Characters in American novels of the 20th century

they would either use or sell to other countries. As seen in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, however, the costs of colonization are typically much more that the benefits. The turn of the century marked a change in the way that people thought and acted, and Conrad attempted to show this change in his novel. In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, the late 1890s’ social, historical, and cultural values…

The Pain of Loneliness In his novel, Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck writes of George Milton and Lennie Small, who are two migrant workers looking for jobs in early 20th century California. They are extremely loyal to each other through their tribulations, and long to “live off the fatta the lan’” (Steinbeck 14) on their own farm. Among the many themes expressed in this novel, Steinbeck highlights the pain of loneliness. This theme can be seen most clearly through the actions and words of…

Considered one of the greatest novelists in American literature and history, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is one of the most confusing yet most rendering novels. Conrad wrote this book with the inspiration after he sailed up the Congo River, a journey that provided much of the material for his most notable and highly regarded work Heart of Darkness. One of Conrad’s main focus is on the issues surrounding imperialism in the novel yet there is also a larger underlying issue of race and…

Despite disapproval from others and she struggles to tell her students the truth about the world they live in. Cassie views her mother as strong and determined. Though , the historical settings of the novel (Mississippi during the Great Depression) is sufficient to afford opposition for this character. Her position as a black woman prevents people from taking her seriously and in some level , she does live in terror of revenge from the white men in the town who try to silence her. She attempts…

American Society: as Seen Through a Baseball Game As psychologist Robert Johnson noted,”History has always been a series of pendulum swings, but the individual doesn't have to get caught in that.” The social ‘pendulum’ swing has been evident throughout history, but particularly evident during the period of the early 1900s leading up to the roaring twenties. In E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime, Father, a main character, has trouble fitting into the new world. One must inquire deeper into the work to find…

relevant today. (B)Although the novel…

worst, we can also see this in the way that new immigrants were treated. One theme of the book relates most to U.S. history and that is how the book compares how the foreign characters were treated compared to that of real-life immigrants from the late 19th century to the early 20th. During the 19th century and the early 20th, there was a spike in the number of immigrants to America from all over the world. During this time,…

Tom’s Cabin” was it. Frederick Douglass celebrated that she had “baptized with holy fire myriads who before cared nothing for the bleeding slave” while in the North. In the South things were different; her accusation of slavery through the hateful character of Legree was compared to a “malevolent” outbreak on the foundation of marriage, as if she had selected a wife-beater to embody “the normal condition of the relation” between loving spouses. It has perceptive things to say about Stowe’s…

Richard Wright’s novel, Native Son, depicts the life of the general black community during the 1930’s. Throughout the novel, Wright illustrates the ways in which white supremacy forces blacks into a much too pressured and dangerous state of mind. Blacks are beset with the hardship of economic oppression and forced to act subserviently before their oppressors. Given such conditions, it becomes inevitable that blacks such as Bigger Thomas, the protagonist of the novel, will react with violence and…

rearing of the 19th century, Sigourney’s excerpt is just one example of the feelings experienced by mothers of her time. While she boasts of her new affection which “seems to spread a soft, fresh green over the soul”, later mothers such as Adrienne Rich (1976) and Anne Lamott (1993) complain of heart-wrenching feelings of anger,…