Reading:
John Steinbeck (1044-5), "The Chrysanthemums," 1045-52
Richard Wright (1058-9), "The Man Who Was Almost a Man," 1059-67
Study Questions:
1. Lionel Trilling, who will be reading next session, was a fierce critic of John Steinbeck. ">Examining Steinbeck's magnum opus The Grapes of Wrath (1939), Trilling writes that the novel “cockers-up the self-righteous of the liberal middle class: it is so easy to feel virtuous in our love for such good poor people! The social emotions can provide a safe escape from our own lives and from pressures of self-criticism and generously feed our little aggressions and grandiosities" (Artists and the 'Social Function'" 189). Do you think this condemnation holds for the short story that we read for today?
2. According to Wright's protagonist Dave, what makes a man a man? How does Wright portray this version of masculinity as ultimately destructive? How does this vision of masculinity compare to writers like Hemingway and Eliot?
