Ee Cummings Essay, Research Paper

E.E. Cummings is characteristically American.

E.E. Cummings is characteristically American. He is a famous, well known

American author. I found that his writing style is of a stereotypical American.

What is it to be stereotypically American? Well I found that one of the

main things is that you can say or write whatever you want and not feel

threatened about if what your saying is the right thing or not. Also a lot of

Americans will use sarcasm. Also you don’t have to come right out and say

whatever you mean. Some will talk about something completely different

then what they are really trying to say.

Cummings used a good amount of sarcasm in his writing. He sort of

made fun of things in his poems without coming out and saying it. He also

doesn’t just come right out and say what he means. I haven’t been able to

figure out many of his poems at all. The things he says just makes no sense at

all. Even after analyzing his work I haven’t been able to understand what he

means. I think that is one thing that most Americans do in one way or

another.

Cummings also wrote a large amount of poems that probably would

have offended people in one way or another. But freedom of speech is one

thing that all Americans have. We can say whatever we want and not have to

answer to anyone about it. If we were in another country that freedom of

speech isn’t allowed he possibly could have been thrown in jail for some of

his writings.

He was known for his lack of correct punctuation and capitalization in

his writings. Very often he would write his name as “e.e. cummings”, not

even capitalizing his own name. He basically had his own style of writing

things even though they were not written correctly. He never followed any

of the rules which might have been one of the reasons he was so remembered.

He was born in Cambridge Massachusetts. He grew up there and

worked at a mail-order publishing company for a short time. He decided to

volunteer for the Norton-Harjes Ambulance group in France. He was

imprisoned for three months in a French Detention camp. While being there

he wrote his first book titled “The Enormous Room”. Some people believe

that its because of him being locked up, that’s how he got his style of writing

in a way that no one else does.

After the war ended he went to Paris to study art. But when he

returned to the States he was already famous for his books.

You are probably wondering what most of this has to do with him

being characteristically American. Well he grew up and spent much of his life

here. Also his parents probably had a impact on him because they were

American too. This is why I added in a lot of those details.

He also used slang in his writing. He used words or phrases that meant

something different then what was written. He was known for using a jazz

rhythm in most of his writings. That was one thing that stood out about him.

He enjoyed a long and happy marriage to a American women that was

said to inspire him in allot of his writings. In his later years he divided his

time at his farm in New Hampshire and his apartment in New York. These

places are where he did most of his writings. I think that his lifestyle and the

things that he saw and went on during his life probably played a big part in

what he wrote. I mean he didn’t write about farms and apartment but I think

they played a part in his poems.

All in all I would have to say that E.E. Cummings is characteristically

American. Almost every stereotype I could think of for a American author fit

him. He seems to do some things that aren’t considered a American

stereotype, but he does a lot of things that are. So once again I have to say

E.E. Cummings is characteristically American.