The Age of Expansion

 

Read pages 889-895, and answer the following questions.

 

  1. What fundamental changes did the years from the Civil War to the First World War bring to American life and literature?
  2. What obstacle confronted the South during the earl years after the Civil War?
  3. What obstacles confronted the North during the early years after the Civil War?
  4. How did rail transportation affect America’s frontiers?
  5. What social problems did the rapid expansion of people and industry create for America?
  6. Define (a) realism, (b) regionalism, (c) romantic idealism, (d) the Gilded Age, (e) American nationalism, (f) American naturalism

 

Reading Assignments

 

Always read the introductory background material for each assigned writer.

 

Walt Whitman              “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry,”  957

“Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking,”  961

“The Sleepers”  978

 

Emily Dickinson            # 288, 303, 701, 449, 1129, 324, 1052, 650, 712, 478, 465, 754

 

Mark Twain                 “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”  1024

 

William Dean Howells   “Editha”  1076

 

Henry James                 “Daisy Miller”  1079

 

Bret Hart                      “The Outcasts of Poker Flat”  1179

 

 

Journal Writes

 

# 1   In a one- to two-page entry, discuss Whitman as ADAM in “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking,” his mysticism in “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry,” and his portrayal of “friend to all” in “The Sleepers.”

 

# 2   Write discussion answers to the following questions: (a good paragraph for each selection)

  • What is Dickinson’s concern with maintaining individualism in poems 288, 303 and 701?
  • How do selections 449 and 1129 reflect Dickinson’s perspective of truth?
  • What elements of Christianity do you see in poems 324 and 1052?
  • How does Dickinson express suffering and pain and/or death in 478, 650 and 712?

 

# 3   Discuss Twain’s use of irony in “The Notorious Jumping Frog …”

 

# 4   Discuss the idealism of Editha’s life.

 

# 5   Taking a cue from her name characterize Daisy in “Daisy Miller.’

 

# 6   Discuss the hypocrisy of this frontier town of Poker Flat as it banishes the prostitutes, the alcoholic thief and the gambler.