THE CULTURE AND COMMERCE OF THE AMERICAN SHORT STORY
"The writer is the Faust of modern society, the only surviving individualist in a mass age."Boris Pasternak
"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money."Samuel Johnson
Andrew Levy's book is an immensely enjoyable read, one which presents the reader with an exhaustive historical treatment of that particularly American literary invention, the mass-marketed short story magazine.However, your final reaction to this book is likely to depend on who you agree with, Pasternak or Johnson, and thus whether you see writers as alienated individualists or clubby entrepreneurs.
Levy begins at the same place everything about the American short story begins, with Edgar Allan Poe.While it is generally accepted that Poe's review of Hawthorne's Twice-Told Tales (1842) established both a definition of and an attitude toward the American short story, Levy believes that Poe might better be considered the inventor of the American short story magazine.Levy quotes Poe's letters and journals at length, demonstrating that Poe's ultimate aim was to "found a magazine of my own."Poe dreamed of creating a magazine which would offer "high" culture to an expanding middle class, a population drawn to the magazine precisely because it represented their social aspirations rather than their social realities.Levy points out that the truly lasting American magazines have in fact followed Poe's plan, The New Yorker being perhaps the most obvious example.
Levy describes his book as primarily a study of the commerce of the short story, of "...what Poe thought about his checkbook, and how his checkbook became the short story."Yet his most interesting assertion has less to do with sales than national character.He argues (in "The Land of Definition") that the American magazine stands in a metonymic relationship to the American story, in that the paradoxical assertion to both disposability and lasting value of the magazine represents perfectly the most persistent criticism and praise made of the short story.One would like to see an entire book devoted to a study of this relationship.
Furthermore, if the economic foundations for the short story's development is the heart of his book, then we cannot dismiss what Levy thinks of the modern writing workshop, which has in effect created today's Writing Industry:
The most striking aspect of the modern workshop system, for instance, is the extent to which its ensures the continued health of the short story ... The workshop system .
Throughout “Ethan Frome,” Edith Wharton renders the idea that freedom is just out of reach from the protagonist, Ethan Frome. The presence of a doomed love affair and an unforgiving love triangle forces Ethan to choose between his duty and his personal desire. Wharton’s use of archetypes in the novella emphasizes how Ethan will make choices that will ultimately lead to his downfall. In Edith Wharton’s, “Ethan Frome.” Ethan is wedged between his duty as a husband and his desire for happiness; however, rather than choosing one or the other, Ethan’s indecisiveness makes not only himself, but Mattie and Zeena miserable.
Ethan Frome is the main character of Edith Wharton’s tragic novel. Ethan lives the bitterness of his youth’s lost opportunities, and dissatisfaction with his joyless life and empty marriage. Throughout the story Ethan is trapped by social limits and obligations to his wife. He lives an unhappy life with many responsibilities and little freedom. Ethan Frome studied science in college for a year and probably would have succeeded as an engineer or physicist had he not been summoned home to run the family farm and mill. Ethan quickly ended his schooling and went to run the family farm and mill because he feels it is his responsibility. He marries Zeena after the death of his mother, in an unsuccessful attempt to escape silence, isolation, and loneliness. Ethan also feels the responsibility to marry Zeena as a way to compensate her for giving up part of her life to nurse his mother. After marring Zeena he forgets his hope of every continuing his education and he is now forced to remain married to someone he does not truly love.
Many people oppose society due to the surroundings that they face and the obstacles that they encounter. Set in the bleak winter landscape of New England, Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton is the story of a poor, lonely man, his wife Zeena, and her cousin Mattie Silver. Ethan the protagonist in this novel, faces many challenges and fights to be with the one he really loves. Frome was trapped from the beginning ever since Mattie Silver came to live with him and his wife. He soon came to fall in love with her, and out of love with his own wife. He was basically trapped in the instances of his life, society’s affect on the relationship, love, poverty, illness, disability, and life.
Brands, H. W.. American Stories: A History of the United States. 2nd ed. Boston: Pearson Education, 2012. Print.
Ethan is not happy with his life and feels that it is his obligation to stay on the farm and work like his parents had “readers discover a man who feels overwhelmed by family responsibilities and who cannot free himself from what he believes to be family expectations.” (Witkosky). This obligation, and what Ethan believes to be his family expectations, ultimately helped lead to his decision in staying in Starkfield and not pursuing a happier life with Mattie elsewhere. Ethan also feels that even though all of his family members had died a long time ago, he still senses their presence, and he feels pressured to continue the family custom “Ethan senses their presence; in his eyes, the headstones on their graves, located near his farm, are like sentinels who guard and enforce family custom.” (Witkosky). Lastly the location of the Frome household in rural Massachusetts did not help the fact of Ethan’s isolation and his inability to socialize with others. Wharton symbolizes this loneliness and isolation by giving the town of Starkfield a cold and frozen setting, which is symbolic towards Ethan’s inability to move forward in his life “, the lack of social mobility in rural Massachusetts plays a role in Ethan's acceptance of the idea that he has no chance for advancement.” (Witkosky). Ethan’s ability to not being able to move forward
In Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome, there is a prevalent conflict of class struggles. Ethan Frome, his wife Zeena, and their maid Mattie all live in extreme poverty. Wharton portrays them as miserable beings, seemingly always encompassed in misfortune. Wharton herself, however, lived a near opposite life compared to that of her characters. She was born into fortune; money was rarely a concern for her (Lee). Through a Marxist lens, one could argue that Edith Wharton, a woman of extreme wealth and privilege, would characterize lower, working class people such as the ones in Ethan Frome in an inaccurately dismal light. The consistent image of winter and coldness, typically associated with misery, in Ethan Frome foreshadows an unhappy ending for the
Kellman, Steven G. "Magill's Survey of American Literature." Kellman, Steven G. Magill's Survey of American Literature. Pasadena: Salem Press, Inc, 2007.
Ross, Michael E. "IN SHORT: NONFICTION." New York Times, Late Edition (East Coast) ed.Aug 14 1988. ProQuest. Web. 2 Mar. 2014 .
Perkins George, Barbara. The American Tradition in Literature, 12th ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2009. Print
Some runners look only to the finish line, choosing to ignore what they step on or who they pass along the way. In The Winter of Our Discontent, Steinbeck portrays the dawning of a selfish American society concerned solely with winning personal races. Set in a small New England town during the early sixties, the story focuses on the life of Ethan Allen Hawley, an intelligent man with prestigious family history who is employed as a grocer to the dismay of members of his family and the community. At the beginning of the novel, Ethan had not yet adopted the new religion of America, to "look after number one" (26,291) in order to gain money and social standing. However, as the story transpires, Ethan, like other characters, chooses to succumb to temptation and to put himself above others as all costs, as though focusing on a shiny red, white and blue finish. Ethan’s downfall represents America’s loss of family, social, and moral values as individual success becomes all-important.
Pike, Gerald. “Excerpts from Criticism of the Works of Short Fiction Writers.” Short Story Criticism. Ed. Thomas Votteler. Vol. 6. Detroit: Gale Research International Limited, 1990. 90. Print.
Edgar Allan Poe was an excellent horror, suspense, and mystery writer of the eighteenth century. His use of literary devices and different literary techniques makes this writer important to American literature. This paper will show how Edgar Allan Poe has made an impact on Society and American literature as well as how Edgar Allan Poe developed the short story. I will also discuss and analyze some of his works and techniques he uses in his short stories and poems.
There are two meteor showers associated with Perseus—the Perseids and the September Perseids. The Perseid meteor shower is the most impressive one. It is visible in August, and the Perseus constellation is its radiant point. (Perseus Champion, Perseus Constellation, Perseus He-ro)
Levine, Robert S. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 7th Edition. Volume B. New York: Norton, 2007. 1696. Print.
...n American Literature. By Henry Louis. Gates and Nellie Y. McKay. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2004. 387-452. Print.