Romantic - Nathanial Hawthorn - "The Birthmark"

• Spiritual nature
• Man of science = Aylmer
• Ammidab - earthly nature
• Spiritual affinity with Georgiana

Love of science rivals Love of women
Love of science wins
The mark changed with emotion. Are women more emotional?
Lack of perfection on earth - she is subject to sin, sorrow, decay, and death
Her happiness depends on his acceptance
Frankenstein?
You can tell a person's nature by their outward appearance
Aylmer never achieved his goals, never felt good enough. Is this why Georgiana isn't good enough?
The furnace looks like hell
As she dies she is the perfect unblemished woman
She essentially commits suicide to make him happy

Themes:

• Science has its limitations
• Perfection is not possible on earth
• obsession
• tragic flaw of Aylmer - ambition, search for perfection
• Nature of marriage

Science - desire to play God and blind faith in science

Georgiana does become perfect in physical nature and understanding. Aylmer never does

Hawthorne as a romantic trying to denigrate devotion to science?
Don't try to become God.

Humans are imperfect and that's Ok
Dark romanticism - emotion, Psychology, Philosophy, morality, rejection of the age of enlightenment

Story is didactic

• Lesson 1 - Man is inherently & necessarily flawed
• Lesson 2 - Science isn't everything
• Lesson 3 - Know a good thing when you have it

• A man of science
• Spiritual affinity
• Love of science to rival the love of women
• He had devoted himself, however, too unreservedly to scientific studies ever to be weaned from them by any second passion
• Doesn't want to see her as a sexual being
• Ah, upon another face perhaps it might, replied her husband, but never on yours
• Not a little similarity to the human hand
• female competitiveness
• After his marriage
• with every pulse of emotion that throbbed within her heart
• women are more emotional?
• Mark shows the fragile nature of life? Lack of perfection on earth
• Georgiana's heart
• Mark becomes a symbol of her heart
• Truth in dreams? A form of supernatural
• Her happiness depends on his acceptance
• Scene of all his previous triumphs
• Frankenstein
• He seemed to represent man's physical nature; while Aylmer's slender figure, and pale, intellectual face, were no less apt a type of spiritual element
• You can tell a person's nature by their outward appearance
• magic circle
• Husband possessed sway over the spiritual world
• Alchemy
• elixir of life
• Your case demands a remedy that shall go deeper
• He handled physical details as if there were nothing beyond them; yet spiritualized them all, and redeemed himself from materialism by his strong and eager aspiration toward the infinity 
• Never achieved his goals
• Confession and continual exemplification of the shortcomings
• Never feel good enough
• It was a sensation in the fatal birthmark, not painful, but which induced a restlessness throughout her system
• Hell
• How different from the sanguine and joyous mien that he had assumed for Georgiana's encouragement
• Go, prying woman, go
• The parting breath of the now perfect woman passed into the atmosphere
• exactly what her husband wants

Modern: William Faulkner - The Sound and the Fury

• 3 first person central narrators
• Benjy
• Quentin
• Jason
• (followed by Dilsey)
• Each telling story of their relationship with their sister and by extension the remainder of the family and each other
• Quentin - oldest child/son
• ashamed of his father's disregard for traditional Southern values of honor & virtue when it comes to Caddy's pregnancy
• Mr. Compson disregards Quentin's thoughts which leads to his initial depression and finally his ultimate demise. 
• Feels the burden to live up to the families honor & name
• paralyzed by his obsession with Caddy and Southern code of conduct and morality
• Caddy (Candace) - Second oldest/only daughter
• Perhaps the most important character as all 3 boys have an "obsession" with her
• As a young child steps in as a motherly figure for Quentin & Benjy
• Caddy's muddying of her underwear foreshadows her later promiscuity and the shadow her promiscuity leaves on the family name.
• Jason - third born/son/assumes responsibilities after Father dies of Alcoholism and Quentin commits suicide
• Steers clear of the other children
• Infatuation with Caddy but to get her in trouble.
• Only child to receive Mrs. Compson's affection
• No capacity to accept, enjoy, or reciprocate her love and eventually manipulates it to steal money from Miss Quentin (Caddy's daughter) behind Mrs. Compson's back.
• Not only rejects familial love but also romantic love
• Only romantic love is found in a prostitute from Memphis
• Thinks only about the present and immediate future.
• Extremely motivated but without ambition
• Can't move on past Caddy's losing his job at the bank, but becomes head of the household after Mr. Compson dies which further shows the low the once prominent family has come to.
• Benjy - Youngest son/child/Mentally ill.
• Totally dependent on Caddy and her affection (the only affection he receives)
• because of his illness doesn't perceive time, cause and effect, or right and wrong.
• He can sense anything that is bad, wrong, or out of place.
• Senses Quentin's suicide thousands of miles away
• Senses Caddy's promiscuity
• Takes notice of the families falling, but unable to do anything other than moan and cry about it
• Looking at the same reality and getting radically different tales = multiple people's perspective
• Quintin's problem is that he wants to commit suicide and masquerades as a sane person. He goes progressively insane. We're seeing the end stage of his insanity.
• Jason is the most in touch with reality of any of the three brothers, but he's a psychopath
• In terms of first person narration, this is as close as you can come to reliable stories with regards to what it was like to grow up in this family
• A sense of the shrinking significance of the individual
• Benjy=ultimate powerless individual, even 12 year old can torment him, looks in fire door in kitchen and flames soothe him (Lester can shut door and tease him)
• Quentin=no value. Ultimately judges that he is of no value to himself and his family, so ends his life
• Quentin's world is shattered as well, but in his case it's that shattering that causes him the greatest pain. Can't agree with his father, has mother that doesn't love him, has sister who is unchaste (doesn't go with his moral code), so has world that is so shattered (fragmentation) that he feels he can't put it back together and ends his life
• Inadequacy of Language = Benjy. Someone who not only is uneducated but has no voice at all. Gives Benjy language so we have insight into his inner life. Can't speak other than wails.
• Quentin - language is disintegrating. As you go along you lose capital letters/punctuations. Faulkner indicating that shattering of Quentin's world is going along as time is
• Quentin's memory is complicated because it is largly intertwined with his fantasies.
• sometimes it is difficult to tell which of his memories are based on events that accually occured and which are based on fantasy or wishful thinking.

• Watches and time play a significant roll in the telling of Quentin's story.
• So ultimate absolute is lost. If there is no God or truth, then left with human perceptions
• ends with church service. Three 3rd person POV's and then 3rd person omniscient. No mistake that spends a good deal of time at church service in which black preacher preaches first part of the sermon like white man and then voice changes into sort of musical chant "recollection in the blood of the lamb" <-- illogical, but gives Dilsey some sense of peace.
• Aspects of Modernism
• Fragmentation (partial knowledge, inadequacy of language (Benjy's section))
• Benjy's section is major stream of consciousness
• It jumps around as memories come to Benjy.
• this fact makes it difficult to follow sometimes
• Easiest way to tell present from past is if you feel the presence of Luster.
• Luster is a key element to the present
• Benjy's voice offers narrator of the tragic events and circumstances without commentary
• his narrative gradually gives us the knowledge of the relationship that governs the family
• Benjy shows the differing personalities of the Compson siblings.
• Isolation
• Alienation
• Focus on self (intense subjectivity, self-absorption)
• Disillusionment & sense of pointlessness, nothingness
• Moral relativism and paralysis
• Loss of faith in old systems of order and authority
• The parallel lines between Caddy and her daughter Miss Quentin show that the downfall of the family does not stop with Caddy's generation.
• Because Caddy set the scene doing the promiscuous things, Miss Quentin doesn't feel bad for her actions.
• Dilsey shows considerable strength
• Deceptiveness of appearances (Irony, complexity, skepticism, unreliability of perception)
• Preoccupation with trivial, the shallow
• Search for stimulation
• Dilsey
• The family's nurse maid
• The only sense of the stability the children receive
• only detached character to experience the downfall from start to finish
• lives her life on the same fundamental values that the family was once built on...
• family, faith, personal honor, and so on
• Raises the Compson children as well as her own children and grandchildren at the same time
• Dilsey narrates the last section through the voice of Faulkner himself.
• It is written in a third-person perspective
• This viewpoint takes the reader a step back from the inner world and gives a panoramic view of the tragedy that has unfolded
• Her voice is an objective one
• similar to Benjy in its ability to view the Compson world without resentment
• Unlike Benjy, Dilsey relies on a mere traditional mode of storytelling
• Themes
• Corruption Southern Aristocratic Values
• Traditional Values 
• Gentlemen: displaying courage, moral strength, perseverance, and chivalry in defense of the honor of their family
• Women: feminine grace, purity, and virginity until it came time to provide children to receive the family inheritance
• Resurrection and Renewal
• The novel takes place on or around Easter
• Dilsey represents strength and hope
• Failure of Language and Narrative
• While there are 4 different perspectives, 3 in 1st person, Even the last of the voices in 3rd person doesn't tie up all lose ends of the novel
• Faulkner had difficulty in writing through the different perspectives because while there were some that answered questions, other questions arrived
• Time
• Benjy cannot distinguish time
• Quentin is trapped in time
• Jason can only see time as personal gain
• Dilsey is the only character at peace with time
• Order and Chaos
• Shadows
• serve as a subtle reminder of the passage of time
• Water
• Cleansing and purity
• Quentin's Watch

Post WWII: "Everything that Rises must Converge" Flannery O'Connor

• January 1965
• 3rd Person POV through Julian
• recent college grad and self-styled intellectual who lives with his mother because he can't afford his own lodgings with the salary he hears as a typewriter salesman
• Mother's world 
• racism of the mid-20th C South
• Blacks are free to rise
• But should do so separately from whites
• wary of riding the bus because of racial integration on the Public transportation system
• Julian resentfully agrees to escort his mother
• If only out of duty to the woman who paid for college
• and continues to support him now
• declares that he will make money one day
• wants to move to the country
• His mother encourages him to dream big
• Confrontational bitterness and thoughtless prejudice bring the circumstances to a boil
• on the bus joined by widely disparate cast of characters
• 2 black men with vastly different social status
• One in a nice suit reading the newspaper
• Julian imagines striking up a conversation with him.
• Instead asks for a light in spite of the no-smoking and no cigs
• Julian tries to screw with his mother
• loosens his tie to which his mother says he looks like a thug
• Mother points out there are only white people on board
• Discussion turns to Julian
• Mother says he's a typewriter salesman but wants to be a writer
• Julian withdraws
• dreams of bringing a black lawyer or professor home for dinner to cause his mother to need to be treated by a black doctor
• interracial relationships
• Stern-looking black woman boards the bus with her young son
• boy sits next to mother
• Mother likes all children regardless of race
• mother sits next to Julian
• Black mother seems familiar but unsure why
• places it to the ugly hat she wears and his mother also wears
• Calls out angrily to her son, Carver
• Julian's mother tries to play Peek-a-boo with the boy
• Black woman ignores her and chastises her son
• Julian and the black woman pll the signal cord at the same time
• Mother always gives a nickel to kids
• Can only find a penny
• Goes to give it to Carver
• Mother clobbers mother with purse yelling "He don't take nobody's pennies!"
• Julian berates his mother as he helps her up
• Lectures his mother saying that she should learn from her encounter with the woman on the bus 
• All African Americans distaste for condescending handouts
• Mother reaches out to grab Julian
• Strange expression on her face
• says to call for grandpa or nurse Caroline
• crumbles to the pavement
• Julian rushes to her and finds her face distorted
• Starts to run for help but quickly returns to her side.

Post WWII: "A Good Man is Hard to Find" Flannery O'Connor

• Grandmother tries to convince her son to take the family to east Tennessee for vacation instead of Florida
• There is an escaped convict heading toward Florida
• Cat, Pitty Sing, gets hidden in a basket in the car
• dress attire
• dress and hat with flowers
• Wants people to know she is a lady
• In a cotton field, grandma tells the young boy that there are graves in the middle that belonged to the plantation
• Jokes that the plantation has "Gone with the Wind."
• Suitor brought her watermelon every week
• carved his initials in which were EAT (Edgar Atkins Teagarden)
• Little black child ate because he thought it said to "eat"
• Restaurant owner, Red Sammy Butts complains people are untrustworthy 
• His wife doesn't trust anyone, including him.
• Red Sam says "A good man is hard to find."
• The family drives deep into the woods seeking a house
• Grandma then remembers it's in Tennessee not Georgia
• Bailey wrecks the car when Pitty Sing escapes the basket and startles him.
• The mother breaks her shoulder
• Grandma doesn't tell about her mistake
• Wants to visit a plantation she once visited nearby
• Says the house has 6 white columns and was at the end of an oak tree driveway
• Lied to make the house seem interesting
• Head down a gravel road
• A passing car stops, three men get out carrying guns
• Grandma thinks she recognizes one of them
• One wearing glasses and no shirt
• tells the children's mother to make the children set down because they make him nervous
• Misfit
• The man doesn't like that she recognizes him.
• Takes the father and the boy into the woods
• The mom and the two girls go into the woods
• gun shots come from the woods
• Grandma says you wouldn't kill a lady
• Misfit shoots grandma in the chest 3 times when she calls him "one of my own children"
• The misfit observes that grandmother could have been a good woman if someone had been around "to shoot her every minute of her life.
• The misfit says life has no true pleasure
• Themes
• definition of "Good Man"
• Unlikely recipients of good grace
• Nostalgia
• The grandmother's hat.

Post WWII: "Good Country People" Flannery O'Connor

• Published in 1955
• Mr. and Mrs. Freeman help Mrs. Hopewell run her farm in rural Georgia
• Mrs. Hopewell's daughter, Joy - 32, lost her leg in a childhood accident.
• Joy focuses her life in education receiving a Ph.D. in Philosophy
• Her mother thinks this is non-sensible
• Joy changes her name to "Hulga"
• The ugliest name to rebel against her mother.
• Manley Pointer, a bible salesman, visits the farm
• He's invited to stay for dinner
• Mrs. Hopewell believes he is "good country people
• Pointer invites Hulga to a picnic the next evening
• she imagines seducing him
• During the date, he persuades her to go up into the barn loft where he persuades her to remove her prosthetic leg and glasses
• He the produces a hollowed-out bible
• whiskey, sex cards, and some condoms
• He tries to get her to drink, she refuses
• He leaves with her leg claiming he collects prostheses from disabled people and is an atheist.
• a stranger - deceptively polite but ultimately evil - intrudes upon a family with destructive consquences
• Divided into 4 distinct sections
• O'Connor is able to establish sbutle parrallels between the characters
• Mrs. Freeman & Manley Pointer
• Mrs. Hopewell and Hulga
• While at the same time providing details which appear to emphasize the different facets of the four individual characters.
• Part of the "A Good Man is Hard to Find" short story collection
• Hulga holds grudges against Mrs. Freeman's daughters.
• The names all play a significance in the telling of the story
• Hope well
• Free man
• Pointer
• Joy to Hulga

Post WWII: Flannery O'Connor

• 1925-1964
• Wrote 2 novels and 32 short stories
• Southern Gothic Style writer
• relied on regional settings and grotesque characters
• Irony
• depravity
• Puritan ideals
• hypocrisy
• anti-protestant; but doesn't care for Catholics yet says everyone gets a moment of grace & could've been saved, but do most people take it?
• 7 deadly sins

Post WWII: Gwendolyn Brooks

• Black author
• Kansas City --> Chicago
• Writes about poverty
• Usually black characters: Bean eaters, New Johannesburg Boy, To those of my sisters
• First black author to win a Pulitzer Prize
• Poetry consultant for the Library of Congress
• Many of Brooks's works display:
• a political consciousness
• especially those from the 60's and later
• several of her poems reflect the civil rights movement
• Bridge the gap between the academic poets of her generation in the 40's and the young black militant writers of the 60's
• Born in Topeka, KS
• Brooks was13 when her first published poem, "Eventide" appeared in American Childhood
• At 17 she was publishing poems frequently in the Chicago Defender
• Chicago's black population newspaper
• Her poems focused on urban blacks, that would be published in her first collection, A Street in Bronzeville.
• Describes her work as "folksy narrative."
• She varied her forms, using free verse, sonnets, and other models.
• Published one novel in the 1950's
• Maud Martha
• Later works took a far more political stance
• Just as her first poems reflected the mood of their era
• Her later works mirrored their age by displaying "an intense awareness of the problems of color and justice."
• Some say they are more about bitterness than bitter in themselves
• Activism and interest in nurturing black literature
• Caused her to leave Harper & Row in favor of fledgling black publishing companies
• 1970's - Dudly Randall's Broadside Press
• Did not regret having supported small publishers dedicating to the needs of the black community
• Believed that some books only got small notability because literary establishments didn't want to encourage Black publishers.