Unit VI Selection Notes
“New Regionalism and the City”
William Faulkner
Style is fragmented narrative, lacking chronological
order, using flashbacks
 Themes:
South as a reflection of universal truths
Insight into human emotions
Man as a poor caretaker of the wilderness
Family strength and traditions
Racism
Decay
*Isolation
*Disillusionment
*Need for love and understanding
(*Common to Modernism)

“A Rose for Emily”
Literary devices: foreshadowing, setting, tone,
Southern Gothic Tale – a story with a remote,
gloomy, decaying setting and involving
supernatural and violent events
 Town in which story is set and time periodsocial mores/class consciousness/attitudes
towards blacks, Northerners, and women of
the town (Think about the citizens of
Maycomb, Alabama, in To Kill a Mockingbird.)

Tones/attitudes of citizens toward Emily: scorn,
pity, curiosity, duty, acceptance, and horror
 Attitude of Emily toward town: condescending
 Her father’s behavior
 Emily’s reactions to father’s death and Homer’s
rejection
 Events leading up to Emily and Homer’s
apparent wedding
 Homer’s disappearance
 Significance of long strand of gray hair x

Eudora Welty
a writer and photographer who is interested in conveying
true character in both genres
 “A Worn Path”
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Symbols
The wornness of the path represents Phoenix’s
enduring love.
Phoenix’s name symbolizes her solitude, long life,
and strength of character.
The journey represents a difficult life.
Phoenix – character description; attitudes towards
hunter, doctor’s receptionist, etc.
Theme: The path of love—worn by sacrifice
and repetition—is open to everyone. x
Flannery O’Connor
Her style blends tragedy and comedy,
presents realistic characters.


“The Life You Save May Be Your Own”
Literary devices:
Foreshadowing-(setting/mood, Shiftlet’s name,
his appearance described as “crooked”
and “as a snake,” words like “rocked
violently”)
Suspense-mood of imminent danger
Irony -Reversals of elements of a typical romance,
such as the beautiful young woman and the
rescuing hero
-The “rotten” Shiftlet doesn’t recognize his
contribution to “the rottenness of the world.”x

Literary devices (continued):
Epiphany-moment when main character
makes a surprising discovery (often spiritual)
Figures of Speech/Figurative language- Biblical
images, character descriptions

Dialect-part of characterization
Themes-Most people are motivated by self-interest (title)
-Innocence is only possible in modern society in
extreme ignorance. x
Review Shiftlet’s agreements with Mrs.
Crater. Their terms? Motives?
 Both Shiftlet’s and Mrs. Crater’s characters
are morally questionable.
 The hitchhiker rejects Shiftlet’s hypocritical
pretense to care, his lies.
 The storm images at the end may warn that
God’s wrath is closing in on Shiftlet. x

Gwendolyn Brooks

In her poems Brooks frequently includes
characters based on African Americans she
knew in Chicago, many of whom experienced
disillusionment and poverty. x
“The Bean Eaters”
The old couple eats
a simple meal of
beans in a cluttered
rented room and
remembers the joys
and sorrows they
have experienced.
The irregular rhyme
scheme suggests the
disorder of the
couple’s life.
“The United States and the World”
Randall Jarrell

a serviceman in WWI, Jarrell writes with both
bitterness and pity about incidents of war that
he witnessed.

“The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner”
The speaker has died in battle. The images
and words which the poet chooses mingle
together ideas of birth, sleep, and death. x
Elie Wiesel

For nine years this Holocaust survivor kept a
vow of silence about the horrors of WWII.
However, he later chose to write and speak
about these painful experiences so that the
world could not forget the Holocaust and so
that his audiences realize that indifference and
neutrality make room for exploitation of others.
Excerpt from All Rivers Run to the Sea

In this memoir Wiesel alternates between a
description of his family’s deportation to the
Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps and
an account of his attempts as an adult to find
answers to what happened to others and why
the world could allow such horrors.
John Hersey

a foreign correspondent in the Pacific during
WWII, Hersey is better known for his novels
which so realistically portrayed individuals he
knew during the war.

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Excerpt from Hiroshima
Hersey provides a nonfiction account of the
effects the atomic bomb had on the Japanese
city of Hiroshima. In an objective tone he
combines the stories of six ordinary people who
survived the atomic blast and describes the
extent of the devastation and suffering which
the bombing caused. x