1.

Anglo-Saxon Poetry
The Anglo-Saxons were fond of singing about battles, gods and their ancestral heroes. It is,
however, these songs of religion, wars, and agriculture that marked the beginning of English poetry
in ancient England. 
The Anglo-Saxon poetry was mostly sung instead of written. That’s why there are very few
remnants left of it. Among them, the most famous one is Beowulf. It is the first English epic
poem. Beowulf narrates a tale of the adventures of Beowulf, a brave hero. This poem, in fact,
abounds in all sorts of references and allusions to great events and the fortunes of kings and nations.
Key Characteristics of Anglo-Saxon Poetry: Heroic poetry elements, Christian ideals,
Synecdoche, Metonymy. and Irony.
After embracing Christianity, the Anglo-Saxon poets began to write religious poetry. Therefore, the
major portion of Anglo-Saxon poetry encompasses religion. The most famous religious poets of the
Anglo-Saxon period were Caedmon and Cynewulf. Caedmon is famous for his Hymn in which
praises in honor of God. Cynewulf’s famous religious poems were Juliana, The Fates of the
Apostles, Crist, and Elene. Among them , ‘Crist’ is the most popular one telling the event that
occurred in the life of Jesus Christ.
Who was the first English writer? Cædmon was the first English writer. He wrote his poetry in the
Old English language. His only surviving work is ‘Cædmon’s Hymn.’
1.2. The Anglo-Saxon Prose
The Anglo-Saxons replaced Latin prose with English which observed all the rules of ordinary
speech in its construction. The famous Anglo-Saxon king, Alfred the Great, translated most of the
famous Latin Chronicles in English. However, the second famous prose writer of the Anglo-Saxon
period was, no doubt, Aelfric. He was actually a priest. Among his famous writings were Lives of
the Saints, Homilies, and Grammar. Moreover, compared to other contemporary prose writers of the
period, Aelfric’s prose was easy and alliterative.
What was the first work in English literature? Beowulf was the earliest most popular epic poem
of English literature.
1.3. The Decline of Anglo-Saxons
The Anglo-Saxon period flourished until the Norman Conquest of 1066. After the defeat of Harold,
the last of Saxon kings, by William who was the Conqueror of Normandy, France, the Anglo-Saxon
period finally came to an end. In history, their ruling period extends roughly from 450 A.D. to 1066
A.D. 
There is no doubt that the Anglo-Saxons lived a life rich in courage, splendor, savagery, and
sentiment. Their literature, thus, remarkably contains all these traits. It reflects all the main
principles of their life, for instance, the love of personal freedom, religion, appreciation for
womanhood, responsiveness to nature, and the struggle for glory.

The Old English period

Poetry

The Angles, Saxons, and Jutes who invaded Britain in the 5th and 6th centuries brought with them
the common Germanic metre; but of their earliest oral poetry, probably used for panegyric, magic,
and short narrative, little or none survives. For nearly a century after the conversion of
King Aethelberht I of Kent to Christianity about 600, there is no evidence that the English wrote
poetry in their own language. But St. Bede the Venerable, in his Historia ecclesiastica gentis
Anglorum (“Ecclesiastical History of the English People”), wrote that in the late 7th
century Caedmon, an illiterate Northumbrian cowherd, was inspired in a dream to compose a short
hymn in praise of the creation. Caedmon later composed verses based on Scripture, which was
expounded for him by monks at Streaneshalch (now called Whitby), but only the “Hymn of
Creation” survives. Caedmon legitimized the native verse form by adapting it to Christian themes.
Others, following his example, gave England a body of vernacular poetry unparalleled
in Europe before the end of the 1st millennium.

2.

39. The hard-fought American Revolution against Britain (1775-1783) was the first modern war of
liberation against a colonial power. The triumph of American independence seemed to many at the
time a divine sign that America and her people were destined for greatness. Military victory fanned
nationalistic hopes for a great new literature. Yet with the exception of outstanding political
writing, few works of note appeared during or soon after the Revolution.
American books were harshly reviewed in England. Americans were painfully aware of their
excessive dependence on English literary models. The search for a native literature became a
national obsession. As one American magazine editor wrote, around 1816, "Dependence is a state
of degradation fraught with disgrace, and to be dependent on a foreign mind for what we can
ourselves produce is to add to the crime of indolence the weakness of stupidity."
Cultural revolutions, unlike military revolutions, cannot be successfully imposed but must grow
from the soil of shared experience. Revolutions are expressions of the heart of the people; they
grow gradually out of new sensibilities and wealth of experience. It would take 50 years of
accumulated history for America to earn its cultural independence and to produce the first great
generation of American writers: Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper,
Irving, the youngest member of a prosperous merchant family, joined with ebullient young men of
the town in producing the Salmagundi papers (1807–08), which satirized the foibles of Manhattan’s
citizenry. This was followed by A History of New York (1809), by “Diedrich Knickerbocker,” a
burlesque history that mocked pedantic scholarship and sniped at the old Dutch families. Irving’s
models in these works were obviously Neoclassical English satirists, from whom he had learned to
write in a polished, bright style. 
James Fenimore Cooper won even wider fame. Following the pattern of Sir Walter Scott’s
“Waverley” novels, he did his best work in the “Leatherstocking” tales (1823–41), a five-volume
series celebrating the career of a great frontiersman named Natty Bumppo. His skill in weaving
history into inventive plots and in characterizing his compatriots brought him acclaim not only
in America and England but on the continent of Europe as well.

40. LITERATURE IN THE SOUTHERN AND MIDDLE COLONIES

<Pre-revolutionary southern literature was aristocratic and secular, reflecting the dominant
social and economic systems of the southern plantations. Early English immigrants were
drawn to the southern colonies because of economic opportunity rather than religious
freedom.

Although many southerners were poor farmers or tradespeople living not much better than
slaves, the southern literate upper class was shaped by the classical, Old World ideal of a
noble landed gentry made possible by slavery. The institution released wealthy southern
whites from manual labor, afforded them leisure, and made the dream of an aristocratic life
in the American wilderness possible. The Puritan emphasis on hard work, education and
earnestness was rare -- instead we hear of such pleasures as horseback riding and hunting.
The church was the focus of a genteel social life, not a forum for minute examinations of
conscience.

William Byrd (1674-1744)

Southern culture naturally revolved around the ideal of the gentleman. A Renaissance man
equally good at managing a farm and reading classical Greek, he had the power of a feudal
lord.

William Byrd describes the gracious way of life at his plantation, Westover, in his famous
letter of 1726 to his English friend Charles Boyle, Earl of Orrery:

Besides the advantages of pure air, we abound in all kinds of provisions without
expense (I mean we who have plantations). I have a large family of my own, and my
doors are open to everybody, yet I have no bills to pay, and half- a-crown will rest
undisturbed in my pockets for many moons altogether.

Like one of the patriarchs, I have my flock and herds, my bondmen and bondwomen,
and every sort of trade amongst my own servants, so that I live in a kind of
independence on everyone but Providence...

William Byrd epitomizes the spirit of the southern colonial gentry. The heir to 1,040
hectares, which he enlarged to 7,160 hectares, he was a merchant, trader, and planter. His
library of 3,600 books was the largest in the South. He was born with a lively intelligence
that his father augmented by sending him to excellent schools in England and Holland. He
visited the French Court, became a Fellow of the Royal Society, and was friendly with some
of the leading English writers of his day, particularly William Wycherley and William
Congreve. His London diaries are the opposite of those of the New England Puritans, full of
fancy dinners, glittering parties, and womanizing, with little introspective soul-searching.

Byrd is best known today for his lively History of the Dividing Line, a diary of a 1729 trip of
some weeks and 960 kilometers into the interior to survey the line dividing the neighboring
colonies of Virginia and North Carolina. The quick impressions that vast wilderness, Indians,
half-savage whites, wild beasts, and every sort of difficulty made on this civilized gentleman
form a uniquely American and very southern book. He ridicules the first Virginia colonists,
"about a hundred men, most of them reprobates of good families," and jokes that at
Jamestown, "like true Englishmen, they built a church that cost no more than fifty pounds,
and a tavern that cost five hundred." Byrd's writings are fine examples of the keen interest
Southerners took in the material world: the land, Indians, plants, animals, and settlers.
 John Woolman (1720-1772)
The best-known Quaker work is the long Journal (1774) of John Woolman, documenting his
inner life in a pure, heartfelt style of great sweetness that has drawn praise from many
American and English writers. This remarkable man left his comfortable home in town to
sojourn with the Indians in the wild interior because he thought he might learn from them
and share their ideas. He writes simply of his desire to "feel and understand their life, and the
Spirit they live in." Woolman's justice-loving spirit naturally turns to social criticism: "I
perceived that many white People do often sell Rum to the Indians, which, I believe, is a
great Evil."

Woolman was also one of the first antislavery writers, publishing two essays, "Some
Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes," in 1754 and 1762. An ardent humanitarian, he
followed a path of "passive obedience" to authorities and laws he found unjust, prefiguring
Henry David Thoreau's celebrated essay, "Civil Disobedience" (1849), by generations.

41
Ernest Hemingway was a Nobel Prize-winning American writer who touched the pinnacle of fame
with his novel ‘The Old Man and the Sea’ which catapulted him to international glory. Over the
course of his writing career, he published seven novels, six short story collections, and two non-
fiction works which greatly influenced later generation of writers. Many of his works were
published posthumously and most of them are considered classics of American literature. 
rnest believed that if he could see himself clear and whole, his vision might be useful to others who
also lived in his world. However, in order to project those metaphors cleanly, he had to subject the
total techniques of his writings to the natural rhythms of his own personality (Rovit 165).

Hemingway loved to play with words, toy with them, make puns and savor sounds, juggle a rhyme
or utter a snappy piece of slang. Words came alive for him not just on the pages of books, but also in
his conversations. He tried to find new and original ways of saying things. English is the one subject
that never was difficult for him (Ferrell 35). Hemingway decided that he would write one story
about each thing he knew about. He was doing this all the time he was writing and it was and severe
discipline he said (Lesniak 192). People compare his writing style to that of Cezanne’s painting
style. A Cezanne like simplicity of scene is built up with the touches of a master and the great
effects are achieved with a sublime economy.

At these moments, style and substance are of one piece, each growing from the other, and one
cannot imagine that life could exist except as describe (Lesniak 193) Hemingway’s work is still too
fresh and close to people to be snugly categorized in literary history, but people think that they have
demonstrated a configuration of very probable shapes and designs which future Hemingway’s
criticism and scholarship is likely to extend, refurbish, and correct (Rovit 163). Hemingway like to
use metaphors in his writings. Typically he will use the metaphors of games, sports, bullfights, and
wars to describe his views on life. Baseball, football, horseracing, hunting and fishing provided him
with his consistent metaphors for expression (Lesniak 31,32).
The metaphor of violent games provided Hemingway with a structure in which he could cast his
aesthetic – present again and again, his portraits of the artist, as a hunter, fisherman, matador,
soldier, prizefighter, and gambler (Lesniak 32). Hemingway had many influences and things that
influenced him. Some of Hemingway’s literary influences included Ring Lardner, Sherwood
Anderson, Ezra Pound and Gertrude Stein (Lesniak 192). But he took some of Stein’s style and used
it in his writings.

He took what was a ‘colloquial – in appearance – American style,’; full of repeated words,
prepositional phrases and present participles, in which he wrote his early published stories in this
style (Lesniak 192). When learning about his father’s suicide, Hemingway was influenced more.
While he was writing the second draft of A Farewell to Arms, he learned of his father’s suicide.

This fact would influence the interior drama of his fiction. It is pointed out after the publication of A
Farewell to Arms, Hemingway’s fictional output noticeably slows down (Lesniak 70). The volume
is also noticeable for its savage concern with homosexuality and castration, and it is surely
remarkable that none of the stories has a love interest. (Lesniak 70). In conclusion, Hemingway was
a major novelist and short story writer of his time. By having the influences, like his father’s suicide,
painters and violence. His writing approaches were his ways of approaching his identity of
discovering himself in the projected metaphors of his experiences (Lesniak 165).

Major Works
His novel ‘A Farewell to Arms,’ set during the Italian campaign of ‘World War I,’ is considered one
of his first major critically acclaimed success. The book, which revolves around a love affair
between the expatriate American Henry and Catherine Barkley against the backdrop of ‘World War
I,’ became his first best-seller.
‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’ is one of his best-known works. The novel tells the story of a young
American attached to a republican guerrilla unit during the ‘Spanish Civil War.’ Death is the
primary theme of the novel.
His novel ‘The Old Man and the Sea’ was his last major work of fiction to be published in his
lifetime. It is also one of his most famous works. The story revolves around an aging fisherman who
manages to catch a huge fish but is unable to enjoy his success as his catch gets eaten up by the
sharks.

42

Faulkner's style in his short stories is not the typical Faulknerian stream-of-conscious narration
found in his major novels. However, some of his novels' narrative techniques are also present in the
stories and include extended descriptions and details, actions in one scene that then recall a past or
future scene, and complex sentence structure. What is important to remember is that Faulkner
always has a purpose in choosing which different stylistic technique to use at which point in his
stories: The narrative devices mirror the psychological complexity of the short stories' characters
and settings.

One of the most effective ways Faulkner establishes depth of character and scene is by using long
lists of descriptions. Oftentimes, a description of an object will be followed by a description of a
character: In this way, the object and character, because they have been similarly described, take on
the appearance of each other. For example, at the beginning of "A Rose for Emily," Faulkner
describes the Grierson house: "It was a big, squarish frame house that had once been white,
decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the
seventies, set on what had once been our most select street."

WILLIAM FAULKNER’S WRITING STYLE

William Faulkner is among the most challenging American writers of the twentieth century. He is
known as a novelist of great importance. His novels are exclusively celebrated for the narrative
technique he has employed in his works. The narrative techniques he employed have been
welcomed as visionary par excellence. He uses the technique of stream of consciousness in his
works.

Besides novelist, William Faulkner is also equally known as an American Historian. He has earned a
distinction to be the first American novelist to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Being a modern novelist, William Faulkner records the history of the American South. His short
stories and novels are filled with themes reflecting the significant issues of his time. The themes he
talks about include slavery, civil war, and class conflict. The writing of William Faulkner is
responsible for bringing the attention of the world to American doors.

The works and, more precisely, the novels of William Faulkner are characterized by the “loose”
forms of the panoramic Victorian novels during its development; for example, the novels of Charles
Dickens.

Faulkner’s novels and short stories feature the juxtaposition of attitudes, voices, narrative lines,
emotional tone, and mode of representation. The Following are the detailed characteristics of
William Faulkner’s writing style.

43. ohn Ernst Steinbeck Jr. (/ˈstaɪnbɛk/; February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an
American author and the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature winner "for his realistic and imaginative
writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social perception."[2] He has been called
"a giant of American letters."[3][4]
During his writing career, he authored 33 books, with one book coauthored alongside Edward
Ricketts, including 16 novels, six non-fiction books, and two collections of short stories. He is
widely known for the comic novels Tortilla Flat (1935) and Cannery Row (1945), the multi-
generation epic East of Eden (1952), and the novellas The Red Pony (1933) and Of Mice and
Men (1937). The Pulitzer Prize-winning The Grapes of Wrath (1939)[5] is considered Steinbeck's
masterpiece and part of the American literary canon.[6] In the first 75 years after it was published, it
sold 14 million copies.
Life
John Steinbeck grew up in a small town in a family that a few generations back had emigrated to the
United States from Germany, England and Ireland. While studying at Stanford University, he
worked during breaks and summers in farm fields that cultivated sugar beets and other crops. He did
not earn a college degree but discontinued his studies to move to New York. There he worked as a
writer and critic and met his first wife, Carol Henning. He was married two more times and had two
sons.

John Steinbeck’s Books

Steinbeck wrote 31 books over the course of his career. His most well-known novels include Of
Mice and Men (1937), Grapes of Wrath (1939) and East of Eden (1952).

'Of Mice and Men' (1937)

Two poor migrant workers, George and Lennie, are working for the American dream in California
during the Great Depression. Lennie, who has a mild mental disability, is steadfastly faithful to his
friend George, but he has a habit of getting into trouble. Their goal: to own an acre of land and a
shack. After they both secure jobs working the fields of the Salinas Valley — Steinbeck’s own
hometown — their dream seems more attainable than ever. However, Lennie’s inclinations
eventually get him into trouble again, spiraling to a tragic conclusion for both men. The book was
later transformed into a Broadway play and three

44. Gatsby and Tom are alike in being strong-willed, alpha personalities who pursue what they want
and expect to win. Both love Daisy. However, Tom is from a much more elite social class and has
the assurance that goes his inherited wealth and Ivy League education. Gatsby, in contrast, is a
college drop-out and self-made man. He is kinder and more imaginative than Tom and not as
ruthless. Daisy is attracted to Tom's upper class wealth and ruthless strength.

However, both of them are in dire need of owning the woman, which makes them quite similar.
There are many similarities and differences shared by the two men in an equal measure.

The features they have in common and differ in eventually influence the woman’s choice regarding
whom to choose to build a relationship.

Tom and Gatsby are similar in several ways. The similarities involve both the men seeking to have
total control of the woman. Moreover, they are prosperous and hostile towards each other. Both men
want to achieve financial success. They consider their upper-class status in society to be of great
significance. At Yale, Tom shows off his wealth by riding high-class cars.

The urge for more money and wealth is evident in Gatsby when he quits his job as a janitor. He
considers the janitorial job humiliating and opts to get into organized crime to make more money.
Both men love Daisy dearly so they can do anything to have her for themselves. Gatsby works hard
for Daisy’s love and uses even illegal means to become rich to make him likable. Gatsby willingly
takes the blame upon himself when Daisy kills her husband’s mistress while driving his car.
Their dislike and hostility for each other is another apparent similarity shared between the two. At
the Plaza hotel, the two men involve themselves in a fight, which illustrates their dislike for each
other. Their faults come out during the argument to the surprise of their close friends who are there.
The two also hurl insults at one another. For instance, Tom shouts, “I suppose the latest thing is to
sit back and let Mr. Nobody from Nowhere make love to your wife” (Fitzgerald 137).

Even though Gatsby and Tom are similar in many ways, they are also different. First, Tom comes
out to be brutal, though he has a powerful personality. Tom also resides at “East Egg” with people
having old money. He went to Yale, and as a young boy, Tom did not have to work to earn a living
since his parents were wealthy.

He uses extravagant things and lives lavishly to show off his wealth. He is shallow, cold-hearted,
and does not care for other people. His carelessness comes out clearly at the time Tom “smashed up
things and creatures and then retreated back into money” (Fitzgerald 187). What he feels for Daisy
is not real love; it is instead a possessive kind of feeling.

It appeals to his pride that he can play with Daisy’s feelings. He does not even try to win her love, as
shown by his lack of effort and determination. Whenever they are together, Tom does not show any
romance to Daisy since he always has greed. Tom rarely gets disappointed because he has a realistic
view of life. These features of his character are clear to the reader, and they indicate the unique
characteristics of Tom as compared to Gatsby.

On the other hand, Gatsby differs from his counterpart Tom in different ways. Gatsby has a kind and
passionate personality. This is clear when Gatsby lets people he does not know to attend joints at his
home. Gatsby resides in West Egg, a place with people having new money.

Gatsby comes from a humble background, “his parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people”
(Fitzgerald 104) in North Dakota. He had to struggle to ensure he finished college. Jay is a big-
hearted individual and has a loyal personality with a sincere love for Daisy. He dreams of her
genuine love.

He shows his readiness to do whatever it takes to make Daisy fall in love with him. Daisy’s desire
becomes the principal motivation for Gatsby as he tries to get rich. Due to his sincere and strong
feelings to Daisy, he refers to her as the Holy Grail. He attempts to win her love by “committing
himself to the following of a grail” (Fitzgerald 156). Daisy cares more about wealth than romance.
For this reason, she chooses Tom over Gatsby. Coupled with Gatsby’s unrealistic view of life, this
makes him disappointed.

The first thing is that although they both have a lot of money, they didn’t get it the same way. Tom
was born in a rich family, he inherrited al his money, he didn’t work for it. Gatsby was born in a poor
family, all his money he earned by working for it, although it wasn’t in a legal way, he earned his
money by bootlegging, wich is illegal. Another difference is that even though it seems both of them
doesn’t care too much about others Gatsby is much carefuller than Tom. Gatsby loves Daisy and will
do a lot to get her, even though that means using Nick for it, but he does try not to heart Nick’s
feelings. Tom on the other hand, doesn’t really care about the feelings of athers at all. He will do
whatever it needs to get what he wants and he doesn’t even treat the people he love worthy. He cheats
on daisy and when Myrtle makes him mad he breaks her nose. Gatsby has a lot of self-control, he only
loses it in the hotel when Tom makes him very mad, and that’s just for a minute or two, after that he
can controle himself again. Tom doesn; t have a lot of self-control, when Myrtle makes him mad he
breaks her nose

44/
Daisy BuchananMyrtle WilsonDIFFERENCES:Daisy’s relationship withTom is worn.Grew up
in the upper classand is rich. She lives in theEast Egg.She is searching for lovewhile in a
relationship withTom.She acts like life is perfectaround Tom even though itis not
.DIFFERENCES:Myrtle is respected byGeorge but he is unawareto her choices.Grew up in the
lower classsystem and lives in theValley of Ashes.She is looking for stabilityin her relationship
withGeorge.She acts like she not a partof the lower class with Tom.

 SIMILARITIES:They are both unhappy in their marriages.They are both selfish and
superficial.They both have affairs and are materialistic
 Both Daisy and Myrtle feel as if they are missing something important in life.
 Daisy is searching for love in a merely convenient relationship with Tom. Myrtle is
searching for financial stability in her marriage to George.
 The two characters are similar in the sense that they are both insecure about their
relationships, forcing them to look outside of their respective marriages for something to fill
the void.
 Daisy comes from a wealthy upper-class family and she has been raised in privilege while
Myrtle has to fight for everything she has. Myrtle is attempting to give the impression of a
wealthy, high-class woman, but she does not have the figure of a high-class woman. She has a
“thick fish figure” (25) which connotes that she is not a skinny type nor beautiful. The
appearance of Daisy is the contrast of Myrtle. When Daisy appears for the first time in the
book, the author associates her character with light, purity and innocence.

45

In my opinion, Tom is most responsible for Gatsby’s death. Gatsby was murdered by Wilson, because
he thought that Gatsby was the one that hit his wife and killed her. Tom is a main contributor to
Gatsby’s death because Myrtle was his mistress. Tom was the one that suggested he drive Gatsby’s car
to town with Jordan and Nick. Myrtle saw them that day and Nick noticed “her eyes, [which became]
wide with jealous terror were fixed not on Tom, but on Jordan Baker, whom she took to be his wife”
(125). On the way back home, Gatsby and Daisy were driving the yellow car, which was the car that
Tom was driving earlier. Myrtle ran out in front of the car as if “she wanted to speak to [them],
[thinking they] were somebody she knew” (143). She ran thinking that it was Tom and that he would
stop but, it wasn’t. Myrtle was the one murdered in the accident with the car. She is somewhat
responsible because she ran out in front of the car, however, she was just trying to get their attention.
So therefore I don't really think we can blame Myrtle because she wasn't asking to be hit. It was an
accident.

By killing off Jay Gatsby, Fitzgerald makes an important point about the American Dream—
specifically, that a dream cannot survive in the harsh world of the 1920s. Remember that the novel is
really about Gatsby's dream to be reunited with Daisy. Everything that Gatsby has achieved has
been done with one purpose: to win her back. His death, however, brings this dream to an abrupt
end, providing definitive proof that Gatsby's dream will never come true.
In addition, Fitzgerald also uses Gatsby's death to make a wider point about wealth. That is, that no
matter how much wealth and prestige a person has, tragedy can still happen. In other words, no
amount of money can protect a person from the evil intentions of another. In this case, money offers
no protection to Gatsby from George Wilson, a man determined to have revenge.