American Literature Week Nine－Midterm Exam

V. Essay

1.    American romanticism begins with Rip Van Winkle. How does a short story that is based on borrowed ideas come to be one of the most widely read and loved pieces of American literature?

          Washington Irving used memorable characters to express a message of freedom and identity to a nation which was just starting to discover both. In “Rip Van Winkle”, he used characters to show his ideal as a romantic and to represent a whole new independent world which was synonymous with Utopia. Romantic literature in America in 1820s during which Irving published this short story was just starting to grow and people were craving more pieces. This desire as well as the identity to American people was granted at the time. That is the reason why “Rip Van Winkle” would become so popular.

2.    Thoreau makes it very clear at the opening of Walden that his stay in the wilderness was not a lifestyle choice but rather a temporary experiment, and that “At present I am a sojourner in civilized life again.” Does the short duration of Thoreau’s stay at Walden undercut the importance of his project? 

          Thoreau insisted on telling us that his staying in Walden was not a life choice or commitment to a set of idea, though many people still misunderstood him. It was just an experience rather than a formal project for research. When he left Walden Pond in 1847, he did not admit failure; instead, he considered he had another lifestyle to choose. Thoreau was more of an Emersonian Transcendentalist than he was a socialist. He was not interested in showing how the soul could benefit from the change of scenery and occupation. After he learnt some lessons in Walden, he did change to other occupations and scenes. Therefore, it’s not to undercut but to prove the philosophy of his life.

3.     Discuss the themes we constantly find in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s works. (p. 170)

The themes that we constantly found in Hawthorne’s pieces include the relation between good and evil, inherent guilt, traditional curses, and so forth. In the setting of Hawthorne’s pieces, the evil is obvious to be seen. Also, he would use some poetic imaginary and technique such as implication and symbol in his pieces. When reading his works, it is easy to sink into an atmosphere of cumulative sin and impending doom just like when we’re reading ancient epics. Hawthorne tried to gently show the rebel of the concept of Puritan’s moral corrosion, guilt, and the original sin. What he wanted to do was to query the unreasonable patterns which people were obeying such as burning witches who were innocent in reality. His idea is fully shown in his famous book, The Scarlet Letter.