Exercises for American Literature
PartⅠ
Ⅰ. Multiple choice:
1._____ reports of exploration in Jamestown have been described as the first distinctly American literature to be written in English.
A. John Smith’s
B. Washington Irving’s
C. Franklin’s
D. Jefferson’s
2. Which statement is NOT true about the 17th century American literary life?
A. The first writings that we call American were the narratives and journals of the early settlements.
B. The writers of the Southern and Middle Colonies who followed John Smith
made their greatest contribution to American literature.
C. There were more urban audience for books and newspapers.
D. Literature developed slowly especially in the South.
3. _____ was the first American writer.
A. John Smith
B. Benjamin Franklin
C. Philip Freneau
D. Anne Bradstreet
4. John Smith’s _____ (1624) contains his most famous tale of how the Indian Princess Pocahontas saved him from the wrath of her father Powhatan.
A. The General History of Virginia
B. The history of New England
C. A Map of Virginia
D. The history of Plymouth Plantation
5. Hard work, thrift, piety and sobriety were the _____ values that dominated much of the earliest American writing.
A. Puritanic
B. Transcendental
C. romantic
D. realistic
6. _____ , the Puritan clergyman who wrote more than 450 works in his life, was an example of the Puritan ideal of hard work.
A. John Smith
B. Cotton Mather
C. Anne Bradstreet
D. John Cotton
7. The Puritans wished to restore simplicity to church services and the authority of _____ to theology.
A. the Bible
B. the government
C. the Church of England
D. God 8．The first major intellectual spokesman of the Massachusetts Bay Colony was _____ , sometimes called “the Patriarch of New England”.
A. John Cotton
B. John Smith
C. Philip Freneau
D. Cotton Mather 9．The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America is the first published collection of poems of _____ .
A. Edward Taylor
B. Anne Bradstreet
C. Walt Whitman
D. Philip
Freneau
10．The first major center of thought in America was _____ .
A. Boston
B. Philadelphia
C. Now York
D. the State of Virginia
Ⅱ. Define the literary terms listed below:
1. Theocracy
2. The Puritan Movement
PartⅡ
Ⅰ. Multiple choice:
1.American Enlightenment can be described as the following except that _____ .
A.it dealt a decisive blow to the puritan traditions
B.it brought to life secular education and literature
C.its representatives took the task of disseminating knowledge among the
people
D.it exerted little influence on the War of Independence
2.The following statements are true to Benjamin Franklin except _____ .
A. a priest
B. a scientist
C. a diplomat
D. a humanist
3.Benjamin Franklin shaped his writing after _____ .
A. the Spectator Paper
B. French writers
C. John Milton
D. Walt Scott
4.Poor Richard’s Almanac written by Benjamin Franklin is _____ .
A. a novel
B. a collection of short stories
C. a collection of poems
D. an annual collection of proverbs
5.“His shadow lies heavier than any other man’s on this young nation” refers to
_____ .
A. Benjamin Franklin
B. Thomas Jefferson
C. Thomas Paine
D. Noah Webster
6.Thomas Paine boldly advocated a “Declaration for Independence” in his famous
pamphlet _____ .
A. Common Sense
B. The Case of the Officers of the Excise
C. The American Crisis
D. Rights of Man
7.Thomas Paine’s chief contribution was a series of sixteen pamphlets entitled
_____ .
A. Common Sense
B. The Case of the Officers of the Excise
C. Rights of Man
D. The American Crisis
8.Which of the following is true about Thomas Jefferson? _____ .
A.He contributed a lot to the foundation of University of Virginia.
B.He served for two terms as president.
C.He drafted the Declaration of Independence.
D.All of the above.
9._____ has been called the “Father of American Poetry”.
A. Anne Bradstreet
B. Philip Freneau
C. Thomas Paine
D. Edward
Taylor
10.As a poet and political journalist, Philip Freneau is _____ .
A. a satirist and a sentimentalist
B. a humanitarian
C. a poet of reason and a deistic optimist
D. All of the above
Ⅱ. Define the literary terms listed below:
1. the Age of Reason
2. the Enlightenment
Part Ⅲ
I. Multiple choice:
1. A new Romanticism, appeared in England in the last years of the 18th century,
came to America in _____ .
A. the early 19th century
B. the mid 19th century
C. the last years of 19th century
D. the last years of the 18th century
2._____ became the first work by an American writer to win financial success on
both sides of the Atlantic.
A. Washington Irving’s Sketch Book.
B. Washington Irving’s A Tour on the Prairies
C. James Fenimore Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales
D. Henry Thoreau’s Walden
3.Which of the following is NOT regarded as one of the general characteristics shared by
romantics? _____ .
A.Moral enthusiasm
B.Faith in the value of individualism and intuitive perception
C.The practice of a hard and disciplined life
D.The presumption that man’s society was a source of corr uption
4.Transcendentalists took some of their ideas from _____ .
A. German idealistic philosophy
B. the Romantic literatures of Europe
C. neo-Platonism and Oriental mysticism
D. All of the above.
5.The first modern short stories and the first great American juvenile literature
appeared in Washington Irving’s _____ .
A. The sketch Book
B. A History of New York
C. Tales of a Traveler
D. Alhambra
6._____ was the first important American novelist who began his literary career on
a dare.
A. James Fenimore Cooper
B. Washington Irving
C. Edgar Allan Poe
D. Nathaniel Hawthorne
7._____ is one of James Fenimore Cooper’s best sea romances.
A. The Spy
B. The Pilot
C. The Deerslayer
D. The Pioneers
8.Cooper launched two kinds of great popular stories, the sea adventure tale and
_____ .
A. the frontier saga
B. the detective stories
C. the love stories
D. gothic
novels
9.Which of the following novels does NOT belong to Leatherstocking Tales?
_____ .
A. The Deerslayer
B. The Pathfinder
C. The Pilot
D. The Pioneers
10.The last of the Mohicans in The last of the Mohicans refers to _____ .
A. Uncas
B. Chingachgook
C. Hawkeye
D. Natty Bumppo
11.In 1817, _____ written by William Cullen Bryant introduced the best poet in
America up to that time.
A. “To a Waterfowl”
B. “Thanatopsis”
C. “The Raven”
D. “To Helen”
12.Which poem by William Cullen Bryant expressed both the poet’s grateful view
and his sense of a divine power guiding and protecting everything in nature?
_____ .
A. “To a Waterfowl”
B. “Thanatopsis”
C. “The Raven”
D. “To Helen”
13.Edgar Allan Poe deserved the following except _____ .
A. a playwright
B. a poet and an editor
C. a literary critic
D. a writer of
fiction
14.Thy Naiad airs have brought me home
To the gl ory that was Greece’
And the grandeau that was Rome.
The above lines are selected from Edgar Allan Poe’s famous poem _____ .
A. “The Raven”
B. “To Helen”
C. “Ligia”
D. “Annabel Lee”
15.The American Scholar and The Divinity School Address are two speeches that
made _____ famous.
A. Walt Whitman
B. Ralph Waldo Emerson
C. Henry David Thoreau
D. Herman Melville
16.Thoreau once wrote the reason that he went to live in a hut at Walden is that
_____ .
A.he wanted to live the life of a hermit
B.he didn’t want to be arrested for failure to pay the taxes
C.he wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life
D.he didn’t like the people around him
17.The story of The Scarlet Letter is set in _____ in the days of the Massachusetts
Colony.
A. the ancient Europe
B. the 19th century Europe
C. the Puritan Boston
D. the 19th century Boston
18.Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote all of the following except _____ .
A. Typee
B. The House of Seven Gables
C. The Marble Faun
D. Young Goodman Brown
19.When Herman Melville’s Moby Dick first appeared, which of the following is
NOT true about what happened to this great work? _____ .
A.It seemed to be a complete failure at the time.
B.Critics in general also failed to see the qualities of this book.
C.Hawthorne was one of the few who recognized it as a work of genius.
D.It was a great hit at that time and was welcomed by the readers.
20.Which of the following works established Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poetic
reputation? _____ .
A. Voices of the Night
B. Poems on Slavery
C. Song of Hiawatha
D. Ballads and Other Poems
Ⅱ. Define the literary terms listed below:
1. Romanticism
2. Transcendentalism
3. Symbolism
Topics for discussion:
1.Benjamin Franklin and the American Dream
2.Moby Dick
3.The Scarlet Letter
4.“The Wild Honey Suckle”
5.“To a Waterfowl”
6.“To Helen”
美国文学试题库 注：试题库内容仅作为学习参考使用，并不代表考试内容。任何一道题均可能变化为其它形式的试题。 1. Naturalism is evolved from realism when the author’s tone in writing becomes less serious and less sympathetic but more ironic and more_____________. A. rational B. humorous C. optimistic D. pessimistic 2.The impact of Darwin’s evolutionary theory on the American thought and the influence of the nineteenth-century French literature on the American men of letters gave rise to yet another school of realism: American___________ . A. local colorism B. vernacularism C. modernism D. naturalism 3. ____________were idealists, believing the church should be restored to complete “purity” and dreaming that they would build the new land to an Eden on earth. A. Calvinists B. Puritans C. Romanticists D. Transcendentalists 4. All of the following are the features of Puritans EXCEPT _____. A. wanting to make pure their religious beliefs and practices
仅作参考，最主要还是要自己消化，整理 Chapter 1 Colonial Period 1. Puritanism: American puritans accepted the doctrine of predestination, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace from God. 2. Influence (1) A group of good qualities – hard work, thrift, piety, sobriety (serious and thoughtful) influenced American literature. (2) It led to the everlasting myth. All literature is based on a myth – garden of Eden. (3) Symbolism: the American puritan’s metaphorical mode of perception was chi efly instrumental in calling into being a literary symbolism which is distinctly American. (4) With regard to their writing, the style is fresh, simple and direct; the rhetoric is plain and honest, not without a touch of nobility often traceable to the direct influence of the Bible. II. Overview of the literature 1. types of writing diaries, histories, journals, letters, travel books, autobiographies/biographies, sermons 2. writers of colonial period (1) Anne Bradstreet (2) Edward Taylor III. Benjamin Franklin 1. life 2. works (1) Poor Richard’s Almanac (2) Autobiography 3. contribution (1) He helped found the Pennsylvania Hospital and the American Philosophical Society. (2) He was called “the new Prometheus who had stolen fire (electricity in this case) from heaven”. (3) Everything seems to meet in this one man –“Jack of all trades”. Herman Melville thus described him “master of each and mastered by none”. Chapter 2 American Romanticism Section 1 Early Romantic Period I. American Romanticism 1. Background (1) Political background and economic development (2) Romantic movement in European countries Derivative – foreign influence 2. features (1) American romanticism was in essence the expression of “a real new experience and contained “an alien quality” for the simple reason that “the spirit of the place” was radically new and alien. (2) There is American Puritanism as a cultural heritage to consider. American romantic authors tended more to moralize. Many American romantic writings intended to edify more than they entertained. (3) The “newness” of Americans as a nation is in connection with Am erican Romanticism. (4) As a logical result of the foreign and native factors at work, American romanticism was both imitative and independent. II. Washington Irving: Father of American Literature 1. several names attached to Irving (1) first American writer (2) the messenger sent from the new world to the old world (3) father of American literature 2. life 3. works (1) A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty (2) The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (He won a measure of international recognition with the publication of this.) (3) The History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (4) A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada (5) The Alhambra 4. Literary career: two parts (1) 1809~1832
美国文学选读第三版课后习题答案洁(部分) Unit 1 Benjamin Franklin Questions 1.Why did Franklin write his Autobiography? Franklin says that because his son may wish to know about his life, he is taking his one week vacation in the English countryside to record his past. He also says that he has enjoyed his life and would like to repeat it 2.What made Franklin decide to leave the brother to whom he had been apprenticed? His brother was passionate, and had often beaten him. The aversion to arbitrary power that has stuck to him through his whole life .After a brush with the law, Franklin left his brother. 3.How did he arrive in Philadephia? First he set out in a boat for Amboy, the boat dropped him off about 50 miles from Burlington, the next day he reached Burlington on foot, in Burlington he found a boat which was going towards Philadelphia, he arrived there about eight
美国文学史及作品选读模拟试题一 ) '×15=15I.Multiple Choice (1'______was the first colony in American history. C1. D.Georgia C. Virginia A. Massachusetts B. New Jersey War. the before Revolutionary only good American author 2. _B_____ was the
One “His shadow lies heavier than any other man's on of his fellow Americans said, this young nation.”D.Thomas Paine B. Benjamin Franklin C. Thomas Jefferson A. John Smith 3. Romantics put emphasis on the following EXCEPT __A____. D. individualism C. intuition B. imagination A. common sense The Raven was written in 1844 by __B______ 4. B. Edgar Allan Poe A. Philip Freneau D. Emily Dickinson C. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 5. The ship __C____ carried about one hundred Pilgrims and took 66 days to beat its way across the Atlantic. In December of 1620, it put the Pilgrims ashore at Plymouth, Massachusetts. D. Titanic C. Mayflower B. Armada A. Sunflower D____ is a tremendous chronicle of a whaling voyage in 6. Melville's novel __ pursuit of a seemingly supernatural white whale. Moby Dick D. C. White Jacket A. Typee B. Omoo 7. As a philosophical and literary movement, __D____ flourished in New England from the 1830s to the Civil War. D.Transcendentalism C.Sentimentalism B.Rationalism A.Modernism 8. The theme of original sin is fully reflected in ___A______. B. Sister Carrie A. The Scarlet Letter The Old Man and Sea D. C. The Great Gatsby 9. In all his novels Theodore Dreiser sets himself to project the ___B___ American values. For example, in Sister Carrie, there is not one character whose status is not determined economically. 页1 第 A. Puritan B. materialistic C. psychological D. religious 10. Realism was a reaction against____B__ or a move away from the bias towards
Washington Irving Bracebridge Hall 布雷斯布里奇田庄 (1822) The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Tales of a Traveller 旅客谈 (1824) Christopher Columbus (1828) c. writing characteristics (1) humorous: the function of his writing is to amuse, to entertain instead of teaching or instruction (2) vivid and true character portrayal (3) finished (refined) and musical language, thus regarded as “the Amn. Goldsmith ” d. analysis on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow(选自the sketch book 见闻札记 ) 1. the story:setting,character, plot 2. theme:conflicts and praise conflict betw. Ichabod and Brom conflict betw. the village and the outside world James Fenimore Cooper The Spy (1821): a historical novel The Pilot (1824): a sea novel Leatherstocking Tales 皮裹腿故事集(1823-1841): frontier novels The Last Mohicans (1826) (Colonial War betw. Britain and France) e. writing features: strong points: we can see a variety of incidents and tensions, complicated plot and structure and a beautiful description of nature. Weak points: characterization is weak. There is unsatisfactory description of characters (esp. female). He is not free from syntactical awkwardness, heavy-handed attempt at humor. “Where Irving excels Cooper is weak.” Dialect is not authentic. Edgar Allan Poe The Fall of the House Usher Feature: i. brevity (15 pages) ii. Single effect iii. originality in theme To Helen It was inspired by the beauty of the mother of a schoolmate of Poe in Richmond, Virginia. The poem is famous for a number of things: 1. its rhyme scheme: ababb 2. its varied line lengths 3. its metaphor of a travel on the sea 4. its oft-quoted lines: "To the glory that was Greece,/And the grandeur that was Rome." theme: praise the ideal love and beauty and ancient Greek and Roman civilizations The Raven 乌鸦 theme: the lament over the death of a beautiful woman tone: melancholy Transcendentalism (essayists, poets, novelists) Their journal is “The Dial ” . Definition: Transcendentalism is idealism. (Emerson) b. features (1) stress on Oversoul, that is spirit. (2) stress the importance of individual. (3) fresh conception of nature. c. significance (1) inspired a whole generation of writers such as Whitman, Melville and Dickinson. (2) dresses man ’s subjective initiative as opposed to materialism. (3) liberated people from Calvin ’s original sin d. limitation (1) shallow: cut off from real life or reality; initiated by the rich, they were limited in a certain circle. So, in some degree, they have been cut off from social life and can ’t understand the sufferings of the common people. (2) inward contradiction: gain knowledge by intuition, shows its idealistic aspect. R.W. Emerson (Ralph Waldo) Nature (1836): the Bible of New England transcendentalism The American Scholar (1837): "America's Declaration of Intellectual The Divinity School Address 神学院致辞 (1838) Essays (1841/1847) Representative Men (1850) English Traits (1856)
《美国文学》期末考试试卷（B卷） 1.Poor Richard’s Almanac ( ) 2.The House of the Seven Gables ( ) 3.“Raven”( ) 4.My Antonia ( ) 5.Babbitt ( ) 6.A Streetcar Named Desire ( ) 7.Maggie: A Girl of the Streets ( ) 8.A Farewell to Arms ( ) 9.The Call of the Wild ( ) 10.Long Day's Journey into Night ( ) https://www.doczj.com/doc/df1140366.html,mon Sense ( ) 12. “Rip Van Winkle”( ) 13. Walden( ) 14. The Song of Hiawatha( ) 15. Uncle Tom’s Cabin( ) 16.The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn( ) 17.Sister Carrie( ) 18.The Waste Land( ) 19. A Farewell to Arms( ) 20.The Great Gatsby( ) 1.defined poetry as the rhythmical creation of beauty. 2.While working for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, Samuel Langhorne Clemens adopted the pseudonym , the way of a boatman taking soundings, and meaning two fathoms. 3.Ezra Pound initiated a campaign for , which emphasized the direct treatment of an object or situation. He also advocated the language of common speech, but always the exact word. 4.Fitzgerald summarized the experiences and attitudes of the 1920s decade in his masterpiece novel _________. 5.is the first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of characters. 6.The first of American literature was not written by an American, but by ___________________, a British captain, who thus became the first American writer. 7._________________ has been considered the “Father of modern American Poetry.\
美国文学自测题及参考答案I Directions: In this part of the test, there are 9 items and 10 blanks. Fill in the best answer on the Answer Sheet according to the knowledge you have learned. 1.The first American literature was neither ____ nor really ____. 2.Of the immigrants who came to America in the first three quarters of the seventeenth century, the overwhelming majority was _____. 3.The English immigrants who settled on America’s northern seacoast were called _____, so named after those who wished to “purify” the Church of England. 4.Washington Irving, the Father of American literature, developed the _____ as a genre in American literature. 5.Franklin’s best writing is found in his masterpiece _____. 6.The most outstanding poet in America of the 18th century was _____. 7.In the early 19th century, “Rip Van Winkle”had established _____’s reputation at home and abroad, and designated the beginning of American Romanticism. 8._____ has sometimes been considered the father of the modern short story. 9.In 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne brought out his masterpiece _____, the story of a triangular love affair in colonial America. Directions: In this part of the test, there are twenty items. Choose the best answer and write the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet. 1. The Colonial Period of American literature stretched roughly from
美国文学部分(American Literature) 一．独立革命前后的文学（The Literature Around the Revolution of Independence） 1．本章考核知识点和考核要求： 1)．殖民地时期的文学的特点 2)．主要的作家、其概况及其代表作品 2．独立革命前后时期的主要作家 本杰明·富兰克林Benjamin Franklin本杰明·富兰克林，散文家、科学家、社会活动家，曾参与起草―独立宣言。 《穷查理历书》Poor Richard’s Almanack 《致富之道》The Way to Wealth 《自传》The Autobiography 托马斯·潘恩Thomas Paine托马斯·潘恩，散文家、政治家、报刊撰稿人。 《税务员问题》The Case of the Officers of Excise 《常识》Common Sense 《美国危机》American Crisis 《人的权利》Rights of Man 《专制体制的崩溃》Downfall of Despotism 《理性时代》The Age of Reason 菲利普·弗伦诺Philip Freneau菲利普·弗伦诺，著名的―革命诗人‖。 《蒸蒸日上的美洲》―The Rising Glory of America‖
《英国囚船》―The British Prison Ship‖ 《纪念美国勇士》同类诗中最佳―To the Memory of the Brave Americans‖ 《野生的金银花》―The Wild Honeysuckle‖ 《印第安人殡葬地》―The Indian Burying Ground‖ 1二．美国浪漫主义文学（American Romanticism） 1．本章考核知识点和考核要求： 1)．美国浪漫主义文学产生的社会历史及文化背景 2)．主要作家的创作思想、艺术特色及其代表作品的主题结构、人物刻画和语言风格 3)．清教主义、超验主义、象征主义、自由诗等名词的解释 2.美国浪漫主义时期的主要作家 华盛顿·欧文Washington Irving华盛顿·欧文，美国著名小说家，被称为―美国文学之父‖.《瑞普·凡·温可尔》Rip Van Winkle 《纽约外史》A History of New York 《见闻札记》The Sketch Book 《睡谷的传说》The Legend of Sleepy Hollow 詹姆斯·费尼莫尔·库珀James Fenimore Cooper 詹姆斯·费尼莫尔·库珀开创了以《皮裹腿故事集》为代表的边疆传奇小说，其中最为重要的一部是《最后的莫西干人》。 《皮裹腿故事集》Leatherstocking Tales 《间谍》The Spy 《领航者》The Pilot
1.C aptain John Smith became the first American writer. 2.T he puritans looked upon themselves as a chosen people. collection of proverbs written by Benjamin Franklin. 4.T homas Paine’s famous pamphlet Common Sense boldly advocated a “Declaration for Independence”.
5.T homas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence with John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston. has been called the “Father of American Poetry”. 7.I n Washington Irving’s appeared the first modern short stories and the first great American juvenile literature.
8.C ooper’s enduring fame rests on his frontier stories, especially the five novels that comprise the is perhaps the peak of William Cullen Bryant’s wok. “father of American detective stories and American gothic stories”.
美国文学选择题及答案 1. William Faulkner is the author of ______. a. Far From the Madding Crowd b. Sound and Fury c. For Whom the Bell Tolls d. Scarlet Letter 2. Robert Frost is a famous_______. a. novelist b. playwright c. poet d. literary critic 3. The Old Man and the Sea is one of the great works by ________. a. Jack London b. Charles Dickens c. Samuel Coleridge d. Earnest Hemingway 4. _______refers to some contrast or discrepancy between appearance and reality. a. Allegory b. Conflict c. Irony d. Flashback 5. The great transcendental work by Henry David Thoreau is______. a. Nature b. Walden c. Experience d. Essays 6. Mark Twain shaped the world’s view of America and made a combination of _____and serious literature. a. American folk humor b. funny jokes c. English folklore d. American values 7. Who was the first American to achieve an international literary reputation after the Revolutionary War? a. Fennimore Cooper. b. Nathaniel Hawthorn. c. Walt Whitman. d. Washington Irving. 8. I Have a Dream is addressed by _____. a. Abraham Lincoln b. John F. Kennedy c. Martin Luther King d. Ralph Waldo Emerson 9. Which of the following is NOT a poem by Emily Dickinson? a. This is my letter to the world b. I heard a Fly buzz—when I died c. This is just to say d. Because I could not stop for death 10. Eugene O’Neil is an American ______. a. novelist b. playwright c. poet d. essayist 11. The period from 1865—1914 has been referred to as the _______in the literary history of the United States. a. Age of Realism b. Age of Classicalism c. Age of Romanticism d. Age of Renaissance 12. With “Collected Poems”, ______won the second Pulitzer Prize. a. Ezra Pond b. e. e. cummings c. Robert Frost d. William Cullen Bryant 13. Grass is a poem written by _______.
2012-2013学年第二学期 《美国文学》期末考试试卷（A卷） 专业：英语年级：2010级考试方式：闭卷学分：2 考试时间：110分钟 I．Multiple Choices(每小题 1分，共20分) Directions: Select from the four choices of each item the one that best answers the question. II．Explain the Following Literary Terms Briefly (每小题7分，共14分) Directions: Please write down the answers on the Answer Sheet. Local Colorism Transcendentalism III．Identification of Fragments (每小题7分，共21分) Directions: Please give the name of the author and the title of the literary work from which it is taken and then briefly comment on it in English. Please write down the answers on the Answer Sheet. 23. “…That?s right.? He said; …I?m no good now. I was all right. I had money. I?m going to quit this,? and, with death in his heart, he started down toward the Bowery. People had turned on the gas before and died; why shouldn?t he? He remembered a lodging house where there were little, close rooms, with gas-jet in them, almost pre-arranged, he thought, for what he wanted to do, which rented for fifteen cents. Then he remembered that he had no fifteen cents.” 25. “Her skeleton was small and spare; perhaps that was why that would have been merely plumpness in another was obesity in her. She looked bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water, and of that pallid hue. 24. “…Mr. Gatz, I thought you might want to take the body West.?
20世纪的美国文学，堪称美国文学史上的“黄金时期”，同时也可以说是又一次“文艺复兴”。这一时期，现实主义、自然主义和现代主义形成了多元并存的局面，促进了现代美国文学的空前繁荣。 ==小说== 这一时期的小说创作主旨虽然是现实主义，但不同的作家在创作实践中却呈现出各自的特色。这一时期的小说创作有几种倾向： 1、两种现实主义小说。在这方面的主要代表是亨利·詹姆斯，他的创作继承了19世纪的高雅“现实主义”传统，擅长描写美国东部有闲阶级男女的心理。他作品描写的民主思想浓厚、独立性强、天真无邪、不拘虚礼但又有些我行我素的美国上层妇女形象，始终被看成是美国文化产物的典型。与这种创作倾向截然相反的是乡土小说和反映农民心声的作品。这方面比较有影响的作家哈姆林·加兰。 2、乡土作家和幽默小说。这方面的代表性作家是欧·亨利。他的短篇小说篇幅不长，以情节取胜，一般以写小市民生活为主，充满了蕴含同情的幽默和恢谐之特色。尤其是那些出人意料的结尾和“情理之中、意料之外”的谋篇布局手法更每每令读者拍案叫绝。 3、“黑幕揭发者”与厄普顿·辛克莱。从19世纪90年代开始，一批以揭露资本家穷奢极欲和政府丑闻为主要内容的暴露文学曾一度发展到高峰。其中以厄普顿·辛克莱的《屠场》最有影响。 4、自然主义和现实主义的交织。这一时期美国文学的一个重要成就在于出现了一批既具有现实主义倾向同时又受到欧洲自然主义哲学和文学思潮影响的作家。他们所描写的往往是一些没有文化、出身贫寒的下层人民和社会渣滓。第一部显示出决定论哲学倾向的作品是斯蒂芬·克莱斯的中篇小说《街头妇女郎梅季》。 杰克·伦敦参加过美国的社会主义运动，曾有“美国无产阶级文学之父”之称。实际上，他同时受到马克思主义、尼采的超人哲学和斯宾塞的社会达尔文主义的影响，这些均反映在他的主要长短篇小说中。他的写作风格粗犷而刚健有力，人物性格常常在激烈的矛盾冲突中得到展示。 西奥多·德莱塞（代表作《嘉莉妹妹》、《美国的悲剧》）运用巴尔扎克写典型、写细节的手法，成功地再现出他那个时代大城市中的社会生活和典型人物，场面比较广阔，含义比较深刻。他虽然揭露了资产阶级社会中尔虞我诈、弱肉强食的现象，但是又塑造了一批随波逐流、任性纵欲的主人公。但是他常常因为写作风格的滞重和句段的冗长而受到批评。 辛克莱·刘易斯是美国第一个获得诺贝尔文学的小说家。他的小说多以讽刺手法揭露美国资产阶级社会中的丑恶现象和矛盾。作为美国中产阶级的代言人，他的视野从未超越中产阶级。他的作品虽然从某些侧面揭露示了资产阶级社会中的矛盾，和社会的黑暗，但总的来说，缺乏一定的深度。