Coming of Age Literature: Mr Medinger's Post for 9th Advanced English Students

A "coming-of-age" story is a a type of modern literature devoted to that period between the last of childhood and the beginning of young adulthood. Since Mark Twain first came out with that great classic, Huckleberry Finn, this kind of story has become popular in literature and movies, like The Breakfast Club or The Secret Life of Bees. I'm sure you have seen some recent movies that demonstrate this theme.

Because the main protagonist undergoes adventures and situations he must conquer (as in the short story we just read, "Up the Slide"), or inner turmoil in his development as a human being, the best stories carry a theme of personal redemption brought about by facing conflict--in situations often created by adults and unfairly perpetrated upon the main character, as in the novel we'll begin reading, Holes.

In this type of story, characters must deal with the reality of cruelty in the world, with intentionally evil adults, with violence, death, racism, and hatred--while others deal with family, friends, or community issues. It is a type of novel where the protagonist may be initiated into adulthood through knowledge, experience, or both, often through a process of disillusionment. Understanding comes after the dropping of preconceptions, possibly the destruction of a false sense of security, or in some way the loss of innocence. Some of the shifts that take place are these:

* ignorance to knowledge
* innocence to experience
* limited or naive view of world to a more comprehensive view
* idealism to realism
* immature responses to mature responses
* dependence on others for care, and self-centered responses, to acceptance of responsibility for caring about others, and compassionate responses

Several you may enjoy reading include:

1. A Separate Peace
The story of a young teenager returning to school after the death of his best friend, and attempting to come to a resolution with his anger and sense of betrayal.

2. Catcher in the Rye (We'll be reading portions of this one)
First published in 1951, The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, details 48 hours in the life of Holden Caulfield. The novel's history has been colorful and controversial.

3. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is now considered an essential part of American literature. As an indispensable classic, Betty Smith's book appears on reading lists across the country. It has profoundly influenced readers from all walks of life--young and old alike. The New York Public Library even chose the book as one of the "Books of the Century."

4. To Kill a Mockingbird
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, depicts the story of a young girl, Jean Louise "Scout" Finch. The novel was popular at the time of its publication, though the book has also encountered censorship battles. It was made into a successful movie.

5. The Red Badge of Courage
When The Red Badge of Courage was first published in 1895, Stephen Crane was a struggling American writer of 23. This book made him famous. Crane tells the tale of a young man who is traumatized by his experience in the Civil War. He hears the crash/roar of battle, sees the men dying all around him, and feels the cannons throwing out their deadly projectiles. It's the story of a young man growing up in the midst of death and destruction, with his whole world turned upside down.

6. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain. Originally published in 1884, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the journey of a young boy (Huck Finn) down the Mississippi River. Huck encounters thieves, murderers, and various adventures. But, along the way, he also grows up. He makes observations about other people, and he develops a friendship with Jim, a runaway slave.

6th Assignment: Alfred Lord Tennyson: Crises of belief and faith central to the age

You've now encountered several literary forms invented or re-purposed by the Victorians, including the Dramatic Monologue, as seen in Robert Browning's narratives, spoken by invented Speaker to silent Listener, and the Novel, as seen in Dickens, Bronte's and Chekhov's stories, which take readers into the mind of various characters.

Melancholy and the restless drive to explore are the two remaining themes permeating Victorian literature.

The problems of belief and incredulity were intently examined by the Victorians. At the very moment the British Empire invited its inhabitants to think they were God's people, those same citizens faced serious challenges to belief in that God. Historical and scientific investigations undermined previously held literal translations of faith. Darwin's findings and Newton's discoveries distanced God from human activity. Despair and anxiety permeated previously held thoughts of an ordered universe.

The role tradition held for the Victorians produced in its writers a brooding melancholic tone, a state of turning inward, self-examination. Poets, in their role as spokespersons of their age, adapted traditional forms like the elegy to address current questions of belief and man's place in the universe. Traditional subjects like the Middle Ages, now shrouded in romanticism, were used as devices to allude to contemporary concerns. Tennyson's belief is the opposite of faith in empire and progress. It informs his poem, "In Memoriam, A.H.H." The speaker in his poem has a personal history, has undergone a change, suffered a loss.

In "The Lady of Shalott" Tennyson uses Arthurian legend to speak about the position of the creative artist in society. The setting suggests Tennyson's attitude about the past. The Lady as a prototype of the artist suggests the speaker's conflict with his own role as an observer of his age.

At the core of a rapidly enlarging empire still holding fast to old forms is a restless drive to explore, to experience more, to break away. The speaker in "Ulysses" expresses a desire "to seek a newer world." This poem suggests that Tennyson, like many Victorians, valued progress, was open to change.

Tennyson, writing ten years after Darwin's published work, Origin of the Species, considers the populist engagement with latest scientific discoveries a contributing source of alarm in the Victorian's faith in a Divine plan for the universe. He introduces up-to-date concerns, warning contemporaries what can happen to a powerful kingdom like Victoria's Britain. In an age of prosperity and progress, England's poets and novelists reminded their countrymen that empires crumble, individuals are fragile and vulnerable, and death awaits us.

5th Assignment: The Brownings in Love/Dramatic Monologue

Dear Students:

Please begin by reading aloud together the two poems by Robert Browning, "My Last Duchess" and "Porphyria's Lover." The next day, read aloud "Life in a Love," also by Browning, and "Sonnet 43" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert's beloved wife.

I'd like you to read these poems aloud, first, because poetry is meant for the ear, and the more of it we read, the better we instinctively learn to write--for the best writing has a rhythm of it's own (we call it the writer's "voice"). Second, reading aloud is the best introduction to a new poet. Some find poetry rather daunting, so by combining the act of reading aloud with an intellectual study of a poem, a stronger connection begins to evolve--one's brain notes you've made yourself available.

After reading together, I'd like you to discuss what you think these poems mean. It doesn't matter if you're wrong--that's quite alright--especially reading Browning, who intended the sudden surprise when you "get" it. The only hint I'll give you is that Browning, master of the dramatic monologue, has an exceptional command of irony.

Ask yourselves who is speaking in each poem. Is it the author? A particular character? What is the nature of that speaker's character? How is this conveyed? Read the lines carefully. Discuss who the speaker is talking about, how the speaker feels about that person, whether his assumptions are correct. What are the speaker's motivations? Ask what the person being discussed might be like. Keep in mind the time in which these poems take place. Look for examples of the period and contrast them with our society today.

After you've completed the discussion, I'd like you to take out some sheets of paper and carefully go through each line of the poem, making notes. Answer the above questions on paper, but look in depth to discover further how Browning constructs these poems to convey what he has to say. Remember every word of a poem counts, nothing is said without consideration for its meaning and affect on the poem as a whole. Browning's poems are constructed for that "ahah" moment, when the reader really "gets" what the author was conveying.

When you've finished your notes, please show them to your sub. They should be extensive if you've gone over every sentence in the poem.

Finally, I'd like you to do some research down in the computer lab and/or at home. Look up some literary critics, and see what they have to say about these poems. Take notes. If you find certain ideas applicable to forming your paper, write these down with the citation for where they may be found (see Amicitia guidelines). Start to build your own ideas based on your personal notes and your research.

You will be writing two papers:

The first, 2 1/2 pages on "My Last Duchess" and "Porphyria's Lover."
The second, 1 1/2 pages on either "Life in a Love," or "Sonnet 43."

These are not to be compare and contrast essays, but an analytical analysis of the ideas conveyed in the poems and the author's style. There are a wide range of ways to go about constructing your esay. The intent of this assignment is to acquaint you with these authors and their poetry, so feel free to speak about your own feelings, but always refer to the text when so doing, and bring to your essay some of the research you've done.

Return here Friday for some brief information about the Brownings. I'm doing this backwards (assignment first/lecture second) so that you can discover these poets for yourself.

Your two essays are due Wed, March 17th. Please include your notes made for this assignment. There will be one more short paper for this term.

4th Assignment: Charlotte Bronte, "Making Disturbing Issues Palatable"

The novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte is one of my favorites. It is full of unexpected turns and coincidences, impossible to put down once started. It’s a romance between two strong characters with diametrically opposed pasts who come together under unusual circumstances. It's also a mystery that reveals itself under the writer’s able use of her craft. Immensely popular when the book first came out, it has transcended time and period, and continues to be popular today. And--it’s written by a woman--not an easy undertaking at a time when female writers had trouble finding a publisher. Recognition for women in the arts was difficult, and ridicule was an ever-present possibility.

Charlotte Bronte came from a renowned literary family. She was educated at home in Yorkshire except for a brief period in a boarding school. Her sisters, Anne and Emily, were writers; we will be reading Emily’s poems later in the unit. Although Charlotte was the most admired, and had a wide popular following, she also received the most criticism for what Matthew Arnold called the “hunger, rebellion and rage” of her mind.

Bronte used the male pseudonyms of ‘Currer’ ‘Ellis’ and ‘Acton Bell’ in much of her earlier work to gain acceptance in what was then thought to be a man’s world. Female writers such as the French novelist, Aurore Dupin (1804-1876) took the pseudonym ‘Georges Sand’ in order to gain access to publishers, as women often had difficulty obtaining legitimacy for their literary accomplishments. To acquire an editor and publisher when respectable women were expected to stay in their homes and maintain a family and place in society was a considerable undertaking. Even after her identity was known, Bronte continued to use her pseudonyms in her publications.

Making Disturbing Issues Palatable

This excerpt addresses abusive methods long practiced by educational institutions of Bronte’s time, a subject strongly felt by the Bronte sisters who’d themselves spent a short period within the confines of the boarding school environment. Lowood is a critical portrait of that experience.

Read this portion of Jane Eyre in terms of Bronte’s philosophical assumptions, once again noting the details from the text that reveal the author’s ideas about human nature, human relationships, and societal mores. Apply the knowledge you have gained about the Victorian’s belief in social reform. Consider the kind of perseverance which would brave social restrictions to follow her heart as a writer and reformer.

Look for the inferences Bronte presents regarding societal ills. Note her descriptions of class, character’s attitudes of rebellion or submission, inferences regarding spirituality and obedience, the abuse of power, and what Bronte might be telling us about her own assumptions through use of understatement, or portraits of obviously undesirable characters.

Note: In this excerpt you will see an inference regarding the dichotomy of hungers present in this period’s literature. Two forms of hunger existed in Victorian literature: pitiable hunger and threatening hunger (Dickens is master of this portrayal). You will see in Bronte’s excerpt a reference to a meal representing the connection between eating and spiritual satisfaction.

The negative representation of eating in much nineteenth-century children's literature was matched by real restrictions on eating in many girls' lives. Most often, girls were urged to eat a bland, unstimulating diet. Indulgence in food, no matter how little, symbolized moral looseness and a general lack of discipline. Whether or not Victorian writers genuinely shared this view, they successfully captured this attitude in many of their writings. In Jane Eyre, when Mr. Brocklehurst discovers that Miss Temple had offered meals of bread and cheese to her students, he reprimands her liberality saying,

"You are aware that my plan in bringing up these girls is, not to accustom them to habits of luxury and indulgence, but to render them hardy, patient, self-denying. . . Oh, madam, when you put bread and cheese, instead of burnt porridge, into these children's mouths, you may indeed feed their vile bodies, but you little think how you starve their immortal souls!"

Videos on Charlotte Bronte (find these on YouTube):

Bbc Period Drama Trailer 4 min 12 sec - Feb 23, 2010YouTube
Jane Eyre By Sleaford Little Theatre Trailer 2 min 00 sec - Feb 24, 2010YouTube

3rd Assignment (1/2 Week): The Novelist as Social Critic

This next excerpt is from Russian writer, Anton Chekhov (1860-1904). Continuing with our current theme--the novelist as social critic--this week introduces a Russian author coming onto the literary scene just after Dickens, yet having many of the same concerns for his own country: a condemnation of social inequities, a desire to see educational revision, an attack at longstanding gender roles, and scrutiny of living conditions created by the Industrial Revolution across Europe--all factors rapidly revising an old order of doing things.

By Chekhov's time, Czar Alexander II had freed the serfs--peasants bound to the land since medieval times (that way of life seen in Canterbury Tales). As Russia moved from an agricultural to an industrial economy, opportunities arose for the desperately poor, while those of the gentry class, who could not adapt to the changing economy, became victims of the vast social upheaval soon to upset all social classes and standing.

Anton Chekhov was the grandson of a serf who had purchased his freedom. After the failure of his father's grocery business, Chekhov's family moved to Moscow where Checkov enrolled in medical school. He began writing as a means to earn extra funds to support his family during his medical training. He continued to write after beginning his medical practice in the village of Melikhovo, south of Moscow. He was very active in community affairs of his small village all his life. His humanity continues as his legacy to us through his stories and plays.

All though Chekhov's life he wrote sketches and stories that documented the human condition, ascribing to his characters the strong revelations that sometimes come with sudden moments of social upheaval. Chekhov's stories and plays sometimes end with a high-born family on a platform of a train station, bewildered, surrounded by bags and trunks, outcasts from their social strata, turned out of their castles and villas. Two stories well-worth reading for further enjoyment are "Lady With a Dog" and The Cherry Orchard.

In this week's story, Mashenka Pavletski is working as governess for a wealthy family. She returns home one day to find the mistress of the house going through her belongings. Mashenka is horrified to learn that she--along with all other members of the staff--is suspected of having stolen a brooch. In his title, Chekhov hints his bias, along with his observations of the wide disparity of class systems, soon to have repercussions throughout his country.

Mr. Medinger and Ms. Cowper

Week 2. 2nd Assignment: Charles Dickens and the modern novel (p. 989)

2nd Assignment: Charles Dickens and the modern novel (p. 989)

As a genre, the modern novel has its roots in the narrative tales of much earlier times. As we read Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, with its imaginative “framed stories” as told by pilgrims on their pilgrimage to Canterbury, we see the beginnings of the modern novel, reaching full flower in the 19th century, with its lengthy narrative held together by a sequence of complicated subplots, its complex and varied settings, its many intertwined characters, both major and minor, acting within the frame of one theme or idea.

The novel of Dickens's time was still undergoing definition. Novels in Victorian England were often published in serial form in monthly magazine installments. Chapters were composed to meet monthly deadlines. Dickens's work often bears the mark of this origin. Episodes would often end at suspenseful moments to insure readers would return for more. Dickens's popularity was enormous. With his first major effort, Pickwick Papers, followed by Oliver Twist and Great Expectations, he held England and America spellbound. A Christmas Carol is still popular today.

In the case of the authors we will meet this term, the development of the Industrial Revolution, with all its social and economic chaos, offered a rich trove of themes through which a writer’s narrative technique might be revealed. The period you discussed in your recent essays brought with it many complex issues to be resolved: issues of a new working class, slum conditions, orphanages, epidemic diseases, education for the young, and many other facets of that period. Dickens’s stories of hard times and injured innocents challenged those forces that smothered compassion and nursed vice in that new society.

Frequently Dickens gave his characters names that foreshadow the plot, providing the reader with a slight hint. He also enjoyed making silly, yet meaningful, comparisons, such as party guests to furniture, orphans to shares and stocks, etc. Always, his work was a form of social commentary, as he wrote satirically about the government, education, politics and other important issues of his time.

Dickens was a reformer and a myth maker, yet his stories are more than about social injustice. The most distinctive characteristic of his work is its fairytale-like quality. Notice his settings--factories chocked with smoke, slums a place where crime and the redemption of his characters can be revealed. The same fondness Chaucer had for the foibles of his characters is seen in Dickens’s work as well, revealed in the variety and peculiarity of the human character, his leering villains, honest clerks, wide-eyed innocents and knotty eccentrics. You will see this in the story we will begin reading this week, Hard Times.

Turn to page 999. As you read, notice the setting and characterization presented in the first paragraphs. Who is the “speaker?” Where is this taking place? How does Dickens describe each character (notice their names!)? What phrases and descriptions are seen in the text that give you a sense of this? How does Dickens describe places and people? Do you notice any literary equivalent in old fairy tales? What do you notice about Dickens's attitude towards the people and ideas he is representing, and what words does he use to convey that? What do you think about Mr. Gradgrind’s theory of education?

What message do you think Dickens is attempting to deliver in his plot and through these characters? What theme and philosophy is he conveying through this satire—what values does Dickens believe a system of education should teach? In Dickens's writing, begin to notice what is caricature and sentiment, exaggeration, irony, even raw bitterness, and what is realism. Comment on what you find. Finally, how do you respond to this portion of a story as a reader? What resonates with you and your life and outlook?

Take your time with the first page! It takes time to get into any new author of another period! Read a few passages aloud together, talk about it, then begin reading to yourself, answering the above questions. At any time, continue reading and discussing aloud. Please go on line to continue reading chapters from this story. By Friday, send us your response to the questions above. Refer to the text in quotes or italics with the page number when necessary, but this is not a formal paper, but a response. You are welcome to read the entire book on line for extra credit (speak to me first—this will be offered for several future assignments as well).