美国文学复习重点

一、The Adventures of the Huckleberry Finn ，Mark Twain

选段：Once I said to myself it would be a thousand times better for Jim to be a slave at home where his family was, as long as he'd GOT to be a slave, and so I'd better write a letter to Tom Sawyer and tell him to tell Miss Watson where he was. But I soon give up that notion for two things: she'd be mad and disgusted at his rascality and ungratefulness for leaving her, and so she'd sell him straight down the river again; and if she didn't, everybody naturally despises an ungrateful nigger, and they'd make Jim feel it all the time, and so he'd feel ornery and disgraced. And then think of ME! It would get all around that Huck Finn helped a nigger to get his freedom; and if I was ever to see anybody from that town again I'd be ready to get down and lick his boots for shame. (an excerpt from chapter 31)

1、Introduction：(1). It is a Sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer but much deeper and more mature in them and technique. It has always been regarded as one of the greatest books of western literature and western civilization. Hemingway described it as the book from which “all modern American literature comes”

(2). The book tells a story about the U.S. before the Civil War, and takes place along the Mississippi River. It relates the story of the escape of Jim from slavery and how Huck Finn, floating along with him and helping him as best he could, changes his mind, his prejudice about Black people, and comes to accept Jim as a man and as a close friend as well.

(3). It is a veritable recreation of living models. Most of the major characters had prototypes in real life. The portrayal of individual incidents and characters achieved intense verisimilitude of detail. Serious problems are being discussed through the narration of a little illiterate boy. The fact of the wilderness juxtaposed with civilization. Though a local and particular book, it touches upon the human condition in general indeed universal way: Humanism ultimately triumphs.

(4). Another notable feature of the novel is its language. The book is written in the colloquial style, in the general standard speech of uneducated American. Mark Twain made colloquial speech an accepted respectable literary medium in the American literature.

2、The characters analysis and social meaning of The Adventures of the Huckleberry Finn:Huck is a typical American boy with “a sound heart and a deformed conscience”.vulgar in language and in manner,honest and decent in essence.Huck is the son of nature ,a symbol for freedom and earthly pragmatism and an innocent and reluctant rebel.His remarkable raft’s journey down on the Mississippi river can be regarded as his process of education and his way to grow up. At first, he stands by slavery, for he clings to the idea that if he lets go the slave, he will be damned to go to hell.And when the “King”sells Jim for money, Huck decides to inform Jim’s master.After he thinks of the past good time when Jim and he are on the raft where Jim shows great care and deep affection for him, he decide to rescue Jim.And Huck still thinks he is wrong while he is doing the right thing.Through the eye of Huck, the pre-Civil War American society is fully exposed.

3、Themes of The novel：Freedom，Friendship，Maturation and Development，Hypocrisy of “civilized”society vs. the innocence of Nature，Love，Racism and slavery,humanism,serious social problems and social satire.

4、Features of the language:short, concrete and direct in effect,simple or compound sentence structure,repetition of words,ungrammatical elements.

二、The Great Gatsby ，F. Scott Fitzgerald：选段：THERE was music from my neighbor's house through the summer nights. In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among