Letteratura angloamericana, appunti in inglese

Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)

Three Stories and Ten Poems was published in 1923 as the first short story collection by Hemingway. This

work includes the three stories "Up in Michigan", "Out of season" and "My old man", together with ten

poems. “Up in Michigan” : The story is set in Horton Bay, Michigan. There would seem to be almost no

• plot. The action revolves around a young woman named Liz, she falls in love with a man who has

just come to town: Jim Gilmore, a blacksmith. Jim doesn't seem to notice Liz at all, but after

coming back from a hunt he gets drunk and goes on a walk with her.

On the dock Jim starts to touch Liz, in spite of her obvious fear. They sleep together but Liz and

afterwards Liz is shaken and goes home crying while Jim won't remember a thing. During the

story Jim barely speaks and the reader only has Liz's point of view.

Liz's love is also very superficial, she likes things about the man but in reality knows nothing

• about him. This first short story shows the influence of Stein and Anderson, because the

character are simple folk and have human, realistic emotions and responses. Stein, however, was

against the publishing of the book as no explicit consent had been given in the sex scene.

“Out of season” : The main theme of this short story is marital discord. The characters the

• “young gentleman” and the wife, Tiny, communicate in a strained and uncomfortable way, they

had a fight earlier and the wife is now rather mad. We don't know the reason behind their

attitude because Hemingway uses the theory of omission: the omitted part will leave the reader

wondering and make the story more interesting.

“My old man” : The story is narrated by the title character young son, Joe. At the beginning of

• the story the two live in Italy where the old man, named Butler, works as a jockey. After a harsh

confrontation with two other men, the two leave for Paris. Butler eventually receives his license

from Italy and starts to ride again, although he can't find full-time engagements. Joe witnesses

his father taking part in a fixed race, and this hurts the boy greatly. After going back to winning

many races, Butler buys a horse, Gilford, and enters him in the circuit. Joe becomes very

affectionate with the animal. During a race the old man has an accident and dies. Joe is

devastated and he overhears some men talking about how is father deserved it after everything

he pulled. Joe is confused because he has always felt proud of his father but he had also

witnessed him doing illegal things.

The main theme of this story is Joe disillusionment with his father's behaviour. The young boy

must come to term with the conflict between the love he feels for his parent and the

disappointment he feels about his dad taking part in a corrupt racing system. Hemingway's use of

a young voice in this story recalls Twain's Huckleberry Finn. Both character are wise but also

naïve, due to their age. Their confused emotions reflect their position in the adult world.

The Conversion of the Jews-Philip Roth (1933-)

The main character Ozzie Freedman is a bright student who doesn't get along with his teacher, Rabbi

Marvin Binder, because of his inquisitiveness and his inability to accept tradition doctrinal answers to

religious questions. Ozzie keeps asking question about Christian views on religious issues but the Rabbi

dismisses him, at Ozzie insults the Rabbi slaps him on the face and the boy runs on the roof of the

Synagogue. The fire department is called and a large crowd, including Ozzie's mother, forms. The Rabbi

eventually pleads Ozzie to come down but his classmates urge him to jump. Feeling somehow powerful,

Ozzie demands everyone kneels on the ground otherwise he will jump, then he forces everyone to

declare loudly that “God can make a child without intercourse”. Finally he makes the crowd promise that

no one will every be punished because of God and then jumps into the firefighters' net.

Characters : Oscar Freedman, Rabbi Marvin Binder, Itzie Lieberman (Ozzie's best friend, he can

• be irreverent but he is not outspoken, doesn't want to get in trouble), Mrs. Freedman (Ozzie's

widowed mother), Yakov Blotnik(the custodian of the synagogue, he is a devout Jew but he

doesn't care about understanding his religion. He mostly cares about appearances, whether

something is good or bad for the Jews.)

• Themes : -Hypocrisy, Ozzie is a truth-seeker, he respects Judaism and wants to be religious,

however he cannot accept factual inconsistencies. He wants to understand his prayers and he

wants to find a logic explanation for everything, but this does not sit well with the Rabbi, who

wants Ozzie to follow the rules. -Freedom, as Ozzie's surname “Freedman” suggests, the boy

holds freedom very close to his heart. Ozzie tries to be a religious and a free person at the same

time but he has to face obstacles, like the very existence of the Rabbi. -Irreverence, The

characters in this story have different points of view on what consists as irreverence and

disrespect for one's religion. The Rabbi believes that Ozzie is arrogant and insolent but the boy is

sure that his questions are legitimate.

Joel Chandler Harris (1848 – 1908) - Tales of Uncle Remus (1880)

Tales of Uncle Remus is a collection of stories from the African-American folklore. During his youth Harris

worked in a plantation and he talked to the slaves, adsorbing their language and inflection. The animal

tales they shared later began the foundation for his Uncle Remus tales. The most famous story is that of

Brer Rabbit and the Tar-baby. The story is also the most typical as it includes the theme of sentient

animal characters who act like human beings. It is also a trickster tale, a tale where one of the main

character tries to fool another character. This theme is found in many others Uncle Remus tales. Note

that the tricks are not very innocent as their consequences can be rather violent and horrific. The other

two major kinds of stories in these collections are the myth and the supernatural tale. The myth seeks to

explain the origin of something; it is sometimes called an etiological tale. There are twenty-three of

these. Four tales representative of the myth are “Why the Negro Is Black,” from Uncle Remus: His Songs

and His Sayings. Another major theme is the myth, which can be found in the story “Why the Negro is

Black”; the myth seeks to explain the origin of something, and this kind of story can be called an

etiological story (etiology is the study of causes or origins). The importance of these tales mostly comes

from two reasons. The first reason is that the Uncle Remus tales represent the first time anyone

attempted to record African-American folktales in their true form, that is to say in the right language and

style in which they were told. Secondly, these tales provide an insight in the psyche of blacks in the

South. Harris purposefully kept the trickster rabbit as the main character in most story, because the

rabbit is a prey, completely defenceless against most predators, and it can symbolize the situation of the

black slaves in comparison to the whites, especially the slave-owners. It gives a sense of satisfaction to

see the poor rabbit triumphing against the predators, who sought every opportunity to exploit him.

In “The Wonderful Tar-Baby Story” we are shown how clever the Brer rabbit actually is and how easily he

manages to outsmart his enemies, in this case the Fox. The rabbit was initially in trouble and about to be

killed but with the help of reverse psychology he succeeds in escaping unscathed, fooling the fox once

again.

“Why the Negro is Black” is different from most of the other stories, it does not in fact deal with the

adventures of Brer Rabbit but rather tells Uncle Remus's version of the evolution of races. The old man

explains to the little boy that at the very beginning every person was actually black, however by dipping

their body into a pool of magic water, some people became white. He explains the existence of other

races with similar arguments, saying for example that the Chinese dipped to hair in order to straighten

them. The story has been deemed problematic by the modern critics, on the one hand it could be

interpreted as Harris' attempt to depict a positive past society where racial equality was the norm, on the

other hand it could be seen as the author perpetuating the stereotype of the ignorant black man/slave,

completely oblivious to the reality around him.

Criticism: After publishing the book, Harris claimed to be sure that his representation of Negro

• speech was phonetically accurate and that he wanted to convey the character of the old black

man with his charming personality and sensitivity. However, Harris has been criticised for

appropriating black culture and carrying on stereotypes regarding black people. Overall many

black writers and activists believe it's problematic to consider a white man's work as a

fundamental piece of African-American literature.

The Chicago Literary Renaissance

The term Chicago Renaissance applies to the second wave of Chicago writing (between 1910 and the

mid-20s) Major figures includes novelist Sherwood Anderson, poets Carl Sandburg, Edgar Lee Masters

and Vachel Lindsay. Critics have regarded several works produced by the Chicago writers as

representative masterpieces; for example Master's Spoon River Anthology, Anderson's Winesburg Ohio

and Sandburg's Chicago poems. The Chicago writers were democrats and populists, they believed in the

power of common people and liked to speak of them in their works. The poets also usually avoid rhyme.

Some were modernists, like Masters, Sandburg and Lindsay, since they were unconventional in form but

they were generally more optimistic and populist than the rest of the modernists.

Edgar Lee Masters (1868-1950) - Spoon River Anthology (1915)

Spoon River Anthology is a collection of 243 free verse epitaphs, in which the dead citizens of a fictional

town named Spoon River talk about their lives, their loves and affairs, their experiences, their conflicts or

even their crimes. Many of the stories are intertwined, so that the reader can experience a panoramic

view of human existence. The characters of each epitaph has the freedom to speak honestly about

whatever the want because they are dead and they don't have to keep a facade anymore. These people

have nothing to lose, so they can confess their most obscure secrets, betrayals and crimes. Many of the

stories which Masters tells are not happy stories at all. Masters, who was a journalist, brings this aspect

of his life in his writing and he recounts sensational events like accidents, violence or war. All Spoon

River's citizens have strong desires, like Harry Wilmans' naïve patriotic desire to go to Manila to fight for

his country, and they are often destroyed by these desires. In the poem “Many soldiers” Masters talks

about how young soldiers