History and Anthology of American Literature

1
History and Anthology of American Literature

• Part I. The Literature of Colonial America
• Part II. The Literature of Reason and Revolution
• Part III. The Literature of Romanticism

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• How to Define American Literature
• Definition
• American literature is the literature produced in
  American English by American citizens.
• Basic qualities of American Writers
• independent
• individualistic
• critical
• innovative
• humorous

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• How to define American Literature
• Anylytical approach
• Thematic approach
• Historical approach

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List of Works

• Sherwood Anderson Winsburg, Ohio
• James Baldwin Go Tell It on the Mountain
• Saul Bellow Seize the Day, Henderson the
  Rain King
• William S. Burroughs The Naked lunch
• Willa Cather My Antonia
• Kate Chopin The Awakening
• Stephen Crane The Red Badge of Courage

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• Theodore Dreiser Sister Carrie, An American
  Tragedy
• Ralph Ellison Invisible Man
• William Faulkner Go Down, Moses, The Sound and
  the Fury
• F.Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby
• Alex Haley Roots

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• Nathaniel Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter
• Joseph Heller Catch-22
• Ernest Hemingway The Sun Also Rises, The Old Man
  and the Sea
• James Jones From Here to Eternity
• Maxine Hong Kingston The Woman Warrior
• Harper Lee To Kill a Mockingbird
• Sinclair Lewis Main Street

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• Jack London The Call of the Wild,
  Martin Eden
• Norman Mailer The Naked and the Dead
• Carson McCullers The Heart Is a Lonely
  Hunter
• James A.Michener Cennennial
• Margaret Mitchell Gone with the Wind
• Toni Morrison The Bluest Eye

8

• Mark Twain The Adventures of
  Huckleberry Finn
• Alice Walker The Color Purple
• Robert Penn Warren All the Kings Men
• Edith Wharton The Age of Innocence
• Thornton Wolfe Look Homeward, Angel
• Herman Wouk The Winds of War
• Richard Wright Native Son

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• Vladimir Nabokov Lolita
• Frank Norris The Ocopus
• J.D.Salinger The Catcher in the Rye
• Erich Segal Man, Woman and Child
• Upton Sinclair The Jungle
• John Steinbeck The Grapes of Wrath
• Harriet Beecher Stowe Uncle Toms Cabin
• William Styron Sophies Choice

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• Mark Twain The Adventurous of Huckberry Finn
• Alice Walker The Color Purple
• Rober Penn Warren All the Kings Men
• Edith Wharton The Age of Innocence
• Thomas Wolfe Look Homeward, Angel
• Herman Wouk The Winds of War
• Richard Right Native Son

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Part I. The Literature of Colonial America

• Historical Introduction
• Early American writers and Poets
• Puritan
• Puritanism

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Part I. Historical Introduction

• I. The native American and their culture Indians
• II. The historical background of the colonial
  Time
• Christopher Columbus discovered the American
  continent in 1491.
• Captain Christopher Newport reached Virginia in
  1607.
• Puritans came the New England area, by Mayflower
  in 1619.
• The first settlement was established in Plymouth
  in 1620.

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Early American Writers and Poets

• South, Jamestown, Virginia
• Captain John Smith---first American writer 8
  works
• Contributions his description of America were
  filled with themes, myths, images, scenes,
  characters and events that were a foundation for
  the nations literature. He lured the Pilgrims
  into fleeing here and creating a New land.
• North, New England, Puritan Writers
• William Bradford first governor of Plymouth, The
  History of Plymouth Plantation, simplicity,
  earnestness, direct reporting, readable, moving.
• John Winthrop first governor of Boston, The
  History of New England, candid simplicity,
  honesty
• Two Poets Anne Bradstreet, Edward Taylor

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Puritans

• One division of English Protestant. They regarded
  the reformation of the church under Elizabeth as
  incomplete, and called for further purification
  from what they considered to be unscriptural and
  corrupt forms and ceremonies retained from the
  unreformed church.
• The 17th century American Puritans included two
  parts Separatists and Massachusetts Bay Group
• Their Religious Doctrines original sin, total
  depravity, predestination and limited atonement
  through a special infusion of grace from God.
• They regarded themselves as chosen people of God.
  They embraced hardships, industry and frugality.
  They favored a disciplined, hard, somber, ascetic
  and harsh life. They opposed arts and pleasure.
  They suspect joy and laughter as symptoms of sin.

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Puritanism

• A religious and political movement. Through it,
  one sees emerging the right of the individual to
  political and religious independence.
• Their religious doctrines original sin, total
  depravity, predestination, limited atonement.
• Their attitudes toward entertainment joy and
  laughter are symptoms of sin.
• Their attitudes toward work work itself is a
  good in addition to what it achieves, that time
  saved by efficiency or good fortune should be
  spent in doing further work.

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Puritanisms influence on American literature

• Purpose pragmatic
• Contents practical matter-of-fact accounts of
  life in the new world highly theoretical
  discussions of religious questions.
• Form diary, autobiography, sermon, letter
• Style tight and logic structure, precise and
  compact expression, avoidance of rhetorical
  decoration, adoption of homely imagery,
  simplicity of diction.

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Part II. The Literature of Reason and Revolution

• Historical Introduction
• Benjamin Franklin
• Thomas Paine
• Thomas Jefferson
• Philip Freneau

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Part II. Historical Introduction(1)

• Industrial Revolution spurred the economy in
  American colonies.
• Independence War the industrial growth led to
  intense strain with Britain. The British
  government tried to suppress their growth
  economically, and ruled them from abroad
  politically and levied heavy tax on them. these
  aroused bitter resentment in colonies. Constant
  conflicts resulted in American revolutionary war.

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Part II. Historical Introduction (2)

• Spiritual life of the coloniesEnlightenment.
• Philosophical and intellectual movement.
• Advocated reason or rationality, the scientific
  method, equality and human beingsability to
  perfect themselves and their society.
• Agreed on faith in human rationality and
  existence of discoverable and universally valid
  principles governing human beings, nature and
  society.
• Opposed intolerance, restraint, spiritual
  authority and revealed religion

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Benjamin Franklin (1)

• The only good writer of the colonial period.
• Printer, enlightener, inventor, scientist,
  statesman, diplomat
• Aid Jefferson in writing The Declaration of
  Independence.
• Seeking help from France in American Independent
  War.

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Benjamin Franklin (2)

• Main Works Poor Richards Almanac
• It contains many proverbs
• Autobiography
• With it he set the form for autobiography as a
  genre.

• Style he developed an utilitarian and didactic
  style.
• His style is characterized by simplicity,
  frankness, wit, clarity, logic and order.

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Benjamin Franklin (3)

• Autobiography inspiring account of a poor boys
  rise to a high position. It is a how-to-do-it
  book, one on the art of self-improvement.
• Contents It covered Franklins life only until
  1757 when he was 51 years old. It described his
  life as a shrewd and industrious businessman and
  narrates how he owned the constant felicity of
  his life, his long-continued health and
  acquisition of fortune.
• Significance It presents a prototype of American
  success which inspired generations of Americans.
  It is an embodiment of Puritanism and
  enlightening spirits.

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Benjamin Franklin (4)

• Analysis of Selected Parts
• A. 3 paras a. He was interested in reading as a
  child.
• b. Being an apprentice to his
  brother, he began writing.
• c. How he improved his
  argumentation.
• Summary Franklin was thirsty for knowledge and
  improved his writing with practical methods. How
  he gained success through ones consistent effort
  and hard working. (self-improvement/education)
• B. 5 paras a. The way of learning language.
• b. Practice makes perfect---a piece of advice on
  how to teach language.
• c/d. Relations with his relatives. Life
  experience.
• e. Learning Club devoted on the improvement of
  young man, influence public opinion.
• Summary Franklin was a
  practical, diligent man. In learning language, he
  had a great power of endurance and clever mind.
  He always tried his best to achieve his goal, no
  matter in life or study. (self-reliance)

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Why Franklin is admired and read widely?

• He is a typical American, model of the self-made
  man, a cultural hero whose life exemplified the
  American dream of the poor boy who made good.
• He stressed the importance of working hard to
  make money, happiness depending in the first
  place on economic success and optimistically
  believed that every American could do so.
• He was convinced that no man could be virtuous or
  happy unless he did his best to improve the life
  of his society and his own life.

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Why say Franklin is the representative of
American Enlightenment?

• 1.He believed in reason or rationality, the
  scientific method, equality and human beings
  ability to perfect themselves and their society.
• 2. He opposed intolerance, restraint, spiritual
  authority and revealed religion. Deist
• 3. He favored the education. Self-education,
  educating and disseminating knowledge among
  people by his newspaper and Autobiography,
  establishing learning club, college and library.
• 4. He favored freedom of thoughts. He set up the
  ideas of democracy in the USA.

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Thomas Paine (1)

• Propagandist, pamphleteer, a master of persuasion
  who understands the power of language to move a
  man to action.
• Main works
• The American Crisis
• Common Sense
• The rights of man
• The Age of Reason

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Thomas Paine (2)

• Study of the Selected Part
• 1. In what sense does Paine use the verb try in
  the first sentence of the essay?
• Paine used the word in the sense of test to
  the limit, subject to great hardships.
• 2. To what 3 types of criminal does Paine
  indirectly compare George III? What is Paines
  attitude toward the British troops?
• 3. What does the writer think of the Tories?
• 4. What does Paine mean by an offensive war? What
  reasons does he give for not supporting such a
  war?
• 5. What kind of war does he believe the American
  revolution to be?
• 6. How do you understand the title of the
  essay?

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Thomas Jefferson (1)

• Enlightener, planter, aristocrat, lawyer, a
  symbol of American democracy.
• Man of many talents scientist, inventor,
  musician, linguist, architect, diplomat and
  writer.

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Thomas Jefferson (2)

• Political Career He served his country as
  Minister to France(1784-1789), Secretary of
  State(1789-1793), Vice President(1791-1801) and
  third President(1801-1809).
• Thoughts Jeffersonian Democracy, which includes
  faith in the individual and common man, dislike
  an overly strong government, and emphasis on the
  importance of education and on agrarianism and
  land ownership as they brought responsibility and
  true judgment. Politically, he is considered the
  father of the democratic spirit in his country.
  The society he thought of as ideal was one where
  landowning farmers could live under as little
  government as possible.
• Style dignity, flexibility, clarity, command of
  generalization

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Thomas Jefferson (3)

• The Declaration of Independence The essay,
  adopted July 4, 1776, not only announced the
  birth of a new nation, but also set forth a
  philosophy of human freedom which served as
  unimportant force in the western world.
• It is a statement of American principles and a
  review of the Causes of the quarrel with Britain,
  presented the American view to the world with
  classic dignity.
• It instilled among the common people a sense of
  their own importance and inspired struggle for
  personal freedom, self government and a dignified
  place in society.

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Philip Freneau (1)

• Father of American Poetry
• Teacher, political journalist, seaman,
  humanitarian, polemist, propagandist, satirist,
  loyal follower of Jefferson

• Main Works
• The Rising Glory of America (1772)
• The British Prison Ship (1781)
• The Wild Honey Suckle (1786)
• The Indian Burying Ground (1788)

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The Wild Honey Suckle

• It is a deistic celebration of nature, romantic
  use of simple nature imagery, inspired by themes
  of death and transience. Much of the beauty of
  the poem lies in the sounds of the words and the
  effects created through changes in rhythm.
• Flower vs Human Being, Duration vs Life
• Show us how to live an useful life.
• In a revolution, one should not do nothing for
  his country for fear of being hurt, harmed and
  destroyed.

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Summary of each stanza

• Stanza 1 The first Stanza of the poem treats the
  advantages as well as disadvantages of the
  flowers modest retirementit is designed with
  beauty and well protected in solitude whereas
  its beauty might be admired by few.
• Stanza 2 The second stanza suggests that the
  honey suckle bears a special relationship with
  nature which has advised it to keep away from
  vulgar eye, it has sent the soft waters flowing

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• Gently by. However, in spite of all the natures
  kindness, the flower can not escape its doom. The
  best time of its life is fading, for death is
  waiting.
• Stanza 3 The third stanza reveals the
  indifference of nature---the unpitying frosts
  are as much a part of nature as the spft
  waters. Thus, the notion that nature has
  provided a guardian shade for the protection of
  the honey suckle is a sentimental fancy.

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• It is relative, but death is absolute.
• Stanza 4 In the fourth stanza, the poet sees his
  fate mirrored in that of the flower. Human
  beings, as any other creatures or flowers, are a
  part of nature. They originated from nature and
  will surely return to nature some day, thus their
  reduction to nature in the day ahead will
  constiture no real loss.

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Part III. The Literature of Romanticism

• Historical Introduction
• Washington Irving
• James Fenimore Cooper
• William Cullen Bryant
• Edgar Allan Poe
• Ralph Waldo Emerson

• Henry David Thoreau
• Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Herman Melville
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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Part III. Historical Introduction

• Stability, Prosperity, Freedom
• Geographically, America expanded its frontier.
  Economically, it began the industrialization and
  urbanization. Politically, people enjoyed more
  freedom. Culturally, cultural business prospered.
• Literary IdeasRomanticism and Transcendentalism

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Romanticism (1)

• 2 stages pre-romanticism (1770s-1830)
• post-romanticism(1830-60,65-75)
• Rise of Romanticism appeared in England in the
  18th century. Reaction against the prevailing
  neoclassical spirit and rationalism during the
  Age of Reason.

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Romanticism (2)

• Moral enthusiasm passion, emotion, fancy and
  imagination.
• Faith in the value of individualism and intuitive
  perception display personalities, express
  feelings and ideas, stress mens rights for
  freedom and happiness. Human nature is of good
  will. Man can know the world through his own
  ability/conscience/intuition.
• Nature was a source of goodness and mans
  societies a source of corruption.

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Romanticism (3)

• The literary works of romanticism mostly
  reflected the fantastic and thrilling stories
  taking place long ago and far away, rich in
  mystic color. The romantic had a persistent
  interest in the primitive literature, in which he
  found inspiration of various kind.
• The romantic showed a profound admiration and
  love for nature. The beauty and perfection of
  nature could produce in him unspeakable joy and
  exaltation.

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Transcendentalism (1)

• Appeared in 1830, marked the maturity of American
  romanticism and the first renaissance in the
  American literary history.
• The term was derived from the Latin verb
  transcendere to rise above , to pass beyond the
  limits.
• Rise of Transcendentalism the product of
  combination of foreign influence (German
  idealistic philosopher, neo-Platonism, Oriental
  mysticism, Confucius and Mencius) and American
  native Puritan tradition.

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Transcendentalism(2) romantic idealism,
philosophical romanticism

• Spirit or Oversoul the universe is composed of
  Nature and Soul. Spirit is everywhere.
• Individualism the most important element in
  society, the divinity of individual.
• Nature is a connecting link between God and man.
  It is a symbol of the Spirit.
• Community living and dignity of manual labor.
• Relying on Intuition and Conscience, man can
  transcend the limits of the senses and of logic
  and directly receive higher truths and greater
  knowledge denied to more mundane methods of
  knowing.

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Ralph Waldo Emerson(1)

• Transcendentalist Bring Transcendentalism to New
  England
• Believe in individualism, independence of mind,
  self-reliance
• Prose, poetry, speech

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Reading Nature

• Para 1 Nature has a restorative, comforting,
  purifying influence on Men.
• Para 2 Nature is sublime, respectable, kind,
  profound and inspiring.
• Para 3 The definition of Nature.
• Para 4/5 Men always feel delightful and young in
  Nature.
• Para 6 The power of delight resides in men or in
  a harmony of both.

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Washington Irving (1)

• Father of American Short Stories
• First American author to make a living by his
  pen, first great prose stylist of American
  romanticism,.
• author of the first American short stories and
  familiar essays.
• the first American author of imaginative
  literature to achieve international distinction

46
Washington Irving (2)

• Main Works
• The Sketch Book
• Tales of a Traveler,
• The Life of George Washington

• Style simplicity, lucidity, poise and ease flow,
  discursive and leisurely, slow, graceful
  presentation, careful phrases and cadences.

47
Washington Irving (3)

• Significance his literary innovations
• 1)author of first modern American short stories
  and the first great American juvenile literature.
  It was him who introduced the familiar essay from
  Europe to America.
• 2)He ranked among the first of the modern men of
  letters to write history and biography as
  literary entertainment.
• 3)He was the leaders of the world-wide Romantic
  Movement.
• 4)His humor, which gave an impetus to the growth
  and popularity of American indigenous humor. His
  humor was always well-meaning, mild and prone to
  be accepted.
• 5) Irvings genial writing also improved the
  feeling of American toward the British.

48
Washington Irving (4)

• The Legend of Sleepy Hollow tells a miraculous
  story about the unsuccessful love affair of
  Ichabod Crane, a country teacher, which is
  combined with the legend of a headless horseman.
  The two stories share legendary elements, which
  the critics either interpret as an expression of
  the authors conservative attitude toward the
  American Revolution and his nostalgia for the
  life before the Revolution, or doubt for their
  credibility.

49
James Fenimore Cooper(1789-1851)

• Coopers life experiences Cooper town Yale
  college sailor Precation(1820) The Spy(1821)
  The Pioneers (1823)
• His literary achievements thirty two novels
  social criticconservative themes in his novels
  are wildness vs civilization, freedom vs law,
  order vs change, aristocratic vs democrat, and
  natural rights vs legal rights.
• He developed three kind of novels 1. novels
  about revolutionary past. The Spy. 2. sea novels
  The Pilot(1824) 3. Novels about American
  frontier
• Leatherstocking series Natty bumppoan ideal,
  innocence and purity, wildness and the frontier
  for the first time

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Understanding the selected chapter

• The plot of the novel--- The Last of Mohicans
• Hawkeye Chingachgook Uncas Magua
• Monro and his two daughters Alice and Cora Major
  Duncan David

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William Cullen Bryant(1794-1878)

• Life Experence born on a farm at Cummington,
  Massachusetts,loved nature, translated Homers
  Iliad and Odessey, his first poem The
  Enbargo(1808) published when he was 14 editor in
  chief in New York Evening Post

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Main works

• Thanatopsis (1811)
• The Fountain(1842)
• The White-Footed(1844)
• The Food of Years(1878)Library of Poetry and
  Song(1871-1872)
• TranslationIliad(1870) and Odeyssey(1871)

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Thanatopsis

• Look up the word thantopsis in a dictionary and
  explain its origion and meaning.
• Bryant divides his poem into three parts. Discuss
  why you think he made these particular divisions.
• What advice does the speaker give those who
  shudder at the thought of death?
• What does the speaker mean when he ways that the
  person who dies does not retire alone? Why does
  he choose the retire?
• Interpret the following passageach one as
  before will chase/His favorite phantom
• Explain how the person addressed as thou gains
  in stature and importance as the poem progress.
• What is the message of the poet?

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To a Waterfowl

• Stanza1 With the arrival of evening and in the
  setting sun and falling dew, where will the
  waterfowl, through the rosy clouds, fly to?
• Stanza2 In the rosy light of the setting sun,
  the hunter might see the bird, but it is too
  distant to be harmed. Thus it is able for the
  bird to fly easily and delightedly.
• Stanza3 The poet is enquiring the destination of
  the fowl Is it by the lake, along the river or
  at the ocean side?

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• Stanza4 The poet believes that a supernatural
  power is guiding and protecting the bird.
• Stanza5 The evening is falling and the bird,
  though rathe exhausted,kept on flying.
• Stanza6 Soon the weary flight will end and a
  shelter will be found.
• Stanza7 Though the bird has flown out of sight,
  the lessons is taught will stay in my heart
  forever.

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Comment on the poem

• In the first three stanzas, there is no hint of
  any morals.However, in the fourth, all of a
  sudden, a new figure as a god appears. The god
  has a supernatural power which directs the birds
  flight. Bryant interrupted himself from
  describing a bird into teaching a lesson. Bryant
  may think it is not enough for a poem written
  just for the sake of its own, or just for the
  beauty of it, it should say something more than
  beauty it should carry morals.

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• It rhymes abab,, while the length of each line
  is so different that you cannot find a regular
  foot. But, the two long lines in the middle of
  each stanza may refer to the balance in the
  floating of the bird. The first and the fourth
  lines, which are relatively shorter, look like
  two wings. The stanzaic form reminds one of a
  flying bird.

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Edgar Allan Poe

• Poet, editor, critic, first writer of the
  detective story, writer of fiction, a pioneer in
  poetic and fictional techniques
• Life story disastrous
• Artistic principles

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Poes Artistic theories

• Poe argued for the creation of beauty and
  intensity of emotion, against the didactic motive
  for literature.
• Poe felt that literature should have no social
  function or responsibility but should be an
  expression of the isolated artist.
• Poe thought that the artist should be concerned
  solely with beauty, of imagination. The real
  world is cruel, ugly and fast into decaying. The
  artists life is lonely, painful and hopeless.
  The only happiness arose out of the creation and
  contemplation of beauty.

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Poes theories on Fiction

• A good fiction should only tells one event, which
  can be finished once.
• Fiction should stimulate readers and impress them
  deeply. It should have a consistent effect
  throughout the whole text.
• He showed in his fiction the impulse to
  self-destruction, the fascination with horrible
  catastrophe, whimsical and abnormal psychology.
• He depicted the inner world or psychology of his
  characters.

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To Helen

• 1. Although the poem is about a real person , Poe
  addressed it to Helen, why might he have done
  this?
• 2.In the final stanza, Helen is addressed as
  Psyche the Greek word for breath or soul.
  How do you reconcile this with the earlier
  references to Helen of Troy, whose legendary
  beauty led to the Trojan War?
• Beauty---to truth---to soul
• 3. Note that all three stanzas end with a
  reference to a place---native shore, Greece and
  Rome, and Holy land. How are these related to
  each other? To the meaning of the poem as a
  whole?
• Beauty is truth and leads to spiritual oneness
  and artistic integrity
• Lines written in passionate boyhood to the first
  purely and ideal woman in my soul.

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Stanza 1

• The poet first mentioned Helen, the most famous
  beauty in Great mythology. Then Poe compared
  himself to Odysseus, who wandered for ten years
  over the sea to get home. As Odysseus, Edgar
  Allan Poe was persistent in his chasing after
  fine arts with the sincere belief that art, or
  beauty and truth, is the ultimate aim, the home,
  for the wandering poet while Helen, the
  embodiment of ancient beauty, is the guider to
  that dreamland.

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Stanza 2

• All the art and literature originated from one
  thing---beauty. Having taken Helen as the
  embodiment of beauty, the poet was confident that
  once he saw Helen, he was sure to be led by Helen
  to the home of beauty---fine and pure literature.
  Poe insisted that Greece and Rome are the homes
  of beauty, the treasure houses of fine art and
  literature.

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Stanza 3

• The speaker sees Helen standing in the bright
  niche and holding in her hand an agate lamp. She
  is quite similar to goddess Psyche from Greek
  Myth. Through his description of his passion to
  Helen, Poe expressed his pursuit and sincere
  devotion to beauty.
• In the poem, three beauties in ancient Greek
  mythologyHelen, Naiad and Psyche---are mentioned
  just to show that beauty is something that
  existed it is very holy but it is hard to reach.

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The Ravens symbolic meaning

• A. it symbolizes disaster and misfortune.
• B. it may symbolize the soul of the radiant
  maiden, the lost Lenore.
• C. it may symbolize the sub-consciousness of the
  poet.
• D. it is the symbol of modern reality.

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Annabel Lee

• Stanza 1. The pretty young girl Annabel Lee used
  to live in a kingdom by the seaside. Before her
  death, the only thing in her heart was to love or
  to be loved by me.
• Stanza 2. Our love was so strong and beautiful
  that angels in heaven, who are with wings and
  living in heaven and likely to be freer and abler
  than any human beings, envied us. Seldom did any
  angels envy anything of the human world. If they
  did, there must be something spectacular in the
  object of their admiration.

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• Stanza 3.My Annabel Lee was taken away from me.
  The faithful lovers were mercilessly separated by
  a superpower. Poe was indicating that Annabel Lee
  might be an angel from heaven, because she was
  brought back(and taken away) to heaven and she
  had some highborn kinsmen up there.

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• Stanza 4 The poet was quite clear about the
  reason of Annabel Lees being taken away from
  him. The evil wind came out by night and Annabel
  Lee was taken away by night, that indicates that
  somebody may appear as angels in daytime, but as
  devils during night.
• Stanza 5. Though the evil wind and the highborn
  kinsmen are very powerful to take my beautiful
  Annabel lee away from me, they are not so powful
  as to take her soul away from me. Our love is
  more powerful than death. After the dath of one,
  our souls are still together.

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Stanza 6

• My Annabel Lee had gone to heaven. She reminds me
  of her bright face by the moon, so that I can see
  her in my dream hen I see the stars in the sky,
  I see her bright eyes, too. We are together and
  nothing can separate us, neither the human power
  nor the God of death is possible.

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Poes theories on Poetry

• His poetry express the same deep hopelessness and
  rejection of the world as his prose, but in a
  different way.
• He avoids the intrusion of ugliness and tries to
  create a vision of beauty and a melodious sound.
  The basic tone is melancholy.
• The function f poetry is not to summarize and
  interpret earthly experience, but to create a
  mood in which the soul soars toward supernal
  beauty.
• The creation of work of art requires the utmost
  concentration and unity, as well as the most
  scrupulous use of words.

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Nathaniel Hawthorne(1804-1864)

• Romantic novelist, short-story writer.
• Advanced the art of short story and gave to the
  form qualities that are uniquely American.
• First great American writer of fiction to work in
  the moralistic tradition. Combined the American
  romanticism with puritan moralism

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Romances an imaginative fictional projection of
moral life.

• Contents sensational material, poisoning,
  murder, adultery, crime.
• Methods the New England Past, theocratic
  society, puritan, witchcraft, the Indian life,
  symbolic and allegorical form.

• Themes explore the human soul/ nature of man,
  deal with moral or ethical problems, study the
  effects of sin on man.
• Purpose to show the inner world of man is the
  source of evil in society, to criticize the
  present age.

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Reasons for Hawthornes creation

• 1. His exploration of the soul resulted from his
  skeptical attitude toward the social reality and
  from his ambition to probe into the nature of
  man.
• 2. His selection of themes and skillful use of
  the historical materials resulted from his
  personal life and family history. reclusion,
  judge ancestor.
• 3. His concentration on the human mind and
  character on conscious and unconscious desires,
  is an outgrowth of the Puritan emphasis on the
  individual conscience. He scolded the harshness
  of Puritans, yet took the Puritanism as his
  living criteria. Freedom of will, a conscious
  choice between good and evil.

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Hawthornes Style

• Rich imagination, well-woven structure,
  psychological analysis, various symbols, delicate
  imageries, ambiguity, mystery.
• Wide and well-controlled vocabulary, formal words
  with pleasant sound, long and complex sentences,
  fresh and effective metaphors and similes,
  summarized historical narrative, but links scenes
  dramatically.

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Main Works

• Twice-Told Tales, 1837
• Mosses from an old Manse, 1846
• The Scarlet Letter, 1850
• The House of the Seven Gables, 1851

• Blithedale Romance, 1852
• The Marble Faun, 1860
• Our Old Home, 1863

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The Scarlet Letter (1850)

• The Scarlet Letter is a complex story of
  guilt/sin, its moral, emotional and psychological
  effects on various persons, and how deliverance
  is obtained for some of them.
• In the fiction, Hawthorne approached the question
  of evil more profoundly. He considered the effect
  on an individuals character of enforced penance,
  of hypocrisy, and of hatred.

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What sin, how to deal with, Hawthornes attitudes

• Hester disloyalty, betrayal, deception, sexual
  desire, adultery. Face, correct, redeem, purify.
  Praise, content, conform.
• Dimmesdaleadultery, cowardice, hypocrisy,
  dishonesty, selfishness, too coward to confess,
  tortured by his conscience. Sympathetic, disfavor
  his hesitation, indecisiveness and cowardice.
• Chillingworth revenge. Tortured by the desire of
  revenge, twisted and reduced to nothing.
  disgusted, think he committed greater crime.

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Puritanism in The Scarlet Letter

• Puritan background setting, events, characters,
  thoughts, behaviors.
• Puritan doctrines original sin, total depravity,
  predestination, limited atonement.
• The novel expresses Hawthornes attitudes toward
  Puritanism. Like puritans who concerned
  themselves with the original sin and developed
  it into their beliefs, Hawthorne concerns the
  novel with the same theme, and tries to establish
  his doctrines around it.

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Puritanism in The Scarlet Letter

• Through challenging Puritanism, Hawthorne
  establishes his own Puritanism
• 1. Their religious doctrines. Conclusion he
  believes in mens ability to redeem themselves or
  advocates individuality.
• 2. Their rigid, inhuman attitude toward life
  and enjoyment suppress mens all desires, live a
  hard, disciplined and ascetic life, discriminate
  mens rights for happiness. Conclusion stress
  mens rights and desires for pleasure.
• 3. Their hypocrisy clergymen commit crimes
  against their preaching and beliefs.

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Through challenging Puritanism, Hawthorne aims to

• 1. Explore the source of evils unreasonable and
  inhuman social system mens inner world, defects
  in mens nature strong desire, dishonesty,
  cowardice, revenge.
• 2. Explore the influences on different
  characters
• To brave men gain moral rebirth, redeem their
  sin, win respect/ love again.
• To coward men torment of conscience, suffer in
  hell fire.
• To vicious and vengeful men reduce them to
  demons, make them deteriorated, malicious, mean.
• 3. Explore ways of redeeming sin brave to
  confess and face it, correct it through love,
  devotion, generosity and forgiveness.

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Hweman Melville(1819-1891)

• Life experienceborn in New York City, his father
  died and left large debts and his mother lived
  with her family. He dropped school early and went
  to work as a bank clerk, salesman farmhand school
  teacher and a seaman in 1841 he signed on a
  whaling cruise to the South seas.
• After three years of sea life, he returned to
  Boston.These experience provided him materials
  for his writings.

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Literary career

• Main works
• Typee(1846) Omoo(1847)
• Mardi(1849) Redburn(1849)
• White-Jacket(1850)
• Moby Dick (1851)
• Some poems and short stories

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Moby Dick(1851) Chapter 54

• This chapter contains two aspects of events. It
  is gone through the narration of boatman. He told
  the story happened on a whaling ship.
• 1. theconflict between lakemanStilkilt and his
  rebels and the mate.
• 2. the conflict between the mate and the white
  whale.
• In both cases, Lakeman failed in the stuggle
  against the unfair treatment and the mate died in
  the mouth of a whale. Though the tory, we got to
  know the life of boatman in whaling industry and
  the fieresness of the white whale.

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The Town-Hos story

• The watery region around the cape of Good Hope is
  a place where you meet more travelers than in any
  other part of the oceans. Soon after speaking to
  the Albatross, the Pequod encounters another
  whaler called the Town_ho. Ahab relents and there
  is a regular gam. The ship is manned mainly by
  Polynesians and the treason is found in this
  story secretly bbrought aboard the Pequod and
  never told to Captain Ahab.

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• As the Town-Ho was sailing in the Pacific the
  ship sprung a leak. Forced labor at the pumps as
  the ship headed for the nearest island created a
  mutiny which was interrupted by the appearance of
  Moby Dick. The boats were lowered but the
  harpooner on the boat nearest him was devoured by
  the Great White Whalte. The ship made harbor and
  most of the crew deserted for fear of
  encountering Moby Dick. Polynesians agreed to
  help sail the ship the rest of its voyage.

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The novel can be understood from three levels

• 1. It is a novel of journey and whale catching.
• 2. It is a conflict between Catain Ahab and Moby
  Dick.
• It is a story of Ishmael, his thought about human
  bodysego realization, the relationship between
  man and nature, mand and God, man and man, etc.

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The style of Moby Dick

• 1.His writing is consciously literary.
• 2. There is a threefold quality in his writing
  the style of fact, the style of oratory
  celebrating the fact, and the style of
  meditation.
• 3. His style is highly symbolic and metaphorical.
• 4.The novel has many non-narrative chapters, and
  this is how Melville changed an adventural story
  into a philosophical novel.
• 5. He used the technique of multiple views to
  achieve the effect of ambiguity.

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Henry Wordworth Longfellow(1807-1882)

• His life born in Porland, Maine, studied at
  Bowdoin College, published his poems at the age
  of 13, went to Europe to study language, after 4
  years and returned to be a professor in Boweoin
  College. In his poems, the themes like love of
  nature, love for the past, his poems is famous
  for spiritual aspiration, simple piety, homely
  affection, love of beauty, refined of thought and
  manners. He always took active attitude towards
  life. He adopted European ideas in American
  subject, and always in European styles. In his
  lyrics he drew on the techniques of European
  poetry as well as on his own native creativity,
  and acquired a mastery of rhyme and rhythm. The
  ideas he expressed are generally simple ones and
  his techniques display them to advantage. He
  expressed his ideas musically and powerfully. His
  works are highly spiritual. He emphasized the
  mysteries of birth, death, and love. Most of his
  works are simple and easily read so that even
  children can understand them.

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A Psalm of Life

• It was first published in Voices of the Night
• In the September edition of New York Monthly in
  1839. It is very influential in China, because it
  is said to be the first English poem translated
  into chinese.
• The poem was written in 1838 when Longfellow was
  struck with great dismay his wife died in 1835,
  and his courtship of a young woman was
  unrequited. However, despite all the
  frustrations, Longfellow tried to encourage
  himself by writing a piece of optimistic word

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• The relationship of life and death is a constant
  theme for poets. He expresses his pertinent
  interpretation to that by warning us that though
  life is hard and everybody must die, time flies
  and life is short, yet, human beings ought to be
  hold to act, to face the reality straightly so
  as to make otherwise meaningless life
  significant.
• The poem consists of 9 stanzas in trochaic
  tetrameters. It is rhymed abab.

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The Slaves Dream

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My Lost Youth

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