• blunt, tell-it-like-it-is
• focused on lives of ordinary people
• rejected the class system
• darker view of the world
• fate is an illusion; lives shaped by forces we cannot see or understand

• overwhelming technological changes
• grief over the loss of the past
• youth culture
• alienation
• disconnected from the world

• Story of survival!
• Realistic  man dies and doesn’t miraculously find a way to survive
• Man is unprepared for the journey and over confident.
• Tries to kill his dog for warmth
• Cannot light a fire because his hands are too frozen and he cannot hold the matches

• A woman struggles between spending money on what she wants and what she needs
• This struggle would be unfamiliar to someone of the upper class who could get both
• The woman is familiar with more expensive luxuries  this tells us she probably experienced them before
• Ends up being selfish and spends money on herself

• Jay Gatsby: mysterious, clings to the past
• Nick tells us the story of his summer on Long
Island
• Gatsby and Daisy connected in the past 
Gatsby wants to go back and start over
• Daisy runs over Myrtle; Gatsby takes the blame
• Wilson kills Gatsby and himself

• Nobody comes to the funeral
• Gatsby is forgotten
• Tom and Daisy leave town for a while; careless
• We all live in the past; clinging to something we hoped to achieve
• Gatsby equated success with Daisy

• Daydreams to escape his boring reality:
– hydroplane (Navy) pilot
– anesthesiologist
– defendant in court
– Air Force pilot
– firing squad
• Always brought back to earth, except when he imagines himself facing a firing squad

• wants to be a hero
– always seen as heroic in his daydreams
– others view him as the best
– others envy him and want to be him
• naggy wife
– seems more like his mother

“The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock”
• Wants to ask a question, but holding himself back
– afraid of being judged
– afraid of getting the wrong answer
• seeking love
– talks about the women
– mermaids singing; won’t sing to him
– nobody wants him
• isolated and lonely

• Everybody loves him, wants to be him
• People want his money, style, personality
• Very friendly, always says hello
• Inside  unhappy, depressed
– kills himself
– we don’t know why

• alcoholic
• born too late
– dreams of the past
– feels lonely in the present
– longs for previous days when there was chivalry and heroes

• Emily is a monument in the town
– old family; in town for generations
– fallen  doesn’t become anything and is a disappointment
• Refuses to pay taxes
– told she didn’t have to by former mayor so she sticks with this
– told it was because her father gave town money
– actually because she won’t accept charity and she has no money

• Strange smell
– town spreads lime around her house at night
– rude to tell a woman she/her home smells
• Homer Barron
– “dated” Emily, but not the marrying kind (liked men)
– Emily compromised; town assumes they married and he abandoned her

• Emily dies
– discover Homer’s body in an upstairs bedroom
– Emily had slept next to the body
• Afraid to be alone, isolated
– in denial about her father for 3 days
– refuses to let Homer leave her
– shuts herself away from the town

• rise of African American culture
– music
– dancing
– art
– singing
– style
• ended with the Great Depression
– no money to continue; laid the path for future

• Langston Hughes
– reference to “I Hear America Singing” by Walt
Whitman
• hopeful for equality
– knows he will soon be eating with company
• non-judgmental, not angry
– knows they will be ashamed
– that is enough for him

• “Go Down, Death” by James Weldon Johnson
– positive views about death
– eternal life; God watching over all
– God ends suffering
• “of De Witt Williams on his way to Lincoln
Cemetary” by Gwendolyn Brooks
– “He was nothing but a / plain black boy”
– racism; nobody really cares

• “America” by Claude McKay
– struggle of African American experiences
– loves America despite “her” treatment
– ready to stand for equality without anger or resentment
• “Tableau” by Countee Cullen
– innocence only corrupted by outside
– black and white boys playing together
– judged by those watching; lack of understanding