NAME: _____________________________
DATE: _____________________________
Junior Performance Essays: Spring Semester
Review
1. The American Dream is defined as an American ideal of a happy and successful
life to which all may aspire. How is the theme of the American Dream developed
in the works we read this semester?
Think of the different literature units we’ve read so far (Realism, Modernism, Imagist
Poets). In what stories did you notice the theme of the American Dream? Site
specific examples…
Unit
Story
Author
American Dream Examples
Realism
From My Bondage
Frederick
Frederick was born a slave- taught himself to
and My Freedom
Douglass
read and eventually bought his own freedom
Realism
“Story of an Hour”
Kate Chopin
Mrs. Mallard was excited about the prospect
of living life for herself (and not her husband)
when she thought her husband had passed
Realism
Spirituals
Slaves sang about and envisioned a life of
freedom as they worked
Modernism
“Far and the Near”
Thomas Wolfe
Modernism
“A Worn Path”
Eudora Welty
“In Another
Country”
Modernism/Imagism “The Negro Speaks
of Rivers”
Modernism
2. REALISM
Characteristics of Realism
-depicted harsh reality of life and
reactions to the Civil War
-portrayed real life as ordinary
people lived it
-attempted to show characters and
events in an honest, objective,
Ernest
Hemingway
Langston
Hughes
Train engineer felt like the two women were
family and wanted to meet them once he
retired
Phoenix Jackson wanted her grandson to get
better- they were the only two people left in
their family
The American soldier had dreams of being a
hero
The speaker tells about the long struggle
African Americans have overcome to get
where they are today
Stories/Authors from
How do these stories embody the
Realism Unit
Realism characteristics?
Stephen Crane- “Episode of
Soldier gets shot and loses his arm,
War”
shows reality of war, soldiers in hospital
Jack London- “To Build a Fire” Man goes out on his own in the
Klondike in sub-zero temperatures,
freezes to death and dies
Kate Chopin- “A Story of an
Woman in an unhappy marriage, thinks
NAME: _____________________________
DATE: _____________________________
almost factual way
Hour”
Louise Alcott- Little Women
Frederick Douglass- from My
Bondage and My Freedom
3. MODERNISM
Characteristics of Modernism
(remember uncertainty, detachment and
disillusionment)
-end to the sense of optimism
before WWI
-people felt uncertain and
disillusioned
-sought to capture the essence of
modern life
-works were constructed out of
fragments
-themes were usually implied,
rather than directly stated
-created a sense of uncertainty and
forced readers to draw their own
conclusions
Stories/Authors from
Modernism Unit
E.E. Cummings- “old age
sticks”
Thomas Wolfe- “The Far and
the Near”
Eudora Welty- “A Worn Path”
William Faulkner- “Rose for
Emily”
Shirley Jackson- “The
Possibility of Evil”
her husband dies- becomes excited
about prospect of life on her own,
husband comes in (not dead) and she
dies
Family in poverty, father is injured in
war, Beth dies of illness, heartbreak,
sisters fighting
Slave taught at first by mistress,
husband forces mistress to stop
teaching, slave begins to teach himself,
the more he learns- the more unhappy
he becomes
How do these stories embody the
Modernism characteristics?
Breaks rules of syntax and grammar,
contains little punctuation, cycle of old
age and youth- youth mocks old age,
but eventually becomes old age
Anticlimax- women don’t understand
why it is important for the engineer to
meet them, uncertainty
Old woman (Phoenix) makes a journey
to town to get medicine for her
grandson, uncertainty- don’t know
whether or not grandson is alive
Miss Emily lives alone after father dies,
after she died town found Homer
Barron’s body in her house, long hair
signified that she was sleeping next to
his corpse, uncertainty- how did she
die?
Miss Strangeworth writes mean letters
to people in town, they find out, her
roses are destroyed uncertainty- who cut
down the roses?
NAME: _____________________________
DATE: _____________________________
4. Sociopolitical means involving both social and political factors.
A. How did the Modernist authors connect the sociopolitical climate of the
times to the literature of the period? (look at your Disillusionment Intro
chart)
USE YOUR DISILLUSIONMENT INTRO CHART
B. How does their work reflect the authors’ views on American society?
Give specific examples.