Friday, August 16, 2019
Literature As A Revolutionary Tool For American
In tandem with literacy, literature has become one of the leading vehicles for social criticism in American history. It amplifies the author's voice, reverberating it throughout the nation, molding the history of America by changing the opinions of the people on certain issues. It can induce cries of hope and merriment, like John Winthrop's sermon A Model of Christian Charity, which speaks about the optimistic prospect of America as the ââ¬Å"City upon a Hillâ⬠(Winthrop, 84). But it can also elicit the noticeable cries viciously pointing out the ignored flaws embedded in this ââ¬Å"more perfect unionâ⬠(U.S. Const. Preamble)â⬠the existence of slavery, racism, ethnocentrism and the absence of gender equality. While reading this textbook, it is important to keep in mind the question of intentionâ⬠why a certain piece of literature was written and why during that particular time period and not another. In any case, major movements in American literature leading up to the 19th Century are not arbitrary or random; they are all interrelated by a cause and effect, wherein one movement inspires the critical response of another.The arrival of the Puritans in the sixteenth century brought religious literature into the New World, more specifically ermons such as John Winthrop's A Model of Christian Charity, which grounded the principles required for this infant colony to become the ââ¬Å"City Upon A Hillâ⬠(Winthrop, 84). Winthrop's sermon was an implicated work of criticism towards the European structure of society, where social class and bloodline would inherently determine a person's fate in life.Winthrop modeled prospective America according to everything the Old World was notâ⬠it would be a country where the ââ¬Å"riche and mighty should not eate up the poore, nor the poore,â⬠(81) where the people ââ¬Å"must love one another with a pure hearte ferventlyâ⬠¦ eare one another burthensâ⬠¦ [and] not looke only on [their] ow ne things, but also on the things of [their] brethrenâ⬠(83). This model appealed to the serfs and peasants of Europe because it promoted equality, a concept not unfamiliar but unattainable to the people belonging to the Old World.Although inequality established by the Old World caste system would later be abolished in the New World, gender inequality still remained to be a prevalent form of inequality amongst the peopleâ⬠notice that Winthrop calls out for equality among the ââ¬Å"brethrenâ⬠(83) and not ââ¬Å"sistren,â⬠which is the female equivalent of it. Over two centuries later, Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter would be published in 1850, criticizing the gender inequality within the glorified Puritan ââ¬Å"Model of Christian Charity. Hawthorne points out this flaw by having Hester Prynne, the woman, repent for her sins by public shame and ostracization whereas Dimmesdale, the man, can successfully conceal his sins, albeit it at a great cost in the end. This disparity between the experiences of the opposite sex point out the imperfections within Puritan society as well as society in the 19th century. On the topic of inequality, ccompanied by women were black slaves who received the shortest end of the stick of equality.Following the American Independence in 1774, early 19th century American literature mainly comprised of political documents such as The Declaration ot Independence ot 1776, which was written witn the intention to ââ¬Å"petition tor redressâ⬠(US, 1776), which in this case would be independence from the British Crown. The document itself is a social critique on the monarchial system of the British Empire. By listing the ââ¬Å"history of repeated injuries and usurpationâ⬠(US, 1776)) inflicted upon the American Colonies, the drafters of The Declaration ofIndependence are explicitly condemning the tyrannical Imperial System that dominated Europe and the Kingdom of Great Britain throughout history. Almo st a century later, the emergence of abolitionist sponsored slave narratives in the 19th century allowed for the direct critique of America's hypocritical claim that the British Crownâ⬠the ââ¬Å"Tyrantâ⬠â⬠was unfit to be the ruler of the ââ¬Å"free peopleâ⬠whichâ⬠later emphasizedâ⬠excluded the black community.While the fourth of July is often associated with the Joyful celebration of independence, in the perspective of prominent African-American abolitionist Fredrick Douglass, the fourth of July is eferred to as the particular day ââ¬Å"that reveals to [the Negro]â⬠¦ the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim [of]â⬠(Douglass, The Fourth of July). The ââ¬Å"Fourth of July is yours [the white citizens], not mine [the blacks]â⬠Douglass said in his 1852 speech ââ¬Å"The Meaning of July Fourth to the Negro. His statement summarizes the fact that the basic rights the whites were born with were not considered as ri ghts or even privileges for the blacksâ⬠free or enslaved. Fast-forward to post civil war in 1983; Mark Twain publishes Pudd'nhead Wilson, a tragic comedy criticizing the lack of ights given to slaves. In the conclusion, the creditors of the Driscoll estate claim fake Tom as their ââ¬Å"lawful property' (Twain, 122). This reference to ââ¬Å"property' can be viewed as criticism towards the Supreme Court Case Dred Scott v.Stanford in 1857, where Judge Taney ruled Scott, the slave, as property and therefore cannot be freed, despite setting foot on a free state, because it would be depriving a person of property without due process or Just compensation which violates the 5th Amendment. The comic tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson, then, serves as a critical pprobrium directed upon the inequitable ways in which the slaves were treated. The philosophical movement known as transcendentalism began its short, but impactful lifespan during the 1820s and 1830s.Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry Dav id Thoreau are among the renowned icons of the transcendentalist movement. The transcendentalist movement began as criticism towards society and its institutionsâ⬠particularly organized religion and political parties. Influenced by Romanticism, the transcendentalists respected the individual spirit and the natural world, believing that divinity was present in nature and each person. In his essay Self-Reliance, Emerson compares an institution to the ââ¬Å"lengthened shadow of one manâ⬠(Emerson, 26).Self-Reliance circles itself around the idea of Individualism where ââ¬Å"imitation is suicideâ⬠(20), so this comparison suggests that organizations teach principles based on the ideas of a single person, forcing everyone else to conform to the ideas of a man other than themselvesâ⬠a concept condemned by transcendentalists. Transcendentalism also included the core belief that all men were inherently goodâ⬠a belief that would later breed a completely different g eneration of writers. Herman Melville was among the writers who advocated ealism, the antithesis of all things romantic or transcendental.His novella Bartleby tells the story of a scrivener named Bartleby. Like Thoreau, Bartleby is a passive resistor. However, while Thoreau argues that his act ot passive resistance trees him, Bartlebys passivity provokes the narrator to confront him, and ultimately, his refusal to accept authority results in his self-inflicted death. Furthermore, although Thoreau considers solitude as his most ââ¬Å"companionableâ⬠(Thoreau, 88) companion, Bartlebys loneness was the cause for his boss' comment on his ââ¬Å"incurably forlornâ⬠(Melville, 9) ppearance.The key difference between transcendentalism and realism isn't very far fetchedâ⬠one is optimistic while the other is realistically grimâ⬠while Thoreau's passive resistance liberates him and allows him to fully express himself, Bartleby's passive resistance only affirms the authorit y and control that society has over him. Although the motives for social criticism may vary over the decades, the overall purpose of literature is to act as a vessel for social criticism in order to spark movementsâ⬠for better or worseâ⬠in an otherwise monotonous society.
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