Reading American Literature
When you begin reading American literature, you’ll read the assignments as you would
read any literary texts. The first step is to become familiar with the story, poem, or drama—the
plot, the scene depicted, the characters, the tone, and ultimately the message. Once you’ve
uncovered those details, you can begin to put them in the context of American literature—what
historical events were taking place that the writer might have been commenting on? What trends
were occurring in American literature that the writer may have been a part of (or reacting to)?
What major American themes might this text be drawing on and participating in the creation or
adaptation of? To explore these questions, we’ll first begin with the steps necessary for reading
literature.
According to X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia, students of literature should learn to read
actively. Reading actively is a method of getting the most out of a literary text, to understand
better the experience the writer wants the reader to have, paying attention to how literature works
—which is often by implication and suggestion, not explication or straightforward articulation.
These steps include, but are not limited to, the following, which Kennedy and Gioia demonstrate
by annotating this Robert Frost poem, “Nothing Gold Can Stay”:
Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
- Robert Frost
First, they preview the text: looking at the title, skimming it for an overview of its content
and organization. Take a quick look at all the parts of the work. Read the author’s headnote.
Read the footnotes wherever they are included.
Read closely. Look up any unfamiliar words, allusions, or references.
After you’ve gone through the text, annotate it, as we see that they’ve done here. Read
with a highlighter and pencil at hand, making appropriate annotations to the text. Underline any
words, or phrases that seem important, that raise questions, that seem interesting.
Jot down notes in the margin. Use lines and arrows to indicate passages that seem to
speak to each other—for instance, if you see places where you find the same theme or related
symbols as they do here with line 1 and line 3.
Reread it as necessary. If a piece is short, read it several times. Often, knowing the
ending of a poem or short story will allow you to extract new meaning from its beginning and
middle. If the piece is longer, reread the passages you thought important enough to highlight.
This annotation of W.S. Merwin’s “When the War Is Over” provides a helpful example of
how to complete this active reading.
When the war is over
We will be proud of course the air will be
Good for breathing at last
The water will have been improved the salmon
And the silence of heaven will migrate more perfectly
The dead will think the living are worth it we will know
Who we are
And we will all enlist again
Note the unfinished thought of the title “When the War is Over.” It suggests that the poem
itself will explain the outcome of that war, except that when we get to the end, there seems to be
a reversion back to the start, to begin the process over again—anticipating yet another end to yet
another war. In line 4, we have three verb forms that reinforce this repetitive action by
combining past, present, and future tenses. The repetition of the word “will” serves as a nice
play on words—with both anticipation of a future event and suggestive of someone’s power or
choice. The poem itself also includes many instances of poetic devices: alliteration, consonance,
assonance. The next page continues the analysis of the poem by explaining the structure, the
tone, the language use, all of which lead to possible statements of the theme:
Wars are fought for vague purposes – or at least promoted as such – betterment of our
world, to achieve peace/harmony, for self-definition, yet war perpetuates war, that it’s
a never ending cycle
After getting a better handle on the poem, we can consider its context in American history
—notice that Merwin was writing this poem during the late 60s, a time when people were
growing weary of America’s involvement in Vietnam. Does Merwin’s poem participate in this
protestation against the war? Does it perhaps give voice to the reasons many were concerned
about America’s Cold War foreign policy?
As you’re reading the texts for American literature, keep these tips in mind. When
reading stories, you’ll rely more heavily on the final questions that Kennedy and Gioia offer:
who is the main character (or protagonist)? What is the tone, what is the point of view? Often
titles of stories will give you insight into some of the answers to these questions. Sometimes,
however, they will not. Twain’s “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” for
example, isn’t primarily about the frog who doesn’t show up until very briefly at the end. So you
might consider why Twain chose to title his poem with such a small incident described within the
tale.
Another key to unlocking a story’s significance is to identify its conflict. The action of
the story will revolve around this conflict, so figuring out who or what is at odds with what or
whom is often a great first step in better understanding the story’s significance. In exploring the
answer to this question, it’s helpful to remember that most often conflicts fall into one of four
categories: man versus man, man versus society, man versus the environment, or man versus
himself. Sometimes, as in William Dean Howells’s “Editha,” a number of these conflicts are
operating in cooperation with one another: Editha comes into conflict with George and with
herself; George comes into conflict with his environment.
Additionally, identifying the point of view can be helpful, both for understanding the
perspective the writer forces the reader into (How the first person narrator of Henry James’s
Daisy Miller feels about Winterbourne, for example, is a subtle element of the story but one that
shapes the story’s tone and its effect on the reader).
Reading literature actively does take some effort, but engaging with these talented
writers’ works, thinking about the important questions they implicitly pose through their
presentation of situations and characters, and appreciating their insights into the world around
them and their abilities to bend the English language to their purposes offer us new perspectives
from which to apprehend our experiences, greater understanding of the human condition, and
more possibilities for our own articulation of those experiences and that understanding.
“Literature offers the thrill of minds of great clarity wrestling with the endless problems
and delights of being human. To engage with them is to engage with oneself, and the lasting
rewards are not confined to specific career paths.” – Jonathan Stroud
American Literary Realism
As products of human beings, literary works can tend toward extremes, with one literary
period—and the writers therein—taking a perfectly reasonable idea to unreasonable ends. And
because the backlash to these extremes is often extreme in and of itself, learning about the
previous era one wants to study—in this case American literature at the end of the nineteenth
century—requires knowing something about what came before it.
That literary period just prior to the Civil War was called the Romantic Period—not
romantic as in love, but romantic in its emphasis on the ideal, on emotions, and on subjectivity.
The Romantic Period was a backlash to the Enlightenment era of the eighteenth century, just as
the Realistic Period was a backlash to the Romantic Period. That backlash stemmed from
several fundamental principles of romanticism that were rejected by the realistic writers. These
include their ideas about human nature, their understanding of where knowledge comes from,
and their perspectives on the role of art.
For the Romantic Period authors, man is basically good with an innate sense of morals;
they argued that a close relationship with nature would further strengthen this inner moral
compass. Additionally, they argued that the individual was so important that when immersed in
community—most notably in urban centers—the individual would be corrupted and so the
Romantic Period was known for its social justice movements—abolition and women’s suffrage
being the most notable.
In the Realistic Period, writers were still somewhat optimistic about man’s potential, but
the fulfillment of that potential was seen as coming from scientific discoveries and technological
advances. The individual mattered, but more for his ability to overcome his circumstances on his
own—more and more models of the self-made man surfaced including Andrew Carnegie and
John D. Rockefeller. AT this stage of American history and culture, at least in the most
prominent literary texts, progress trumped moral conviction.
Another major way in which the Romantic Period writers differed from the Realistic
Period authors was their understanding of knowledge. For the Romantics, the self was the
source of knowledge—with intuition and instinct being prized above objective, collective
empirical discovery. Realistic authors, on the other hand, took their cue from the scientific
method, where experience and trial and error produced knowledge and more focus was given to
the physical rather than the internal.
Finally, writers of the two periods differed on their understanding of the role and method
of art. Romantic writers strove to evoke emotion, to mirror the internal existence of one human
being, not realistically but symbolically—concretely representing an abstract idea. In the
Realistic Period, however, objectivity trumped. These writers focused on a wide range of typical
American experiences to show the nuances of human behavior. In an era where photography
was becoming more commonplace, their concern was accuracy, realistic descriptions of
observable phenomena.
Many writers were active during the Realistic Period of American literature (which
extends by some critical accounts until the first World War). Of these many writers, though,
three stand out as the most significant: Mark Twain, William Dean Howells, and Henry James.
Mark Twain, the pen name for Samuel Langhorne Clemens, was aised in Hannibal,
Missouri; worked as a licensed Mississippi river-boat pilot, as a reporter in San Francisco and as
a correspondent for The Sacramento Union visited Hawaii. Twain writes of common people who
typically fall into clear-cut categories of either wickedness or virtue. His early work consists of
humorous stories and situations, seemingly full of optimism and love for people; however, his
late work becomes increasingly pessimistic. Regardless, Twain remains a major American figure
because of his writings, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876); The Prince and the Pauper
(1882); Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884); The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894); A
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889). During his own lifetime, Twain received
numerous honors including an LL.D. from Yale University and from the University of Oxford
and a doctorate from the University of Missouri; his work was well-received by critics. Even
today, he is generally considered America’s greatest humorist, if not one of its greatest novelists,
and is thought of as first uniquely American literary voice focusing on uniquely American
settings, themes, and characters
As a major realistic writer, Twain’s contributions to American literature are many:
Wrote about the nineteenth century western experience, very much a product of
his age
As a spokesman for an already vanishing frontier, he satirized the pretensions and
institutions of the East while praising/mourning the lost values of youth and
individualism
Because of his original and distinctive style, Twain is one of America’s most
loved and frequently quoted writers
His novels about boyhood on the Mississippi, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, are the works that guaranteed Twain’s place in
American literature
William Dean Howells, friend of Twain, and major figure in his own right was born in
Ohio, the second of eight children. He, too, began his career as newspaper reporter, with a
biography of Lincoln gave him appointment as American Consul in Venice. His most important
position, however, was as editor of the Atlantic Monthly from 1866 to 1881; in this role, helped
shape the American reading public’s literary tastes by promoting realism through reviews and by
publishing new authors. Beyond his creative and editorial work, he wrote criticism, too,
published as two series of essays to Harper’s: “Editor’s Study” and “Editor’s Easy Chair” ~ these
essays expounding literary theory were later collected into a book, Criticism and Fiction (1891).
Howells was concerned with the domestic manners of American middle class ~
characters are not heroic but “real.” His writing style focused primarily an externals ~ characters
and events viewed from without. He has been accused of evincing a “smiling realism” ~ evils of
his characters were minimal, passions restrained, triumphs few. His major publications include:
A Modern Instance (1882); The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885); Indian Summer (1886); A Hazard
of New Fortunes (1890); Criticism and Fiction (1891). During his lifetime, Howells was a
literary symbol of his age, with honorary degrees from Yale, Columbia, Princeton, and Oxford.
From Howells’s New York Times obituary: “He has expressed the comedy and the tragedy of
ordinary American lives. For all his wealth of foreign cultivation, he was a great and genuine
American artist. His works are a national gallery.” Today, he is recognized as the single most
important arbiter of literary taste at the end of the nineteenth century; perhaps not studied as
much for his own fiction but rather for his reviews, literary theory, and his impact on the
publishing world.
Howells’s contribution to American Literature were also significant:
Wrote over thirty novels and numerous other books, both biographical and critical
Encouraged other writers ~ reviews of Twain, Crane, Norris, etc…
Literary criticism ~ champion of realism
Henry James was the most enigmatic of the realistic period authors. He was born in New
York City to wealthy family in which education was emphasized (father was respected religious
writer; brother, William James, was America’s first psychologist & preeminent philosopher).
During childhood, he traveled extensively in Europe but returned to America, studied law &
painting, but quickly turned to writing, 1865 - published first story. James settled permanently in
London in 1876 and wrote prodigiously from that point on and became British citizen in 1915
after America failed to enter World War I.
James’s realistic writing style, too, departed from Twain’s and Howells’s. He focused on
members of high society; his characters do not engage in dramatic actions; often intense
psychological conflict is revealed (slowly) through cryptic conversations. James’s narrators are
often confused individuals trying to evaluate themselves and the people around them (this search
is seen through internal dialogue). Even though romance seems to figure prominently in his
stories, often love goes unrecognized and unfulfilled. Henry James’s style is subtle and demands
perceptiveness from reader. His major publications include The American (1877); Daisy Miller
(1878); The Portrait of a Lady (1881); The Princess Casamassima (1886); The Wings of the
Dove (1902); The Ambassadors (1903).
During his first phase of writing, James enjoyed the only true popularity he ever obtained
in his career, largely because his work fictionalized the question of the moment – what
constituted American character and how it interacted with the established society of Europe
During his second phase, he lost many of his readers because he focused more on critical
approaches to writing, honing and perfecting his own writing techniques, but all his books
published during this time were financial and critical failures
In his third phase, he was labeled and criticized (condemned?) as a “writer’s writer.
James’s reception continues to be primarily critical (scholarly), though all of his major
novels remain in print and some of his works have been translated to film (“The Turn of the
Screw,” for example).
Henry James’s contribution to American literature and to modern literature in general
cannot be overstated. He completed twenty novels (two uncompleted novels were published
posthumously), wrote 112 short stories, 7 travel books, 3 autobiographies, numerous plays, 2
critical biographies, and works of criticism. He also transformed the novel from one of physical
adventure to one of psychological intrigue – precursor to modernism. His experimentation with
point of view was primarily responsible for this influence, perfecting it in the three novels of his
major phase; his precise use of limited point of view requires readers to become actively engaged
in interpreting events. Additionally, he pioneered metafictional stories about the nature of art and
writing, and his critical works and prefaces to novels provide commentary on realism and the
role of art/the artist.
As you read these three Realistic Period authors, keep in mind the connections between
them as noted by Harold Kolb, Edwin Cady, and Donald Pizer: they will emphasize character
over plot, they will always insist on a moral and ethical component, they will often employ satire
and irony, and they will usually limit their investigation to one character rather than use an
omniscient narrator.
