American Literature Essay

Though I touched on this topic in the first half of the semester in my response to Ida B. Wells (Addition Post 2), I’ve expanded on this issue in my responses to Mary Loeffelholz’s overview of American Literature (Mar. 13), Gloria Anzaldúa’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” (Apr. 8), and Adrienne Rich’s “Diving into the Wreck” (Apr. 15). Specifically, Loeffelholz’s retelling of history, alongside Rich and Wells’ rejection of accepted history, resulted in…

1. I believe we were assigned the excerpt from All Things Shining by Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Dorrance Kelly to help us understand the value of reading literature. While technology is able to do nearly everything for us, having the skill to analyze a book is invaluable. In All Things Shining, Dreyfus and Kelly use the example of GPS to explain that technology deprives us of living. They explain that before GPS was around everyone developed the skill of navigation. People had to pay attention to…

Every author influences literature, what makes them different is their story behind it. Harper Lee spent her career influencing American Literature by making readers question, do they possess the same type of power to represent what can be in the face of what really is. Lee’s lasting contribution was to bring a book to American Literature that gave readers a moral compass. Lee has her very own relations to American literature within her work that strongly impact the society. In high school, Lee…

universally appealing work. Particularly in his poem titled “___________”, we see examples of his most salient particularities and effective use of English language. Larry Patrick Levis then stands as one of the greats in the pantheon of American and World Literature. Larry Patrick Levis was born in Fresno, California, on September 30, 1964. He died on May 8, 1996 in Richmond, Virginia because of a heart attack. He earned a Bachelor’s degree from Fresno State College in 1968, a Master’s…

Recognizing Your Actions Literature often brings a positive impact to several people when reading something astonishing. A book has so many meanings behind it which we usually obtain something specific that we enjoyed about the book. There is so many purposes literature brings to a person. There are times when it makes you think about your own personal experiences and your actions you have done which is familiar with the literature you are reading. When reading, you prepare yourself for what…

With each piece of literature observed throughout the entirety of the course, a general theme of ironic grotesqueness has prevailed. This theme has been present in every story, yet not always easily detectable. Being no exception, Death of a Salesman, The Great Gatsby, and There Will Be Blood have followed this theme. The three aforementioned pieces of literature feature protagonists who have a common endeavor. Each strive towards the “American Dream,” the acquisition of supposed happiness that…

Michael Dana Gioia in the article, “Why Literature Matters,” states that our recent lack of interest in literature is in decline. Gioia points out in a study that our decline of Americans reading literature is a great cause for concern. He also states that we are sending workers into the workplace who are not taught the necessary skills of reading comprehension. Gioia informs us of how the lack of reading literature has damaged our understanding of civic knowledge. The author suggests that to…

The Early American Fiction Writers Washington Irvin, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe Contributed Significantly to the American Literary Canon with their Unique Styles of Writing and their Varied Literary Themes and Forms Referred to as the Romantic Era in both America and Europe, the late eighteenth century and the early nineteenth century gave rise to phenomenon writers that made massive contributions to the American literary canon. At the time, these new forms of literature were…

Fictional literature is often written in compliance with the historical events of the time period in which it was placed. The amalgamation of these two things assists in more accurately depicting various aspects of literature, including setting, conflict, and theme. This conjunction occurs in literary works throughout history, including those of the Red Scare era, as well as during Revolutionary America. Naturally, the same phenomenon also occurs with pieces of literature set in the mid 1800s.…

No less an authority on literature than Leo Tolstoy wrote that there are as many kinds of love as there are hearts. The same is true for English teachers: There are as many reasons to teach literature as there are teachers of literature. The most philosophical teachers could assert that fiction serves as a self-actualizing force, that people read “to set the darkness echoing” (Heaney 1463). Still more could posit that an English class serves as an introduction to the canon, ensuring that…