellet (the scientist).
It has been explained above.
QUESTION 4. What elements of local color can you find in the novel? (language,
geography, customs, habits, characters behavior)
The depiction in The Awakening reminds readers of different settings. Local-color
fiction focuses on manners, clothing, dialects Anti-types rebel against
conventions which is also a feature of local-color writing. The places depicted in
the novel are either described in a positive light or in a negative light.
Local Color Writing elements:
- Creole: Louisiana was a French colony; people who were born in the country.

40

- French words: quadroon (people who have a quarter of black blood);

patois refers to a mixture of languages.
- (Pg. 46-7)(Pg. 52-3)(Pg. 59)
QUESTION 5. Structure of the novel: chapter division, circularity, experimental
devices Is it a pre-modernist novel?
About the structure we could highlight the triple influence of thought of the
Domestic Sentimentalism, the Local Color Fiction and the New Women literature.
Elaine Showalter pinpointed that the structure of the story establishes a
parallelism with the main character. The novel was considered as experimental
and as a characteristic of this we could highlight its open ending.
The style of the novel is characterized by Staccato it is developed through
telegraphic sentences and the text is full with epiphanies. Ernest Hemingway take
staccato into account as well. There is a lack of overall coherence as for chapter
division. Chapter VI is rather shortish and there is no transition betwebetween chapters
which have no titles. Other chapters are five pages long. Leitmotiv. 39
QUESTION 6. Setting: compare the indoor chapters with those at the Gulf or
outdoors, as metaphors of closure and liberation.
The characters of the story could be divided in two groups: the flat and the round
characters the former evolve along the story while the latter do not evolve. Some of
them are identified with indoor spaces (Madame Ratignolle) while others are
identified with outdoor spaces (Edna).
Flat characters are types, stereotypes which do not evolve whereas in round
characters there is an evolution.
QUESTION 7. Is Ednas death also a punishment for her transgression, or can it be
interpreted as a liberation or an act of feminine self-empowerment?
The issue of Ednas death is an open question. For instance, Edna chooses to die.
With the feminist movement, the novel has several interpretations. The ending is
not as close as in other novels. Throughout the plot, the character experiments
some transgressions. The scene of committing suicide to get freedom could be
interpreted as the biggest final transgression in The Awakening.
QUESTION 8. The Awakening is a novel loaded with symbolism. Interpret the
meaning of the sea, the naked man, the woman in black, the couple of lovers
The symbolism is really important in this novel. We find a clear Leitmotiv
(symbols repeated to give coherence). Some of the most important symbols are the
sea, the birds, the awakening itself, etc.
QUESTION 9. Comment on the significance and the symbolism of these two incidents:
Ednas excursion to Chenier Caminada with Robert , and Ednas last dinner to her
friends.
The Chenier Caminada scene is an important religious scene in which Edna feels
dizzy and has to go out of the church.
QUESTION 1O. Can we condemn Edna for her egoism, or do we understand her
motives?
If Ednas decision is selfish or not is an open issue.
5.7.3. PHOTOCOPY ABOUT REGIONALISM AND LOCAL-COLOR WRITING
5.7.4. PHOTOCOPY WITH QUOTATIONS

39 Leitmotiv. A recurring short melodic phrase or theme used , especially in Wagnerian music dramas,
tosuggest a character, thing, etc. An often repeated word, phrase, image or theme in a literary work.
They
are symbols repeated through the text to give coherence.

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AMERICAN LITERATURE FROM 185O TO 19OO

6.NATURALISM

6.1. INTRODUCTION TO NATURALISM

6.1.1. IN PHILOSOPHICAL USAGE: related to materialism. It concludes that everything that exists is
spatial and temporal and is a physical system. There is neither spiritual nor metaphysical existence.
Naturalists claim that there was no
knowledge of the world beyond senses.
Areas of common ground between Philosophy and Literature:
an emphasis on science and scientific method
a distrust of the metaphysical and the supernatural
and a belief that the external world can be investigated without recourse to a doctrine of
ultimate causes
6.1.2. NATURALISM IN RELATION TO REALISM:
Naturalism comes after Realism chronologically. It is not only a question of chronology, but Naturalism
depends on Realism for its existence. We might say that realistic works are not naturalistic, the reverse is not
true: all naturalistic works must be realistic. Assumption that it is possible for the artist to present a neutral,
disinterested, and objective report on the world of quotidian reality.
6.1.3. NATURALISM AND ITS FRENCH EMERGENCE:
Realism was born in Europe in the 19th century and then was transported to America. Realism was not a
movement but a tendency since they did not have a school. Naturalism as a word had been used widely by
French philosophers since everything had to be explained with a scientific basis. The French proponent of
Naturalism was mile Zola and his so-called piece of work Nana. He defended the virtues of scientific
observations and objectivity in the novelists presentation of
everyday reality, the psychological change of the characters is not as relevant as the evolution of events. In
order to understand the tenets of Naturalism, we might go to two works by mile Zola as he explains:
I have chosen people completely dominated by their nerves and blood, without free will, drawn into each
action of their lives by the inexorable laws of their physical nature. Thrse and Laurent are human animals,
nothing more. I have endeavored to follow these animals through the devious working of their passions, the
compulsion of their instincts, and the mental unbalance resulting from a nervous crisis. The sexual
adventures of my hero and heroine are the satisfaction of a need, the murder they commit a consequence of
their adultery, a consequence they accept just as wolves accept the slaughter of a sheep. And finally, what I
have had to call their remorse really amounts to a simple organic disorder, a revolt of the nervous system
when strained to breaking-point. There is a complete absence of soul, I freely admit, since that is how I
meant it to be. (Zola's 1868 preface to Thrse Raquin)
The novelist is both observer and experimenter. The observer in him presents data as he has observed them,
determines the point of departure, establishes the solid ground on which his characters will stand and his
phenomena take place. Then the experimenter appears and institutes the experiment, that is, sets the
characters of a particular story in motion, in order to show that the series of events will be those demanded
by the determinism of the phenomena under study. (Zola, The Experimental Novel)
6.2. NATURALISM IN AMERICA
Literature: Ibsen, mile Zola, Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche, Bergson, Sigmund Freud.
They were transforming the life of the mind.
Scientists and technologists: Marconi, Diesel, Benz, Pasteur and Curie. They were
transforming the physical universe in which the old values faded. It was the time of the great
discoveries. In America, we consider the end of American innocence. The New Frontier was
the city where immigrants in massive numbers where communication was built upon.

40

Multimillionaires: Rockefeller, Carnegie, Frick and Morgan. Conflicts of the poor against the
rich. Scandals were the rules as can be seen in The House of Mirth. It is the gospel of pure
individualism. On the other hand, there was scarcity and poverty although the strong
industrialization, i.e., conflicts among different social classes, strikes between the richest and
the poorest. This is the historical context for Naturalism.
Muckraking literature:
o Rebecca Harding Davis
o Henry Demarest Lloyd
o Edward Bellamy
o Ignatius Donnelly
o Henry Brake Fuller: The Cliff Dwellers

This popular literature was barredora de estircol because it was a sort of reporting fiction, connected to a
literature of protest, indignation against: political conflicts, capitalism, etc. There were the thematically
roots of what could become Naturalistic Literature.
1893: the Worlds Exhibition in Chicago. After this year, many novels started
to be written about megacities and the life in the slums. This was the
beginning of Naturalistic Literature as for its new subject: the life in the cities.
Younger writers started to feel the need to express what the milieu was.
6.2.1. Basic characteristics of Naturalism
It expresses a post-Darwinian view of life. Darwin also speaks about the survival of the fittest
and the world is a jungle in which the fittest can survive.
Man is seen as fundamentally no more than a specialized animal, subject wholly to natural
forces such as heredity and environment. When you read a novel like Maggie, you have to
consider her as the product of her environment, the offspring of such a habitat that is the
outlook.
The novelist became a kind of experiment in which he gives an elaborate documentation
without providing much insight of the inner characters. Naturalistic novels go one step
beyond in terms of subject.
The typical subject matter:
o the miserable and poverty-stricken
o those driven to animal appetites such as hunger or sexuality
o animalistic view of human beings
o the biological constitution of man
o the impersonal machine-like operations of society
o the functions of evolutionary/genetic process

Life is seen as a meaningless, squalid tragedy, with man in society like a caged wild animal.
Naturalists saw evolution as proof that the world is deterministic and that humans do not
have free will.
Refrained from making moral judgments on the actions of their characters.
They very seldom judge nor touch on moral issues, i.e., there is objectivity and neutrality.
Keen instinct rather than civilized intellect is necessary for survival. Survival of the fittest.
Horror, science, fatalism, cruelty, indifference.
Prose style more journalistic and space.
6.2.2. American themes in Naturalistic fiction
the biological constitution of man
the impersonal machine-like operations of society
the functions of evolutionary process

40

These are the most frequently used themes repeated in American Naturalism.
6.2.3. American protagonists in Naturalistic fiction
American is not only cities, but large open landscapes. These are the prototypical characters:
the new raw businessmen and salesmen
the immigrant workers
the disenchanted ministers
the rural and urban proletariat
In all of these novels, man is presented as a very small figure in a deterministic system which ignores him, in
an irresistibly evolutionary process, indifferent to individuality.
6.2.4. American settings
the modern tenement
the industrialized slum
the skyscraper, the commercial trust
the harsh environment (natural landscapes)
NATURALISM grew out of the bewilderment, and thrived on the simple grimness of a generation suddenly
brought face to face with the pervasive materialism of industrial capitalism.... It poured sullenly out of the
agrarian bitterness, the class hatred of the 80s and 90s, the bleakness of small-town life, the mockery of the
nouveaux riches, and the bitterness of the great new proletarian cities (Alfred Kazin's On Native Grounds
(1942)) It was almost uninteresting in Europe in 189O, although its vital importance before in the same
place. Naturalism did not end in America as fast as it did in Europe.
6.2.5. American naturalists

Frank Norris: The Pit (19O3), Me Teague: A Story of San Francisco (1899) (Zolas bte
humaine), The Octopus the story of life in California ranchers. He is considered to be the
initiator of Naturalism in America. He wrote tea-cup tragedies.
Stephen Crane (1874 19O2): Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (written at 19, in 1893), The Red
Badge of Courage (1895).
Theodore Dreiser (1871 1945): Sister Carrie (19OO), The Financer, The Titan, The Stoic
(trilogy of desire), An American Tragedy
Jack London (1876 1916): The Call of the Wild (19O3), The Sea-Wolf (19O4), volumes of
short stories.

6.3. STEPHEN CRANE (1874 19O2)

Stephen Crane was rediscovered after four decades of neglect. He wrote five or six
novels, but he is well-known for The Red Badge of Courage and Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893: 2nd
edition). He was the youngest of 14 siblings. His father was a
minister of the church and wrote several books such as The Art of Intoxication. Crane became a rebel and a
bohemian. He was a newspaper journalist with his
brother. He spent a year in Syracuse University and then he gave up. He was born in New Jersey and set his
novel in New York with real places, except for Rum Alley which is a symbolic place. He dwelled in the
Bowery, apparently comes from a Dutch word which means farm, it was a place for immigrants, criminals
and so on, i.e., all the scenes in which Pete is involved are the ones that follow below in the next section.
6.3.1. Maggie: A Girl of the Streets
Chapter VII, p. 27 for a description of the Bowery: The vast crowd . . . The nationalities of the Bowery
beamed upon the stage from all directions. There are many similes in Cranes work. He over tried opium,
had interviews with prostitutes At the age of nineteen he sketched a draft of Maggie: A Girl of the Streets,
but at 23 published the novel at his own expense, it was a little edition which was an absolute failure. He
became a success by publishing The Red Badge of Courage and then Maggie: A Girl of the Streets became
also a success. Although his short lifetime, he married at 23 and dies at 28 of tuberculosis. He belonged to

40

the literary circle in London, he covered the Spanish-American war. He enhances his category as a set of
myth.
The Red Badge of Courage is the novel that gave him international fame, it is an odd novel which has been
depicted as an impressionistic novel by some critics. Episodes always focused on the protagonist Henry
Fleming, a nihilist view of life, patriotism, fighting for your country, the experiences in the battlefield.
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets is full of cruelty, a lack of sensitivity. It is relevant for many reasons: a
naturalistic novel with avant-garde techniques, its impressionistic vignettes, symbolism or allegorical and its
tremendous irony. The way Crane handles irony is very amazing. He would be the inspirer of later great
America writers such as Ernst Hemingway and Andrew. Maggie: A Girl of the Streets is also important
because it depicted the life of the slums in New Jersey; it was something
very new that had not happened before. He demolishes institutions such as the
church. It comprises prostitution, degradation In other words, it was a battle
against the Gilded Age. The novel epithemizes the young mans work as a rebel, an
experimental novel with many flaws but very avant-garde.
Crane presents a Darwinian view of life. It tells the story of Maggie rejected, abandoned and discarded by
her lover. She is forced to immerse herself into prostitution to earn her living. The fact of the matter is that
Crane does not give readers a moralistic lesson, but a naturalistic lesson showing events rather than judging.
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets is deterministic and she could be compared with Huckleberry. Hucks father is
an alcoholic as well as Maggies mum, Mary. Both characters share a common background. Huck develops in
a moral way; by contrast, Maggie becomes a prostitute. The main difference is that Huck develops as a moral
human being. On the contrary, in spite of the same origins, Huck controls his own destiny. Maggie, because
she lives in this naturalistic world that Crane wishes to portray, is not able to choose her fate, a very
deterministic view. Of course, survival depends on the fittest, eg., Tommie, the fader and Maggie die.
At the very end of Chapter XVIII, Maggie dies by means of deathly black hue and sound of life that come
faintly and . . . Chapter XVIII is an anti-climax scene. Readers are taken away of the previous scene.
Chapter XIX goes back to the death of Maggie. This novel is absolutely visual, not containing psychological
insights, nor inner feelings. Maggie belongs to a tribe if we put it in animal terms. Maggie is not a flat
character, what is important is the language and the events. Characters are usually archetypes, except for
Maggie. Maggies evolution in Chapter V The girl, Maggie, blossomed . . . she went unseen. Maggie is the
victim of environment, hypocrisy, but most importantly, the victim of her author because he was
deterministic and naturalistic. Men and women are depicted as animals. Rum Alley is a symbolic place in the
same way as Devil Rows which is strongly connoted. Visual and auditory adjectives to nouns, a laboratory of
lexis. Impossible combinations of adjectives + nouns. We have to be insightful readers to decipher what
Crane is telling us within the novel. In the language used in the first three paragraphs of the first chapter,
there is a wide use of animal adjectives.
There are some differences from Naturalism in the novel since there are not symbolistic and Maggie: A Girl
of the Streets really is. Cranes style is indirect, not typical of Naturalism, he is oblique. The theme of the
novel ends up being more complex than what it started being. It is true that life is a battlefield, a constant
fighting, especially in the first three chapters. Homes closeness, peace, care, love is
not a refuge in this novel. Mary is everything but a mother, she does not represent care, neither
nourishment All these environmental circumstances play a role in
the novel because Maggie is not touched. Another departure from Naturalism is Cranes irony which is
evident in the very first line of the novel for the honor of
Rum Alley. The philosophers are the neighbors, but they are simply gossips pf
the cruelest kind, they constantly wear a moral mask.
6.3.2. Characteristics of Maggie: A Girl of the Streets
1. The image of the NY slums and of their inhabitants, as depicted in Maggie: A Girl of the Streets.
2. Themes of the Naturalistic novels. What makes Maggie: A Girl of the Streets a naturalistic novel?
3. Structure of the novel. What makes it an avant-garde novel? Its experimental devices. There are no
easy transitions typical of naturalistic novels. Its cinematographic techniques, its staccato style.
There are no titles for chapters and they have different lengths. The structure is a play within a
play, as in the first chapter readers come across Jimmie fighting, a barbaric scene The engineer of a

40

passive tugboat . . . the rivers bank, viz., the novel begins with a theatrical scene in which spectators
are there. Moreover, Maggie and Pete enjoy their dates in theatrical places, so it is symbolic of plays.
Stacatto is an Italian word which has to do with music and had been transplanted on literary
criticism for sharp language, lacking adornment and very telegraphic. Crane was an influence for
Hemingway.
For instance, to see the telegraphic language Crane used A stone had smashed into . . . blasphemous
chatter. There is neither coordination nor subordination. The language is very journalistic; the style is
cutting, just narrating the facts without digressions or long descriptions. Chapter XI is one of the longest
ones, each head was huddled . . . fists swirled. Crane describes people using synechdoque the
part for the whole as in each head was huddled to refer to every person by referring mere parts of the
body. It is considered materialistic for its descriptions.
As for the cinematographic techniques, filming juxtaposition is connected to montage, it came with the
invention of the cinema. It is very evident in Maggie: A Girl of the Streets and in The Awakening, since
there are gaps among chapters. For example, chapters III and IV, there is no smooth transition between the
end of III and the beginning of IV. It happens the same between XII and XIII. There is also a
lack of transition in chapters XVII and XVIII. As for the novels point of view, the narrator is a camera focus
wandering the slum world, totally objective point of view, a very noveau technique. For example, in chapter
XV. The narrator is not omniscient since he says she was apparently searching for some one. Readers
believe the woman is Maggie until some paragraphs later they realize that the woman in question is Hattie,
who appears in medias res since she had not been presented before in the novel.
4. Imagery: the novel is loaded with religious, animalistic, color and demoniac
imagery. The professor has not been too prolific as it will be deeply analyzed in the oral presentations of
Wednesdays. Sensuous imagery: the eye + the ear. Auditory perception is very important. The beginning of
chapter III is all about hearing. The words howl, roar, screams, moaning appear too often throughout
the whole novel.
Crane uses color in a symbolic manner, he paints the scenes in an impressionistic way. These are artistic
ways of seeing the world. It is of vital importance to take into account that there are 113 color-words in a
total of approximately 4O,OOO words. The use of color deserves a very well reflected research, Maggie: A
Girl of the Streets is a laboratory in the use of color imagery.

40

Maggie: A Girl of the Streets is never described in terms of red, but white and black.
Pete is described in terms of red, white and blue. Animal imagery deserves special
attention:
- to depict actions regarding characters
- to dehumanize people such as the laborers
They emphasize the idea of life as a jungle. Demoniac expressions also abound in
the novel: demon, hell, fiends, devil and so on.
5. Religious imagery. Cranes mixed style in Maggie: drawing the Bible, the Epic, Romance, tragedy
and melodrama to capture the nature of things and attitude toward existence.
There are New Testament inversions in the name of characters. Maggie is deliberately equated with
Magdalene, she was saved by Jesus as well as Crane saves Maggie from the jungle in which she dwells.
Another presence is the Prodigal Son Parable which also appeared in The House of
Mirth. In Chapter XIII, the dialogue between Mary and her son Jimmie when he
reconsiders the idea of forgiving Maggie by means of uttering prodigal business
and she in reply says it was not no prodigal daughter. Mary disregards Jimmies
piece of advice. It is a reversal of the Prodigal Son Parable.
The Good Samaritan parable is also applied in the novel. There is an allusion in
Maggie, but in reverse, and can be seen in Chapter XVI. Maggie runs into a minister who is supposed to be
the most entitled to help those in need. Albeit his job, he rejects Maggie. Situational irony and the reversal of
the parable are in Chapter XVI.
Pete and Jimmie are the two disciples which accompanied Jesus on the road to
Calvary. Maggie is crucified because of her innocence, and Pete and Jimmie went
with her. There is a reversal with reference to Mary, Maggies mother. She
represents the role of the mourning mother in the final chapter.
Pete is mystified with Nellie as Maggie is mystified with him. A little pale thing . . .
laughing.

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Tragedy: traces the career and downfall of an individual, and shows in this downfall both the capacities and
the limitations of human life. A single action of a certain magnitude that provokes in the audience the
emotions of pity and terror which are resolved by CATHARSIS as the plays climax.
Common features of the plot:
- HAMARTIA = ERROR. The existence of some connection between the protagonists downfall and his bad
behavior or flaws of character. Perhaps there is hamartia in Maggie if the protagonist is considered an
innocent nave. Her naivety makes her think that the world is much better than what it really is. All of these
cause her downfall.
- PERIPETEIA. The process of reversal of fortune or going from fortune to misery. The peripeteia
ingredient is not very present in Maggie since she goes from unhappiness to more unhappiness, from
disgrace to more disgrace.
- ANAGNORISIS. The moments of discovery or recognition by which the protagonist knows the truth of this
situation. There is no anagnorisis in Maggie since she is the prey of the world in which she lives. Important
people in this section are the chorus and the guilt. The chorus is the anonymous voice of the community in a
Greek tragedy; whereas in Maggie the chorus the neighbors, ironically called the philosophers is very
cruel and damns Maggie. Who is guilty of her tragedy? Such a contentious topic!
Melodrama. All the following features are present in Maggie:
sensational happenings, violent action and improbable events.
Naively sensational
Simple, flat characters (one-dimension)
Much blood-thirsty action
All the characters, except Maggie, act melodramatically since they are grotesque. Maggie is
also a parody on melodramas, for example in Chapter VIII where Pete and Maggie go, which
are Cranes target as in Evenings during the week . . . admiration for virtue. Crane raises
readers compassion for the victims of the society he portrayed. As for the elements with
reference to the epic, Maggie considers Pete as a knight (Chapter VI). In terms of heraldry,
red and blue are the colors which are directly connected to Pete.
With regard to the elements of the romance, Jimmie thinks he has to save the honor of his sister which is
absolutely ironic since he has taken the honor of many women, such as Hattie. So, there is a satire against
the romance and the epic. When reading Maggie as a satire to the romance, readers recall Don Quijote.
6. Irony.
Verbal irony. You say something and you mean the opposite. To enhance the real meaning of what you are
saying. It is the most common irony in the novel. Situational irony. The whole context is totally ironic. A
clergyman whose job is to help the needed rejects Maggie. There is both verbal and situational irony in this
passage. Another example, some scenes turn upside-down as when Maggie rejects other prostitutes because
she has not become a prostitute yet.
Attitudinal irony.
In Chapter IV, He developed . . . moon looks like hell, dont it? Jimmie causes accidents, just what a driver
must not do. The word reverently is used ironically in Chapter IV.
In Chapter XVI, the term respectability appears six times during the whole short
chapter. The irony is amazing in this chapter, too.
7. Symbolism.
8. In Chapter V, The girl blossomed in a mud puddle . . . puzzled over it. Blossom is a verb applied to
flowers.
In Chapter VI, When Pete arrived Maggie . . . her daughter a bad name. All these names are sinechdoques
of Maggies character. Another instance It is possible, perhaps . . . for the half an hour. (Respect for a fire
engine) In Chapter X, There

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was no one in at home . . . the nail behind the door. (The blue ribbons and the lambrequin)
9. The image of the Victorian fallen woman who is punished with death. Is Maggie comparable to that?
What is Maggies death?
6.4. JACK LONDON (1876 1916)
6.4.1. Biographical data
Jack London has been translated into dozens of languages since his novels are of
vital importance. He lived such a short lifetime; however, he published 5O volumes
among novels and political essays. He wanted to be the major of Auckland (California), but never got so. He
was born in San Francisco and was the son of an unmarried mother, he did not have a well-known father.
His mother was ill, so he
was nourished by an ex-slave black woman who was an influence in his life. Then
his mother married with John London. Jack was an adventurer and he abandoned
school. He experimented several jobs dealing with the sea, finding oisters, sailing the Pacific Ocean At the
age of twenty, he went back to school to finish his education because he wanted to be a writer instead of
suffering a harsh job. Little by little, he became well-known. In 1897, his experience as a gold finder, a
historical period (1896 1899) known as the Alaska Yukon Gold Rush in which thousands of Americans
migrated to Northern Canada near Alaska seeking for gold. Only about 3,OOO people got it. This situation
changed his life because he used his knowledge to write up some stories. From that point on, he was a
disciplent writer of many classic novels. He was one of the first defenders of womens rights as he wanted to
be a politician.
6.4.2. Structure of To Build a Fire
This short story is divided into three parts which coincide with the 3 fires:
1st part: First fire, a successful one.
2nd part: Second fire, but extinguished because snow falls.
3rd part: Unsuccessful events to build a 3rd fire.
It is also a novel full of naturalistic depictions with a scientific outlook of life.
The rising action is full of all sorts of complications. The fire extinguishes, the matches burn. There are two
major complications signaled by it happened. The climax occurs when the protagonist finally realizes that
he is going to die, it is a final awareness (a discovery of death). Then, the denouement takes place. Death as
a stable situation; but there is a surprise: the dog lives!
As for the elements from Naturalism which are present in the short story:
- man in the hands of the environment. There is nothing he can do to fight against nature.
- main overall theme of the story: the survival of the fittest because the dog has instincts in contact of nature.
- scientific outlook of life because by means of naming real places and providing time as well as distance.
Man is in full control of all the data: temporal, geographical, and so on, which becomes useless because he
fails.
What does the title suggest you by means of using an infinitive? The verb indicates instructions as if it were
providing steps in order to build a fire. Instinct is also of vital importance since it is a typically naturalistic
trait. There are three characters in the story: the man, the dog and nature. Bothe the dog and nature do not
make things easier for the man. They simply are indifferent to the needs of him! For example, in page 5, 2nd
paragraph, instinct is highlighted due to its vital relevance. The man and the dog had a cold relationship. In
page 2, there is an example in which instinct appears again as applied to the dog.
What about the narrator? We are not dealing with the psychological development of characters, but of facts.
The man could be any man fighting nature Nature is amoral because narrators do not judge but convey
facts as if they were a camera filming. At no moment does the narrator use the conditional or whatever it
may be; he simply narrates coldly. At the beginning of the story, it seems there are elusive
subjective comments from the narrator; however, they are so subtle. They have been underlined in page 1
and they only occur twice throughout the whole story. They are uttered by means of euphemisms. Although
these two expressions, the neutrality of the narrators expression is present during the story.

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With respect to determinism, are we determined for our downfalls? Can we modify our degradation? The
same kind of idea appears in Maggie. Apart from it happened, there are other expressions such as in page
5 when it says and cursed his luck loud in the 4th paragraph. Furthermore, in page 6 when the narrator
uses the term accident. In page 7, it was his own fault or, rather, his mistake. In one
of the words in bold, there is a degree of responsibility which implies awareness. Again, Aristotelian tragedy
since the man has a flaw: he simply is a new comer and does not pay attention to the warnings he has been
given. So, there is a degree of arrogance in his behavior because he thinks that he can control nature.
This leads us to the survival of the fittest: the intellectuality of the man is no useful at all because he lacks
instinct. The dogs instinct prevails in the story which causes the double ending of the narration:
- the death of the man
- the survival of the dog
In the last page, the first paragraph deals with the simile running around like a chicken with its head cut
off. The second paragraph refers to the final visions of the man before he dies.