English Language and Literature Commons^™

Selective Methods Of Teaching Secondary English: The Scarlet Letter: A Study And Application Of The Collaborative And Mastery Learning Methods, Janine M. Kardas

Masters Theses

This study is about the relationship of content in teaching to the process in teaching for the purpose of helping students to become better readers of literature. This study investigates two selected teaching strategies supported by research to be effective, and applies them to the teaching of a canonical piece of literature, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. This study employs literary theory in the development of the objectives and applies both cooperative learning and mastery learning methods to the teaching of this novel. Two sets of lesson plans are developed from the objectives and subsequently analyzed for their effectiveness …

Zora Neale Hurston’S Search For Identity In Moses, Man Of The Mountain, Joan E. Sebastian

Masters Theses

Zora Neale Hurston, Afro-American writer of the 1920s and 1930s, has gained critical recognition for her novels and studies about the Afro-American masses. Hurston, also an anthropologist and folklorist, worked directly with southern Afro-Americans through her research in both of these fields. Her folklore collecting journeys enabled her to see and to capture the cultural traditions and oral heritage of Afro-Americans. It was her search into the cultural traditions, moreover, that led her to find her own identity. Hurston, therefore, depicted her protagonists as searching for an identity in most of her novels, with this quest especially apparent in Moses, …

Preservation Of The Family Unit In Adolescent Novels, Mary M. Hutchings

Masters Theses

This thesis discusses the development of the family story from the late nineteenth century to the present, beginning with What Katy Did as an example of the earlier moral story from which this genre grows. It then focuses on Little Women as the beginning of the modern family story and uses Jo from Little Women as the starting point to discuss the development of the female adolescent protagonist in these stories. And lastly, comparing Little Women to modern family life stories which began to appear about 1940, the thesis discusses changes in didacticism which have occurred since the late nineteenth …

Pilar And Brett: Female Heroes In Hemingway, Jean Kover Chandler

Masters Theses

The significant works on the hero have always assumed that the hero is male. However, feminist writers, such as Carol Pearson and Katherine Pope, have recently shown many women who are, in fact, heroic in both American and British literature. The main problem is that both cultures have often been unable to recognize female heroism, primarily because of their long-conditioned patriarchal perspectives.

Men go on heroic quests; women either help or hinder them along their paths. Thus, women have been considered as supporting characters only, and they are called heroines. But some authors have created female heroes who are not …

Jean Toomer's Cane: A Work In The American Grotesque Genre, Kathryn M. Olsen

Masters Theses

In my thesis I will discuss the fact that Jean Toomer’s Cane is a grotesque work, one which in several ways resembles Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio. While Jean Toomer never specifically alludes to any of the characters in Cane as grotesques, they consistently exhibit three of the strongest, most characteristic elements of the grotesque: physical and/or psychic deformities, alienation from the reader/viewer, and, most importantly, unrelenting conflict from two opposing elements. In fact, the figures in Cane show even more development of grotesque themes than the characters in Winesburg, Ohio, a collection known for its portrayals of modern …

Dream In The Fiction Of Nathanael West, James M. Caldwell

Masters Theses

Since the publication of his first novel in 1931, Nathanael West has presented significant problems for critics in their attempts to arrive at conclusions about his work and to classify him among twentieth century novelists. Various critical approaches have helped to clarify some of the ambiguities in West's four novels, but the bibliographic, source, and psychological studies have often often neglected specifics of the texts in favor of finding West a niche in relation to his twentieth century contemporaries.

Most criticism of West's fiction discusses dreams to some extent. His fictions are considered dreamworlds, and each novel's ordering dream is …

An Application Of Mikhail Bakhtin’S Theory Of The Grotesque To The Fiction Of Flannery O’Connor, Holly Roberts

Masters Theses

The grotesque in Flannery O'Connor's fiction has always been a central concern of her readers and critics, because it is such a prominent aspect of her work and is usually connected with the equally pervasive characteristics of violence, destruction, and death. Many of her critics see the grotesquerie of her characters and landscapes as indicative of humanity's fallen existence--that it serves only to reveal what is wrong with the human condition. Such views echo the premises of Wolfgang Kayser's theory of the grotesque presented in his well-known book, The Grotesque in Art and Literature, but as I point out, …

Nature Vs Society In The Works Of Stephen Crane, Rodney R. Parker

Masters Theses

The five works of Stephen Crane I chose to discuss in this thesis are: "The Open Boat," "A Mystery of Heroism," "The Blue Hotel," Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, and The Red Badge of Courage. All of these works are representative of the fictional vision of Stephen Crane. A persistent theme that Crane uses in virtually all of his stories is the relationship between the human and the natural worlds. The world of nature is one of indifference. It shows no interest in the activies of mankind, and is, in fact, incapable of doing so. But Crane's …

Mark Twain's Confidence Men, Sharon K. Scruton

Masters Theses

In Mark Twain's literature the confidence man has special talents, but he is also subject to human failings. Through the characters of Huck Finn and Hank Morgan (A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court) Twain exposes the traps into which a con artist, as a creative talent, can fall. Twain knows these traps, both from experience and from fears of what the future holds. Hank Morgan becomes an extension of Huckleberry Finn. He is a figure who, as he progresses, leaves the best talent of a con artist behind--the talent of instinct. The natural abilities of insight and …

E. Taylor's Use Of Canticles, Clella J. Camp

Masters Theses

In Sermon IV of the Christographia Edward Taylor makes the following statement.

Man, the last in the creation, is the glory of all elementary nature. The image of God in man, the last draught of God upon him, is the glory of Man. Come to artifical instinces, and here it holds; All things of less considerations are first touched on, but that which is last entered on is of the greatest concern…And so it is in the things of God!

Because those things that are constantly fixed in “the last place” are the most complete and the most valued of …

"Failed Love" In The Drama Of Edward Albee, Steven Leonard Long

Masters Theses

The plays of Edward Albee are frequently examinations of characters who are unable to love or to be loved. A central and recurring conflict which runs through many of Albee's plays is the conflict which stems from the lack of success which the characters often experience as they strive to find love. The uncertainty and ambiguity which surround the abstraction called "love" leave the characters with feelings of unhappiness, frustration, fear, self-hatred, and despondency. Though the individuals in Albee's plays are aware that love is the ingredient which is missing from their lives, none knows how to go about alleviating …

The Law And Mark Twain, Jeff Andrew Weigel

Masters Theses

Varying concepts of law are an essential part in many of Mark Twain's works. Twain's position as an observer and critic of society is often reflected by the way he represents law and justice in his stories. His dislike of injustice and cruelty caused him to focus on these "legal" problems as a way of revealing and attacking various injustices in society. My thesis examines Twain's perception of law as he exposes it in Roughing It, Pudd'nhead Wilson, The Prince and the Pauper, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. The general objective of my …

Time In John Cheever's The Housebreaker Of Shady Hill, Charles M. Elliott

Masters Theses

The problem of time is a central concern in John Cheever's short story collection The Housebreaker of Shady Hill. The characters in these stories--upper-middle class suburbanites--live in a sometimes chaotic and disconnected world in which they find it difficult to attain some sense of continuity in their relationships with time. In trying to come to grips with their time and space, many of Cheever's characters express an immoderate devotion to their past, present, or future and neglect to see the bits and pieces of their experiences as interrelated. The characters who are happy and whole in these stories, however, …

"Training" And Twain's Discovery Of Its Role In His Major Novels, Gary Dale Ervin

Masters Theses

Twain's career as a novelist began with The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Before that time he wrote pieces for newspapers and magazines and short stories. The success of Tom Sawyer inspired Twain to write further novels. The Adventures of Huckelberry Finn took seven years to compose, During that time, Twain was forced to face several pitfalls that often confront a writer. One of those pitfalls was a concept he called "training."

The training of an individual in effect is the raising of that individual--the instillation of values and beliefs in a person as he is raised. The process applies …

Freedom At Midday: Elements Of Existentialism In The Works Of Ambrose Bierce, Sharon A. Winn

Masters Theses

Ambrose Bierce exhibited a number of elements of existential thinking both in his life and in his writing. But he was ambivalent about his philosophical stance, and it is difficult to know whether he was the utter pessimist he has been called, or whether his attitude toward the universe admitted a certain optimism.

Much of Bierce's thought parallels modern existentialism, which has three main tenets: a belief that there is no God and the universe is, therefore, irrational; a descent into despair; and a choice of life or death.

Bierce insisted that the universe is irrational, and he repeatedly discussed …

There's No Place Like Home: The Haunted House As Literary Motif, Mary Catherine Mcdaniel

Masters Theses

This thesis traces the development of the haunted house in British and American literature and covers a time span of roughly two hundred years. Its approach is chronological: beginning with Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto, it examines the use of the Bad Place as a literary motif, emphasizing the consistencies in its development while noting the inconsistencies as well. From Walpole to Stephen King, we see that the haunted house has continuously represented two things. On one hand, it may serve as a repository for unexpiated sin. The traditional haunted house, in fact, is nothing more than the …

Charles Simic: Trends Toward An International Poetry, Denise Clark

Masters Theses

In his article "Wrong Turning in American Poetry," Robert Bly believes that American poetry has been lead astray by the likes of Eliot, Pound, Moore, and Williams. He feels that the main failing of American poetry is its lack of inward, spiritual life. It is the Spanish speaking poets that Bly looks to as the true path-finders of spiritual poetry. If Bly believes that poets like Eliot and Williams were responsible for steering American poetry down the wrong path, it is a foreigner, Charles Simic, who will give American poetry the right turn it needs.

What Simic has been able …

A Room Of One's Own: The Women's Room, Lou Ellen Crawford

Masters Theses

The recent resurgence of feminism has been accompanied by the development of feminist fiction. Identifying those characteristics by which feminist fiction adds to the American novel a new and valid perspective, feminist criticism has also flourished. Feminist critics agree that fiction with a new perspective demands critical evaluation from that same perspective; and Cheri Register provides a concise, thorough list of five elements which comprise effective feminist fiction. Of Register's five criteria, Carol Heilbrun stresses the equalizing, conciliatory influence of androgyny. Recent feminist authors have written many novels which perform one or more of the functions prescribed by Register. Three …

The Pessimistic Themes Of The Mysterious Stranger As Reflected In Mark Twain's Previous Novels, Judy Dale Hill Walker

Masters Theses

The purpose of the thesis is to demonstrate that the pessimism exhibited in the themes of The Mysterious Stranger is evident in the themes of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1874-1876), The Prince and the Pauper (1877-1882), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1876-1885), A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1888-1889), and Pudd'nhead Wilson (1891-1894). The thesis also demonstrates that the pessimism becomes more dominate as the novels progress chronologically through the repetition of the themes and the increasing number of themes being treated.

The introduction briefly discusses the arguments over the origins of Twain's pessimism as set forth by …

The Endlessly Elaborating Poem: A Comparative Study Of Walt Whitman, Wallace Stevens, And The American Experimental, Long Narrative Poem, Paul Freidinger

Masters Theses

Up to the middle of the nineteenth century, British and American poetry was expected to employ rigid metrical and rhythmical patterns. Any verse that did not conform was considered devoid of aesthetic merit. In addition, some critics, Edgar Allan Poe being one of those, argued that there was no place for a long poem in poetry. Walt Whitman and Wallace Stevens, two proponents of the long narrative poem, both wrote in free verse and, thus, directly confronted these traditional theories.

This study demonstrates that the verse of Whitman and Stevens constitutes a new approach to poetic style and structure. A …

The Biblical View Of The Fall Of Man In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Marble Faun, Lois Darlene Hanson

Masters Theses

"The story of the fall of man!" One can easily tell that The Fall is the main topic in The Marble Faun. Hawthorne, in this romance, is asking whether man's fall in the Garden of Eden was for man's betterment or not. He is also asking if sin is our power of regeneration, for without the sin of Adam and Eve there would have been no need for a savior. This theory is known as the Fortunate Fall of Man.

Hawthorne is suggesting within The Marble Faun that our sin is both original and renewable--it is something that we …

The Influence Of Women In Vardis Fisher’S Western Literature, Sylvia L. Alderton

Masters Theses

Vardis Fisher, a writer who wrote about the early west, uses his life experiences and extensive historical research as a basis for his western novels. With his background in the Antelope region and his historical research, Fisher presents both women in the Antelope hills and women in the hazardous far west surroundings. He instills in the reader a panoramic view of the pioneer women as they experience life in the old west.

The Antelope women are isolated in their environment with little social contact. They are effected physically, psychologically, and economically in this remote area. Most of the women overcome …

Herman Melville And Paul Tillich: An Ontological Interpretation Of Billy Budd, Michael E. Gress

Masters Theses

The traditional approaches to Herman Melville's Billy Budd focus upon the question of whether or not the story was Melville's final statement of acceptance or irony. Both arguments are sociological in nature in that the different sides argue that Melville either finally accepts or continues to reject by irony, the forms of society. The acceptance critics contend that Melville ends by seeing value in the forms because of their use for maintaining order in society; the irony critics claim that Melville was taking a final satirical poke at society's limiting forms and authority.

My thesis differs from these traditional arguments …

The Innocent Narrator In Mark Twain's Roughing It, John R. Fisher

Masters Theses

Mark Twain in his travel narrative Roughing It presents a naive, innocent narrator from the East who ventures forth into the largely uncivilized Western frontier during the exciting silver mining boom of the 1860's. In his sojourn the innocent narrator encounters many people, places, customs, values, and experiences that are unfamiliar to him, and because of his status as a tenderfoot unacquainted with the frontier, he is often made a dupe by the mischievous old-timers in the West.

The innocent narrator must go through numerous initiations before he is accepted as a member of the vernacular community. In these various …

Saul Bellow's Henderson The Rain King: A Fusion Of The Comic And The Serious, George William Russo

Masters Theses

Bellow's comic vision points to a compromise between the romantic notion that self-perfection is attainable and the pessimistic notion that man is ultimately impotent and thus destined to fail. Through Henderson, Bellow shows that although man does not--and ultimately cannot--completely free himself of somatic demands and limitations, he is nevertheless not defeated by them and thus not left a victim of emotionless observations.

Bellow draws upon four sources in Henderson's nature to create the humor in the novel and highlights Eugene Henderson as a comic hero by dramatizing that Henderson proves to be his own ironist. These sources can be …

Fitzgerald's Use Of The Four Elements In The Great Gatsby, John Philip Hawkins

Masters Theses

A great deal has been written about the conscientious effort that went into the design of F. Scott Fitzgerald's popular novel, The Great Gatsby, with its various allusions and numerous symbols. A careful reading of this novel will unveil the author's preoccupation with numerous metaphysical images, particularly the four elements--air, earth, water, and fire--which are considered to be the essential components of all matter.

Fitzgerald uses the four elements in The Great Gatsby to coordinate mood and physical settings, to give dimension to the settings, and to bring characters into sharper focus. The novel employs four settings, each one …

From Selflessness To Selfishness: Various Types Of Deception In Four Of Twain's Novels, Kay L. Smith

Masters Theses

An interesting feature of Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, and The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson is the use of disguise and deception. The basis of much of the novels' actions concerns people who, for varied reasons, set out to fool other people. Other individuals or groups of people are self-deceived.

Motivations for the deception vary. Some entail selfless concerns of protecting a loved one. Some illustrate desires to maintain one's own safety and well-being. Still others involve negative, base qualities such as greed, …

L. Frank Baum And The Technology Of Love, Robert Bruce Goble

Masters Theses

L. Frank Baum, throughout his books of fantasy, especially the Oz series, gradually resolves the conflict of pastoralism and technology by developing a technology managed by love. Baum uses magic as a representation of both pastoralism and technology. Fairy magic, the capacity for love, represents pastoralism, and ritual magic, the capacity for good or evil depending upon who wields it, represents technology. Baum deals with the ways in which ritual magic or technology can be misused through selfishness and ignorance and points out how destruction can be avoided if technology were managed by not greed for power and money but …

Depiction Of Blacks In The Works Of Ernest Hemingway, Sheila Marie Foor

Masters Theses

Ernest Hemingway, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954, is one of America's outstanding literary figures. Criticism of his work has been voluminous--ranging from bitterly derogative to superlative--with most of it focusing upon the famous 'Hemingway code hero,' upon his crisp, concise writing style, and upon his much-publicized personal life.

One example of negative assessment by critics is the one concerning black portraiture in Hemingway's fiction. However, no work deals exclusively with this aspect of his writing. The purpose of this thesis is, first, to present a general discussion on the nature of prejudice and examination of black …

Female Initiates In Faulkner, Nancy Joan White

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.