美国文学读后感

第一篇：美国文学读后感

About Writing

Experience and thinking makes a great writer is what I learned from the book “History and Anthology of American Literature”.Traveling and adventure to the literature creation is what source to a river.Those writers who are popular around the world all have tremendous experience which are deeply influence their literature achievements.A book always reflects the background of the time, the trend of the society and the movement of the new thinking.Only people who involve themselves in the stream of history and observe the subtle change of the events can create great works.Ralph Waldo Emerson is the leader of Transcendentalism and famous in literature circle.He is an American but he travelled to Europe, spending most of his time in Italy and England which are helpful to his work.Herman Melville's adventure led to his literature career.A writer with few life experience is just like a dying well which can't produce water.There is an old saying that experience is our life treasure and we get it at the cost of time and youth.If experiences are the bricks of a literature, then thinking is the concrete which makes the bricks together and in a shape.No matter how many material a person has, they are dead before analysing and assembling.The reason why writers are knowledgeable and sensitive is that they would dig into the events while others just stay on the surface.Writers always learn from each other and argue if they come into conflicts.one can't make a carriage at home without learning from others.It is the same that Sharing ideas with others is powerful than thinking by oneself.It's hard to be a writer acknowledged by the public.Many writers fail to publish their works or are refused by thousands of magazines.Some are even pool and notorious through the whole life, but their books become popular years after they die.Then people begin to pay attention to these unknown writers.The works are still the works when they are alive, but why there's such a big difference?

Opportunity or the trend of the time in another way is the point.People are not enlightened at that time to discover the great works or the works didn't match the taste of the time.A small fact will have an impact on the sales of a book.Once a book is well selling, other books of the writer will be popular soon.Then writer will run out of success though he is nothing before.It comes to question what's the purpose of writing.Some writers devote their whole life to literature, however, the works can't support their daily life.As a result some give up because literature can't provide them with reputation and property.But probably they will be success in the future.If people write for the sake of writing, they would feel satisfied in spirit regardless of the poverty in material.On the contrary, if people write in order to seek for fame, they won't last long and will fade gradually in the rive of history.We admire the great writers not only because of their excellent writing, but also because of their pure pursuit for literature.Reading books is communicating with great thinkers in the world, absorbing their deep thought and broadening our horizon.Once i chatted with my friend about literature and we argue on the point of the purpose of writing.I believed that writing is to enlighten people and makes them more wise.While my friend insisted that writers are just expressing their feelings and complaining.They wouldn't think about the enlightenment or education.To some extent, I agree with my friend, but in object they do have enlightenment function and there're some examples like Helen Kaller.Through conversation I find that the meaning of literature is sharing ideas with great writers and people around us.Books will die as the time passes by, but the great minds will shinning forever.

第二篇：美国文学 老人与海读后感 英文版

美国文学史 论文

On Character of the Old Man in 《The Old

Man and the Sea》

Name：Wang Jianye Student ID：161310322

Abstract: He is a man who can be destroyed but cannot be defeated.But what makes he can do this,or in other word what character does he have?As far as I am concerned the most important character is that he never give up.And the most appropriate word to describe the old man I can thing out is touch.Yes,he's a tough guy.Key Words: the old man;character;touch;can not be defeated,touch guy.Body: After I read the book that is called “The old man and the sea”,I was deeply moved by the old man and his spirit.This book talked about such a story, old fisherman Santiago de Cuba consecutive 84 days did not catch the fish, was another loser as a fisherman, but he was persistent, and finally caught a big marlin large

美国文学史 论文

Marlins his boat dragged on for three days at sea, exhausted, was tied to the boat he was killed on one side, and then Return Journey repeatedly been shark attacks, he has exhausted all means to counterattack.Back to Hong Kong only the head and a fish tail spine.Although the fish have bitten gone, but whatever can not destroy the will of his bravery.Santiago was old just as Hemingway said “Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same color as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated.” He think every day is a new day.No matter how old he is.He said “It’s better to be lucky.But I would rather be exact.Then when luck comes you are ready.”

Santiago was poor;he had nothing except a little boat and harpoon.But he said “Now is no time to think of what you do not have.Think of what you can do with what there is.”

Santiago was alone.Mandolin can not go to sea with him because of his parents.He catches fishes alone.He fights with sharks alone.He can talk to nobody except himself.No one will help him.But even though he faced hungry;weary and difficulty alone, he does not give up.Why the old man persists to take dentuso back.It’s so dangerous to fight with sharks.He is so brave and persevering.“But a man is not made for defeat” he said “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.”Yes,he's a tough cookie.2 美国文学史 论文

Santiago in self-confidence is absolute self-confidence, is not to environmental change and changes in self-confidence, it does not compare with others, self-confidence.In Santiago's philosophy of existence, even when confronted with a pole of the unlucky people can only self-confidence.Bones are the pillars of the spirit, Hemingway seems to Santiago did not let the success of the elderly, but to the bare bones of the elderly to play the hardness of life.Hemingway's novel won the Nobel Prize for Literature and the Pulitzer Prize.The bones in hundreds of pieces of shrapnel left the tough guy writer, the proper strength to write his life, tell us how to deal with birth, old age, sickness and death, tells us how wide the heart, such as the sea in general.The elderly are lonely, he was approached in an ideal road trip travelers, but he is not lonely, because his will is so strong.Conclusion: The old man is a touch guy.If he want to do something he will never give up.This book reveals to us a truth: people are not born to fail, and a person can be destroyed, but can not be defeated.

第三篇：美国文学 读后感 three days to see

外国语学院 英语08-1班 叶思萍 30号

After I Read “Three Days to See”

After I read “Three days to see”, I get an idol.That’s Helen Keller.I never worship any woman except my mother, but Helen beat my mother down.Who is she? Mark Twain said, there were two great persons appearing in 19th century, one was Napoleon, the other was Helen Keller.The Times reported Helen Keller as the great willpower idol of human.Those who didn’t know her must guess her as a person with forceful figure, strong arm, agile hearing and sharp eyes.Actually, those who know her must shake their heads to the guessing, because Helen Keller was just a handicapped with dull ear and blind eyes.But they all know she is much more than that.On June 27, 1800, a beautiful girl was born in Tuscumbia, a little town of northern Alabama, USA.She was Helen Keller.Unfortunately, she was deprived her sight and hearing when she was less than two years old by a terrible illness.Being imprisoned by the dark and silent world, she was unable to communicate with others normally;as a result, she became wilful and obstinate.When she was seven, Anne Mansfield Sullivan came to her sides, bringing knowledge and love to her.Besides of developing Helen’s intelligence, Miss Sullivan also taught her how to admire the beautiful things, as well as educating her to love her life, love others, and to be confident and graceful.With the company and encouragement of Miss Sullivan, Keller came over the unimaginable difficulties and got the permission to the Harvard.Then she became an excellent social activist，who had visited many countries and gave speech, collecting funds for the blind, deaf and dumb.During World WarⅡ, Helen Keller extended her regards to the soldiers who lost their sight, and encouraged those broken hearts with her own spirit.What’s more, she devoted herself to the social activities of helping the handicapped children, protecting the rights and interests of the women and1

fighting for the equality of races.In her 88-year life, she spent 87 of them in dark and silent world, but she brought endless light to the world.In 1964, she was awarded The Presidential Medal of Freedom, which was the greatest honor for the American citizens.After I read Helen Keller’s “Three Days to See”, I formed a habit that walking with closed eyes while there are few people on the road.It’s a strange experience.The closed eyes sharpen each sensation.I feel the more gentle morning breeze, the clearer birds’ singing, the sweeter flowers and the warmer sunshine.Helen Keller was right, she experienced more than us seeing people.However, to be honest, while I felt so many wonderful things, I felt a little nervous and fear, for I don’t know what lies ahead of me.Everyone will feel worried about the unknown future.Every step I moved was with great care.But at the same time, actually, I couldn’t focus myself on enjoying the beauty around me.So I admired Helen Keller so much for her brave and good-at –finding-beauty heart.Helen Keller said, “If each human being were stricken blind and deaf for a few days, at some time during his early adult life.Darkness would make him more appreciative of sight;silence would teach him the joys of sound.” Though I was just “blind” for a few minutes, I had appreciated much more than I could at the usual time.Then how much had Helen Keller appreciated through her whole life? Helen and the people with good sight, who is blind to the life? I doubt that.Even I myself, who I think have caught every moment of beauty in life, have lost a lot if comparing with Helen Keller.I saw those beauties, but she touched them, and kept them in her heart.She felt “the delicate symmetry of a leaf”, “the smooth skin of a silver birth”, “the rough, shaggy bark of a pine”, every small scenery she had experienced, every little change in nature she had noticed.She is the real master of nature.After I read “Three Days to See”, I began to doubt whether I really know well the friends who are near to me.After Keller asked, “Can you describe

accurately the faces of five good friends?” I felt at sea.I closed my eyes and tried to form the image of one of my good friends.It was clear.But when I went into the details of her face, I felt ashamed that I couldn’t remember anything.Then I opened my eyes and looked into her face.It was the first time that I had realized there being a mole around her corner of eye.And there were two new acnes on her forehead.Her hair was longer and she wore a new skirt.That was much different from my imagination.In fact, she has been much beautiful but I didn’t realize it, neither give my appreciation to her in time.I have become so much accustomed to the routine of my surroundings, and only see the startling and spectacular.So have most of seeing people.The careless husbands don’t know the colors of their wives’ eyes, the busy parents don’t realize their children’s growing height, and the so-called motherlike teachers don’t notice the emotional change on their students’ faces.That’s embarrassed for a seeing person.I think if everyone pays one more glance at our surroundings, it will make us a much more harmonious society.After I read “Three Days to See”, I had an impulse to visit the museums, which symbolize “the pageant of man’s progress”.Once I hated to visit museums because they were all about the old past which I was not interested in.Why do people want to know about the past life when we have lived a better one? Keller didn’t think so.She was eager to see with her eyes the condensed history of the earth and its inhabitants displayed in the Museum of Natural History.As well, she longed to see the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which showed the myriad facets of the human spirit.I was convinced by her.No past, no present.Human’s history is a very good source for us to understand this world and ourselves.By viewing those living things pictured in the museums, at the same time wandering in the long history river, we will understand how much great our human beings were, who had created so much wonders in the world.I was attracted by Keller’s words about the

museums and the wonders human beings had made, so I decided to find out those wonders by myself.After I read “Three Days to See”, I feel much grateful that I have a pair of seeing eyes.Keller was upset that she could only imagine the fascinating figure of Hamlet, or the gusty Falstaff amid colorful Elizabethan trappings, but I can see each movement of the graceful Hamlet, each strut of the hearty Falstaff.I never think it is such a great gift that I could own my seeing eyes, but Keller said, when we gaze at a play, a movie or any spectacle, we should realize and give thanks for the miracle of sight which enables us to enjoy its color, grace and movement.Besides that, our beautiful nature, the greatly developed technology, the various faces from different countries, all those things created by nature and our human beings are miracles, but they need our eyes to find them.So from now on, open your heart and open your eyes, hold a grateful mind to find out the miracles around you.You will have a different life.I am still unaware of the dark world.But if one day I lost my sight I would know how to deal with it.Escaping from the reality, complaining about the unfair fate, or abusing the friends around me, are not the ways to overcome the tragedy.I should learn from Helen Keller and set her as my idol.Maybe my dark world was not so beautiful as hers, but I would try my best to make it meaningful.It is beyond my imagination how Keller learned language without hearing.But nothing is impossible to a willing heart.As long as we set our goal and make a determined mind, is there any difficulty we can’t overcome?

Reference:

假如给我三天光明：英汉对照/（美）凯勒（Keller, H.）著；鹏鑫译。北京：外文出版社，2009。

第四篇：美国文学名词解释

1.AmericanTranscendentalism:①transcendentalism has been defined philosophically as “ the recognition in man of the capability of knowing truth intuitively, or of attaining knowledge transcending the reach of the senses.②transcendentalists stress the importance of the Over-soul, the Inpidual and Nature.Other concepts that accompanied transcendentalism include the idea that nature is enabling and the idea that the inpidual is pine and, therefore, self-reliant.New England transcendentalism is the product of a combination of Native American Puritanism and European romanticism.③some prominent representatives include Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau.2.Free verse

free verse means the rhymed or unrhymed poetry composed without paying attention to conversational rules of meter.Free verse was originated by a group of French poets of the late 19th century.Their purpose was to free themselves from the restrictions of formal metrical patterns and to recreate instead the free rhymes of nature period.Walt Whitman„s leaves of grass is perhaps the most notable example.3.American Puritanism: Puritanism is the practices and beliefs of the puritans.The Puritans were originally members of a pision of the protestant church who wanted to purify their religious beliefs and practices.They accepted the doctrines of predestination, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace from God.American literature in the 17th century mostly consisted of Puritan literature.Puritanism had an enduring influence on American literature.It had become, to some extent, so much a state of mind, so much a part of national cultural atmosphere, rather than a set of tenets.it comes from the American puritans, who were the first immigrants moved to American continent in the 17th century.Original sin, predestination（预言）and salvation（拯救）were the basic ideas of American Puritanism.And, hard-working, piousness（虔诚,尽职），thrift and sobriety（清醒）were praised.4.American Dream: American dream means the belief that everyone can succeed as long as he/she works hard enough.It usually implies a successful and satisfying life.It usually framed in terms of American capitalism（资本主义）, its associated purported meritocracy,（知识界精华）and the freedoms guaranteed by the U.S.Bill of Rights.5.Imagism: the 1920s saw a vigorous literary activity in America.In poetry there appeared a strong reaction against Victorian poetry.Imagists placed primary reliance on the use of precise, sharp images as a means of poetic expression and stressed precision in the choice of words, freedom in the choice of subject matter and form, and

the use of colloquial language.Most of the imagist poets wrote in free verse, using such devices as assonance and alliteration rather than formal metrical schemes to give structure to their poetry..The movement which had these as its aims is known in literary history as Imagism.Its prime mover was Ezra Pound.6.American romanticism

①it is one of the most important periods in the history of American literature that stretches from the 18th century to the outbreak of the civil war.It started with the publication of Washington Irving‟s The Sketch Book and ended with Walt Whitman‟s Leaves of Grass.②being a period of the great flowering of American literature, it is also called “the American Renaissance ”.③American romantic works emphasize the imaginative and emotional qualities of nature literature.The strong tendency to eulogize the inpidual and common man was typical of this period.Most importantly, the writings of American Romanticism are typically American.Works concentrate on unique

characteristics of the American land.④New England Transcendentalism is the summit of American Romanticism.⑤Romanticists include such literary figures as Washington Irving, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, William Cullen Bryant, Henry Wordsworth Longfellow, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman and some others.

第五篇：美国文学

Jazz Age

It was a movement that took place during the 1920s or the Roaring Twenties from which jazz music and dance emerged.The movement came about with the introduction of mainstream radio and the end of the war.This era ended in the 1930s with the beginning of The Great Depression but has lived on in American pop culture for decades.American dream

· For many immigrants, the Statue of Liberty was their first view of the United

States, signifying new opportunities in life.The statue is an iconic symbol of the American Dream

• It is a national ethos(社会的精神特质)of the United States in which

freedom includes a promise of the possibility of prosperity and success.• A belief that if people work hard, they can rise to a higher social class and they

can have anything if they are willing to get it.• All men are created equal, regardless of social class or circumstances of birth.• Working hard is the most important element for getting ahead.Transcendentalism

·Transcendentalism was a literary movement that flourished during the middle 19th Century(1836 – 1860).·It began as a rebellion against traditionally held beliefs by the English Church that God superseded the inpidual.--Knowledge can be obtained through mental process apart from experiences--denoting “whatever belongs to the class of intuitive thought”

--Emerson said, Transcendentalism means idealism.Benjamin Franklin

• Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706 in Boston Massachusetts.• Ben Franklin began teaching himself the basics of geometry and algebra.He

also studied and partially mastered many different languages.• At age 12, Ben began working at his brother’s printing shop.• From 1723 to 1730, Ben worked as a printer.• He became partial owner of a print shop in 1728.•

• Ben wrote Poor Richard's Almanac.He also wrote many sayings that people still use today.• When Benjamin Franklin was 22 years old, he wrote the epitaph that he

imagined might be carved on his tombstone.By the time he actually died at age 84, he had changed his mind.American Realism(1870-1890)

1.Reasons: civil war, social development.People sought to describe the wide range of American experience and to present the subtleties of human personality, to portray characters that were less simply all good or all bad.2.Realism originated in France.A literary doctrine that called for “reality and1

truth” in the depiction of ordinary life.3.American realism, different from European realism, is more varied and

inpidualistic.4.Development of American realism: first appear in the literature of local color,arbiter: William Dean Howells.He defined realism as “nothing more and nothing

less than the truthful treatment of material”.5.Important writers: Henry James, Mark Twain.Puritanism

American Puritanism comes from the American Puritans, who were the first

immigrants moved to American continent in the 17th century Original sin,predestination and salvation were the basic ideas of American Puritanism.And

hard-working piousness, thrift and sobriety were praised.Characteristics of Am.Romanticism:

1.an innate and intuitive perception of man, nature and society

2.an emphasis on freedom and imagination

3.a profound love for nature

4.the quest for beauty

5.the use of antique and grotesque subject matters

The significant of Puritanism in American literature

Because the 17th Century was the great age of British religious literature, in New

England, therefore, asserts Darrel Abel, it was the great century of Puritan

literature.In a way which is difficult for the modern reader to appreciate, Abel

further submits, this literary genre was not only a subject of everyday life, but was

an intelligent, often artistically wrought literature.It was also strenuous and

serious, because Puritans saw life as an unremitting moral struggle.Puritan

literature attempted to represent life truly;moreover, Puritan literature was just as

“realistic” as modern naturalism, albeit in the service of a different perception of

reality.The great structure of the Puritan creed, Perry Miller has asserted, will

only be meaningful to most students today “when they perceive that it rested upon

a deep lying conviction that the universe conformed to a definite, ascertainable

truth, and that human existence was to be had only upon the terms imposed by this

truth.”

II.Literature in the Colonial Period(1607-1820)(1)

I.Cultural Background:

Discovery of America and early settlers

II.American Puritanism

1.Puritans – American Puritans – American Puritanism

2.Calvinism:Predestination,Original Sin, Total Depravity, Limited Atonement

3.Its influence upon American writings:

a.(technique): symbolism

b.(tone): optimism

c.(language): simplicity

d.(theme): redemption and salvation

III.The Literary in the Colonial Period

1.General features: Of Humble origin;documentary;personal

2.Literary Forms:

histories, letters, journals, sermons, narratives, poetry, novels, etc.A.histories:

Captain John Smith’s A Description of New England

William Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation

John Winthrop’s A Model of Christian Charity

Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on Virginia

B.Personal account: Slave narratives, prisoner’s narratives, etc.e.g.Marry Rowlandson’s personal account of her being captured

and imprisoned by the American Indians

C.Sermons: Jonathan Edwards’ Sinners in the Hands of An Angry

God

D.Poetry:

Anne Bradstreet and her religious and secular poetry

John Norton and John Rogers’s elegies for Anne

Michael Wigglesworth’s The Day of Doom(1662)

Edward Taylor's religious poetry: Preparatory Meditations

Benjamin Tompson: New England Crisis(satirical poem)John Trumbull, Progress of Dulness and M’Fingal(political satire)

Francis Hopkinson, The Battle of kegs(1779)

Joel Barlow, The Hasty Pudding(1796), The Vision of Columbus(1787)

Timothy Dwight, The Conquest of Canaan(1785)

David Humphreys, The Anarchiard(1787)

Philip Freneau’s patriotic/nature poetry: “The Indian Burial Ground”

Phillis Wheatley the first Afro-American poetess: On Messrs Hussey

and Coffin, Thoughts on the Works of ProvidenceE.Novels:

1.William Hill Brown, Power of Sympathy, 1789(Sentimental epistolary novel).2.Susana Rowson, Charlotte Temple(1791), third-person narrative

3.Hannah Foster, The Coquette(1797)

4.Hugh Henry Brackenridge, Modern Chivalry,(1792-1815)(Picaresque novel)

5.Gilbert Imlay, The Emigrants(1793)

6.Royall Tyler, The Algerine Captive(1797)

7.Charles Brockden Brown and his gothic novels

Wieland(1798), Edgar Huntly(1799), Ormond(1799), Arthur Mervyn(1800)

Three Representative Figures(in prose)

Jonathan Edwards and his sermon: Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

Benjamin Franklin and The Autobiography(1791,1818)and Poor Richard’s AlmanacThomas Paine and his political essays: Common Sense and American Crisis

John de Crevecoeur and his Letters from an American Farmer

Edwards, Franklin, and Crevecoeur