Question description
These are two different stories and one poem.Hands by Sherwood Anderson is on page 265, The man who was almost a man by Richard Wright on page 899 and the poem., the fingers make early flowers of is by E. E Cummings on page 638. PLEASE READ THE INSTRUCTION CAREFULLY.
MIDTERM
ESSAY EXAM
ENGLISH 2328
General Instructions: Help write my essay – Write an essay of at least 750 words (including
quotations from the poems and short stories that you use as support) on ONE of
the numbered topics below. If you use sources in your response (even those I
have provided for you), be sure to cite them, using Research essay writing service – MLA format. Quotations from
the textbook require only a page number. You should choose different poems or
short stories than those you used in your reading responses for Volume D. The
three examples should be by different authors. All stories and poems must come from Volume D of the
textbook.
To prepare for the midterm, you will need to read the introduction to Volume D,
“American Literature Between the Wars: 1914-1945,” especially the
following sections: “American Versions of Modernism” (D:
13-16) and “Modernism Abroad and On Native Grounds” (D:
1618).The midterm will require
you to apply ideas from the introduction to specific short stories
(fiction) or poems written during this time period (1914-1945). This
does not include essays (non-fiction prose).
· You may choose short stories or poems by the writers that I
assigned for the reading responses, as long as you choose different poems or
short stories (fiction) than you chose for your reading responses.
· To help you choose, you may find it useful to read the
biographical introductions to the writers since most of these introductions
discuss the author’s work in a general way.
The paper should be in essay form with an
introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion (not a collection of
reading responses–no sub-headings). You should use quotations from the reading selections
as support for your general ideas. Your examples must show that you have
read the literature that you are discussing, not just the author’s
biography. Do not use long poems or novels as examples, since I want you to discuss the reading selections
specifically, not just a short part of a longer work. A brief overview
isn’t adequate. Again, you must show that you read the selection (poem or
story) carefully.
WRITE
ABOUT ONLY ONE OF THE FOLLOWING TOPICS.
1. In the section called “Modernism Abroad and On Native Grounds,”
the editors say that “[m]any writers chose to identify themselves with the
American scene and to root their work in specific regions” of the country (D:
17) (1188). Homework help – Discuss at least three poems or short stories (fiction) by
three different authors that chose to focus on a particular part of the United
States. In your paper, you should show how these writers combine modernism and
regionalism. You may wish to use quotations from this introductory material,
but you should also use quotations from the literature (poems or stories)
themselves. (Note: Usually the phrase “specific regions” means parts
of the U. S. away from urban literary centers–the West, Midwest, South, New
England, etc.) This section includes many examples, so you may want to
choose three of them (see D: 17).
The section called “American
Versions of Modernism” (D: 13-16) will help you choose writers to include.
2. During the 1920’s African
American writers began to make significant contributions to American
literature, especially during the Harlem Renaissance. Choose at least three
poems or fiction from this literary movement to discuss, perhaps applying
the ideas in Langston Hughes’ essay The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (D: 348-50) or from the discussion in the
textbook introduction. Many of the writers of the Harlem Renaissance are also
modernists, so you may wish to quote from one or more of the modernist
manifestos as well. (Note: “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” is an
essay, not a short story, so it doesn’t count as fiction, though you may use it
to illustrate an idea that does appear in fiction or poetry.)
Useful quotation from the introduction to Volume D:
The Harlem
Renaissance sparked arguments between those who wanted to claim membership in
the culture at large and those who wanted to stake out a separate artistic
domain; between those who wanted to celebrate rural African American lifeways
and those committed to urban intellectuality; between those who wanted to join
the American mainstream and those who, disgusted by American race prejudice,
aligned themselves with worldwide revolutionary movements; between those who
celebrated a “primitive” African heritage and those who rejected the
idea as a degrading stereotype. (D: 8)
See D: 7-8 for a discussion of
changes for African Americans during this time period (the Great Migration out
of the South, the gathering of artists, musicians, and writers in Harlem in the
1920s, the publication of two major journals of opinion, The Crisis and Opportunity).
3. Define modernism, using
quotations from the introduction to Volume D of The Norton Anthology of
American Literature or from
one of the Modernist Manifestos (D: 335-350). Then, apply your
definition to at least three reading selections (poetry or fiction),
using quotations from the reading selections that reveal the work’s (poem or
story) modernist attributes. Each reading selection should be by a different
writer. Please note that the manifestos do not qualify as poetry or fiction,
though it’s fine to use them as part of your discussion of modernism. You must
still have three examples that are fiction or poetry (not non-fiction prose).
“Some writers rejoiced while
others lamented; some anticipated future utopias while others believed that
civilization had collapsed; but the period’s most influential voices believed
that old forms would not work for new times, and were inspired by the
possibility of creating something entirely new” (D: 6). (Everything
following this quotation will help you write your essay.)
This quotation seems important:
“At the heart of high modernist aesthetic lay the conviction that the
previously sustaining structures of human life, whether social, political,
religious, or artistic, had been destroyed or shown up as falsehoods, or, at
best, arbitrary and fragile human constructions” (D: 14).
4. Women writers also became more
prominent during this time, despite the fact that “to some extent, male
modernists tried to define their movement by defining women out of it”
(1082, 6th edition). In the 7th edition, the editors assert that
“the increasing prominence[of women writers]. . . generated a backlash
from some male modernists, who asserted their own artistic seriousness by
identifying women writers with the didactic, popular writing against which they
[male writers] rebelled” (1189). Homework help – Discuss at least three poems or short
stories by three different women writers, showing how their work fits into the
literary trends of the era. You may use Mina Loy’s “Feminist
Manifesto” as background material if you wish, but it isn’t a poem or
short story, so it doesn’t count as one of the three.
See D: 7 for a discussion of changes
for women.
Note: In previous semesters, several students have had to rewrite their essays
because they didn’t follow instructions regarding their choices of poetry and
fiction (short stories). I hope that you will ask questions about the assigned
topics so that I can help you before you write your essay.
