By the time Krebs returned to his home town in Oklahoma the greeting of heroes was over. He came home much too late. The men from the town who had been drafted had been welcomed elaborately on their return. There had been a great deal of hysteria. Now the reaction had set in. People seemedContinue reading “RKS American Literature: Disconnection of a U.S. Marine Returning Home to Oklahoma: Home Too Late in the Summer of 1919”
Tag Archives: RKS AMERICAN LITERATURE
RKS American Literature: An Elusive Love Lost Forever (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
“The dream was gone. Something had been taken from him. In a sort of panic he pushed the palms of his hands into his eyes and tried to bring up a picture of the waters lapping on Sherry Island and the moonlit veranda, and gingham on the golf-links and the dry sun and the goldContinue reading “RKS American Literature: An Elusive Love Lost Forever (F. Scott Fitzgerald)”
RKS American Literature: Fortunes to be Made Raising Chickens (Sherwood Anderson)
One hopes for so much from a chicken and is so dreadfully disillusioned. Small chickens, just setting out on the journey of life, look so bright and alert and they are in fact so dreadfully stupid. They are so much like people they mix one up in one’s judgements of life. If disease does notContinue reading “RKS American Literature: Fortunes to be Made Raising Chickens (Sherwood Anderson)”
RKS American Literature: Why I Am Inclined to See the Darker Side of Life (Sherwood Anderson)
The first venture into which the two people went turned out badly. They rented ten acres of poor stony land on Grigg’s road, eight miles from Bidwell, and launched into chicken raising. I grew into boyhood on the place and got my first impressions of life there. From the beginning, they were impressions of disasterContinue reading “RKS American Literature: Why I Am Inclined to See the Darker Side of Life (Sherwood Anderson)”
RKS American Literature: Convicted of Shoplifting (on a tipsy lark): Has Impulse Shattered This Man? (Conrad Aiken)
He sat down on the edge of his bed and thought of Chicago. He thought of his childhood there, the Lake Shore Drive, Winnetka, the trip to Niagara Falls with his mother. He could hear the Falls now; He remembered the Fourth of July on the boat; the crowded examination room at college; the timeContinue reading “RKS American Literature: Convicted of Shoplifting (on a tipsy lark): Has Impulse Shattered This Man? (Conrad Aiken)”
RKS American Literature: Wait for the End of Segregation? (Martin Luther King Jr.)
We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jet-like speed toward gaining political independence, but we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those whoContinue reading “RKS American Literature: Wait for the End of Segregation? (Martin Luther King Jr.)”
RKS AMERICAN LITERATURE: Letter from Birmingham Jail (Martin Luther King Jr.)
My friends I must say to you that we have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure. Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but as ReinholdContinue reading “RKS AMERICAN LITERATURE: Letter from Birmingham Jail (Martin Luther King Jr.)”
RKS AMERICAN LITERATURE: Hymie’s Bull (Ralph Ellison)
Bulls are pretty bad people to meet if you’re a bum. They have head-whipping down to a science and they’re always ready to go into action. They know all the places to hit a bone to turn it into jelly, and they seem to feel just the place to kick you to make your backboneContinue reading “RKS AMERICAN LITERATURE: Hymie’s Bull (Ralph Ellison)”
RKS American Literature: An Intelligent Woman’s Ability to See How Full of Shit a Man Is! (Dennis Lehane)
Now standing in front of Carmen Davenport’s building, holding both her hands by the fingers she tells him she had a nice night and he agrees that he did too and they both smile goofily and wonder if they should try another kiss, he realizes that what scares him about her is what scares himContinue reading “RKS American Literature: An Intelligent Woman’s Ability to See How Full of Shit a Man Is! (Dennis Lehane)”
RKS American Literature: Bringing a Pornographer to Christmas Dinner (Dennis Lehane)
Mary Pat’s not going to be seen voluntarily walking two cops into her building. That would be like bringing a pornographer to Christmas dinner. Dennis Lehane, “Small Mercies”, 2023
