The life of Christopher Johnson McCandless has been a source of both inspiration and controversy throughout North America. His trek into the Alaskan wilderness, which led to his eventual demise, left him remembered as heroic and reckless, a brilliant artist and an irresponsible egotist; but regardless of what one’s opinion is on Chris McCandless, there is no denying that he is interesting and has inspired a variety of works in the media, including author Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, which was adapted into a film in 2007. Though both the novel and film follow the same storyline, the two have their inevitable differences.…
Humankind’s threat to the earth and the natural world has been a common theme of writing since the industrial revolution and underpins The Crest. Kinsella’s forboding poem presents a powerful analogy with man’s pastoral development and it’s intrusion into the natural world.…
Jon Krakauer writes Chris McCandless’ story with allusions and sentence structure in Into the Wild, effectively solidifying McCandless’ status as an adventurous legend in life and death. The sentence structure used in the beginning of the novel magnify the shock of his death and provide a mysterious air for McCandless. His allusion to Ruess gives the reader another level of understanding for McCandless while developing his argument. Krakauer’s writing regards McCandless as a legend in life and…
The late 18th century to the early 19th century was a time of social and economical turmoil as well as prosperity and civil righteousness for different groups of people. Many changes have occurred throughout that time period including advancements in industry, social and religious enlightenment, and especially new forms of literature. Many famous authors during that time period wanted to preserve their cultures and to describe what was going on during those times. This lead to the form of literature called Naturalism and Regionalism, two very popular forms of american literature. The term Naturalism was a literary action that used realistic and detailed suggestions that social conditions, heredity and environment had to do with shaping human…
The author, Seamus Deane, discusses the two greatest pieces that stood out and impacted his own writing style. He does so not by just writing down what exactly changed his mind, but rather presenting his two encounters and the following reactions.…
Naturalism is an ongoing literary movement that has been apparent since the 1900’s. It depicts how the environment, social conditions, and even hereditary characteristics influence and shape the way a human character will develop. It is believed that there is no escaping this realism, and each situation one experiences is what will establish the route of life that they will partake. A short story called “My Antonia”, written by Willa Cather is merely categorized with Realism and Naturalism, though it is evident that several aspects portray supernatural occurrences. The specific characters throughout these excerpts show the reflection of Naturalism by experiencing struggles of deprivation which resulted in their lives being shaped by dissimilarity, and ethnic tensions. In somewhat of contrast another short story called “Long Journeys into Night” written by Eugene O’Neill, is a literary story which specifically relates to Naturalism, whereas My Antonia has more so of supernatural tendencies. The following paragraphs will show in depth the ways in which both short stories either reflect or do not reflect the idea of Naturalism, and in how they both can be compared and contrasted.…
Cited: Baym, Nina and Levine, Robert. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 8th ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc. 2012…
A reluctant nature writer, Edward Abbey writes of his experiences of, and personal philosophical developments during, his time in southeastern Utah's canyonlands. Abbey doesn't like to consider himself a nature writer, yet he clearly exhibits great strengths as a preserver of nature through his writings.…
Facts can be found in the details. Within every detail perhaps, there holds a shred of untold truth. There is a sense of objectiveness in regards to these small pieces of truth and their very real, factual nature. Paired with survival of the fittest, the truthful details manifest themselves in the form of American naturalism. The time for objective, factual honesty about the reality of life, day in and day out, is compiled throughout works of the American naturalist era. It focuses on the accuracy of hardships and not the relationships between people. It places a significant importance upon the relationship between an individual and his or her milieux. A poignant piece of literature arose from the sentiments of this era and it is called A…
Cited: Bartley, William. 2000. “Imagining the Future in The Awakening.” College English 62.6: 719–46. Caminero-Santangelo, Marta. 1998. The Madwoman Can’t Speak: Or Why Insanity is Not Subversive. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Chopin, Kate. 1988. The Awakening. Intro. Marilynne Robinson. 1899. Reprint. New York: Bantam Books. Dyer, Joyce. 1993. The Awakening: A Novel of Beginnings. New York: Twayne Publishers. Emerson, Ralph Waldo. 1981. Selected Writings of Emerson. Ed. Donald McQuade. New York:The Modern Library. Fleissner, Jennifer L. 2004. Women, Compulsion, Modernity: The Moment of American Naturalism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Gilbert, Sandra M. 1983.“The Second Coming of Aphrodite: Kate Chopin’s Fantasy of Desire.” The Kenyon Review 5.3: 44–66. Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. 1972. The Living of Charlotte Perkins Gilman: An Autobiography. New York: Arno Press. ———. 1997. “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Other Stories. 1892. Reprint. New York: Dover Publications. ———. 1913. “Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper.” The Forerunner, October, 271. Kearns, Katherine. 1991. “The Nullification of Edna Pontellier.” American Literature 63.1: 62–88. Spangler, George M. 1970. “Kate Chopin’s ‘The Awakening’: A Partial Dissent.” NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction 3.3: 249–55. Stowe, Harriet Beecher. 2003. Uncle Tom’s Cabin. 1852. Reprint. Intro. and notes by Amanda Claybaugh. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics. Streater, Kathleen M. 2007. “Adèle Ratignolle: Kate Chopin’s Feminist at Home in The Awakening.” Midwest Quarterly 48.3: 406–16. Toth, Emily. 1991. “Kate Chopin on Divine Love and Suicide: Two Rediscovered Articles.” American Literature 63.1: 115–21. ———. 1999. Unveiling Kate Chopin. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. Treu, Robert. 2000. “Surviving Edna: A Reading of the Ending of The Awakening.” College Literature 27.2: 21–36.…
The romantic period in literature started in roughly the 1790s and ended around the 1830s. This was a period when people’s imagination and love for nature flourished, prospered and then sky-rocketed. When comparing the two poems The Ropewalk and Because I Could Not Stop for Death for theme and tenets of romanticism, it is evident that both poets’ exemplify the power of imagination and the weight of nature through poetic devices. While one poet expresses the individual-self the other contradicts with a more social mindset. These comparisons help reveal that the poets’ purposes are to notice the influence of imagination and to also relish nature.…
Naomi Shihab Nye." Academy of American Poets -- Biographies of American Poets (2006): 122. Literary Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 26 Apr. 2011.…
The Author talks about nature and culture and what has happened and what is becoming of it. The natural world is talked about everywhere, as well as photographed…
Edgar Allan Poe has provided many different impacts to American Literature such as the genre of “detective fiction” (Edgar Allan Poe). He has also paved the way for the modern short story. In almost all important American writers, since his time, there are signs of influence from him.…
Nature plays a huge role in many pieces of literature, but especially Basho’s Narrow Road to the Deep North and Voltaire’s Candide. There is a major difference between the two forms of literature and how nature is incorporated into each. This Japanese form of literature has a much lighter tone than that of the European style of literature.…