Making Connections

1. Both Amy Lowell (p. 1257) and Margaret Atwood (p. 1267) discuss the influence of Puritanism on American literature. In what ways are their views similar? In what ways are they different?

   Question

   ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=

   Making Connections: - Both Amy Lowell (p. 1257) and Margaret Atwood (p. 1267) discuss the influence of Puritanism on American literature. In what ways are their views similar? In what ways are they different?
2. Emma Lazarus (p. 1250) argues that the influence of “a man of genius” is beneficial, noting that “contemporary English criticism declared [Charles] Dickens’s early work to be imitative of an American’s—[Washington] Irving” (par. 1). What might she say to Walt Whitman (p. 1247) about his exhortation to “[c]all for new great masters to comprehend new arts, new perfections, new wants” (par. 3)?

   Question

   ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=

   Making Connections: - Emma Lazarus (p. 1250) argues that the influence of “a man of genius” is beneficial, noting that “contemporary English criticism declared [Charles] Dickens’s early work to be imitative of an American’s—[Washington] Irving” (par. 1). What might she say to Walt Whitman (p. 1247) about his exhortation to “[c]all for new great masters to comprehend new arts, new perfections, new wants” (par. 3)?
3. Compare and contrast the excerpts from John Macy (p. 1252) and Bliss Perry (p. 1260), both of which address the spirit of American literature.

   Question

   ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=

   Making Connections: - Compare and contrast the excerpts from John Macy (p. 1252) and Bliss Perry (p. 1260), both of which address the spirit of American literature.
4. What do you think Sherwood Anderson (p. 1255) would say to Atwood’s visiting Martians?

   Question

   ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=

   Making Connections: - What do you think Sherwood Anderson (p. 1255) would say to Atwood’s visiting Martians?
5. Tom Wolfe (p. 1264) suggests that writers in the twentieth century were interested only in novels of ideas, not in novels of manners and society. Would D. H. Lawrence (p. 1262) agree? How does he see the obligation of the American writer? What “tale” did he think writers should tell?

   Question

   ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=

   Making Connections: - Tom Wolfe (p. 1264) suggests that writers in the twentieth century were interested only in novels of ideas, not in novels of manners and society. Would D. H. Lawrence (p. 1262) agree? How does he see the obligation of the American writer? What “tale” did he think writers should tell?