Spring 2009 ENG 113
ENG 113: Literature Based Research
This semester, Honors students will focus on the Phi Theta Kappa Honors Topic, “The Paradox of Affluence.” We will study this topic as it appears in short stories, poetry, and drama.
In preparation for trip to UNC-Chapel Hill to see The Glass Menagerie, we are reading the play by Tennessee Williams. We hope to compare our initial perceptions of the play and how it should be staged to both the movie version and the play.
Currently, we are studying Kate Chopin’s “The Storm” as well as “A Night in Acadie.”
After Chopin, we read Poe’s “Cask of Amontillado” and discussed the dark side of human nature, which became an extension of what we discussed in Chopin.
Finally, for our short fiction unit, we read Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown,” again addressing the imperfections in human nature. We worked to unpack the story’s symbolism and used our literature circle roles to create a deeper understanding of Hawthorne’s work as it applies to current social issues.
Over the past two weeks or so, the class has been reading Kate Chopin’s “At the ‘Cadian Ball” and “The Storm”. We posted questions about it in the discussion board, argued about symbolism in class, and read criticisms in order to help us better understand what Chopin wanted us to learn from her writings.
“The Storm” is the sequel to “At the ‘Cadian Ball”, and follows four characters–Alcee, Calixta, Bobinot, and Clarisse on a journey of courtship. In “At the ‘Cadian Ball” Alcee and Clarisse are “promised” to each other, but we quickly learn that Calixta and Alcee have a romantic history. In “The Storm” Bobinot and Calixta are married, and Alcee and Clarisse are married but the story is about a quick affair that Alcee and Calixta have.
Therefore, the first thing we noticed about the stories, (especially “The Storm”,) was that it was very provokative for Chopin’s time. The story actually wasn’t published until the 1960’s, (even though Chopin wrote it in the late 1800’s). Even today, it would be considered more of a PG13 story. We argued in class about the symbolism of the storm to the relationship of the characters in the story. Then we argued on the discussion boards about whether or not race was an issue in the story.
We knew all along that we were supposed to relate the story to “The Paradox of Affluence” theme, but we could not figure out what it was until last Monday. We then learned that both wealth and race come into play. Alcee, who is quite wealthy, is married to Clarisse in order to help keep the money in the family. Alcee might have very well loved Calixta, but even in a male-dominated society, he could not be with her because she was of a lower class because of her Spanish heritage. Therefore the paradox here is that even the wealthy can’t have everything they want, especially with regards to emotional wants, because of their wealth, not in spite of it. Even today we see modern Cinderella stories where the wealthy prince/actor/aristocrat is discouraged from courting the poor housekeeper/waitress/scholarship recepient because of his wealth.
It was really hard to decide what my favorite short story that we have read is. I love the discussions that we have in the class and the way that everyone brings their own perspective, and it makes each story unique and enjoyable.
I liked Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” because it had tons of irony and symbolism. I loved researching the history of the story, because we found out that it might have been a response to a very funny rivalry between Poe and another author named English. The paradox of affluence that we say there was that even while people might be financially rich, they may not be mentally or emotionally rich. While Montresor was quite rich, he was obviously not happy with his life or his social standing, and while Fortuano was wealthy in almost every way, it could not save him from dying.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” is a good competetor, though, because his story was also full of symbolism. It was more relateable on a religious level, because we live inside the “Bible Belt” and all have pretty close experiences with religion that could help us understand his point of view. What made that story interesting, though, was the fact that we could discuss hypocricy in society. While people in the Puritan era wanted to seem religiously pious, that did not mean that they did not sin behind closed doors. Nathaniel Hawthorne seemed to use that story to alert people to the hypocricy that was going on in his own time, and we can even use it now to relate to hypocricy in our time.
I particularly enjoyed Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown.” The morals and concepts of this story pertaining to the presence of temptation and the persistance of faith can be easily related to anyone, myself included. It is fascinating how many meanings can be derived from Hawthorne’s use of symbolism and how each of the members of our class interpreted the story differently depending on his own ideas and experiences. I was also amazed by how well this story’s concepts have stood the test of time. The issues of hypocrisy and religious tolerance exploited in “Young Goodman Brown” are still prominent in modern society.
We have read Kate Chopin’s “The Storm” ,Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” ,and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”. My favorite short story that I have read in this class was Kate Chopin “The Storm”. I love the word choice that Chopin uses. She always seems to have a hidden meaning behind every word. I think that she demostrated the most passion out of all the other authors. By reading her stories you could tell that she just loves to write, and knowing her past everyone can see why. She was born in the 1800’s and woman were not really allowed to write for the public. Kate Chopin is mostly known for her activity in womans rights.
“Young Goodman Brown” was overall my favorite short story that we read and discussed in class. In this short story symbolism and human imperfection was a major theme. This short story pointed out how humans are hypocritical and cannot always be perfect which really caught my attention.
Out of all the stories we have read I enjoyed reading “The Cask of Amontillado” the best. It was full of symbolism and the way that we explored that in class was awsome. We took each part of the story and analyzed the symbolism possibilities. This class has really opened my eyes to symbolism!
If there were a class meant to test and improve one’s ability to unweave the threads that bind the meanings of literature, it is Honors English 113. Thus far, we have read, dissected and discussed a variety of short stories. I think we all have our favorite, and for me, that one is Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown.” It is not the actual literature that captures my attention but the author’s ability to construct something that can be viewed in so many ways. Whether the story is read by an amateur or an expert, it can be equally enjoyed by either. Had it not been for the class and its melting pot of alternative views and perceptions, I would never have understood the story the way I do now. We are exploring Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie and will be watching the movie version soon. Considering that this marks my first experience of having read and truly analyzed a play, I am interested in seeing the resemblance between the characters in the stage play.
This class has shown me a number of works that I am fairly certain I would not have approached otherwise. I think my favorite work that we’ve covered so far has been the two works by Kate Chopin, “At the ‘Cadian Ball” and “The Storm”. We read the two stories back to back and they present a unique opportunity for many different arguments and perspectives. Our class discussions are priceless, and make me feel like I come away with so much more than if I were to just sit and listen to an instructor give a lecture.
Let me start at the beginning. (Since no one’s posted in a while. Tut-tut.) Back at the end of February, we went to UNC-CH. While we were there, we watched “The Glass Menagerie.” Before we did that, we actually read the play. We talked a lot about whether the play was really about Amanda, Tom, or Laura, and I’m not sure that we ever really came to a definitive conclusion.
Lately, we’ve been talking about poetry. Since the beginning of March, each of the students has presented a poet during class time on Mondays and Wednesdays. We’ve covered Maya Angelou, Sylvia Plath, T.S. Eliot, Elizabeth Bennett Browning, Langston Hughes, Robert Frost and E.E. Cummings. We have one more to go tomorrow, (which is also when our poetry papers are due, on which we’ve been working really hard!) and everyone’s super excited! It’s really been fun discussing poetry with everyone, and what the metaphors mean and how one can relate the poetry to the author’s life.
I did Sylvia Plath, and I loved it. I was first introduced to her poetry in my AP English class in 11th grade, and I went back and revisisted her work, and found a new appreciation and love for it, that I’m sure I never had to start off with. Her poetry, especially “Lady Lazarus” (my fav!), was very heavily influenced by her life. Oddly enough, it turns out that her son followed in her footsteps and committed suicide a weeks after I gave that presentation. (Little fun fact for you!) Really sad, but terribly ironic.
I think we’re moving on to dramas next, so I’m totally pumped!