Answer the following questions. For each question, write an essay of 5 or more well-developed paragraphs.
Refer to the following novels for your answers:
1. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
2. Moby Dick by Herman Melville
3. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
4. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
5. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
6. My Antonia by Willa Cather
7. An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
8. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
9. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
10. A Light in August by William Faulkner
11. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
12. Native Son by Richard Wright
Here are the questions:
1. One definition of modernism is simply that it describes art made in the modernist period, shortly after the first world war. Formulate a definition of modernism and discuss how three or more of the above novels published after 1919 show attributes that are described as “modern.”
2. Discuss the variety of strategies used to create narrative point of view used by at least five of the above authors. Do you discern any significant patterns or historical development in this formal feature in the selection of novels above?
3. Is there a typical American hero? Is there a typical American heroine? Are there some identifiably recurring types of either? If these are not the right questions, what is the right question? Explain your answer with reference to significant characters in the above novels.
4. Moby Dick has been central to the canon of American literature since early in the twentieth century. Is it the great American novel? Argue either for its inclusion or exclusion in a general education curriculum for college students.
5. A Light in August and Native Son are both about racism. Could one write an essay comparing the works without mentioning the race of the authors?
