Lesson 14.2: American Art
and Literature
Today’s Essential Question: How did
artists and writers develop a distinctly
American style of art and literature?
Vocabulary
• celebration – the act of praising or
giving honor
• civil – of citizens
• transcend – exceed, go beyond
Check for Understanding
• What is today’s Essential Question?
• What are civil rights?
• Why are famous people often referred
to as celebrities?
• How are cell phones transcendent?
What We Already Know
During the Enlightenment, the human mind
and its powers of reason were celebrated
over superstition and religious belief.
What We Already Know
During the Industrial Revolution, machines and
unskilled workers replaced skilled craftsmen in the
work place, making manufacturing much more dull
and mindless.
What We Already Know
In the decades after the War of 1812, a strong
feeling of national pride swept the United States,
and increased as the nation expanded westward.
Many American writers were influenced
by a style of European art called
romanticism.
• Romanticism was a reaction
against the Enlightenment,
the Scientific Revolution,
and industrialization.
• It looked back fondly on the
past, when life seemed
simpler.
• In Romanticism, emotions
and imagination were
considered more important
than intellect or reason.
Romanticism
drew inspiration
from nature.
• Nature was a place
free from society's
judgment and
restrictions.
• Romanticism
stressed the
individual,
imagination,
creativity, and
emotion.
An example of the Romantic
attitude, expressed by German
author Johann Wolfgang Goethe:
“All the knowledge I
possess everyone
else can acquire, but
my heart is all my
own.”
Get your whiteboards
and markers ready!
8. What was romanticism?
A. Romanticism stressed the individual,
imagination, creativity, and emotion.
B. Romanticism was a reaction against the
Enlightenment, the Scientific Revolution,
and industrialization.
C. It looked back fondly on the past, when life
seemed simpler.
D. In Romanticism, emotions and imagination
were considered less important than
intellect or reason.
Choose the one that is NOT true!
Romanticism
encouraged
American
writers to
create truly
American
works in three
ways.
1. American writers turned their
interest in nature into a celebration
of the American wilderness.
• James Fenimore Cooper
wrote five novels about
the dramatic adventures
of wilderness scout
Natty Bumppo.
• One that remains
popular is The Last of
the Mohicans.
2. American writers began using
a more American style of writing.
• Noah Webster gave
guidelines to that style in
his American Dictionary
of the English Language.
• Webster’s dictionary
replaced British
spellings with American,
and included American
slang.
3. Writers celebrated America’s past.
• Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow wrote
many poems that
retold stories from
history.
• His most famous,
“Paul Revere’s
Ride,” depicted the
Revolutionary War
hero’s ride to warn
of a British attack.
Washington Irving also wrote
stories about colonial life.
• One story, “Rip Van Winkle,”
tells of a man who falls
asleep on the eve of the
Revolutionary War and
wakes up 20 years later.
• In another, a teacher is
chased by the headless
ghost of a Revolutionary
War soldier and is never
seen again.
Washington
Irving’s work
helped to win
European
respect for
American
writing for the
first time.
Get your whiteboards
and markers ready!
8. How did Americans writers adapt
romanticism?
A. They turned its interest in nature into a
celebration of the American wilderness.
B. They turned its focus on heroic figures
into stories about legendary figures from
tall tales.
C. They replaced its religious themes with
Native American myths.
D. They transformed its love of nature into
stories about turning wilderness into
civilization.
7. Why are Washington Irving’s “Rip Van
Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”
important in American literature?
A. They were the first to include American
slang words.
B. They were the first stories ever written
about life in the United States.
C. They helped win European respect for
American writing.
D. They helped inspire Americans to rebel
against British rule.
9. What were three ways in which
writers helped create a truly
American style of writing?
A. Their works celebrated the American
wilderness.
B. They used American English in their
writings.
C. They wrote about the American past.
D. They wrote very negative stories and
novels about the European noble
classes.
European styles
also influenced
American artists,
but some painters
took these styles
in new directions.
Some American
artists, influenced by
romanticism, painted
lush natural
landscapes.
• One group of painters
was known as the
Hudson River school.
• They were so named
because they painted
the dramatic beauty of
the Hudson River
Valley in the state of
New York.
Asher Durand was a founder of the
Hudson River school.
• His most famous
painting, Kindred
Spirits, shows two
men inspired by a
beautiful landscape.
• The men are Durand’s
friends, the Romantic
poet William Cullen
Bryant and Romantic
painter Thomas Cole.
Several members of the Hudson
River school went to the West.
In their paintings,
they tried to
convey the majesty
of the American
landscape.
Others painted American wildlife.
• John James Audubon
came to the United
States from France at
age 18.
• Traveling across the
continent, Audubon
painted the birds and
animals of his adopted
country.
Enslaved African Americans also
contributed to American art, crafting
beautiful baskets, quilts, and pottery.
Get your whiteboards
and markers ready!
10. What subjects did the early
American painters focus on?
A. the lush landscapes of the Hudson
River Valley
B. the majestic mountain ranges of the
West
C. the birds and animals of the American
wilderness
D. the portraits of European political and
military leaders.
Choose the one that is NOT true!
By the 1840s, Americans took new
pride in their emerging culture.
• Ralph Waldo Emerson, a
New England writer,
encouraged this pride.
• He urged Americans to
cast off European
influence and develop
their own beliefs.
• His advice was to learn
about life from selfexamination and from
nature, as well as books.
Emerson’s student, Henry David
Thoreau, followed that advice.
• In 1845, Thoreau into
a simple cabin he had
built at Walden Pond
in Massachusetts,
where he wrote about
the benefits of living a
simple life.
• Thoreau wrote that
people should live by
their own individual
standards, and march
to their own inner
drummer.
Emerson and Thoreau followed a new
philosophy called transcendentalism.
• It taught that the spiritual world is more
important than the physical world.
• It also taught that people can find the
truth within themselves through feeling
and intuition.
Thoreau and Civil Disobedience
• Because Thoreau
believed in the
importance of individual
conscience, he urged
people not to obey laws
they considered unjust.
• Instead of protesting
with violence, they
should peacefully refuse
to obey those laws (civil
disobedience).
Thoreau and Civil Disobedience
• For example, Thoreau did
not want to support the
U.S. government, which
allowed slavery and
fought the War with
Mexico.
• Instead of paying taxes
that helped to finance the
war, Thoreau went to jail.
Get your whiteboards
and markers ready!
11. What did transcendentalists like
Emerson and Thoreau believe?
A. People should learn about life through selfreflection and studying nature as well as
from books.
B. The spiritual world is less important than
the physical world.
C. People can find the truth within themselves
through feeling and intuition.
D. It is important that people obey all laws,
even those they consider unjust.
Choose ALL that are true!
12. Why did Thoreau commit an act
of civil disobedience by not paying
his taxes?
A. His Transcendentalist beliefs required him
to be poor.
B. He didn't want the tax money to be used to
support the war with Mexico.
C. As a Transcendentalist, he did not recognize the authority of any government.
D. He was living in isolation at Walden Pond
and didn't know the tax was due.
Louisa May Alcott began her writing career
as a transcendentalist poet in the 1850s.
• But Alcott achieved her
greatest fame in 1868
with her book Little
Women, which became
popular with children as
well as adults.
• Alcott was active in
abolition and suffrage
movements.
Another New England transcendentalist,
Margaret Fuller, also called for change.
In her magazine, The
Dial, and in her book,
Woman in the
Nineteenth Century,
Fuller argued for
women’s rights.
Like Thoreau, other writers broke
with tradition.
• In 1855, poet Walt
Whitman published
Leaves of Grass, a
book that changed
American poetry.
• His bold, unrhymed
poems praised
ordinary people.
Emily Dickinson was another
transcendentalist poet.
• Dickinson lived in her
family’s home almost
her entire life.
• She wrote poems
about God, nature,
love, and death.
• Most of her 1,775
poems were published
only after her death.
Both Whitman and Dickinson
shaped modern poetry by
experimenting with language.
Fiction writers of the 1800s also
shaped American literature.
• Edgar Allan Poe
wrote terrifying tales
that influence today’s
horror story writers.
• He also wrote the first
detective story, “The
Murders in the Rue
Morgue.”
Nathaniel Hawthorne depicted love,
guilt, and revenge during Puritan
times in The Scarlet Letter.
The novel shows
that harsh
judgment without
mercy can lead to
tragedy.
Hawthorne may have learned that
lesson from his family history.
One of his ancestors
condemned people at
the Salem witchcraft
trials.
Herman Melville won fame by
writing thrilling novels about his
experiences as a sailor.
• In 1851, Melville
published his masterpiece, Moby Dick, about
a man’s destructive
desire to kill a white
whale.
• Although the novel was
not popular when it was
published, it is widely
read now.
While writers portrayed the harmful effects
of cruel actions, other Americans were
working to make their society better.
Get your whiteboards
and markers ready!
13. How did the writers of the mid1800s shape modern literature?
A. They wrote stories that portrayed the
harmful effects of cruel actions.
B. They gave up fictional characters and
chose to write only about historical figures.
C. Their characters showed that individuals
could change society for the better.
D. They introduced new forms of writing, such
as unrhymed poems, horror stories, and
detective stories.
Choose the one that is NOT true!