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MEG-06
AMERICAN LITERATURE
ASSIGNMENT 2014-2015
(Based on Blocks (1-9)
Course Code: MEG-06/2014-15
Max. Marks: 100
Answer all questions.
1.

Discuss the use of humour as a tool of social criticism in Huckleberry Finn.

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2.

Discuss briefly the growth and development of American Drama.

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3.

Attempt a critical appreciation of Wallace Stevensons Sunday Morning.

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4.

How is nature presented in Whitmans poems ?

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5.

Compare and contrast Hemingway and Faulkner as short story writers.

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ASSIGNMENT SOLUTIONS GUIDE (2014-2015)

M.E.G-6
American Literature
Disclaimer/Special Note: These are just the sample of the Answers/Solutions to some of the Questions given in the
Assignments. These Sample Answers/Solutions are prepared by Private Teachers/Tutors/Auhtors for the help and guidance
of the student to get an idea of how he/she can answer the Questions of the Assignments. We do not claim 100% Accuracy
of these sample answers as these are based on the knowledge and capability of Private Teacher/Tutor. Sample answers
may be seen as the Guide/Help Book for the reference to prepare the answers of the Questions given in the assignment. As
these solutions and answers are prepared by the private teacher/tutor so the chances of error or mistake cannot be denied.
Any Omission or Error is highly regretted though every care has been taken while preparing these Sample Answers/
Solutions. Please consult your own Teacher/Tutor before you prepare a Particular Answer and for uptodate and exact
information, data and solution. Student should must read and refer the official study material provided by the university.

Q. 1. Discuss the use of humour as a tool of social criticism in Huckleberry Finn.

Ans. Twains humour assumes multidimensionality of range and character in the novel Huckleberry Finn.
Novelists comic vision is coloured by humaniterianism and broad sympathy. His humour is characterized by restraint, control, sympathy and benovolence. He doesnt single out an individual in order to ridicule him or insult him.
Mark Twains humour in Huckberry Finn verges more and more on tragic. For example the scene of shooting of
Boggs by Colonel Shorburn is in no way tunny.
There is irony in the attitude of the people who want to look at the dead body out of fun. There is the painful
irony when a person performs the mock shooting and is entertained by the onlookers. Funny through the situation
outwardly appears, yet it is a kind of cruel fun which betrays in humanity and innate cruelty of the dead alive loafers
who derive sadistic pleasure in teasing the innocent person and animals to death. Such situations are painful
commentary and sarcastic portrayal on the people living in the South Western Society.
Thus with Mark Twain, human is not an act of distancing from the absurdities of life, nor it is pure chuckling
over the ridiculous in others. It entails value judgements. Twains humour surges up from the depths of desire and
can be described through the paradox tragic laughter. It is inseparable from the serious. Almost all incidents after
chartering through comic details, quietly step in to the areas that rightly belong to tragedy. The weapons of Twains
humour are ironic, paradox and juxtapositions of contrarieties with which he attacks to the superstructure of social
context. For example Paps brutal behave is also humourious in ironic ferm relating to the social real situation of
such people. The sort of humour is in the form of ironic way behind social status of related groups or so called
civilized people is attracted. In this way to know about Mark Twains humor in Huckleberry Finn we should show
our attention to the chronological development of plot.
There are situations which are full with tragic, sympathetic and pitiful occurrence but the purpose behind such
situations is directed not only the revelation of inner reality but also in ironic, paradoxical situations of humor.
Humour in Twains novel is in serious, diplomatic way rather than the funny way. No any single person is directly
ridiculed by him rather credit goes to the whole system, society, time in very serious, sympathetic, ironic way. So
Twain is a unique humourist.
Q. 2. Discuss briefly the growth and development of American Drama.
Ans. Early Phase: The early settlers in America in fact prohibited theatrical activity. The reason being, the early
settlers were the Puritans and were preoccupied with physical and spiritual survival in the new world. The theatrical
activity was something of abhorrence. They Puritans cherished hard work, frugality and piety and couldnt support
of the grandeur of the pageantry and pomp of the early theatre.
The opposition to theatre and drama couldnt survive long for it became a necessary part of intellectual and
oratorical development of the people and their pursuit of cultural beginnings. The early colleges supported the

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concept of giving theatrical activity to students to train them in the oratorical skills required for certain professions
like Law and Business. Besides it gave the students too immense relief from the burden of classical education. Thus
began the theatrical activities in the early 17th century. An English Governor wrote the first play; Robert Hunter
Androboros dramatizes the growing sense of independence felt by the Americans. Drama then became a political
tool as many issues raised by the early settlers were depicted in the plays that were written during this period. Mostly
they were criticisms of the British Rule and its system of law and governance. Several popular plays of this period
wereThe Paxton Boys, The Trial of Atticus, The Candidates of the Humours of a Virginia Election and The Prince
of Parthia. As most of them were political, they were similarly historical too.
Drama of the American Revolution: It was a period of fires of rebellion and freedom. Patriotism and nationalism
for the cause of American independence exploded as political force. Drama became an instrument of spreading
awareness among the people and the cause of nationalism. Those who were loyal to the crown used the same
medium to show their loyalty to the ruler. The Adulateur, The Defeat, The Group, The Blackheads, the Battle of the
Bunkers Hill, The Battle of Brooklyn are few examples of the plays that were expressive in their revolutionary ideas.
Robert Taylor was the first playwright of the nation. He was keen on asserting nationalist sentiments than any
other sense in his drama. Later it was William Dunlop who laid the strong foundation for American drama by
introducing melodrama and dramatic conflict in his plays.
Later at the turn of the early 19th century romanticism and nationalist cause become apparent in American
drama. Trans-American plots were very much sought after as much as the Indian plays and Yankee contributed to
the proliferation of dramatic efforts in America.
In the later decades of 19th century the pre-eminence of the actor in American drama and theatre dissolved to a
great extent. This change was a consequence of some other changes which took place in American theatre. The first
was the emergence of stage manager or what is called Regisseur. This emergence compelled the actors to assume
subordinating position. Actors were now under the authority and discipline of stage managers. The second change
which resulted in the dissolving of the domination of actors in American drama was the emergence and development
of a dramatic realism. The first change, which was the emergence of stage managers, assumed a more forceful
authority when various playwrights like Augustin Daly, David Belasco and Steel Mockage decided to play both
producer and director for their own plays. In spite of these changes the tradition and influence of actors did not die
immediately, for actors still defined, though exceptionally in a few cases, American plays for the audiences, more
than playwrights did.
Q. 3. Attempt a critical appreciation of Wallace Stevensons Sunday Morning.
Ans. Sunday Morning offers one of Stevenss first substitutes for Christianity: natural religion, or paganism.
Stevens said very little about this poem after writing it, other than to note in 1928 that the poem is simply an
expression of paganismand later, in 1944, to indicate that Hi Simons was correct in assuming that the poem suggests a naturalistic religion as a substitute for supernaturalism. Stevens tended to dismiss questions about or
interpretations of this poem. His off handedness about what remains perhaps his most anthologized work may
suggest that he thought the poems interpretation to be clear and obvious. His dismissiveness may also have implied
that the poems propositions did not preoccupy him further or later. And yet they clearly did: the Sunday Morning
questions recur in various guises on through the writing of his last work.
One of the more traditional in form of Stevenss poems, Sunday Morning consists of blank verse sections of
varying lengths. The poem develops as an argument between two voices: the tentative, questioning tones of the
woman, whose enjoyment of the pleasures of this world is cut by the awareness of death, and another, more authoritative
voice that seeks to reassure her that the world is enough to satisfy, that in fact it is all the satisfaction there is. . . .
In the first section, the woman is enjoying complacencies of the peignoir, and late/coffee and oranges in a
sunny chair, but the very enjoyment of life leads her to realize its transience, to remember her Churchwhich she
is not attending at the timeand to allow fear and guilt to disturb her pleasure. The second section picks up the
argument with the other voice, which asks, Why should she give her bounty to the dead? Should not this world
provide compensation for the lost heaven? She should embrace her own divinity, the other voice suggests, and let
herself be a mirror of the nature that engendered her and of which she is a part. . . .

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One with nature, she should not try to separate herself from it and redefine herself as something unnatural or
supernatural.
The third section takes up the history of divinity, tracing godhead from the totally inhuman Jove through the
partly human Jesus to the fully human God suggested by the poem. To invest the human with the divine would make
earth into paradise, the sky becoming fully our own rather than a division between earth and heaven. The fourth
section returns to the womans perspective. She is not entirely willing to accept the argument because she realizes
that the paradise offered is not permanent. The other voice then assures her that there is a permanence, a permanence
of the human, although not of the individual. To her claim in part 5 that she needs individual continuity, the other
voice offers the consolation that Death is the mother of beauty: the cycle of ripening, fruition, and decay causes
desire, which would not exist without the realization of transience. The sixth section hypothesizes a static heaven in
which the ripe fruit never falls; such a place would be boring, not beautiful. Only change causes beauty, and change
entails beginnings and endings; hence, Death is the mother of beauty.
The alternative to Christianity is suggested in part 7 a ring of men chanting their boisterous devotion to the
sun. Human energy should recognize the source of natures energy as kin; this recognition would reestablish the
participation of humans in nature, which is not so much mystical as actual. This argument is presented as a conclusive
one, and the woman accepts it. Her recognition that Jesus is a historical figure and that she is alone, a part of
unsponsored nature, frees her from the prison in which her traditional beliefs had locked her. The conclusion, a
merging of the womans perception with that of the other voice, is a Wordsworth like picture of the sweet earth, with
overtones of an elegy for the notion of personal immortality. The joined voices proclaim that we are no different
from the casual flocks of pigeons whose flight is not patterned but casual, and whose indecipherable movements
or ambiguous undulations are nevertheless a form of untranslatable language, a kind of inscription or self-definition
that is natural rather than superimposed. Stevenss later work is preoccupied with the notion that true order must be
found in nature rather than forced on it, but he later finds orders different from the simple natural rhythms.
This poem uses the figure of the woman to work through the objections to the discarding of Christianity. Stevens
himself is both the woman and her opponent. Sunday Morning is the first full presentation of Stevenss lifelong
central motif, the search for a sustaining fiction. But the answers he provides are clearly problematic to him as well
as to the reader. Parts 7 and 8 both seem to be conclusions, but they do not cohere. Boisterous devotion characterizes
part 7: the reborn pagan males seek to merge with the life source, yielding their individuality to its larger identity.
Part 8, however, is muted. The lushness of nature affords no participation mystique but rather suggests isolation and
separation. The freedom the woman has won by relinquishing her Christian faith provides no real compensation
except a sense of the vulnerability of all nature. Stevens allowed Harriet Monroe to publish the poem with part 7 last,
embedding part 8 earlier in the narrative. It would seem that he did not know exactly where he wanted the poem to
go or how seriously he wanted the paganism to be taken. Paganism does offer a form of transcendence, whereas
simple identification with the natural cycles does not. His choice of elegy over energy seems to negate the scene of
the sun worshipers, which then appears artificial and contrived in contrast with the poems ending.
Q. 4. How is nature presented in Whitmans poems?
Ans. Whitman refers to the reader and involves him in all his experiences. Wordsworth has a tone of melancholy
and brooding as a loner who is observing the scene from a distance. Wordsworth is called a nature poet for his innate
ability to describe and be one with nature. His observation of the town, the lonely girl with a sickle or nature itself is
picturesque and ecstatic.
Though there are traces of similarities between Wordsworths love of nature and Whitmans depiction of
nature, these are two different interpretations.
Comparing the solitary nature of Wordsworth, to that of the conversational tone of Whitman sounds superior in
Song of Myself he asks his readers
Have you reckoned a thousand acres much?
Have you reckoned the earth much?
In other words, unless the reader is able to respond to the sheer diversity and glory of earth, he would not be
able to grasp the full meaning of the text.

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In When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed Whitman brings out the awareness of the return of the spring
while on the subject of death and mourning. Gloom and death are juxtaposed with spring and life. The nature is in
full bloom when the corpse is lying in the coffin. He depicts nature as being in two moods of morning and being in
the process of awakening and rebirth. The poem has a vast storehouse of descriptions of things in nature. Starting
with the rustle of the green leaves, the silence of the dry leaves, the thrush singing somewhere in the swamp, the
gorgeous looking, sinking sun, the green and resplendent grass, he succeeds in capturing nature in its essence. The
unbreakable unity of the song of the Thrush, the drooping Venus and the lilac in his hands is projected in section
thirteen of the poem in the following lines
Sing on, sing on, you gray bird,
Sing from the swamps, the recesses, pour your chant from the Bushes,
There are enchanting descriptions of the scenery of his land with its lakes and forests, farms and fields, winds
and storms. He describes the land where men and women toil and extract the bounty of nature.
A Passage to India is a very different poem, which portrays the poets belief in globalization. Though not
much scope for descriptions of nature as in his other poems, he brings a wealth of descriptions of the strange
landscape, the pure sky and the sand around the channel. He describes the vast lands in the new world and Asia and
Europe. He pictures for us the vivid image of the locomotives rushing and roaring, the temples dedicated to the sun,
lofty towers and towers as red as roses. He describes also the glimpse of the mountains, the Wind River. The
Wahsatch Mountains, Monument Mountains and the eagles Nest. He encompasses the entire continent. The journey
is more than a physical one. It was through the eyes of the poet we see nature and its bounty. The land of the Indus
and Ganges had stimulated the imagination of the poet so much that we can see that he refers to India as the
wealthiest of the earths lands.
Q. 5. Compare and contrast Hemingway and Faulkner as short story writers.
Ans. Hemingway and Faulkner were contemporaries. Both drew inspiration from the traditions of the
American short story. Several American writers like Sherwood Anderson influenced their early writings.
The overwhelming theme in Hemingway is the violence at the heart of men and things. Violence is evident in
his novels in the form big game hunting, bull-fighting, deep-sea fishing and the war, suicides, wounds, pain and
shock, death and destruction. His consuming interest on violence takes his mind off from other human feelings like
love, achievement and failures.
Faulkners work however, does not reflect any superior theme. Instead, he writes about several interconnecting
themes, including those related with violence. The important themes he dealt with are the past glory of the landed
rich in the American South and the unclear responses of its inheritors. His themes also included the questioning and
condemning the institution of slavery and racial discrimination.
In the context of people and places, again, there is nothing common between Hemingway and Faulkner. Characters
in Hemingways books look like they had been cut off from family, community, the society and the country at large.
Faulkners characters in contrast, are strongly connected to family, the community, the society and the region of
Northern Mississippi with interconnections raging over several generations.
However, inspite of the differences between the locations and preoccupations of the characters of Hemingway
and Faulkner, their perception human values bring them together. Dignity and honour, courage and compassion,
fortitude and gallantry and other attributes are what the characters of both the writers hold closest to their hearts.
The narrative technique widely changes according to their widely different mode of writing. Hemingway uses
both symbols and irony together. On the other hand, Faulkners most distinct method is based on the principle that
like does not narrate, but makes impression on our brains. Different themes and concerns, understanding of people
and places, handling of language and techniques in Hemingway and Faulkner clearly indicate that the differences far
too exceed similarities.

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