Realism. . Choose one collection to read.
October Reading Selection
REALISTS 1860-1910
Collection 1
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain. A famous and perennially controversial novel about the friendship of Huck and Jim who is a runaway slave. The action of the novel takes place on the Mississippi River sometime around 1840. Issues are the immorality of slavery, child abuse, complicated cultural and moral decisions, and, of course, beauty and adventure. Twain is a satirist who attacks religion, society and the morals of each. Smooth reading, but contains offensive language, notably use of the "n" word. (This book is available from the textbook room)
Read from Elements, p. 408 - 414, The Rise of Realism: The Civil War and Postwar Period.
Read from Elements, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, p. 468, by Ambrose Bierce.
Read two essays from Coming to Grips with Huckleberry Finn, available in the textbook room.
Collection 2
The Awakening, Kate Chopin. docsouth.unc.edu/chopinawake/menu.html,
or in bookstores.
"'In a little four-room house around the corner. It looks so cozy, so
inviting and restful.'(79) With this description Chopin introduces the reader
to Edna's new residence, which is affectionately known as the pigeon house.
The pigeon house provides Edna with the comfort and security that her old
house lacked. The tranquility that the pigeon house grants to Edna allows
her to experience a freedom that she has never felt before." (Lisbeth
DiAntonio, The Pigeon House)
Two selections from American Realism on reserve in the Skyline High library.
Read from Elements, p. 408 - 414, The Rise of Realism: The Civil War and Postwar Period.
Read The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935). Short - a one sitting read - history of a woman suffering a breakdown. Her husband, a physician, becomes a person to be feared.
Collection 3
The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton. Wharton is today recognized as a major writer of the first two decades of the twentieth century. She has written extensively on New York families with old money in struggle with social climbers. Her fiction belongs to the novel of manners tradition. Her prose is elegant and her plots are tightly constructed. A prolific writer, she received a Pulitzer Prize in 1921 and, two years later, she became the first woman to receive a Doctor of Letters degree from Yale University. The tale of an poor cousin who must marry to maintain her social stature but who finds love interferes with the search for a husband.
Two selections from American Realism on reserve in the Skyline High library.
Read from Elements, p. 408 - 414, The Rise of Realism: The Civil War and Postwar Period.
Read A Pair of Silk Stockings, p. 437, by Kate Chopin.
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