English exam 1

Mrs. Spring Fragrance

Although Mrs. Spring Fragrance has lived in Seattle for only five years, her husband says "There are no more American words for her learning." Having quickly become skilled at the English language and American customs, Mrs. Spring Fragrance has become friendly with a young woman who lives next door, Laura, who is the eighteen-year-old daughter of Chinese immigrants. Laura's parents, the Chin Yuens, have decided to adhere to Chinese tradition and have their daughter marry a man she has never met. Laura confides in Mrs. Spring Fragrance that she does not want to marry the young man, the son of a Chinese schoolteacher, because she is in love with Kai Tzu, an American who likes to play baseball and sing popular songs. Giving advice to a young lovelorn friend, Mrs. Spring Fragrance quotes Tennyson: "Tis better to have loved and lost. Than never to have loved at all."Puzzled upon overhearing these lines of poetry, Mr. Spring Fragrance, who has been eavesdropping on his wife, seeks an interpretation from his white American neighbor, a student at the University of Washington. Mr. Spring Fragrance is even more confused at the student's careless interpretation and declares angrily: "The truth of the teaching! . . . There is no truth in it whatever. It is disobedient to reason. Is it not better to have what you do not love than to love what you do not have?" Mr. Spring Fragrance decides that American logic is plagued with "unwisdom." Shortly thereafter, Mrs. Spring Fragrance travels to San Francisco to visit her cousin. While there, she arranges for Laura's finance, the man she does not want to marry, to meet Ah Oi, who is known as the most beautiful girl in San Francisco. Just as Mrs. Spring Fragrance has intended, Ah Oi and the schoolmaster's son fall in love and get married. Mrs. Spring Fragrance writes an exuberant letter to Laura telling her the good news. Now, Laura is free to marry her true love, Kai Tzu. She also writes a letter to Mr. Spring Fragrance, ingratiatingly asking him if she can stay in San Francisco another week so she can make fudge for a festival. She also adds a few details about a lecture she has attended, called "America—the Protector of China!" Sarcastically, she asks her husband to forget that the barber charges him a dollar for what he charges an American only fifteen cents, and for the government detaining his brother rather than letting him stay with the Spring Fragrances; "he is protected under the wing of the Eagle, the Emblem of Liberty." Still pondering the "unwise" poetry, Mr. Spring Fragrance begins to worry when his wife extends her stay in San Francisco. He has received a letter from a friend who writes that he has seen Mrs. Spring Fragrance many times together with Man You, the schoolmaster's handsome son. Unaware that his wife is matchmaking Man You and Ah Oi on Laura's behalf, Mr. Spring Fragrance suspects that his wife is having an affair. He questions the university student again about the mysterious lines of poetry, and comes to the conclusion that Mrs. Spring Fragrance has gone to San Francisco to find the "love that she has lost." Angrily, he plans to invite some men over for a party to get his mind off his seemingly unfaithful wife. When Mrs. Spring Fragrance at last returns, her husband is rude and gruff. He barely speaks to her and pretends that he must rush off to take care of business. Mrs. Spring Fragrance is surprised at his behavior, but hides her hurt emotions. Laura, having seen Mrs. Spring Fragrance arrive, runs over to hug and thank her for her efforts on her behalf. While the women are talking, Mr. Spring Fragrance overhears their conversation and realizes that he has been mistaken about his wife's infidelity. After Laura leaves, Mr. Spring Fragrance sheepishly tells his wife that he is very happy about Laura and Kai Tzu. Surprised at her usually business-minded husband's interest in romance, Mrs. Spring Fragrance happily declares: "You must have been reading my American poetry books!" At this remark, Mr. Spring Fragrance exclaims: "American poetry is detestable, abhorrable!" Confused, Mrs. Spring Fragrance asks why he has formed a hatred for American poetry, but he only answers by giving her as an anniversary present a beautiful jade pendant that she once admired in a jewelry store window. -Sui Sin Far

death of a salesman

As a flute melody plays, Willy Loman returns to his home in Brooklyn one night, exhausted from a failed sales trip. His wife, Linda, tries to persuade him to ask his boss, Howard Wagner, to let him work in New York so that he won't have to travel. Willy says that he will talk to Howard the next day. Willy complains that Biff, his older son who has come back home to visit, has yet to make something of himself. Linda scolds Willy for being so critical, and Willy goes to the kitchen for a snack. As Willy talks to himself in the kitchen, Biff and his younger brother, Happy, who is also visiting, reminisce about their adolescence and discuss their father's babbling, which often includes criticism of Biff's failure to live up to Willy's expectations. As Biff and Happy, dissatisfied with their lives, fantasize about buying a ranch out West, Willy becomes immersed in a daydream. He praises his sons, now younger, who are washing his car. The young Biff, a high school football star, and the young Happy appear. They interact affectionately with their father, who has just returned from a business trip. Willy confides in Biff and Happy that he is going to open his own business one day, bigger than that owned by his neighbor, Charley. Charley's son, Bernard, enters looking for Biff, who must study for math class in order to avoid failing. Willy points out to his sons that although Bernard is smart, he is not "well liked," which will hurt him in the long run. A younger Linda enters, and the boys leave to do some chores. Willy boasts of a phenomenally successful sales trip, but Linda coaxes him into revealing that his trip was actually only meagerly successful. Willy complains that he soon won't be able to make all of the payments on their appliances and car. He complains that people don't like him and that he's not good at his job. As Linda consoles him, he hears the laughter of his mistress. He approaches The Woman, who is still laughing, and engages in another reminiscent daydream. Willy and The Woman flirt, and she thanks him for giving her stockings. The Woman disappears, and Willy fades back into his prior daydream, in the kitchen. Linda, now mending stockings, reassures him. He scolds her mending and orders her to throw the stockings out. Bernard bursts in, again looking for Biff. Linda reminds Willy that Biff has to return a football that he stole, and she adds that Biff is too rough with the neighborhood girls. Willy hears The Woman laugh and explodes at Bernard and Linda. Both leave, and though the daydream ends, Willy continues to mutter to himself. The older Happy comes downstairs and tries to quiet Willy. Agitated, Willy shouts his regret about not going to Alaska with his brother, Ben, who eventually found a diamond mine in Africa and became rich. Charley, having heard the commotion, enters. Happy goes off to bed, and Willy and Charley begin to play cards. Charley offers Willy a job, but Willy, insulted, refuses it. As they argue, Willy imagines that Ben enters. Willy accidentally calls Charley Ben. Ben inspects Willy's house and tells him that he has to catch a train soon to look at properties in Alaska. As Willy talks to Ben about the prospect of going to Alaska, Charley, seeing no one there, gets confused and questions Willy. Willy yells at Charley, who leaves. The younger Linda enters and Ben meets her. Willy asks Ben impatiently about his life. Ben recounts his travels and talks about their father. As Ben is about to leave, Willy daydreams further, and Charley and Bernard rush in to tell him that Biff and Happy are stealing lumber. Although Ben eventually leaves, Willy continues to talk to him. Back in the present, the older Linda enters to find Willy outside. Biff and Happy come downstairs and discuss Willy's condition with their mother. Linda scolds Biff for judging Willy harshly. Biff tells her that he knows Willy is a fake, but he refuses to elaborate. Linda mentions that Willy has tried to commit suicide. Happy grows angry and rebukes Biff for his failure in the business world. Willy enters and yells at Biff. Happy intervenes and eventually proposes that he and Biff go into the sporting goods business together. Willy immediately brightens and gives Biff a host of tips about asking for a loan from one of Biff's old employers, Bill Oliver. After more arguing and reconciliation, everyone finally goes to bed. -arthur miller

petrified man

In Petrified Man, most of the drama takes place in the dialogue between Mrs Fletcher and her beautician Leota; there is little external action. During a shampoo and set, Leota tells her customer about her new tenant and friend, Mrs Pike. At first, the two gossip politely, but as soon as Leota notices that Mrs Fletcher's hair is falling out, probably due to her pregnancy rather than the perm she got the week before, the atmosphere changes from friendly to hostile. Suddenly, Mrs Fletcher becomes annoyed by the fact that she has become the talk of the town, and is furious when she gets to know that it was the observant Mrs Pike who noticed her belly. She also dismisses any subject that Leota brings up to distract her, such as Mr Pike, a fortuneteller, and the petrified man at a freak show next door. Moreover, she is extremely annoyed by Mrs Pike's son Billy, who roams the beauty parlor when his mother is at work. In fact, she now despises the idea of having a child of her own. However, she brightens up a little when Leota tells her about the good luck that Mrs Pike had: Due to her excellent observation skills, she identified the man in a wanted ad in one of Leota's magazines as the petrified man at the freak show, who has raped four women. Mrs Pike getting a $500 reward infuriates Leota because she feels the money should have been hers--after all, the ad was in a magazine in her house, and the wanted man was right next door. This time, when Billy misbehaves, it is Leota who spanks him with a brush. In the end, Billy mischievously runs out of the beauty parlor, revealing in a sarcastic comment that the women's lives are a disappointment. -eudora Welty

on the road

In the first-person narrative, we can only see, think, and feel through Sal, further filtered by the lens of memory, and Kerouac sticks to this thoroughly and admirably. Sal thinks in verbose descriptive impressions and long, rambling sentences, like the way Sal and Dean and Carlo talk, and dense paragraphs often over a page long. The sentences attain a breathless quality, skillfully embodying the excitement and motion of the characters and events (for an example, see the 150-word sentence describing Dean working as a parking-lot attendant). In a more sober interpretation, the language is sometimes elegiac, suggesting Sal's nostalgia for a past that is irretrievably gone. Sal describes his friends as thoroughly and truthfully as he can, and seems to also depict himself truthfully, sometimes self-deprecatingly. He is definitely the writer, the observer, often a little behind or at a distance--perhaps to see more clearly: when Dean and Carlo Marx meet, Sal falls behind them at once, watching them. He's also late in starting west, and can't hitchhike and travel as easily as he thought, having to take the bus all the way to Chicago. The others, he imagines, are already there, having great fun. Sal's appreciation of Dean's reckless impulsiveness and seeming ease is sharpened by his desire to have these qualities himself. The opening section also introduces an important characterization of Dean as a "holy con-man": the combination of veneration and truthful perception is a tone central to the entire novel. The idea of a trickster hero-saint appears in many mythologies, such as the Monkey King in Chinese literature. In On the Road, this idea is humanized and complex, applying to both Dean and the events of the novel. Sal knows that eventually, Dean may disappoint and desert him, but he loves him anyway and goes along for the adventure. Dean is saint and con-man at once. It's a kind of faith Sal is describing, making reason and rationality irrelevant. Similarly, the adventure may later prove to be a hollow sham, but for this moment, it is grand. -jack Kerouac

the gooperhead grapevine

In this story, a white Northerner and his wife travel to the south to investigate a vineyard that he is interested in purchasing. It had been neglected for some time, since the Civil War, but the soil is good and the prospective buyer, the narrator of the story, is hopeful. When he and his wife visit, they meet an old man, a former slave named Julius McAdoo, who advises them not to purchase the old plantation. Julius claims that the vineyard is "'goophered, cunju'd, bewitch.'" He proceeds to tell the narrator a story about the old Master McAdoo, a man who realized that slaves were eating up a bunch of his crop and so asked a local conjuring woman to "goopher" the place, to curse anyone who would eat his grapes. She does so, and the curse seems to work. Any person who steals the grapes dies within twelve months of their theft. However, one day, the master hires a new slave named Henry. Henry doesn't know about the curse and eats the grapes, and since it was an honest mistake, the overseer takes him to the conjure woman for help. She tells him to rub the grapevine sap, and this saves his life. Each spring, his formerly bald head grows grape-shaped hair and he becomes sprightly and youthful; each fall, he loses all his hair and grows rheumatic and old again. One day, a Yankee visits the plantation and tells the master that he can make the grapevines grow twice as much, but his methods end up killing the vines instead; Henry, now so connected with the grapes, dies too. The master is eventually killed in the Civil War, and now only Julius remains to eat the grapes. In the end, the narrator decides to buy the plantation despite Julius's advice, and it is thriving. He believes that Julius might have discouraged him from buying the property because he enjoyed being the only person with access to the grapes! -(Charles chestnut)

howl

It consists of three sections. Each of these sections is a prolonged "riff" on a single subject. You could even think of the poem as three enormous run-on sentences. The first section is by far the longest. In the first line of the first section, the speaker tells us that he has been a witness to the destruction of "the best minds" of his generation. The rest of the section is a detailed description of these people - specifically, who they were and what they did. He doesn't tell us what destroyed them quite yet, though we get plenty of hints. Most lines begin with the word "who" followed by a verb. These are people "who did this, who did that," etc. We quickly learn that these "best minds" were not doctors, lawyers, and scientists. They were not people whom most middle-class folks in the 1950s would have identified with the best America had to offer. And that's exactly Ginsberg's point. According to the speaker, they are drug users, drop outs, world travelers, bums, musicians, political dissidents, and, yes, poets. If the key word of the first section was "who," the second section asks "What?" As in, what destroyed the best minds of his generation? Ginsberg provides the answer immediately: Moloch. In the Hebrew Bible, Moloch was an idolatrous god to whom children were sacrificed by placing them in fire. In other words, not a friendly god. The religious context and history of Moloch is extremely complicated, so it's better to stick to the poem's own definition. For Ginsberg, Moloch is associated with war, government, capitalism, and mainstream culture, all of which might be summed up by one of the poem's most important concepts: the "machine" or "machinery." Moloch is an inhuman monster that kills youth and love. The third section is addressed to Carl Solomon, Ginsberg's close friend from the Columbia Presbyterian Psychiatric Institute. The speaker refers to this psychiatric hospital by the shorter and more evocative fictional name of "Rockland." He reaffirms his solidarity with Solomon over and over again by repeating the phrase "I'm with you in Rockland." The central question of this section is "Where?" The speaker uses this question to explore Solomon's existence within the walls of the institute. The poem ends with the image from the speaker's dreams, in which Solomon is walking from New York to the speaker's "cottage" (in Berkeley, California), where they will reunite. -allen ginsburg

Babylon Revisited

Part I opens in the middle of a conversation between Charlie Wales and Alix, a bartender at the Ritz. Charlie asks Alix to pass along his brother-in-law's address to Duncan Schaeffer. The narrator says that Paris and the Ritz bar feel deserted. Charlie says he has been sober for a year and a half and that he is now a businessman living in Prague. He and Alix gossip about old acquaintances. Charlie says he's in town to see his daughter. Charlie gets in a taxi. The Left Bank looks provincial to him, and he wonders whether he's ruined the city for himself. The narrator tells us that Charlie is a handsome thirty-five-year-old. Charlie goes to his brother-in-law's house, where his daughter, Honoria, jumps into his arms. Marion Peters, his sister-in-law, greets him without warmth, although his brother-in-law, Lincoln Peters, is friendlier. In a calculated remark, Charlie boasts about how good his finances are these days. Lincoln looks restless, so Charlie changes the subject. Marion says she's glad there aren't many Americans left in Paris, and it's clear that she doesn't like Charlie. After eating dinner with the Peters family, Charlie goes to see a famous dancer named Josephine Baker, then to Montmartre, where he passes nightclubs that he recognizes. He sees a few scared tourists go into one club. He thinks about the meaning of dissipation and remembers the vast sums of money he threw away. After ignoring a woman's advances, he goes home. Part II begins the following morning. Charlie takes Honoria to lunch. He suggests going to a toy store and then to a vaudeville show. Honoria doesn't want to go to the toy store because she's worried they're no longer rich. Charlie playfully introduces himself to her as if they are strangers. He pretends that her doll is her child, and she goes along with the joke. She says she prefers Lincoln to Marion and asks why she can't live with Charlie. Leaving the restaurant, they run into Duncan Schaeffer and Lorraine Quarrles, two of Charlie's friends from the old days. Lorraine says she and her husband are poor now and that she is alone in Paris. They ask Charlie to join them for dinner, but he brushes them off and refuses to tell them where he's staying. They see each other again at the vaudeville, and he has a drink with them. In the cab on the way home, Honoria says she wants to live with him, which thrills Charlie. She blows him a kiss when she is safely inside the house. In Part III, Charlie meets with Marion and Lincoln. He says that he wants Honoria to live with him and that he has changed. He says he drinks one drink per day on purpose so that he doesn't obsess about it ever again. Marion doesn't understand this, but Lincoln claims that he understands Charlie. Charlie settles in for a long fight, reminding himself that his objective isn't to justify his behavior but to win Honoria back. Marion says that Charlie hasn't existed for her since he locked Helen, her sister and Charlie's wife, out of their apartment. Charlie says Marion can trust him. As it becomes increasingly clear that Marion simply doesn't like Charlie, he begins to worry that she will turn Honoria against him. He stresses that he will be able to give Honoria a good life and then realizes that Marion and Lincoln don't want to hear about how much wealthier he is than they are. He craves a drink. The narrator says that Marion understands Charlie's wish to be with his daughter but needs to see him as the villain. She implies that Charlie was responsible for Helen's death. Lincoln objects. Charlie says that heart trouble killed Helen, and Marion sarcastically agrees with him. Suddenly giving up the fight, she leaves the room. Lincoln tells Charlie that he can take Honoria. Back in his hotel room, Charlie thinks of the way he and Helen destroyed their love for no good reason. He remembers the night they fought and she kissed another man; he got home before her and locked her out. There was a snowstorm later, and Helen wandered around in the cold. The incident marked the "beginning of the end." Charlie falls asleep and dreams of Helen, who says that she wants him and Honoria to be together. Part IV begins the next morning. Charlie interviews two potential governesses and then eats lunch with Lincoln. He says Marion resents the fact that Charlie and Helen were spending a fortune while she and Lincoln were just scraping along. In his hotel room, Charlie gets a pneumatique (a letter delivered by pneumatic tube) from Lorraine, who reminisces about their drunken pranks and asks to see him at the Ritz bar. The adventures that Lorraine looks back on with fondness strike Charlie as nightmarish. Charlie goes to Marion and Lincoln's house in the afternoon. Honoria has been told of the decision and is delighted. The room feels safe and warm. The doorbell rings—it is Lorraine and Duncan, who are drunk. Slurring their words, they ask Charlie to dinner. He refuses twice and they leave angry. Furious, Marion leaves the room. The children eat dinner, and Lincoln goes to check on Marion. When he comes back, he tells Charlie that the plans have changed. In Part V, Charlie goes to the Ritz bar. He sees Paul, a bartender he knew in the old days. He thinks of the fights that he and Helen had, the people out of their minds on alcohol and drugs, and the way he locked Helen out in the snow. He calls Lincoln, who says that for six months, they have to drop the question of Honoria living with Charlie. Charlie goes back to the bar. He realizes that the only thing he can do for Honoria is buy her things, which he knows is inadequate. He plans to come back and try again. -F. Scott Fitzgerald

Battle royal

"Battle Royal" is the first chapter of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. The chapter begins with the narrator remembering a bit of advice that his grandfather gave him about fighting against white oppression. The advice is a bit odd because the grandfather tells him to fight by being overly nice and cooperative. Live with your head in the lion's mouth. I want you to overcome 'em with yeses, undermine 'em with grins, agree 'em to death and destruction. The chapter then returns to the present, and readers are told that the narrator has been asked to deliver his graduation speech to a group of the community's leading white citizens. He agrees to do this, and he steps into a situation that is not at all anticipated. The event is being held at a hotel ballroom, and the leaders present are already quite drunk. The purpose of the evening was never to have the narrator give his speech. Instead, he and nine of his classmates have been invited to be a part of a boxing "battle royal" as entertainment for the white men. In addition to the battle royal, the boys are lined up, and a drunk, naked woman dances in front of the boys. It's humiliating for the boys and the woman. Both are being treated as objects for the viewing pleasure of the men, and some of the men even think it is appropriate to try grabbing the woman. The woman is terrified, but she does manage to escape. Next comes the actual battle. The boys are blindfolded, and they begin pummeling each other. Eventually, the narrator and one other boy are left in the ring, and the narrator is knocked out. The next part of the spectacle is even more horrific. A rug is brought out with coins spread all over it. The boys scramble for the money only to find out that the entire rug has been electrified, and the boys get electrocuted as they reach for the money. The rug was electrified. The hair bristled up on my head as I shook myself free. My muscles jumped, my nerves jangled, writhed. But I saw that this was not stopping the other boys. Laughing in fear and embarrassment, some were holding back and scooping up the coins knocked off by the painful contortions of others. The men roared above us as we struggled. The rug is eventually removed, and the narrator tries to leave; however, he is called back and ordered to give his speech. After his speech, the narrator is given a briefcase and scholarship to the "state college for Negroes." He returns home, and everybody congratulates him, but his dreams that night are clouded with memories of his grandfather. -Ralph Ellison

THE CHRYSANTHEMUMS

At a ranch in the Salinas Valley, Elisa Allen tends to her chrysanthemums while watching her husband talk business with some men down by the tractor shed. She does her gardening work with ease and eagerness. She's a strong lady, and she has got planter's hands, whatever that means. Her husband returns from his successful business deal, and he wants to go into town to celebrate. They plan to finish their work for the day and head into Salinas for dinner. With Henry off working, Elisa returns to her chrysanthemums. Enter intrigue. She's interrupted by the arrival of a stranger - a man who fixes pots and pans. He drives up to the house on a ramshackle wagon and asks Elisa for directions and work. Elisa and the man have quite the conversation, and Elisa seems to develop a connection with the stranger (see what we mean about intrigue?). This connection culminates when she passionately tells the man about her chrysanthemums, and gives him some sprouts. Overcome with emotion, she almost reaches out to touch the man, who soon takes off, leaving Elisa all alone and flustered. When he leaves, she returns to the house and bathes and gets dolled up for date night with her hubby. He arrives home and gets ready, too. As they head for town, she sees the chrysanthemum sprouts she had given the man lying by the side of the road. Soon after, Elisa and Henry's car passes the wagon and the man. After discussing their evening out a bit more, Elisa turns away from Henry and cries. -John Steinbeck

the dynamo and the virgin

Henry is infatuated with the Paris Exposition of 1900, which opens on April 15 and runs through the month of November. He has been studying Gothic architecture since 1895, foreshadowing his historical and philosophical meditation, Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres, privately printed in 1904. During the summer of 1900, he is also reading medieval philosophy. Even with temperatures in the nineties, Henry enjoys this summer in Paris. In July, he writes to Elizabeth Cameron that Thomas Aquinas serves as "liquid air for cooling" his heated blood. Always interested in contrasts and dichotomy, Henry begins to speculate about the medieval strength of Christianity and how it relates to the twentieth-century power generated when mechanical energy produces electricity; this theme will captivate him for the rest of his active intellectual life. In late 1900 or early 1901, he writes a long poem, "Prayer to the Virgin of Chartres," which includes a section titled "Prayer to the Dynamo." -Henry Adams

A Private History of a Campaign That Failed

The story begins with the narrator talking about war. He mentions things like nobody knew what side to join, and how people that join are inexperienced. This is the story of Mark Twain and his group of militiamen during the Civil War. Mark Twain wanted to join the army, so he made a militia group. He got fifteen people to join the group, and someone made a name for the group. It was called the, "Marion Rangers" because they were based near Marion, Mississippi. The Marion Rangers started to head out towards London. They stopped to make a camp, and they heard someone screaming that the enemy was heading towards this direction. The group retreated to their other camp, and nobody came. There were a lot of warnings saying that the enemy was coming, but nobody ever came. One night, the militia group heard someone and they shot an innocent man. They soon realized what real war was like. -(mark twain)

the atlanta exposition address

The Reconstruction Era In 1863 during the American Civil War (1861-65), President Abraham Lincoln (1809-65) issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring millions of enslaved persons to be free. However, even though the Union promised to back this up militarily and did—the Civil War was fought and won largely for this purpose—it took another 100 years and a second civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s for African Americans to have rights modern citizens would associate with freedom—voting rights and equal protection under the law. Booker T. Washington's speech, given during the opening ceremonies of the Cotton States and International Exposition 30 years after the Civil War, in 1895 in Atlanta, Georgia, was a significant contribution to this long civil rights process. Immediately following the Civil War came the period known as Reconstruction, which saw the creation of government policies and procedures on how to bring the 11 Southern states back into the Union. In April 1865 Lincoln was assassinated, and Andrew Johnson (1808-1875) became the new president. Because of his strong belief in states' rights to govern themselves, Johnson gave the newly constituted Southern politicians the power to regulate the transition from slavery to freedom. This approach, known as Presidential Reconstruction because of its association with President Andrew Johnson, lasted for about two years (1865-67). It eventually provoked a powerful backlash from Northerners. Even though at first the white majority in both Southern and Northern states responded with restrictive laws known as black codes intended to limit black Americans' political influence, Northern members of Congress, under the later program known as Radical Reconstruction, or Congressional Reconstruction (1867-77), fought these codes. For a brief period of time black Southerners were able to vote and began to hold office at the state and national levels. Some black officeholders even migrated from the North and Midwest to hold public office in the South. Cast Down Your Buckets In the next few paragraphs of his speech, Washington develops a metaphor that captures the gist of his argument. He tells of a ship that, lost at sea and running out of fresh water, signals another ship to plead for a resupply before the sailors onboard die of thirst. The second ship signals the first to cast down its bucket where it is, meaning to lower the water bucket and draw water from its immediate surroundings. In doing so the crew of the lost ship finally realizes they are not lost at all but entering the mouth of a freshwater river with plenty of drinkable water. Far from needing outside help, they discover the solution to their emergency ready at hand. This situation, Washington says, applies to both black and white Southerners. Black Southerners, he insists, must cast down their buckets in the sense of reconciling themselves to the immediate realities of life in the South. Rather than moving away or looking to the federal government to fix their problems, Washington urges, African Americans in the South must resolve to advance their own situation through hard work. Specifically, he warns them not to agitate for social and political equality in the short term but to focus on building themselves up economically. Agriculture and the trades will be the real route to black economic independence. With that independence, Washington predicts, will come the esteem of the white community. Impact and Legacy The immediate reaction to Washington's speech was largely positive. White audiences and those who read the speech later when it was published in newspapers in both the North and the South embraced Washington's idea of a compromise that would allow black Southerners to achieve equality gradually. White Southern leaders also applauded a plan that could achieve this goal without a sudden and violent disruption to the status quo. Soon, however, black leaders questioned the value of a scheme that seemed to doom African Americans to an inferior position in Southern society. The most important detractor of Washington's policy was the African American sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963). In his 1903 book The Souls of Black Folk, written just eight years after the Cotton States speech, Du Bois critiqued Washington for his "attitude of adjustment and submission." Du Bois considered Washington's ideas to be a form of gradualism and accommodation. Du Bois argued that Washington seemed ready to adapt himself to the prejudices of white Southerners and of white Americans generally. The scholar also took issue with Washington's dismissal of social and political equality as being secondary to economic equality. In his view segregation was a much more serious issue than "the opportunity to spend a dollar in an opera-house," as Washington had put it. Moreover, Du Bois held, exclusion from social and political circles would "sap the manhood" of African Americans, robbing them of self-respect and undermining their work ethic. Thus, he reasoned, the lack of social and political equality might eventually undermine the more modest economic goals Washington had proposed. -Booker T. Washington

trifles

The play opens on the scene of an abandoned farmhouse. The house is in disarray, with various activities interrupted, such as dishes left unwashed and bread prepared but not yet baked. Five people arrive at the house to investigate the scene of a crime, including the county attorney, George Henderson, the local sheriff, Henry Peters, and the neighbor, Lewis Hale, who discovered a murdered man, John Wright, strangled with a rope in his bed. The men are accompanied by two of their wives, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale. Mr. Hale describes for the country attorney the experience of finding John Wright's dead body the previous day. He stopped by his neighbors' house to ask if they'd want to install a party line telephone. He encountered Minnie Wright sitting in her rocking chair, and she calmly announced that her husband was dead. Mr. Hale went upstairs to find the body, and left everything in place for the inspection of the attorney and the sheriff. Minnie claimed that she didn't wake up when her husband was strangled in their bed. Mrs. Wright (Minnie) has been arrested for the crime and is being held until her trial. The men do not look closely around the kitchen for evidence of a motive, but discover Minnie's frozen and broken canning jars of fruits. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale know that Minnie was worried her canning jars would explode in the cold weather, and the sheriff jokes that a woman would worry about such things while held for murder. The men criticize Minnie's poor housekeeping, as evidenced by the mess in the kitchen and a dirty towel. The men go upstairs to inspect the bedroom and Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale collect items from the kitchen that Minnie requested be brought to her at the jail, including clothes and an apron. The women comment on the strangeness of strangling a man to death when the men had pointed out that there was a gun in the house. The women admire a quilt that Minnie was working on, and are wondering if she was going to finish it by "quilting" or "knotting" when the men reenter and, overhearing the women talking, joke about the women's trivial concerns at a time like this. Once again left alone by the men, the women notice that some of the stitching of the quilt is very poor, as if Minnie were nervous or upset. The women then find a birdcage without any bird in it. Mrs. Hale expresses strong regrets having not come to visit Minnie more often, acknowledging that John Wright was a hard man and that it must have been very difficult for Minnie to be alone at her house. She recalls Minnie before she married and how cheerfully she sang in the choir. The women then uncover a beautiful red box, and in it, the dead bird that was missing from the birdcage, its neck broken. When the men return, Mrs. Hale hides the box with the body of the bird. Once the men leave again, Mrs. Peters remembers a boy who killed her childhood pet kitten, and her certainty that she would have hurt him in return if she could have. And yet, Mrs. Peters says, "the law has got to punish crime." Mrs. Hale berates herself for what she sees as her own crime of not visiting her neighbor Minnie, crying out, "who's going to punish that crime?" The men return, and the sheriff asks if the county attorney wants to take a look at the items Mrs. Peters is bringing to Minnie at the jail. He says that Mrs. Peters doesn't need supervising and assumes the things she's taking aren't harmful. The women hide the box with the body of the bird. The county attorney jokes that at least they discovered the fate of Minnie's quilt project, and Mrs. Hale reminds him that she was planning to finish the quilt by knotting it. -Susan Glaspell

the real thing

The story opens with the arrival of a gentleman and lady, later known as Major and Mrs. Monarch, at the home of the narrator, whom the reader learns to be a portrait artist. Upon meeting, the narrator describes the couple as "striking" and "distinguished" (James). Regardless of their attractiveness, however, they are both seemingly shy and reluctant to disclose their business with the narrator. Eventually, through an ambiguous conversation, the reader learns that the couple has visited the artist in hopes that he will sketch them as models. As the conversation continues, the couple explains that, through a series of circumstances, they have lost their fortune and are attempting to model, despite their older age, in order to make additional income. At this point, the narrator begins to interpret the couple's past, imagining what their lives have been like. He believes that they probably never had a surplus of money but, instead, were accepted into high society because of their beauty and cheerful nature. Continuing on, the narrator meets with the couple again. They begin to be subjects in the artist's modeling sketches, but he is unhappy with his replication of Major and Mrs. Monarch. No matter how hard he tries, the artist can not successfully recreate their images. Soon, the artist's friend views the drawings of the Monarchs and expresses his disapproval of the quality of the work. He encourages the artist to get rid of the two subjects or risk the unfortunate portraits hurting his career forever. The narrator briefly continues to see the Monarchs, but soon, he heeds the friend's warning. He tells the couple that he can no longer work with them. Despite their pleas, the artists pays the couple their earned money, and they unhappily leave, never to be seen again. In the end, the artist says that even though it hurt his career, he was "content to have paid the price—for the memory" of the Monarchs -(mark twain)

going to meet the man

The story starts with a scene in the bedroom of a local sheriff Jesse and his wife Grace. The problem is that the man is unable to perform sexually; his wife surely does not insist, just tells him that he has been working lately too hard and advises him to go to sleep as tomorrow is going to be a rather difficult day. But he can't sleep, all he is thinking about is a black girl who would do anything he asks, but he could not ask his wife of such a favor, and these thoughts make him suffer. Jesse can't fall asleep so starts telling that the following day is going to be difficult because there were problems with black people in the local office. They have gathered together around the court house and continue singing without stopping. The reason why they have gathered is not clear, but it seems like a rebellion, and local authorities decided to catch a boy who was among these people, he seemed to be a leader, and they thought that if they caught him, all the rest would go ever. But they did not. Jesse had to make this boy make his people stop singing, and when entered the cell where he was kept Jesse started kick and beat him. The scene is rather intense, and atmosphere is dreadful. Jesse continues propping the boy with the club and the last fell down almost unconscious, but he would not obey. That singing outside seemed to Jesse very familiar, but he could not remember where he had heard it. And suddenly he remembered, it had happened when he was 8 years old. There was an execution in their town, a black man was caught for some deed (which is unclear from the context), tied up in front of a great amount of people, beaten and finally one of the white men took a knife and cut off the black man's privates. After that the black man was burned. The rest of the unburned body was torn apart. This moment and these eyes now apart from the body would forever stay in the little boy's memory. -james Baldwin

Barn Burning

Young Colonel Sartoris Snopes crouches on a keg in the back of the store that doubles for the town court. He cannot see the table where his father and his father's opponent, Mr. Harris, are seated. The justice of the peace asks Mr. Harris for proof that Mr. Snopes burned his barn. Mr. Harris describes the numerous times Snopes's hog broke through the fence and got into his cornfields. The final time, when Mr. Harris demanded a dollar for the animal's return, the black man who was sent to fetch the hog gave Mr. Harris an ominous warning that wood and hay are combustible. Later that night, fire claimed Mr. Harris's barn. While the judge claims that that by itself isn't proof, Mr. Harris has Sartoris called to testify before the court. The boy knows his father is expecting him to lie on his behalf. After doing so, the judge asks Mr. Harris whether he wants the child cross-examined, but Mr. Harris snarls to have the boy removed. The judge dismisses the charges against Snopes but warns him to leave the county for good, and Snopes agrees to comply. Snopes and his two sons then leave the store and head to their wagon. A child in the crowd accuses them of being barn burners and strikes Sartoris, knocking him down. Snopes orders Sartoris into the wagon, which is laden with their possessions and where his two sisters, mother, and aunt are waiting. Snopes prevents his crying wife from cleaning Sartoris's bloodied face. That night, the family camps around the father's typically small fire. Snopes wakes Sartoris and takes him onto the dark road, where he accuses him of planning to inform the judge of his guilt in the arson case. Snopes strikes Sartoris on the head and tells him he must always remain loyal to his family. The next day, the family arrives at its new home and begins unloading the wagon. Snopes takes Sartoris to the house of Major de Spain, the owner on whose land the family will work. Despite the servant's protests, Snopes tracks horse manure into the opulent house, leaving only when Miss Lula asks him to. He resentfully remarks that the home was built by slave labor. Two hours later, the servant drops off the rug that Snopes had soiled and instructs him to clean and return it. Snopes supervises as the two sisters reluctantly clean the carpet with lye, and he uses a jagged stone to work the surface of the expensive rug. After dinner, the family retires to their sleeping areas. Snopes forces Sartoris to fetch the mule and ride along with him to return the cleaned rug. At the house, Snopes flings the rug onto the floor after loudly kicking at the door several times. The next morning, as Sartoris and Snopes prepare the mules for plowing, de Spain arrives on horseback to inform them that the rug was ruined from improper cleaning. In lieu of the hundred-dollar replacement fee, the major says Snopes will be charged twenty additional bushels of corn. Sartoris defends Snopes's actions, telling him that he did the best he could with the soiled carpet and that they will refuse to supply the extra crops. Snopes puts Sartoris back to work, and the following days are consumed with the constant labor of working their acreage. Sartoris hopes that Snopes will turn once and for all from his destructive impulses. The next weekend, Snopes and his two sons head once again to a court appearance at the country store, where the well-dressed de Spain is in attendance. Sartoris attempts to defend Snopes, saying that he never burned the barn, but Snopes orders him back to the wagon. The judge mistakenly thinks the rug was burned in addition to being soiled and destroyed. He rules that Snopes must pay ten extra bushels of corn when the crop comes due, and court is adjourned. After a trip to the blacksmith's shop for wagon repairs, a light meal in front of the general store, and a trip to a corral where horses are displayed and sold, Snopes and his sons return home after sundown. Despite his wife's protests, Snopes empties the kerosene from the lamp back into its five-gallon container and secures a lit candle stub in the neck of a bottle. Snopes orders Sartoris to fetch the oil. He obeys but fantasizes about running away. He tries to dissuade Snopes, but Snopes grabs Sartoris by the collar and orders his wife to restrain him. Sartoris escapes his mother's clutches and runs to the de Spain house, bursting in on the startled servant. Breathlessly, he blurts out the word Barn! Sartoris runs desperately down the road, moving aside as the major's horse comes thundering by him. Three shots ring out and Snope is killed, his plan to burn de Spain's barn thwarted. At midnight, Sartoris sits on a hill. Stiff and cold, he hears the whippoorwills and heads down the hill to the dark woods, not pausing to look back -william Faulkner

the war prayer

a short story or prose poem by Mark Twain, is a scathing indictment of war, and particularly of blind patriotic and religious fervor as motivations for war. The structure of the work is simple: an unnamed country goes to war, and patriotic citizens attend a church service for soldiers who have been called up. The people call upon God to grant them victory and protect their troops. Suddenly, an "aged stranger" appears and announces that he is God's messenger. He explains to them that he is there to speak aloud the second part of their prayer for victory, the part which they have implicitly wished for but have not spoken aloud themselves: the prayer for the suffering and destruction of their enemies. What follows is a grisly depiction of hardships inflicted on war-torn nations by their conquerors. The story ends with the man being ignored. -(mark twain)

the yellow wallpaper

is written as a series of diary entries from the perspective of a woman who is suffering from post-partum depression. The narrator begins by describing the large, ornate home that she and her husband, John, have rented for the summer. John is an extremely practical man, a physician, and their move into the country is partially motivated by his desire to expose his suffering wife to its clean air and calm life so that she can recover from what he sees as a slight hysterical tendency. The narrator complains that her husband will not listen to her worries about her condition, and treats her like a child. She also suspects that there is something strange and mysterious about the house, which has been empty for some time, but John dismisses her concerns as a silly fantasy. As part of her cure, the narrator is forbidden from pursuing any activity other than domestic work, so as not to tax her mind. She particularly misses the intellectual act of writing and conversation, and this account is written in a diary that she hides from her husband. They move into the room at the top of the house, which the narrator supposes is a former nursery since it has barred windows and peeling yellow wallpaper.This repellent yellow wallpaper becomes a major force in the story, as the narrator grows obsessed with deciphering its seemingly incomprehensible, illogical patterns. She continues to hide the diary from John, and grows more and more convinced that the wallpaper contains a malevolent force that threatens the whole home. From her room, she can see a shaded lane, the bay, and an overgrown garden. When she can escape the attention of her husband and Jennie, his sister, she continues her study of the wallpaper and begins to imagine she can see a mysterious figure hiding behind the top pattern. She tries to convince her husband that they should leave the house, but he insists that she is improving and sees indulging her concerns as encouraging a dangerous, fanciful nature, when what is required is self-control. The narrator's depression and fatigue continue to worsen. Her fascination with the wallpaper takes over her life. In a series of increasingly short diary entries, she describes her progress in uncovering the secrets of its pattern, as she grows increasingly paranoid about the intentions of Jennie and John. She believes that the figure is a creeping woman, trapped behind the bars of the top pattern, and becomes determined to free her, and to keep the secret of her existence from her husband and his sister. She surprises Jennie examining a scratched groove on the wall, and doesn't believe her excuse that she had been looking for the source of the yellow stains on the narrator's clothes. She begins to keep secrets even from her diary, and makes an initial, nighttime attempt to remove the wallpaper on the eve of their departure. Later, when all the furniture has been removed from the room except for the gnawed and heavy bedstand, she locks the door and throws the key down onto the front drive, andthen proceeds to tear and tear at the parts of the wallpaper she can reach. Here, at the story's climax, the perspective shifts as the narrator's mental breakdown becomes complete, and in her madness she is convinced that she is the woman who was trapped behind the wallpaper. She begins to creep around the room in an endless circle, smudging the wallpaper in a straight groove. John breaks into the room and discovers her, and faints at the sight. She continues to creep endlessly around the room, forced to go over his prone body -(Charlotte Perkins Gilmore)

school days of an Indian girl

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