ELIT 48C CLASS 42

“All Right” and “Alright”

• Well, as grammarian Bill Walsh puts it in his book Lapsing Into a Comma, “We word nerds have known since second grade that alright is not all right” (4). He was talking about “alright” as one word. It's not OK.

Chair Poet?

  Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.

Aristotle

AGENDA

•The Road •Postmodernism•Critical Theory•The American Dream• Introduce Essay #2

Discuss

Five minutes!

The Road as a postmodern novel

1. The Road by Cormac McCarthy is a postmodern work because it has several characteristics such as loss, alienation, and the fragmentation of language.

2. As a postmodern work, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road has a lot to offer and many layers of understanding to work through. Like other postmodern pieces of literature, “The Road” starts in medias res, and ends with no clear conclusion.

3. The elements that are used almost in its entirety are such as fragmentation of the text, post apocalyptic scenario, and the lack of a conclusion.

1. Cormac McCarthy’s The Road exhibits several elements of postmodernism. One of the major aspects of postmodernism is its unconventional style. McCarthy breaks from typical conventions in fiction by doing away with quotation marks.

2. Another element of postmodernism in The Road is the going in and out of the consciousness of the man from and to the narrative.

3. Other postmodern parts of his style include the dropping of apostrophes in contractions, the use of free indirect discourse, and the use of sentence fragments.

4. One should also consider the use of names, or lack thereof, to be a postmodern element of the work.

5. Furthermore, the protagonists are not focused on affecting the greater narrative of the apocalypse.

The Road is necessarily post modern in its subversion of the American Dream. What is supposed to be the “land of plenty” has become a stark, barren wasteland.

What is interesting are the ways in which, in this wasteland, the American Dream remains; or rather, what aspects of the American Dream remain because they are universally human, stripped of their capitalist, consumerist aspects. The father and son believe that they “carry the fire,” or, in other words, that they are chosen by God. They also aim to reach the coast, their Manifest Destiny. In this respect it would seem that the American Dream stands constitutionally intact. Yet, the materialist, consumerist side of The American Dream is spoofed in that the father and son wheel their belongings in a shopping cart through a waste land, where a shopping cart is an obvious symbol for consumerism.

The Dream• The first part shows a glimpse of the old American Dream.

The Man and Woman have a house, they have a kid on the way, from his dreams and memories, life was pretty good. If we learned anything in this class though, it was bound to go to ruins for him in some way. It just so happened that instead of going crazy like Willy Loman, or being disappointed like Jim Burden, or not even given a chance like the Invisible Man, a catastrophe shakes up the world as The Man knows it, thus destroying his dreams and everyone else's. Throughout the novel, The Man is constantly hoping for a return to the old ways, the old American Dream. It’s all he knows. Materialism, capitalism, “what’s mine is mine,” etc.—all of these things drive The Man because it’s what he knows, and it’s what the other people know as well.

The American Dream and hope in The Road

1. The man sees his son as the only hope worth cherishing and protecting in his life, and so the man’s dream is not a house with a white picket fence and a dog, but to try and live as happily as he can with his son, which is his pursuit of happiness.

2. The American dream in The Road is hope.

3. Hope plays a big part on his journey to the coast, just as it plays a big part on the people who believe in the American Dream, because even though they are hopeless in regards to their own lives, they still have hope that their children will be better/have more success than they did.

4. The road can be used to identify the American Dream because it acts as an extension to carry on the hopes and dreams that the father used as a motivation to continue the journey.

THE ESSAY

Prompt IntroductionIn this second half of our quarter, we have read and

discussed multiple texts, theories, and opinions on both literature and literary analysis, and for this reason, I offer you many choices for your first essay. In a thesis driven essay of 500 to 750 words, respond to one of the prompts I have offered or one of your own. You need only the primary text for this essay, but you may incorporate other stories, manifestos, or critical theory as additional support. Remember, you can also draw on your own experiences and knowledge to discuss, explain, and analyze your topic.

Topics for Essay #2 There are many essay topics to choose from.

On the webpage, click on “Essay Prompts” and then “Essay #2”

You will see another list of choices specific to our texts. Click on any of them to explore topics

You may write an essay on any of these topics. You may write an essay on a topic of your choice. You may use fodder from one of your posts. The essay is due Friday, June 27th before class begins.

Send it as a word document to palmoreessaysubmission@gmail.com

The Road

Topic #2Using a close reading strategy and specific textual evidence argue for how the world was most likely devastated. Consider climate change, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, the explosion of nuclear bombs, or?

Topic #15Examine both the concept and reality of cannibalism in The Road. Consider motivations and outcomes of the behavior.

“Battle Royal”One does not need to look very deeply in Ralph

Ellison's short story "Battle Royal" to find different elements and examples of racism. Use African American literary criticism to make an argument about “Battle Royal.”

Examine the theme of “American Dream” in “Battle Royal.” Consider how the story defines the concept of “success”?

Death of a SalesmanDescribe how Willy has taken Ben’s life and his philosophy of the

“jungle” as models for success. How has Willy shaped that philosophy to encompass life as a salesman?

Linda says that “attention must be paid” to Willy despite his faults. Write an essay in which you either support Linda’s claim or argue against it. If Willy is a “fake,” as Biff calls him, then does he deserve respect?

Should Willy be “happy right here, right now,” as Linda says? Willy has a wife and two sons who love him, so why should he be unhappy? Examine how Willy continually plans for his own success and happiness but always seems unsatisfied, even angry. Willy says “the sky’s the limit” when “it’s who you know and the smile on your face,” but who does Willy know and what has his smile earned him?

Postmodernism EssayDiscuss the work in terms of its postmodern construction. Consider the postmodern manifestos or the Mary Klages article on Postmodernism to ground your argument.

Discuss two or more of the manifestos, working to define the ever-elusive idea of postmodernism. Consider using the Klages essay on postmodernism to support your argument.

Discuss the American Dream with regard to the postmodern condition.

End of Days

• Class 43: • The quarter in review• Self-Assessment• Discuss Exam #3

• Class 44: Optional Class: Make-up Exam #1 or #2• Class 45

• Exam #3• Due electronically before class:

• Essay #2• Essay revision

See me if you are

having Trouble

HOMEWORKMEWORK

•Begin Essay #2•Honors Project•Work on your Revisions•Study for make up exam #1 or #2•Tomorrow is the last Chair Poet Day