Misfits in American Fiction [F-13-35]
| Presenter: | Bruce Weiner |
|---|---|
| Location: | Canton Fire Station: Community Room |
| Classes: | 5 Sessions 1.5 hours |
| Dates: | Mon 3:30 PM 10/07, 10/14, 10/21, 10/28, 11/04 |
| Status: | CLOSED |
Print Info
PRINT OUT .PDF ASSIGNMENTS DIRECTLY BELOW (or view the web version of the assignment further below and follow the links):
Day 1 - 10/7 (Ben Franklin and Washington Irving readings)
Day 2 - 10/14 (Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe)
Day 3 - 10/21 (Henry David Thoreau, Mary Wilkins Freeman, and Sarah Orne Jewett)
Day 4 - 10/28 (Ernest Hemingway, Flannery O'Connor)
Day 5 - 11/4 (J. D. Salinger)
Starting with Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle,” and including Poe’s “The Man of the Crowd,” Melville’s “Bartleby, The Scrivener,” Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” and “Wakefield,” Sarah Orne Jewett’s “The Foreigner,” Hemingway’s “The Battler,” Flannery O’Connor’s “The Misfit,” and J. D. Salinger’s Holden Caufield (in Catcher in the Rye), American fiction is populated with misfits – characters who fail or refuse to conform to American values and beliefs. We will attempt to understand why American writers create these characters and how they work to illuminate what it means to be “American” and human.
NOTE: The presenter will provide copies of the stories for participants, or otherwise direct them to on-line versions of the texts (see assignments below or print out .pdf at top of page).
ASSIGNMENT 4 for "Misfits in American Literature" - Monday, October 28
Ernest Hemingway,
"The Battler" - http://garretvoorhees.com/uploads/htmlreader/thebattler.html
"Big Two-Hearted River" - http://www.olearyweb.com/classes/english10012/readings/twohearted.html
Flannery O' Connor,
"A Good Man is Hard to Find" -http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~surette/goodman.html
SOME THINGS TO CONSIDER:
- In “The Battler” the young Nick Adams is identified in some respects with the boxer he meets. In what ways do they appear similar and different (as misfits or otherwise)? The reasons why the boxer (and perhaps his negro handler) are misfits seem obvious, but how are their situations and experiences relevant to the young protagonist?
- In “Big Two-Hearted River,” Nick Adams (now an adult) appears to be retreating from life and seeking some kind of relief (like Rip Van Winkle?) in fishing. What can we infer from his actions and thoughts about his reasons for escaping? What is he seeking (or seeking to accomplish) , if anything, in going fishing? Does he succeed?
- Do you see any significance in the 2-part structuring of “Big Two-Hearted River”?
- In rebelling against or violating the norms of American society, the misfit character often verges on criminality (Bartleby is jailed for vagrancy, Wakefield might be tried for desertion, and the Man of the Crowd appears “the type and genius of deep crime’). O’Connor’s “Misfit” is the most blatant example of this anti-social behavior. What makes him a misfit?—that is, what accounts for his attitudes and actions? What are we to make of his account of why he is a criminal?
- What does O’Connor suggest about the norms that the Misfit violates, represented in large measure by the ordinary, “innocent” family he kills?
ASSIGNMENT 3 for “Misfits in American Literature” Monday, October 21
Henry David Thoreau, from Walden, "Where I lived, and What I Lived For"
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/205 (Click on the "HTML" link, then click on "Where I Lived, And What I Lived For" OR click on this link to be taken directly to this section:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/205/205-h/205-h.htm#linkW2
Mary Wilkins Freeman, "A New England Nun"
http://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/nenun.html (Story handed out in class 2)
Sarah Orne Jewett, "The Circus at Denby"
Read online: http://www.public.coe.edu/~theller/soj/dph/deep-08.html
Or, if you prefer to listen to a reading of the story go to:
http://librivox.org/deephaven-by-sarah-orne-jewett/ and click on Chapter 8: "The Circus at Denby." (Story handed out in class)
NOTE: No study questions at this point: they will be raised in class. (bw)
ASSIGNMENT 2 for “Misfits in American Literature” Monday, October 14
Herman Melville, “Bartleby, the Scrivener” http://www.bartleby.com/129/
Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Wakefield” http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/Wak.shtml Or, if you prefer to listen to the story read, here are two YouTube versions, the second read by famous contemporary author, Paul Auster. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waBwWs3O8Qg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHAfVvwQ4oI (Paul Auster reading)
Edgar Allan Poe, “The Man of the Crowd” http://web.archive.org/web/20110209160927/http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=PoeCrow.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=1&division=div1 (this is the link Bruce suggested - if it doesn't work, use the one below)
http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/eapoe/bl-eapoe-man.htm
SOME ISSUES / QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:
1. Like Franklin’s “The Way to Wealth,” Melville’s story is set in a marketplace, this time more specifically represented as “Wall Street.” What do the details of setting in the story suggest about Melville’s views of capitalism and work in America? Does the setting help to explain Bartleby’s preference not to work? Is Bartleby’s refusal to conform to Franklin’s (the American) work ethic similar after all to Rip Van Winkle’s?
2. Pay attention to the character and function of the narrator in “Bartleby.” What kind of person and lawyer is he? What sort of “business” does he do? Are we encouraged to think well or ill of him? Bartleby presents a test of sorts for the narrator (a form of affliction?) which the narrator understands partly as a test of Christian charity. Does he pass or fail this test? What does the conflict suggest about the relationship between Christian and capitalistic values in America.
3. Why does Melville make Bartleby’s background and character so mysterious? Bartleby’s demise is no laughing matter, yet there are comic elements in the story (e,g, the minor characters) and the situation at points seems comical or absurd. Why do you think Melville introduces these comic elements?
4. More deliberately than Rip Van Winkle, Hawthorne’s Wakefield absents himself from his wife and home for 20 years. What is it that seems to fascinate Hawthorne about this peculiar departure from the norm, so much so that he imagines for our benefit the fuller story that is only outlined in a newspaper account he recalls of a delinquent husband?
5. Bartleby, Wakefield and Poe’s “Man of the Crowd” are urban characters (the last two living in London). Does this make them significantly different as misfits than Rip Van Winkle, who lives in a rural setting? And what does it signal about developments in American society?
4. We are encouraged to view Wakefield and the Man of the Crowd as “outcasts of the universe.” What makes them outcast? Perhaps even more so than Bartleby, Wakefield and the Man of the Crowd are mysterious, the latter so much so that he is unnamed and apparently “unreadable.” Again, what are we to make of this mystery?
5. What is the difference between the Man of the Crowd and the narrator who follows him? Might we consider the Man of the Crowd in this regard a kind of “Everyman,” and if so, what then is the mystery about “humanity” that Poe attempts to represent?
ASSIGNMENT 1 for “Misfits in American Literature,” Monday, October 7.
READINGS:
1. Benjamin Franklin’s “The Way to Wealth”: http://itech.fgcu.edu/faculty/wohlpart/alra/franklin.htm#Way
2. Washington Irving, “The Author’s Account of Himself” and “Rip Van Winkle”: http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/wirving/bl-wirving-rip.htm
NOTE: Below is some information and several questions I would like you to consider as or after you read the above selections. These are intended to get us started, not to limit the discussion or to keep you from raising other questions or issues.
1. “The Way to Wealth” is a compendium of advice, mainly in the form of aphorisms, which Benjamin Franklin included in Poor Richard’s Almanac (1733-57). It was written for the 25th anniversary issue of the Almanac. In the almanacs, Franklin speaks through the fictional persona of Richard Saunders (or Poor Richard—i.e. a commoner). In “The Way to Wealth” he creates another fictional persona, Father Abraham, who quotes Poor Richard in offering advice to those waiting for a sale to begin. In the introductory paragraph, Saunders/Franklin feigns modesty by claiming that he has not been much quoted, at the same time drawing attention to himself by recounting Father Abraham’s speech, which refers repeatedly to Poor Richard. Why does Franklin use this elaborate indirection and disguise? Why not speak more directly to us in his own voice?
2. What prompts Father Abraham to speak, and how is that circumstance related to the advice he gives? Given that his speech is later referred to as a “sermon,” are we to assume that Father Abraham is a clergyman? Or does his title simply indicate that he is an old and perhaps wise man? What are the implications of the fact that his “sermon” is delivered in a marketplace rather than in a church? Given that none of his listeners heed his sermon/advice, are we supposed to take him seriously after all?
3. Our interest in “The Way to Wealth” is that it presents briefly a formula for success and set of values that became the norm in American life. That’s a tribute in part to Franklin’s influence in the early formation of the nation. But Franklin’s ideal American, industrious and frugal, provoked the creation of a counter-type, a rebel or misfit character who finds success and happiness in leisure rather than hard work. Indeed, Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle” appears directly to challenge Franklin’s ideal. The story first appeared in Irving’s The Sketchbook (1819), a miscellaneous collection of travel sketches and essays mainly about England. “Rip Van Winkle” is one of only four “sketches” in The Sketch-Book that has an American setting. In that context, we might think about Irving’s treatment of the American Revolution in “Rip Van Winkle.” Is the misfit Rip meant to represent a challenge not only to Franklin but also to the newly forming American nation itself?
4. I’ve included with “Rip Van Winkle” Irving’s introduction to The Sketch-Book, “The Author’s Account of Himself.” Like Franklin, Irving adopts a fictional persona, appropriately named Geoffrey Crayon (who else to compose a sketchbook?) Note how Crayon characterizes himself and his connection in this regard to Rip Van Winkle. What does Crayon suggest about the competing attractions of America (New World) and Europe (Old World)?
5. The challenge of reading and interpreting “Rip Van Winkle” has very much to do with Irving’s presentation of his title character. Likeable but irresponsible, are we to admire Rip finally or deplore him? Our response to him reflects in part our attitudes towards the norm (Franklin’s formula?) he appears to violate. Is Irving rejecting or reinforcing that norm (and “America” in general) in his depiction of Rip?
Bruce Weiner has been teaching American literature at SLU since 1978. His research and writing have focused mainly on early American magazines, Poe, Irving, and Hawthorne. Currently he is at work on a study of the concepts of home and nation in early American fiction.
[F-13-35]