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.

American Literature Week Eight－Nathaniel Hawthorne

A. Suggestion Pages for Self-Reading
a. 445-455 (American Renaissance)  b. 505-508 (Nature)  c. 551 (Self-Reliance)  
d. 607, 619 (Hawthorne)  e. 658, 663 (Paul Revere's Ride)   f. 658-663 (Longfellow)
g. 688, 691, 702, 714, 737 (Poe)  h. 745 (Lincoln)   i. 779 (Stowe)   j. 839 (Thoreau)

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B. Sample Questions from Previous Exam
a. Hawthorne's house was in Salem.
b. What is the meaning of "feet" in Anne Bradstreet's "The Author to Her Book"? 
--It means her child's leg.
c. "Traveling is a fool's paradise. Our first journeys discover to us the indifference of places." is a quotation from Ralph Waldo Emerson. 

      

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C. Book Discussion

a. American Renaissance (P.455)

Emerson's concept is reformism which is to abandon old European tradition and thoughts. 

-- The conviction that American literature and culture were not living up to their Revolutionary or democratic promises.

b. Ralph Waldo Emerson 

(a) He plays a crucial role in American Romantic Period and influence everyone. (P.505)

(b) Three keywords of Romantic Period-- individualism, emotionalism, and humanism. (P.507)

(c) There is a metaphor in "Self-Reliance" that is "God helps those who help themselves."(P.508) 

(d) About Language-- 1. Words are signs of natural facts. 2. Particular natural facts are symbols of particular spiritual facts. 3. Nature is the symbol of spirit. 

(e) "American Scholar" is regarded as the "declaration of cultural independence" and its important keywords include 1. Nature  2. Books  3. Man of thinking (Practical man)  4. Patience. (P.536)

 Emerson and "Self-Reliance"

c. Transcendentalism
-- The main idea is to transcend the sense knowledge to the ultimate truth within you.
d. Nathaniel Hawthorne
(a) Hawthorne had criticized some negative points of doctors such as they're always proud of the fact that their faith could move mountains. That is the reason why he wrote many stories about evil doctors e.g. Dr. Heidegger's Experiment. (P.603)
*Hubris means extreme pride or self-confidence.
*Allegory in its most general sense is an extended metaphor. 
(b) "Young Goodman Brown"
It is a story that a man roaming between vintage city and forest. The climax shows on Page 618. Brown was here to find his British relative who is an officer and seek for his helps initially. However, there is a metaphor in the end of the story in which Brown chose to go back to Ferry and live independently without British officer's helps .

 

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D. Vocabulary
a. solitude-- "Sol" stands for sole. 
* "I wandered lonely as a cloud"-- Longfellow's poem
         "For oft, when on my couch I lie
          In vacant or in pensive mood,                               
          They flash upon that inward eye
          Which is the bliss of solitude;
          And then my heart with pleasure fills,
          And dances with the daffodils."

b. custom house
c. cloak
d. liquid paper and bleach-- "Bl" stands for white.

e. Hubris means extreme pride or self-confidence.

f. Allegory in its most general sense is an extended metaphor.
g. patriarch culture-- "Patri" stands for father. 
* The system of such rule of families by senior males is termed patriarchy.
h. ferryman
i. initiation journey-- 單線性質的旅程

American Literature Week Seven－American Renaissance

A. Suggestion Pages for Self-reading
a. 445-455 (American Renaissance)   b. 471-482 (Rip Van Winkle)   c. 505-508 (Nature)
d. 607, 619 (Hawthorne)   e. 658, 663 (Paul Revere's Ride)   f. 688, 691, 702, 714, 737 (Poe)
g. 745 (Lincoln)   h. 779 (Stoive)   i. 839 (Thoreau)

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B. Photos Sharing
a. Hawthorne started to think about "inherit guilt", "original sin", or even the "witchcraft", these sorts of things. (Hawthorne and Salem)
* Witches are proved to be innocent. People just want to find someones to be blamed at the period.

b. Confederate Flag-- There were three successive flag designs that served as the official national flags of the Confederate States of America during its existence from 1861 to 1865. Since the end of the American Civil War, private and official use of Confederate flags, and of flags with derivative designs, has continued under some controversy.
* The first place to start the Civil War is Fort Sumter.

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C. Book Discussion
Topic One- Rip Van Winkle
a. "Rip" means rest in peace.
b. Setting includes the time and the place.-- on page 471
c. Use two adjective to do orientation that would be "obedient" and "henpecked".-- on page 472
* In American literature, male characters would be more delicate and throw the masculine away.
d. There are several issues showing in American literature for representing to run away from the Great Britain such as "solitude" and "escape (to the woods)". --on page 474
* "The woods" symbolizes the freedom.
e. Issue of "a keg of liquor"-- Due to prohibition, most of people would do the bootlegging.

f. "Excellent Holland" is a kind of  mocking at Nederland .-- on page 476
g. "Strange" is the keyword here.-- on page 477
h. "Flagon", "liquid", and "boot" are all wine.-- on page 478
* bootlegger--  to illegally make or sell wine-- on page 478
i. The time setting of this story is from "King George" to "General Washington".-- on page 478

 From King George to Washington

j. "I'm not myself- I'm somebody else."-- It's a panic to the New World.-- on page 480
k. "Dame Van Winkle" stands for battleaxe. However, her husband let her become what she is.
-- on page 480

Topic Two- American Renaissance
a. American writing to achieve its first significant maturity-- on page 445
b. Sir Walter Scott -- He always wrote about the story of knight or swordsman such as cooper.
-- on page 448 

 Sir Walter Scott

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D. Vocabulary
a. tercentenary-- "Ter" stands for three.
b. Mark "Twain" (v)-- "Twain" means two or a unit of weight.
c. plantation-- a large farm, especially in southern US, on which a particular type of crop is grown and can be self-sufficiency

d. descendant = offspring-- "De" stands for down.
e. matrimony-- "Ma" stands for mother.
f. clamour-- to make a loud complaint or demand
g. solitude-- "Tude" stands for partiality.
h. strange = peculiar

American Literature Week Six－Nathaniel's "Young Good Brown" and "My Kinsman Major Molineux"

A. Suggestion Pages for Self-reading
a.119   b.145   c.213-216   d.234-236, 248-249, 301-303, 305   e.323-324   f.337-340  
g.345-348, 350   h. 467-468, 471-482   i.505-508   j.581

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B. Book Discussion
a. Columbus came to North American in 1492, so the American Literature would start from 1492.

Christopher Columbus

On page 145
b. According to the Bible, human were made with clay initially and transformed to our looks now. So the authors would write something such as "ash to ash" or "dust to dust". Also, there would be many words about invocation. In addition, if there is capitalization shown, it was the remaining of German language.
c. Edward Taylor
"To prove Thou art, and that Thou art the best
    And show Thy Properties to shin most bright.
    And then Thy Works will shine as flowers on Stems
    Or as in Jewelry Shops, do gems."
-- This paragraph is to praise the God. There are some poems like this such as Tiger,Tiger.
* "Thou art" is "You are".
* William Blake's Tiger Tiger

"Tiger! Tiger! burning bright

In the forest of the night

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry? "

On page 119

a. Anne Bradstreet's The Author to Her Book is about female subjectivity.

b. "I stretched thy joints to make thee even feet,

     Yet still thou run'st more hobbling than is meet."

-- "Feet" is a material feet here and it's also a metaphor. 

 Anne Bradstreet

On page 213

a. There are some concepts of Puritanism here:

(a) original sin  (b) pre-destiny  (c) inherited guilt

b. "Threatening" words keep showing up in this article and the same words would appear over and over again such as fear, angry, wrath. That is because it's sort of religious propaganda.

* Wrath is the keyword here.

c. The image of Dante's Divine Comedy such as pit and hell.

* The picture of hell in Divine Comedy

If you overlook the hell it would be like this.

On page 234-236

a. Benjamin Franklin's famous piece of work is The Autobiography.
b. He was born in a poor family but his career was successful and he was willing to promote others.
c. "He was such a renaissance's man" which mean he was brilliant.
d. "He was a born diploma- detached, adaptable, witty, urbane, charming, and clever."
e. Treaty-- The "Treaty" here is North Atlantic Treaty.

f. The points of "the way of wealth" is to be diligent.

 

On page 248-249, 301
a. Use three words to represent the content here:
(a) felicity  (b) indulge (old Men)  (c) vanity
b. "Old Men" here means the ancient wisdom.
c. Names of Virtue
(a) Temperance  (b) Silence  (c) Order  (d) Resolution  (e) Frugality  (f) Industry  (g) Sincerity
(h) Justice  (i) Moderation  (j) Cleanliness  (k) chastity  (l) Humility

On page 323-324
a. Due to The Age of Reason, Thomas Paine was condemned by some religious people so that his reputation got suffered.

 

On page 337-338, 350

a. Thomas Jefferson wished to be remembered for only three things: drafting the Declaration of Independence, writing and supporting the Virginia Stattue for Religious Freedom, and founding the University of Virginia.
b. "It's about checks and balances."-- legislation to make the law, judiciary to interpret the law, and executive to enforce the law.

 Thomas Jafferson

On page 471-472
a. Setting-- Time + Place
* The literary element setting includes the historical moment in time and geographic location in which a story takes place, and helps initiate the main backdrop and mood for a story. Setting has been referred to as story world or milieu to include a context (especially society) beyond the immediate surroundings of the story. 
b. "Rays" and "crow of glory" here can respond to the relationship between American and Britain.

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C. Vocabulary
a. wrath-- It is the same as rage and anger. "w" is voice less such as wrinkle and write.
b. detached-- "de" stands for away from.
c. treaty-- entreaty: an attempt to persuade someone to do something
d. temperance-- control of your own behaviour (氣質)
e. monarchy-- the system of having a king or queen; "mon" stands for one.
f. advocate-- "Vo" stands for voice.
g. agrarian-- "Ag" stands for agriculture. 
h. innovation and renovation-- "Nov" stands for new.
i. blur-- It is an onomatopoeia.

American Literature Week Five－Henry David Thoreau's Walden

A. Before Formal Class
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 Thoreau

b. 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)

"Let The River Run"

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 heifer

On page 658 and 659-- the poem "A Psalm of Life"
a. 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.