FREDERICK DOUGLASS 1818 - 1895 One of the most important figures in America's struggle for civil rights and

nd racial equality Born into slavery around 1818, he eventually escaped and became a respected American diplomat, a counselor to four presidents, a highly regarded orator, and an influential writer. He accomplished all of that without any formal education NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS AN AMERICAN SLAVE (1845) The Narrative describes Douglas life from early childhood until his escape from slavery in 1838 It became an instant bestseller in America as well as in Europe, where it was translated into French and German. Despite its critical and popular acclaim, however, it was met with skepticism by proslavery Americans, who could not believe that such a brilliant account could be produced by a slave with no formal education. Some thought that the text was a clever counterfeit document produced by abolitionists and passed off as Douglass writing. CHAPTER 1 Like other autobiographies, Douglass chooses to begin his story by telling when and where he was born. Yet, this is impossible since slave owners keep slaves ignorant about their age and parentage in order to strip them of their identities Slaves reduced to the level of animals: Slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs He vividly details the physical cruelties inflicted on slaves, including the rape of female slaves by white male owners Separation of mother and child is another way slave owners control their slaves, preventing slave children from developing familial bonds, loyalty to another slave, and a knowledge of heritage and identity CHAPTER 2 Discusses the meager food and clothing allowance given to slaves: Children from seven to ten years old, of both sexes, almost naked, might be seen all seasons of the year Children fed cornmeal mush from a trough on the ground, like pigs

 CHAPTER 3 Douglass was sent to live at colonel Lloyds plantation. Lloyd owned approximately a thousand slaves, and was especially renowned for his beautiful garden, which people traveled many miles to view. It had an abundance of tempting fruits which were off-limits to the hungry slaves, who were whipped if they were caught stealing fruit. Douglass is implicit that the splendor of Colonel Lloyds estate was made possibly only by the toil of the slaves. Ironically, slaves were never allowed to enjoy the fruits of their labor. They were constantly kept hungry. The colonel also had a stable of splendid horses, which he clearly loved more than his slaves. Slaves under constant surveillance Intimidated and brainwashed into believing that their lot is better than it really is. CHAPTER 6 Douglass shows how slavery corrupts the morality of whites. Initially Mrs. Sophia Auld, his new mistress, was a kind and industrious person, who treated Douglass like a genuine human being because she had never owned a slave before. In the beginning, she did not understand that teaching Douglass to read and write would free his mind. But after her husband explained to her that freeing Douglass mind could lead her to losing her slave, she changed her attitude. As long as whites can keep slaves ignorant, they can control them. CHAPTER 7 Douglass spent about seven years in Master Hugh Aulds house and, in secret, during that time he learned to read and write. He tricked neighboring kids into teaching him by giving them bread in exchange for lessons and practiced writing copying little Thomass books. Ironically, his ability to read soon made him unhappy, for it opened up a whole new- and wretched- world for him. Reading newspapers, he realized the enormity of a people enslaved by powerful white masters He was only twelve years old when he resolved to eventually run away. In his autobiography Douglass is not forthcoming about how he managed to escape. He explains that his method of escape is still used by other slaves and thus he does not want to publicize it.

 However, he reveals the details of his escape in his third autobiography, published 1881, saying that he borrowed identification papers from a friend, a free black sailor, and simply took the train to New York City. According to Douglass, the underground railroad (an organized system of cooperation among abolitionists helping fugitive slaves escape to the North of Canada) should be called the upperground railroad. He honors those good men and women for their noble daring, and applauds them for willingly subjecting themselves to bloody persecution, but he is adamantly opposed to anyone revealing the means whereby slaves escape. The excitement of being free is soon tempered by loneliness and fear of being captured and kidnapped. in the North, there are plenty of manhunters, who are eager to take fugitive slaves back to their owners for a fee. Fortunately, Douglass meets an abolitionist who advises him to move to New Bedford, Massachusetts and take a new name. I gave Mr. Johnson the privilege of choosing me a name, but told him he must not take from me the name of Frederick. I must hold on to that, to preserve a sense of my identity One of Douglass central goals is to debunk the mythology of slavery. Southerners and some Northerners held certain beliefs about slavery which helped them rationalize its existence. Some believed that slavery was justifiable because several passages from the Bible point to the descendants of Ham (Noahs son) being destined for slavery (Genesis 9:18-27). It was believed that God cursed Ham by turning his skin black and his descendants into slaves. For Southerners, therefore, the descendants of Ham were predestined by the scriptures to be slaves. Children of mixed-race parentage were always classified as slaves. If the dark skin of Ham is said to be a sign of this curse, asks Douglass, then why are mullattos some of whom have skin not significantly darker than whites also destined by birth to be slaves? Another myth held by Southerners was that Africans were intellectually inferior and deserved, or even needed, the white mans care. It was, as British writer Rudyard Kipling describes, the white mans burden to colonize, civilize, and christianize non-Europeans Douglass condemns both whites and African Americans who buy into this fradulent mythology. Slave owners and their overseers are the law. Slaves live in constant terror, scared into subservience. The control of slaves requires complete physical, as well as mental submission.

 The slave system discourages solidarity among slaves. Owners encourage slaves to betray other slaves; a traitor double-crosses Douglass and prevents his first escape attempt. Keeping slaves drunk is also one way of keeping them servile. When owners of property died, got married, or changed their familial ties, their property often changed hands. Slaves were particularly afraid of being sold to Georgia traders because in Georgia slaves were treated even more harshly. Appraisers valued the slaves much the same way they assessed animals. Douglass also criticizes the vicious and loudly self-righteous Christianity of slave owners who simultaneously broke the laws of God in their treatment of slaves while professing fervent Christianity. The greatest hypocrites were those who quoted chapter and verse of their religion, but were savagely cruel to their slaves. He condemns American churches and ministers for not speaking out against slavery. The FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT of 1850 legitimized fugitive slave hunting in free states. Under this Act, even freed African Americans could easily be accused of being fugitive slaves and taken to the South. For Douglass, the Christian church which allows this law to remain in effect, is not really a Christian church at all. SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES The first African to arrive in the New World is believed to have accompanied Christopher Columbus on one of his voyages to the Americas; African slaves began arriving shortly after 1492. There are records of slaves being in Haiti by 1501. The first Africans arrived in the British colonies almost 200 years before Douglass was born. In August 1619 twenty Africans arrived in Jamestown, Virginia, probably as slaves, even though listed as indentured servants. However, the number of Africans in the colonies was relatively small throughout the seventeenth century. Toward the end of that century, Africans were brought to North America as slaves in larger numbers. The establishment of large plantations in the South encouraged the import of African slaves who were deemed more cost effective than indentured servants, and more able to resist European diseases than Native Americans. THE TRIANGLE TRADE ROUTE INHUMAN CONDITIONS ON SLAVE-TRADE SHIPS Because British law did not specify the status of slaves, the colonists created their own slave codes, and these codes varied from state to state.

In general, they denied civil rights to slaves, and punishment meted out to slaves was often harsher than that given to whites for the same crime. In effect, there were two different legal codes one for whites, another for African Americans. Existence of two different legal and moral systems, one for whites and another for slaves. Killing a slave was not considered a crime by the courts nor by the community in Maryland. Throughout his life Douglass remained close to many Republican politicians, including President Grant and Abraham Lincoln, for whose election campaign he worked in 1860. During that time he worked hard to persuade the Union to accept African Americans in the military two black regiments, the 54th and 55th were formed 1865 Lincoln assassinated, Civil War ends In the emotional period after Lincolns death and the defeat of the South, Congress passed: The THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT (abolishing slavery) The FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT (defining citizenship. For the first time, citizenship was defined by the Constitution and was extended to all people born within the United States including African Americans but excluding Native Americans who received citizenship in 1924) The FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT (granting suffrage, voting rights to African Americans a right denied American women until 1920 and Native Americans until 1924).

In the years preceding and following Douglass death, the increasing use of segregation denied African Americans the rights accorded by the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments. A year after Douglass death, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation was legal under the Constitution; the separate but equal doctrine was not fully overturned until the CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964. Douglass ends his third autobiography with a warning about the rise of JIM CROW LAWS and the imposition of near-slavery status on African Americans in the South, pointing out that economic slavery can be just as devastating as legal bondage.

EDGAR ALLAN POE 1809 - 1849 Born in Boston Both parents died before he was three years old Raised by foster parents JOHN ALLAN and his wife from Richmond, VA University of Virginia (left due to inadequate financial support from his step-father) Enlisted in the army (discharged in 1829) Moved to New York, then to Baltimore, then back to NY Married Virginia Clemm in 1836 Free-lance writer, co-editor and editor (The Southern Literary Messenger, Burtons Gentlemans Magazine, Grahams) Virginia died from TB in 1847 Poe died two years later POET WRITER OF SHORT FICTION LITERARY CRITIC considered to be America's first significant literary critic or, at least, the first major writer in America to write seriously about criticism, about the theory of composition, and about the principles of creative art. His theories -- found in his REVIEWS, LETTERS, EDITORIALS, and CRITICAL ARTICLES -- The Poetic Principle, The Philosophy of Composition 1) UNITY OF EFFECT -- the artist should decide what effect he wants to create in the reader's emotional response and then proceed to use all of his creative powers to achieve that particular effect (e.g. FEAR, BEAUTY, MELANCHOLY)

FROM THE PHILOSOPHY OF COMPOSITION "The most elevating and the most pure pleasure is found in the contemplation of the beautiful," "if beauty is the province of the poem, then the tone should be one of sadness. . . . Melancholy is thus the most legitimate of all the poetical tones." "The death, then, of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the worldand equally is it beyond doubt that the lips best suited for such a topic are those of a bereaved lover"

2) REJECTION OF ALLEGORY and DIDACTICISM Poe, as a Romantic writer, dismissed most of the literary works of the eighteenth century, a period which concerned itself mainly with SATIRE. For Poe, satire could create no sense of the beautiful within the reader. Writings that were MORALISTIC or ALLEGORICAL were likewise unacceptable to Poe because they failed to appeal to one's sense of beauty.

3) the epic poem is a NON-POEM 4) the BREVITY of a work of art -- Poe believed that a work of art should achieve its effect in one sitting (no more than half an hour). The greatest art was contained in a poem of about 100 lines (his most famous poem, "The Raven," is 108 lines long) 5) the appeal to the EMOTIONS -- Anything that appealed solely to the intellect could not be considered art because art existed in the world of the beautiful, the refined, and the aesthetic. GOTHIC STORY By gothic, one means that the author emphasizes the GROTESQUE, the MYSTERIOUS, the DESOLATE, the HORRIBLE, the GHOSTLY, and, ultimately, the abject FEAR that can be aroused in either the reader or in the viewer. A GOTHIC SETTING -- an old, decaying mansion far out in a desolate countryside; a castle filled with cobwebs, strange noises, bats, and an abundance of secret panels and corridors GOTHIC STORIES: The Fall of the House of Usher Ligeia In both stories, a super-sensitive hero is presented, a man who cannot function well in the "normal" world. One of the stock elements of the gothic story concerns the possibility of returning to life and inhabiting one's own corpse after one is dead. STORIES OF THE PSYCHOTIC PERSONALITY "The Tell-Tale Heart" "The Black Cat" Besides having a fascination for the WEIRD and the SPECTRAL, Poe was also interested in the concept of the DOUBLE, the SCHIZOPHRENIC, the IRONIC, and the REVERSE

exploring the dark side of human nature

tales of the PSYCHOTIC PERSONALITY, one who tries to give a rational explanation for ones irrational and compulsive acts. Poe assumed that any man, at any given moment, is capable of performing the most irrational and horrible act imaginable; every mind, he believed, is capable of falling into madness at any given moment. Thus, these stories deal with those subconscious mental activities which cause a person who leads a so-called normal existence to suddenly change and perform drastic, horrible deeds. emphasis in these stories, particularly in "The Black Cat," is on the fact that the narrator is sometimes aware that he is going mad. Yet even with this self-knowledge, he can do nothing about his terrifying, changing mental state. a narrator who believes that he is not mad because he can logically describe events which seem to prove him to be mad More than any of Poe's stories, "The Black Cat" illustrates best the capacity of the human mind to observe its own deterioration and the ability of the mind to comment upon its own destruction without being able to objectively halt that deterioration. TALES OF THE EVIL (Or Double) PERSONALITY "The Cask of Amontillado" "William Wilson" ORIGINATOR OF DETECTIVE FICTION Invented the term Tale of RATIOCINATION the reader must accompany the detective toward the solution and apply his/ her own powers of logic and deduction alongside those of the detective (all of the clues are available to the reader as well as the detective) created the character of an eccentric and brilliant amateur detective (M. Auguste DUPIN -- a forerunner of fictional detectives such as Sherlock Holmes HELPER and unnamed friend of the detective -- less smart; he mediates between the reader and detective Simple clues Solution of the problem through logic and intuition Stupidity or ineptitude of the police

'The Murders in the Rue Morgue' introduces the basic features of detective fiction the murder occurs in a locked room from which there is no apparent egress motive, access and other surface evidence points to an innocent person the detective arrives at an unexpected solution, which becomes logical only in retrospect ingenuity becomes the most important aspect in solving the crime

RAVEN Published in the New York Evening Mirror in 1845 Has become one of America's most famous poems. The speaker, a man who pines for his deceased love, Lenore, has been visited by a talking bird who knows only the word 'Nevermore'. The narrator feels so grieved over the loss of his love that he allows his imagination to transform the bird into a prophet bringing news that the lovers will 'Nevermore' be reunited, not even in heaven. Poe described the poem as one that reveals the human penchant for 'selftorture' as evidenced by the speaker's tendency to weigh himself down with grief. The stanzas become increasingly dramatic as the speaker makes observations or asks questions that reveal his growing tension and diminishing reason. STYLE unique in the way he structured the poem and cunning in the way he calculated its effects through RHYME, METER AND RHYTHM 18 STANZAS 6 LINES each VARIED METER Most frequent meter = TROCHAIC OCTAMETER (refers to a line containing 8 TROCHEES = pair of stressed and unstressed syllables) 1st line = 8

Ah, dis / tinctly / I re /member / it was / in the / blead De /cember 2nd line = 7.5

And each / separate / dying / ember / wrought its /ghost up /on the/ floor

4th line = 7.5

From my / books sur / cease of / sorrow / sorrow / for the / lost Lenore 5th line = 7.5

For the / rare and / radiant / maiden / whom the / angels / name Lenore INTERNAL RHYME often employed in the 1st and 3rd lines of each stanza, rhyming the fourth and last trochees of the lines Once upon a midnight DREARY, while I pondered, weak and WEARY ENDRHYME -- a word at the end of the line rhymes with a word at the end of another line Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten LORE While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber DOOR 'Tis some visiter,' I muttered, 'tapping at my chamber DOOR Only this and nothing MORE.' repeating the rhyme of the 3rd line in the 4th trochee of line 4. While I nodded, nearly NAPPING, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently RAPPING, rapping at my chamber door ALLITERATION CONSONANCE = repetition of consonant sounds ASSONANCE = repetition of vowel sounds Line 13 S

And the Silken, Sad, uncertain ruStling of each purple curtain Line 14 F

Thrilled me Filled me with Fantastic terrors never Felt before ONOMATOPOEIA = words that sound like what they describe (rustling) REPETITION OF PLYPTOTON or words in close proximity that stem from the same root: dreaming, dreams dream (Stanza 5), Tempter tempest (stanza 15) REFRAIN creates a sense of mystery

MEDIAL CAESURAS = a break in the line to gain variety of rhythmical effect and connect what could be two separate lines) Line 5 Tis some visiter, I muttered, tapping at my chamber door Line 15 So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating THEMES ALIENATION and LONELINESS Usually, loneliness is considered such an unpleasant feeling that we could not expect someone to panic over the thought of losing it. In this case, we can assume that the speaker had such great love for Lenore that he prefers loneliness to the pain of being reminded of her. We can see this in the way her memory increases throughout the poem at the same time that the speaker is losing his composure, as if it takes concentration and control to suppress the thought of her.

The death of a beautiful woman as lamented by her bereaved lover TONE = MELANCHOLY relies as much on its musical sound and rhythmic pattern as on the meaning of words He just grieves and grieves and grieves a characteristic of Romanticism, to stretch a human emotion beyond the shape that we are familiar with in real life -- suffering is agony, and grief is uncontrollable. Though logic tells the young man that the raven's 'Nevermore' is merely a rote response, he is BEYOND REASON. Having experienced a turbulent shift in his emotions, from dreamy melancholy to irrational hope, by the second half of the poem, the young man is precariously perched on the brink of insanity. Because he needs to cling to the memories of his lost Lenore, the young man experiences inner turmoil as he tries to face the thought of life without her. Finally, he chooses the torture of past memories over the pain of present emptiness. The conclusion of 'The Raven' stands as one of the most harrowing moments in American poetry a vision of psychological, emotional, and spiritual paralysis and despair. 'The Raven' is the signature work of 'a cursed poet' honored as a brilliant artist who was destroyed by his very gifts of heightened perception. Like

its author, the poem's protagonist is an aesthete and intellectual whose mental gifts provide no protection against tragedy. The depth of his love for the lost Lenore only makes his suffering more intense and enduring. POE AND ROMANTICISM Poe's brand of Romanticism was akin to his contemporaries but most of his works often bordered on what was later called the gothic genre. Usually in a Romantic story, the setting is in some obscure or unknown place, or else it is set at some distant time in the past. Poe believed that the highest art existed in a realm that was different from this world, and in order to create this realm, vagueness and indefiniteness were necessary to alienate the reader from the everyday world and to thrust him toward the ideal and the beautiful. The Romantic writer is often both praised and condemned for emphasizing the STRANGE, the BIZARRE, the UNUSUAL, and the UNEXPECTED in his or her writing The purpose of art, for Poe, was to choose subjects which could affect the reader in a manner which he would not encounter in everyday life. Thus, the subject matter of many of his tales dealt with living corpses, with frightening experiences, with horrors which startled the reader, and with situations which even we have never imagined before.

TRANSCENDENTALISM PERIOD BETWEEN 1830 AND 1850 IN THE NORTH -- ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CHANGES Industrialization Urbanization Factories with poor working conditions, wage labor, first unions A new breed of materialism IN THE SOUTH -- old, almost feudal social order (a few extremely wealthy plantation owners ruled) HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL CONTEXT

 Presidency of ANDREW JACKSON Period marked by TERRITORIAL EXPANSION, growing NATIONAL SELFAWARENESS, and increasing POLITICAL, SOCIAL and REGIONAL POLARIZATION The addition of territory through war with Mexico -- inflamed slavery/antislavery tensions RELIGIOUS CONTEXT AMERICAN UNITARIANISM -- belief that God is one being instead of the Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit The Unitarians believed in human capacity for spiritual, moral, and intellectual improvement, denied the Calvinistic concept of innate depravity and the doctrine of predestination. CALVINISM - depravity of humankind, the necessity of God's intervention for us to be saved (We don't deserve anything. There is no way for human beings to protect themselves, except through the reception of God's grace) The UNITARIANS stress not the death of Christ, but the life and teachings of Christ. A fundamentally optimistic view of human nature -- God extends salvation to everyone PHILOSOPHICAL CONTEXT 18th CENTURY ENLIGHTENMENT RATIONAL SCIENTIFIC MATERIAL EMPIRICAL Belief in PROGRESS, IMPROVEMENT OF SOCIETY and of the INDIVIDUAL TOLERANCE JOHN LOCKE (1632-1704) (one of the most influential Enlightenment thinkers) Postulated that the human mind at birth was devoid of conscience, moral understanding and intuition (TABULA RASA), all of which developed through EXPERIENCE

 Insisted that there was nothing in the intellect which had not previously been in the experience of the SENSES ROMANTICISM Marked by a reaction against classical formalism and extreme rationalism of the Enlightenment HUMANISTIC political and social outlook INDIVIDUAL -- at the center of the universe Against DEHUMANIZATION, MATERIALISM, INDUSTRIALIZATION INTUITIVE SPIRITUAL SELF-RELIANCE INDEPENDENCE INDIVIDUALITY Emphasizes EMOTION rather than REASON IDEAL rather than REALITY MOTIFS IN ROMANTIC LITERATURE Individual REBELLION The symbolic interpretation of the historic PAST Subjects from MYTH and FOLKLORE Glorification of NATURE, faraway settings SENTIMENTALISM Nobility of the uncivilized man and simple life GOTHIC themes supernatural, mysterious LITERARY PERIOD American literature came of age in the 1850s, the period we call AMERICAN RENAISSANCE (three generations after the country achieved its political independence) American renaissance literature is almost exclusively romantic literature TRANSCENDENTALISM

 Religious, philosophical and literary movement 1830s 1850s Mostly New Englanders (mainly around Boston, Cambridge and Concord, Massachusetts) Wanted to create American literary independence (authentic American literature) TRANSCENDENTALISM = a philosophy that asserts the primacy of the SPIRITUAL over the MATERIAL and EMPIRICAL The term coined by IMMANUEL KANT as a response to the philosophy of LOCKE. According to Kant, there are some ideas and aspects of knowledge which are beyond what the senses can perceive, but are INTUITIONS of the mind itself he named them TRANSCENDENTAL FORMS The TRANSCENDENT is the fundamental reality The ultimate truth transcends the physical world Transcendentalists were not a cohesive organized group Ralph Waldo EMERSON, Henry David THOREAU, Walt WHITMAN, Amos Bronson ALCOTT, Martin VAN BURREN, Margaret FULLER The more PESSIMISTIC stream of American Romanticists (should be differentiated from the Transcendentalists) Edgar Allan POE, Herman MELVILLE, Nathaniel HAWTHORNE, Henry Wadsworth LONGFELLOW Transcendentalism, on the other hand, incorporated the Romantic emphasis on the individual and the Unitarian belief in the goodness and perfectibility of man. Transcendentalism was more of a call to action than a precise, logical line of thought. It urged people to break free of the customs and traditions of the past and to listen to the spirit of God inside them Most of the transcendentalists became involved in SOCIAL REFORM MOVEMENTS (anti-slavery, women's suffrage, Native American education and rights, world peace) INFLUENCES ON THE TRANSCENDENTALISTS PLATO and English NEO-PLATONIC WRITERS -- belief in the IDEAL state of existence emphasis on INDIVIDUALITY, primacy of intellectual thinking over material reality (PLATO this world is a copy of the ideal world where forms exist in absolute reality)

 BRITISH ROMANTICISM = primacy of the INDIVIDUAL over the community (COLERIDGE, CARLYLE, WORDSWORTH) GERMAN ROMANTICISTS: SCHILLER, GOETHE and NOVALIS GERMAN PHILOSOPHERS: KANT, FICHTE, SCHELLING and HEGEL CONFUCIUS HINDU sacred texts (Vishnu Purana and Bhagavadgita) EMANUEL SWEDENBORG (1688-172) Swedish scientist, Christian mystic, theologian, philosopher Belief in the absolute unity of God not Trinity Christian interpretation of neo-platonic thought there is a kind of infinite and invisible power to all creation and that is God MAJOR TENETS OF T. All institutions (social, political, economic, religious) -- suspect as being false, materialistic Emphasized personal INSIGHT, INDIVIDUALITY and INTUITION The affirmation of the right of individuals to follow truth as they see it, even when contrary to established laws or customs Importance of a direct relationship with God and with Nature ONENESS = GOD + NATURE + MAN OVERSOUL = the divine spirit or mind that is present everywhere, an all-pervading supreme mind. A kind of a cosmic unity between man, god and nature. In each manifestation of God man can discover all universal laws at work. PUBLIC ACTIVITY Transcendentalists gave numerous PUBLIC LECTURES

 During the period between about 1825 and the Civil War, there was a proliferation of institutions designed to enrich the average person and to promote self-culture. THE LYCEUM (an organization for public lectures, concerts -- grew out of the Enlightenment ideal of making knowledge available to all), the social library, public library movement, museums Transcendentalist periodical THE DIAL Established experimental living communities (FRUITLANDS at Harvard, BROOK FARM at West Roxbury, Thoreau's cottage at Walden Pond) RALPH WALDO EMERSON (1803 1882) SELF-RELIANCE The need for each man to think for himself, not to give up their freedom as individuals to constricting beliefs and customs, to common values, to established institutions Importance of an individuals resisting pressure to conform to external norms He refuses to support morality through donations to organizations rather than directly to individuals It makes no difference to him whether his actions are praised or ignored. The important thing is to act independently The self-reliant individual should be able to live in the world and improve it, not be just another product of it. Universe is an all-encompassing whole embracing man, nature, matter and spirit the ultimate source of truth is within ourselves. QUOTES The voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks. See the line from a sufficient distance, and it straightens itself to the average tendency. Your genuine action will explain itself, and will explain your other genuine actions. What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think . . . the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

 Your gifts - whatever you discover them to be - can be used to bless or curse the world. None of us alone can save the world. Together - that is another possibility. Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members Insist on yourself; never imitate. Society never advances. It recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the other. The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet. Society is a wave. The wave moves onward, but the water of which it is composed does not. Discontent is the want of self-reliance: it is infirmity of will Why should we assume the faults of our friend, or wife, or father, or child, because they sit around our hearth, or are said to have the same blood? All men have my blood and I all men's. HENRY DAVID THOREAU (1817 1862) WALDEN He points out the forces that dull and subjugate the inner man, materialism and constant labor in particular. The reform of society rests within the individual. Each man is a microcosm. If he works at improving himself, he reforms the world more effectively than can any philanthropic scheme or organization. POSSESSIONS COMPLICATE LIFE Thoreau emphasizes the crushing, numbing effect of materialism and commercialism on the individuals life. Property ownership and technological progress consume men before they have a chance to consider how they might live. The author encourages his contemporaries to be content with less materially. To Thoreau, the cost of something is not so much its actual cost in dollars and cents, but the amount of life that must be exchanged for it. REPLICA OF THOREAUS CABIN PATH LEADING FROM THE CABIN SITE TO THE POND

 Each man must search for his own path, and the search must take place within himself. What is moral, what is right, must be found in the heart of each individual person. Truth lies within the individual Awareness of the importance of the PRESENT moment QUOTES Man is rich in proportion to the things that he can afford to let alone. I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.... If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them. The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation SLAVES TO THEIR OWN DESIRES AND POSSESSIONS

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE One of the most influential political tracts ever written by an American. Published posthumously in 1866 Profoundly influenced MOHANDAS GANDHI and MARTIN LUTHER KING Thoreaus response to being imprisoned for being a tax rebel refused to pay the poll tax in protest to slavery and the Mexican-American war An analysis of the individuals relationship to the state Focuses on why men obey governmental law even when they believe it to be unjust Having developed the image of the government as a machine that may or may not do enough good to counterbalance what evil it commits, he urges rebellion. The opponents of reform, he recognizes, are not faraway politicians but ordinary people who cooperate with the system. Although Thoreau asserts that a man has other, higher duties than eradicating institutional wrong, he must at least not be guilty through compliance. The individual must not support the structure of government, must act with principle, must break the law if necessary. The individual is the final judge of right and wrong

 I cannot for an instant recognize that political organization as my government which is the slaves government also It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right Government may express the will of the majority, but it may also express nothing more than the will of elite politicians. A really free and enlightened state can afford to be just to all men Thoreau also wonders about the psychology of men who would fight a war and, perhaps, kill others out of obedience What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn If the alternative is to keep all just men in prison, or give up war and slavery, the State will not hesitate which to choose. If a thousand men were not to pay their tax-bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood. This is, in fact, the definition of a peaceable revolution..

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 1804 - 1864 THE MINISTER'S BLACK VEIL (1836) PARABLE = a short and concise tale which usually expresses a moral or religious message in terms of something that is easily understood HOOPER - a young self-disciplined parson who has never acted irrationally before comes to Sunday service with a veil of black crepe. He delivers a sermon concerning "secret sins" that every man harbors and would hide from his fellow man and even God himself. The Minister keeps wearing the veil for the rest of his life. At his deathbed, when the Reverend Mr. Clark asks if he might remove the veil before he dies, Hoper still refuses to remove it and accuses everyone of veiling their innermost secrets and desires:

 "'Why do you tremble at me alone?' cried he, turning his veiled face round the circle of pale spectators. Tremble also at each other! Have men avoided me, and women shown no pity, and children screamed and fled, only for my black veil? What, but the mystery which it obscurely typifies, has made this piece of crepe so awful? When the friend shows his inmost heart to his friend; the lover to his best-beloved; when a man does not vainly shrink from the eye of his Creator, loathsomely treasuring up the secret of his sin; then deem me a monster, for the symbol beneath which I have lived, and die! I look around me, and lo! on every visage a Black Veil!'" EXODUS 34:30-33 Moses wears a veil to shield his followers from the blinding glory of his face, which radiates as a result of his having been in God's presence for forty days and forty nights. The story based on a real event - a clergyman named Joseph Moody from York, Maine, accidentally killed his best friend, and from that day forth wore a black veil as penance for his crime. SYMBOLISM AND THE MEANING OF THE VEIL HOOPER'S MADNESS HOOPER'S SECRET SIN (E.A. Poe believed that Hooper had had an illicit relationship with the young lady whose funeral he attended) ORIGINAL SIN (an imprint of guilt inherited from Adam and Eve, who sinned against God and then tried to hide from him). Hooper wants to teach his congregation a lesson about acknowledging the presence of Original Sin in each and every parishioner. CALVINIST THEOLOGY/ THE IDEA OF PREDESTINATION - The veil represents not what Hooper would hide but what is hidden from him. He cannot lift the veil himself. Only God can do that at the final judgment when He reveals to Hooper where his soul will spend eternity. A SIN OF PRIDE Hooper's self-righteous insistence on wearing the veil signals Hooper's sense of moral superiority. The veil isolates him from the religious community to whom he should minister with affection and concern. The ambiguity and mystery of the concealing veil become themselves the meaning, suggesting the inaccessibility of determinate meaning or truth. Even though the story is told from the point of view of an omniscient narrator, much is left unrevealed, so the story itself also functions as a veil. ELIZABETH the true martyr of the story, the true heroine. Unlike the overly pious Hooper, Elizabeth is accepting and kind, she sees the joy in life, the good rather than the evil. Unlike the townspeople, she does not shrink away from Hooper in disgust and fear. She does not condemn him

and until the day he dies respects him for his decision to wear the veil. Even though she breaks off the engagement, she proves herself to be Hooper's steadfast friend who loves and supports him till the hour of his death.

HERMAN MELVILLE 1819 - 1891 Melville career began with largely autobiographical, well-received adventure stories about his experiences as a sailor in the South Seas. Yet, although his career began with easy, early recognition, it evolved into tragic anonymity. Though he published eleven prose books, along with shorter pieces and books of poems, it was only thirty years after his death that people began to realize just what it was he had managed to achieve. The original design of Moby Dick made sense within the romantic tradition. Melville wanted to write a romantic text on the whale fishery, giving much exotic information, derived from encyclopedias and world literature. The characters were to be colorful and picturesque, including the Byronic captain of the whaling ship. The result was a novel with MIXED STYLES: FICTIONAL ADVENTURE STORY HISTORICAL DETAIL SCIENTIFIC DISCUSSION

The novels plot is built on one basic conflict AHAB vs. THE WHALE. It is essentially the story of Ahab and his quest to defeat the legendary Sperm Whale Moby Dick, for this whale took Ahabs leg, causing him to use an ivory leg. ELEMENTS OF THE QUEST MYTH CHALLENGE The hero LEAVES SOCIETY (his goals are always noble, he is always on the side of goodness, his enemies are always evil)

Undergoes TRIALS

(PHYSICAL TESTS slaying a dragon, battling powerful opponents, rescuing maidens in distress etc.)

Having completed his quest the hero RETURNS to society to bring about spiritual TRANSFORMATION and restore the perfect human community AHABS QUEST not heroism; he is ready to sacrifice his whole crew for his personal goal - his revengeful obsession to find and kill Moby Dick

For Ahab, the defeat of Moby Dick will represent redemption and a means of achieving clarity and peace. Claiming that Moby Dick is chiefly what I hate gives the whale greater significance for Ahab, who finds that the whale represents all of the mysteries of his life. The quest to find Moby Dick is therefore both an external conflict between Ahab and the whale as well as an internal conflict within Ahab for a sense of peace and happiness. Melville constructed Ahab as a mad, imperial figure, who thinks himself the equal to God Ahabs HUBRIS REJECTION OF GOD altogether for an alliance with the devil (comparable to FAUSTUS, KURTZ) OTHER CHARACTERS ISHMAEL the narrator of the novel, a simple sailor on the Pequod who undertakes the journey because of his affection for the ocean and his need to go to sea whenever he feels hazy about the eyes. He is the only survivor of the Pequods voyage, living to tell the tale of Moby Dick.

QUEEQUEG harpooner from New Zealand, son of a Maori king who renounced the throne to travel and learn about Christian society NOBLE, BRAVE, HONORABLE, gives Ishmael a sense of serenity and ease (subversion of the dichotomy SAVAGERY vs. CIVILIZATION)

Queequeg juxtaposes sharply with Ahab - while Queequeg is so completely in control of himself that he can even will himself cured, Ahab is so subject to his obsessions that he cannot make any decisions independent of them. STARBUCK chief mate of the Pequod, voice of reason and practicality, openly opposes Ahabs suicidal folly

FEDALLAH

oriental / Asiatic mysterious, sinister figure, devil in disguise, has prophetic dreams

FATHER MAPPLE left sailing for the ministry sermon that considers the tale of JONAH and the WHALE (both JONAH and AHAB flout God through arrogance and disobedience)

PROPHET ELIJAH a stranger that Ishmael and Queequeg pass while staying in Nantucket who asks if they have met Old Thunder (Captain Ahab), and later asks the two if they have sold their souls to the devil by agreeing to undertake a voyage on the Pequod

THE WHALE legendary, mythic quality Whaling described as a ROYAL ACTIVITY (whales were considered prizes significant enough to be a dowry. Oil used in the coronation of kings is sperm oil) In the nineteenth century whaling was a huge industry, with America dominating the international scene. Petroleum was not discovered until 1859 importance of whale oil. In 1844 $120 million was tied up in whaling. Whaling was especially significant in the American economy in the middle of the nineteenth century, when the industry was competing with textiles. Whaling finally became America-dominated, and considerable national pride is evident in Melvilles depictions. The struggle against M. Dick lasts THREE DAYS On the first day, Ahab spies the whale himself, and the whaling boats row after it. Moby Dick attacks Ahabs boat, causing it to sink, but Ahab survives the ordeal when he reaches Stubbs boat. Despite this first failed attempt at defeating the whale, Ahab pursues him for a second day. On the second day of the chase, roughly the same defeat occurs. This time Moby Dick breaks Ahabs ivory leg, while Fedallah dies when he becomes entangled in the harppon line and is drowned. When Ahab and his crew reach Moby Dick, Ahab finally stabs the whale with his harpoon but the whale again tips Ahabs boat. However, the whale rams the Pequod and causes it to begin sinking. In a seemingly suicidal act, Ahab throws his harpoon at Moby Dick but becomes entangled in the line and goes down with it.

 Only Ishmael survives this attack, for he was fortunate to be on a whaling boat instead of on the Pequod. Eventually he is rescued by the Rachel, the ship whose captain had asked Ahab to help find his missing son (Ahab refused when he learned that M. Dick was nearby).