Chapter1 The Romantic Period 1. 主要作家及其作品：
i. Washington Irving:
The Sketch Book; Rip Van Winkle; The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
ii. Ralph Waldo Emerson:
Essays; The American Scholar; Self-Reliance; The Over-Soul; The Poet; Experience; Nature
iii. Nathaniel Hawthorne:
Mosses from an Old Manse; The Scarlet Letter; The Snow-Image and Other Twice-Told Tales; The House of the Seven Gables; The Blithedale Romance; The Marble Faun
iv. Walt Whitman:
Leaves of Grass; There was a Child Went Forth; Drum Taps; Cavalry Crossing a Ford; Song of Myself; When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d
v. Herman Melville:
Moby-Dick; Billy Budd; Typee; Omoo;Mardi; Redburn; White Jacket.
2. 清教主义
Puritanism is the practices and beliefs of the Puritans. As the word itself hints， Puritans wanted to purify their religious beliefs and practices. They felt that the Church of England was too close to the Church of Rome in doctrine form of worship， and organization of authority. American Puritans， like their brothers back in England， were idealists， believing that the church should be restored to complete \"purity\". They accepted the doctrine of predestination， original sin and total depravity， and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace from God. But in the grim struggle for survival that followed immediately after their arrival in America， they became more and more practical， as indeed they had to be. Puritans were noted for a spirit of moral and religious earnestness that determinated their whole way of life. As a culture heritage， Puritanism did have a profound influence on the early American mind and American values. American Puritanism also had a conspicuously noticeable and an enduring influence on American literature. It had become， to some extent， so much a state of mind， so much a part of the national cultural atmosphere， rather than a set of tenets.
3. 超验主义
Transcendentalism has been defined philosophical1y as \"the recognition in man of the capacity of knowing truth intuitively， or of attaining knowledge transcending
the reach of the senses.\" Emerson once proclaimed in a speech， \"Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.\" Other concepts that accompanied Transcendentalism inc1ude the idea that nature is ennobling and the idea that the individual is divine and， therefore， self-re1iant. The transcendentalists reacted against the cold， rigid rationalism of Unitarianism in Boston. They adhered to an idealistic system of thought based on a belief in the essential unity of all creation ， the innate goodness of man， and the supremacy of insight over logic and experience for the revelation of the deepest truths.
4. 象征主义
5. 自由诗
Whitman is also radically innovative in terms of the form of his poetry. He adopted \"free verse，\" that is， poetry without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme. A looser and more open-ended syntactical structure is frequently favored. Lines and sentences of different lengths are left lying side by side just as things are， undisturbed and separate. There are few compound sentences to draw objects and experiences into a system of hierarchy. Whitman was the first American to use free verse extensively. By means of \"free verse，\" Whitman turned the poem into an open field， an area of vital possibility where the reader can allow his own imagination to play.
6. 爱默生的超验主义思想及他的自然观
In his essays, Emerson put forward his philosophy of the over-soul, the importance of the Individual, and Nature. Emerson rejected both the formal religion of the churches and the Deistic philosophy. Emerson and other Transcendentalists believed that there should be an emotional communication between an individual soul and the universal ―over-soul,‖ since the over-soul is an all-pervading power from which all things come from and of which all are a part. Emerson is affirmative about man’s intuitive knowledge, with which a man can trust himself to decide what is right and to act accordingly. The ideal individual should be a self-reliant man.. he means to convince people that the possibilities for man to develop and improve himself are infinite.
Emerson’s nature is emblematic of the spiritual world, alive with God’s overwhelming presence; hence, it exercises a healthy and restorative influence on human mind. ―God back to nature, sink yourself back into its influence and you’ll become spiritually whole again.‖ By employing nature as a big symbol of the Spirit, or God, or the over-soul. Emerson has brought the Puritan Legacy of symbolism to its perfection.
7. 《小伙子布朗》中的寓言和象征
In ―Young Goodman Brown,‖ Hawthorne set out to prove that everyone possesses some evil secret. The story illustrates Hawthorne's allegorical theme of human evil. In the manner of its concern with guilt and evil， it exemplifies what Milville called the\" power of blackness\" in Hawthorne's work. In \"Young Goodman Brown，\" he sets out to prove that everyone possesses some evil secret. \"Evil is the
nature of mankind.\" Its hero， a naive young man who accepts both society in general and his fellow men as individuals worth his regard， is confronted with the vision of human evil in one terrible night， and becomes thereafter distrustful and doubtful.
Allegorically， our protagonist， becomes an Everyman named Brown， a \"young man\" who will be aged in one night by an adventure that makes everyone in this world a fallen idol.
However, The story is manipulated in such a way that we as readers feel that Hawthorne poses the question of Good and Evil in man but withholds his answer， and he does not permit himself to determine whether the events of the night of trial are real or the mere figment of a dream.
8. 霍桑的清教思想和他人性本恶的观点
As we can see, Hawthorne’s literary world turns out to be a most disturbed, tormented and problematical one possible to imagine. This has much to do with his ―black‖ vision of life and human beings. According to Hawthorne, ―There is evil in every human heart, which may remain latent, perhaps, through the whole life; but circumstances may rouse it to activity. One source of evil that Hawthorne is concerned most is overreaching intellect, which usually refers to someone who is too proud, too sure of himself. He believed that ―the wrong doing of one generation lives into the successive ones,‖ and often wondered if he might have inherited some of their guilt. This sensibility led to his understanding of evil being at the very core of human life., which is typical of the Calvinistic belief that human beings are basically depraved and corrupted, hence, they should obey God to atone for their sins.
9. 麦尔维尔长篇小说《白鲸》的象征意义
Moby-Dick is not merely a whaling tale or sea adventure， it is also a symbolic voyage of the mind in quest of the truth and knowledge of the universe， a spiritual exploration into man's deep reality and psychology.
Like Hawthorne， Melville is a master of allegory and symbolism. He uses allegory and symbolism in Moby-Dick to present its mighty theme. Instead of putting the battle between Ahab and the big whale into simple statements， he used symbols， that is， objects or persons who represent something else. Different people on board the ship are representations of different ideas and different social and ethnic groups； facts become symbols and incidents acquire universal meanings； the Pequod is the microcosm of human society and the voyage becomes a search for truth. The white whale， Moby Dick， symbolizes nature for Melville， for it is complex， unfathomable， malignant， and beautiful as well. For the character Ahab， however， the whale represents only evil. Moby Dick is like a wall， hiding some unknown， mysterious things behind. Ahab wills the whole crew on the Pequod to join him in the pursuit of the big whale so as to pierce the wall， to root out the evil， but only to be destroyed by evil， in this case， by his own consuming desire， his madness. For the author， as well as for the reader and Ishmael， the narrator， Moby Dick is still a mystery， an ultimate mystery of the universe， inscrutable and ambivalent， and the voyage of the mind will forever remain a search， not a discovery， of the truth.
10. 惠特曼《草叶集》的结构(自由诗)、主题、语言特色 1. The themes in Whitman's poetry：
His poetry is filled with optimistic expectation and enthusiasm about new things and new epoch. Whitman believed that poetry could play a vita1 part in the process of creating a new nation. It could enab1e Americans to celebrate their release from the Old World and the colonia1 rule. And it could also help them understand their new status and to define themse1ves in the new wor1d of possibi1ities. Hence， the abundance of themes in his poetry voices freshness. He shows concern for the whole hard-working people and the burgeoning life of cities. Pursuit of love and happiness is approved of repeatedly and affectionately in his lines. Sexual 1ove， a rather taboo topic of the time， is displayed candidly as something adorable. The individual person and his desires must be respected. 2.Leaves of Grass
Walt Whitman is a poet with a strong sense of mission， having devoted all his life to the creation of the \"single\" poem， Leaves of Grass. （1） the title ：It is significant that Whitman entitled his book Leaves of Grass . He said that where there is earth， where there is water， there is grass. Grass， the most common thing with the greatest vitality， is an image of the poet himself， a symbol of the then rising American nation and an embodiment of his ideals about democracy and freedom. （a） theme：
In this giant work， openness， freedom， and above all， individua1ism（the belief that the rights and freedom of individual people are most important） are all that concerned him. Whitman brings the hard-working farmers and laborers into American literature ，attack the slavery system and racial discrimination. In this book he also extols nature，democracy， labor and creation ，and sings of man's dignity and equality， and of the brightest future of mankind . Most of the poems in Leaves of Grass sing of the \"en-masse\" and the self as well. （b） the poet's essentia1 purpose
His aim was nothing less than to express some new poetica1 feelings and to initiate a poetic tradition in which difference shou1d be recognized. The genuine participation of a poet in a common cultural effort was， according to Whitman， to behave as a supreme individualist； however， the poet's essentia1 purpose was to identify his ego with the world， and more specifically with the democratic \"en-masse\" of America， which is established in the opening lines of \"Song of Myself\".
3.Whitman's poetic style and language
To dramatize the nature of these new poetical fee1ings， Whitman employed brand-new means in his poetry， which would first be discerned in his style and language.
（1） Whitman's poetic style is marked， first of a1l， by the use of the poetic \"I.\" Whitman becomes all those people in his poems and yet still remains \"Walt Whitman\"， hence a discovery of the self in the other with such an identification. In
such a manner， Whitman invites his readers to participate in the process of sympathetic identification.
（3） Whitman is conversational and casual， in the fluid， expansive， and unstructured style of talking. However， there is a strong sense of the poems being rhythmical. The reader can feel the rhythm of Whitman's thought and cadences of his feeling. Parallelism and phonetic recurrence at the beginning of the lines also contribute to the musicality of his poems. （4） Whitman's language
Contrary to the rhetoric of traditional poetry， Whitman's is relatively simple and even rather crude. Most of the pictures he painted with words are honest， undistorted images of different aspects of America of the day. The particularity about these images is that they are unconventional in the way they break down the social division based on religion， gender， class， and race. One of the most often-used methods in Whitman's poems is to make colors and images fleet past the mind's eye of the reader. Another characteristic in Whitman's language is his strong tendency to use oral English. Whitman's vocabulary is amazing. He would use powerfu1， colorful， as well as rarely-used words， words of foreign origin and sometimes even wrong words.
美国现实主义时期
1. Mark Twain: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn;
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer;
The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County; Innocents Abroad; The Gilded Age
2. Henry James: The American; Daisy Miller;
The Europeans; The Portrait of A Lady; What Maisie Knows; The Wings of the Dove;
The Ambassadors; The Golden Bowl; The Art to Fiction
3. Emily Dickinson:
4. Theodore Dreiser: Sister Carrie; American Tragedy
1.What is Realism?
In art and literature, Realism refers to an attempt to describe human behavior and surroundings or to represent figures exactly as they act or appear in life. Realism emerged as a literary movement in Europe in the 1850s. In reaction to Romanticism, realistic writers should set down their observations impartially and objectively. They insisted on accurate documentation, sociological insight, and avoidance of poetic diction and idealization. The subjects were to be taken from everyday life, preferably from lower-class life. Realism entered American literature after the Civil War. William Dean Howells, Mark Twain, and Henry James were the pioneers of realism in the U.S.
1.What is Naturalism? (or American Naturalism)
In literature, the term refers to the theory that literary composition should aim at a detached, scientific objectivity in the treatment of natural man. The movement is an outgrowth of 19th –century scientic thought, following in general the biological determinism of Darwin’s theory, or the economic determinism of Karl Marx.
American Naturalism is a more advanced stage of realism toward the close of the 19th century. The American naturalists accepted the more negative implications of Darwin’s theory and used it to account for the behavior of those characters in literary works who were conceived as more or less complex combinations of inherited attributes, their habits conditioned by social and economic forces. And consciously or unconsciously the American naturalists followed the French novelist and theorist Emile Zola's call that the 1iterary artist ―must operate with characters, passions, human and social data as the chemist and the physicist work on inert bodies, as the physiologist works on living bodies.‖ They chose their subjects from the lower ranks of society and portrayed the people who were demonstrably victims of society and nature. And one of the most familiar themes in American Naturalism is the theme of human ―bestiality‖, especially as an explanation of sexual desire.
Artistically, naturalistic writings are usually unpo1ished in language, lacking in academic skills and unwieldly in structure. Philosophically, the naturalists believe that the real and true is always partially hidden from the eyes of the individual, or beyond his control. Devoid of rationality and caught in a process in which he is but a part, man cannot fully understand, let alone contro1, the world he lives in; hence, he is left with no freedom of choice.
In a word, naturalism is evolved from realism when the author's tone in writing becomes less serious and less sympathetic but more detached, ironic and more pessimistic. It is no more than a different philosophical approach to reality, or to human existence. Notable writers of naturalistic fiction were Frank Norris, Sherwood Anderson, and Theodore Driser.
2.The distinction between Realism and Naturalism
Naturalism is evolved from realism when the author's tone in writing becomes less serious and less sympathetic but more detached, ironic and more pessimistic. It is no more than a different philosophical approach to reality, or to human existence.
The distinction lies, first of all, in the fact that Realism is concerned directly with what is absorbed by the senses; Naturalism, a term more properly applied to literature, attempts to apply scientific theories to art. Second, Naturalism differs from Realism in adding an amoral attitude to the objective presentation of life. Naturalistic writers, adopting Darwin’s biological determinism and Marx’s economic determinism, regard human behavior as controlled by instinct, emotion, or social and economic conditions, and reject free will. Third, Naturalism had an outlook often bleaker than that of Realism, and it added a dimension of predetermined fate that rendered human will ultimately powerless.
3.What is (Social) Darwinism?
Social Darwinism is a belief that societies and individual human beings compete in a
struggle for existence in which natural selection results in ―struggle of the fittest.‖ Social Darwinists base their beliefs on theories of evolution developed by British naturalist Charles Darwin. Social Darwinists typically deny that they advocate a ―law of jungle.‖ But most propose arguments that justify imbalances of power between individuals, races, and nations because they consider some more fit to survive than others. The theory had produced a big impact on Naturalism.
马克吐温
1.Twain as a local colorist
Twain is also known as a local colorist, who preferred to present social life through portraits of the local characters of his regions, including people living in that area, the landscape, and other peculiarities like the customs, dialects, costumes and so on. Consequently, the rich material of his boyhood experience on the Mississippi became the endless resources for his fiction, and the Mississippi
valley and the West became his major theme. Unlike James and Howe1ls, Mark Twain wrote about the lower-class people, because they were the people he knew so we1l ancl their 1ife was the one he himself had lived. Moreover he successfully used local color and historical settings to i1lustrate and shed light on the contemporary society
Another fact that made Twain unique is his magic power with language, his use of vernacular. His words are col1oquial, concrete and direct in effect, and his sentence structures are simp1e, even ungrammatical, which is typical of the spoken 1anguage. Mark Twain's humor is remarkable, too. It is fun to read Twain to begin with, for most of his works tend to be funny, containing some practical jokes, comic details, witty remarks, etc., and some of them are actually tall ta1es.
(2) The novel’s theme, characterization of ―Huck‖ and the novel’s social significance: Theme: The novel is a vindication of what Mark Twain called ― the damned human race.‖ That is the theme of man’s inhumanity to man---of human cruelty, hypocrisies, dishonesties, and moral corruptions. Mark Twain’s thematic contrasts between innocence and experience, nature and culture, wilderness and civilization.
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is best known for Mark Twain’s wonderful characterization of ―Huck,‖ a typical American boy whom its creator described as a boy with ―a sound heart and a deformed conscience,‖ and remarkable for the raft’s journey down the Mississippi river, which Twain used both realistically and symbolically to shape his book into an organic whole.
Through the eyes of Huck, the innocent and reluctant rebel, we see the pre-Civil War American society fully exposed and at the same time we are deeply impressed by Mark Twain’s thematic contrasts between innocence and experience, nature and culture, wilderness and civilization.
黛西米勒的主题和主要人物的性格分析 1.The theme of the novel
Daisy Miller is one of James’s early works that dealt with the international theme, i.e.,
to set against a large international background, usual1y between Europe and America, and centered on the confrontation of the two different cu1tures with two different groups of peop1e representing two different value systems: American innocence in contact and contrast with European decadence and the moral and psychological complications arising therefrom. 2.Characterization of Daisy Miller
In this novel, the ―Americanness ‖in Daisy is revealed by her relatively unreserved manners. Daisy Miller, a typical young American girl who goes to Europe and affronts her destiny. The unsophisticated girl is cruelly wronged because of the confrontation between the two value systems. Miller has ever since become the American Girl in Europe, a celebrated cultural type who embodies the spirit of the New World. However, innocence, the keynote of her character, turns out to be an admiring but a dangerous quality and her defiance of social taboos in the Old World finally brings her to a disaster in the clash between two different cultures. In this novel James’s sympathy for Daisy could be easily felt when we think of a tender flower crushed by the harsh winter in Rome.
3.The content of this selection: Daisy has just arrived at Switzerland with her family and meets Winterborne for the first time. Two days later Daisy goes alone with Winterborne on an excursion to an old castle, which is soon in the air among the upper class in Rome. Daisy Miller’s tragedy of indiscretion is intensified and enlarged by its narration from the point of view of the American youth Winterborne
狄金森诗歌的主题结构及艺术特色
The thematic concerns and the original artistic features of Dickinson's poetry:
1．Themes: Dicksinson’s poems are usually based on her own experiences, her sorrows and joys. But within her litlle lyrics Dickinson addresses those issues that concern the whole human beings, which include religion, death, immortality, love, and nature.
2．Artistic features: Her poetry is unique and unconventional in its own way. Her poems have no titles, hence are always quoted by their first lines. In her poetry there is a particular stress pattern, in which dashes are used as a musica1 device to create cadence and capital letters as a means of emphasis. Most of her poems borrow the repeated four-line, rhymed stanzas of traditional Christian hymns, with two lines of four-beat meter alternating with two lines of three-beat meter. A master of imagery that makes the spiritual materialize in surprising ways, Dickinson managed manifold variations within her simple form: She used imperfect rhymes, subtle breaks of rhythm, and idiosyncratic syntax and punctuation to create fascinating word puzzles, which have produced greatly divergent interpretations over the years. Dickinson’s irregular or sometimes inverted sentence structure also confuses readers. However, her poetic idiom is noted for its laconic brevity, directness and plainness. Her poems are usually short, rarely more than twenty lines, and many of them are centered on a single image or symbo1 and focused on one subject matter. Due to her deliberate sec1usion, her poems tend to be very personal and meditative. She frequently uses personae to render the tone more familiar to the reader, and personification to vivify
some abstract ideas. Dickinson's poetry, despite its ostensible formal simplicity, is remarkable for its variety, subtlety and richness; and her limited private world has never confined the limitless power of her creativity and imagination.
美国现代时期
1. Ezra Pound: The Cantos; In a Station of the Metro. 2. Robert Lee Frost: The Road Not Taken; Stopping by Woods on a
Snowy Evening
3. Eugene O’Neill: Beyond the Horizon; The Emperor Jones; The Hairy
Ape;
All God’s Chillun Got Wings; Desire under the
Elms;
Anna Christie; The Great God Brown; Lazarus
Laughed;
Strange Interlude; The Iceman Cometh; Long Day’s Journey Into Night.
4. F Scott Fitzgerald: This Side of Paradise; The Beautiful and
Damned;
The Great Gatsby; Tender is the Night; Flappers and Philosophers; Tales of the Jazz Age; All the Sad Young Men; Taps at Reveille; Babylon Revisited.
5. Ernest Hemingway: In Our Time; The Sun Also Rises;
A farewell to Arms; For Whom the Bell
Tolls;
The Old Man and the Sea; Men Without
Women.
6. William Faulkner: The Sound and the Fury; Light in August;
Absalom, Absalom; Go Down, Moses; A Rose for Emily.
1） The Imagist Movement and the artistic characteristics of imagist poems： Led by the American poet Ezra Pound， Imagist Movement is a poetic movement that flourished in the U.S. and England between 1909-1917. It advances modernism in arts which concentrates on reforming the medium of poetry as opposed to Romanticism， especially Tennyson's worldliness and high-flown language in poetry. Pound endorsed three main principles as guidelines for Imagism， including direct treatment of poetic subjects， elimination of merely ornamental or superfluous words， and rhythmical composition should be composed with the phrasing of music， not a metronome. The primary Imagist objective is to avoid rhetoric and moralizing， to stick closely to the object or experience being described， and to move from explicit generalization. The leading poets are Ezra Pound， Wallace Stevens， D.H.Lawrence， etc.
The characteristic products of the movement are more easily recognized than its theories defined； they tend to be short， composed of short lines of musical cadence rather than metrical regularity， to avoid abstraction， and to treat the image
with a hard， clear precision rather than with overt symbolic intent. The influence of Japanese forms， tanka and haiku， is obvious in many. Most of the imagist poets wrote in free verse and they like to emply common speech. They stressed the freedom in the choice of subject matter and form.
2） The Lost Generation It refers to， in general， the post-World WarⅠgeneration， but specifically a group of expatriate disillusioned intellectuals and artists， who experimented on new modes of thought and expression by rebelling against former ideals and values and replacing them only by despair or a cynical hedonism. The remark of Gertrude Stein， \"You are all a lost generation， \"addressed to Hemingway， was used as an epigraph to the latter's novel The Sun Also Rises， which brilliantly describes those expatriates who had cut themselves off from their past in America in order to create new types of writing. The generation was \"lost\" in the sense that its inherited values were no longer relevant in the postwar world and because of its spiritual alienation from a U.S. that seemed to its members to be hopelessly provincial， materialistic， and emotional barren. The term embraces Hemingway， F. Scott Fitzgerald， Ezra Pound， E.E.Cummings， and many other writers who made Paris the center of their literary activities in the 1920s.
3） What is Expressionism？
Expressionism is used to describe the works of art and literature in which the representation of reality is distorted to communicate an inner vision， transforming nature rather than imitating it. In literature it is often considered a revolt against realism and naturalism， a seeking to achieve a psychological or spiritual reality rather than to record external events.
In drama， the expressionist work was characterized by a bizarre distortion of reality. Expressionist writers's concern was with general truths rather than with particular situations， hence they explored in their plays the predicaments of representative symbolic types rather than of fully developed individualized characters. Emphasis was laid not on the outer world， which is merely sketched in and barely defined in place or time， but on the internal， on an individual's mental state； hence the imitation of life is replaced in Expressionist drama by the ecstatic evocation of states of mind. In America， Eugene O'Neille's Emperor Jones， The Hairy Ape， etc. are typical plays that employ Expressionism
4） The concept of \"wasteland\" in relation to the works of those writers in the twentieth-century American literature
The Waste Land is a poem written by T.S.Eliot on the theme of the sterility and chaos of the contemporary world. This most widely known expression of the despair of the post-War era has appeared over and again in the works of those writers in the twentieth-century American literature. Fitzgerald sought to portray a spiritual wasteland of the Jazz Age. Beneath the masks of relaxation and joviality， there was only sterility， meaninglessness and futility amid the grandeur and extravagance，
there was a hint of decadence and moral decay. Hemingway， the leading spokesman of the Lost Generation， dramatized in his novels the sense of loss and despair among the post-war generation who are physically and psychologically scarred. Though disillusioned in the post-war period， he strove to bring about man's \"grace under pressure\" and tried to bring out the idea that man can be physically destroyed but never defeated spiritually. William Faulkner exemplified T.S. Eliot's concept of modern society as a wasteland in a dramatic way. He created his own mythical kingdom that mirrored not only the decline of the Southern society but also the spiritual wasteland of the whole American society. He condemned the mechanized， industrialized society that has dehumanized man by forcing him to cultivate false values and decrease those essential human values such as courage， fortitude， honesty and goodness.
弗洛斯特的自然诗
2. Robert Lee Frost ，His nature poems：
Robert Frost is mainly known for his poems concerning New England life. He learned from the tradition， especially the familiar conventions of nature poetry and of classical pastoral poetry， and made the colloquial New England speech into a poetic expression. A poem so conceived thus becomes a symbo1 or metaphor， a careful， loving exploration of reality， in Frost's version， \"a momentary stay against confusion.\" Many of his poems are fragrant with natural quality. Images and metaphors in his poems are drawn from the rural world， the simple country 1ife and the pastoral 1andscape. However， profound ideas are delivered under the disguise of the p1ain language and the simple form， for what Frost did is to take symbols from the limited human world and the pastoral landscape to refer to the great world beyond the rustic scene. These thematic concerns include the terror and tragedy in nature， as well as its beauty， and the 1oneliness and poverty of the isolated human being. But first and foremost Frost is concerned with his love of life and his belief in a serenity that only came from working usefully， which he practiced himself throughout his life.
l. After Apple-Picking
This poem is so vivid a memory of experience on the farm in which the end of labor leaves the speaker with a sense of completion and fulfilment yet finds him blocked from success by winter's approach and physical weariness
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
（1） The theme： This is a deceptively simple poem in which the speaker literally stops his horse in the winter twilight to observe the beauty of the forest scene， and then is moved to continue his journey.
The Road Not Taken
In this meditative poem, the speaker tells us how the course of his life was determined when he came upon two roads that diverged in a wood. Forced to choose, he :took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.”
This poem suggests deep thought about death and about life. The strange attraction of death to man is symbolized by the dark woods silently filled up with the coldness of snow. Frost frequently uses the technique of symbolism in his poetry.
《了不起盖茨》的主题意义和主要人物的性格分析 An Excerpt from Chapter IlI of The Great Gatsby
（1） The theme of the novel： The Great Gatsby， by summarizing the experiences and attitudes of the glamorous and wild 1920s， deals with the bankruptcy of the American Dream， which is high1ighted by the disillusionment of the protagonist's personal dream due to the clashes between his romantic vision of life and the relentless reality. American Dream is a popular belief that people can achieve success， whether it is wealth， fame or love through honest hard working in a new world of liberty， equality， chances and promises. Yet in the 1920s， the American Dream was bankrupt in the sense that the wealthy people were spiritually disorientated and morally corrupted. The fact that the rich people turned to be more indifferent and careless brought forth the disillusionment of American Dream.
The story of The Great Gatsby is a good illustration. At the beginning of the story， Gatsby， a poor young man from the Midwest， is in love with but rejected by an upper-class woman， Daisy. He later attains the wealth by bootlegging and other criminal activities. Yet his fascination with and pursuit of money is but the means of recapturing the past and regaining his lost love. And for him， Daisy is the representation of a kind of idealized happiness. So Gatsby's real dream is that of achieving a new status and a new essence， of rising to a loftier place in the mysterious hierarchy of human worth. That is why Daisy Buchanan seems so charming to Gatsby and that is why Gatsby has directed his who1e life to winning back her love. Yet his dream ended up with Daisy's indifference and carelessness. Under this thematic design， the novel displays some modern motifs like the Waste-land theme as symbolized by the Valley of Ashes and boredom as reflected in Daisy and Tom.
（2） Chapter Ⅲ of the novel， a vivid description of one of Gatsby's fabulous parties， presents a vivid atmosphere of paradox. Gatsby's party， characteristic of the roaring twenties in the U.S. evokes both the romance and the sadness of the Jazz Age. On the surface， the party is crowded， yet empty of warmth or friendship， with people coming to the party eagerly but appearing indifferent and contemptuous of their host. Gatsby himself as the host is a paradox —— exceedingly courteous but keeps himself detached from the noisy and confusing crowd， because he， though fascinated with the wealth， was fully aware of the corruptive nature of the society and the vanity fair.
The charm and sweetness of the youth is spoiled by triviality and tawdriness； The splendid house and garden is purchased not for enjoyment but for
impression. There is every sign of merriment， with guests eating， drinking， laughing， moving about and dancing， but people get dead drunk， break down in tears or quarrel over trivialities. So beneath the wealthy people's masks of relaxation and joviality there was only sterility， meaninglessness and futi1ity， and amid the grandeur and extravagance a spiritual waste1and and a hint of decadence and moral decay. This undeniable juxtaposition of appearance with reality， of the pretense of gaiety with the tension underneath， is easily recognizable in Fitzgerald's novels and stories.
海明威小说的艺术特点 According to Hemingway， good literary writing should be ab1e to make readers feel the emotion of the characters directly and the best way to produce the effect is to set down exact1y every particular kind of feeling without any authoria1 comments， without conventionally emotive language， and with a bare minimum of adjectives and adverbs. Seemingly simple and natural， Hemingway's style is actually polished and tightly contro1led， but highly suggestive and connotative. While rendering vividly the outward physical events and sensations Hemingway expresses the meaning of the story and conveys the complex emotions of his characters with a considerable range and astonishing intensity of feeling. Besides， Hemingway develops the style of co1loquia1ism initiated by Mark Twain. The accents and mannerisms of human speech are so well presented that the characters are fu11 of flesh and blood and the use of short， simple and conventional words and sentences has an effect of clearness， terseness and great care. This ruthless economy in his writing stands as a striking app1ication of Mies van der Rohe's architectural maxim： \"Less is more.\" No wonder Hemingway was highly praised by the Nobel Prize Committee for \"his powerful style-forming mastery of the art\" of creating modern fiction.
艾米莉的性格分析
Jones， The Hairy Ape， etc. are typical plays that employ Expressionism. 4） The concept of \"wasteland\" in relation to the works of those writers in the twentieth-century American literature
The Waste Land is a poem written by T.S.Eliot on the theme of the sterility and chaos of the contemporary world. This most widely known expression of the despair of the post-War era has appeared over and again in the works of those writers in the twentieth-century American literature. Fitzgerald sought to portray a spiritual wasteland of the Jazz Age. Beneath the masks of relaxation and joviality， there was only sterility， meaninglessness and futility amid the grandeur and extravagance， there was a hint of decadence and moral decay. Hemingway， the leading spokesman of the Lost Generation， dramatized in his novels the sense of loss and despair among the post-war generation who are physically and psychologically scarred. Though disillusioned in the post-war period， he strove to bring about man's \"grace under pressure\" and tried to bring out the idea that man can be physically destroyed but never defeated spiritually. William Faulkner exemplified T.S. Eliot's concept of
modern society as a wasteland in a dramatic way. He created his own mythical kingdom that mirrored not only the decline of the Southern society but also the spiritual wasteland of the whole American society. He condemned the mechanized， industrialized society that has dehumanized man by forcing him to cultivate false values and decrease those essential human values such as courage， fortitude， honesty and goodness.
1. What is the relationship between William Faulkner and American South Literature?
a. Most of Faulkner’s works are set in the American South
b. He emphasizes the Southern subjects and consciousness in his works.
c. His works have managed successfully to show a panorama of the experience and consciousness of the whole southern society.
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