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Modern American Literature: Rise of Realism

Choose one of the stories to apply feminist criticism to the reading. Identify the protagonist and antagonist and describe their relationship as it relates to the theme. How does the relationship to the foil, if there is one, reflect the theme? Identify whether the protagonist is round or flat, dynamic or static. Support your response with examples from the text.
 * Chopin’s “Story of and Hour” and Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”**

Select an example of imagery that creates the mood of the story? How does the mood of the setting reflect the character’s motivations driven by their id, ego, and superego?
 * Crane’s “Mystery of Heroism”**

The Mystery of Heriosm by Stephen Crane, is a story of how a mans sillly motivation to please his momentary thirst lead him to discover something that he did not know about himself. In his own way on his own, he might be considered a hero, for doing something just as small as not thinking about himself just for a moment. This story creates a since of the darkness and suspense like not knowing when and how are emotions shall react to given situation. The stories vivid details helps the reader create a mood of fright,suspense, and gloom as crane decribes this bloody battlefield: “On the ground was crimson terror of an exploding shell, with fibers of flame that seemed like lances… the white legs of gunners scampered this way and that way… there was a clank of steel against steel ‘’. He gives us the smell a since of smell as he describes the air being field with an odour of conflagration. He sets this whole image of pure death and smog and thrilling movement. In the mist of all of this was private Fred Collins who suddenly felt the need to satisfy his temporary thirst. His id in this being that he wants water and wants it now not thinking about the fact that he is in the middle of a battle, his id also being his pride

How does the author indirectly characterize the protagonist through the use of dialect? What does this tell us about the character? How are they influenced by their id, ego, or superego? In The Invalid’s Story we seen that through thompsons speech, the second character in the story, that he was a lot less educated then our ,main character ‘’I’ve got an idea. Soppos’n we buckle down to it and give the colonel a bit of shove towards t’other end of the car?’’ We see that the protagonist has a higher education in the way that he spoke about his story and thompson, ‘’and he got to referring to my poor friend by various titles… and I noticed as fast as my poor friend’s effectiveness grew, Thompson promoted him accordingly’’. Even though his education was higher then thompson doesn’t’y mean his instinctiveness was. His id in the story told him to go in and out of ther ecart because of the horrid smell, not thinking about the fact that he might get sick. His ego in the story though told him to open the window, balancing the fact of keeping his nose satisfied and also his body cause he is inside and his super ego tells him to respect his friend and keep him inside the cart with him even though he smells disgusting.
 * Wharton’s “April Showers” and Twain’s “The Invalid’s Story”**