Table of Contents

To the Reader...... xi On Style...... xiii

UNIT ONE Finding an American Voice 1820s to 1850s...... 2

Washington Irving The Legend of Sleepy Hollow short story...... 6 Literary Lens: Motif Author’s Style: Figurative Language...... 37

Nathaniel Hawthorne Young Goodman Brown short story...... 38 Literary Lens: Symbols Author’s Style: Setting...... 53

Ralph Waldo Emerson from Nature poem...... 54 Literary Lens: Imagery Author’s Style: Diction...... 59

Edgar Allan Poe The Masque of the Red Death short story...... 60 The Raven poem...... 67 Literary Lens: Mood Author’s Style: Plot Structure...... 71

Walt Whitman from Song of Myself poem...... 72 Literary Lens: Sound Devices Author’s Style: Free Verse...... 77

Herman Melville Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street short story..... 78 Literary Lens: Conflict Author’s Style: Narrator...... 115

Responding to Unit One...... 116 Writing Extension: Film Critique

UNIT TWO New American Voices 1860s to 1900s...... 120

Frederick Douglass from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave autobiography...... 124 Literary Lens: Syntax Author’s Style: Tone...... 135

iv Mark Twain The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County short story. 136 Literary Lens: Frame Narrator Author’s Style: Colloquialisms...... 143

Ambrose Bierce An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge short story...... 144 Literary Lens: Sensory Details Author’s Style: Situational Irony...... 155

Emily Dickinson A Bird, came down the Walk poem...... 156 One Sister have I in our house poem...... 158 Two Butterflies went out at Noon poem...... 159 Because I could not stop for Death poem...... 160 Literary Lens: Allegory Author’s Style: Rhyme...... 161

Henry James The Real Thing short story...... 162 Literary Lens: Paradox Author’s Style: Characterization...... 189

Kate Chopin A Pair of Silk Stockings short story...... 190 Literary Lens: Third-Person Omniscient Point of View Author’s Style: Climax...... 197

Charles Waddell Chesnutt The Wife of His Youth short story...... 198 Literary Lens: Dialogue Author’s Style: Irony...... 213

Stephen Crane The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky short story...... 214 Literary Lens: Imagery Author’s Style: Satire...... 227

O. Henry A Retrieved Reformation short story...... 228 Literary Lens: Antihero Author’s Style: Dialogue...... 237

Willa Cather Paul’s Case: A Study in Temperament short story...... 238 Literary Lens: Tone Author’s Style: Characterization...... 261

Responding to Unit Two...... 262 WRITING EXTENSION: Historical Analysis

v UNIT THREE Voices of Modernism 1910s to 1940s...... 266

Djuna Barnes Call of the Night poem...... 270 The Dreamer poem...... 272 Literary Lens: Mood Author’s Style: Rhyme and Stanzas...... 273

Langston Hughes Jazzonia poem...... 274

Paul Laurence Dunbar We Wear the Mask poem...... 276

Jessie Redmon Fauset Dead Fires poem...... 276

Claude McKay America poem...... 277 The Barrier poem...... 277

James Weldon Johnson To America poem...... 278

Georgia Douglas Johnson Old Black Men poem...... 278 Literary Lens: Figurative Language Author’s Style: Rhythms...... 279

T. S. Eliot from The Waste Land poem...... 280 Literary Lens: Allusion Author’s Style: First-Person Point of View...... 285

Ernest Hemingway Indian Camp short story...... 286 Literary Lens: Mood Author’s Style: Syntax...... 291

Katherine Anne Porter He short story...... 292 Literary Lens: Conflict Author’s Style: Characterization...... 305

F. Scott Fitzgerald An Interview with F. Scott Fitzgerald interview...... 306 Literary Lens: Purpose Author’s Style: Allusions...... 311

H. D. (Hilda Doolittle) Night poem...... 312 Sea Rose poem...... 314 Literary Lens: Symbols Author’s Style: Imagery...... 315

Thomas Wolfe The Far and the Near short story...... 316 Literary Lens: Antihero Author’s Style: Diction...... 321 vi John Steinbeck The Chrysanthemums short story...... 322 Literary Lens: Symbols Author’s Style: Setting...... 335

William Faulkner Barn Burning short story...... 336 Literary Lens: Stream of Consciousness Author’s Style: Syntax...... 357

Eudora Welty Why I Live at the P.O. short story...... 358 Literary Lens: Unreliable Narrator Author’s Style: Local Color...... 373

Ralph Ellison The Black Ball short story...... 374 Literary Lens: Diction Author’s Style: Tone...... 385

Richard Wright from Black Boy memoir...... 386 Literary Lens: Conflict Author’s Style: Characterization...... 391

Truman Capote Miriam short story...... 392 Literary Lens: Voice Author’s Style: Foil...... 405

Responding to Unit Three...... 406 WRITING EXTENSION: Personal Essay

UNIT FOUR Postwar Voices 1950s and 1960s...... 410

Ray Bradbury The Veldt short story...... 414 Literary Lens: Juxtaposition Author’s Style: Foreshadowing...... 429

Arthur Miller from The Crucible drama...... 430 Literary Lens: Allegory Author’s Style: Setting...... 439

John Cheever The Wrysons short story...... 440 Literary Lens: Irony Author’s Style: Satire...... 449

Kurt Vonnegut from Kurt Vonnegut: Letters letters...... 450 Literary Lens: Tone Author’s Style: Voice...... 457

vii Carson McCullers Sucker short story...... 458 Literary Lens: First-Person Point of View Author’s Style: Characterization...... 469

Allen Ginsberg from Kaddish poem...... 470 A Supermarket in California poem...... 476

Amiri Baraka An Agony. As Now. poem...... 478 Literary Lens: Conflict Author’s Style: Juxtaposition...... 481

Flannery O’Connor Everything That Rises Must Converge short story...... 482 Literary Lens: Motif Author’s Style: Plot Twist...... 499

John Updike A&P short story...... 500 Literary Lens: Voice Author’s Style: Conflict...... 509

Ernest J. Gaines The Sky Is Gray short story...... 510 Literary Lens: First-Person Point of View Author’s Style: Tone...... 539

Bernadette Mayer Incandescent War Poem Sonnet poem...... 540 Poem That Begins and Ends With So poem...... 542 Literary Lens: Juxtaposition Author’s Style: Stream of Consciousness...... 543

Responding to Unit Four...... 544 WRITING EXTENSION: Argumentative Speech

UNIT FIVE Voices of Diversity and Disillusionment 1970s and 1980s...... 548

Gwendolyn Brooks We Real Cool poem...... 552 from Riot poem...... 554 Literary Lens: Characterization Author’s Style: Poetic Form...... 559

Maya Angelou from I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings autobiography...... 560 Literary Lens: Dialect Author’s Style: Setting...... 567

Isaac Bashevis Singer The Key short story...... 568 Literary Lens: Symbols Author’s Style: Foreshadowing...... 579 viii Alice Walker The Flowers short story...... 580 Literary Lens: Mood Author’s Style: Imagery...... 583

Tim O’Brien Where Have You Gone, Charming Billy? memoir...... 584 Literary Lens: Similes Author’s Style: Repetition...... 595

Raymond Carver Everything Stuck to Him short story...... 596 Literary Lens: Frame Narrator Author’s Style: Flashback...... 603

Bobbie Ann Mason Detroit Skyline, 1949 short story...... 604 Literary Lens: Syntax Author’s Style: Dialect...... 623

Louise Erdrich American Horse short story...... 624 Literary Lens: Imagery Author’s Style: Symbolism...... 637

E. L. Doctorow The Writer in the Family short story...... 638 Literary Lens: Theme Author’s Style: Conflict...... 653

Li-Young Lee The Cleaving poem...... 654 Literary Lens: Sound Devices Author’s Style: Voice...... 665

Responding to Unit Five...... 666 WRITING EXTENSION: Literary Analysis

UNIT SIX Contemporary Voices 1990s and 2000s...... 670

Joy Harjo from She Had Some Horses poem...... 674 Literary Lens: Motif Author’s Style: Repetition...... 679

Joyce Carol Oates Ladies and Gentlemen: short story...... 680 Literary Lens: Satire Author’s Style: Juxtaposition...... 689

Philip Levine What Work Is poem...... 690 Literary Lens: Setting Author’s Style: Second-Person Point of View...... 693

ix Robert Olen Butler Letters from My Father short story...... 694 Literary Lens: Characterization Author’s Style: First-Person Point of View...... 703

Barbara Kingsolver Fault Lines short story...... 704 Literary Lens: Interior Monologue Author’s Style: Tone...... 715

T. Coraghessan Boyle Top of the Food Chain short story...... 716 Literary Lens: Tone Author’s Style: Satire...... 723

Sherman Alexie This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona short story... 724 Literary Lens: Flashbacks Author’s Style: Indirect Characterization ...... 737

Sandra Cisneros Only Daughter memoir...... 738 Literary Lens: Irony Author’s Style: Anecdotes...... 743

Tobias Wolff Mortals short story...... 744 Literary Lens: Motivation Author’s Style: Understatement...... 755

Juan Felipe Herrera Borderbus poem...... 756 Let Me Tell You What a Poem Brings poem...... 762 Literary Lens: Enjambment Author’s Style: Bilingualism...... 763

Responding to Unit Six...... 764 WRITING EXTENSION: Argumentative Letter

Glossary of Literary Terms...... 768 Index of Titles and Authors...... 773 Acknowledgments...... 776

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