EOCT Review—Honors & CP LA

I.  LITERATURE—Study the information in the introduction of each major section, along with the following writers and their works.

BEGINNINGS (to 1750s)

Author / Title / Ideas
William Bradford / Of Plymouth Plantation / William Bradford was elected governor over thirty times by his fellow Pilgrims. He kept diaries and journals; he helped document the experiences of his colony by writing Of Plymouth Plantation. Faith, hard work, and perseverance are all demonstrated in his narrative.
Olaudah Equiano / The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano / Captured the atrocities experienced by the African slaves during the middle passage in his autobiography. He wrote persuasively and was the first African writer to reach a large audience of American readers. He was instrumental not only in bringing the horrors of slavery to the forefront of the moral conscience, but in helping put an end to slavery.
Jonathan Edwards / “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” / Another tremendous example of persuasive writing and oratory. If Bradford, Taylor, and Bradstreet are the saints of the puritanical literary movement, then Edwards is the voice of retribution for an Angry God. He was considered “the last Puritan” and America’s greatest theologian. In this work, we find the power of the wrath of God explained to us in excruciating detail. Characteristics in Literature: Heavy use of nature imagery, simile, metaphor, repetition, anaphora, classical use of apostrophe, rhetoric, heavy use of emotional appeal (fear based motivation),
Edward Taylor / “Huswifery” / The “Quintessential Puritan,” Taylor was a Harvard graduate, doctor, and minister for his village. An extremely tough individual, he walked over a hundred miles to his first post. His poetry was published posthumously by his descendents. “Huswifery” is a metaphysical conceit, and an examination of Taylor’s relationship to God and Taylor’s role in his community. The poem begins with the line “Make me, O Lord, thy spinning wheel complete.” In the three stanzas that comprise the work, Taylor asks the Lord to make him a “holy robe of glory” for Christ. The poem is an excellent example of the use of apostrophe as well as an inspiring Christian meditation which focuses on the importance of service to the Lord and to the community.
Anne Bradstreet / “To My Dear and Loving Husband” / Anne Bradstreet was a Puritan housewife whose husband Simon travelled frequently. While Simon was away, Anne wrote lyric poetry that focused on her devotion to God, family, and her reaction to adversity in life. “To My Dear and Loving Husband” is a beautiful love poem that expresses Anne’s love for Simon and her hope that this love will be preserved after death through the salvation promised in Christ.

THE ENLIGHTMENT (1750-1800)

Author / Title / Ideas
Benjamin Franklin / The Autobiography & Poor Richards Almanack / I was known to keep track of thirteen virtues as an adolescent. This helped me learn to listen and absorb everything around me. My brother James beat me as a young man out of jealousy and spite. Because of this arrogance on the part of my elder brother, I learned to hide my genius as a teenager by cleverly adopting pseudonyms like Silence Dogood. My father was a lowly candle and soap maker, but everyone trusted him in our community. I remember, as a child, politicians and other community leaders stopping by my house to chat with my father about local issues. Historians say that I take after him in terms of my character. I was known for my absolute brilliance as a scientist, inventor, and writer. I was the first “self-made” man in the American colonies. I dispelled the myth of the genetic superiority of both the monarchy and the aristocracy by shining brightly and sharing my gifts in the noon-day sun of my time period. I discovered ocean currents, electricity, invented new heating methods, and basically improved the lives of people everywhere I went.
Thomas Paine / The American Crisis No. 1 / “These are the times that try men’s souls …” A brilliant rhetorical and, thus, persuasive work by Paine. Do not confuse The American Crisis No. 1 with Paine’s pamphlet entitled Common Sense (you read this in US History). Paine wrote this brilliant masterpiece in order to inspire our troops, leaders, and fellow colonists to take up arms against our then British oppressors. George Washington loved this essay so much that he ordered it to be read to our troops before the Battle of Trenton. The divine right of the kings is brilliantly questioned here in this work – Paine compares the king to a common highway man, a murderer, and a vile oppressor.
Patrick Henry / “Speech in the Virginia Convention” / Henry was the author of the most famous instance of parallel structure in American History “Give me liberty or give me death!” His “Speech in the Virginia Convention” is a rhetorical masterpiece implementing multiple instances of anaphora, parallel structure, assorted uses of repetition and restatement, and brilliant use of the device rhetorical question. Henry urged colonial politicians to fight against British tyranny and gain independence from the crown. Our country owes a great debt to Patrick Henry and other brave men who risked everything, so that we could be free.
Michel-Guillaume Jean de Crevecoeur / Letters from an American Farmer / I was a Tory sympathizer who later had to re-write my literary collection to eliminate these sympathies. I wrote Letters from an American Farmer. I glorified and praised the opportunities that the new American Colonies offered the poor immigrants of Europe. Many of these people were fleeing the tyranny of feudal lords and the heavy taxation of brutal and unfair monarchies everywhere. I was a voice that heralded the importance of land acquisition and tied that acquisition of land to the beginnings of wealth and prosperity in the lives of an individual. I described fat and frolicking children on farms with their parents reaping the benefits of hard work and land ownership. This ownership allowed these farmers to keep the profits of their toil or labor. I describe a new breed of Americans which consists of a multitude of ancestral roots – people from all over the world marrying and creating a new race.

AMERICAN ROMANTICISM (1800-1860)

GOTHIC ROMANTICISM

Author / Title / Ideas
Washington Irving / “The Devil and Tom Walker” / In this brilliant satire, Irving borrows the concept of the Faust legend from Germany. Tom Walker, after being rid of the violent and termagant Mrs. Walker, dooms his immortal soul by turning usurer for the devil. Irving was the first world-famous American author. In addition to Tom Walker, he created the characters Rip Van Winkle, Ichabod Crane, and the Headless Horseman.
Edgar Alan Poe / “The Raven” and “The Fall of the House of Usher” / I was expelled from the University of Virginia for not paying my gambling debts. People loathed me, and this made me an extremely creepy person. I was the father of the detective story and inspired contemporary horror writers like Stephen King. I wrote “The Raven” and “The Fall of the House of Usher” – I also married my cousin. I had a horrific childhood which led to a great deal of dysfunctional behavior on my part as an adult. My parents were impoverished travelling actors. My father walked out on me shortly after I was born, and my mother died a year later. A man named John Allan took me in, but never formally adopted me.
Nathaniel Hawthorne / “The Minister’s Black Veil” and The Scarlet Letter / This writer was so ashamed of the fact that his ancestor Judge Hathorne was instrumental in convicting and hanging everyone’s grandmother in Salem in 1692 that he added a “w” to his name. Hawthorne was obsessed with sin and its effects on humanity. Sin, hypocrisy, shame, guilt, and self-mutilation are all present in his works. He is the epitome of a gothic writer – his opus magnus The Scarlet Letter is set in the remote Puritan wilderness that was Salem, MA in the late 1600s. The protagonist and heroine, Hester Prynne (whose name rhymes with sin) is under severe psychological torment. The young and dashing Arthur Dimmesdale (little lamb) is also being psychologically tortured by the evil Roger Chillingworth, the antagonist.

THE HAPPIER SIDE OF ROMANTICISM

Author / Title / Ideas
William Cullen Bryant / “Thanatopsis” / Thanatopsis is ancient Greek for a meditation on death. Bryant began writing “Thanatopsis” when he was seventeen. Later on in life, he became a lawyer, a journalist, and was editor for The New York Evening Post. Bryant was also a fierce abolitionist.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow / “A Psalm of Life”
“The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls” / “A Psalm of Life” embodies the optimism and individualistic focus that was so characteristic of American romantic writers during this time period. Longfellow begins this work with the line “Tell me not in mournful numbers life is but an empty dream.” He goes on to encourage his readers to be their own heroes and heroes for others who may be lost and need a guide. “The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls” is a bit more serious in tone. The poem discusses the miniscule effect humanity has in relation to the awe-inspiring life span of the planet earth. Longfellow had to watch and was severely burned as his second wife burned to death in a household accident. His first wife died tragically as well of an infection after miscarrying their child. His life was filled with tragedy, but, interestingly enough, he motivated himself to get through it while helping and inspiring countless others to do the same. He was a college professor and responsible for translating many European works into English for his students. He wrote his own textbook as well as the poems “A Psalm of Life” and “The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls”

THE AMERICAN RENAISSANCE / TRANSCENDENTALISM (1830-1860)

Author / Title / Ideas
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Father of Transcendentalism / From Nature and from “Self Reliance” / Known as the father of Transcendentalism – Emerson left the Unitarian Church in search of ideas that better fulfilled his spiritual aspirations. He blended Eastern mysticism with romantic ideals to create the movement known as Transcendentalism.
Henry David Thoreau
Transcendentalist / From Walden and “Civil Disobedience” / Harvard graduate and most famous disciple of Emerson. Thoreau isolated himself and lived on Walden Pond for four years trying out Transcendentalist philosophies. His writing and ideas on passive resistance later influenced Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Walt Whitman / Leaves of Grass, “Song of Myself,” and “I Hear America Singing” / Revolutionized American poetry – Whittier hated him so much he threw his copy of Leaves of Grass into the fire after reading it. Lucky for us, Emerson loved it. Whitman challenged traditional forms of poetry and liked to write in free verse. He intensely captured the ideals of democracy, diversity, and dignity in his poetry. He was known as the Good Grey Poet and the Bard of Democracy. He was a keen observer and lover of humanity and of the United States.
Emily Dickinson / “Because I could not stop for Death,” “I heard a Fly buzz – when I died” / Emily Dickinson wrote 1775 poems during her lifetime. Although she had a normal childhood, she became a recluse in her adulthood. We laughed about her favorite (uplifting) subjects of death, religion, and nature. She was at least a hundred years ahead of her time in terms of her writing style which meant that no one really understood how brilliant she was. Eccentricities (for the time period) that were typical of her writing included a bizarre use of capitalization and punctuation – she was also fond of using hyphens. She had a penchant for irregular meter and rhyme schemes as well.

Unit IV Realism and Naturalism & Unit V Modernism & Unit VI Post Modernism

Realism 1850 to 1900 (see below definitions)
Regionalism
Naturalism
Regionalism and the use of Local Color / Ambrose Bierce I was a particularly bitter person who was known for his sharp tongue and evil ways. I wrote “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” and disappeared while reporting on Pancho Villa and the Mexican Revolution. You watched a movie about my short story, and you learned that I pioneered the use of the literary device known as stream of consciousness. We listened to Suzanne Vega’s “Tom’s Diner” as well to reinforce your knowledge of this literary term. My life was very tragic. I grew up in poverty. I attended a military academy, and then I fought in the Civil War as a lieutenant for the Union Army. I was shot in the head, but – miraculously -- I lived. I married and had two sons, but one of my sons died. My wife later ran away from me, and then divorced me.
Stephen Crane I died at a very young age from tuberculosis or consumption, but I still managed to leave behind volumes of my writing. I was a journalist and was fascinated by the American Civil War. As a matter of fact, I interviewed hundreds of Civil War vets, studied photographs, and maps of battle plans in order to be able to write “An Episode of War” and The Red Badge of Courage. Students often make the mistake of thinking that I lived during the Civil War, but in reality I was born after the war had ended. I was the leading naturalist writer of my day.
Stephen Foster I wrote the ballad “Willie has Gone to the War” and many, many other songs that helped define and shape the American musical scene. Sadly, I lived most of my life in poverty, but my music continues to be a tradition and legacy of the United States. Ballads are a form of lyric poetry, and my song about Willie is no exception. The lyrics tell of a young woman crying for her loved one Willie. I used a lot of imagery in the song which depicts nature as beautiful, but completely indifferent to the plight of human suffering. For example, you hear about the blue bird singing, and the water or beautiful springs and meadows all while a woman laments the fact that her love Willie has, yes folks, Gone to the War.