Gazzara/LIT 210 Syllabus/ Summer 2 1
American Literature II ~ LIT 210 (updated for Summer 2 2012)
T/TH 8:00AM-12:05PM (LAU 203)
Chris Gazzara
Office, Parker Center, 319-U (and/or Laurel Hall office hours by appt.)
609-894-9311/856-222-9311 (x1679)
cgazzara@bcc.edu
Class Web-site and PDF Syllabus: http://chrisgazzaraenglish.com/LIT210.html
*Possible Tumblr supplements
A. TEXT: Custom Text (LIT 209-210). All required readings are also hyperlinked on or included at the end of
the electronic (PDF) syllabus.
*Additional handouts distributed either during class, through links via the online syllabus, through updates on
the class Web-site (see above URL), or through e-mail. While every effort is made to verify the accuracy
and usefulness of links and their contents, no guarantees are made. Please e-mail me of any broken or
outdated links.
**HIGHLY RECOMMENDED TEXT: MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 7th ed. New York:
The Modern Language Association of America, 2009. Available for purchase by clicking here.
***For additional information on literary analysis, visit Critical Reading: A Guide
(http://www.brocku.ca/english/jlye/criticalreading.html).
B. COURSE OVERVIEW: American Literature II is a survey course which continues from the Civil War
period where American Lit I concluded, covering the periods of Realism, Naturalism, Modernism, and PostModernism. The course will assign primary emphasis to the major literary trends found in early America and
the major literary figures who represent those trends.
C. LEARNING OBJECTIVES ~ At the end of LIT 210, you should be able to:
1. Trace the continuing development of the American perspective through the content, style, and genres of
American writings.
2. Define the major elements of Realism, Naturalism, Modernism and Post-Modernism, and explain how
these philosophies affected American literature.
3. Analyze the social, political, and religious ideas influencing these writings.
4. Explain the evolution of American literature as it is revealed from the various perspectives of major
literary figures.
5. List the major political, social, and religious concerns of 19th and 20th Century America.
6. Respond critically and personally to the topics found in American literature, especially those concerning
American identity, freedom, and voice.
7. Competently compose analytical essays which discuss the literary trends of American literature, each of
which will possess a clear thesis statement, a coherent pattern of supporting paragraphs, adequate
support/examples from the text to support the thesis, and a concluding paragraph. A minimum of errors
in mechanics, grammar, and usage should appear in the essays.
D. COURSE EXPECTATIONS:
Attendance: If the student is to profit from any course, he or she must attend class on a consistent basis.
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Students must attend all classes for the full duration of each session. Should you need to miss a class for
observance of religious holidays, jury duty, military duty, bereavement, or illness, you must notify the
instructor by telephone or e-mail prior to or within 24 hours after the class. Without such
communication, students forfeit the right to make up missed work. If such communication is made,
students will be permitted to make up missed work at the beginning of the following class meeting. It is,
therefore, the student’s responsibility to read the syllabus and be prepared for current as well as missed
assignments.
Entering class late or leaving class early (without prior authorization) is considered disrespectful and will
not be tolerated.
Academic Etiquette: Students will respect themselves, their peers and their instructors by considering the
following:
Cell phones must be kept on silent. No calls are to be made or received during class. If you are expecting an
important call during the class meeting time, notify me prior to class and quietly excuse yourself if the
call is received. No text-messaging or game-playing will be tolerated.
Students who wish to use the restrooms may do so by quietly leaving and re-entering the room. If a student
believes he or she will require an absence of more than a few minutes, it is his responsibility to notify
me accordingly.
Communication: Many means of communication are available to the student including telephone, e-mail and
mailbox.
If you leave a message on my office voice-mail (extension 1679), please remember to speak clearly and
provide your name, course information, and phone number if you request a return call.
If you contact me via e-mail, always include your FULL NAME AND CLASS SECTION in the subject
line, like this: Chris Gazzara, LIT 210-310. Too often students forget to sign e-mail or have e-mail
addresses without obvious identifiers. If you do not include your name and class in the subject line, I
will not open the message.
Students who send me e-mail and do not receive a reply of any kind within 48 hours should assume it was
never received. Such e-mails should be resent—again, to both addresses, as explained. I do not mind
receiving redundant messages if you are unsure whether your message was transmitted (though I may
only reply to one). If your message doesn’t present itself as urgent, I may reply quickly and briefly and
ask to get back to you before long.
Students who send e-mails containing attachments must save these documents with one of the following
extensions: DOC, DOCX, TXT, RTF, or WPS. If the previous extensions are not available to you, copy
and paste the text of your assignment into the e-mail message itself. BACK UP ALL E-MAILED
ASSIGNMENTS WITH HARD COPIES DURING THE NEXT CLASS SESSION.
Class Assignments:
All work written and submitted should utilize standard rules of grammar, sentence organization, paragraph
organization, and diction.
Gazzara/LIT 210 Syllabus/ Summer 2 3
All formal papers, unless otherwise specified, are to be typed, titled, double spaced, stapled, and
carefully proofread. Click here for any additional formatting specifications.
All assignments are due on the date specified on the syllabus without exception. Assignments which are
not submitted during the class session they are due will be penalized 15% for each subsequent day they
are late.
If a student presents reasonable justification for an absence, such an absence does not allow for more time to
complete assignments. When a student is absent the day an assignment is due, he or she must submit the
assignment as an attachment via e-mail on or before the date it is due (see e-mail guidelines, above).
Since students are provided with all assignments and deadlines on the first day of the semester, excuses such
as “crashed computers,” “misplaced data,” “misplaced disks,” or “empty printer ink cartridges” will not
be accepted. All computer work should be saved twice (hard drive and floppy/flash).
Plagiarism will not be tolerated under any circumstances. Be aware that plagiarism includes (but is not limited
to) copying someone else’s words without crediting the source; paraphrasing someone else’s words without
crediting the source; using someone else’s ideas without crediting the source (even if rephrased in your own
words); using facts not universally known which are obtained from a source without crediting the source; asking
someone else to write your paper, either in whole or in part; or obtaining a paper or portion thereof by any
means and submitting it as an original document. The penalty for plagiarism is failure of the assignment and
potentially failure of the course (at the instructor’s discretion), and it may result in suspension or expulsion
from the College (at the discretion of the Student Affairs Committee). Please refer to the BCC Student
Handbook for additional information regarding College regulations and the handling of plagiarism.
E. ASSIGNMENTS: All of the following assignments must be attempted, completed, and submitted (ACS) in
order for the student to be considered for a passing grade:
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Journal Response Questions: In lieu of daily quizzes, students will be expected to respond in writing to
47 scheduled “journal assignments” (listed below each assigned reading on the syllabus). Write
a complete response for the day’s question(s) and bring the response to class. The expected length for
each “Journal Assignment” is 25-100 words (typed or written). At the end of the semester, full credit
will be awarded for entries that meet word requirements and are presented professionally; as long as
each entry is provided accordingly, you should expect credit to be issued. Entries that do not meet such
requirements will be docked one point (e.g.: three docked entries would amount to a 44/47, the
percentage of which would be divided by .40 for your final point total). Students can expect to share
their responses randomly in class (according to an assigned playing card) and have them checked
periodically (hint: have the fully completed journal in your possession by the end of Session 8).
Midterm Exam: This exam will be comprised mostly of True/False and multiple choice questions. It is
recommended that students define any unfamiliar words found within the readings and be familiar with
other historical, social, political or biographical information as presented. Evaluation guidelines will be
forthcoming. [Note: Students may be permitted to use a certain amount of material during the exam (as
in a 3X5 note card) to be determined.]
1500-word Research Essay: Selecting a work from the list below, students will read one novel and
construct a scholarly research essay using at least three credible secondary sources (handout at end of
syllabus). Click here for analysis information (also included at back of syllabus). This analysis will be
typed, titled, and double-spaced. Click here for assignment specifications, including evaluation
guidelines. (OPTIONS: To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee), The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald), Invisible
Man (Ellison), Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck), The Things They Carried (O’Brien), Beloved (Morrison),
Seize The Day (Bellow), The Catcher in the Rye (Salinger)
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Group Presentation: Near the end of the semester, students will collaborate on visual presentations
covering specific literary time periods to be determined. These presentations must incorporate adequate
research and visual materials (including handouts and PPT presentations). Possible topics to be
considered include American literary milestones; International literary milestones; major American
historical events; major world historical events; and inventions, advancements, lifestyles, and other
socio-cultural phenomena. Click here for assignment specifications, including evaluation guidelines.
Final Exam: Similar to the midterm, this exam will be comprised mostly of True/False and multiple
choice questions. Some brief short-answer questions may appear. This exam will cover only material
discussed after the midterm (including biographical and possible feature films). Evaluation guidelines
will be forthcoming.
Participation: I have great respect for students who do what they can to succeed and take their
education seriously. If you make an effort to communicate and be respectful with me, I can be
reasonably flexible about most situations; however, I cannot breech the integrity of the class by allowing
some students leeway with course expectations, and I have little compassion for students who don’t have
respect for themselves. Please take responsibility for your work and the commitment you have made to
your education. I expect fulfillment of the requirements of all assignments, consistent attendance,
appropriate conduct toward classmates, and an overall positive contribution to the class.
F. MAKE-UP EXAM POLICY: Because all assignment deadlines and scheduled exam dates are provided at
the beginning of the semester, little latitude is given to those students who are not considerate of themselves or
respectful of course expectations. The schedule of assignments and activities is a contract and, therefore, not
open to negotiation. In the event that you must be absent the day an assignment is due (though it is strongly
discouraged if preventable), utilize a form of electronic submission to turn in journal entries or other
assignments the day they are due.
G. GRADING POLICY: All assignments have a specific point value. There are 200 total points worth of
assignments and examinations.
Total Course
Points Earned
Final
Percentages
Letter Grade
177-200
88.5 - 100
A
175-176
87.5 - 88
B+
159-174
79.5 - 87
B
155-158
77.5 - 79
C+
149-154
74.5 - 77
C
139-148
69.5 - 74
D
0-138
0 - 69
F
The standards for the above numerical/letter grades are as follows:
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A: Meeting course goals by demonstrating perceptive understanding of readings and course concepts;
excellence and originality in compositions; superior scores on exams and other assigned work; active
participation in class discussion and small groups; and compliance with attendance and assignment
requirements.
B+/B: Meeting course goals by demonstrating mastery of subject and concepts; above average quality in
compositions and exams; good participation in class and small groups; and compliance with attendance and
assignment requirements.
C+/C: Meeting course goals by demonstrating a satisfactory level of understanding of subject material and
concepts; acceptable quality in compositions and exams; adequate participation in class and small groups;
and compliance with attendance and assignment requirements.
D: Not meeting all of the course goals; minimal knowledge of subject material and concepts; marginal
quality in compositions (poor quality of development, support, or grammar); poor performance on exams;
passivity in class and small groups; non-compliance with attendance and assignment requirements.
F: Not meeting course goals; unsatisfactory progress in understanding and applying subject material and
concepts; incomplete or unacceptable work in compositions (gross grammatical, developmental, and
structural errors); failure of exams; non-compliance of attendance and assignment requirements.
H. LIST OF ASSIGNMENTS:
ASSIGNMENT / ACTIVITY
DUE DATE
VALUE
Daily
40 pts
Midterm Exam
Session 6
40 pts
Group Presentation (Literary History)
Session 9
20 pts
1500-word Research Essay (Options provided)
Session 10
40 pts
Final Exam
Session 10
40 pts
N/A
20 pts
Literary Response Journal
Participation and Attendance
TOTAL
GRADE
200 pts
I. PROJECTED SCHEDULE OF ASSIGNMENTS:
There are many possible ways to locate assigned texts. All readings and journal responses must be completed
before the date scheduled. Page numbers refer to the course text unless otherwise indicated, and all texts should
also be hyperlinked on the PDF syllabus as indicated (hover mouse over author name, title, or link as needed;
hold down the ctrl button and you should have the option to click accordingly; notify me of missing or broken
links). As well, note that some readings have links, do NOT appear in the course text, but also appear in the
back of the syllabus. That said, students are expected to bring with them a copy of all assigned readings (either
printed, on a laptop, or other electronic device).
SESSION 1: Tuesday, July 10
Gazzara/LIT 210 Syllabus/ Summer 2 6
Discussion of syllabus, general course expectations, and literary history
WALT WHITMAN, ►I Hear America Singing, (at end of syllabus)
What do these individuals seem to have in common? What, if anything, distinguishes them one
from the next? Do you think the speaker wants these men and women to be seen as a
homogenous group with little distinction or a heterogeneous mixture of vastly different people?
How is the balance between work and play handled? Do you think the speaker favors one over
the other?
►Oh Captain, My Captain, (at end of syllabus)
What makes the style of this poem different from the previous? How has the speaker managed to
capture both the thrilling triumph of Lincoln’s abolitionist efforts and the tragic loss of his
recent assassination? Which image in the poem do you see as the most poignant or resonant?
►Whoever You Are Holding Me Now in Hand, (at end of syllabus)
How can the speaker expect his readers to have an appreciation of his work if he is constantly
reminding them of the futility of understanding it? Do you sense sincerity in the speaker’s claims
that the reader may never fully reconcile the work, or do you believe his tone is more often
playful or sarcastic?
SESSION 2: Thursday, July 12
MARK TWAIN, ►How to Tell a Story, 170
What does the author propose as the difference between knowledge and action? Which seems to
be favored more and why? What makes humorous stories the “only one difficult kind”? How
does he differentiate among that which is “humorous, comic, and witty”? How does he
distinguish between the manner (or process) through which a story is told and the matter (or
substance) of the story itself? What makes the comic story and its teller a “pathetic” thing to
see? What value does the author place on the “pause”?
FRANK NORRIS, ►A Plea for Romantic Fiction, 174
How does Norris distinguish between Romance and Romantic? How does he effectively argue
his point of literary criticism while still asking so many questions? What arguments does Norris
make against Realism? How does he promote Romance as an equally effective “teacher” as any
style of expression?
RED CLOUD, ►[All I Want Is Peace and Justice], 177
How does the speaker handle the fact that the white men seem to have an unfortunately incorrect
view of the natives? How might this speech be viewed as a desperate plea of a man who thinks he
has nothing more to lose?
ZITKALA-SA, ►The School Days of an Indian Girl, 179
How does this piece illustrate the condition of being caught between two drastically different
worlds? How does she use the education of native children as a metaphor for the unfortunate
perceptions felt by the white race? What is the most striking passage of the piece for you?
SESSION 3: Tuesday, July 17
SARAH ORNE JEWETT, ►A White Heron, 182
By refusing to betray the heron’s secret, what is Sylvia rejecting (and in favor of what)? What is
the hunter’s goal (and is it achieved)? What role does the narrative voice play in our
understanding of Sylvia’s choices? Why do you believe Sylvia made the right or wrong decision?
What does the heron’s pine tree represent for Sylvia? What makes this tale Romantic (according
to Norris)? What makes it Realistic? What makes it Naturalistic?
Gazzara/LIT 210 Syllabus/ Summer 2 7
STEPHEN CRANE, ►A Man Said to the Universe, 189
How does this very short poem represent Crane’s view of a “universe essentially indifferent to
man?” What relationship is established between the “man” and the “universe”?
►The Open Boat, 190
What does the story tell us about perceptions and observations of people in a crisis? What is the
effect of our being told early in the story that the men are not near a rescue station? Why does
Crane deliberately place the dinghy’s crew in sight of land? How does Crane’s view of the
human community arise out of his view of the natural forces surrounding and working upon
humans?
PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR, ►We Wear The Mask, 208
How does the poem differentiate between public and private personae? What is the speaker’s
attitude toward his public? From what inspiration do you think this may have arisen? What
might this poem have in common with John Lennon’s lyric about Eleanor Rigby, who is
“wearing a face that she keeps in a jar by the door”?
►Life’s Tragedy, 209
What does this poem say about missed opportunities and failed expectations? How does the
speaker feel about seeking perfection or an ideal end? What role (if any) does regret play in our
lives?
►Sympathy, 210
How does the speaker express his familiarity with suffering? How are missed opportunities
treated similarly or differently than they are in “Life’s Tragedy”? What makes the bird an
effective or ineffective metaphor in this poem? How are freedom and salvation represented?
E. A. ROBINSON, ►The Mill, 211
What role does denial of truth play in this poem? How are unconscious fears and concerns
represented? How does memory become an unwelcome liability? How might the miller and his
wife have escaped from similar burdens but through different gestures? How does this relate to
Dunbar’s suggestions about achieved or failed expectations?
►Variations of Greek Things: A Happy Man, (included at end of syllabus)
What is the power of memory and legacy expressed in this poem? Do you sense sincerity in the
speaker’s reminiscing, or is there stylistic evidence of sarcasm? Is the speaker’s sentiment
ideally Romantic or plausibly Realistic?
►Mr. Flood’s Party, 212
How has Flood found a way to manage his feelings of loneliness and isolation? Is he ultimately
successful? What elements of the poem make it Naturalistic in its moral? What does the road
(and Flood’s spatial orientation on it) represent within his life? How are Flood’s past and future
represented, and what does each seem to have to offer him now?
SESSION 4: Thursday, July 19
ROBERT FROST, ►After Apple-Picking, 214
What is the speaker looking forward to? What does he seem to feel guilty about? How does he
attempt (and perhaps fail) to escape these responsibilities that he knows are his? How does the
illustration of fallen apples relate to the speaker himself? How does this relate to Dunbar’s and
Robinson’s suggestions about achieved or failed expectations?
►The Wood-Pile, 215
What role does (in)decision play for the speaker? How does the poem represent spaces both
familiar and foreign? What commentary does this poem make about the sense of incompleteness
of tasks which Frost represented in “After Apple-Picking”? What positive message can be
brought from this poem whose final word is “decay”?
Gazzara/LIT 210 Syllabus/ Summer 2 8
►Birches, 216
How does this poem represent the relationship between the real and the ideal? How does the
speaker maintain this balance? How is the boy “too far from town” represented as extremely
resourceful and self-sufficient? What does this contribute to the poem’s message? How is the
sense of being “alone” characterized differently in this poem than in “Mr. Flood’s Party”?
What message is proposed by the act of filling a cup “even above the brim”? What does this
have to do with swinging on birches (literally) and life (figuratively)? How does the speaker
eventually remain true to his romantic side while maintaining a pragmatic view of life?
►The Need of Being Versed in Country Things, (included at end of syllabus)
How does this poem express equal amounts of idyllic Romanticism while emphasizing the
harshness of Modernity? What’s the speaker’s attitude about feelings of regret? What role does
Nature play in its own preservation? How is the power of individual perspective given value?
CARL SANDBURG, ►Chicago, (included at end of syllabus)
How is the speaker able to enumerate seemingly horrible truths about his hometown while
remaining proud to call it his? Which of the speaker’s descriptive examples do you think is the
most damning to the city of Chicago? If the speaker’s reference to “terrible burden of destiny”
can be associated loosely with Naturalism, how does he take it beyond Crane’s view of a
helpless human toward a more fulfilling message?
►I am the People, the Mob, (included at end of syllabus)
What does this poem have in common with George Santayana’s quote, “Those who cannot learn
from history are doomed to repeat it”? Is “not learning” (as Santayana claims) the same as
“forgetting” (as Sandburg claims)? How can the speaker remain hopeful for the future when the
present appears so bleak? How is this poem (and “Chicago”) fundamentally similar to (and
strikingly different from) the humanistic language of Whitman’s “I Hear America Singing”?
►Government, (included at end of syllabus)
What role does first-hand observation play for the speaker? How are concepts of “criminality”
and “corruption” illustrated through this poem? Is it a good thing or bad thing that the
“government” is represented as something dynamic, alive, moving, changeable? What is the
effect of ritual, patterned behavior as expressed in the final stanza?
SUSAN GLASPELL, ►Trifles, 218
How are the “letter of the law” and the “spirit of the law” interpreted differently by Mrs. Peters
and Mrs. Hale? Does one win out over the other? How are the two “characters” of Minnie
Foster and Minnie Wright characterized differently? What textual evidence illustrates why the
men are logical, arrogant, and stupid? How are Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale each motivated for
their own reasons to conspire against the men? What do you learn of the character of John
Wright that might mitigate the charge against Minnie? Explain the significance of each of the
following symbols: the bird, the cage with the broken hinge, the cold house and broken jelly jars,
the unevenly sewn quilt block, the fresh bread on the counter, the half-clean table top, the rope.
SESSION 5: Tuesday, July 24
T. S. ELIOT, ►The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (IN-CLASS EXERCISE), 228
WALLACE STEVENS, ►The Snow Man, 232
What does it mean to have a “mind of” something, and how does that prove important to the
speaker here? What elements in this poem are loosely associated with a lingering Romanticism?
On the other hand, what makes this poem purely Modern in its approach?
JOHN CROWE RANSOM, ►Winter Remembered (included at end of syllabus)
Gazzara/LIT 210 Syllabus/ Summer 2 9
How does this speaker’s reference to “absence” relate to Robinson’s “The Mill”? How does
“feeling” and the desire for painlessness relate to Prufrock? What message is the speaker
proposing about love and loss?
CLAUDE MCKAY, ►America, 233
How does the speaker express a love for something that doesn’t always seem to have his best
interest in mind? What role does loyalty play for the speaker? Does he seem more certain or
uncertain about the future?
►If We Must Die, 234
What role does dignity and self-respect play in this poem? Do you perceive the “fighting back”
at the end as more literal or figurative? How might it be both?
►Outcast, 235
Is there a positive message within this poem which seems laden with negative imagery (“dim,”
“forgotten,” “alien,” “ghost,” “apart”)?
CONTEE CULLEN, ►Yet Do I Marvel, 236
How does this poem express the equal concerns about God’s benevolence and the speaker’s
futility of existence? What role does temptation play? How do you interpret the act of
“marveling” (as opposed to “knowing,” “understanding,” or even “appreciating”)?
SESSION 6: Thursday, July 26
MIDTERM EXAM
O. HENRY, ►The Gift of the Magi, (click here for reading) (Possible Video)
What symbolic value does the number three have in this story? How can Della and Jim possibly
appreciate the gifts from each other if they had to give up their most precious possession in
order to receive it? Can a story based on coincidence, irony and surprise still be readable
today? What makes this a timeless story?
ERNEST HEMINGWAY, ►A Clean, Well-Lighted Place, (click here for reading) (Possible Video)
What are some of the contrasts present in the story? What are the major differences between the
young waiter and the old waiter, particularly in terms of how they view the old man and working
in the café? What is the meaning of the old waiter’s “prayer”? Given the view of human
existence that is expressed, what is the role and significance of the café? What do you consider
to be the overall meaning of the story?
WILLIAM FAULKNER, ►A Rose For Emily, (click here for reading)
Why is Miss Emily Grierson described as “a fallen monument”? What does it mean that “Emily
had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town…”? How
does the narrator describe Homer Barron? What does he come to represent for Emily? What is
the community’s attitude towards Homer and Emily’s relationship? After Miss Emily’s death,
what is discovered in the room “which no one had seen in forty years”? What do you believe to
be Miss Emily’s motive for her actions?
SESSION 7: Tuesday, July 31
RICHARD WRIGHT
►From Black Boy, “A Five-Dollar Fight,” (click here for reading)
How do you come to understand that the narrator of the story has to think “double,” that is,
think about himself as himself and at the same time think about himself as the white men see
him? Do you get the impression that this is a no-win situation for the narrator (or can something
be gained by this experience)? Why or why not? What does this story say about the corrupting
Gazzara/LIT 210 Syllabus/ Summer 2 10
influence of racism on the two young African American men? What does the comparison to the
fighting dogs or roosters say about the white men’s attitudes? Richard Wright labels himself
both a realist and a naturalist writer who wrote stories to convey a message about social
injustice. Identify two elements of this story (one for realism and one for naturalism) which
illustrate both of these tendencies.
ALLEN GINSBERG
►America, (included at end of syllabus)
Considering the other works discussed this semester which illustrate positive and/or negative
views of civic or nationalistic pride (including Whitman, Sandburg, McKay, Dunbar, etc.), select
two other poems and identify how Ginsberg’s poem “America” is similar to or different from
each.
AMIRI BARAKA
►An Agony As Now, 237
Considering the other works discussed this semester which illustrate positive and/or negative
views of self worth or identity (including Robinson, Frost, Eliot, Stevens, Hemingway, Wright,
etc.), select three works and identify how Baraka’s poem “An Agony, As Now” is similar to or
different from each.
LANGSTON HUGHES
►Theme for English B, included at end of syllabus
Role-playing as the instructor on the receiving end of Hughes’ “theme,” write a 100-word
evaluative response to the student from the instructor’s point-of-view. Consider what the
“assignment” was. Consider what your “expectations” were (taking into account your race,
your implied age, and any other demographics you think are relevant). Consider whether the
student delivered on your assignment. After the 100-word evaluative response, provide a letter
grade on a scale of A to F.
SAM SHEPARD
►True West (VIDEO PRESENTATION)
What symbolic role does the desert play for each of the two characters? Identify two ways that
the “switch” in the brothers’ roles can be seen in the play? What distinction does the playwright
make in the play between “art” and “business”? How can True West be defined as a naturalistic
work of drama? Give examples as they can be associated with Crane’s “Open Boat” and other
elements of Naturalism. How does Lee (and, eventually, Austin) display qualities of the loner,
alienated and detached from society? What other characters have we read who can be related to
these two men (directly or indirectly)? How is Lee’s final monologue at the end of Act One
indicative of these two men and their relationships with each other and the world? Does the end
of the play seem resolved to you? If not, what else did you expect to learn about these men? If so,
what does the end (as it appears) tell us about how we’re supposed to feel about these men?
SESSION 8: Thursday, August 2
BETTY FRIEDAN, ► “The Problem That Has No Name,” (click here for reading)
Why did “the problem lay buried, unspoken” for so long? What seems to be the speaker’s
greatest disappointment regarding the treatment of women by men? Why is it significant that
women weren’t being defined as “inferior,” rather “simply different” from men? What impact
might it have had on women through the years if they knew others felt the same way as they?
DENISE LEVERTOV, ►Wedding Ring, 239
Gazzara/LIT 210 Syllabus/ Summer 2 11
What does this poem express about the opportunities that lie ahead and of the potential futility of
hope? What significance does each of the other “items” which lie in the basket have? How does
this relate to the ring itself and what it represents now for the speaker? Does the speaker seem
hopeful of being able to recover a lost past? Does she think change is possible? Is it effective for
her to end with questions she doesn’t seem to answer? (Or does she?)
CAROLYN FORCHE, ►Taking Off My Clothes, included at end of syllabus
What is the tone of voice of this poem? How does the speaker illustrate what she thinks is pain
and compromise that she has undergone for the listener? How does the conversational tone at
the end display a very different tone than Levertov’s “questions”?
ADRIENNE RICH, ►Living in Sin, included at end of syllabus
How does the speaker differentiate (through examples) between what she “thought” and what
she “knows”? Where in the poem does she seem to hold herself in contempt for behaving the
way she is? If she seems to loathe her own behavior, why does she apparently continue it? How
do you think the speaker would define being “back in love again”(l. 23)? What might the “sin”
in the title be a reference to (if not conventional “pre-marital intimacy”)?
MARGE PIERCY, ►Always Unsuitable, included at end of syllabus
How does the speaker seem to express both a concern for pleasing the “mothers” and a
contempt for them at the same time? How is Piercy’s compromising for a cause similar to or
different from Forche’s? Where does Piercy’s speaker present details to suggest she is neither
perfect nor always appropriate? On the other hand, (as opposed to Rich’s sense of self-loathing)
where does Piercy represent a speaker who has a greater sense of self-respect?
►Barbie Doll, included at end of syllabus
How does this “girlchild” attempt to make herself something she is not? What motivates her?
What is the outcome? How is her portrayal in death ironically triumphant? What is the
difference between this girl’s efforts to be someone she wasn’t and those of the speaker in the
previous poem? Do you think the same “happy ending” could be applied to the speaker of
“Always Unsuitable”? How about to Forche’s speaker?
JANICE MIRIKITANI, ►Suicide Note, included at end of syllabus
What roles do age, gender, intelligence, and public opinion play in this poem? How might the
concerns of this female speaker be an updated representation of the sort of sentiments expressed
years earlier by Friedan? What do you think is the key difference between this speaker’s inability
to please (and her subsequent suicide) and the inability to please expressed in “Always
Unsuitable”?
ALICE WALKER, ►Everyday Use, 242 (VIDEO PRESENTATION)
SESSION 9: Tuesday, August 7
Group Presentation 1 (1860-1885, The Reconstruction and Industrial Revolution)
Group Presentation 2 (1885-1910, Naturalism)
Group Presentation 3 (1910-1935, Modernism and The Lost Generation)
Group Presentation 4 (1935-1960, Post-Modernism and the Beat Generation)
Group Presentation 5 (1960-1985, Civil Rights and the Sexual Revolution)
Group Presentation 6 (1985-2010, The Digital Voice)
SESSION 10: Thursday, August 9
1500-word Research Essay, FINAL EXAM
Gazzara/LIT 210 Syllabus/ Summer 2 12
Literature Analysis Information (Fiction/Novel portions for use on Research Essay)
Responding to Fiction
Connecting to the Text
The reminds me of …
This reminded me of a time when…
This story is similar to…
One of the characters in the story reminds me of…
Theme
Write about the author’s theme (the main message about humans, life, or the world that writer wants the reader
to “get.”)
Setting
Write about the setting, using descriptive words so the reader can see the setting in his or her mind.
How would the story be different if it took place in another setting?
Was the setting important to the story?
If the story takes place in more than one setting, choose two of the settings and compare
and contrast them.
Character
Which character stands out most in your mind? Why?
Do any of the characters remind you of someone you know? How? Why?
Who is your favorite character in the story? Explain why he/she/it is your favorite.
Is there a character in the story that you dislike? Why? Explain.
Choose one of the characters in the story and tell how he or she has changed from the beginning of the story to
the end. What caused him or her to change? Was the change for the better?
Choose one of the characters in the story. Write about his or her strengths and/or weaknesses.
Write about the most interesting or exciting part of the story.
Write about the funniest moment in the story. Explain why it was funny.
Write about the saddest moment in the story. Explain why it was sad.
What was the main conflict in the story? Explain.
General Responses
What is the one thing that sticks in your mind most about the story? Was it the plot? A character? Why?
Did you learn something while reading the story that you could use in your own life?
If you had to give the story another title, what would it be?
If you could change the ending of the story, would you? Why?
Responding to poetry:
Exploring Themes
What do you think the poem is about?
Try to group the ideas in the poem. Is there a story that the poem tells?
Imagery used to express themes
What are the pictures in the poem?
Are metaphors/similes used to explain ideas?
Are the five senses used to evoke certain reactions in the reader?
Form and Structure
Gazzara/LIT 210 Syllabus/ Summer 2 13
How is the poem organized e.g. lines, verses, layout and shape?
Why has the poet decided to structure the ideas in this way e.g. the sequence of ideas, length of lines, patterns
etc.
Rhyme and Rhythm
How does the poem rhyme? E.g. abab or aabb etc.
What is the rhythm of the poem when read aloud?
Why has the poet chosen this rhyme and rhythm to express these ideas?
Language Patterns
Think about the sound of the poem and choice of words
The poet uses specific words because they have a certain association in the reader's mind.
Look for alliteration, onomatopoeia, assonance, personification, symbolism. How has the poet grouped words to
achieve a desired effect?
Poetic Message
What is the poet trying to communicate to the reader?
How effective are the devices/language that he uses?
What is your response to the poem?
How to Analyze a Novel or Play:
I. Characters
1. In a sentence or two sum up the appearance and important characteristics of each major character.
2. Which characters change as the story proceeds? Do they change for the better or the worse?
3. Which characters are distinct individuals (round) and which types (flat)?
4. Does every character have a function in the story? What are the functions of the minor characters? Any
foils? Are these minor characters interesting in themselves?
5. How are the principal characters presented? By the author’s description and comment? By
representation of the thoughts and actions of the characters themselves? By observations and comments of
the other characters?
6. Are the characters at once realistically consistent and sufficiently motivated for whatever change occurs
in them?
7. Toward which characters does the author show sympathy? Toward which antipathy?
II. Plot
1. In 250-300 words, give a synopsis of the story. Is there a well unified beginning, middle, and end?
2. If there is more than one action in the story, show which is the main and which the subordinate plots
(subplots); is anything irrelevant to the main plot?
3. What is the nature of the conflicts? Are there complications to the main problem? Identify the
protagonist and antagonist.
4. Is our curiosity aroused? How? Are there significant dilemmas, ironies or foreshadowing?
5. Is the conclusion of the story satisfactory?
III. Setting
1. What is the historic time, place, and social background of the story? How much time does the action
cover? How does the author treat time gaps?
2. Which are the most interesting, striking, or important scenes? Refer to them specifically, describe them
briefly, and give your reasons for selecting them.
Gazzara/LIT 210 Syllabus/ Summer 2 14
3. For a novel, how is the setting presented? With photographic detail? Impressionistically through a few
suggestive details? Indirectly through thoughts and actions?
IV. Theme
1. What is the moral significance of the story? Does it have universal significance through its theme, plot,
and characters? Does it stimulate thoughts about any important problems of life? Does it supply answers
by implication or direct statement?
2. Does the story clearly reveal any overall view of the universe on the part of the author? Is this view
sentimental, romantic, cynical, etc.? Does the author content himself with showing evil and leave the
conclusions up to the reader, or does he use devices to help form the reader’s conclusions?
V. Style
1. How would you describe the author’s style? Simple and clear-cut, complex and involved? Smooth and
grateful, abrupt and harsh? Richly suggestive and implying much, lean and direct?
2. Does the author’s style have individuality? Could a story of his be recognized by the style alone?
3. Is there any humor in the story? Is it quiet or broad? Is the dialogue appropriate to the speakers?
4. How frequent are dramatic situations? How are they reached, by anticipation or surprise? How treated,
by suggestion or in detail? How rendered, by dialogue or by description?
5. Are there any different rates of movement in the narrative? Where and why?
6. For a novel, from what point of view is it written? In the point of view consistent? Could it have been
changed for the better?
7. Copy some of the striking passages that you consider full of meaning or particularly remarkable for their
freshness of statement.
VI. Historical background
1. When was the story written? What relation and/or significance does this date have to preceding,
contemporary, and /or succeeding events—literary publications and important political, economic, or social
occurrences?
2. What place does the story hold in the author’s total work?
3. Are any circumstances of special interest associated with the composition of the story? Do these
circumstances in any way aid in the better understanding of the story itself?
VII. Classification of the Story
1. On what levels can the story profitably be read? (Plot, characters, emotional effect, theme.) Is this a
story of character with the primary interest in events? Of setting, primary interest in environment? Of idea,
primary interest in thesis or ethical significance?
2. In what general literary tradition was the story written? Realistic, attempting to see life photographically
with emphasis on the difficulties, absurdities, animosities and ironies? Romantic, attempting to see life
idealistically with emphasis on the might-be or ought-to-be and avoiding the unpleasant? Naturalistic,
fantastic?
Walt Whitman
I Hear America Singing
I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,
Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,
The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,
The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,
Gazzara/LIT 210 Syllabus/ Summer 2 15
The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand
singing on the steamboat deck,
The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands,
The wood-cutter’s song, the ploughboy’s on his way in the morning, or
at noon intermission or at sundown,
The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of
the girl sewing or washing,
Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,
The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young fellows, robust, friendly
Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.
Walt Whitman
O Captain! My Captain!
O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills;
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;
Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
Gazzara/LIT 210 Syllabus/ Summer 2 16
Walt Whitman
Whoever You Are Holding Me Now In Your Hand
Whoever you are, holding me now in hand,
Without one thing, all will be useless,
I give you fair warning, before you attempt me further,
I am not what you supposed, but far different.
Who is he that would become my follower?
Who would sign himself a candidate for my affections?
The way is suspicious—the result uncertain, perhaps destructive;
You would have to give up all else—I alone would expect to be your God, sole and exclusive,
Your novitiate would even then be long and exhausting,
The whole past theory of your life, and all conformity to the lives around you, would have to be abandon’d;
Therefore release me now, before troubling yourself any further—Let go your hand from my shoulders,
Put me down, and depart on your way.
Or else, by stealth, in some wood, for trial,
Or back of a rock, in the open air,
(For in any roof’d room of a house I emerge not—nor in company,
And in libraries I lie as one dumb, a gawk, or unborn, or dead,)
But just possibly with you on a high hill—first watching lest any person, for miles around, approach unawares,
Or possibly with you sailing at sea, or on the beach of the sea, or some quiet island,
Here to put your lips upon mine I permit you,
With the comrade’s long-dwelling kiss, or the new husband’s kiss,
For I am the new husband, and I am the comrade.
Or, if you will, thrusting me beneath your clothing,
Where I may feel the throbs of your heart, or rest upon your hip,
Carry me when you go forth over land or sea;
For thus, merely touching you, is enough—is best,
And thus, touching you, would I silently sleep and be carried eternally.
But these leaves conning, you con at peril,
For these leaves, and me, you will not understand,
They will elude you at first, and still more afterward—I will certainly elude you,
Even while you should think you had unquestionably caught me, behold!
Already you see I have escaped from you.
For it is not for what I have put into it that I have written this book,
Nor is it by reading it you will acquire it,
Nor do those know me best who admire me, and vauntingly praise me,
Nor will the candidates for my love, (unless at most a very few,) prove victorious,
Nor will my poems do good only—they will do just as much evil, perhaps more;
For all is useless without that which you may guess at many times and not hit—that which I hinted at;
Therefore release me, and depart on your way.
E.A. Robinson
Variations of Greek Themes: A Happy Man (1902)
Gazzara/LIT 210 Syllabus/ Summer 2 17
When these graven lines you see,
Traveler, do not pity me;
Though I be among the dead,
Let no mournful word be said.
Children that I leave behind,
And their children, all were kind;
Near to them and to my wife,
I was happy all my life.
My three sons I married right,
And their sons I rocked at night;
Death nor sorrow ever brought
Cause for one unhappy thought.
Now, and with no need of tears,
Here they leave me, full of years,-Leave me to my quiet rest
In the region of the blest.
Robert Frost
The Need of Being Versed in Country Things (1920)
The house had gone to bring again
To the midnight sky a sunset glow.
Now the chimney was all of the house that stood,
Like a pistil after the petals go.
The barn opposed across the way,
That would have joined the house in flame
Had it been the will of the wind, was left
To bear forsaken the place’s name.
No more it opened with all one end
For teams that came by the stony road
To drum on the floor with scurrying hoofs
And brush the mow with the summer load.
The birds that came to it through the air
At broken windows flew out and in,
Their murmur more like the sigh we sigh
From too much dwelling on what has been.
Yet for them the lilac renewed its leaf,
And the aged elm, though touched with fire;
And the dry pump flung up an awkward arm;
And the fence post carried a strand of wire.
For them there was really nothing sad.
But though they rejoiced in the nest they kept,
One had to be versed in country things
Not to believe the phoebes wept.
Gazzara/LIT 210 Syllabus/ Summer 2 18
Carl Sandburg
Chicago (1916)
Hog Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation’s Freight
Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders:
They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I
have seen your painted women under the gas lamps
luring the farm boys.
And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it
is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to
kill again.
And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the
faces of women and children I have seen the marks
of wanton hunger.
And having answered so I turn once more to those who
sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer
and say to them:
Come and show me another city with lifted head singing
so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.
Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on
job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the
little soft cities;
Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning
as a savage pitted against the wilderness,
Bareheaded,
Shoveling,
Wrecking,
Planning,
Building, breaking, rebuilding,
Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with
white teeth,
Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young
man laughs,
Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has
never lost a battle,
Gazzara/LIT 210 Syllabus/ Summer 2 19
Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse,
and under his ribs the heart of the people,
Laughing!
Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of
Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog
Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with
Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.
Carl Sandburg
I am the People, the Mob (1916)
I am the people -- the mob--the crowd--the mass.
Do you know that all the great work of the world is done through me?
I am the workingman, the inventor, the maker of the
world’s food and clothes.
I am the audience that witnesses history. The Napoleons
come from me and the Lincolns.
I am the seed ground. I am a prairie that will stand
for much plowing. Terrible storms pass over me.
I forget. The best of me is sucked out and wasted.
I forget. Everything but death comes to me and
makes me work and give up what I have. And I
forget.
Sometimes I growl, shake myself and spatter a few red
drops for history to remember. Then--I forget.
When I, the People, learn to remember, when I, the
People, use the lessons of yesterday and no longer
forget who robbed me last year, who played me for
a fool--then there will be no speaker in all the world
say the name: “The People,” with any fleck of a
sneer in his voice or any far-off smile of derision.
The mob--the crowd--the mass--will arrive then.
Carl Sandburg
Government (1916)
The Government--I heard about the Government and
I went out to find it. I said I would look closely at
it when I saw it.
Then I saw a policeman dragging a drunken man to
the callaboose. It was the Government in action.
Gazzara/LIT 210 Syllabus/ Summer 2 20
I saw a ward alderman slip into an office one morning
and talk with a judge. Later in the day the judge
dismissed a case against a pickpocket who was a
live ward worker for the alderman. Again I saw
this was the Government, doing things.
I saw militiamen level their rifles at a crowd of workingmen who were trying to get other workingmen
to stay away from a shop where there was a strike
on. Government in action.
Everywhere I saw that Government is a thing made of
men, that Government has blood and bones, it is
many mouths whispering into many ears, sending
telegrams, aiming rifles, writing orders, saying
“yes” and “no.”
Government dies as the men who form it die and are laid
away in their graves and the new Government that
comes after is human, made of heartbeats of blood,
ambitions, lusts, and money running through it all,
money paid and money taken, and money covered
up and spoken of with hushed voices.
A Government is just as secret and mysterious and sensitive as any human sinner carrying a load of germs,
traditions and corpuscles handed down from
fathers and mothers away back.
Gazzara/LIT 210 Syllabus/ Summer 2 21
John Crowe Ransom
Winter Remembered
Two evils, monstrous either one apart,
Possessed me, and were long and loath at going:
A cry of Absence, Absence, in the heart,
And in the wood the furious winter blowing.
Think not, when fire was bright upon my bricks,
And past the tight boards hardly a wind could enter,
I glowed like them, the simple burning sticks,
Far from my cause, my proper heat and center.
Better to walk forth in the frozen air
And wash my wound in the snows; that would be healing;
Because my heart would throb less painful there,
Being caked with cold, and past the smart of feeling.
And where I walked, the murderous winter blast
Would have this body bowed, these eyeballs streaming,
And though I think this heart’s blood froze not fast
It ran too small to spare one drop for dreaming.
Dear love, these fingers that had known your touch,
And tied our separate forces first together,
Were ten poor idiot fingers not worth much,
Ten frozen parsnips hanging in the weather.
Gazzara/LIT 210 Syllabus/ Summer 2 22
Allen Ginsberg
America
America I’ve given you all and now I’m nothing.
America two dollars and twenty-seven cents January 17, 1956.
I can’t stand my own mind.
America when will we end the human war?
Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb
I don’t feel good don’t bother me.
I won’t write my poem till I’m in my right mind.
America when will you be angelic?
When will you take off your clothes?
When will you look at yourself through the grave?
When will you be worthy of your million Trotskyites?
America why are your libraries full of tears?
America when will you send your eggs to India?
I’m sick of your insane demands.
When can I go into the supermarket and buy what I need with my good looks?
America after all it is you and I who are perfect not the next world.
Your machinery is too much for me.
You made me want to be a saint.
There must be some other way to settle this argument.
Burroughs is in Tangiers I don’t think he’ll come back it’s sinister.
Are you being sinister or is this some form of practical joke?
I’m trying to come to the point.
I refuse to give up my obsession.
America stop pushing I know what I’m doing.
America the plum blossoms are falling.
I haven’t read the newspapers for months, everyday somebody goes on trial for
murder.
America I feel sentimental about the Wobblies.
America I used to be a communist when I was a kid and I’m not sorry.
I smoke marijuana every chance I get.
I sit in my house for days on end and stare at the roses in the closet.
When I go to Chinatown I get drunk and never get laid.
My mind is made up there’s going to be trouble.
You should have seen me reading Marx.
My psychoanalyst thinks I’m perfectly right.
I won’t say the Lord’s Prayer.
I have mystical visions and cosmic vibrations.
America I still haven’t told you what you did to Uncle Max after he came over
from Russia.
I’m addressing you.
Are you going to let our emotional life be run by Time Magazine?
I’m obsessed by Time Magazine.
I read it every week.
Its cover stares at me every time I slink past the corner candystore.
I read it in the basement of the Berkeley Public Library.
It’s always telling me about responsibility. Businessmen are serious. Movie
Gazzara/LIT 210 Syllabus/ Summer 2 23
producers are serious. Everybody’s serious but me.
It occurs to me that I am America.
I am talking to myself again.
Asia is rising against me.
I haven’t got a chinaman’s chance.
I’d better consider my national resources.
My national resources consist of two joints of marijuana millions of genitals
an unpublishable private literature that goes 1400 miles and hour and
twentyfivethousand mental institutions.
I say nothing about my prisons nor the millions of underpriviliged who live in
my flowerpots under the light of five hundred suns.
I have abolished the whorehouses of France, Tangiers is the next to go.
My ambition is to be President despite the fact that I’m a Catholic.
America how can I write a holy litany in your silly mood?
I will continue like Henry Ford my strophes are as individual as his
automobiles more so they’re all different sexes
America I will sell you strophes $2500 apiece $500 down on your old strophe
America free Tom Mooney
America save the Spanish Loyalists
America Sacco & Vanzetti must not die
America I am the Scottsboro boys.
America when I was seven momma took me to Communist Cell meetings they
sold us garbanzos a handful per ticket a ticket costs a nickel and the
speeches were free everybody was angelic and sentimental about the
workers it was all so sincere you have no idea what a good thing the party
was in 1835 Scott Nearing was a grand old man a real mensch Mother
Bloor made me cry I once saw Israel Amter plain. Everybody must have
been a spy.
America you don’re really want to go to war.
America it’s them bad Russians.
Them Russians them Russians and them Chinamen. And them Russians.
The Russia wants to eat us alive. The Russia’s power mad. She wants to take
our cars from out our garages.
Her wants to grab Chicago. Her needs a Red Reader’s Digest. her wants our
auto plants in Siberia. Him big bureaucracy running our fillingstations.
That no good. Ugh. Him makes Indians learn read. Him need big black niggers.
Hah. Her make us all work sixteen hours a day. Help.
America this is quite serious.
America this is the impression I get from looking in the television set.
America is this correct?
I’d better get right down to the job.
It’s true I don’t want to join the Army or turn lathes in precision parts
factories, I’m nearsighted and psychopathic anyway.
America I’m putting my queer shoulder to the wheel.
Gazzara/LIT 210 Syllabus/ Summer 2 24
Langston Hughes
Theme for English B (1951)
The instructor said,
Go home and write
a page tonight.
And let that page come out of you-Then, it will be true.
I wonder if it's that simple?
I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem.
I went to school there, then Durham, then here
to this college on the hill above Harlem.
I am the only colored student in my class.
The steps from the hill lead down into Harlem
through a park, then I cross St. Nicholas,
Eighth Avenue, Seventh, and I come to the Y,
the Harlem Branch Y, where I take the elevator
up to my room, sit down, and write this page:
It's not easy to know what is true for you or me
at twenty-two, my age. But I guess I'm what
I feel and see and hear, Harlem, I hear you:
hear you, hear me--we two--you, me, talk on this page.
(I hear New York too.) Me--who?
Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love.
I like to work, read, learn, and understand life.
I like a pipe for a Christmas present,
or records--Bessie, bop, or Bach.
I guess being colored doesn't make me not like
the same things other folks like who are other races.
So will my page be colored that I write?
Being me, it will not be white.
But it will be
a part of you, instructor.
You are white-yet a part of me, as I am a part of you.
That's American.
Sometimes perhaps you don't want to be a part of me.
Nor do I often want to be a part of you.
But we are, that's true!
As I learn from you,
I guess you learn from me-although you're older--and white-and somewhat more free.
This is my page for English B.
Gazzara/LIT 210 Syllabus/ Summer 2 25
Carolyn Forché
Taking Off My Clothes (1976)
I take off my shirt, I show you.
I shaved the hair out under my arms.
I roll up my pants, I scraped off the hair
on my legs with a knife, getting white.
My hair is the color of chopped maples
My eyes dark as beans cooked in the south.
(Coal fields in the moon on torn-up hills)
Skin polished as a Ming bowl
showing its blood-cracks, its age, I have hundreds
of names for the snow, for this, all of them quiet.
In the night I come to you and it seems a shame
to waste my deepest shudders on a wall of a man.
You recognize strangers,
think you lived through destruction.
You can’t explain this night, my face, your memory.
You want to know what I know?
Your own hands are lying.
Adrienne Rich
Living In Sin
She had thought the studio would keep itself;
no dust upon the furniture of love.
Half heresy, to wish the taps less vocal,
the panes relieved of grime. A plate of pears,
a piano with a Persian shawl, a cat
stalking the picturesque amusing mouse
had risen at his urging.
Not that at five each separate stair would writhe
under the milkman's tramp; that morning light
so coldly would delineate the scraps
of last night's cheese and three sepulchral bottles;
that on the kitchen shelf among the saucers
a pair of beetle-eyes would fix her own-envoy from some village in the moldings...
Meanwhile, he, with a yawn,
sounded a dozen notes upon the keyboard,
declared it out of tune, shrugged at the mirror,
rubbed at his beard, went out for cigarettes;
while she, jeered by the minor demons,
pulled back the sheets and made the bed and found
a towel to dust the table-top,
and let the coffee-pot boil over on the stove.
Gazzara/LIT 210 Syllabus/ Summer 2 26
By evening she was back in love again,
though not so wholly but throughout the night
she woke sometimes to feel the daylight coming
like a relentless milkman up the stairs.
Marge Piercy
Always Unsuitable (1969)
She wore little teeth of pearls around her neck.
They were grinning politely and evenly at me.
Unsuitable they smirked. It is true
I look a stuffed turkey in a suit. Breasts
too big for the silhouette. She knew
at once that we had sex, lots of it
as if I had strolled into her dining-room
in a dirty negligee smelling gamy
smelling fishy and sporting a strawberry
on my neck. I could never charm
the mothers, although the fathers ogled
me. I was exactly what mothers had warned
their sons against. I was quicksand
I was trouble in the afternoon. I was
the alley cat you don't bring home.
I was the dirty book you don't leave out
for your mother to see. I was the centerfold you masturbate with then discard.
Where I came from, the nights I had wandered
and survived, scared them, and where
I would go they never imagined.
Ah, what you wanted for your sons
were little ladies hatched from the eggs
of pearls like pink and silver lizards
cool, well behaved and impervious
to desire and weather alike. Mostly
that's who they married and left.
Oh, mamas, I would have been your friend.
I would have cooked for you and held you.
I might have rattled the windows
of your sorry marriages, but I would
have loved you better than you know
Gazzara/LIT 210 Syllabus/ Summer 2 27
how to love yourselves, bitter sisters.
Marge Piercy
Barbie Doll
This girlchild was born as usual
and presented dolls that did pee-pee
and miniature GE stoves and irons
and wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy.
Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said:
You have a great big nose and fat legs.
She was healthy, tested intelligent,
possessed strong arms and back,
abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity.
She went to and fro apologizing.
Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs.
She was advised to play coy,
exhorted to come on hearty,
exercise, diet, smile and wheedle.
Her good nature wore out
like a fan belt.
So she cut off her nose and her legs
and offered them up.
In the casket displayed on satin she lay
with the undertaker’s cosmetics painted on,
a turned-up putty nose,
dressed in a pink and white nightie.
Doesn’t she look pretty? everyone said.
Consummation at last.
To every woman a happy ending.
Gazzara/LIT 210 Syllabus/ Summer 2 28
Suicide Note
Janice Mirikitani
How many notes written . . .
ink smeared like birdprints in snow.
not good enough not pretty enough not smart enough
dear mother and father.
I apologize
for disappointing you.
I've worked very hard,
not good enough
harder, perhaps to please you.
If only I were a son, shoulders broad
as the sunset threading through pine,
I would see the light in my mother's
eyes, or the golden pride reflected
in my father's dream
of my wide, male hands worthy of work
and comfort.
I would swagger through life
muscled and bold and assured,
drawing praises to me
like currents in the bed of wind, virile
with confidence.
not good enough not strong enough not good enough
I apologize.
Tasks do not come easily.
Each failure, a glacier.
Each disapproval, a bootprint.
Each disappointment,
ice above my river.
So I have worked hard.
not good enough.
My sacrifice I will drop
bone by bone, perched
on the ledge of my womanhood,
fragile as wings.
not strong enough
It is snowing steadily
surely not good weather
for flying - this sparrow
sillied and dizzied by the wind
on the edge.
not smart enough.
I make this ledge my altar
to offer penance.
This air will not hold me,
the snow burdens my crippled wings,
my tears drop like bitter cloth
Gazzara/LIT 210 Syllabus/ Summer 2 29
softly into the gutter below.
not good enough not strong enough not smart enough
Choices thin as shaved
ice. Notes shredded
drift like snow
on my broken body,
covers me like whispers
of sorries.
Perhaps when they find me
they will bury
my bird bones beneath
a sturdy pine
and scatter my feathers like
unspoken song
over this white and cold and silent
breast of earth.