American Literature Quotations

"The Widow Douglas she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me; but it was rough living in the house all the time, considering how dismal regular and decent the widow was in all her ways; and so when I couldn’t stand it no longer I lit out. I got into my old rags and my sugar-hogshead again, and was free and satisfied. But Tom Sawyer he hunted me up and said he was going to start a band of robbers, and I might join if I would go back to the widow and be respectable. So I went back."

(Mark Twain: Huckleberry Finn, p. 14)
When Huck plans to head west at the end of the novel in order to escape further “sivilizing,” he is trying to avoid more than regular baths and mandatory school attendance. Throughout the novel, Twain depicts the society that surrounds Huck as little more than a collection of degraded rules and precepts.

I think that Mark Twain gives in Huckleberry Finn rather than maintain collective welfare, a lack of logic, and profound selfishness. Huck often knows better than the adults around him, even though he has lacked the guidance that a proper family and community should have offered him.

Although the Widow Douglas attempts to “reform” Huck, he resists her attempts and maintains his independent ways. The community has failed to protect him from his father, and though the Widow finally gives Huck some of the schooling and religious training that he had missed. Huck is none too thrilled with his new life of cleanliness, manners, church, and school. However, he sticks it out at the bequest of Tom Sawyer, who tells him that in order to take part in Tom’s new “robbers’ gang,” Huck must stay “respectable.”

"I hadn’t had a bite to eat since yesterday, so Jim he got out some corn-dodgers and buttermilk, and pork and cabbage and greens—there ain’t nothing in the world so good when it’s cooked right—and whilst I eat my supper we talked and had a good time. . . .We said there warn’t no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don’t. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft."

(Mark Twain: Huckleberry Finn, p. 48)
For Huck and Jim, the Mississippi River is the ultimate symbol of freedom. Alone on their raft, they do not have to answer to anyone. The river carries them toward freedom: for Jim, toward the free states; for Huck, away from his abusive father and the restrictive “sivilizing”. Much like the river itself, Huck and Jim are in flux, willing to change their attitudes about each other with little prompting. Despite their freedom, however, they soon find that they are not completely free from the evils and influences of the towns on the river’s banks. Even early on, the real world intrudes on the paradise of the raft: the river floods, bringing Huck and Jim into contact with criminals, wrecks, and stolen goods. Then, a thick fog causes them to miss the mouth of the Ohio River, which was to be their route to freedom.

As the novel progresses, then, the river becomes something other than the inherently benevolent place Huck originally thought it was. Though the river continues to offer a refuge from trouble, it often merely effects the exchange of one bad situation for another further toward danger and destruction.

"If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life,…(Gatsby had) …an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again."

(F. S. Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby, p. 8)
The one character that intrigues me the most is James Gatsby. In the story, Gatsby is always thought of as rich, confident, and very popular. However, when I paint a picture of him in my mind I see someone very different. In fact, I see the opposite of what everyone portrays him to be. I see someone who has very little confidence and who tries to fit in the best he can. There are several scenes in which this observation is very obvious to me. It is clear that Gatsby is not the man that everyone claims he is.

This quotation describes Gatsby in general. At the beginning, Gatsby is a mysterious, fantastically wealthy young man. Every Saturday, his garish Gothic mansion in West Egg serves as the site of extravagant parties. Later in the novel, we can see that his real name is James Gatz; he was born in North Dakota, to an impoverished farming family. While serving in the Army in World War I, Gatsby met Daisy Fay (now Daisy Buchanan) and fell passionately in love with her.

Nick Carraway is the only one who truly recognized Gatsby's "greatness" ­ thereby revealing himself as a young man of unusual sensitivity.

"Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter - tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther....And then one fine morning - So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." (F. S. Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby, p. 26)

F. Scott uses a color scheme to show many emotions of characters in this story. The ultimate factor for almost every action within the story is money, the color green. This color shows the envy, greed, and jealousy that make up this story. Green is not only the color of money and the color most notably associated with greed, but it is also the color of the light on Daisy's dock. The same dock light that Gatsby spent so many nights gazing at.

Gatsby envied Tom because he knew that Daisy needed a wealthy man to take care of her. And as he was building his wealth, Gatsby would look over the lake toward that green light with envy and await the day he would be good enough for Daisy. Gatsby and Tom both have a lot of money yet Daisy picks one over the other, not because of the difference in the amount they have, but because of the manner in which it is attained.

The green light serves as a symbol for a number of things: among them are Gatsby's dauntless romantic optimism, Daisy herself, and the American dream as a whole.

"Listen, Robert, going to another country doesn't make any difference. I've tried all that. You can't get away from yourself by moving from one place to another. There's nothing to that"

(E. M. Hemmingway, The Sun Also Rises, p. 19)
This quotation is a great example of lost generation´s escapism and way of life. Everyone constantly tries to escape. However, Jake understands that there is no better place then any other. This really shows how lost this generation is, and even though traveling might be used, it is not helpful in the long run. Also, it shows that Jake has already tried to escape by traveling to different parts of the world, yet he is left to be the same part of the lost generation.

Meanwhile, while Cohn, the scapegoat, tries to escape this reality, he "takes a bath, has a shave and a haircut and a shampoo, and something put on his hair afterward to make it stay down" (p 103). It can be seen that though he is in a way an outsider, he still finds it necessary to, in some way, to escape this reality and the worthlessness.

Meanwhile, Jake remembers from the war that "There was much wine, an ignored tension, and a feeling of things coming that you could not prevent happening. Under the wine I lost the disgusted feeling and was happy. It seemed they were all such nice people" (p 150). This shows how alcohol helped veterans escape reality, which is a habit that follows them even after the war. It lets them, for a little while, forget who they really are and all their troubles.

“Oh, Jake,” Brett said, “we could have had such a damned good time together.” Ahead was a mounted policeman in khaki directing traffic. He raised his baton. The car slowed suddenly pressing Brett against me.
“Yes,” I said. “Isn’t it pretty to think so?”

(E. M. Hemmingway, The Sun Also Rises p. 251)
Jake's final line is rich with irony. As the taxi slows at the policeman's raised baton - possibly a symbol of Jake's struggle with impotence and how it bars him from advancing with Brett, he seems to recognize that while it would, indeed, be nice to be with her, the somewhat caustic tone of the word "pretty" suggests he finally understands that Brett has no idea how much pain he has been through, both from her and his impotence; "pretty" is such an insubstantial word. While Jake ends the novel on a highly disillusioned note, breaking from all his friends rather unceremoniously and recognizing he has misplaced his love in Brett, perhaps this is what he needs to regain his lost self, and perhaps this utter disillusionment is what must impel the Lost Generation or a future generation to rise again.

In conclusion, the lost generation was literally lost. Their actions did not lead to anything positive in their lives and their discrimination was pointless. Most importantly, instead of doing something about their problems, these "bums" used escapism which also didn't get them far. Without hope, these worthless people weren't worth much and did not live their lives as good as they could have. That is the story of the lost generation.

(Jake) "Couldn’t we live together, Brett? Couldn’t we just live together?" (Brett) "I don’t think so. I’d just tromper you with everybody."

(E. M. Hemmingway, The Sun Also Rises, p. 46)
This quotation fully describes Brett's character. She has the lack of values and direction of the Lost Generation, Brett comes closest to personifying this malaise and provoking it in others as she consistently manipulates Jake and makes him undermine his sense of self.

Brett is the strongest, most conventionally "masculine" character in the novel, dominating her lovers and manipulating them like a bull-fighter; she even has a short haircut and refers to herself as a "chap".

However, in her carelessly dominating relationships with Jake, Mike, Cohn, and Romero, she appears to be dependent on them as well; she needs men to let her be dominant.

Jack is a veteran of WWI and has an injury from it which, it appears, has left him impotent. They represent a couple who share a very strange and distant kind of love for each other. This story takes place immediately after World War I, a time of great hardship. This hardship results in a digression of values both morally and socially. The love that Brett and Jake share is symbolic of the general decline in values in that they tolerate behaviors in one another that would have been previously considered unacceptable.

It is clear that Lady Brett Ashley is anything but a lady. She is kind and sweet but extremely vulnerable to the charm that various men in her life seem to smother her with. Brett is not happy with her life or her surroundings and seeks escape and refuge in the arms of these men. But her actions seem always to end up hurting her, and she runs back to Jake.

"I seen hundreds of men come by on the road an’ on the ranches, with their bindles on their back an’ that same damn thing in their heads . . . every damn one of ’em’s got a little piece of land in his head. An’ never a God damn one of ’em ever gets it. Just like heaven. Ever’body wants a little piece of lan’. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land". (J. Steinback: Of Mice and Men, p. 107)

This is an example how the dreams could become through but they can´ t because of people's passivity. All the workers who worked at the farms had a dream - to own a little piece of land, keep animals and grow vegetable.

What was necessary to fulfill this dream? What did they had to do? Every week month they got a salary (50 dollars). They could save it and after 6 months they could buy some small farm or they could join the other 2 -3 men and buy a bigger farm and live there.

Why didn't they do that? They usually spent their money in a whorehouse or for drinks. They weren't responsible enough to save their earnings. Was money the only problem? No, of course, not. The second problem was that they wouldn't be able to fulfill their dream cause of their passivity, irresponsibility, comfort and inability to communicate and act.

The quotation says that it is not possible to get the land as it is not possible to get to the heaven. But I think that we can't compare these two things because you can get to the heaven by your belief and love to God.

If they would believe that they can get the land, they would do that as soon as possible.

This story is about monotonous way of life and inability to act or to manage fulfill one's dreams.

35 In the room the women come and go
36 Talking of Michelangelo.
37 And indeed there will be time
38 To wonder, "Do I dare?" and, "Do I dare?"
39 Time to turn back and descend the stair,
40 With a bald spot in the middle of my hair -
41 (They will say: 'How his hair is growing thin!')
42 My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,
43 My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin -
44 (They will say: "But how his arms and legs are thin!")
45Do I dare
46 Disturb the universe?

(T. S. Eliot: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, lines 35 - 46)
The entire poem expresses his fear of women and the fact that he cannot successfully relate to them. He asks: "Do I dare? and, Do I dare? / Time to turn back and descend the stair". He still has time to go back to the party and take a chance, but he hesitates, and associates himself with Hamlet, who is also hesitant, but who finally decides to act in the end of the play. He wants to be able to find love (if not that at least sexual intercourse) and enjoy the company of women, but his fear makes him put off the act of approaching them because of his humiliation.

The entire poem is the struggle of Prufrock, a gutless eccentric whose debilitating fear of the opposite sex prevents him from acting.


386 In this decayed hole among the mountains
387 In the faint moonlight, the grass is singing
388 Over the tumbled graves, about the chapel
389 There is the empty chapel, only the wind's home.
390 It has no windows, and the door swings, these line represents death
391 Dry bones can harm no one.
392 Only a cock stood on the rooftree
393 Co co rico co co rico - symbolizes the beginning of another day, or life; rebirth
394 In a flash of lightning. Then a damp gust
395 Bringing rain - something refreshing; rebirth
396 Ganga was sunken, and the limp leaves
397 Waited for rain, while the black clouds - death is near
398 Gathered far distant, over Himavant.
399 The jungle crouched, humped in silence.

(T. S. Eliot: The Waste Land, lines 386 - 399)
These lines tells about a graveyard near a chapel in an upcoming storm. Different images can be seen from the decayed hole in the moonlight, the empty chapel without windows, and the rooster's crows as the lightning and black clouds arrive. Line 386 probably refers to an empty grave that brings images of death and the end of life, or possibly the beginning of a new life to mind. The grave is lit by moonlight, possibly referring to the white light many people see when they have near-death experiences. In these first three lines it talks of tumbled graves, possibly disturbed by nature, which could tell of troubled lives, or a troubled second life.