The Book Of Alice B. Toklas By Gertrude Stein

Throughout the centuries, artists, literary or otherwise, created masterpieces that remain invaluable to the present day. Therefore, several would question why there are so few masterpieces in the many years humanity had to to develop them. Gertrude Stein answers this question in her essay What are Masterpieces and Why are there so Few of Them?

Explore the methods by which writers develop the theme of identity in the light of this statement.

Identity is what defines people. It is every aspect of life that range from culture to religious beliefs, friends and family, every of it makes a piece of an individual’s personal identity. In fact, it is completely normal for people to feel lost while searching for their identity. Washington Irving, America’s first writer, is best known by his famous short story “Rip Van Winkle” which emphasizes in the struggle of finding a new identity after the American Revolution because of the characters that appear, the symbolism, and the setting where the story is placed.

Attention: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” (Emma Lazarus). This sentence can be found in the poem “The New Colossus,” written by Emma Lazarus in 1883. It can also be found inscribed on the Statue of Liberty towering over the New York Harbor, a bright beacon symbolizing the freedom and democracy we hold so esteemed in America. Immigrants founded the United States and immigrants are arguably who made our nation so great. However, when immigrants do not follow the process to acquire legal citizenship into the United States is when the problems arise.

There is no denying that every person needs ti have a persona. One’s personality is developed through the different environments, cultures, and even obstacles faced in order to create the type of person we are. When going through the process of finding our identities, we are faced with aspects of ourselves that we do not wish to be defined as. According to the author, Jennifer M. Volland “Stay: The Archetypal Space of the Hotel,” she emphasizes psychologist Carl Jung’s idea that we each have two sides to ourselves that we are either accepting or unaccepting as she states, “the ‘persona’ which is the outward appearance a person presents to the world, and the ‘shadow,’ the subconscious aspects of that person’s personality — that is, the denied parts of one’s self.” We are able to see parallels of Jung’s argument of what are the components of a person’s identity throughout David Wallace’s work, “Shipping Out,” of how the cruise ship internally exploits workers and manipulates their passengers while externally trying to maintain a facade of what the Zenith stands for.

False identity can become so inherent to a person’s character, they can begin to forget where it stops and their true self begins. In Tobias Wolff’s novel Old School, the narrator and the literary review the Troubadour both are hiding behind a persona that is placed onto them by themselves or others. An aspirational vision of the characters is the basis of their personas. Wanting to be more then they already are, the characters end up believing in the lies told to persuade others of their importance. Placing the personas on themselves is a way to divert people from the true nature of their identity, which might not live up to their expectations. The identities taken on by the narrator and the Troubadour convey that what they are and what they want to be are not yet the same.

Despite being a very diverse literature genre in terms of influence and inspiration, North American literature encompasses many works that share some very common thematic elements. Though there are several themes shared, one in particular can be found in most any work – the importance of identity. Particularly in some selected pieces yet to be named, identity is a very important element, not only because it is a necessity for a main character in any work of literature, but because these works express ideas about identity as being very individualistic – as opposed to being a mere result of cultural surroundings. Zora Neal Hurtson’s Their

The autobiography Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl written by Harriet Jacobs illustrates the life of a former slave in the South who was subjected to mental and physical abuse by her slaveowner and details her escape to eventual freedom. After living through a long and tumultuous life of enslavement and abuse at the hands of her master, Jacobs was eventually able to escape to the North and write an autobiography of the horrors and hardships she faced. The institution of slavery was a destructive system in which thousands of African Americans were separated from their families, forced to work hard labor, and abused

Talking about America living up to their so called “promises”, “statements” whatever you want to call it. America has the tendency of not following all the rules or laws that they themselves have created. Between 1877 and 1945 did the United States live up to Emma Lazarus ' poem which is engraved on the Statue of Liberty? While, reading her poem “The New Colossus”, there was a sense that Emma Lazarus believed that the United States of America would had let anyone come into the state no matter of what the person’s situation and/or lifestyle they lived, basically “what happens in their country stays in their country”, America would be a fresh new start of life. The way she viewed America and the way America is viewed by many others upon this earth have some similarities and differences in various of ways. Therefore, her ideas of America being a “gratifying and inviting” place is just a belief comparing it to what this country is actually about, when it comes to the level of patience and actions with we the people and how America reacts. There are nine sources that explains Americas perception and views on certain topics.

A woman is given limited freedom. Something as simple as a room could give her a sense of liberty. In Virginia Woolf's article, she claims that "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction." Woolf suggests that having a room literally allows women to have their own space to write, but figuratively traps them in their own thoughts due to a lack of freedom. In the works of Jamaica Kincaid, Virginia Woolf, and Alice Walker, the female figures have shown how their own thoughts, reflection, and creativity could be used as a sense of freedom.

Alice Walker's In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens and Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own

“You’re a blank, a cipher… a zero.” (Albee, 1962, p.18). With these words, Martha the main character in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” showed her husband, George, that he was nothing. Edward Albee, the writer of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” talked mainly about Martha and George who pretend to have different identities just in order not to face reality. Moreover, Arthur Miller, the author of “A View from the Bridge” presented the idea of identity in a different way. Miller used the character Eddie to show how people’s identities are constantly changing due to some changes in their lives. Modern playwrights question the idea of a definite identity.

The Bell Jar is a novel written in, 1963 written by Sylvia Plath. It is a story about a girl who under goes many traumatic life events that had the destiny to make or break her. The things she used to enjoy in life are no longer bringing joy to her life. She can’t find anything that gives her the will to go on. The Bell Jar is a story that will take reader on a journey with a girl who lets the gender roles of 1950s get the best of her. She lets people tell her what she can and cannot do and loses what it means to become your own person. The Bell Jar teaches the audience about the expectations, opportunities or restrictions on American Women in the 1950’s. As gender roles have become more diverse between a man and a woman, it is still more

“Gertrude and Claudius” is a novel that is concerned about the early life of Claudius, Gertrude, and old hamlet written by renowned novelist John Updike. The novel draws from Shakespeare’s Hamlet which was the longest and most influential play and works of literature that he had ever written (Updike, p.23). The story revolves around a revenge tale and borrows from Gesta Danorum in the ancient Denmark. “Gertrude and Claudius” also incorporate the works of Francois de Belleforest in the development of the plot in the novel (Updike, p.23). The circumstances that led to Shakespeare writing of the Hamlet are discussed through character analysis in Gertrude and Claudius. “The Widows of Eastwick” is a novel by John Updike that the lives of three divorced

Esther Greenwood, the main character, is the most obvious comparison to Sylvia Plath herself. Esther is a troubled girl who is gifted with intelligence and scholarships to fancy schools and opportunities, but still finds herself in a pit of depression she can’t crawl out of. Both Esther and Sylvia are extremely intelligent, Sylvia being gifted with an IQ of 160. Sylvia shows her descent into depression through Esther, gradually getting worse and worse as she goes through college and realizes she has no idea what to do with her life.