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Jan 1, 1500
Native American Literature
This time period was before the arrival of the Europeans, the Native Americans' literature consisted of many rich oral traditions myths, epics, songs and chants that were told within their tribes. There is always a moral behind the stories and they tended to focus on the natural world. These myths and stories answered questions about the origins of the world and the place.They also had some stories that showed some of their struggles and what they went through after the arrival of the Europeans. -
Period: Jan 1, 1500 to
Native American Literature
*The year that theses stories were "published" are not accurate. -
Jan 1, 1505
"The Sky Tree" Retold by Joseph Bruchac
This is a story is about this land that exists in the sky. The story tells about how some things were created like how the turtle got its shell and how this tree is “the tree of life,” without it there is no life. Thats why when the Sky tree fell from the whole in the sky, Aataentsic followed the tree and jumped with it. Aataentsic in this story is “Mother Nature” and the Sky Tree is “the tree of life”. -
Jan 1, 1510
"The Earth Only" composed by Used-as-a-Shield
This is a very short story that was told during the Native American time period. This basically is talking about earth and nature; it tells us that earth itself goes through a lot of things and yet even through all this things like man made creations and natural disasters, earth is strong and continues to stay strong. It shows their readers the “truth” behind the things that we do that harm the earth we live on. -
Jan 1, 1515
"Coyote Finishes His Work" retold by Barry Lopez
This was about a coyote that was sent to earth,by the Old Man Above” to create the world that we know of today. Coyote created the Indians and taught them everything they knew, he created them in different locations and each of them, he taught a different language and culture. Coyote was tricky and at times, played tricks on some of the Indians and in return they did the same. When the old man from above saw that completed the task, he and coyote disappeared. -
Jan 1, 1520
"The Blackfeet Genesis" retold by Joseph Bruchac
This is a story about how everything on this earth was created. The Old Man was the one who went around and created things like rivers, mountains, animals, and even us, humans. He molded a women and a child and made them come to life. He let the women choose how long we live, either forever or for a period of time. She ends up choosing “only for a period of time”. Thus resulting in people having to eventually die. -
Jan 1, 1525
"The Way To Rainy Mountain" by N. Scott Momaday
This talks about the journey that one young man goes on and his encounters as he travels to go to his grandmothers grave. It mainly talks about how the weather there was harsh and then he talks about how he remembers that his tribe, the tribe he is also in, the Kiowas, were the ones who controlled and took over all of the area around there. They also had rivals, who they once had fought with. He informs us about the history of the Kiowas. -
"Huswifey" by Edward Taylor
This is a story that is about the creation of a piece of cloth and how the narrator applies this to the way God works. He wants to show that the way that God works is very complicated and it is a lot of hard work. He uses the whole idea of creating a piece of cloth to the creations and ways of God. In this he basically acknowledges the fact that he wants to become closer with God. God is the “master” weaver. -
Puritan Literature
The puritan’s literature and writings at the time were based on the Bible. They preferred this type of writing because it was an overall simple, basic and plain style. People respected these pieces of writings because they were believed to record the working of God. The Puritan’s believed that they were able to connect themselves and make direct connections between biblical events to some events that they had encountered in their own lives. Their writings were urging the people to awaken and see -
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Puritan Literature
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"Of Plymouth Plantation" by William Bradford
This is a story that is basically about the entire idea of these New England “Pilgrims” moving into the “new world” in that Colombian Exchange Era. This talks about how we had the first thanksgiving dinner with these Indian people who were already living there. We exchanged prior knowledge such as being able to grow certain crops and plants and we told the Indians of the things that we knew what to do and they did the same in exchange. -
"Here Follow Some Verses upon the Burning of Our House" by Anne Bradstreet
This story is about the very common thing that had happened to many puritans. Someone had set fire to the narrators house and all that she could think of was of all her possessions. She talks about what she was feeling as she watched her house burn down to ashes. She also says things that make the audience realize that she will no longer have a roof over her head. She mainly talks about what she is feeling as this occurs. -
"The Sovereignty and Goodness of God" by Mary Rowlandson
This is about the narrator and how she found God and accepted him into her life and because of this, he helped her get back to her family in the end. Mary was one of the families that had their homes burnt down and these Indians capture her and her family and they are separated from that point. She is later given a bible and finds hope in it. Later, she is reunited with her entire family and they move to Boston and start fresh. -
"Sinners in The Hands of an Angry God" by Jonathan Edwards
This is a story that is basically telling his or her audience about all the consequences that one will face if they sin. Within the process the narrator is going into description of what the sinner will encounter as they are on the pathway to “hell”, and the only thing that would hold them from going to hell would be the hand of God. Without his hand the only thing that is between the sinner and hell is the air. -
Enlightenment
In this enlightenment era, many people were beginning to question the reasoning behind many things, and many people believed that human being were able to arrive at truth by reasoning. These enlightenment thinkers believed that God gave humanity reason to discover both the scientific and spiritual truth and many began to question the traditional ways. Many of the famous pieces of literature from this time period were those of the women and the slaves. They wrote about their lives and the struggl -
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Enlightenment Literature
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"Common Sense" by Thomas Paine
This is basically a very famous piece of writing that went around during this enlightenment period. Pamphlets and brochure like writing were made and this was a very famous one. This one was basically talking about America gaining their Independence. He talks about the treatment that they are getting and he brings us to the idea that we are not being treated fairly and properly. He is basically convincing the people that it is time to break free from Britain rule. -
"American Crisis" by Thomas Paine
This is basically a collection of articles and writing that were written by Thomas Paine. In these he had the same theme of breaking free from the British rule and that it was time for them to take action in their own hands. They needed to do something to let the British know that it was time for them to either they back off a bit or they leave and become an independent. In these many articles that he wrote, Common Sense, was most popular. -
"Letters to John Adams" by Abigail Adams
This was basically a letter that we sent by Abigail Adams to her husband, John Adams, who was away from her. She was basically writing to him about all the things that were going on, and John Adams was elected to be a delegate to the First Continental Congress. She was telling him that she heard that they were going to do something that will help them gain their independence. She also mentions that he should bring up the point that women need equality. -
"The Interesting Narrative of the life of Olaudah" by Olaudah Equiano
This was basically a narrative about a former slave. It talked about all the things that he endured and it talks about how he was not even born a slave, he was actually kidnapped and sold as a slave. His life was harsh not living with his mother and any of his family. However, because he was a slave his narrative was not published under his name it had to be published under his owner’s name but the story was about his life. -
"Poor Richard’s Almanac" by Benjamin Franklin
This was basically a list of almanacs that were very famous and they were read by everyone. These were talking about what everyone should do and how everyone shall act if ever in a specific situation. It was a list of possible things people should do and even how they should act when things happen. It’s like the bible of how to survive in society and how to be able to fall in place with society. They were like rules that they had to follow. -
Gothic Fiction
This Gothic Fiction era emerged mainly because of the transcendentalism era; it was supposed to have come in to set the balance between the many ideas that were coming about. An issue at the time was slavery. We saw that they valued intuition over logic and reason, and they even saw signs and symbols in all events. These Dark Romantics tended to explore the conflicts between good and evil; they explored the psychological effects of guilt and sin and even madness in the human psyche. -
Transcendentalism
During the transcendentalism era many of the people sought to improve the society that they were living in. They believed that in order to discover the truth, they would have to transcend or see beyond the physical world. They also believed in human perfectibility and they were working on trying to get to this so called “perfectibility”. Ralph Waldo Emerson led them and he thought we could find God in nature instead of the ideas that only a few could see and speak with him. -
Romanticism
In the romanticism time period, the Louisiana Purchase had just occurred and thus sparked a westward expansion. They focused on imagination, the individual spirit, and the beauty of nature and the world in general. They wrote about the ideas of expansion and it was mostly “associated with independence, moral clarity and healthful living”. They wrote about things like the cities and they tended to portray the things that they have seen, meaning that they saw the cities as “a place of immortality, -
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American Romanticism
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Gothic Fiction
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Transcendentalism
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"Thanatopsis " by William Cullen Bryant
This is basically a story that is told to show the relationships between life, nature and death. They are all part of one big cycle as it is shown in this story and that they help the readers understand this. It mainly focuses on the afterlife and what many should expect from it. It was written to basically answer those questions that people commonly had about death and the afterlife. I does this by referring to things in nature and their cycle of life. -
"Old Ironsides" by Oliver Wendell Holmes
This was a poem that was written to save the battleship the U.S. Constitution. It talks about the battleship itself and how is life came to an end rather than it being contained and put aside to be retired. Holmes talks about the ship and its glorious days on sea and the many battle scares that were left on the ship to show the significance of it. He was basically trying to show people that this ship was important. -
"The Minister's Black Veil" by Nathaniel Hawthorne
This is a story about a man who had this great guilt of committing a crime and didn’t get blamed. In this he is living with guilt his entire life until the point when he reaches his death, at that point he is no longer holding on to this guilt about accidentally killing a dear friend of his and that was one of the reasons that why he always his face. He was ashamed to show his face but no one knew of this. -
"Nature" by Ralph Waldo Emerson
This is an essay that was written by Ralph Waldo Emerson and in this essay he talks about nature and he wants his readers to look around their environments and take in the beauty of nature that many people fail to see. Not only that but nature also helps people see and realize many things that they once never thought of. In his essay he talks about nature as if “she” were a person and as if she was just like all of us. -
"The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe
This is a short story about the usher family and how their house is haunted but they fail to realize these things and they just think that they are only imagining things. Everything goes well until the narrators sister dies and this hits him hard the most and he decides to bury her in their property and thus develops a mental illness that he is not aware of. The death of his sister who turns out to be his twin affects him even more. -
"Self-Reliance" by Ralph Waldo Emerson
In this essay it basically tells his readers that he wants them to all “let go of mommy's hand”, and do things for themselves. He wants to ensure these people that they should be able to trust themselves and that they shouldn’t have any doubts in doing this. He really focused on intuition over society’s opinions and the traditional methods and ways. This idea of individualism was common and started to get everyone to think in that way and move away from the traditional ways. -
"The Pit and the Pendulum" by Edgar Allan Poe
This is a story that is talking about the narrator and his encounters as he was captured by the inquisition, a group of people who would do a whole lot of questioning to the people about things. This occurred because of religious reasons and they captured people and tortured them until they confessed to something. In this the narrator was caught and he was able to escape the sharp blades of a descending pendulum. It focuses on death and evil encounters. -
"The Masque of the Red Death" by Edgar Allan Poe
This is a story that was taking place at the time when this deadly disease was spreading and none were aware of this. It caused its victims to die quickly and gruesomely and the people of the town or village had no idea that this was going around because they didn’t have the medical advancements we have today. There is a party that takes place and at this party the “red death” shows up uninvited and kills the majority of the people there. -
"Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass" by Frederick Douglass
In his narrative, Fredrick Douglass, talks about his life as a slave and how he used to live. He was also an escape slave and was caught and sent back to where he came from. He was eventually able to escape for good and make it to freedom and he then writes a narrative about his life and the harsh treatment of slaves. He explains to his readers how one would “become” a slave and how he was made a man from this. -
"The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe
This is a story about a man that talks about his encounters with death and how he remembers the night that his wife or lover died. He recalls that there was tapping sound at the door and there is nothing but silence and then he hears a whisper. It was his wife’s name and so he opens it and in flutters a raven that tells him things. That night his wife died and all he can remember is that horrid night and that raven. -
"Resistance to Civil Government" by Henry David Thoreau
In this essay he talks about what the people should do in order for them to get out of the situation that they are in. The government doesn’t want to make changes to it's traditional ways of life and how things are run. But, for some, bringing changes can make it better. He also talks about us not having to obey them if they don’t do as we say or if they dont do as we say we disobey until things are changed. -
Realism
In this realism time period we began to see that the United States was beginning to expand. This period of realism literature emerged because of “the regional writing that aspired to make fiction true to life by describing ordinary characters, situations, and settings.” These American writers were aware that it was the European, who established this traditional realism, and they wanted to acknowledge it and they wrote in that traditional way as the Europeans. The writers took a great interest in -
"Moby Dick" by Herman Melville
This is a story once again about nature and the many things that one will encounter in nature. This talks about how the narrator, Ishmael , goes on a journey to Massachusetts and on his way there he comes along this whaling industry. There he meets a guy who took part in this whale hunting activity and he tells him about the story of how he lost his leg in the last voyage . This story catches Ishmael's attention and he wants to join in. -
"Uncle Tom’s Cabin" by Harriet Beecher Stowe
This was a story that was written by a former slave. In her story she talked about all the things that she experienced as a slave, she wrote about how they used to auction these people as if they were animals or some sort of item instead of an actual human. They would inspect them and they would look at the men and women and they would look at their physical appearances. They looked for women who can reproduce and men who were strong. -
"Walden or life in the woods" by Henry David Thoreau
In this essay that was written by Henry David Thoreau, it focuses on the importance of self- reliance and values of simplicity. It also tended to focus on the ideas of a process in general.. It basically covers a story about him and his experiences and how that has made him the man he is today. He talks about nature and things that he had seen in nature that helped change his perspective. It also shows that nature played a role in molding us. -
"The Chambered Nautilus" by Oliver Wendell Holmes
This is basically a story about the life of this mysterious creature and how it lives and then later dies. This is a very odd creature, that looks like a snail and is a relative to the octopus and squid, that only lives in the waters of the South Pacific and Indian Oceans. It talks about how this animal is like a sailor on a ship to describe that that is how the animal moves around in the ocean. It's about this animals life. -
"Incidents in the life of a slave girl" by Harriet Jacobs
This is yet another story of the life of a former slave that was beat, and tortured, and mistreated. We would commonly see stories like these but the thing that sets this one apart from the others is that this was published under a fake name and she made it seem like someone else wrote it when in reality she is the one who wrote it. She mainly focused on the brutalities that enslaved women faced. -
"Ain’t I a Woman" by Sojourner Truth
This was a speech that was made by Sojourner Truth and it was taking place at the Womens rights convention in Ohio. Here she wanted to bring it to the attention that many have this image of what a women would be treated like, a man would help her into a carriage, over mud puddles, or give them a nice place to live. And she hasn't received any treatment of this kind, and she wants to know why? Isn't she a women too? -
"Gettysburg Address" by Abraham Lincoln
This was a very famous historical speech that was made by Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg. After the civil war battle that had lasted for period of time, he gave this address commemorating the unions victory. He argued that the civil war was a test for the union and the entire world to help determine if the nation can conceive this democracy. -
"The Outcasts of Poker Flat" by Bret Harte
This is a story about a group of people who go together to a cabin up in the mountains and they end up getting trapped in the cabin. In this story it turns out that no one can trust any one no matter who you may think they are they will usually end up to be something totally different. In this story we see good triumphs and evil is being driven out in the characters and being in this scenario can change people. -
"The Cross of Snow" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
This is a short poem that is basically talking about what the narrator was feeling after his first wife had died. He talks about how he felt and how he “saw death” that night in his room. She died in a fire that had occurred and it is kind of like symbolic that he chose to write about the snow because she died in a fire and the snow that reminds him of her. The seasons went by but everything was the same to him. -
"The Tides Rises, the Tide Falls" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
This is a story that was written during the Romanticism period and it was basically talking about the way life works and how we sometimes feel. It compares our life to the way that the ocean tides move; they rise and they fall. It was done to show that at some times in our life we have these superior moments and then we also have some falling moments where we are put down. This is what he was showing in his writing. -
Naturalism
This took place during the Progressive Era. These Naturalists focused on trying to expose the deep biological and environmental forces that determined human fate. They also wanted to help make changes happen in society. They were trying to make the world a better place, they wanted to fix all of the issues that were going on in their society. Many of the things that they wanted to fix were the many things that were wrong politics, with labor, and women's roles in society. -
Regionalism
These regional writers were attempting to use these “local colors to portray everyday life in particular settings”, meaning that they were basically trying to get to their audience’s but trying to relate their pieces of work to everyday life. We were many stories and pieces of literature emerge that used this technique of “local color writing that was used to reflect the customs, speech, and character of people in different regions of the country”. Regionalism was emphasized a specific geographi -
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The Age of Realism
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Naturalism Literature
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Regionalism
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"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain
This is a story about the poor boy who has a very horrible life as a youngster but then that changes when a friend of his finds something that changes their both their lives. The friend finds them some gold and this results in an adventure for the two of them. This story takes place near the Mississippi river and it does a good job of talking about it and tying it to the story and allowing its readers to take it the Mississippi atmosphere. -
"The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin
This is a story about a women who loses the love of her life. Like one would, she is greatly affected by this loss and she is just not felling like herself anymore. She turns out to become more violent than one would usually be and that was a concern for many. She doesn’t realize that her husband dying was actually a good thing for her, she was now freed from his tyranny. She no longer was dependent on someone, now she was independent. -
"The Red Badge of Courage" by Stephen Crane
This was a story about a soldier that was in the army. This was his first tie being out in a battle like this and he didn't know what to expect so he follows the soldiers to the battle field. There he realizes that he couldn’t run back if he wanted to, he had to fight for his people and for his country. He leaves the field and comes across an injured soldier. He aids him but the soldier doesn't make it. -
"Sister Carrie" by Theodore Dreiser
This is a story about two girls that have their lives change for the better. Along this journey their life is changed and they now see things in s different perspective. The two girls came from a different background, one coming from a poor background and the other from the wealthy class life style. The poor later becomes a famous actress and the rich goes to living a lifestyle on the streets. They now see things from a different view than they used to. -
"A Wagner Matinee" by WIlla Cather
This is a story about a man who receives a letter from his aunt and she asks to stay with him and asks that he care for her while she is there. The man agrees to this choice and welcomes his aunt to this town that she has grown distant from. He goes around to show her everything that he grew up with and all the sights to see. He takes her to see an opera because she trained in this when she was younger. -
"The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair
This is basically a story that was about an immigrant worker and how life was like working in these tight, low paying, factories. This actually took place in a meat packing industry that he had worked in and he actually experienced many of the things he wrote about. In this we find that the meat conditions are harsh and very very unsanitary. This then later helps in making these type of food producing companies more sanitary and cleaner. -
"To Build a Fire" by Jack London
This was basically a story about a man who is in that “human vs. nature” scenario meaning that he is a “battle” with nature and he has to overcome some obstacle that is in his way from achieving his goals. It is about him being stuck in this freezing snow and what he experiences. This ties in to the Naturalism ideas because it talks about nature and ones encounters but it also tells us his story of how he survived this near death experience. -
"Life on the Mississippi" by Mark Twain
In this memoir, Mark Twain, talks about the life and the environment that one would see in the plains and terrains of Mississippi. This was basically about Twain's life when he was younger and how he used to be an apprentice and a “cub” pilot. As he talks about these things and his life, he also covers things life the environment one would see if they went to Mississippi. It talks about the type of setting and the type of people one would find. -
Modern Age
The modern age was a time in which we first start off this era with WW1 and we go into the roaring twenties which was a time of prosperity, then we fall into the Great Depression and our troubles begin from there. A vast majority of the writers wrote about the many struggles that they had to face during this time and what they were going through. We saw stories of the people such as the farmers who went into foreclosure, and the many unemployed. -
Harlem Renaissance
This era was taking place during the Roaring Twenties; this was a time of prosperity, happiness, and no worries. The Harlem Renaissance was all the African American poetry and literate that they exposed to us. This era helped many Americans value and show appreciation to the role that black talent played in our American culture. . Most of the literature was exposing the truth behind things, the disillusionment of the “lost generation” that was when the Americans were living in postwar Europe. -
Imagism
This Imagism was a result that came from a poetic movement that included imagism and symbolism. American poets began to emerge and they saw this time period as a time of experimentation and they sought new ways of doing things and new ways of thinking. Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot began to use these techniques of imagism and symbolism in their writings. Many poets were the ones who sparked the beginning of the modern age; magism just helped spark the actual era itself. -
"The Garden" by Erza Pound
This is a poem that was about a women who was walking through the park. Like many poets at this time, they used this new “imagism” idea to create an image for the reader and they would envision the same concepts or ideas in their minds. They used a plethora of words and phrases to describe something to emphasize a main idea or important thing. Creating an image in the readers mind started in this era and many poets took the technique and used it. -
"Mending Wall" by Robert Frost
This is a poem about this imaginary wall that the narrator sees that is created by these rocks who in reality don't form any wall or fence. The narrator talks to his neighbor about the rock that separate their property and he wants to inform him that they should get rid of it. But as a result they both see things in a different way and the neighbor wishes to leave things as they are because he isn’t convinced. -
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The Moderns
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Imagism
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Harlem Renaissance
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"Birches" by Robert Frost
In Frost's poem about these unique trees, we see that he too is also trying to connect nature and people with each other. He sees that these trees are not like ordinary trees and they are much stronger and that they grow a lot more quicker than other trees. He tells us that they are like us, they tend to be worn down and torn down but at the end of the day we can come back and we are strong. -
"Chicago" by Carl Sandburg
This is a poem that we saw during this “imagism” period come to life. Poems like these were told and published to show the readers a picture of what the poet himself or herself was seeing. In this poem he talks about the life that we saw in Chicago during that time. We see that manufacturing and factories flourished in these types of big city places. He talks about the workers that we saw, and the children and all the people. -
"What if a Much of a Which of a Wind" by E.E. Cummings
This is a poem that is basically about earth and the human spirit. Meaning that the earth has some sort of connection to our lives and what will become of them, or so that what Cummings believes. He portrays this by telling us that what if the wind can tell us the truth of summers lies. It gives these objects human like characteristics and tells us something about the poet. He believes that the earth can have some role in people outcomes. -
"The Negro Speaks of Rivers" by Langston Hughes
This is a poem about the African Americans and it references to ancient rivers to symbolized and show that these people had wisdom and experience. We see that the water of these rivers were symbolizing the life force and life itself while the water was the wisdom that they had. The author talks about these rivers and references to the past because they want to also show them where they come from and the history. -
"The Weary Blues" by Langston Hughes
This was a poem that talked about the music and the new culture that was coming into the United States at this time. We saw the emergence of the African American influence on our culture and traditional ways. We saw that these African Americans brought Blues music with them. These song also tended to tell us stories about the African Americans, not only just a new genre of music. -
"Soldier's Home" by Ernest Hemingway
This is a story about a World War 1 veteran and how he copes with life back at come after the war. He finally comes back from war but doesn’t really want to be back. To everyone in his family and all his friends, they see him as a hero. They tell him to tell them stories of the war and his encounters but he can see that he bores then after a while. Everything back at home is the same. -
"The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald
This is a story about a man named Nick who moves into New York in the summer to learn about the bond business. His neighbor a mysterious man throws parties every Saturday night. In this story they really capture all the things that were in that time such as the roles of women at the time and the prosperity that we saw during this time period. We also see how the life was like back then and even what things were like. -
"A Black man talks of reaping" by Arna Bontemps
This was a short poem about the life of an African American family that were farmers. In this poem he talks about the struggles of having to take care of and grow all these crops for the white folk. In reality because of all the racism that still was around they were treated unfair. These farmers worked hard days and nights to maintain an entire farm and it was only to keep a small portion of it. -
"A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner
This is a story that truly exposes the women of this time period. This is basically about the secret that this women is hiding and the townspeople uncover it after a reclusive old woman dies. It was said that this story would be on the cover of a gossip magazine because of the story behind it. It shows the changing social values that we saw. In this we see that some women can be very scandalous. -
"The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck
This is a story about the farmers that lived during this Great Depression. They were the ones who struggled the most at this time because they were blamed for the overabundance of food production and that was actually on of the causes of the great depression. They talk about how all these farmers at this time left their farms and families to search for jobs that were being offered out west. They also cover the struggles that they went through. -
Contemporary
During this time period, known as the Contemporary period, we are going to see that many of the writers are going to focus on exploring human nature and the psychological effects of the war experiences and cultural conflicts due to many of the events that were occurring at the time. During the great depression authors are writing about the war and make it seem so horrible and absurd, the cold war authors began to “explore the culture of fear that was developing in America”. -
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The Contemporary Period
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"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" by James Thurber
This is a story about a man named Walter Mitty and his secret life. This secret life was not really a secret life, or some sort of double life that he was living, no it was just his imagination running freely. He was the type of person that would daydream and he would imagine himself in someone else shoes. He would think about being a doctor, of working in a beauty salon, and he would just imagine himself doing many things. -
"Heyday in Harlem from the Big Sea" by Langston Hughes
This is a memoir of this time period known as the Harlem Renaissance. In this time we saw that many African Americans were being acknowledged due to the fact that they were making significant changes in our society and they brought a new culture to our society as well. Still we see clearly in this piece that segregation and racism was an issue. But not even that stopped these African American from doing what they do. They continued to grow and strive in society. -
"Incident" by Countee Cullen
This is a very short poem that was written to show that there was still racism and that even though these African Americans were not seen as citizens they still couldn't do things and they also would be mistreated and unequally treated and it was seen as OK. He wrote about the time when he was a little boy and another kid stuck his tongue out at him and called him a “negro”, that is all that he remembered of his childhood in Chicago -
"Teenage Wasteland" by Anne Tyler
This is a short story about a kid who is in high school and it really reaches out to those parent who are in the same situations as these parents. They want to know what is it that is making their kid act like this in school. Like all parents they will do anything to help their child succeed. In this story we will see if the teenagers parents can reconnect with him. He finally cant deal with any of this and runs away. -
"The Death of the Ball Turrert Gunner" by Randall Jarrell
This is a very short poem that talks about one guys point of few of the World War 2. In this he talks about how he feels like he is now reborn again but this time not as the same person, however someone he never would of thought he'd be. He exaggerated the horrible and horrific things that went on in the war and he says that as he was born he also died because of what hes done. -
"A Noiseless Flash from Hiroshima" by John Hersey
This is basically a story about the aftermath of the atomic bomb that was dropped in Hiroshima during World War 2. We saw that there was a plethora of damage that was done in this area and now that we look back at it, it was kind of harsh but it was the only way to stop the Japanese. It mainly covers the story of one victim that was affected by the attack and it tells us her struggles. -
"Night" by Elie Wiesel
This is a story about a Jewish Teenager who lives in Sighet, Hungarian Transylvania. In 1944 the Nazis occupied Hungary and the Jews that were living in that area were forced to move out and movie into ghettos. This is the story about this teenager who goes through misery and suffering while he is sent to this concentration camp. This was taking place during the holocaust. He tells us of what he had to encounter and his experiences as what he was feeling. -
"Dessert Run" by Mitsuye Yamada
This is a poem about the narrators memories of being sent away from her home and being put into these slums full of people who were of the same ethnicity as she was. She uses imagery quite well to describe to that unforgettable experience that she went through. She talks about how she and her family were taken away from their homes and they were immediately sent to these internment camps where all the Japanese people living in the U.S. were sent to. -
"Left for Dead" by Beck Weathers
This was based on a true story and it was about a man who to his surprise he ends up getting stuck in the snow and having to fight for his life and get some help. In this occurrence he was trying to go climbing when he gets into an accident and falls, he instinctively puts his hands out to break the fall but that does him no good. In the end he loses his nose, hands, and ears to frostbite.
