ELIT 48C Class #9

Continuous vs. Continual

Continual means "repeated regularly and often." Julia hated the continual negative

political ads.

Continuous means "extended or prolonged without interruption." The alarm bell was jammed and rang continuously; it never stopped and was making Gayle loony!

AGENDA

Quiz

The American Dream

My Antonia Books IV and V

Author Introduction

The Answers to the Quiz: Take 10 minutes

A. Gaston Cleric

B. Lewis Hale

C. Frances Harling

D. Mina Loy

E. Mrs. Shimerda

F. Otto Fuchs

G. Samson d'Arnault

H. Wick Cutter

I. Molly Gardener

J. Tiny Soderball

K. Lena Lingard

L. Minnie Foster

M. Anton Cuzak

N. Mr. Marinetti

Lecture

The American Dream

                           What is The American Dream???

James Truslow Adams, who coined the phrase “The American Dream” in 1931, wrote this about it:

[The American Dream is] that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position. [The Epic of America, 1931]

The Beginnings of the Dream

Yet, the concept of the American Dream existed before Adams articulated it. Perhaps the first verbalization of the American Dream is Thomas Jefferson’s statement from the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all

men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Benjamin Franklin gave the definitive formulation of the American Dream in his Autobiography (begun in 1771, published in 1818). At least five characteristics of the American Dream have been noted in Franklin’s work:1. the rise from rags to riches through industry and

thrift;2. the rise from insignificance to importance, from

helplessness to power;3. a philosophy of individualism; 4. the efficacy of free will and action; 5. and a spirit of hope, even of optimism.

In 1867 when writer, Horatio Alger came out with his book Ragged Dick, the concept of the American Dream became an American Idea. The story is a rags-to-riches tale of a poor orphan boy in New York City who saves his pennies, works hard and eventually becomes rich. This model of honesty, hard work, and strong determination as the keys to success in America became the goal of Americans and the immigrants who would soon come to America.

In time, many Americans became disenchanted with the theme. Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe, Henry James, and Mark Twain probed the dark side of the dream.

Twain, writing during the rise of nineteenth century finance capitalism and industrialism, became increasingly disillusioned with social corruption in the Gilded Age. In his classic novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), before Huck “lights out for the territory” to escape being civilized, he struggles with a corrupt world of frauds, desperadoes, and money-grubbing confidence men.

The 20th Century Dream

Twain set the tone for twentieth century versions of the American Dream, many of which have depicted the American Dream turned nightmare. Twain’s legacy is certainly discernible in such a writer as F. Scott Fitzgerald. Wealth and material possessions are shown as the constituents of the American Dream, a theme Fitzgerald develops in The Great Gatsby (1925). Yet in much of 20th C literature, the American Dream is ambiguous; while some deny it, others cling to it. While some ignore it, others insist they will achieve it.

The American Dream in My Antonia

1. Compare and contrast Tiny Soderball and Lena Lingard’s success with money.2. Discuss the reasons why Willa Cather chose to have Antonia return to the Shimerda farm as an unwed mother.4. Discuss the differences between the Cuzak household and the Shimerda household from many years before.

The American Dream: My Antonia

Mrs. Shimerda uprooted her family against her husband's wishes. She

said, "America big country, much money, much land for my boys, much husband for my girls." Pavel and Peter were fugitives. The burgeoning country

and economy provided many opportunities. Tiny Soderball follows the frontier to Seattle and then,

during the gold rush, to Alaska. And, as always, swindlers and loan sharks, like Wick

Cutter, preyed on the weak. Lena is a successful dressmaker in San Francisco. Ántonia and her husband flourish

Whose Dream Failed?

For all the successes, the novel is riddled with disappointments and failures

Otto and Jake go west, and except for one postcard, they are never heard of again.

"Rooshian" Peter, who proudly told Ántonia that "in his country only rich people had cows, but here any man could have one who would take care of her," loses his partner, and bankruptcy forces him to sell his possessions.

When Jim tells Ántonia that Coronado, who searched the American west for the Seven Golden Cities, died in the wilderness of a broken heart, she sighs, "More than him has done that." The American Dream had also broken her father.

Author Introduction: Mina Loy 1882–1966Visual Artist and Poet

Although Mina Loy was born in England, she did much of her work in Paris, Florence, and New York City, where her beauty and outlandish behavior shone at the center of multiple avant-garde circles. The unconventional vocabulary and syntax of Loy’s poems and their scornful treatment of love and other subjects can puzzle and offend, but no reader can question the work’s originality nor the poet’s fierce intelligence.

Neglect of Loy's poetry has lent qualified support to revisionist claims that leading male modernists like T. S. Eliot, Pound, and Joyce defined modernism so as to marginalize writers whose poetics and politics threatened their own largely conservative stance.

However, Eliot and Pound praised Loy's work. High modernist champions of technical innovation and intellectual rigor could not accuse Loy of formal conservatism or sentimentality.

Literary historians may have marginalized Loy by making her a modernist icon, woman-as-Dada, while relegating her writing to avant-garde obscurity; but equally relevant is Loy's lessened attention to her poetry in later life.

Renewed interest in her poetry belongs to the recovery of the neglected, multiple aspects of early modernism. In The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (1933) Stein, whom Loy praised as "Curie / of the laboratory / of vocabulary," offers a definitive tribute to Loy's artistic vision. Recalling Loy's first husband's plea that she punctuate the long sentences without commas in The Making of Americans (1925), Stein notes that "Mina Loy . . . was able to understand without the commas. She has always been able to understand."

HOMEWORK Read: Feminist Literary

Criticism

Read: Mina Loy: “Parturition” 296-99

Post #9: Respond to one of the following prompts:1. QHQ on the Parturition;

consider Loy’s Manifesto if you would like.

2. QHQ on Feminist Literary Criticism

3. Discuss the American Dream in term of one (or more) of the texts we have discussed this far.