The Sun Also Rises

Using our class notes, discuss how this text is representative of the Avant Garde movement in American Literature (lecture will be given the day we start discussing the book). Use quotes from the text to back up your answer.

When one thinks of the term Avant Garde, they might envision an eccentric evening gown birthed from four yards of purple leather and littered with various pieces of warped silverware. Or perhaps they might think of an incredible piece of art, where a stocky man in a trench coat is surrounded by an orange ball, a typewriter, and a poster of the human anatomy. Would one ever dream to think of Ernest Hemingway’s famous novel, The Sun Also Rises as Avant Garde? While there may not be any orange balls or warped silverware, Hemingway crafted his novel in opposition to the norm. He embraced this Avant Garde movement, also referred to as Dadaism, through his fresh way of writing dialogue, his characters, and his style of writing.

One of Hemingway’s most notorious characteristics is the way he writes his dialogue between characters. While most authors of that time were still including ‘she exclaimed’ and ‘he screamed furiously” to display emotion and create fluidity, Hemingway was cutting out the middleman and just writing raw dialogue. “ ‘If our money comes and you’re sure you don’t mind.’ ‘ It will come, all right. I’ll see to that.’ ‘Tell me what tackle to send for.’ ‘Get two or three rods with reels, and lines, and some flies.’ ‘I won’t fish,’ Brett put in” (Hemingway, 88). The Avant Garde movement in literature was all about making it new and making things different. It was a movement that was created in response to post-World War I. “Dada was not art; it was anti-art. For everything that art stood for, Dada was to represent the opposite” (Dadaism). Ernest Hemingway went against the grain with this type of distant and static writing. He simplified the way his characters spoke to one another and through this created a new type of fragmented dialogue that was innovative and extremely Avant Garde.

Another fresh approach used in The Sun Also Rises are the characters Hemingway created. Perhaps the most Avant Garde character is Lady Brett Ashley. She represented the new, modern woman who had short hair, made sexual advances, and called men ‘chap’. This was not something the world had seen before. They were used to the traditional woman, one that obeyed her husband and only took interest in the household and the upbringing of her children. Hemingway gave Brett opinions and an incredible amount of zest. Not only did he choose to make her vivaciously bold, but he chose to position her in a desirable light. If the reader did not favor Brett and her actions, perhaps they would think differently when they read about the countless amount of men that were intoxicated by her presence. Perhaps women would begin thinking that this is what one must do to receive such an incredible amount of attention and devotion. “Brett was damn good-looking. She wore a slipover jersey sweater and a tweed skirt, and her hair was brushed back like a boy’s. She started all that. She was built with curves like the hull of a racing yacht, and you missed none of it with that wool jersey” (Hemingway 30).

Besides the way Hemingway wrote dialogue and created his characters, he also had an extremely distinct and new way of writing. He included many fissures and a great deal of fragmentation. There is a very discontinuous style to his writing, where he interchangeably alters the point of view and ignores the idea of conventional time. It is a very distant style of writing, which creates a great deal of space between the author and the reader. “With the order of the world destroyed by World War I, Dada was a way to express the confusion that was felt by many people as their world was turned upside down” (Dadaism). This Avant Garde movement was centered on self-expression and conveying emotions through pieces of art. Hemingway’s modern style of writing was perhaps a way to express his own confusion in the post-World War I era. He focused not on creating connections, which made his novel easy to digest, but wrote it in a way that he himself felt; scattered, distant, and passionate.

While The Sun Also Rises might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the term Avant Garde, it was an American staple in the ‘make it new’ modernism movement. By way of Hemingway’s dialogue, characters, and style, he set a new foot into the literature world, changing history.


WORKS CITED.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Sun Also Rises. New York: Scribner Paperback Fiction, 1926. Print.

n.a., Dadaism Art. HuntFor, 2007. Web. 24 September 2009.

O Pioneers

Write a blog that is an excerpt from Alexandra’s diary. Use page numbers at the end of each entry so that I know exactly where you are in the text for each.

Dearest Diary,

I have come to a realization. I have come up with the idea that will save us all. I realized it when I visited the river farms. I learned so much from the people there, about their crops, their poultry, and even talked to a young man who was growing a new type of clover hay. But as soon as Emil and I started on our journey back to The Divide, I realized how wonderful our land is. Not only because The Divide has just as much to offer, but because this is Dad’s land. The land he gave to me to take care of. As soon as I saw our land, I began to swell with happiness. I couldn’t control the wide grin that spread across my face, I’m sure Emil was curious as to why. I even began to hum! Hum! It’d been a while that I felt this sure and positive that things would work out.

That afternoon, when we arrived at home, I called a family council. I told my brothers about what I saw and tried to convince them that the river farms didn’t even compare to what we had here in The Divide. Before I talked to them, I came up with a solution in my head. We could sell our cattle and the little amount of corn we had left and buy the Linstrum place. Then we could take out two loans and buy Peter Crow’s place, continue to raise all the money we can, and buy ever acre we can lay our hands on. It was bound to work! Once I presented this idea to Lou and Oscar, they responded furiously. I was so prepared for them to be shocked by the idea, but I didn’t expect this. I still felt like I could convince them, that if we followed my plan, everything would work out, but I remember becoming increasingly nervous with every exclaimed response.

The thing my brothers don’t understand is that I don’t want them to work like dogs forever. I want us to all work together, even though the times are hard, and come out on top in the end. This is the time to get ahead. And that is what I realized when I visited the river farms. A little while later, I saw Oscar go outside for a pail of water. I anxiously awaited his return, hoping we could talk further about my plans. When he did not come back, I ran outside to find him. He told me that he didn’t want to sign any more papers, to grow deeper into debt. I tried to tell him that I didn’t want him to work forever, that this was just the beginning to a prosperous end. He left me a little while after that. I took the time to sit under the stars and breathe in the exhilaration of a new beginning. This is where I write to you from. I can hear the creatures of the land whisper to one another, I can see the starts twinkling, lighting the page in which I write my inner most thoughts on. I think this will be good. This is what Dad would have done. He wouldn’t have wanted me to pick up and abandon what we have so rightfully worked hard for. No, I will stay here and make you proud, Dad. This is the moment that everything begins to change. I can promise you that.

With best wishes for the future,
Alexandra



WORK CITED

Cather, Willa. O Pioneers. New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 2003. Print.

(Utilized pages 35-38)

Edith Wharton Blog

After reading various websites about Edith Wharton’s life, I see a large amount of similarities between her stories and her history. When examining her past in accordance with her Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Age of Innocence, I notice identical location, similar status, and parallel romantic escapades.

Perhaps the easiest connection to pick up on is the location of The Age of Innocence and where Edith Wharton spent the majority of her life. She was born into an extremely wealthy family in 1862 in New York City. When she was four years old, her family moved to Europe until she was nine. Wharton and her family then returned to New York City. Although she participated in more traveling, she remained in the big city for the rest of her life. This is an extremely good foundation for Wharton to build her stories on. She was more familiar with New York than any other place in the world. She also knew exactly how society acted in this precise location. Her novel, The Age of Innocence is set in New York. Although we, as a class, did not read the novel, watching the movie made it apparent that the setting was one of my major backbones of the story. It held the society and troubled souls within that society together.

The status of Edith Wharton’s family and the characters showcased in The Age of Innocence are identical. Wharton wrote about the big money New York society because that is what she herself was a part of. Like I said before, she was born into a very wealthy family, she went to Yale, an Ivy League school, and was the first woman to earn her doctorate degree. She traveled to Europe frequently, which probably gave her the ability to write about Ellen and her life out of the country before re-entering New York society. Besides the location of The Age of Innocence, the wealthy society is key to the novel. Without the high level society, Archer would not have to deal with the eternal struggle of living in despair among the New York socialites or living his own independent life without the money and recognition. The way the society is written in The Age of Innocence appears as if it is strictly autobiographical. One might assume that several of the characters depicted in her Pulitzer Prize winning novel represent specific people that she once dined, laughed, and danced with.

In addition to the location and society, the romantic strings between Archer and Ellen are quite similar to Wharton’s romantic situation. Edith Wharton married in 1885 to Teddy Wharton. She was only twenty-three years old. They ended up getting a divorce once she realized Teddy was cheating on her and stealing her money to support himself. While one might assume Edith stood by her husband and was only the victim, such is not true. Wharton happened to have an affair of her own with Morton Fullerton, a journalist, for three years. Although anyone can write about the trials and tribulations of love and suffering, only the ones that have truly experienced love can write about it well. This goes for Edith Wharton and the love affair between Archer and Ellen. It was depicted as so tantalizing, such an escape from the society they both despised and feared. Perhaps this is what Wharton underwent during her marriage to Teddy. They were married for thirty years. Teddy was from the society she grew up in, but lacked the same artistic and creative inspiration she held so dearly. The same goes for Archer in The Age of Innocence.

The connections between Wharton’s writings and her real life are astonishing. It is no wonder that her pieces of work received so much recognition. She spent an entire lifetime collecting data and experiencing the events and emotions that she bestowed upon her characters.

WORKS CITED.

Merriman, C. D. The Literature Network. Jalic Inc, n.d. Web. 10 September 2009.

Campbell, D. The Edith Wharton Society. n.p., 21 July 2008. Web. 10 September 2009.

The Scarlet Letter

Discussing the meanings of romanticism and realism is extremely similar to comparing red meat and seafood. Some people find these two categories to be equally delicious while others can’t even stomach the smell of seafood but do not hesitate to stick their noses deep into a steaming pot roast. Red meat and seafood carry different nutrients and are served in different ways, but they both happen to be staples in our American cuisine. Romanticism and realism are also extremely prominent in the Literature world, but one might begin to wonder; What are the opposing nutrients?

Realism is driven by the use of dialect. Huckleberry Finn is an exquisite example of a realistic type of literature that uses a specific type of language to reflect the way people of that time truly spoke. Another major characteristic is the use of flawed heroes. The settings are usually simplistic. They are meant to represent the everyday, unlike romanticism that uses the exotic locale to make things exciting and slightly dangerous for the reader. Character development is much more important in the realism genre. This is what makes the novels interesting; A deeply provocative character in an everyday setting with everyday problems.

Romanticism on the other hand, takes the reader into a completely different world where situations and settings are ordinarily out of the usual. Like I mentioned before, the exotic locale is an important characteristic of the romanticism genre. For example, in the novel, The Scarlet Letter, Hester and the townspeople are surrounded by an eerie and magical forest. The forest represents passion and the supernatural, which is another quality of romanticism; Symbolism. Hawthorne chose to use almost every object mentioned in the novel to represent something. For example, the rosebush mentioned at the beginning of the novel (Chapter 1, 46) symbolizes morality and gender issues throughout the novel. The use of Archaic language used to identify a uniquely American Literature is also found in The Scarlet Letter. In contrast with the realism genre, romanticism defines a true hero and true villain and through that, displays the struggle between good and evil. In The Scarlet Letter, Hester is the clear hero. Even though she did commit adultery, the reader gathers the idea that she didn’t perform the act with maliciousness or hatred towards her husband, but with the idea that he had passed. Chillingworth, who is often thought to symbolize a leech or the devil is the clear villain. He attempts to attack both Hester and Dimmesdale and it is simple for the readers to associate evil with all that he does throughout the novel.

The evidence that the novel, The Scarlet Letter, belongs in the romanticism genre is almost overwhelming. Although one might struggle to understand the content, seeing as the average reader digests much more realistic pieces, the characteristics associated with romanticism are very magical. This is what shapes novels such as The Scarlet Letter and Moby Dick into such enchanting pieces of literature. It also places them into the classic literature hall of fame.