Other Novels Flashcards
1
Q
Edith Wharton’s ‘The Age of Innocence’
A
- First mention of women is as a group, describing the whole gender as a “product of the system” (completely stripping them of any agency over their own identities)
- Characters live in constant fear of being excluded or shunned or pitied (society’s hypocrisy)
- Appearance is everything in Wharton’s pedantically snobbish New York
2
Q
Willa Cather’s ‘My Antonia’
A
- Mr Shimerda commits suicide as he is “so unhappy that he could not live any longer”
- Social barriers is reason why Jim does not pursue Antonia romantically
3
Q
Charles W. Chestnutt’s novel ‘Cicely’s Dream’
A
- “Dreams had certain meanings” (American Dream)
- “Dreams were serious things” (omen for future)
- “troubled world” (Civil War, American Dream, Great Depression, minorities/immigrants/women/race)
4
Q
Upton Sinclair’s ‘The Jungle’
A
- “desolate procession would begin again - the procession of dreary little buildings” (emptiness/disillusionment of American Dream, Valley of Ashes)
5
Q
Kate Chopin’s ‘The Story of an Hour’
A
- “died of heart disease - of the joy that kills” (lack of freedom/choice/lack of independence, illusion of American Dream, marginalisation)
6
Q
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’
A
- “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage” (gender of stereotypes - Angel in a house)
7
Q
Mark Twain’s ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’
A
- “poor little lambs” (lower class, Declaration of Independence, illusion of American Dream)
8
Q
James Fenimore Cooper’s ‘The Pioneers’
A
- “willing veil” to “hide the shame of a noble soul” (fear/isolation, hiding you true nature - James Gatz)
9
Q
Theodore Dreiser’s ‘Sister Carrie’
A
- “As long as I’m in this house I’m master of it, and you or anyone else won’t dictate me - do you hear?” (gender stereotypes)
10
Q
Henry James’ ‘Daisy Miller’
A
- “very reckless girl” (victim of social stereotypes, oppressed by conservatism, represents America)
11
Q
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s ‘The Scarlet Letter’
A
- “illuminated upon her bosom” (independence, marginalised people, outskirts)
12
Q
Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The Beautiful and the Damned’
A
- “shoes of gold and bronze and red and shining black” (class differences, verisimilitude of illusion of American Dream)
13
Q
Faulkner’s ‘As I Lay Dying’
A
- Upper class “sitting […] like buzzards” (upper class preying on weaker class, contrasting opinion of stereotypes - normally despise WC)
14
Q
Lewis’ ‘Babbitt’
A
- “mist [that] spun away” + “mist [that] took pity on the fretted structures” (WC’s feeling of miserableness, sympathetic atmosphere for WC, lack of appreciation)
15
Q
Theodore Dreiser’s ‘An American Tragedy’
A
- “sweet languor” (juxtaposition of upper class lifestyle, illusion of American Dream, loss of individualism)
- “small group dispose itself [into] fashion” (verisimilitude of illusion of American Dream, lack of individuality for upper class)
