Ethan Frome

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. What technological advances occurred in the 19th century? If you can, name at least three.

Teaching Suggestion: Ethan Frome is set during the late Industrial Revolution against a backdrop of expanding railroads and electricity. Students may reach further back in time towards innovations like textile machinery and steamboats, as well as offer other ideas about advancements in travel, transportation, and technology throughout the 1800s. Since industrialization went hand in hand with urbanization throughout this period, use students’ responses to spark discussion about the effects these technological changes had on the American landscape (and in particular on those living in rural areas).

• The Minnesota Libraries Publishing Project features this overview of the “transportation revolution” in the United States.
• The webpage for Connecticut’s Ledyard Up-Down Sawmill (a historical site with a functioning 19th-century mill) features photos, video, and information about the kinds of technology that a farm like Ethan‘s might have used.

2. What objects, emotions, and concepts do you associate with the color red? What cultural associations does the color have?

Teaching Suggestion: Students may have their own personal associations with the color red, but the color has certain connotations that are virtually ubiquitous, at least in Western societies: love, passion, danger, violence, guilt. Red signifies all of these things in Ethan Frome, and its use as a motif is all the more prominent given the novel’s otherwise dreary color scheme.

• This Scientific American article discusses the psychology of the color red, which fits in well with Ethan Frome’s naturalist depiction of human nature and agency.

Short Activity

Ethan Frome is often classed as a work of naturalist literature. Based on the name, what do you think “naturalism” might involve?

Teaching Suggestion: Students are likely to be unfamiliar with the naturalist genre, but the name does provide some clues; nudge students to think about “nature” both in the sense of “environment” (whether ecological, societal, familial, etc.) and “human nature,” as well as to the way these definitions intersect. After brainstorming and sharing their thoughts, students might take a few minutes to independently research definitions and examples of naturalism. Ultimately, use this as a jumping-off point for a discussion of fate and free will—in particular, whether environment, interpersonal relationships, and personality can serve as forms of destiny.

• Dr. Donna Campbell (Washington State University) offers this overview of naturalism’s influence on American literature; compare naturalism to her discussion of realism, a related genre.
• A list of naturalist titles from Goodreads provides a sense of the kinds of novels that fall under the naturalism umbrella.