Suggested
Reading in American Literature
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A-C|D-F|G-J|L-O|S-W| Alphabetized by author's last name
Winseburg, Ohio: These connected stories deal with
the lives of inhabitants of small Ohio town; George is observer and
commentator; stories focus on individuals who, with a profound sense of shame,
guilt or inadequacy, are alienated from themselves and isolated from others.
Bellamy, Edward
Looking Backward: Futuristic literature; young Bostonian is transported from 19th to 21st century; is the 21st-century America presented really a Utopia?
Bellow, Saul
Henderson the Rain King: 1st-person
narration of middle-aged American millionaire; fabulous air of quest romance;
protagonist returns from Africa at peace with the world he was warring against
Seize the Day: Narration mixes ridicule and affection
in presenting Tommy Wilhelm, an aging out-of-work actor; Tommy is confronted
simultaneously by countless sources of pressure and alienation.
Mr. Samler’s Planet: Uncle Samler, an aging Jew
living in New York, analyzes himself, his relatives, and current culture; the
absurdity he finds feeds a sense of spiritual emptiness—countered only by the
realization that each man attains dignity by doing “what is required of him.”
Brackenbridge, Hugh Henry
Modern Chivalry: Based on Don Quixote; contains the
adventures of Captain Farrago and his ignorant servant Teague O’Regan;
Brackenbridge satirizes the excesses of his day—attacks judges, property qualifications
for voting, pride in ignorance.
Wieland: Attack on superstition and fanaticism;
romance with gothic elements; Theodore thinks God has commanded him to kill his
family, but the commanding voice actually belongs to Carwin, a ventriloquist.
Edgar Huntly: or Memoirs of a Sleepwalker: Dark
caves, wild animals, and wild Indians set the stage for this gothic tale;
anticipates 20th-century theories of the unconscious.
Ormond: Constantia Dudley, the poor heroine, is
pursued by rich Ormond; Ormond loses his good manners and his good sense; when
he attacks Constantia, she kills him.
Cooper, James Fennimore
The Deerslayer: Natty Bumppo acquires the name
“Deerslayer,” is made ill when he kills his first man, and refuses the advances
of Judith Hutter; often unrealistic adventure story reveals Cooper’s vision of
American virtue
The Last of the Mohicans : Best-executed plot of the
Leatherstocking series; Indians are forced to leave their land; sympathetic but
not always accurate portrayal of natives.
The Pioneers: First-written of series;
Leatherstocking and Chingachgook not yet fully developed; protagonist arrested
for shooting out of season; later saves people from panther and from fire
Crane, Stephen
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets: Naturalistic, impressionistic
novel that presents environmental determinism at work in industrial America;
characters are types and conversation strives for realism in its harsh,
repetitive inanity
Manhattan Transfer: Experiments in structure and in point
of view; pessimistic portrayal of postwar America (1904-1923); characters can
find no meaning in their lives; cross-sectional panorama of a city at work
Dreiser, Theodore
Sister Carrie: Carrie Meeber, an innocent Wisconsin
girl, goes to Chicago and falls into a series temptations; offers no moral
judgment on situation of fallen woman; naturalism, criticism of capitalist
society.
An American Tragedy: Study of social classes and of
an individual’s efforts to rise from one into another; Clyde plans to murder
pregnant Roberta so that he can achieve his goal; moral analysis of guilt
Eliot, T. S.
Murder in the Cathedral: Verse tragedy about the
murder of Thomas a Becket by followers of Henry II; little action except for
the murder itself; focus of the play presented in debate with four tempters who
suggest inner conflicts in Thomas’ mind.
The Sound and the Fury: 4 sections, each related through the mind of a different character; countless skips in chronological time, stream of consciousness, free association; the disintegration of the South presented though members of the Compson family.
As I Lay Dying: Addie Bundren’s family takes her body
to be buried in the family plot in Jefferson; each chapter is narratedby one of
the family members; journey assumes dimensions of a saga when family is beset
by flood, madness, fire, and seduction.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott
The Beautiful and the Damned: Adam Patch disinherits
his grandson Anthony ; an alcoholic Anthony and his wife contest the will and
get $30 million dollars; Anthony’s last chance to regenerate himself has been
lost.
Tender is the Night: Dick Diver, an American
psychiatrist, marries Nicole, one of his patients; Dick degenerates as his
spiritual resources are drained; told successfully from points of views of
several characters.
This Side of Paradise: Unconvincing Bildungsroman;
Amory Baine is spoiled, egotistical Princeton studentwho turns to the high life
when he discovers that he cannot be a football star.
Franklin, Benjamin
The Autobiography: Franklin’s utilitarian moral
philosophy, instructions on how to succeed; religious views, literary
experiences, and adventures; less an autobiography than a collection of stories
and aphorisms.
Main-Travelled Roads: Studies in realism; stories
present farm life in newly settled Middle West; students should trace recurring
themes in any of three of the following: “Under the Lion’s Paw,” “The Return of
the Private,” Up the Coulee,” “A Branch Road,” “The Creamery Man,” “A Day’s
Pleasure.”
The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Sketches: Stories
of the American frontier feature unconventional language, theme, treatment and
morals; compactness of structure and well-drawn characters; students should
compare OR contrast any three of the following: “Miggles,” “Brown of
Calaveras,” “M’liss,” “The Luck of Roaring Camp,” “The Outcasts of Poker Flat,”
“Tennessee’s a Partner.”
The Blithedale Romance: Mystery and suspense in setting based on Brook Farm; Zenobia is the dark woman with Priscilla as her counterpart; good, evil, guilt, and fellowship are again Hawthorne’s interests.
The Marble Faun: American artists living in Rome provide a frame for Hawthorne’s treatment of good and evil, past and present, the dangers of untested innocence; classic presentation of Adamic myth.
Hellman, Lillian
Another Part of the Forest: Play set in 1880’s South;
son learns of father’s disgraceful activities during the Civil War and
blackmails him
Little Foxes: Dishonesty, murder, manipulation among
members of the Hubbard family (same family as in Another Part of the Forest);
portrays the decline of the Southern aristocracy and the rise of new aggressive
social class.
Hemingway, Ernest
A Farewell to Arms: Frederick is an American fighting
in the Italian army, from which he later flees; Catherine, a nurse who once
treated Frederick, becomes his mistress; the two lovers meet with one tragedy
after another; much symbolism and development of Heminway code
A Hazard of New Fortunes: Loose plot and multitude of
characters; set in New York; “realistic” novel is competent, if idealistic,
illustration of how competitive capitalism affects different sets of
characters.
James, Henry
Roderick Hudson: Study of an American sculptor whose
deficiencies of artistic ability and personal integrity are revealed when he
leaves the U.S. and assumes residence in Europe.
Washington Square: Dr. Sloper refuses to allow his daughter Catherine to marry Townsend, a penniless fortune hunter; further complications involve disinheritance, renewed and retracted proposals;James again explores the nature of innocence.
The Princess Casamassima: Hyacinth Robinson becomes involved in an anarchist conspiracy in the slums of London; after “pledging his life” to the cause, Hyacinth meets the Princess who teaches him that violence against the aristocratic classes will not help the poor, but will merely destroy beauty; Hyacinth is then ordered to participate in a dangerous assassination.
The Aspern Papers: Am. editor, who is an enthusiastic student of Aspen’s poetry (Aspen, modeled largely on Byron, has been dead many years) goes to Europe to obtain letters from the poet to his mistress, Juliana Bordereau; how much of his character and conscience will he sacrifice to get the letters?
The Spoils of Poynton: Mrs. Gereth has valuable furniture at Poynton; shares aesthetic appreciation with Fleda Vetch, who is later torn between Mrs. Gereth and her less sophisticated son, Owen; human relationships are more important than devotion to beauty.
What Maisie Knew: Told from point of view of little
girl caught in intricate web of adult relationships; when Maisie discovers that
she has more character than the adults around her, she realizes that she has
power over them.
The Ambassadors: Lambert Strether, an intelligent and
conscientious Am. editor, is sent by Mrs. Newsome to rescue her son Chad from
the distractions of Paris; Stretherin an initiation of his own, encourages
Chad’s new lifestyle.
The Golden Bowl: Maggie is excessively devoted to her
father, Adam Verver; father and daughter marry individuals who have been and
who continue to be lovers; the Prince (a decadent aristocrat, Maggie’s husband,
and Charlotte’s lover) is characterized by the subtly flawed golden bowl;
Maggie gains strength and tries to restore proper relationships among the four.
Main Street: Carol Milford tries to encourage
intellectual activity in her new home, a rural midwestern town; townspeople
resent her superiority, and Carol eventually flees her husband and Gopher
Prairie—only to return later.
Babbit: George Babbit is a middle-class real-estate
salesman who is aggressive and shallow; he considers his job and his town to be
the height of civilization; satire of suburban middle class.
McCullers, Carson
Ballad of the Sad Café: Grotesque human triangle
living in a small Southern town; portrays loneliness, isolation, bitterness;
Marvin Macy, the hunchback, and Miss Amelia eventually try to destroy each
other.
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter: A deaf-mute fulfills
the dreams of several isolated, lonely characters—none of whom realize that the
jeweler himself is painfully isolated.
Melville, Herman
Redburn: Bildungsroman; sailor’s first trip to England charts not only Redburn’s growth but also America’s; lends itself to analyses of the following: American self-definition, relationships between past and present, the Adamic myth.
White-Jacket: Written on one level to correct abuses
in Navy, but also a story of initiation; what does Harry Bolton gain after he
has successfully struggled from the white jacket?
Moby-Dick: Realistic narrative of whaling includes hundreds of digressions, sustained metaphors
and documented cetology; presents studies in American
self-definition, psychology, and philosophy; the will of man pitted against
man’s greatest foe: the inscrutability of the apparently indifferent forces
that control him.
Billy Budd: Embodiment of Adamic myth--or is
it?Intentionally ambiguous passages question the desirability and the
feasibility of absolute innocence; also presents discrepancy between law and
justice.
The Confidence Man: On the Fidele, a
Mississippi steamboat, the confidence man assumes many identities during his
voyage after human prey; black humor and irony expose the hypocritical pretense
and selfish greed of humanity.
Miller, Arthur
All My Sons: Play demonstrates ethical weakness of
American business morality; Joe sent defective cylinder heads to Army Air
Corps; his son Larry, a flyer, was killed during the war; Joe is responsible
for the deaths of many young men, and it is revealed that he has symbolically
killed his own son.
The Death of a Salesman: Conflict between business
ethics and emotional relationships of family; Willy Loman knows that his life
has been a failure; intricate flashbacks and staging
Norris, Frank
McTeague: Interesting study in American realism;
McTeague marries Trina after “stealing” her from his friend Marcus; Trina
becomes obsessed with money; McTeague becomes an alcoholic and further
grotesque complications present social criticism; genetic and environmental
determinism.
O’Connor, Flannery
Wise Blood: Strange adventures of Hazel Motes in
comic but grotesque episodic narrative; explores issues of Christianity,
integrity, and death.
O’Neill, Eugene
The Hairy Ape: Specifically a personification of
brute energy; Yank is, in a broader sense, a symbol of mankind itself; tied to
his animal origin, man still aspires to a higher existence; man’s search for a
realm to which he can belong leads to realization that man is forever condemned
to live an existence midway between the animal and the divine.
In Dubious Battle: Brutal violence in strike of apple pickers; Jim Nolan joins the Communist Party
after losing his job because he watched a radical
demonstration; seems to praise neither capitalist society or Communist Party.
Walden: Two years on the pond are condensed into a
single year with allegorical seasons; pleasant narrative subtly presents
Thoreau’s doctrine of live life deliberately in harmony with self and
nature; questions conventional definitions and values of “progress,” “society,”
“government,” and “success.”
The Innocents Abroad: Largely autobiographical
account of Twain’s steamship tour to Europe and the Holy Land; pokes fun both
at American naivete and vulgarity and at Old World manners, sights, and peculiarities.
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court: Dream
vision contrasts Arthurian England with 19th-century America; humor,
but mostly satire of cruelty, superstition, and oppression of Old England; dark
and subtle suggestions that despite apparent progress, many aspects of human
nature never change; with advanced technology man still wants to kill—and can
do so more effectively.
The Mysterious Stranger: Swiftian allegorical romance
may be interpreted as questioning God’s existence or as presenting the problem of
evil; charming narration, characters, and setting are more poignant by the
exposure of man’s cruel nature and absurd existence.
Letters from the Earth: Best is the tile section
which presents series of letters supposedly written by Satan reporting on visit
to “the human experiment”; black humor and ridicule of man.
Wolfe, Thomas
Look Homeward, Angel: Eugene Gant confronts an
unpredictable father, a shaky home life, and a brother’s death before breaking
with his family to face the world alone; Bildungsroman.
NOTE: If you would like to read an American work not listed, please check with me before you invest much time reading.Many American classics and American authors do not appear on this list because they appear on other lists at other grade levels, or because they are read as part of the standard urriculum.Specifically, you should not read those works and writers, during your junior year, listed below.However, if a title does not appear on the list above, you should check with me before selecting that work for study.