10.10.12

Classics of American Literature

Lecture 13-17

Topics for Further Consideration:

1. Explain how Hawthorne reconceives the American past in his Twice-Told Tales.

Historical issues, where Hawthorne's short stories first appeared and which stories he chose to collect in Twice-told Tales and in later anthologies. Related issues include how each book was advertised, how well it sold, how much money Hawthorne earned for it, and how it was reviewed. Additional historical issues include Puritan versus Whig ideas about the self and the historical past; the political practices and social climate of Jacksonian democracy; and genteel assumptions about women's roles. Still other historical issues concern the particular place and period in which Hawthorne set each story. In Hawthorne's letters and prefaces it can be quickly discern the skepticism underlying Hawthorne's uses of laughter, his assessments of America's Puritan past and quotidian present, and his anatomization of his major characters. Introduce recurrent patterns of character, theme, image, and so forth.

2. Summarize what The Scarlet Letter has to teach us about both the value and the practice of interpretation.

Throughout the ‘Scarlet letter' the reader is presented with a selection of characters within the Puritan community, which come to view and relate to the scarlet letter in their own different ways. Hester herself provides her own interpretation by weaving a letter whose appearance could only but reflect her own rebellious nature within the puritan society. Hawthorne's ‘The scarlet letter' which then goes on to try and give voice to the letter found in the common - house is no more than a possible insight into the many interpretations available regarding the letter itself, perhaps then leaving the reader more mystified than ever. Even so the many interpretations of the Scarlet letter all stem out of the most common symbol found by readers and that being “adultery”. Although the letter contains various interpretations, it proves to serve only one purpose: that being to make Hester's sin of adultery known to everyone. The letter is the revolving element throughout the novel. The multiplication of possible interpretations is at the same time an artistic necessity and a metaphysical and social threat, and this constitutes one of the keystones of Hawthorne's ambiguity.

American Passages Unit 4

Comprehension Questions

1. Who was excluded from the ideals of individualism and the “selfmade man” that structured Franklin’s beliefs?

The concept of the self-made man is deeply rooted in the American Dream. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, is sometimes said to have created the concept of the self-made man. In his Autobiography, he describes his way from a poor, unknown son of a candle-maker to a very successful business man and highly acknowledged member of the American society. Franklin creates the archetype of someone coming from low origins, who, against all odds, breaks out of his inherited social position, climbs up the social ladder and creates a new identity for himself. Key factors in this rise from rags to riches are hard work and a solid moral foundation. Franklin also stresses the significance of education for self-improvement.

2. What is Transcendentalism?

Transcendentalism is a movement associated with Emerson and Fuller. It is a sort of philosophy that became a literary movement. This movement was the act of going beyong human knowledge. Taking everything we knew a step further, intellectually. Among the transcendentalists' core beliefs was the inherent goodness of both man and nature. Transcendentalists believed that society and its institutions—particularly organized religion and political parties—ultimately corrupted the purity of the individual. They had faith that man is at his best when truly "self-reliant" and independent. It is only from such real individuals that true community could be formed.

3. According to Emerson, what kind of relationship exists between individuals and nature? What is “nature” for Emerson?

Emerson's 'Nature' essay causes people to look inside themselves and be inspired by the art of nature. According to Emerson nature was very good, it gave people something to compare themselves too, or to figure out who you are . Emerson is extremely found of nature, he felt as though people should focus on nature and keep it as great as it is forever. Unlike Franklin, Emerson did not care very much of 'working hard' to benefit yourself, but felt more so that nature and the cleanliness of it can in some ways benefit you. The kind of relationship that exists between individuals and nature was an intimate and immediate relationship. For Emerson nature is developing an understanding of the universe that is personal.

Context Questions

1. How did Franklin construct his own life as a model for others to follow in his Autobiography? To what extent did Emerson share with Franklin a desire to serve as a model to his fellow Americans? How were Emerson’s ideas about the importance of individual experience different from Franklin’s?

The act of publishing an autobiography in order to lay out one's life as a model is itself a vain act. He seems to want his autobiography to be as useful as possible towards the betterment of others. The book was of great use to others who are looking for a model by which they can better their lives. In Franklin's time, prejudice and oppression limited the definition of who counted as an American, but Franklin's work inspired men and women of subsequent generations to strive to expand those boundaries. Later, Ralph Waldo Emerson built on Franklin's practical ideals of self-improvement and virtue and made them more personal and spiritual. Emerson encouraged Americans to look inward and find power and inspiration within themselves. He turned to nature as a spiritual resource that could energize the nation politically and elevate it morally.

2. When he embarked on his project to arrive at “moral perfection,” what did Franklin stress as the most important virtues to cultivate? How do Franklin’s “thirteen virtues” compare to the kinds of virtues Emerson seems to espouse?

Franklin lists 13 virtues: temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, and humility. He elaborates on each with a maxim; for example, the temperance maxim is "Eat not to Dullness. Drink not to Elevation." A pragmatic scientist, Franklin put the idea of perfectibility to the test, using himself as the experimental subject. These "thirteen virtures" are very similar to the kinds of virtues Emerson embodies. Emerson wrote about sincerity, and humility, as well as most of these virtues Franklin presents. These virtues almost go hand in hand with Transcendentalism. In his Thirteen Virtues he speaks these words about tranquility, “Be not disturbed at trifles or accidents common or unavoidable.” One can decipher his meaning in many different ways. Tranquility is possibly one of the most important virtues, however no one will ever know which virtue was most important to Benjamin Franklin. Therefore, for many years to come people will just have to interpret what he wrote in their own way. Whether it be deciding what people mean when they say “just leave me alone” or something different, one will never truly know.

3. How did Franklin organize his own time? How did Franklin’s advocacy of schedules and efficiency influence the way Americans think about and structure industry and labor? How did Emerson challenge the assumptions behind Franklin’s ideas about efficiency and industry?

Franklin spent much of his free time performing experiments and using the results to invent and improve practical things. Despite his prosperity and fame, Franklin never lost his democratic sensibility. When Franklin saw that something needed doing, he did it. He championed personal responsibility, intellectual curiosity, honesty, persistence, and thrift—principles that have helped people everywhere lift themselves up. He nurtured an entrepreneurial culture which creates opportunity and hope through peaceful cooperation. He affirmed that by improving yourself and helping your neighbors you can make a free society succeed. Franklin believed in constantly working and keeping a strict schedule, while Emerson believed that one should enjoy nature and take your time throughout life. With Emerson being a strong naturalist, he did not believe that industry was good for society, or the earth. He thought that the industry was pulling the people away from their natural roots with the land, and made people forget about the true meaning of life.

Exploration Questions

1. How do Franklin’s ideal of success and his notion of the “self-made man” conflict with or grow out of Puritan theology? How have Franklin’s ideals influenced later American writers? How did later Americans challenge and transform the model of the “self-made man”?

Franklin looked at things more realistically than the Puritans. Franklin believed that one has to work hard in order to have something but the Puritans believe everything will happen if its gods will. Puritans believed that God was responsible for everything that happened, and if God wanted something good/bad to happen to you then it would. Franklin's contribution to the creation of an American national identity is perhaps the most important theme that needs to be emphasized. After the heyday of the self-made man, the concept took several hits. The idea of the self-made man was further weakened during the Great Depression, when men who had seemingly done all the right things-worked hard, scrimped, saved, and invested- saw their fortunes wiped out and all they had worked for washed away. Buffeted by grave external forces, it was hard to retain faith in the idea that one’s life remained in one’s control.

2. How did Franklin’s Autobiography influence later writers of autobiography? How did his book transform the autobiographical genre in America?

Franklin helped shape the foundational myth of the “American dream” by narrating his own rise from obscurity through hard work and virtue. His Autobiography served as a model that inspired many later Americans and helped define the autobiographical genre. His witty, endearing representation of himself and his life in his Autobiography set a new standard for the autobiographical genre in America. The influence of the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin on American culture is probably greater than any text other than the Bible. The tradition of the spiritual autobiography, which was still vibrant in Franklin's time, focused on the development of the author's relationship with God. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, however, the pattern of struggles overcome on the road to salvation was increasingly supplemented, in the American context, by the more secular success narrative, the "rags-to-riches" stories of "self-made men." This pattern would expand through the nineteenth century in America until it became the characteristic mode of self-presentation for nearly every established American.

2. Emerson is often described as the writer with whom every other American writer has had to come to terms. What impact did Emerson’s philosophy and transcendental ideals have on writers like Fuller, Thoreau, Whitman, or Dickinson? How did Emerson change ideas about individualism and about the artist’s role in American society?

Emerson had a huge impact on writers such as Fuller, Whitman, and Dickenson, as well as many literary authors. He influenced them to search deep within what they already know. He gave depth to literature, added more emotion where emotion is not usually thought to be found. Emerson changed ideas about individualism and the artist's role in American society by becoming an enlightening teacher. His work and philosophy helped awaken personality, encourage individuality, and influence change on the opinion of artists. Artists were now respected and honored as deep intellectual people we could learn from. Emerson had a major impact on Walt Whitman because Whitman went out to live in the forest "Deliberately". "Self-Reliance” may be Emerson's most important and best known essay. Its central theme is an uncompromising concept of personal autonomy and integrity, a concept that fully justifies the description of Emerson as the foremost philosopher of American individualism. The essay's important sub-text is the concept of living in the present, or timelessness—a significant part, as will be seen, of the idea of radical self-reliance. Basically the self-reliant individual has to stand up against two forces that tend to diminish its full development and strength: society and tradition. With respect to society Emerson writes: “Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. … The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs... Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist.”