Dr. S. Elaine Craghead, Massachusetts Maritime Academy full professor, will lead a discussion of Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington, the novel that won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1921.  The heroine, Alice, is caught in a class system which she attempts to escape.  Her situation can be compared to that of other protagonists of both realist and naturalist fiction focusing on class in the US in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, such as Lily Bart of Wharton's House of Mirth, Maggie of Crane's eponymous novella, Fitzgerald's Gatsby, Dreiser's Sister Carrie, and more.  This concentrated focus on the social consequences of economics (often tied to gender) in the novels can tell us a good deal about the time and place in which they were written.  Dr. Craghead will include a viewing of a piece of the film version of Alice Adams to see and discuss the ending that is vastly different from the novel.

This program made possible with support from the Mid-Cape Cultural Council.