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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