About the Book
A thematic reader for courses in Composition.
Distinguished by the quality of writing and the variety of selections, this thematic reader identifies and collects some of the most important insights, discoveries, and reflections of the past millennia as produced by its most noteworthy writers and through a variety of genres. In addition, it introduces students to major traditions in essay writing and other genres and provides guidance in developing critical reading and writing skills. Informative footnotes, author biographies, end-of-selection questions, end-of-chapter connections, and a wide range of full-color images round out this 4th edition.
Table of Contents:
I. INTRODUCTION: READING IN THE VARIOUS GENRES. READING AND ANALYZING VISUAL TEXTS.
1. Reflections on Experience.
Nonfiction.
Number One!, Jill Nelson. Boyhood with Gurdjieff, Fritz Peters. West with the Night, Beryl Markham. The Bodily Memory, Marcel Proust. Initiated into an Iban Tribe, Douchan Gersi. Confessions of a Fast Woman, Lesley Hazelton. So, This Was Adolescence, Annie Dillard. The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria, Judith Ortiz Cofer. The Blood Runs Like a River Through My Dreams, Nasdijj.
Fiction. The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The Fat Girl, Andre Dubus.
Poetry. Sonnet 30: When to the Sessions of Sweet Silent Thought, William Shakespeare. This House I Cannot Leave, Barbara Kingsolver. Funny, Anna Kamienska. The Solitary, Sara Teasdale.
2. Influential People and Memorable Places.
Nonfiction.
Liked for Myself, Maya Angelou. Antidisestablishmentarianism, Gayle Pemberton. My Brother, Gary Gilmore, Mikhal Gilmore.Moonlit Nights of Laughter, Fatima Mernissi. The Shopping Mall and the Formal Garden, Richard Keller Simon. Niagara Falls, William Zinsser. Reflections in Westminister Abbey, Joseph Addison. A Place for Your Stuff, George Carlin. Fiction. Neighbors, Raymond Carver. Looking for a Rain God, Bessie Head. Poetry. The Youngest Daughter, Cathy Song. Those Winter Sundays, Robert Hayden. Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, William Wordsworth.
3. The Value of Education.
Nonfiction.
Learning to Read and Write, Frederick Douglass. The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society, Jonathan Kozol. In Defense of Elitism, William A. Henry III. On Becoming a Chicano, Richard Rodriguez. Learning What Was Never Taught, Sabine Reichel. How the Web Destroys the Quality of Students' Research Papers, David Rothenberg. Areopagitica: Defense of Books, John Milton. Speech Codes on Campus, Nat Hentoff. Is Harry Potter Evil?, Judy Blume.
Fiction.
A Canary’s Ideas, Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis.
Poetry.
Learning to Read, Francis E. W. Harper. Workday, Linda Hogan.
4. Perspectives on Language.
Nonfiction.
The Day Language Came into My Life, Helen Keller. Thinking in Pictures, Temple Grandin. Sex, Lies, and Conversation, Deborah Tannen. Anger, George Lakoff. The Language of Clothes, Alison Lurie. The FDR Memorial: Who Speaks from the Wheelchair?, Rosemarie Garland-Thomson. Propaganda under a Dictatorship, Aldous Huxley. The Rhetoric of Advertising, Stuart Hirschberg.
Fiction.
FromA Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess.
Poetry.
Crow Goes Hunting, Ted Hughes.
5. Issues in Popular Culture.
Nonfiction.
The Culture of Consumerism, Juliet B. Schor. Want Creation Fuels Americans' Addictiveness, Philip Slater. Urban Legends “The Boyfriend's Death,” Jan Harold Brunvand.TV News as Entertainment, Neil Postman and Steve Powers. Kid Kustomers, Eric Schlosser.The Body Beautiful, Rosalind Coward. The Burden of Race, Arthur Ashe. The New Face of Marriage, Barbara Kantrowitz.
Fiction.
Désirée's Baby, Kate Chopin. Happy Endings, Margaret Atwood.
Poetry.
Barbie Doll, Marge Piercy. Lisa's Ritual, Age 10, Grace Caroline Bridges. Streets of Philadelphia, Bruce Springsteen. Alzheimer’s, Kelly Cherry.
Drama.
Sure Thing, David Ives.
6. Our Place in Nature.
Nonfiction.
The Lowest Animal, Mark Twain. You Dirty Vole, Gunjan Sinha. Watching the Animals, Richard Rhodes. How to Kill an Ocean, Thor Heyerdahl. Why Do We Smoke, Drink, and Use Dangerous Drugs?, Jared Diamond. Waking Up the Rake, Linda Hogan. Am I Blue?, Alice Walker.
Fiction.
The Masque of the Red Death, Edgar Allan Poe.
Poetry.
Sleeping in the Forest, Mary Oliver. The Sound of the Sea, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The Gray Squirrel, Humbert Wolfe.
7. History in the Making.
Nonfiction.
Concerning Egypt, Herodotus. The Gettysburg Address, Gilbert Highet. The San Francisco Earthquake, Jack London. R.M.S. Titanic, Hanson W. Baldwin. The Man from Hiroshima, Maurizio Chierici. From a Native Daughter, Haunani-Kay Trask. Analyzing the Rhetoric of Nixon’s “Checkers” Speech, Stuart Hirshberg. Report from Ground Zero, Dennis Smith.
Fiction.
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, Ambrose Bierce. Home Soil, Irene Zabytko.
Poetry.
A Worker Reads History, Bertolt Brecht. Child's Memory, Eleni Fourtouni. Titanic, David R. Slavitt. The Second Coming, W.B. Yeats.
8. The Pursuit of Justice.
Nonfiction.
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs. To Make Them Stand in Fear, Kenneth M. Stampp. I Have a Dream, Martin Luther King, Jr. A Modest Proposal, Jonathan Swift. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, Barbara Ehrenreich. Daisy, Luis Sepulveda. Defining and Countering Terrorism, Steven E. Barkan and Lynne L. Snowden. The Case for Torture, Michael Levin.
Fiction.
Gregory, Panos Ioannides. The Stolen Party, Liliana Heker.
Poetry.
The Unknown Citizen, W.H. Auden. At First I Was Given Centuries, Margaret Atwood. The Colonel, Carolyn Forche.
Drama.
Trifles, Susan Glaspell.
9. The Impact of Technology.
Nonfiction.
DNA as Destiny, David Ewing Duncan. The Haves and the Have-Nots, LynNell Hancock. Identical Twins Reared Apart, Constance Holden. Got Silk, Lawrence Osborne. How Not to Use the Fax Machine and the Cellular Phone, Umberto Eco. It’s Easy Being Green, Bill McKibben. From The Road Ahead, Bill Gates. The Pencil, Henry Petroski.
Fiction.
The Personal Touch, Chet Williamson.
Poetry.
When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer, Walt Whitman. I'm Gonna Be an Engineer, Peggy Seeger.
10. The Artistic Impulse.
Nonfiction.
How to Write with Style, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. How to Tell if Your Child Is a Writer, Fran Liebowitz. On Writing, Stephen King. Great Movies, Roger Ebert. Pavlova, Agnes de Mille. Film Music, Aaron Copland. Imprisoning Time in a Rectangle, Lance Morrow. Oversimulated Suburbia, David Brooks.
Fiction.
Madame Zilensky and the King of Finland, Carson McCullers.
Poetry.
The Author to Her Book, Anne Bradstreet. Tell All But the Truth But Tell It Slant, Emily Dickinson. The Sound of Silence, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel.
11. Matters of Ethics, Philosophy, and Religion.
Nonfiction.
The Meaning of Ethics, Philip Wheelwright. The Unwilled, Marya Mannes. What I Saw at the Abortion, Richard Selzer. Lifeboat Ethics: The Case Against Helping the Poor, Garrett Hardin. If I Die in a Combat Zone, Tim O'Brien. The Perils of Obedience, Stanley Milgram. The Role of Religion in Modern Society, Dalai Lama. Salvation, Langston Hughes.
Fiction.
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?, Joyce Carol Oates.
Parables. The Allegory of the Cave, Plato. Parables in the New Testament., Matthew.Parables of Buddha, TheBuddha. Islamic Folk Stories, Nasreddin Hodja.
Poetry.
Ethics, Linda Pastan. The Road Not Taken, Robert Frost. Hope, Lisel Mueller.
Credits.
Index of Authors and Titles.
