As America was changing during the early twentieth century, so was humor and few writers could easily adapt to this change with success as well as James Thurber did as a cartoonist, journalist, and an author of short stories, fables, fairytales, and plays, Thurber highlighted the problems of everyday life that were often the result of the transition in America from a masculine, frontier society, to an urban, more feminized society (Buckley, New Criterion). He shied away from major problems of the world and instead made his focus “the immemorial stupidities, cruelties and perversities of men that lie at the root of our ills” (Hasley). The success and influence that radiated from his works quickly became obvious, to the point that the characters …show more content…
After several years at the New Yorker, Thurber would resign from his position and enter a darker yet more successful period of his life. Although his life after leaving the New Yorker would be marked by numerous tragedies, Thurber would continue to write and eventually gain national attention. After a history of marital conflict and estrangement, Thurber divorced his wife Althea. This, however, would not be a hindrance to his writing career. Starting in 1939, Thurber started writing fables. His fables, unlike those of Aesop, tried to point out the fact that clichéd pieces of wisdom did not apply to modern times. His morals and stories were sometimes parodies of traditional ones. In the same year, he published his immensely popular short story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, a piece about a man who escapes into daydreams whenever confronted by one of life’s everyday problems. Thurber would also find success in being a playwright with his play “The Male Animal” becoming successful on Broadway. Although Thurber tended to stay away from politically themed pieces, he published The Last Flower during World War II, voicing his distress at the conflict. By now Thurber had reached a global audience, his works even being referred to as the “standard equipment of …show more content…
His accomplishments however, would not stop. In the early 1950s, Thurber was awarded several honorary doctorates from prestigious institutes such as Kenyon College, Williams College, and Yale. However, as his honors were increasing, his health was declining. Thurber started feeling serious self-doubt at his ability to write and suffered frequently from hallucinations and nervous breakdowns. The author, however, would not let this bring him down and he continued to publish works such as A Thurber Carnival, which was selected to be included in the Book-of-the-Month Club and several fairytales for children such as The 13 Clocks and The Wonderful O, which have been considered to be some of the most successful fairytales of modern times (Britannica). In addition, Thurber’s Further Fables for Our Time was a 1957 National Book Award Finalist. Thurber’s later life, despite the tragedies, had been a tremendous display of talent and proved his status as a major figure in literature. James Thurber was a rare gem in the treasure chest of authors, one who could skillfully adapt his work to the changing world around him. Aiming at the problems of everyday life,
When he was fifteen years old his mother died from appendicitis. From fifteen years of age to his college years he lived in an all-white neighborhood. From 1914-1917, he shifted from many colleges and academic courses of study as well as he changed his cultural identity growing up. He studied physical education, agriculture, and literature at a total of six colleges and universities from Wisconsin to New York. Although he never completed a degree, his educational pursuits laid the foundation for his writing career. He had the knowledge of philosophy and psychology. He attempted to write when he was a youth, but he made a choice to pursue a literary career in 1919. After he published Cane he became part of New York literary circles. He objected both rivalries that prevailed in the fraternity of writers and to attempts to promote him as a black writer (Clay...
The rugged frontiersman, the wealthy self-made entrepreneur, the stoic lone wolf; these are classic archetypes, embodiments of an enduring mythos-- American Masculinity. The doctrine of ideal manliness and its many incarnations have occupied a central place in American literature since colonial times. These representations that still exists in countless cultural iterations. The literary periods studied in this course were witness to writers that continually constructed and deconstructed the myths of paternal heroism and ideal masculinity. From Romanticism to Modernism authors, like James’s Fennimore Cooper, and F. Scott Fitzgerald helped to create the lore of American Manhood by investigating cultural notions gender and self that were emblematic of their time.
Wright, Richard. "The Man Who Was Almost a Man." Literature and the Writing Process. Ed.
Graham’s Lady’s and Gentleman’s Magazine (Graham’s) is a monthly published literary periodical although it allots other fields including engravings, fashion, and music to a small portion. This magazine deals with variety of literary fields from short stories, poetry, and essays handle various tastes from belles-lettres to sentimental literature. During those periods, the contributors to the magazine, in addition to numerous writers who exist only in tarnishing paper, are included such canonical writers as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Mrs. Lydia H. Sigourney, James Fenimore Cooper, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, among others. Through its inclusiveness in genres and wide range of literary works, Graham’s gained a broad readership, and simultaneously the magazine contributed to forging white American idealism by keeping silence on political or social issues at that time and reinforcing the already establish social system.
Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar. The Madwoman in the Attic: the Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-century Literary Imagination. New Haven: Yale UP, 2000. Print.
Bram Stoker, our author, was born in Clontarf (an area near Dublin), Ireland in early November of 1847. He was accomplished in many fields, including athletics, but he was, and probably still is, seen as the most influential and prominent authors of the Victorian era. He was taught at Trinity College, winning honors in a good handful of subjects. He joined many fashionable circles due to him being the acting manager of Lyceum Theater, and his friendship with Henry Irving. He married Florence Bacombe, who had also been courted by the playwright Oscar Wilde, and they bore one child, Noel, in 1879. His writings had an interest in the occult, which most attribute to his childhood sickness and his interest in Irish folklore. He had published books since 1872, with his book Crystal Cup, but he didn’t gain his current popularity until he wrote Dracula. Stoker wrote Gothic and fantasy fiction until his death in 1912, from an illness that he had since six years prior. Stoker’s death is assumed to be syphilis, but it’s most likely a stroke which did the deed. His final story Dracula’s Guest, a removed chapter of Dracula, was published posthumously two years following his death.
... of great change in America, an upheaval, a time when the once silent voices of the mainstream of society rose up and made themselves be heard. For better or worse it was a time that changed us all forever. In doing this essay I became truly aware of who those first bold few were as writers, pots and visionaries. During my research of the writers and poets Jack Kerouac has intrigued me the most from his first publication in 1950 of “The Town and The City”, to the disappointing seven years of rejection to having his most notable work “On The Road” published in 1957, to the tale of his downward spiral out of control “Big Sur” which may have been his best work before his death in 1969.
The subtly of interplay between The Comedian’s persona, his humanity, and even his hypocrisy strongly support his status as a living person alongside Dr. Manhattan. To create living people should always be the goal in literature. It is how a writer can illuminate a new facet of existence and can only be achieved through the use of a sympathetic imagination. Hemingway erred however, when he argued, “A character is a caricature” (153).
	Few writers of the twentieth century have made nearly the same impact on the literary society than Sheldon Allan Silverstein. His writing encompasses a broad range of styles, from adult to children’s, comical to unusual. One of his most common styles was that of fantasy: actions and events that cannot logically happen. This style was evident in his works, the Loser, Thumb Face, Warning, Squishy Touch, and Skin Stealer. Through the description of these absurd circumstances, Silverstein was able to entertain readers of all ages.
This paper will discuss Ralph Steadman as an illustrator, but more specifically as a political cartoonist in post World War II Britain. His deeply set animosity for certain political figures and his caricaturization of them is a purely geographic feature. Steadman’s involvement in England’s top satirical publications boosted his credibility enough locally to garnish him better paying illustration jobs in the United States. These jobs not only brought better pay, but a new cast of politicians and elite society members for Steadman to poke his jokes at, thus further solidifying his reputation as the next great satirist from a long line of English caricature artists. In particular I am going to discuss other British cartoonists that share Steadman’s feelings towards the socially “elite”. This will help illuminate similarities between the artists and their common contempt for high society as well as prove that Steadman’s location of upbringing molded his satirically based career. Among these additional British illustrators are Gerald Scarfe and John Tenniel; both had also illustrated the pages of the weekly satire Punch (Fig.1)(Fig. 2). Scarfe’s style was extremely similar to Steadman’s and both Steadman and Tenniel are well known for their illustrations of Alice in Wonderland (Fig. 3)(Fig. 4). Thomas Nast is yet another illustrator who focussed on political cartoons in the British satirical publications of Punch and Private Eye (Fig. 5). Nast’s wit was not only responsible for the iconography that has become known as the modern day idea of Santa Claus, but one of his more famous illustrations was responsible for aiding in the capture of Boss Tweed (Fig. 5). Punch and the satirical ora that surrounde...
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by the pseudonym Mark Twain, has been central to American literature for over a century. His seemingly effortless diction accurately exemplified America’s southern culture. From his early experiences in journalism to his most famous fictional works, Twain has remained relevant to American writing as well as pop culture. His iconic works are timeless and have given inspiration the youth of America for decades. He distanced himself from formal writing and became one of the most celebrated humorists. Mark Twain’s use of the common vernacular set him apart from authors of his era giving his readers a sense of familiarity and emotional connection to his characters and himself.
Like all genuine writers and artist, James Thurber looked at life in a highly original way. Thurber’s style is finely shaped varying from fluency to humorous word coinage (Beetz 2608). What he sees is a curious mix of reality and fantasy. One of Thurber’s major subjects is the use and abuse of language because he valued language as a necessary principle of order (Otto1). The precarious nature of language is one of Thurber’s central concerns. He took language seriously because he saw it as an instrument of order, clarity, and good sense, but he was also fascinated by its capacity to create an Alice-in-Wonderland world. Thurber had a partiality for situations involving eccentric behavior, intricate practical jokes and breakdowns of communication (Otto 2). He taps a common source of anxiety and illuminates it with his own perspective (Bowden 2). “Entering Thurber’s middle-class world, is like wandering into a psychiatric ward and not being quite sure...
Known for his works, full of masculinity and adventure, Ernest Hemingway became one of the greatest writers of the twenty-first century, he wrote novels and short stories about outdoorsmen, soldiers and other men of action, all of these, characteristics of his own persona. Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899, in Oak Park, Illinois, to Clarence Edmunds and Grace Hemingway, both strict Congregationalists. Hemingway's early years were spent largely in combating the repressive feminine influence of his mother and nurturing the masculine influence of his father. He spent the summers with his family in the woods of northern Michigan, where he often accompanied his father on professional calls. He started writing as a teenager by writing a weekly column for his high school newspaper. He also began to write poems and stories during this time, some of which were published in his school's literary magazine. After graduating high school in 1917 Hemingway started his career as a reporter for the Kansas City Star covering city crime and writing feature stories. The position helped him develop a journalistic style which would later become one of the most identifiable characteristics of his fiction. In 1918, Hemingway signed up to be an ambulance driver on the Italian front in World War I. He arrived in May and by July he was badly injured by mortar fire. While being injured, he carried an Italian soldier to safety and by doing so Ernest received the Italian Silver Medal of Bravery. After coming home in 1919, he spent time on camping and fishing trips and one week in the back-country of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. This trip became an inspiration for his short story “Big Two-Hearted River.” Later that year he became a freelancer and staff writer ...
Have you ever wanted to learn about an interesting short story? Then I have the perfect short story for you. You could think of possibly anything and Walter Mitty would dream about it and make it seem special. The short story is called “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”by James Thurber, it is an interesting story about a guy named Walter Mitty, who has a nagging wife constantly on him, but he goes through his boring life imagining about all the cool stuff he could do. A dominant theme in James Thurber’s “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” is Imagery. He shows imagery in his short story by making his character, Walter Mitty, imagine he's in these obstacles, which he pretends he's something he's not. Throughout the story, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” James Thurber uses literary elements like imagery and allusion to get his theme across to the readers.
Baym, Nina et al. Ed. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Shorter 8th ed. New York: