Essay on "Chopin Twain Etc Change in America"

Essay 3 pages (1496 words) Sources: 5

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Chopin Twain Etc

Change in America Through Turn of the Century Literature

The America which entered into the 20th century would be one in constant flux. In the century since its birth, the nation had established itself as an independent body with progressive dreams and deep cultural rifts. These would unfold into the Civil War and its attendant implications regarding America's struggle for a unified identity. The literature which paints a portrait of this struggle during the late 19th and early 20th century shows that America's future would in many ways only be colored by further splintering of individual and cultural tendencies.

This is clear in a consideration of Kate Chopin's the Storm, for instance, which in 1898, became one of the earliest indicators of the cultural discontent facing the American woman. A story that parallels the extramarital affair between a woman and an estranged former lover with the threat and manifestation of an aggressive cloudburst, the Storm boldly explores the natural, even healthy impulse for a woman to achieve her own sexual identity. Using the storm metaphor in order to explore the almost instinctual quality of her sexual encounter, the quiet building of her sexual needs within the confines of her marriage and the role which the hierarchical structure of the traditional family plays on defining her sexuality, Chopin renders Calixta an archetypal female, surrendering happily to the internal divide between fidelity and nature.

When first she encounters Alcee, we are immediately struck by an apparent complexity to an undefined relationship. H arrives on her property riding a horse just ahead of the storm. He appears as almost heroic in this presentation. From as the author chooses only to very subtly allude to the nature of the history between these two, there is a resonant sense of mystery about the character. When the narrator notes that Calixta has not seen him for some time, she frames it in terms of her marriage, specifying that since that time they had never been alone in one another's presence.

This vague but foretelling choice of words is paired with a similarly disassociated anticipation of the storm, at least for Calixta. Working on a sewing project, Calixta "was greatly occupied and did not notice the approaching storm." (Chopin, II) Certainly, there can be no mistaking the significance of her distraction. Devoted to the domestic duties so often associated with socially dispensed gender roles, the protagonist is not outwardly aware that she has some aching desire brewing within. This is a demonstration of one aspect of America that was clearly changing in this time, with women increasingly noting that the American identity had to that point failed to take in the female perspective.

Indeed, so many were excluded from the early forging of America's identity that is was a fact of mere inevitability that soon a burgeoning undercurrent of unheard voices would find the light of day. This is the basic premise which we may interpret from E.A. Robinson's Mr. Flood's Party, which offers a solitary subject indicative for many of the often cruel and exclusive American experience. The extension of capitalist selfishness seems to be the character of Eban Flood, whose titular party is celebrated betwixt himself, a jug and a darkened road. The clincher of this poem tells that "there was nothing the town below/where strangers would have shut the many doors/That many friends had opened long ago." (Robinson, ln. 51-53) Here, we are given a picture of an American dream lapsed and disappeared, perhaps in reaction to a culture with little -- for so many -- resembling the early promise of the union.

Quite certainly, the satirical tone of Twain's work underscores the sentiment of this broken promise. In Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," plot action and thematic impetus are mutually driven by protagonists who exist on the fringe of social convention, creating a dynamic form of protest that is as much shaped by the need for individual freedom as by the intent to withdraw from the objectionable mores of a sick society. This is a distinctly American mode of resistance, with Huck Finn serving as perhaps the first archetypal rebel of our literary tradition. Huck is the quintessentially alienated and isolated youth whose goals and pursuits are unclear but whose philosophical objections to his environmental conditions are quite pronounced through thought and action. As perhaps the work most directly identified with the antebellum era tradition of social commentary, "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" depicts a desiccated… READ MORE

How to Reference "Chopin Twain Etc Change in America" Essay in a Bibliography

Related Essays:

Advancing Democracy in Latin America Through the Church Term Paper

Advancing Democracy in Latin America Through the Church

The whole of Latin America has been weighed down by dictatorial regimes. The age of Human rights and democracy had been met… read more

Term Paper 12 pages (3554 words) Sources: 1+ Topic: Latin America / Mexico / Caribbean

---

Change Proposal Research Proposal

Change Proposal

America became aware of the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980's. By the mid-1980's it seemed as though it was the most talked about disease in this country.… read more

Research Proposal 5 pages (1866 words) Sources: 5 Topic: Nursing / Doctor / Physician

---

History of America Through 1877 Research Proposal

History Of America Through 1877

Jordan, Winthrop. White Over Black. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1968.

In his book on the European views of 'blackness' and Africa entitled… read more

Research Proposal 2 pages (655 words) Sources: 2 Style: MLA Topic: African-American / Black Studies

---

Condition of America Term Paper

America

The changing economic conditions all across the globe has also affected America and its people due to which several issues are emerging in the country. The people of America… read more

Term Paper 10 pages (3330 words) Sources: 10 Topic: Family / Dating / Marriage

---

America's Interests and Involvement in Cuba Term Paper

Americas interests & Involvement in Cuba

Political

Economic

Social

Sources of the revolution

Nationalism, economic, social, political.

International

The view from the United States

The Revolution and the American intervention… read more

Term Paper 13 pages (4606 words) Sources: 10 Style: Chicago Topic: Latin America / Mexico / Caribbean

---

View 100+ more related papers  >>