a. American Dream-- When people came to America, the Statue of Liberty is the first landmark they want to see.
* It is a set of ideals in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success, and an upward social mobility achieved through hard work. The idea of the American Dream is rooted in the United States Declaration of Independence which proclaims that "all men are created equal" and that they are "endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights" including "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
b. The Brave Escape of Edith Wharton, book Trailer
-- "Early on, there were signs. She was too alert and too observant."
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B. Quiz of the Day
a. Henry David Thoreau's quotation:
"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms."
Henry David Thoreaub. Perpetual youth-- Perpetual means everlasting.
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C. American Cultural Discussion
a. Action is Eloquence. --Hillary Clinton (video)
* Actually, it's a quotation from Shakespeare:''Action is eloquence, and the eyes of th’ ignorant more learned than the ears"
b. American Dream in Working Girl-- No matter how ridiculous or how filthy the dream is, the matter is to fulfill it.
c. Carly Simon's "Let the River Run" (video) (lyrics)
We're coming to the edge,
Running on the water,
Coming through the fog,
Your sons and daughters.
Let the river run,
Let all the dreamers
Wake the nation.
Come, the New Jerusalem. --- America is the new place to gestate new culture.
Silver cities rise,
The morning lights
The streets that meet them,
And sirens call them on
With a song.
It's asking for the taking. --- The most crucial thing is to fulfill our dream.
Trembling, shaking.
Oh, my heart is aching.
d. Using the concept of American Dream to interpret the Great Gatsby.
" Most of the big shore places were closed now and there were hardly any lights except the shadowy, moving glow of a ferryboat across the Sound. And as the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away until gradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors’ eyes — a fresh, green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby’s house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder.
And as I sat there, brooding on the old unknown world, I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night."
e. Amanda McBroom's Errol Flynn
-- Art is long, time is fleeting. (lyrics)
"Now, fame, it is fleeting and stars, they keep falling,
(All is Vanity from Ecclesiastes 1. The Holy Bible: King James Version. )
And staying right up there… that's the business of art.
And luck kisses some, and she passes by others.
Disappointment and bourbon are hard on the heart."
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D. Text Book Discussion
PDF file
On page 168 (left column)
a. Author of "Rip Van Winkle" used real natural landscape to describe America and avoided the European topic.
b. In American literature, we can't see any role of "father" because it always escape.
c. Paul Revere's Ride (1774.04.18)--It's a poem by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The story is that Paul Revere told a friend to prepare signal lanterns in the Old North Church to inform him if the British will attack by land or sea. He would await the signal across the river in Charlestown and be ready to spread the alarm throughout Middlesex County, Massachusetts. (Poem)
On page 169 (right column )
a. Transcendentalism is belongs to idealism. It is a religious and philosophical movement that was developed during the late 1820s and 1830s in the Eastern region of the United States as a protest against the general state of spirituality. Among the transcendentalists'core beliefs was the inherent goodness of both people and nature.
b. Highlighting keywords
(a) sense knowledge (b) higher faculty (c) over-soul (d) man's self is divine --> the Christianity is fault.
The Norton Anthology of American Literature
On page 581 and 582-- the poem "Each and All"
a. heifer-- Io was transformed in to a heifer by Zeus.
b. We can see lots of "sense knowledge" in this poem.
* "No man is an island." said by John Donne
Zeus and heifera. Sands of life/ time-- Ancient people used to use an hourglass to know the time.
b. "Act－act" means love.
On page 663-- the poem "My Lost Youth"
a. At the end of every stanza is a sentence- "And the thought of youth are long, long thoughts."
It's just like a refrain of a song.
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E. Boston's Age of Innocent
a. In the age of innocent, American literature built the feeling of American's kindness and innocence such as Mark Twain's works.
b. "Paul Revere's Ride" and Boston-- This story happened in Boston. Paul Revere told a friend to prepare signal lanterns in the Old North Church to inform him if the British will attack by land or sea. (attack by land for a lantern; attack by sea for two lanterns)
* There is a Paul Revere's statue in Boston Common.
* Old North Church is an important place for Episcopal church.
* This painting is from Grant Wood.-- People at that time love to paint the past and the present event together.
c. The Destruction of the Tea in Boston (v)-- Because American resident needed to pay the stamp tax to the British government, however, they can't have a member of parliament in British parliament institution.
d. Boston Bomber-- The Boston Marathon bombings and subsequent related shootings were a series of attacks and incidents which began on April 15, 2013, when two pressure cooker bombs exploded during the Boston Marathon, killing 3 people and injuring an estimated 264 others.
e. Make Way for Ducklings-- It is a children's picture book written and illustrated by Robert McCloskey. This story was set the scene in the Boston Public Park.
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F. Vocabulary
a. attend + school/ church --attendance
b. perpetual youth-- Perpetual is the same as "everlasting".
c. transcend-- to go further, rise above, or be more important or better than something
d. Episcopal Church-- "Epi" stands for moving out.
e. "Inferiority complex" is a lack of self-worth, a doubt and uncertainty, and feelings of not measuring up to standards. It is often subconscious, and is thought to drive afflicted individuals to overcompensate, resulting either in spectacular achievement or extreme asocial behavior. The term was coined to indicate a lack of covert self-esteem.
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