2017美国文学作业

2016—08-31. In Allan Poe's Poem "Annabellee", there are a lot of repetitions. For example,“In the kingdom by the sea” “ANNABEL LEE” are repeated for many times. Try to explain why Poe repeat these words and what artistic effects are produced by the repetition?"Annabel Lee" is the last complete poem[1] composed by Americanauthor Edgar Allan Poe. Like many of Poe's poems, it explores thetheme of the death of a beautiful woman.[2]Like a ballad, the poem uses repetition of words and phrasespurposely to create its mournful effect.[2][8]The name "ANNABELLEE" is used over and over again. So the reader is acutely aware ofthe speaker's sense of love.The poem's narrator describes his love for Annabel Lee, which beganmany years ago in a "kingdom by the sea". Though they were young,their love for one another burned with such an intensity that angelsbecame envious. It is for that reason that the narrator believes theseraphim caused her death. Even so, their love is strong enough that itextends beyond the grave and the narrator believes their two souls arestill entwined.Poe set the scene in a kingdom by the sea and uses some images likesepulcher and tomb, which add some Gothic touch to the poem. Withthe repetition of some words and phrases, the poem has a nostalgictone and gives us a mournful feeling. The mysterious tone of thepoem makes us feel that only in mysterious and ancient time doessuch kind of love exist.2016—09-141. Why doe Poe us “fantastic terror” in his poem "The Raven"??[83][84][9]With the tapping at the door repeating, slightly louder, the narratorrealizes it is coming from his window. And the narrator begins as "weakand weary," becomes regretful and grief-stricken, before passing into afrenzy and, finally, madness. On the one hand, the fantastic terroremerges both mentally and physically to show his lasting love to thedead lover, which is the main theme of the poem: undying devotion. Onthe other hand, the horrible setting is Gothic, with its physical signs, theeffects of decomposition, concerns of premature burial, the reanimationof the dead, and mourning. Furthermore it also reflects the fundamentaltone of the whole poem.2. Why does Poe choose midnight as the setting of his poem TheRaven ?Midnight means terror and mystery, all kinds of ghosts and the devil always haunts at this time. The thrilling atmosphere emerges a tone of scary, paving the way for the raven’s coming.The midnight is also the very closest and heartbreaking time to push the narrator’s inner loneliness to the climax.Midnight is a moment of silence, which is interrupted by a dynamic knock at the door. It could increase the readers' curiosity and desire read on it.2016---09---28Read this part and make some remarks about the ideas of this text.The only house I had been the owner of before, if I except a boat,was a tent, which I used occasionally when making excursions inthe summer, and this is still rolled up in my garret; but the boat,after passing from hand to hand, has gone down the stream oftime. With this more substantial shelter about me, I had madesome progress toward settling in the world. This frame, soslightly clad, was a sort of crystallization around me, and reactedon the builder. It was suggestive somewhat as a picture in outlines.I did not need To go outdoors to take the air, for the atmospherewithin had lost none of its freshness. It was not so much withindoors as behind a door where I sat, even in the rainiest weather.The Harivansa says, "An abode without birds is like a meatwithout seasoning." Such was not my abode, for I found myselfsuddenly neighbor to the birds; not by having imprisoned one,but having caged myself near them. I was not only nearer to someof those which commonly frequent the garden and the orchard,but to those smaller and more thrilling songsters of the forestwhich never, or rarely, serenade a villager- the woodthrush, theveery, the scarlet tanager, the field sparrow, the whip-poor-will,and many others.This text is adapted from the second charpter of Thoreau’s Walden:where I lived and what I live forThis part of the text solved two questions: where I lived? It is a simple shelter,like a tent, it emphasizes the importance of solitude and the simple lifestyle,Thoreau constantly seeks to simplify his lifestyle , he minimizes his consumer activity, and relies on leisure time and on himself for everything.And what I lived for? He loves the wild just as much as one loves that of the good. Closeness to nature in transcending the "desperate"existence that, he argues, is the lot of most people. It is also a social critique of contemporary Western culture's consumerist and materialist attitudes and its distance from and destruction of nature.The text was under a vivid, detailed, and insightful description, the use of many clittle clever wild animals, the careful description to his building ,shows a dynamic joy in his own life.on the whole, it is a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings. It shows thoreau’s personal declaration of independence, voyage of spiritual discovery, manual for self-reliance.Thoreau takes to the woods dreaming of an existence free of obligations and full of leisure. He announces that he resides far from social relationships that mail represents and it focuses on his thoughts while constructing and living in his new home at Walden.[2016-10-12In what way Thoreau is influenced by Oriental ideas. Give examples to show this.Thoreau quoted 10 sentences from Confucian masterpiece FourBooks to explain his thought in Walden.”ren” as the core ides ofConfucianism ,which encourages people to pursue simple life,virtue and self-cultivation, can also be found in his greattranscendentalism masterpiece.Thoreau was influenced by Indian spiritual thought. In Walden,there are many overt references to the sacred texts of India. Forexample, in the first chapter ("Economy"), he writes: "Howmuch more admirable the Bhagvat-Geeta than all the ruins of theEast!"[3]American Philosophy: An Encyclopedia classes him asone of several figures who "took a more pantheist or pandeistapproach by rejecting views of God as separate from theworld",[83] also a characteristic of Hinduism.Furthermore, in "The Pond in Winter", he equates Walden Pondwith the sacred Ganges river, writing:In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous andcosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavat Geeta, …The pureWalden water is mingled with the sacred water of the Ganges.[14]Additionally, Thoreau followed various Hindu customs, includingfollowing a diet of rice ,flute playing and yoga.2016-10-26How do you explain the title and the themes in Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon?The title comes from the bible, the song of Solomon in the bible is called song of songs, which is a happy love story, so the author main intent is to achieve real equality, mutual respect, harmonious coexistence between American blacks and whites.1.Abandoned WomenMen’s repeated abandonment of women in Song of Solomon shows that the novel’s female c haracters suffer a double burden. Not only are women oppressed by racism, but they must also pay the price for men’s freedom. Guitar tells Milkman that black men are the unacknowledged workhorses of humanity, but the novel’s events imply that black women more correctly fit this description.2.Flight as a Means of EscapeMorrison’s extensive use of flying as a literal and not just metaphorical event pushes Song of Solomon toward the genre of magical realism.The novel’s characters accept human flight as natural. For instance, the observers of Robert Smith’s flight encourage him rather than rush to prevent his leap, implying that they do not see his flight as a suicide attempt. Instead, the onlookers behave as though Sm ith’s flight might be possible.3.The Alienating Effects of RacismRacism is the central cause of suffering in the novel. Racism has long-lasting damaging effects on the community. Slavery causes Solomon to flee toward freedom and end his marriage to Ryna. Guitar’s story shows that racism al ienates its victims from their native communities and causes them to lose touch with their own humanity.2016-11-23Make some remarks on the image of Milkman in Song of Solomon.The black protagonist Milkman was born in a small town inMichigan. His father was a rich estate agent. He is notindependent, living in contradiction and confusion. Urged by hisfather, Milkman went to the South to look for the lost gold. Hedid not find the gold, but discovered the whole history of hisfamily of four generation. Milkman makes his most importantjourney inside his soul as he grows from an egotistical young man into a compassionate adult..Prior to this transformation, Milkman is a selfish young manwho lacks any consideration for others.Although Milkman isflawed, his family loves him unconditionally. Milkman does notreturn their love, and causes them much pain.Although he fits in at upscale parties, Milkman feels alienatedby his family, other -African-Americans of all classes, andhumanity in general.He is also physically different from the people around him,since he has an undersized leg. Even when Milkman is a grownman, his behavior is much different from that of the rest of hiscommunity.Milkman’s distorted personality is not entirely his fault. Morrison shows us that generations of slavery and abuse have played a part in developing Milkman’s selfish personality.2016-12-14Write a short essay to analyze one of the poems written by Dickinson.You can choose the poem by yourself.Success is counted sweetestSuccess is counted sweetestBy those who ne’er succeedTo comprehend a nectarRequires sorest needNot one of all the purple hostWho took the flag todayCan tell the definitionSo clear, of victoryAs he , defeated, dyingOn whose forbidden earThe distant strains of triumphBreak, agonized and clear."Success is Counted Sweetest" is a lyric poem by Emily Dickinson written in 1859 and published anonymously in the Brooklyn Daily Union in 1864. The poem uses the images of a victorious army and one dying warrior to suggest that only one who has suffered defeat can understand success. It was republished in the anthology A Masque of Poets (1878) as part of a series of books published without writers' names.The poem's three unemotional quatrains are written in iambic trimeter with only line 5 in iambic tetrameter. Lines 1 and 3 (and others) end with extra syllables. The rhyme scheme is abcb. The poem's "success" theme is treated paradoxically: only those who know defeat can truly appreciate success. Alliteration enhances the poem's lyricism. The first stanza is a complete observation and can stand alone. Stanzas two and three introduce military images (a captured flag, a victorious army, a dying warrior) and are dependent upon one another for complete understanding.The three stanzas of this poem take the form of iambic trimester—with the exception of the first two lines of the second stanza, which add afourth stress at the end of the line. (Virtually all of Dickinson’s poems are written in an iambic meter that fluctuates fluidly between three and four stresses) As in most of Dickinson’s poems, the stanzas here rhyme according to an ABCA scheme, so that the second and fourth lines in each stanza constitute the stanza’s only rhyme.In the first stanza, the speaker declares that it is only those who “ne’er succeed” who have the notion that success is the best thing. “Nectar metaphorically represents the thing that is desired. Nectar is anything that is sweet. In stanza one, she repeats the “s” sound to a lesser degree “n”, such alliterat ion strengthen the atmosphere, the words are significant, “sorest is used with the older meaning of greatest, it also has the common meaning. T he associations of “N ectar” are really good.Emily also uses imagine to develop her message. In the second stanza, the speaker dramatizes a field victory, saying that the winners cannot clearly state a definition of victory. The stanza paints a picture of the victor in the war, but the victor does not understand to the full extent what his victory is, and just counts it as victory. In the third stanza, the defeated, however, is in ‘agony’ and knows how powerful success is and what affect it has.Dickinson also implies irony in the third stanza as she implies that the defeated is the one that actually feels what success is, even though he is not the one that achieved it. She implies that the message of triumph is louder in the ears of those who do not have it; those who have reached success have not felt what it is like without success. In stanza three, Dickinson is compressing language and omitting connections in the last three lines. The dying man’s ears are not forbidden; rather, the sounds of triumph are forbidden to him because his side lost their battle. The triumphant sounds that he hears are not agonized, though they are clear to him; rather, he is agonized at hearing the clear sounds of triumph of the other side. They are “distant” literally in being far off and metaphorically in not being part of his experience; defeat is the opposite of or “distant” from victory.The speaker says that “those who ne’er succeed” place the highest value on success. (They “count”it “sweetest”.) To u nderstand the value of a Nectar, the speaker says, one must feel “sorest need”. She says that the members of the victorious army (“the purple Host/ who took the flag today”) are not able to define victory as well as the defeated, dying manwho hears from a distance the music of the victors.Many of Emily Dickinson’s most famous lyrics take the form of homilies, or short moral sayings, which appear quite simple but that actually describe complicated moral and psychological truths. “Success is counted sweetest” is such a poem; its first two lines express its homiletic point, that “SuccessIs coun ted sweetest/By those who ne’er succeed” (or, more generally, that people tend to desire things more acutely when they do not have them 0) The subsequent lines then develop that axiomatic truth by offering a pair of images that exemplify it: the nectar-a symbol of triumph, luxury, “success”—can best be comprehended by someone who “need” it; the defeated, dying man understands victory more clearly than the victorious army does. The poem exhibits Dickinson’s keen awareness of the complicated truths of human desire (in a later poem on a similar theme, she wrote that “Hunger—was a way/Of Persons outside Windows--/The Entering—takes away—“), and it shows the beginnings of her terse, compacted style, whereby complicated meanings are compressed into extremely short phrases(e.g., “On whose forbidden ear”) Success Is Counted Sweetest by Emily Dickinson basically sends the message that success, like any other possession tangible or intangible is only appreciated by those who, it is not always readily available.The speaker here exaggerates the notion of the defeated by saying they lay “dying”—this exaggeration is one of the reasons that reader may misunderstand and claim that the speaker is referring to a Civil War battle. But the “forbidden ear?” is bot literally dying but merely suffering the defeat. The loser, by suffering defeat still has in his heart the deep desire to win, while the winners can merely wallow in the glow of victory.The rhythmic pattern makes the poem flow together, using the rhyme scheme ABCB in the short, three stanzas, like a song. This typical rhyming scheme gives a light affect to the poem; creating the feeling of simplexes and achieving the felling that the message is not buried deep in the poem’s lines and is easy to comprehend.A common idea in Dickinson’s poems is that not having increases our appreciation or enjoyment of what we lack; the person who lacks or does not have understands whatever is lacking better than the person who possesses it. In this poem, the loser knows the meaning “definition” of victory better than the winners. The implication is that he has “won” thisknowledge by paying so high a price, with the anguish of defeated and with his death.Dickinson clearly states this message and implies it throughout the poem, and uses rhyme, imagery, and irony to incorporate the theme that the one who was thirsty for success is the one who never succeeds. The theme of the poem is that only those who have not been successful think that success is so important. The loser is the one who continues to crave success as the winner fades into a neutral state of emotion.Emily’s theme is typical; she sends the message that one never fully appreciates what one has until it is no more, because abundance is usually taken for granted. In this case, the possession that is not appreciated by those who have it is success, because not being victorious is surely a greater loss than being victorious is a gain.The poem, Bloom writes, is one of Dickinson's more "masculine" poems and "emphasizes the power of desire and equates desire with victory." From a Christian perspective, Bloom explains, the sounds bursting on the dying warrior's ear may be heavenly music as he passes to his eternal rest. Although Dickinson's poems are often read as poems of losing at romance, Bloom points out that the popularity of "Success" can be attributed to the fact that the poem's "message can be applied to any situation where there are winners and losers."。