Edgar Allen Poe

The way I see Poe's writing: 

I believe that Poe could be misunderstood, looking at him from a biographical standpoint, the significant events such as being in debt, never knowing his birth parents, his fiance married another man while he was gone, and had a problem with alcohol. His poetry tries to understand common human emotions, he just happened to experience significant human emotions throughout his life, creating substantial visceral images that have been associated with his writing, often times gloomy as he thought his life portrayed. However he does find beauty in the world, not his own world, but finds it with the beauty of language. Much like Wallace Stevens poetry tried to take language to further extent it could, Poe also did that in an pre-modernist era. 

The poem Al Aaraaf written in 1829, three years after his fiance left him. This poem defines Poe's poetry when he was drawing on the rawest human emotions he could grasp at this time in his life. We get a sense of his imagination clearly with his dense analogies exterior unattainable places, places he creates for himself to go to get outside the reality of the world. His study into other religions is also fascinating in this piece of work, he uses the Qur'an to help describe the medium in between heaven and hell, but also a place where the individual could not feel happiness. I always interpreted this as life, because it seems like life you go from both of those places quite often. Looking at Poe as an overall author, I believe he contributed immensely to literature as a whole, however it a long time after his death for his work to be realized. I certainly believe he was a true modernist before the definition existed, he questioned religion, human emotions, social constructs, and good vs. evil.

 However his essay The Poetic Principal argues against didacticism, the principal if a work of writing is too instructive, then it loses its ability to influence readers in ulterior ways of interpretation. Poe believed in this perspective of thinking and I think it answers the ambiguity behind lots of his writing, is that if it lacks an exact definition, it gives the poetry a chance to gain meaning overtime, much like a person gains perspective over a lifetime.  

Clotel

"First published in London, Clotel; or, The President's Daughter (1853) subsequently underwent three title changes and substantial revisions for later editions, all released during the 1860s. Interestingly, Brown opens the novel with a shortened version of his narrative entitled, "Narrative of the Life and Escape of William Wells Brown"; however, he presents this account using third-person narration. In his distinct style, Brown readily blends elements from this narrative as well as various anecdotes, poetry, folk songs and ditties, vignettes of slave life, and even newspaper accounts into the novel. In promoting an abolitionist agenda, he also emphasizes the deleterious effects of slavery on the family. Drawing heavily upon the conventions of sentimental fiction, Clotel also is considered one of the earliest novels of passing—that is, a novel in which a character with African American heritage passes as white in order to escape slavery and/or enjoy greater opportunities. Brown's text includes a number of tragic mulatta (or mixed-race female) figures, although Currer, Althesa, and Clotel are the most prominent." (Partridge and Oakey) 

The annotation about the novel above helps put into perspective the themes of misogyny, racism, and class-ism all themes that revolve around American literature. With the completion of the semester in near sight, I think that it is important to understand the correlation of the material we have read over the semester. Keeping in mind the annotation above, and past posts I will try to correlate a rough idea of what American literature has done for the world. 

The Scarlet Letter- Misogyny
Charlotte Temple- Misogyny: Warning tale for Women
Wieland- Hides narrators sex from the reader
Ben Franklin Biography- Constructs of American values 
Benito Cerna- Delves into race relations of the 19th Century
Zitkala Sa- American Indian stories display the mistreatment of the original inhabitants of the United States
Clotel- Racism, Misogyny, and Class-ism

After going through this class up to this point, I believe the class has been directed for us to see multiple perspectives. Multiple perspectives in the American canon of literature is difficult to from the original canon, and Amy did a wonderful job presenting novels that complicated the original canon and forced it to become larger. The way of mixing classics and popular stories helped display the difference between narrators, gender, content, genre, settings, and historical context. With these separate readings and exemplified differences between these novels they are all American novels which means they do have something in common they are from the same country. Each novel has its own distinct actions of discrimination as labeled above, but what does these different discrimination do for the American literature canon? I believe in the United States there has always been a group discriminated against throughout every stage of our history. We are considered the melting pot and these different groups of people represented in each novel help to show how we are doomed to repeat history, and how the issues above labeled are not different from the issues we see in present day United States. I find this so interesting that we literally have blueprints about how to deal with sexism, racism, differing religions, and class and still cannot figure out how to treat people with the decency that everyone is a person and human with the same emotional response and feelings as the next person. My biggest example that I see today is the current treatment of Muslim people as a religion and culture of people put on blast by the government using threatening terms like terrorist, extremist, and jihad. It is the same story that Zitkala-Sa displays in American Indian Stories, the treatment of their culture ripped apart by the government calling them savages, cherry niggers, and feather heads. I feel as though as a country we are doomed to repeat history at an alarmingly quick rate of time, if we can't learn from our past mistakes, then what will become of the United States? And how does that effect the image we portray around the world as being American. 

American Indian Magazine- Zitkala Sa

The American Indian Magazine publications put further perspective to the changed Zitkala Sa in her later years living in Washington D.C. as a liaison between the government and Native American affairs. While in this job, she edited and wrote in the magazine, often expressing the oppressive nature of the government, and talks of hope as a conduit for better human rights. In Indian Gifts to Civilized Man Zitkala refers to the pieces of Native culture that the United States is beginning or already has begun to homogenize. This discourse is written for the July through September issue in 1918, World War One's official end date is July 28, 1918. At this time in history American patriotism has skyrocketed with the amount of soldiers returning from war, and the United States has become the superpower of the world after bailing out Britain who almost lost the war and went broke in the process. However, Zitkala is referring to her civilization as the people who learned and taught the Americans how to cultivate corn. Corn which is the product going to feeding a large majority of the work force, animal labor, and military force. She continually uses "Red Man" as a direct digression between the ability to be an American or Non-American. Zitkala wants the American public to appreciate and react to the relationship between "citizen or non-citizen"(185) they are still the loyal sons of America because they are supplying and helping the war effort. Explaining that the daunting self sacrifice of the Native American is one trial that is impossible to comprehend to general non-native public, because they want to accept American values, on the condition that Americans can accept their culture and values too.

Zitkala-Sa: A Dream of Her Grandfather

From American Indian Stories, Legends, and Other Writings, the short story A Dream of Her Grandfather had the greatest impact on myself, seeing the constant fight for their basic human rights, through multiple generations, realizing that the world they once knew would never be the same nor would they even have the ability to be treated as the original settlers. While this realization for Zitkala-Sa is overwhelmingly sad, it is at the same time beautiful and representative of their culture, that they are people who are strong willed and determined to find the sanctity that they deserve and desire. Hope serves as the platter for this culture to keep pushing and their relenting eagerness to regain their culture shows the immense importance on the homogenization of Natives during the 19th and 20th century.

The story is autobiographical and explains that her grandfather was the first Dakota native to travel to Washington D.C. in order to fight for the fair representation of their rights for the Dakota natives. She also depicts her own life as her learning the white man tongue from when she moved to the east coast to go to school. Overall the autobiographical information included in this story goes out of the way to display both Zitkala-Sa as an educator of Native Americans to the white populous. However her dream that takes place near the end of the two page story, shows the complicated nature of hope in the Native American culture.

In the dream, her grandfather sends a large wooden box to her and is expecting "[...] coveted the medicine bags, beaded and embroidered in porcupine quills, in symbols designed by the great "medicine man," her grandfather. [...] Treasures came in due time to those ready to receive them." (Zitkala-Sa 142) However there are no treasures or anything in the big cedar box, its empty. The symbolism that the Zitkala-Sa sees out of the box is an Native camp before the picture has been painted on the canvas. Its a blank statement of misunderstanding and that they are pushing forward as a culture through the oppression that they have been subject to since westward expansion. The quintessential piece of their culture during this time is that they have to possess hope, without hope their culture dies. "Be glad! Rejoice! Look up, and see the new day dawning! Help is near! Hear me, everyone." (142)  In comparing this discourse with some of the other stories in this collection, its clear they had to have this hope because traditionally from the other readings, the Natives basic rights and needs are generally thought of last by the American government. This story describes the trials and tribulations of her life and the constant fight for basic human rights.

American Indian Stories: Zitkala-Sa- Introduction

The biographical information about the Native American author, Gertrude Simmons Bonnin or known by the Sioux culture she grew up in as Zitkala-Sa. She is responsible for bringing to light the harsh oppressive constructs of the extermination of Native American culture across the country, her life shows the harsh realities of being native in the Untied States during the American Indian Wars. She is born during the year of the Battle of Little Big Horn and dies the same year the opera The Sun Dance is performed, which displays the traditional dance and movement of Native religion forbidden before the year of her death in 1938. The original performance of this opera shows the progression from almost the end of Native American culture.

I think understanding the context of The Sun Dance, will help put into perspective the amount of humanitarian work Zitkala-Sa put into her own culture and recognized throughout her life what was important about her culture that has been oppressed or undervalued.

"In 1913 Gertrude Simmons Bonnin (Zitkala Sa, 1876-1938) collaborated with local Duchesne, Utah, music teacher William F. Hanson to produce and stage a spectacle that combined the musical style of operetta, a melodramatic love triangle, and traditional Plains Indian ritual. In regional performances, The Sun Dance Opera provided a stage for Bonnin and other Native American singers and dancers to participate in rituals whose practice was forbidden by the United States government. Twenty-five years later, just months after Bonnin's death in 1938, the opera was selected and presented by the New York Opera Guild as opera of the year." This opera shows the Native Americans taking back their culture from American society that crippled it. important to note that when gold was found in the plains of North Dakota, Montana, South Dakota, and Wyoming the Sioux had over 60 million square acres of reservation, shortly after constricted down to 15 million square acres. Overall the introduction goes out of it's way to show the humanitarian and the life learning experiences that take place in order for her to become a Native American hero.

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3027&context=greatplainsquarterly (QUOTE ABOVE)

Benito Cerno

Themes: Sea Stories, Slaves, Capt Delano, Don Benito, Chief, Law, Prose Style, Story, Ship, Mutiny, and Law.

Focus: Melville thinks slavery is good or bad? is the slaves mutiny over the ship justified because they have been taken from their home in Senegal. They take the ship in order to go back home, a motive that seems justifiable. However making context from this novel, I think it is important to look at the publication date the year 1856, which is just before the Civil War breaks out in 1863, during a time where the hotbed question in politics was the issue over slavery. Melville does an amazing job in the novel to not let the reader understand his personal ideas of race, the way he was able to muddle the opinion that the reader receives. However, I believe Melville saw the war coming from a mile away, which would make sense with such difference of opinions between the north and south. This short story was a way to show the anxiety of people who didn't want to fight a war over race.

In my research I have noticed many different analysis's of the grayness as a color that is implored throughout the novel, I think that this is important to note because there are tons of other colors that Melville could have used to describe the ocean and environment surrounding them. Although he uses gray, which is obviously the combination of white and black. The beginning of the novel in the first four sentences shows the reader that the story is going to end in a gray area also. The color scheme draws illusions, where "Truth is forced to fly like a scared white doe in the woodlands." which is offset by the "power of blackness." From the beginning of the novel the comparison between the dark and light elements is apparent. Especially when the ship comes out of the gray fog in the opening scene, like "a white-washed monastery after a thunderstorm." This simile has both light and dark elements to it.

Overall putting context to this novel, in the eyes of American Lit, shows the differences in peoples anxieties over race before the Civil War. Melville muddling his opinion about race as the author and making it confusing for readers to find the protagonist and antagonist shed light into the reader lives. Back before the Civil War at the date of publication, one could almost assume that the Africans where looked at as the villains, although today, that comparison is irrelevant. However the change in opinions and the changing of protagonists and antagonist shows how this novel still has a place in the world of education, as these issues are still being dealt with today, in a less overtly oppressive way.

Ben Franklin Autobiography: Themes

In the autobiography, Part Two reflects lots of virtues in life, and how to approach attaining those virtues while working towards the common good. Franklin was interestingly disconnected while conjoined with religion in his life as he states in Part Two in the biography. But the virtues he looks to attain apply to everyone and leaving religion out of the virtues enables all cultures and societies to connect with the text. His self-consciousness in the beginning of part two when he gets multiple conformations to continue writing on these subjects. It made makes Franklin look humble as is one of virtues, which I don't know stylistically if that was intentional. His shifting viewpoints on America as a new power in the world changed through the ending of the novel. 

Throughout the novel in the beginning of section one, the inclusion of the letters reassuring Franklin to continue to write was interesting because it revealed part of his personality that gets hidden through history. But it allowed the readers to see his self-consciousness, which generally the public perception of Ben Franklin is not self-consciousness but rather evolutionary thinking. However he originally starting writing this autobiography because he thought it would be something useful for his kin to remember him through, but as he started writing he decided that every American should be aware and use these virtues and lessons in their own lives. For the time period Franklin was alive these 13 virtues made absolute sense, today, and these virtues have taken a backseat in the lives of Americans. Not to take away from the work Franklin produced, in the context of history today and trying to use his Autobiography as a learning tool for the present, it could be looked at working on moral perfection. 

             

One theme of the biography that I became attached to is Franklin's take on education. Its something you "want to do" rather than "have to do". Which applies to society today because school is not seen as a privilege in the United States anymore, its the place you are stuck until you reach maturity. Knowing that this is not how education is seen today forces the idea that there is a problem with our education, but his understanding of education and the way it should be used and learned is spot on. I think our societies today should begin to figure out how to make school this effective. 

Charles Brockden Brown Biography

http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/biography/


Take a look at this website to learn a bit more about the author of Wieland, I think his life puts the book into a historical context. Separation of religions in the colonies, the Revolutionary War and how that affected his life during and post war times. He was born in 1771, five years before the beginning of the war. He grew up in a time of rapidly changing socio-political entities in the world. If you don't have time to read through the entire biography this paragraph I think would make a decent discussion for a classroom setting.
"Love of debate may have prompted Brown's initial interest in the law, but the young intellectual soon became disillusioned. "[I] was perpetually encumbered with the rubbish of the law," he wrote to a friend, "and waded with laborious steps through its endless tautologies, its impertinent circuities, its lying assertions and hateful artifices".³ As representations of the law in his later fiction indicate, Brown viewed the law as a "tissue of shreds and remnants of a barbarous antiquity patched by the stupidity of modern workmen into new deformity" (Ormond 16). He was especially critical of the ways in which, even after the Revolution had attempted to dismantle the American class system, the Constitution had through its restricted franchise continued to limit women's, non-whites' and the poor's access to power and wealth. In 1793, the same year the French monarchy was abolished and political stability replaced by the Reign of Terror, Brown abandoned the law to attempt a life of letters."

Its interesting to notice his rejections of the law, and the similarities between Clara's father and his father, being in an extremist religious group for the time in history. Brown's father was a devout Quaker in the colonies and rejected the war resulting in an 8 month incarceration when Brown was young. I think knowing an author from a biographical standpoint can be useful for deciphering all the meaning behind a text. Or at least what situations lead them to write the novel, in this case I did a little more deep searching and the murders were based on actual events, which for me gives it more depth knowing that these atrocities happened to real people in the world and not too long ago. 
James Yates was the name of the man who originally committed the murders in 1781, when Brown was just 10 years old, this story was publicized heavily in the following months, and probably had some sort of impact on Brown, or enough that he remembered from the newspaper articles to write a novel dramatizing the events.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Yates_murders
Yates interestingly enough was part of another interesting sect religious group called the Shakers, The United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing is a religious sect, also known as the Shakers, founded in the 18th century in England, having branched off from a Quaker community." Just thought this was some intriguing information that helped conceptualize the author in terms of his own life experience and how that shines through the literary work. 

Wieland: Clara, Embodiment of 18th Century Woman

The novel hides the identity of the narrator, knowing as progression of the plot takes place the identity of the narrator will be known. I thought from a literary perspective that it was interesting that the narrator turned out to be a woman, however I think Brockden knew exactly what stereotypes he was challenging. However I think that Clara is still treated as a women throughout the novel, however she seems to have some advantages over other women in America at this time period. She is raised and allowed to question and challenge religion and politics. One thing that I thought was interesting that for me separated Clara as in between man and women, is that she inherited her fathers farm, which generally would have given to Clara's brother or another man in the society. Women didn't own property in the 18th century America, therefore I thought that Brockden made her be able to transcend both genders because it gave her an advantage as the narrator to intersect between both male and female emotions in the plot. However Brockden still makes her suffer from disillusionment, anxiety, hysteria, and extreme emotional swings and her farm is also located on her brother's land. Brockden goes through the novel maybe to exemplify some changes about gender, but quickly goes back to the 18th century where women are second class citizens, proving that the devout institutions will always prevail, being the law and religion because even though Clara can challenge those things at the end of the novel they are still just as apparent as they are in the beginning, it helps explain the context of time. For another blog I want to look into the body politic in this novel, and how it was put together in the 18th century. 

Charlotte Temple: Rowson

During the last week we have been reading Charlotte Temple by Susanna Rowson in which the main character is Charlotte Temple who becomes another symbol of the fallen women in this story similar to that of The Scarlet Letter.
Rowson writes this novel as a cautionary tale for women in England that are thinking about "eloping" away from their families, possibly to join another man in marriage or as a mistress. However Rowson wrote this novel and it was the most popular piece of literature in the new western world, until the release of Uncle Tom's Cabin in the mid nineteenth century. In class the discussion didn't get focused on Rowson as a person or author and the conventions of the novel and how that is an inlet into Rowson as a person, her values, and morals.
First learning more about the biographical content of her life helps Charlotte Temple hold more significance, and truth to the constructs of the novel."Susanna Haswell was the daughter of an office in the Royal Navy. She grew up from 1768 in Massachusetts, where her father was stationed, but the family returned to England in 1778 .In 1792 she went on the stage with her husband, whose business had failed. The Rowsons performed in Scotland and in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Boston. Rowson also wrote numerous plays and musicals and in the process helped promote the development of the performing arts in the United States. Then when She retired in 1797 she opened The Young Ladies Academy in Boston, which was the first all girls boarding school in the colonies.
Knowing the biographical content of Rowsons life helps understand the story, she lived on the cusp of the Western Frontier to the New World. She also lived poor and working class for the majority of her life, raising children with her husband who had a failed business. Charlotte Temple and Rowson's biography I think speak part into the conventions used and her life story to compare with Charlotte Temple. As much as this novel goes through the themes of suffering and misogyny towards women, this novel served as a cautionary tale to alter the perception of women thinking they need to find a husband. Rather that they should be content to stay with their own families, until they find a proper situation for marriage if that is possible.
This novel reads like a play, the narrator constantly communicates with the reader through the titles of chapters or just side notes when reading. For example chapter 33 title is "Which People Void of Feeling Need Not Read" which is Rowson talking to the reader summing up the novel and if the reader is not connected with the text than there is not point in continuing reading. Some other things from her biography that translated to Charlotte Temple were this novel was probably released serially through periodicals in newspapers. Where the conventions of keeping tension is more crucial to keep the readers reading, which communicates to the pace of the rising action in the plot.

http://www.britannica.com/biography/Susanna-Rowson (Biographical Content) 

Scarlet Letter, A Classic?

Throughout reading Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlett Letter, considered a classic in American Literature. The conventions of this novel are important to understand and the conventions of a classic work to see how they compare and contrast together. Or do the conventions of American Classic and global Classic novel differ?  A quote form Italo Calvino helps sum up his idea of a classic work,

“A classic is a work which constantly generates a pulviscular cloud of critical discourse around it, but which always shakes the particles off.”

Meaning that the content of the novel holds multiple conventions that change over time but still have a place for discussion in the context of time. A classic piece of literature must be able to transcend the generations so the reader can make connections to their lives today. Therefore looking at other classics of this era, such as Uncle Tom's Cabin or The Narratives of Frederick Douglas abbreviate what types of issues and tribulations American society was going through during the 1850's. These alternative two novels deal heavily with the American Slave Trade moving towards the Civil Rights Movement. Similarities between all three of these novels is the main theme of suffrage, overcoming obstacles, the main character find themselves throughout the rising action of the plot.

The themes that are identifiable in The Scarlet Letter relate to the American feeling of the 19th century. Hawthorne deals with issues that could be ahead of his time, during this time The Civil War was starting between the north and south. In the years where race and slavery were the main concern of the American public, Hawthorne writes the Scarlet Letter where issues of overbearing religion not separated from law, fallen woman, and overt sexism. Was he looking to the future? After slavery ends is the next totem pole of political thought going to be equality for women? This novel may have been before its time in the context of history, but maybe that is what makes this novel pulviscular is that it was an insight into then modern day America through looking at micro chasm of the Puritan religion in the beginning of the colonies.

Overall this novel does qualify as a classic in the scheme of the world, however this novel is not devoutly an American Classic but a Classic in the broad scope of world literature. The reason that this novel is a classic, is because the types of issues and building action that take place in this novel are issues that are seen in various other world literature. The common themes of questioning religion, fighting through problems to find a resolve, and suffering are all themes seen in The Odyssey for example the original hero's journey. I would argue that Hester Prynne has taken the hero journey to the point that the "A" which is supposed to promote scorn and negative depictions of her character changes and the "A" by the end of the novel stands for symbol of pride, heroism, and has picked herself up as the fallen woman.

Another qualifying factor to why this novel is considered an American Classic is The Scarlet Letter has been taught in so many different levels of education around the United States, this novel is polarizing and it has to be a classic because people can identify within the constructs of the written language of the novel. 

Scarlet Letter: Pearl as The Epitome of Sin and Savior

Throughout the beginning chapters of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Pearl Hester Prynne young child holds the most significant symbolism about the culture and context of history this story exists in. Pearl is birthed out of wedlock (adulterated child), in a Puritan society this puts Pearl and Hester in the lowest social class possible, where the poorest people can still hate them. Hester has the scarlet "A" on her clothing so people know that she is an adulterer, Pearl is associated with the "A" because she is the embodiment of sin to the characters outside of her mother. While culturally she is treated as the embodiment of sin,  Pearl simultaneously became a savior as well.

From the first 8 chapters of the novel we understand that Hester does love Pearl, even if she can't show it all the time. From the opening chapter where Hester has Pearl clutched to her bosom while the entire town shames her for her adultery. This relationship between daughter and mother turns out to save Hester if she didn't have the child she would not be the same person as seen in the discourse between Hester and Mistress Hibbins where she invites Hester to "merry company in the forest; and I wellnigh promised the Black Man that comely Hester Prynne should make one." (Hawthorne 105) Essentially Hibbins invites her to come to a witchcraft meeting, which is illegal by Puritan standings, nothing against the church especially dark magic which is punishable by death. However because Hester "must tarry at home, and keep watch over my little Pearl." (105) she chooses not to accompany Mistress Hibbins. While the entire town looks down upon and makes fun of Hester and Pearl. They need each other, without Pearl, Hester would definitely be tip toeing the laws of Puritan society instead of trying to move past her previous transgressions. In essence Pearl is the savior of Hester's life while being the ultimate representation of sin in Puritan society. Does this mean that Hawthorne is pointing out the good and evil can simultaneously live within the same person or culture? Or could Hawthorne be making this binary to point out something more specific as in the relationship with religion in this society and how people are either in or out, and what that means for them growing as people are not.