SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITING America in the Modern World

Suggestions for Writing
America in the Modern World

Now that you have examined a number of texts from the period between the two world wars, explore aspects of this era in America’s history by synthesizing your own ideas and the readings. You might want to do additional research or use readings from other classes as you write.

  1. Write an essay in which you discuss whether or not the poetry of American imagist William Carlos Williams (p. 1106) follows the rules set out by Ezra Pound in “A Few Don’ts by an Imagiste” (p. 1075).

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITING America in the Modern World: - Write an essay in which you discuss whether or not the poetry of American imagist William Carlos Williams (p. 1106) follows the rules set out by Ezra Pound in “A Few Don’ts by an Imagiste” (p. 1075).
  2. Actor, poet, director, and activist Ossie Davis said this about Langston Hughes:

    Langston Hughes belongs to whoever is listening. A possession in common, like the sights and sounds of a streetcorner hangout, or the barbershop debate over pretty girls’ legs, and baseball players: Open your ears and your heart if you’ve got one; Langston will walk right in and do the rest. His thoughts come naked, conceived in the open, only at home in the public domain. Free, without charge, like water, like air—like salted peanuts at a Harlem rent party. Come in, have one on me—that’s Langston’s style; a great host; a perfect bartender; dishing it up, iambic pentameter, on the rocks and on the house, fresh wrote this morning. Dead now, but still alive. Ol’ Langston in the corners of my mind.

    Do you agree with Davis about Hughes’s accessibility or do you find him harder to understand? Explain in an essay your own experience reading the work of Langston Hughes, starting with the poems (pp. 1101, 1197) and also looking at his essay (p. 1102) in this chapter.

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITING America in the Modern World: - Actor, poet, director, and activist Ossie Davis said this about Langston Hughes:Langston Hughes belongs to whoever is listening. A possession in common, like the sights and sounds of a streetcorner hangout, or the barbershop debate over pretty girls’ legs, and baseball players: Open your ears and your heart if you’ve got one; Langston will walk right in and do the rest. His thoughts come naked, conceived in the open, only at home in the public domain. Free, without charge, like water, like air—like salted peanuts at a Harlem rent party. Come in, have one on me—that’s Langston’s style; a great host; a perfect bartender; dishing it up, iambic pentameter, on the rocks and on the house, fresh wrote this morning. Dead now, but still alive. Ol’ Langston in the corners of my mind.Do you agree with Davis about Hughes’s accessibility or do you find him harder to understand? Explain in an essay your own experience reading the work of Langston Hughes, starting with the poems (pp. 1101, 1197) and also looking at his essay (p. 1102) in this chapter.
  3. Research the group of women known as the “pack horse librarians” of Kentucky and write about how they lived the ideas and ideals of Eleanor Roosevelt’s speech about what libraries mean to the nation (p. 1138). Create a pitch for a film about them: imagine whom you would cast, where you would shoot, and how you would tell their story in film.

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITING America in the Modern World: - Research the group of women known as the “pack horse librarians” of Kentucky and write about how they lived the ideas and ideals of Eleanor Roosevelt’s speech about what libraries mean to the nation (p. 1138). Create a pitch for a film about them: imagine whom you would cast, where you would shoot, and how you would tell their story in film.
  4. This chapter includes many pieces that could be defined as representing modernism, a movement marked by abstract art, symbolic poetry, and stream-of-consciousness prose. Peter Watson, the New York correspondent for the London Times, wrote in his book A Terrible Beauty, “One of the many innovations of modernism was the new demands it placed on the audience. Music, painting, literature, even architecture, would never be quite so ‘easy’ as they had been.” Write an essay in which you analyze one or more works in this chapter through the lens of Watson’s comment.

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITING America in the Modern World: - This chapter includes many pieces that could be defined as representing modernism, a movement marked by abstract art, symbolic poetry, and stream-of-consciousness prose. Peter Watson, the New York correspondent for the London Times, wrote in his book A Terrible Beauty, “One of the many innovations of modernism was the new demands it placed on the audience. Music, painting, literature, even architecture, would never be quite so ‘easy’ as they had been.” Write an essay in which you analyze one or more works in this chapter through the lens of Watson’s comment.
  5. The works in this chapter are bookended by two world wars. Write an essay in which you trace the influences of war on the literature of the time.

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITING America in the Modern World: - The works in this chapter are bookended by two world wars. Write an essay in which you trace the influences of war on the literature of the time.