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Literary notes about Humdrum (AI summary)

The word "humdrum" is frequently deployed to convey the dull, monotonous aspect of everyday life and social custom within literary works. Authors use it to highlight the plainness of routine existence, often contrasting it with episodes of excitement or idealism. For example, it describes the mundane lives of characters who feel stifled by conventionality, as seen when the pace of a country doctor’s journey starkly emphasizes ordinary life [1] or when a character laments a life reduced to ceaseless, unremarkable routine [2]. At the same time, the term subtly critiques societal norms, suggesting that within the repetitive, humdrum fabric of existence, there may lie a deeper yearning for something extraordinary [3],[4].
  1. A country doctor's horse went at a humdrum pace along the roads.
    — from Poor White: A Novel by Sherwood Anderson
  2. "When I get back there I will have to settle down to a humdrum life, and there won't be nothing at all to get up a little excitement.
    — from The Haunted Mine by Harry Castlemon
  3. School claimed the young Hugos after this tragical episode, where they were oddities among the humdrum tradesmen's sons.
    — from Poems by Victor Hugo
  4. “I'm really most humdrum and commonplace.
    — from This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald

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