English 1B, Introduction to Literature

Dale T. Jensen, Instructor

A Fully Accredited Online Course Offered By Barstow College

Lesson 1

WELCOME! 

Submit your interactive syllabus immediately if you haven't done so.

BEFORE YOU START THIS LESSON, TAKE THE CLASS LITERATURE ASSESSMENT.  YOU WILL BE DROPPED FROM THE CLASS IF THIS ASSESSMENT IS NOT TAKEN BY THE END OF THE FIRST WEEK.

Click here: ASSESSMENT.

Welcome to English 1B, Introduction to Literature.  This special nine-week class will expose you to some of the greatest works of the past 2500 years, so get ready to read.  We will be covering a semester's amount of work in just nine weeks, which means that you will have to double up on the reading assignments.  I'm not cutting anything from the regular classroom version of this course.  Almost every week there will be a major work of literature to read as well as shorter minor works.  You will also have weekly quizzes to take about the reading assignments, weekly group discussion questions, four short papers, and a midterm examination and a final examination.  See the syllabus and weekly outline--the links are on the class homepage--for more detailed information.

Most of the lessons will loosely follow the thematic units of the text, Literature: Reading and Writing the Human Experience, 9th edition, by Abcarian and Klotz.  We will also read The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald.  

Please read the assigned works, take the quiz, answer and post your discussion questions, and then respond to at least three classmates' postings.

Fiction

"The Lesson," Bambara, page 136

Let's get started by reading a short story by Toni Cade Bambara.  This work from 1972 uses a young African-American girl as the protagonist; toward the end of the story you discover her name is Sylvia.  Narrated in the  first person, this girl from a New York City slum, probably Harlem, speaks in the vernacular of her social environment.  Some of you may find her words and expressions vulgar while others of you may find her words lend realism to the story.  Certainly her words present a hardened child who learns a lesson about life when she leaves her neighborhood and travels to Fifth Avenue and the F.A.O. Swartz toy store.  Sylvia and her peers are lead by Miss Moore into a new world of wealth and extravagance, a sharp contrast to the poverty they know.  Sylvia has difficulty viewing the world outside her neighborhood; her eyes are opened to the inequity of life.

"Good Country People," O'Connor, page 120

This story involves Hulga Hopewell, a 32-year old, one-legged atheist with a Ph.D. in philosophy, and Manley Pointer, a 19-year old Bible salesman who plans to become a missionary.  These two characters couldn't be more different, but things are not what they appear to be.  Hulga still lives with her mother on the family farm and her life is changed when Manley appears at the front door peddling Bibles.  These two characters both have ulterior motives.  Hulga believes she has life figured out and knows more than any of the good country people that surround her.   O'Connor uses names in this short story to develop her characters.  Her comic story borders on the pathetic and cruel, so you might find yourself laughing or shuddering by the end. 

"A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," Hemingway, page 107

Ernest Hemingway is one of America's best known modern writers. His short story takes place in Spain and revolves around three characters: the old man, the old waiter, and the young waiter.  The old waiter sympathizes with the old man who recently tried to commit suicide.  The young waiter does not relate to the old man and feels inconvenienced when the old man stays late at the outdoor cafe.  This story presents a vision of a world and universe without meaning or order.  The old waiter and the old man must remain in light, or they will slip into the nothingness of the darkness. 

Poetry

"The Chimney Sweeper" and "The Tyger," Blake, page 152

William Blake, who is classified as an early English Romantic, was both a poet and an artist.   He studied drawing and often accompanied his poems with original engravings.  Look at page 1355 for an example of his art work.  

Childhood is a common subject for his poetry.  In "The Chimney Sweeper" from Songs of Innocence, Blake has a boy narrate and describe a horrible picture of child labor and abuse.  Forget the happy images of the chimney sweepers in Mary Poppins; small children often were sold like slaves and used to clean chimneys in 18th and 19th century London.  Many were killed in accidents or developed cancer from working in the soot.  Much of the poem centers around Tom Darce's dream of escape from chimney sweeping and finding happiness in the promise of an afterlife. 

"The Tyger" (note the variant spelling) is from Blake's Song of Experience, and it presents a major theological question: Did God, who created good, also create evil?  Notice that the beast suggests darkness and fire. Does a tiger's stripes resemble flames? Did you get the allusion to Lucifer and war in Heaven in stanza five?  What about the tiger's opposite--the lamb?

If you would like to see Blake's original engraving for the poem, click on "The Tyger."

"My Last Duchess," Browning, page 155

Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess" is in the form of a dramatic monologue by the Duke of Ferrara who is looking for a new wife.  The former duchess is no longer--except as a work of art.  The duke discusses the former duchess, and by doing so reveals himself to be a cruel and evil man who destroyed the duchess' love of life and kindness to others.  Please note that Browning uses couplets, pairs of rhymed lines, but the poem has the flow of natural speech because he uses caesuras-- strong pauses-- in varying positions in many lines and also line endings that do not pause.  He is able to avoid the sing-song sound we associate with rhymed lines.

"Spring and Fall," Hopkins, page 159 

Gerard Manley Hopkins was a Jesuit priest and professor of Greek at  University College, Dublin.  He saw only three of his poems published during his lifetime.  In "Spring and Fall" he speaks to Margaret, a child who is saddened by the dying leaves of autumn.  There is a larger lesson here about the fate of all living things: "It is the blight  man was born for, / It is Margaret you mourn for."  Do you remember the first time as a child that you realized you would die?

Drama

Death of a Salesman, Miller, page 251

Arthur Miller's tragic play of the common man remains one of the most important theatrical works of the mid-twentieth century.  Some may argue that ordinary people are not acceptable as tragic figures, and by classical standards they aren't.  Willy Loman (even the surname suggests one of low position in society) is a victim of values he accepts about success in America.  Essentially Willy's character is flawed by a belief that success is acquired through materialism.  Personality, beauty, and luck are necessary for the American Dream to work.  These values are passed on to his sons with sad results.  Willy is also a victim of forces that he has no control over in the business world as well as his own aging and mental deterioration.  As a husband and a parent, he is a man of confused values.

Biff, Willy, and Happy in the original 1949

Broadway production

As the play begins, Willy returns to the Loman house in Brooklyn.  It is late and his wife Linda has worried about him.  Willy's day has been filled with disappointment; he kept losing control of his car and never made his appointments.  Certainly this foreshadows the conclusion of the play.  Linda knows that he needs to rest his mind, and it is obvious to the audience (reader) that there is something seriously wrong with Willy.  His sons, Happy and Biff, know that their father is failing.  Biff, once Willy's pride and joy because of his athletic promise, is now 34 and a drifter.  He didn't graduate from high school and couldn't go to college to play football.

Much of the play takes place in Willy's memory, and we see happier days when the boys were in high school.  Bernard appears and warns Biff about studying.  There is the woman Willy sees when he is on the road appears.  Charley from next door plays cards with Willy as Ben, Willy's dead brother, also appears.  The play goes in and out of the past and present and sometimes into Willy's imagination.  Watch for the transitions into Willy's flash backs when they boys were younger.

Lee J. Cobb as Willy and Mildred Dunnock as Linda 

in the original Broadway production

The character of Willy's wife is often criticized as being weak and subservient to him.  However, it is through Linda much of the information about Willy is revealed such as his attempted suicide.  She remains faithful to her marriage even when Willy isn't. In the play's requiem she cannot cry for her dead husband.  She made the last payment on the house, and they are finally free, but "there'll be nobody home."

Go ahead and read the play.  It is not difficult to follow if you read the stage direction because of the many shifts in scenes.  I don't care if you use other sources to help you understand the play as long as you read the play itself.  There are many secondary sources that you can find on the Internet.

Below are scenes from the film version of Death of a Salesman starring Dustin Hoffman as Willy Loman.

1. Card playing scene and Ben appears.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=cY-FyfpELfg&feature=related

2. Facing the truth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jh2w_0NUtC4&feature=related

Quiz 1 

Once you have completed all the reading, please click on the link and take quiz 1. 

Discussion Questions

Please copy and paste the following questions into your word processing program on your computer.  Insert your answer directly under each question.  Please remember that this is an English class, so I will be grading your responses for content and writing mechanics.  You must write in complete sentences.  A  paragraph of about five to ten sentences for each question is sufficient as long as you are to the point and support your ideas with textual evidence.

1.  Select a character from one of the short stories your were required to read for this lesson.  Write a paragraph on how the author has used the theme of innocent or experience to develop the character. 

2. Select a poem from this lesson that you enjoyed.  What is there about the poem that appealed to you?  What poetic elements can you identify and discuss?

3.    In Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, can Willy be considered a tragic figure? Look at Aristotle's definition of tragedy in The Poetics, starting on page 242.   Be sure to give specific examples to support your ideas.     

After you have posted your answers, read the selections by the other students and respond to three of them.  Be analytical.  If you agree, state why you agree.  If you disagree, be civil and state why you disagree.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS MUST BE SUBMITTED AS A GROUP.  I REFUSE TO HUNT ALL OVER THE DISCUSSION GROUP TRYING TO FIND YOUR PARAGRAPHS TO GRADE.  

This discussion group may be used only to post your discussion answers and responses to your classmates' postings--not say hi to friends or cheer for your favorite athletic team.

Click on the discussion icon below and follow the directions to post.

ATTENTION!

You have a short story paper coming up at the end of lesson two.  If would behoove you to look at the link on the class homepage and plan ahead.