WEEK 2 Michael Joshi mhjoshi@fas.harvard.edu
Thomas Paine, Common Sense (1776), Intro and chs. 1-2
(1) Summary
Paine begins the pamphlet by contrasting society and government. Whereas society is always something to strive for, government is a necessary evil. The fundamental purpose of government is to provide security.
Paine tells a story of a small number of people living on an island cut off from society. Out of necessity, these people would create a society. In order to account for the inevitable defects in moral virtue, they would need a government and laws to protect each other. He argues that representation, and not monarchy, is the best way to ensure the strength and happiness of those governed. Then, Paine attacks the British constitution, claiming that it is exceedingly complex and rife with monarchical and aristocratic tyranny.
Next, Paine considers monarchy from both a biblical and historical perspective.
From a religious basis, Paine argues that all men are equal at creation. Since only God should rule over man, the distinction between king and subjects is a false one. He then attacks the idea of hereditary succession, arguing that even if a person deserves certain honors, his descendants may not, and that person has no right to pass these honors on. He then looks at some of the problems that kings and monarchies have caused in the past, concluding that they are evil and unnecessary.
(2) Passage Identification
Keep an eye out for the following: society, government, monarchy, King, English
Constitution, England, subjects, hereditary succession, republic, I, you.
(3) Themes/Rhetorical Style
Paine’s Common Sense aimed to target the deep division among colonists regarding what they were fighting for. As a result of the wide circulation of his pamphlet
(which was emblematic of the fervor of print culture in the mid 1700s), he largely convinced colonists that complete independence from Britain was necessary and desirable. His overarching themes were that monarchy is sacrilegious and the purpose of government is to provide freedom and security. Rhetorically, he uses the first and second person singular as opposed to the ambiguous “we”. He also refused to spell out King, and instead wrote K---. Paine draws on his Quaker roots to create a prophetic text. He writes as a prophet, as though he knows God’s will, and appeals to divine law.
(4) Protest Tradition
In many ways, Paine’s Common Sense is unique in the tradition of protest we’ve seen in the class. Whereas most protest writers we’ve seen are critiquing something

specific about society and their solution involves working within the scope of that society, Paine criticizes an entire governmental system and advocates complete separation from this system. Unlike other writers who wish to fix society, Paine wants to start anew. However, there are similarities in Paine’s style to other writers. Paine approaches the situation recognizing he has a very large audience, and as such, attempts to use multiple different avenues of persuasion. This is very similar to Walker’s Appeal.
Walker’s piece, also a widely distributed pamphlet, appeals to its readership in a similar way. Just like Paine, Walker attempts to appeal to people from a religious, political, and historical standpoint. He writes as a prophet, a citizen, and a scholar. Both he and Paine are trying to sway a large number of people and therefore approach that challenge with a diverse rhetorical plan.

Declaration of Independence, (1776)
(1) Summary
The Declaration of Independence calls the independent United States into existence. The government would derive its powers from the consent of the governed, and the nation would be based on equality. The statement also lists 26 grievances directed at the present King of Great Britain.
(2) Passage Identification
Everyone should be able to recognize the preamble. As for the grievances, they all refer to the King as “He”.
(3) Themes/Rhetorical Style
The basis for the new and independent United States was largely influenced by
John Locke’s Second Treatise. For Locke, God given rights (freedom and equality for example) supercede political rights. Since a legitimate government derives its power from the consent of the governed, when natural rights are denied, it is the right of the governed to alter or abolish the tyrannical government.
Although most of the grievances dealt with parliament, Jefferson changes the direction toward the King (“He”). The document is posed as “We” being against “He”.
Throughout the declaration, Jefferson invokes the idea of a higher power to give substance to the new government.
(4) Protest Tradition
By its very nature, the Declaration of Independence is very unique in the tradition of protest we’ve seen. Unlike most writers, who were attempting to expose a problem and persuade people to follow their proposed solution, the Declaration of Independence is better understood as a solution to prior protest works (such as Common Sense). It is more protest action than protest literature. Rather than advocating change, it is literally announcing change. And rather than the proposed grievances being an exposure of problems, it is merely a list of what are already widely accepted problems.
This isn’t to say that the Declaration of Independence had nobody to persuade.
Certainly within the United States, this is largely the case; but to the rest of the world, the piece served to justify American independence. It attempted to get the United States accepted by others as a sovereign body.
Although somewhat trivial, the best text to compare the Declaration of
Independence to is the Seneca Falls Convention “Declaration of Sentiments and
Resolutions”, which explicitly attempted to model the Declaration of Independence.
However, unlike the U.S. declaration, whose goal was already largely accepted among
Americans, the Seneca Falls declaration was less an official statement of action and more of an attempt to persuade both men and many women of the importance and lack of sexual equality in the United States. As such, truly the Declaration of Independence is the only work we have seen that functions itself as action rather than a text symbolically or explicitly calling for action.

David Walker, Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World (1829, Articles 1, 4
(1) Summary
In his pamphlet, Walker called for immediate, universal, and unconditional emancipation. He criticized colonization plans and praised slaves who used violence in self-defense against their masters. He even suggested violent rebellion as a means for slaves to obtain freedom.
(2) Passage Identification
Look for: brethren, the whites, colonization, God, other biblical references
(Moses, Pharaoh, Joseph, Cain, Abel).
(3) Themes/Rhetorical Style
Walker sets up his pamphlet as an alternative constitution by using articles. He uses pronouns to create distance between himself and the readers. Walker is “I”, “we”,
“us”. The whites are very often “they”. The use of “you” is ambiguous.
We can read the text from three different standpoints. From a religious standpoint, we see him writing as a prophet. He appeals to people based on their
Christian values and uses the old and new testament. From a political perspective, he writes as a citizen and uses the form of the Constitution. He also critiques Jefferson in a respectful manner. He also writes as a scholar from a historical perspective. He goes over the history of slavery, criticizing colonization and creating a historical counter narrative. Throughout the text, there is a sense that he is constituting an alternative “we the people”.
(4) Protest Tradition
Walker’s appeal is considered to be the first exposition of black nationalism. We can see his position that violence is necessary if liberty is denied echoed in Malcolm X’s
“The Ballot or the Bullet”. If African Americans are denied the opportunity to peaceably influence government, then they will be forced to resort to violence. We also see
Walker’s constant appeal to a higher being echoing the prophetic rhetorical power of many other pieces of protest.

Seneca Falls Convention: Declaration of Sentiments
(1) Summary
This is basically a document drafted at the Seneca Falls Convention outlining the rationale for giving women equal rights as men. It chronicles past violations of women’s rights, such as their inability to vote, obtain profitable jobs, and receive equal education.
It calls for an immediate change of the status quo so that women can enjoy the same rights as men. It begins quoting directly from the Declaration of Independence (We hold these truths to be self evident…). Then it again quotes the original Declaration where it describes the grievances that the King inflicted on the colonies, but instead He refers to man and the people being oppressed are women.
(2) Passage Identification:
Look out for the adaptation of the Declaration of Independence, sentences beginning with “He” and “Resolved”.
(3)Theme/Rhetorical Style:
-Religious tradition: calls upon a higher authority to suggest the moral consequences of continuing discrimination against women
-calls the rights of women “sacred rights”
-states that woman is man’s equal as “intended to be so by the Creator”; implies there is a higher authority demanding equal rights for women and men
-this makes the Declaration a religious text
-Pronoun use: uses “He” to refer to all men, towards the end where the authors propose a solution they switch to the pronoun use of “we”
(4)Protest Tradition:
-This piece heavily borrows from and revives the language from the Declaration of Independence
-title: Declaration of Sentiments, quoting the Declaration of Independence
-Opening of the document uses the same opening from the Declaration ) “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal…”
-quotes the format of the Declaration listing the complaints against men (the
King)
-this recalling and quoting of one of the early founding documents of the U.S. gives a traditional authority to the document and a historical context
-Slavery imagery: compares the relationship of the man to woman, as master to slave

William Apess: Eulogy to King Philip
(1) Summary:
-detailed account of the early history of the encounters between New England Native
Americans the English; depicts the violence and injustices committed against the Indians, challenges the idea that the Indians were savages by describing the merciless way that whites killed Indians (including women and children) intentionally (by murders and kidnappings) and unintentionally (via diseases) in the name of Christianity, and thus inverts the racial stereotypes by depicting whites as the true savages
-Apes' eulogy for King Philip defied the traditional white interpretation of the
Wampanoag King Philip and King Philip War (1676). The desire to rehabilitate King
Philip's reputation and draw attention to the wrongs committed by "pilgrims" upon
"Indians" is a dominant theme. At a time when most Americans remembered King Philip as the cruel and treacherous leader of a Native American rebellion, Apes turned the accepted history of the war on its head, calling Philip "the greatest man that was ever in
America."
-denounces the practice of missionaries
-King Philip was the descendent of a very famous and benevolent chief
(2) Passage Identification:
-Look for a very historical passage with references to specific Indians and violence against Native Americans
(3) Protest Tradition:
-secularizes a version of the Golden Rule, he presents more of a political and historical protest of discrimination and violence against Native Americans
-looking ahead, his protest is sort of similar to the protest that Ida Wells uses, it is very empirical and factual rather than drawing on an emotional response
WEEK THREE Tim Smith (tjsmith@fas.harvard.edu)
“Resistance to Civil Government”
In 1848, Thoreau gave lectures at the Concord Lyceum that he titled “The Rights and
Duties of the Individual in relation to Government.” This formed the basis for his essay, which was first published under the title Resistance to Civil Government in 1849. He argues that people should not permit governments to overrule or atrophy their consciences, and that people have a duty to avoid allowing such acquiescence to enable the government to make them the agents of injustice. Thoreau was motivated in part by his disgust with slavery and the Mexican-American War.
One of the central arguments in “Resistance to Civil Government” is that people become machines as they serve the state – they serve with their bodies (as soldiers) rather than

their minds, and one of Thoreau’s goals is to recover (or maintain) a full sense of his humanity. This is another early example of a growing critique of industrial capitalism that will become increasingly important through the late 19th and 20th century. Thoreau moves to Walden on July 4, 1845 and declares his own independence from the government. He kept a journal there and published Walden in 1894. He was living by the pond for a little over 2 years, and his goal was to escape materialism and simplify his life as much as possible. It was, in a sense, his most earnest attempt to live the tenets of
Transcendentalism.
The influence of Thoreau extends beyond the famous examples of Gandhi and Martin
Luther King, Junior. Thoreau’s signature concept - civil disobedience - influenced the
Danish resistance to the Nazis, opposition to apartheid in South Africa, the Vietnam War, the Darfur genocide and the Guantanamo Bay military prisons.
Like other protest writers, Thoreau speaks as a prophet, though his conception of God is more flexible (and vague) than that of Jefferson or Paine. The centerpiece of Thoreau’s theory is that the state’s laws must be secondary to the individual’s relationship to God –
“we should be men first and subjects afterward.” If we are complicit in the unjust laws of the state whenever we make ourselves its obedient subjects, then we also corrupt ourselves. The only way to put the state back on the right track is for individuals to take charge. Thoreau places his faith in the “ one HONEST man” to abolish slavery, to clog the machinery of an unjust state. This means that one must purify oneself before creating a crisis in the culture at large. (Notice how this emphasis on the individual that translates into larger, systemic changes dovetails nicely with the basic concepts of
Transcendentalism outlined in the last lecture. The light of truth comes from within yourself. But the effect of that light is far beyond yourself. To this day, the equivalence drawn between the individual and public is a large part of political rhetoric.)
“What to the Slave is the 4 th of July”
Although it’s written for the occasion of the 4th of July, he actually gives the speech on
July 5th because it was a tradition among African Americans to celebrate on the following day. Why? Safety. Everyone got drunk on the fourth - getting drunk was an expression of the same liberty people were celebrating - but public drunkenness often led to racially-charged conflicts and violence against African Americans. As a result, they often waited to celebrate the next day.
Douglass’s rhetorical strategy is a classical double reversal, complete with a thesis, antithesis and synthesis:
Thesis: He praises the Founding Fathers in order to set his audience at ease, though with his use of pronouns he indicates that this holiday is for “you” – the white audience.

Antithesis: He brings the uses of the Declaration to the present and his tone suddenly shifts to a harsh Jeremiad that scolds his audience, and he proceeds to go through a list of grievances about present-day America similar to Jefferson’s grievances in the
Declaration. Douglass ultimately blames the churches, which take the side of an oppressive government – the camp of “oppressors, tyrants, man-stealers and thugs.”
(Douglass didn’t pull any punches. Much like Thoreau, he wants to draw the moral lines as starkly as possible. In other words, there’s no middle ground. Douglass wants to highlight as much as possible how absurd it is for the institutions charged most with upholding the moral standards of a culture should fail so spectacularly. He was so vehement about this that many people claimed he had renounced his Christian faith. By his standards, of course, he was simply upholding it better than anyone else. This is directly parallel to the arguments that Martin Luther King, Jr. would argue one century later.)
Synthesis: After an hour-long attack he lifts his audience back up and ends on a message of hope. Despite the recently-passed Fugitive Slave Law (which makes it a crime to aid an escaped slave in any way - even if they’ve made it to a “free” state), we can still hearken back to the founding principles of the United States. He returns to the values he champions in the beginning, though he is careful to note that those principles have not been upheld.
“Leaves of Grass”
Whitman's wartime work led to a job with the Department of the Interior, but he was soon fired when his supervisor learned that he had written the racy poems of Leaves of
Grass. The failure of Reconstruction led him to write the best known of his prose works,
Democratic Vistas, which, as its title implies, argues for the maintenance of democratic ideals. This volume came out in 1871, as did yet another edition of Leaves of Grass, expanded to include more poems. The 1871 edition was reprinted in 1876 for the centennial. Several other prose works followed, then a further expanded version of
Leaves of Grass, in 1881.
Whitman's health had been shaky since the mid-1870s, and by 1891 it was clear he was dying. He therefore prepared his so-called "Deathbed" edition of Leaves of Grass, which contained two appendices of old-age poems as well as a review essay in which he tries to justify his life and work. The "Deathbed Edition" came out in 1892; Whitman died that year.
Whitman's lifetime saw both the Civil War and the rise of the United States as a commercial and political power. He witnessed both the apex and the abolition of slavery.
His poetry is thus centered on ideas of democracy, equality, and brotherhood. In response to America's new position in the world, Whitman also tried to develop a poetry that was uniquely American, that both surpassed and broke the mold of its predecessors. Leaves of
Grass, with its multiple editions and public controversies, set the pattern for the modern,

public artist, and Whitman, with his journalistic endeavors on the side, made the most of his role as celebrity and artist.
Stauffer’s important points: 1. Emerson’s Individualism 2. Quakers (those Quakers keep popping up in this course, don’t they?) 3. The Bible 4. Italian opera (Whitman loved it) 5.
Turbulence over slavery 6. Championing of the working classes.
For Whitman, poetry creates the conditions for a pluralist society that is no longer burdened by sin, and he writes poetry as if the art itself is a form of democracy. (There are affinities between Thoreau’s civil disobedience (a single person clogging the machine of the state) and Whitman’s ability to shift from the individual - the “loafing” soul - to the spirit of the masses, someone who can become a part of every person he sees.
Transcendentalism and Whitman’s poetry are, in fact, kindred. Whitman had an early admirer in Ralph Waldo Emerson, who also happened to be Thoreau’s mentor. Emerson himself had a bit of the protest spirit (he resigned as a clergyman) but never became quite as radical as Thoreau or Whitman.)
“Cannibals All!”
In “Cannibals, All!” (1857) Fitzhugh compares slave labor to wage labor and argues that wage laborers are actually worse off. Why, you ask? Because unlike the slave, the poor wage laborer doesn’t have anyone to oversee and protect him. But of course. The wage laborer is subject to the decisions of the capitalist, who will pay him as little as possible in order to get the work done. a critique further developing the themes that Fitzhugh had introduced in Sociology for the
South.
Both the book's title and its subtitle were phrases taken from the writing of
Thomas Carlyle, the Scottish social critic and a great hero to Fitzhugh's generation of proslavery thinkers. The aim of his book, Fitzhugh claimed, was to show that "the unrestricted exploitation of so-called free society is more oppressive to the laborer than domestic slavery."
Cannibals All!
was a sharp criticism of the system of "wage-slavery" found in the north.
Fitzhugh's ideas were based on his view that the "negro slaves of the South" were considerably more free than those trapped by the oppression of capitalist exploitation. His idea to rectify social inequality created by capitalism was to institute a system of universal slavery, based on his belief that "nineteen out of every twenty individuals have...a natural and inalienable right to be slaves."
Fitzhugh's ideas in Cannibals All!
, while often used in the defense of anti-abolition, have a more socially egalitarian undertone which attempted to remedy ineqalities in "Property of man." His ideas of reform could be seen in terms of a pre-Marxist socialist ideology.
The extremes advocated by Fitzhugh's writing lead even some of his allies to denounce

his bold claims. Fitzhugh was also an advocate for women's rights. In Cannibals All!
, he asserts that women deserve the right to vote.
Endeavoring in the preface "to treat the subjects of Liberty and Slavery in a more rigidly analytical manner," Fitzhugh charts productive classical and historical accounts of slavery and cites the Bible as evidence. Referencing the French proletariat, various Gypsy peoples, and the Irish peasantry as groups oppressed under capitalism, Fitzhugh likewise presents the poor working and factory class conditions in England as evidence that the southern institution of slavery, modeled after a pre-capitalist, feudal society, is economically justifiable. Furthermore, he argues capitalism, as practiced in Europe and the North, produces a form of moral cannibalism, replicating the master/slave dichotomy by turning capitalists (or the professional class) into masters and free laborers into exploited slaves. Within a capitalist society, the very labor and skill extracted in pursuit of profit enslaves these workers, leaving them far more disenfranchised than their slave counterparts. Specifying capitalism's many "evils," Fitzhugh notes that it encourages falsehood and hypocrisy, impedes scientific modifications of supply to meet demand, demeans labor's value and nobility, and results in the greater impoverishment of already poor peoples while augmenting the wealth of the affluent
John Brown and “Prison Letters”
John Brown was a white American abolitionist who advocated and practiced armed insurrection as a means to abolish all slavery. He led the Pottawatomie Massacre in 1856 in Bleeding Kansas and the unsuccessful raid at Harpers Ferry in 1859.
President Abraham Lincoln said he was a "misguided fanatic" and Brown has been called
"the most controversial of all 19th-century Americans."
On November 2, after a week-long trial and 45 minutes of deliberation, the Charles Town jury found Brown guilty on all three counts. Brown was sentenced to be hanged in public on December 2. In response to the sentence, Ralph Waldo Emerson remarked that "[John
Brown] will make the gallows glorious like the Cross." Cadets from the Virginia Military
Institute under the leadership of General Francis H. Smith and Major Thomas J. Jackson
(who would earn the nickname "Stonewall" fewer than two years later) were called into service as a security detail in the event Brown's supporters attempted a rescue.
As interest in his fate continued to swell, John Brown awaited execution in a Charles
Town jail. He discouraged rescue efforts, and focused instead on furthering his abolitionist crusade through interviews with reporters and writing letters. As a Calvinist,
Brown calmly accepted his fate as predetermined by God. During his month in jail,
Brown was allowed to send and receive correspondence. He refused to be rescued by
Silas Soule, a friend from Kansas who had somehow infiltrated the prison. Brown said that he was ready to die as a martyr, and Silas left him to be executed. More importantly, many of Brown's letters exuded high tones of spirituality and conviction and, when picked up by the northern press, won increasing numbers of supporters in the North as

they simultaneously infuriated many in the South. Brown may have been a prisoner, but he undoubtedly held the nation captive throughout the last quarter of 1859.
WEEK FOUR Erica Tsacoyeanes etsacoy@fas.harvard.edu
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Summary of Plot:
Having run up large debts, a Kentucky farmer named Arthur Shelby faces the prospect of losing everything he owns. Shelby decides to raise money by selling two of his slaves to
Mr. Haley, a crude slave trader. The slaves in question are Uncle Tom, a middle-aged man with a wife and children on the farm, and Harry, the young son of Mrs. Shelby’s maid Eliza. When Shelby tells his wife about his agreement with Haley, she is appalled because she has promised Eliza that Shelby would not sell her son.
However, Eliza overhears the conversation between Shelby and his wife and, after warning Uncle Tom and his wife, Aunt Chloe, she takes Harry and flees to the North, hoping to find freedom with her husband George in Canada. Haley pursues her, but two other Shelby slaves alert Eliza to the danger. She miraculously evades capture by crossing the half-frozen Ohio River. Haley hires a slave hunter named Loker and his gang to bring Eliza and Harry back to Kentucky. Eliza and Harry make their way to a Quaker settlement, where the Quakers agree to help transport them to safety. They are joined at the settlement by George, who reunites joyously with his family for the trip to Canada.
Meanwhile, Uncle Tom sadly leaves his family and Mas’r George, Shelby’s young son and Tom’s friend, as Haley takes him to a boat on the Mississippi to be transported to a slave market. On the boat, Tom meets an white girl named Eva, who quickly befriends him. When Eva falls into the river, Tom dives in to save her, and her father, Augustine St.
Clare, gratefully agrees to buy Tom from Haley. Tom travels with the St. Clares to their home in New Orleans, where he grows increasingly invaluable to the St. Clare household and increasingly close to Eva, with whom he shares a devout Christianity.
Up North, George and Eliza remain in flight from Loker and his men. When Loker attempts to capture them, George shoots him in the side, and the other slave hunters retreat. Eliza convinces George and the Quakers to bring Loker to the next settlement, where he can be healed. Meanwhile, in New Orleans, St. Clare discusses slavery with his cousin Ophelia, who opposes slavery as an institution but harbors deep prejudices against blacks. St. Clare, by contrast, feels no hostility against blacks but tolerates slavery because he feels powerless to change it. To help Ophelia overcome her bigotry, he buys
Topsy, a young black girl who was abused by her past master and arranges for Ophelia to begin educating her.
After Tom has lived with the St. Clares for two years, Eva grows very ill. She slowly weakens, then dies. Her death has a profound effect on everyone who knew her: Ophelia resolves to love the slaves, Topsy learns to trust and feel attached to others, and St. Clare decides to set Tom free. However, before he can act on his decision, St. Clare is stabbed

to death while trying to settle a brawl. As he dies, he at last finds God and goes to be reunited with his mother in heaven.
St. Clare’s cruel wife, Marie, sells Tom to a vicious plantation owner named Simon
Legree. Tom is taken to rural Louisiana with a group of new slaves, including Emmeline, whom the demonic Legree has purchased to use as a sex slave, replacing his previous sex slave Cassy. Legree takes a strong dislike to Tom when Tom refuses to whip a fellow slave as ordered. Tom receives a severe beating, and Legree resolves to crush his faith in
God. Tom meets Cassy, and hears her story. Separated from her daughter by slavery, she became pregnant again but killed the child because she could not stand to have another child taken from her.
Around this time, with the help of Tom Loker—now a changed man after being healed by the Quakers—George, Eliza, and Harry at last cross over into Canada from Lake Erie and obtain their freedom. In Louisiana, Tom’s faith is sorely tested by his hardships, and he nearly ceases to believe. He has two visions, however—one of Christ and one of Eva— which renew his spiritual strength and give him the courage to withstand Legree’s torments. He encourages Cassy to escape. She does so, taking Emmeline with her, after she devises a ruse in which she and Emmeline pretend to be ghosts. When Tom refuses to tell Legree where Cassy and Emmeline have gone, Legree orders his overseers to beat him. When Tom is near death, he forgives Legree and the overseers. George Shelby arrives with money in hand to buy Tom’s freedom, but he is too late. He can only watch as Tom dies a martyr’s death.
Taking a boat toward freedom, Cassy and Emmeline meet George Harris’s sister and travel with her to Canada, where Cassy realizes that Eliza is her long-lost daughter. The newly reunited family travels to France and decides to move to Liberia, the African nation created for former American slaves. George Shelby returns to the Kentucky farm, where, after his father’s death, he sets all the slaves free in honor of Tom’s memory. He urges them to think on Tom’s sacrifice every time they look at his cabin and to lead a pious Christian life, just as Tom did.
Characters/ Other Factors for ID’s:
- Uncle Tom, Ophelia St. Clare, Simon Legree- three main characters
- Themes: the evils of slavery, irony and hypocrisy of slavery and Christian values, the moral power of women (strong female influence), Christ figures, the supernatural

Themes and Rhetorical Style:
- Diction: o Southern drawl
§ Example: an’t thar where white folks is gwine? S’pose they’d have me thar? I’d rather go to torment, and get away from Mas’r and Missis. o A contrast between the negro jargon and the white jargon
- Syntax: o Written in chapters
- We often described the book in section as “loud” and “in your face” in terms of being anti-slavery.
- Many characters play to white’s stereotypes of negroes
§ Dark skinned mammy
§ Uncle Tom, himself
- Emphasis on the connections between slavery, the destructive nature of slavery, and how the “peculiar institution” separated families from each other.
- Women’s abilities to save those around them from injustices o Little Eva, Eliza, etc.
- Written in the Sentimental Style, common to 19th century novels o Evocation of sympathy and emotion o Power in this type of writing can be seen in the reaction of contemporary readers o Style often associated with “women’s emotions”
- Some critics highlighted Stowe's paucity of life-experience relating to Southern life, which (in their view) led her to create inaccurate descriptions of the region. For instance, she had never set foot on a Southern plantation. However, Stowe always said she based the characters of her book on stories she was told by runaway slaves in
Cincinnati, Ohio, where Stowe lived

- Stowe’s solution: God's will would be followed if each person sincerely examined his principles and acted on them
Novel within the Context of Protest Lit Tradition:
- This book does not merely follow the protest lit tradition, but many of the origins of protest literature are framed around this book.
- Many of the books and writings we have examined are rooted in Stowe’s rhetorical strategies
- Due to the widespread controversy over her book, others have followed her example in creating characters that the reader can empathize with as well as writing about issues other than slavery. o The Jungle is a good example
The Fire Next Time
The Fire Next Time is a book by James Baldwin. It contains two essays: "My Dungeon
Shook - Letter to my Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of Emancipation", and
"Down at the Cross - Letter from a Region of My Mind". The first of these is written as a letter to Baldwin's 14 year old nephew, discussing the central role of race in American history. The second deals with the relations between race and religion, focusing in particular on Baldwin's own experience with the Christian church as a youth.
Sometimes referred to as his "eloquent manifesto", which he hoped would avert racial conflagration, Baldwin’s novel appeared first in The New Yorker (1962), a journal which
Ishmael Reed described as the "epitome of uptown pretensions and snobbery," as "Letter from a Region in my Mind." Though Baldwin received some heat for his choice of publication, his massive essay caused an immediate sensation and was quickly published in book form. Some believe Baldwin's book spurred and help to "galvanize" the civil rights movement which resulted in the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The Fire Next Time opens with a six to seven page dedicatory letter to his nephew and namesake James, entitled in short "On the One Hundredth Anniversary of the
Emancipation." Baldwin advises his nephew on how to deal with the racist world in which he was born. In spite the horrors of America, Baldwin believed the Negro must take the high road and show whites, in their ignorance and innocence, how to live the good life, how to love. He concludes his letter of encouragement with these remarks:

It will be hard, James, but you come from sturdy, peasant stock, men who picked cotton and dammed rivers and built railroads, and, in the teeth of the most terrifying odds, achieved an unassailable and monumental dignity.. You come from a long line of great poets, some of the greatest since Homer. one of them said, The very time I thought I was lost, My dungeon shook and my chains fell off.
The section comprising the "Letter from a Region of My Mind," was entitled, "Down at the Cross," again another religious allusion. This long essay has a bipartite structure. In the first part Baldwin recounted his religious experience as a fourteen year old boy, about the age of his nephew, and his view of Christianity as an adult. He sketches out his disappointments with the Negro's religion, which he views primarily as escapist. He then turned to his second mission, which comprised the greater part of the essay, to trash the
Muslim movement among African Americans. Here he attempted to come to the grips with the phenomena of the Nation of Islam, Elijah Muhammad, and Malcolm X. Elijah's brand of Islam viewed Christianity as the white man's wicked rationale for oppressing blacks and that all white people were accursed devils whose sway was destined to end.
God is black and his proper address is "Allah" and he has chosen black people of
America to end the devil's domination by means of the theology of Islam. In this long letter, Baldwin also described his audience with Elijah Muhammad, who Baldwin believed was lucid, passionate, and cunning. For Baldwin the problem was that Elijah preached a dogma of racial hatred that was no better than the reverse of whites' hatred for blacks. Baldwin rejected Elijah and Malcolm. Baldwin believed he had a greater vision than Malcolm and Elijah. He believed that the Negro's suffering was redemptive and that's the Negro's example had curative powers for the nation. Baldwin wrote as part of closing statement –
I do not mean to be sentimental about suffering--enough is certainly as good as a feast-but people who cannot suffer can never grow up, can never discover who they are. That man who is forced each day to snatch his manhood, his identity, out of the fire of human cruelty that rages to destroy it knows, if he survives his effort, and even if he does not survive it, something about himself and human life that no school on earth--and, indeed, no church--can teach. He achieves his own authority, and that is unshakeable
At this stage of his development, Baldwin believed the Negro's redeeming love of whites, in their innocence and ignorance, would make the difference. American blacks' complex fate, Baldwin reiterated his well-tuned song, was the rescue, the delivery of white
Americans from their imprisonment in myths of racial superiority and educate them into a new, integrated sensitivity and maturity. Should such an effort fail, he warned, then the words of a slave song may come true: "God gave Noah the rainbow sign, / No more water, the fire next time!" Many whites believed that this was Baldwin's last really good piece of nonfiction.
Characters/ Other Factors for ID’s:

- James Baldwin is the book's author, writing at a time in American social and literary history when the true depth and extent of the so-called "Negro problem" was beginning to become apparent. Biographical information at the end of the book indicates that by the time this book was published he had already written several novels and books of essays, as well as received several awards and fellowships. Biographical information contained in the novel portrays him as having grown up in Harlem, in the midst of that community's economic, spiritual and political poverty - a poverty he seems to have resisted, in various ways, all his life. The various forms of this resistance are portrayed throughout the book.
- There are three titles to consider in this book - the title of the book itself ("The
Fire Next Time"), the title of the first essay ("My Dungeon Shook"), and the title of the second essay ("Down at the Cross"). The first and third titles are taken from spirituals, while the second title is taken from a poem by a black poet. All are quoted anonymously.
While they all originated with black creators, and while they all have their origins in
Christian teachings, they each have something different to say about the book's theme relating to racial tensions between blacks and whites. The book's title is a quotation from a spiritual (for the entire quote see Section 2 Part 3), and suggests that instead of humanity's evil being punished by God with a flood.
Themes and Rhetorical Style:
- The term "the Negro Problem" was used throughout the 1950's and 60's as a shorthand description of the ongoing state of racial tension (principally between black and white Americans) in America. The essays in "The Fire Next Time" both explore the problem, but from different perspectives. "My Dungeon Shook" anchors its analysis of the problem in the personal relationship between the author and his nephew. The author suggests that he agrees with the nephew that the situation is intolerable, but proposes that instead of reacting from a place of anger, the nephew (and by extension the black community as a whole) ought to strive for transforming the situation rather than confronting it violently. He suggests transformation of attitudes on both sides of the problem through the spreading love and understanding.
- The first thing to note about the perspective of this book is the use of the terms
"Negro" and "black" to identify members of what would, in contemporary language, be defined as the African American community. These essays were written at a time of linguistic transition in this area. The term "Negro", with all its racist connotations, was beginning to move out of common usage and be replaced with "black", which itself eventually moved out of common usage to be replaced by "African-American", a term which had yet to be coined at the time this book was written. The use of both "Negro" and "black" in this analysis reflects their usage in the book, which is in turn reflective of the racist, transitional state of society at the time.

- Written in the first person- On quotation ID’s, this book can be recognized through its personal tone and usage of the personified “I” and talking TO a specific person rather than a whole audience.
Novel within the Context of Protest Lit Tradition
- It can be connected with the same ideas presented in Uncle Tom’s Cabin
- His anger at bigotry and ignorance of whites surrounding their ideas of the negro and the “negro problems”
- His vision and strong conviction to solve the problems he presents all emphasize love and harmony
- Baldwin demands the agonizing revolution of society and the advancement of
African-Americans o Sounds similar to David Walker, minus the violence

"And at the center of this dreadful storm, this vast confusion, stand the black people of this nation, who must now share the fate of a nation that has never accepted them, to which they were brought in chains. Well, if this is so, one has no choice but to do all in one's power to change that fate, and at no matter what risk.
WEEK FIVE Adaner Usmani, ausmani@fas.harvard.edu
Confederate States of America, Constitution (1861)
(1) SUMMARY/BACKGROUND: Adopted in March of 1861, the Constitution of the
Confederate States of America was in effect in the South until the end of the American
Civil War. It basically replicates the provisions of the actual American constitution, with two critical differences: first, it explicitly upholds the right of the Southern States to keep slaves; second, it emphasizes the rights of States more heavily than the actual constitution (though more implicitly, from what I can tell from reading it over).
(2) IDENTIFYING PASSAGES: There are no characters to be found here, of course. But it reads like a constitution (the only constitution on our list, I believe), so in that sense it should be very easy to identify.
(3) THEMES: It's not technically a piece of literature, so none of the literary analytics apply.
But, in terms of the themes raised, again there are two, relating to what it revises from the original text
1.
Slavery: I'd say that you can read this constitution as wrestling with the contradiction at the heart of the liberal tradition—the question of restricting the destabilizing implications of the doctrine of universal rights. You see this playing out in the restriction of the definition of who counts as a citizen, for the purposes of suffrage.
Moreover, the 3/5 clause is retained, and Indians are excluded, of course. In other words, for the purposes of the sanctity of their economy and polity, Southerners could not abolish slavery, despite it being a natural implication of the doctrine of the

rights of “man”.
2.
States' Rights: Professor Stauffer talked about this civil war sounding the death knell, in a sense, of the idea of a loose federation of States constituting a decentralized U.S.
(for example, he noted a shift in the language from “U.S. are”, to “U.S. is”). You can read this constitution in that context. The first paragraph is taken from the constitution, for example, but amended to include the phrase “each State acting in its sovereign and independent character”.
(4) TRADITION OF PROTEST: Given that we read other work about slavery and the civil war, it would make sense to keep this constitution in mind if writing an essay about those issues.
Beyond that, no immediate parallels are obvious: you could perhaps also address it if the issue of the implicit “politics of protest” surfaces on the exam, as an example of something in the course we read that has “conservative” rather than “progressive” implications.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wall-Paper” (1892)
(1) SUMMARY: Written from the perspective of a woman who, under the direction of her doctor-husband, has been confined to the house as treatment for her depression. The narrative is her diary, and so chronicles both her inner and outer lives. She notes often how she finds the act of writing to be her only relief from the well-meaning but ultimately disastrous interventions of her husband and sister-in-law. The title refers to the wallpaper in her bedroom, at which she spends much of her time staring. After a while, she comes to see a woman in it, trapped by the lines and and the design, itching to escape. The narrative culminates dramatically, as she rips up the wallpaper which has come to symbolize her depression/oppression. At this moment her husband walks in and, upon seeing her in a state of “madness”, collapses. It ends like this, with all the pretensions of the stability/palatability of the narrator's condition vanishing in this last climax.
(2) IDENTIFYING PASSAGES: Again, it's written from the perspective of the narrator, which should help. The narrator is never named, but her husband is John, and his sister is Jennie (a Mary and a Jane are also mentioned, but only once, and without any indication who they are). I'd recommend reading a passage or two, if you haven't – it is written in a very distinctive style, and so should be easy to identify if familiar.
(3) THEMES: In lecture no literary tradition was associated with Gilman's work explicitly, but I remember in section discussing the narrative as participating in the birth of the modern, individual subject through its dependence on the idea of “interiority.” And so this is most certainly one of the most important themes, as Gilman relies on it very heavily: the form of the narrative comes to embody the narrator's condition, in the sense that it is only in her furtive attempts to write that she successfully escapes her depression at the hands of her husband. Associated with this is the question of mental health—she's writing directly against the patronizing and unsuccessful treatment women at the time were receiving, justified on the grounds of “science” (this is embodied well by her husband's character, who often invokes his claim to “superior knowledge” in order to silence her). Throughout the narrative he infantilizes her, and so “his collapse”, at the end, is categorically a rebellion against a system that pretends to speak for women on their behalf (an exposure of its contradictions and shortcomings).
(4) I'd compare this with Du Bois and his notion of the “Veil” that divides the black world from the white world. In both cases, the idea of “interiority” is central to the characterization of the oppression concerned. The dominant party's complete ignorance of and disregard for the lived reality of the various Other(s) (in Du Bois' case, the Black world; in Gilman's case, women) forms the basis of the oppression being chronicled.
Helen Hunt Jackson, A Century of Dishonor (1881), Intro, Conclusion

(1) SUMMARY: Written as an attempt to expose the “century of dishonor” that has blighted the government's dealings with the Native American nation. Jackson's argument, from what we gather from reading the introduction and the conclusion, is basically that the government is failing to live up to the principles it has previously promised to uphold
(namely, the right of Indians to their territory). She thus frames much of her objections as targeting the overall failure of the government to live up to its name, in a sense, which makes it quite dull (it had little impact, as Professor Stauffer noted). The introduction is filled (literally filled—more quoted words than her own) with quotes from people that
Jackson presents as learned “authorities” on the subject of international law and the rights of Native Americans, all of whom uphold principles that this government routinely violates. In the conclusion, aside from repeating this charge, she notes that the average person is terribly unaware of the the horrible things being done by their government in their name, and is too-ready to accept the caricature of the “barbaric
Indian” being peddled by the Establishment. She thus concludes with a call for popular dissent, arguing that no elites in the government can change this, but only the people
(interesting given that she herself was a “New England elite”, as described in lecture).
(2) IDENTIFYING PASSAGES: The writing is inundated with quotes, which will maybe help. There are no characters, of course, but there is a lot of mention of prominent figures in society and history who have written on related issues.
(3) THEMES:
1.
Civilized/Savagery: As noted in lecture, Jackson largely retains these analytics (at the very least, she does not repudiate them explicitly), which, in my eyes at least, somewhat dampens her otherwise well-meant protest. Having said that, she does note how the image of the aggressive Indian has been manufactured to serve the interests of a few, and so does, in some sense, simultaneously recognize the constructed foundations of these categories.
2.
Progress: The very title “A Century of Dishonor” re-reads the history of the United
States to dispute the glory it often claims. In this sense, Jackson pours scorn on established history. She talks about a “deterioration” in the government's dealings with the Native Americans (especially apt considering that expansion westward was heightening these atrocities), and thus repudiates, in this limited way, the doctrine of progress/expansion that was so popular/fundamental to that time.
3.
Authority: What I find very interesting about the text is the way in which Jackson cedes her voice to “established authorities” (who are all, of course, white men). She seems decidedly insecure about arguing anything herself, and so calls on (and quotes extensively from) the “experts”. But perhaps this could be interpreted as a clever tactical move, rather than as an example of anything more sinister.
(4) TRADITION OF PROTEST: You might want to relate the relationship between the identity of
Jackson and the cause she claims to some of the white abolitionists we've discussed: this is an elite, white, New Englander using her clout and her education to talk about the damned and oppressed. Relatedly, you could address this fact in light of what Vine Deloria argues about white do-gooding, perhaps concentrating on some of Jackson's anti-radical implications (it's not quite clear what she has in mind for the future of the Native Americans, as Professor Stauffer noted).
Ely Parker, “Dedication to the Tammany Regiment at Gettysburg” (1891)
(1) SUMMARY: This is an address given on the twenty-eighth anniversary of the Battle of
Gettysburg. Ely Parker, the speaker, became a Brigadier-General, though he wrestled with white racism throughout his career (and life) due to the fact that he was an Iroquois
(we didn't discuss this in class, from what I remember, but there's a good, quick

biography available on Wikipedia). This, I'd argue, informs the content and context of the speech quite fundamentally. The address he gives here, four years before his death, commemorates and extols the efforts of the Union army, while also taking the opportunity to recognize the Native American contributions to the war effort (through the figure of Tammany). Again, like Frederick Douglass, he endeavors to remind the audience of the radical implications of what was being fought for—namely, the radical idea “that all men are created equal”. And though he argues that the Civil War, in being fought against the institution of slavery, was the task of finally making “a truth of the theory” of equality for all, I would argue that there is an undertone identifying that there is still work to be done. Nonetheless, it is true that the whole thing is very optimistic: he ends by talking about the progress of the arts and sciences (and liberty, in general), thus concluding that America can be confident of never shedding fratricidal blood again.
Symbolically, he ends with an ode to Tammany, the Indian chief.
(2) IDENTIFYING PASSAGES: Most of the speech deals with the battles of the civil war, and the enormous sacrifices they entailed—so I'd keep an eye out for that. He names
Tammany in the address, which could help, possibly. And lastly, it's a speech, and so he takes the name of the audience a few times.
(3) THEMES: The principal thing that I can think of is the invocation of the implications of
American ideals. The theme of trying to hold the United States to the principles of its founding is here apparent, though it's questionable how radically Parker is doing this. He certainly seems to suggest that, with the end of the civil war, a truth has been made of the theory of equality—even if I'd suggest that this “equality” was patently not in existence at the time of his speaking, even for him (Native Americans were not made citizens until
1924). There is a rich tradition of this happening in what we've studied, from Frederick
Douglass (as mentioned), to MLK. Other than this, there's nothing in this speech that strikes me as terribly important from the perspective of “protest”—indeed, the last bit, about prosperity and liberty solving all our problems seems decidedly “establishment”.
(4) TRADITION OF PROTEST: You could relate these to the works on Native American rights that we've read, especially contrasting it to Vine Deloria. I'd argue that this is deeply moderate in comparison, essentially valorizing a Native American because of his importance to “White History” (in the sense that Parker, in his speech, when celebrating
Tammany cites the importance white men accorded him). Or, again, you might want to compare it to MLK and Frederick Douglass: I think the idea of having to make a truth out of the theory of equal rights, even if not-so-radically applied in the address, in its theoretical formulation and implications is very important to this whole course (i.e., you have to struggle to gain the rights that ought to be yours).
WEEK 6 April Pei pei@fas.harvard.edu
Study Guide - Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. Du Bois
1) Summary: a collection of essays describing the conditions of blacks in the South. He asserts that the color line is the root of all the economic and social troubles, and that there is a “veil” which prevents blacks from clearly perceiving their condition in society. Du
Bois discusses various topics like the limited success and grand failures of the
Freedman’s Bureau (whose main success was the establishments of public schools), the role of the church as a primary social center of the black community, and the shortcomings of Booker T. Washington’s Atlantic Compromise.

2) Characters/identifying factors:
 In the chapter “Of the Coming of John” major characters include John Jones, the
Judge, the Judge’s son (also named John), and Jennie.

References to Greek mythology - compares the city of Atlanta to the story Atalanta, compares the history of cotton to the story of Jason and the Golden Fleece
 Much of his essays focus on the cotton economy and black-white relations in
Dougherty County, Georgia

Lots of rhetorical questions
3) Themes:
 The “veil” and “double consciousness” - prevents blacks from having a clear perception of themselves, as they see themselves through the eyes of white society and white America’s values and norms. The goal for blacks is to cast off this veil through education.

Importance of education - Du Bois consistently exalts education as the ideal way for blacks to lift themselves out of “degradation.” Industrial education (as encouraged by
Washington) is useful but not enough, since institutions of higher education are needed to train teachers. He also believes that the Talented Tenth should be intellectually cultivated, and refutes the notion that education is “dangerous” for blacks by arguing that uneducated black demagogues which may arise would be more dangerous than educated ones.

African/American duality:
One of the most important passages: “One ever feels his twoness, -- an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unrecognized strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.”
Rhetorical style: The work contains a variety of styles. A large portion of the essays read like histories and sociological studies, with several (“Of the Meaning of Progress,” “Of the Sorrow Songs,” “The Black Belt”) that are framed around first-hand narrations of his experiences and observations. Du Bois uses a combination of “We,” and “I,” using “I’ to talk about his personal beliefs and observations, but using “we” when he draws conclusions or analyzes something. His style is very prophetic, laden with biblical references, and many chapters read like speeches or even sermons. He is very fair, however, with his treatment of whites; Du Bois asserts that it is neither entirely prejudice that caused African-Americans’ plight, nor is it entirely their plight which causes prejudice against them.
4) Relation to course:

Follows the prophetic tradition - Each chapter starts out with a passage set to spiritual music. Several chapters end with a biblical prophecy, where Du Bois foretells of the black community “sighting the Promised Land,” and that “the Awakening will come… out of the Valley of the Shadow of Death, where all that makes life worth living…”

Evokes empathy with story after detailed story about select black individuals and families in the South

Draws on language of the Declaration of Independence - in his discussion of Booker

T. Washington, argues that blacks cannot settle for economic stability and selfreliance but instead that blacks (and society in general) should keep striving for fulfillment of the inalienable rights put forth by the Dec. of Independence.
 Example of the “alternative narrative” or “alternative history.” Like
Century of
Dishonor, presents the “untold” side of a topic, from the point of view opposite that of white society’s.
Study Guide - Southern Horrors, Ida B. Wells
1) Summary: Wells’ newspaper The Free Speech reported on the lynching of several black men accused of rape, adding that “Nobody in this section of the country believes the old thread bare lie that Negro men rape white women.” This editorial caused a national uproar, whites taking it as an assault on the integrity of white women. Wells and other staff members were exiled and faced physical threats from many angry whites. In the next chapter, “The Black and White of It,” Wells tells the story of many white women who had carried on affairs with black men but then lied and said they had raped them.
2) Characters/identifying factors:

The Free Speech
, Wells’ newspaper
 Mrs. Underwood (a white woman) who had an affair with William Offett (a black man)

Sarah Clark of Memphis - lived with a black man but when indicted for miscegenation declared that she was not white


Frank Weems, Edward Coy, Mr. Stricklin (all black men indicted of rape)

Mrs. Marshall - had an affair with her black coachman
3) Themes:
 censorship
 deception
 integrity of white women
 double standards - white men’s affairs with black women were condoned
Rhetorical style: The first chapter, which recounts the aftermath of the editorial in The
Free Speech has a fairly angry, terse tone. The second chapter, “The Black and White of
It,” is very straightforward and reads like a newspaper article, with account after account of white women having affairs with black men.
4) Relation to course:
 Employs shock value in the telling of story after story about white women’s affairs, and refusal to apologize for any offense she might have caused
 Also example of an “alternative narrative” in presenting the untold side of the story, like Century of Dishonor and Souls of Black Folk
WEEK SEVEN- Emily Harburg. harburg@fas.harvard.edu
•Week Seven: Muckracking and Socialism
Readings: Upton Sinclair, The Jungle (1906), chs. 1-20
Eugene Debs, “Address to the Jury” (1918)*
Warren G. Harding, “Liberty Under the Law” (1920)*
Herbert Spencer, “The Proper Sphere of Government” (1843)*
1. Upton Sinclair, The Jungle (1906), chs. 1-20 a) Summary of plot: In The Jungle, Sinclair tells the story of Jurgis Rudkus and his wife Ona who emigrate from Lithuania to Chicago in search of a better life. They arrive in
Packingtown, IL and are faced with the challenges of an impoverished immigrant family struggling to pay off the debts in a filthy, poor meat-packing town. Through the book, Sinclair depicts the hear-wrenching plight of Jurgis and his family.
Numerous tragedies occur including the death of Ona and their newborn child while giving birth, the drowning Antana (Jurgis’ son), and multiple health and physical injuries which keep Jurgis out of work. After the death of all the members of his family, Jurgis becomes a beggar and goes in and out of jail, while also turning to alcohol to alleviate his sorrows.The novel ends with a Socialist polemic supporting the movement and promising that the party will become stronger as time passes and, in the end, will "take
Chicago." b) Important Characters/Facts/Themes/Quotes
Quotations:
“ They put him in a place where the snow could not beat in, where the cold could not eat through his bones; they brought him food and drink—why, in the name of heaven, if they must

punish him, did they not put his family in jail and leave him outside—why could they find no better way to punish him than to leave three weak women and six helpless children to starve and freeze?” -- When Jurgis is sent to prison for attempting to beat up Ona’s boss who forced her to sleep with him. He feels helpless in prison while his family is forced to fend for themselves outside.
“To Jurgis the packers had been equivalent to fate; Ostrinski showed him that they were the Beef Trust. They were a gigantic combination of capital, which had crushed all opposition, and overthrown the laws of the land, and was preying upon the people.”
Important Characters: (for full list, see Sparknotes)

Jurgis Rudkus - Lithuanian immigrant, comes to America with his wife, Ona. Jurgis. Is a strong, determined individual with a faith in the American Dream of self-betterment, but his health, family, and hopes are slowly destroyed by the miserable working and living conditions in Packingtown.

Ona Lukoszaite - Teta Elzbieta’s stepdaughter and Jurgis’s wife. A kind, lovely, and optimistic girl, Ona is ruined by the forces of capitalism that work against the family, particularly after she is raped by her boss, Phil Connor. She ultimately dies during childbirth.

Teta Elzbieta Lukoszaite - Ona’s stepmother and the mother of six others. A resilient, strongwilled old woman, Teta Elzbieta is one of the strongest and most important characters in The Jungle.
Sinclair uses her to represent the redemptive power of family, home, and tradition.

Phil Connor - Ona’s boss, who sexually harasses her at the factory where she works. A bullying, depraved man, Connor represents the moral corruption of power in Chicago as well as the complicated relationship between politics, crime, and business. He has ties to all three and, thus, has the power to destroy Jurgis’s life.

Antanas Rudkus - Ona and Jurgis’s son. Antanas is a strong, sturdy little boy, but he drowns in the mud in the street while Jurgis is at work. The death of Antanas signals the death of hope in Jurgis’s life.

Jonas - Teta Elzbieta’s brother, who first encourages the family to travel to America. After months of poverty in Packingtown, Jonas disappears, and the family never hears from him again. His absence deprives the family of a key wage earner and throws them into a greater financial crisis.

Miss Henderson - The forelady in Ona’s factory. Cruel and bitter, Miss Henderson is the jilted mistress of one of the factory superintendents. She also runs a brothel and arranges to get jobs for some of the prostitutes that work for her. She hates Ona because Ona is a “decent married girl,” and she and her toadies try to make Ona as miserable as possible.
c) Themes/Style: Sinclair writes his novel in a muckraking journalism style (a term that
Theodore Reoosevelt coined in 1906 to refer to a group of journalists who devoted themselves to exposing the ills of industrialization). Sinclair sensationalizes-- using gruesome images and brutal language to illustrate the disgusting qualities of life for the people in Packingtown. He shows the workers as animals, or herded livestock that they work with, forced to do things that no human being should have to do. He exposes the corruption and misconduct on part of the individual or the business. He explores the idea of the failed American Dream for immigrants and the broken promises and expectations. He also uses the second-person perspective to heighten empathy. d) Tradition of Protest: Sinclair wanted to expose readers to the exploitation of workers and convert workers to socialism. Instead, it helped pass the Pure Food and Drug Act of
1906. Thus, instead of changing means of production, his book effectively changed the mode of consumption. The Jungle raised a public outcry against the unhealthy standards in the meatpacking industry and provoked the passage of The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. One might compare The Jungle to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
. Sinclair attempted to create the kind of impact that Stowe had from
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
. Both used story and sensationalized writing to pull at the heartstrings of readers in an attempt to promote change. Yet
Sinclair did not accomplish as much as Stowe. Could also compare the work of Sinclair to that of Herbert Spencer (as talked about in class). Sinclair and Spencer are similar in that they both

use rich detail and both document the world and laws of nature. Sinclair differs from Spencer in his vision of what that teleological endpoint would look like.
2. Eugene Debs, “Address to the Jury” (1918)* a) Summary of plot: In “Address to the Jury,” Debs writes about how the minority is often more powerful (and more correct) than the majority. In this address he promotes American socialism, something that he continues to support till his death in 1926. He argues that it was the few rebels (such as Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, and Paine) who stood up for what they believed and actually brought about change. He talks about the Mexican War, arguing that though
Lincoln, Sumner, Webster and Clay all “denounced the president, condemned his administration while the war was being waged, and charged in substance that the war was a crime against humanity”-- they were not punished nor tried for crime. Rather, “They are honored today by all of their countrymen” (Debs 312). Ultimately, Debs argues that Congress cannot suppress free speech and that even if a few people rise up, things can be changed. b) Important Characters/Facts/Themes/Quotes

Eugene Debs (1855-1962) -- pacifist, helped found Socialist Democratic party, he was a 4time presidential candidate. Was sent to trial after he made an anti-war speech in Canton, Ohio during WWI that discouraged people from enlisting in the military. Used this speech in his trial.
He was convicted and sentenced to 10-year prison term, yet gained over a million presidential votes while in prison.
 “ When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved, as a rule the majority are wrong. The minority are usually right ” (Debs 311). Demonstrates Debs idea that there is power in the minority and that they can lead to great change.
 “ I would not, under any circumstances suppress free speech. It is far more dangerous to attempt to gag the people than allow them to speak freely what is in their hearts ” (Debs
313). Shows how Debs was a proponent of people having free speech-- used this as a defense for why he should not be punished for making an anti-war speech. b) Themes/Style: In this speech, Debs uses a formal manner to address the jury. While he is clearly frustrated with the unreasonable rules set in place, he attempts to speak to them with respect and patience. Even at the end of his speech he remarks, “And now, your honor, permit me to return my thanks for your patient consideration. And to you, gentlemen of the jury, for the kindness with which you have listened to me. I am prepared for your verdict” (Debs 313). Debs also tries to draw the case away from himself, and more writes in a manner that is more focused on the people and on the grander scale of things. He writes, “I am the smallest part of this trial. I have lived long enough to realize my own personal insignificance in relation to a great issue that involves the welfare of the whole people… The future will render the final verdict” (Debs 312).
By doing this, Debs places the emphasis on the consequences this has for society, rather than his own minor case. Lastly, Debs uses evidence from past cases to pull at the heartstrings of the jury and the people to see how it is by the challenging of the minority, that great change can occur. He points to significant figures such as Lincoln or Clay to show how such rebellion is at times necessary to bring about transformation. c) Tradition of Protest Debs fits himself into the tradition of protest in this piece as he protests for something he feels is corrupt, unfair, and in need of reform. He attempts to not only convince the jury of his opinions, yet also writes to the American people to side with his perspectives on socialism and free speech. In doing so, he brings many to his side and gains many

votes for the Socialist party. One might compare Deb’s work to MLK’s “Letter from a
Birmingham Jail” in which both authors cry out from their state of prosecution to ask Americans to side for a better life. Both use formal, patient writing to ask the listeners to think about the past and how the decisions today could shape the future.
3. Warren G. Harding, “Liberty Under the Law” (1920)* a) Summary of plot:
In “Liberty Under the Law”, Harding discusses the basic liberties that all he feels humans should have which include: freedom of speech, freedom of press, and freedom of assembly. Harding warns of the danger of appealing to what the public wants when he writes about how “there is no greater peril” than the temptation to appeal to group citizenship for political advantage. He calls on Americans to have steadiness and to “proceed deliberately with the readjustment which concerns all people”. Harding also argues that people should be allowed to do collective bargaining, yet discourages groups from “preying on one another.” b) Characters/Facts/Quotes:

Warren G. Harding (1865-1923), 29th president of the United States. He was elected president in 1920 by an overwhelming vote in a postwar reaction against President Wilson's international policies. The first American president to take office after World War I, Harding was also the first president to be born after the Civil War.
 “Any American has the right to quit his employment, so has every American the right to seek employment. The group must not endanger the individual, and we must discourage groups
preying on one another” -- Harding
 “We call on America for steadiness, so that we may proceed deliberately with the
readjustment which concerns all people.” - Harding c) Themes/Style: Harding uses a realist tone to appeal to the greatest amount of people in this speech. He comes across as patient and reasonable. He addresses his speech to “my countrymen” and writes in a tone that is very inclusive to all who listen. He constantly speaks of the power and freedom of all people. He also writes using “we” throughout. For example: “We must not abridge…” or “Our plan of popular government…” or “We do not oppose, but approve…” or “We do not hold the right…” Harding uses this “we” to include the reader in what he in his argument and allow it to appeal to the people who are listening. d) Tradition of Protest:
Harding’s writing fits into the tradition of protest as he openly criticizes politicians for falling in the trap of merely trying to say things that will appeal to the public. Harding instead argues that people should be allowed to do and say as they feel and to conduct themselves with a degree of steadiness and patience. He attempts to unite his listeners, the American people, by speaking to them as an honest, caring fellow American. One might compare Harding’s style of writing to that of Walker in his “Appeal.” While their arguments are quite different, the way they both go about trying to include their listeners by using “we” and “us” throughout their arguments is quite similar. Both use this stylistic tactic to include the reader and make them feel more connected and apart of the argument.
4. Herbert Spencer, “The Proper Sphere of Government” (1843)* a) Summary of plot: In Letter 1 of “The Proper Sphere of Government”, Spencer looks at the fundamental principles of legislation and the importance of laws in our lives. He argues that

it is important to think about how much governmental interference is too much, yet also explores why we ultimately need governmental interference and laws in our society. He takes a moment to imagine what society would be like if there were no laws and ultimately draws the conclusion that we would still want a government “to protect persons and property… to administer justice.” In his second letter, Spencer looks at the definition of government as providing for the “general good.”
He looks into issues such as the Corn Laws and the influence of the Christian church and examines the different sides of the arguments and how the government intervenes. He also argues that having an established church for the “general good” is actually restrictive and wrong. b) Characters/Facts:

Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) -- English philosopher, prominent classical liberal political theorist, and sociological theorist. Spence was the patron saint of Social Darwinism, and developed the conception of evolution, which actually preceded “The Origin of Species”.
Coined the phrase “survival of the fittest.”
 “Is there any boundary to the interference of government? And if so, what is that
boundary?” -
Spencer asks this when looking into the purpose and role of government and laws
 “Before forming opinions upon the best measures to be adopted by a legislative body, it is necessary that well-defined views of the power of that body should be formed” -- Spencer when speaking of the importance of the government understanding what the people need from them before making decisions
 “Everything in nature has its laws… Man as an animate being… he obeys those instincts… he bends to the laws of his nature” --
Look out for words around nature and mans connection to nature in Spencer’s writing (he is very into human evolution)
Some basic features of Spencer’s ideology: (Outlined in lecture)
1 – it destroys the sense of wonder in the world
2 – it takes God out of the world, making religion solely a matter of the church.
3 – it’s deterministic. He sees nature as a machine.
4 – it’s perfectionistic. All of evolution tends toward a perfect end. c) Themes/Style: Spencer writes his essays in a very conversational manner. Throughout his essays he is constantly asking questions and looking at the different positions and sides of the debate. For example, he asks the reader thing such as: “Is it right?” or “What is the result?” or
“What, then, do they want a government for?” He uses the technique of asking questions to stir the mind of the reader and allow them to also contemplate these issues. Spencer also includes nature references in his writing and his interest in the evolution of humans and the laws of nature is evident. For example, he writes, “Inorganic matter has its dynamical properties, its chemical affinities; organic matter, easily destroyed, has also its governing principles.” He connects the laws of nature to the laws of humans and governmental influence. Spencer also uses repetition throughout his essay to drive home certain points. For example he starts one paragraph by saying
“As with man physically, so with man spiritually”, and then in the next paragraph writes, “As with man individually, so with man socially.” He later repeats the phrase we must , writing, “To obtain clear ideas, we must consider the question abstractly, we must suppose society is in primitive condition, we must view circumstances as they would naturally arrive…” Spencer uses this repetition to drive home certain points and restate his sentiments. d) Tradition of Protest: Spencer fits into the tradition of protest as he looks upon the role of government and how it has the potential to interfere too much, such as when it attempts to create “general good” by enforcing an established Christian church. As mentioned before,
Spencer’s work might be compared next to Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle , as Sinclair follows

Spencer in several aspects of his fiction. Both authors use a similar rich detail and documentation using the laws of nature. They seem to differ in that they share different visions of what ends one is working towards.
WEEK 8 Katie Faulkner Faulkner.katherine@gmail.com
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
James Agee & Walker Evans
1. Plot Summary:
This book is a collection of photographs taken by Walker Evans and text written by James Agee that is meant to give a portrait of the daily life and struggles of tenant farmers living in the Alabama during the Depression era. Agee and Walker document the lives of three families of sharecroppers: the Gudgers, the Ricketts, and the Woods. Agee describes the appalling and helpless conditions of the rural families, dedicating long passages to the rugged clothing and living conditions of the families he meets. He describes his attraction to a girl named Emma, knowing however the "essential cruelty...which nothing can be done" to bring them together. Read pages 94/95 for glimpse into language describing tenant farmers. In a chapter entitled "money" Agee describes the risks associated with tenant farming and the economics of the contracts
(102/103). There is never any reassurance from year to year that a tenant farmer will make enough money to survive, and in the off season there is always competition for odd jobs. Agee condemns the "plainness and iterativeness" of work. Pages 299/300 give a description of the terrible work picking cotton. Page 375 gives a crawling description of being in bed with lice and fleas. Read bottom of page 376 (passage that begins "I don't exactly know why anyone should be happy”).
2. Character ID's.
This book does not have a lot of dialogue between other characters; the book is mostly from the eyes of Agee. I think the page numbers I referenced above speak to the main themes/characters of the text.
3. Themes/Rhetorical Style
The rhetorical style of this book is unique in that it combines long, complex and poetic passages with factual reportage of the lives of the sharecroppers. It is very detailed; sometimes Agee spends a whole page to describe the face of a tenant farmer or an iron bed. Agee tries to make the language in this book a performance, but he resists the label of this book as a form of art. "Above all else: in God’s name don't think of it as
Art" he says in the introduction. Read pages 12/13 for his description of this hesitation.
Also, on page 315, Agee writes, "A good artist is a deadly enemy of society."
Another theme in this book is that it goes beyond the traditional forms of journalism in that it involves Agee as a character in the story. He talks about his insecurities of intruding into the lives of others and interfering with their way of life. He admits that he feels like a spy. Agee talks a lot about the relationship between reality and our conscience, and views them both as very messy. This book is "superior" to other fictional forms of literature because Agee states that the characters really do exist, as he too exists as an observer. However, he is very frank about the limitations of his abilities to convey everything through writing. It would be very worthwhile to read pages 8-11 to capture these themes that reoccur throughout the book. Other themes include the

perpetuation of poverty from one generation from the next (no way to escape the life one is born into). Religion is a reoccurring theme (the book ends with the Our Father prayer). Agee also feels a sense of helplessness because of his inability to positively affect the lives of the sharecroppers. Page 339 gives a good description of this ("I wish there was no one in all my life I had ever come close enough to harm").
4. Protest Literature Connections:
Let us Now Praise Famous Men is different from other protest literature we have read this term for many reasons. First off, Agee and Evans use language and photos to create reverence for their downtrodden subjects. The language and photographs are so beautiful that, while describing ugly and miserable conditions, we as readers feel almost insignificant in comparison to the characters in the book. It is also a questionable form of
"protest" literature in that it does not offer a specific solution to sharecropping. While
Agee condemns the miserable deals that sharecroppers are forced into, exchanging half of their crops for the use of the land, and having to pay interest on fertilizer and corn seed, he rarely involves discussion of the solutions or the steps that a society should take to get there. However, as a reader I am moved because his intentions are not explicitly to change society and his tone is not negative. I compare this book to Nickled and Dimed in which the author is so aggressive about giving us facts and trying to persuade us to agree with her. "Relaxed" is the word that comes to my mind when I think of Agee. It is ironic because he insisted that we do not view this book as a work of art, yet in comparison to the other books we have read it stands out as very artsy and poetic in its language.
I should also briefly mention the significance of the photos to the book. They are meant to compliment the text, and are also seen as a type of language. Evans arranges them in pairings that contain ironies, opposites, metaphors, and movement.
WEEK 9/10 Arash Gharib agharib@fas.harvard.edu
Note: This is kind of long because we dedicated two weeks to the Grapes of Wrath on the syllabus, and a week’s worth of lectures.
The Grapes of Wrath
Brief summary:
The story focuses on a family of sharecroppers forced to leave their native
Oklahoma in hopes of a new future in California. Tom Joad, arguably the main character for a bulk of the novel, starts the story out as having just been released from prison after four years for having killed a man during a drunken bar fight. He bumps into a minister from his youth, Jim Casy, on his way back home. Initially, they’re shocked to find the family home abandoned, but later get word from the mysterious ‘Muley’ that the family has moved to another home. Tom and Casy reach the family the next day, and two men learn of the plan to go to California. After some brief hesitation, they both decide to go along, even though it will be a violation of Tom’s parole.
It doesn’t take long before both grandparents die, just within a few days of each other. When grandma dies, they are assisted by another couple with a car, and the two families join forces, which helps ease some of the stress on the Joad’s car from carrying

so many people, and allows both Tom and his younger brother Al to showcase some of their mechanical knowledge of vehicles. The journey is a grim one; most encounters with other travelers indicate that California isn’t quite as perfect as the handbills they’d be given made it out to be. The family reaches a community in California of similar people, which offers them a brief solace, until the local police conspire to tear the town apart from the inside; Jim Casy is arrested, and the Joad family leaves.
After some more travels, they reach a peach farm, where the whole family picks peaches for very little money. They use their wage vouchers to buy overpriced food from the general store. In this area, Tom again inadvertently reunites with Jim Casy, and finds that he has become a labor organizer, and learns that his family has helped break the picket by working for the farm. At this meeting, the police yet again interfere, and kill
Jim Casy. In a rage, Tom kills the officer responsible for Casy’s death, and is again forced into hiding.
Shortly thereafter, Tom decides to leave after his little sister brags about the murder in order to spare his family from an investigation. The family, now almost completely broken apart, has to face a flood just as their daughter, Rose of Sharon
(Rosasharn) is giving birth. Her husband Connie abandoned the family a short while before this. The child is stillborn. The final scene of the novel involves Rose of Sharon breastfeeding a starving man.
Important characters and brief analysis:
Tom Joad: Tom is calm and collected throughout most of the novel, and after reentering the family unit, quickly assumes a role as a leader. He is adventurous yet wise, thereby connecting the generations in his family. He has come to terms with the murder he committed years ago and is eager to get back to work. He states several times in the novel that life in prison was easier than his life afterwards. His major transformation in the novel can be demonstrated through the two separate murders he commits; his first murder was for selfish, drunken reasons, involving a girl. The second is in a righteous fury after witnessing Jim Casy’s murder. After this second murder, he gives his “Wherever [insert expression of injustice] is happening, I’ll be there” speech to his mother.
Jim Casy: Casy is a more peculiar choice for main character, as he has no binding connection with the Joad family, specifically. He is no longer a preacher, having given up the pulpit due to his anxiety regarding his own sins. He claims to have engaged in sins of flesh while a minister with the ‘holy vessels’ he was meant to command and is troubled by this fact, and moreover, he continued these actions. Despite giving up a holy life, he still preaches inadvertently, though in a more spiritual and philosophical manner than because of religiosity. He cultivates an idea of the ‘collective spirit’ where everyone is a part of a larger soul. He is martyred at the end of the novel as he attempts to organize labor.
Al Joad: A representation of the youthful side of the family. He is good with cars, a budding womanizer, and eager to please his older brother, Tom.

Rose of Sharon (Rosasharn): At the beginning of the novel, she represents the utmost of maternity, giving off a Mona Lisa-esque vibe regarding her own femininity and pregnancy. Her husband (Connie) doesn’t completely understand, but they enjoy each other’s company. She falls victim to Connie’s dreams of becoming successful and famous later, and is reluctant to accept that he abandons the family. A religious purist in the temporary town they live in prophecies that her child will be stillborn if she is not righteous. She breast feeds a starving man at the end after giving birth to a stillborn child, representing the only truly productive action in the novel.
Ma and Pa: Both come off as rather simple for a bulk of the novel, but Ma keeps the family together and refuses to show when she is nervous or scared. The difference between the two is expressed in a dialogue near the end of the novel, where Ma explains that men view things in ‘jerks,’ where each thing that happens is a unit that begins and end. Women, on the other hand, view things as part of one large unit, viewing the ocean rather than the waves. This epitomizes the concept of the collective spirit and proves that she fully understands it.
Muley: Describes himself as a ghost. Though he only appears for a few pages, he is important because he represents a futile form of protest; he will eventually achieve nothing, but he can’t give up. This fixation on a purpose without a practical execution is a mainstay of the novel.
Themes:
Relationship between man and nature—the Dust Bowl crisis was partially caused by the farmers themselves, people just like the Joads, who didn’t practice crop rotation to reenergize the land they were farming on. This calls into question the practice of blaming some mysterious force for one’s circumstances rather than taking the blame.
Secularization of Christian tropes—First and foremost, Steinbeck himself stated that the novel is about desire, ranging from food and shelter to sex, in Al and Casy’s case. This desire also links back to the America being a Garden of Eden, and the eventual dissolve of this principle during the Dust Bowl era when everything dried up. The title of the novel refers to apocalypse. Jim Casy, more than others, falls into the Christian tradition.
His initials are JC, but he goes from being a preacher to being a union leader, reflecting love for God evolving into love for man, and he ultimately dies for this principle.
Rhetorical devices:
Most prominently, Steinbeck falls into a trend of alternating chapters with ‘interchapters,’ where he speaks either generically about the Joads’ plight, relating it to all of
America, or he highlights apathy towards the little guy through people justifying why they’re not helping or writing the supposed thought processes of corporate fat cats.
Another thing he does with these inter-chapters is bring up nature. One of these chapters involves ‘the most famous turtle in literature.’ The turtle, like the Joad family, walks one step at a time towards an unspecified goal, and like the Joad family, is almost knocked off

of its path a couple times, but ultimately continues on. This can be likened to the Greek myth of Sisyphus. Tom even eventually picks up the turtle, combining their two journeys in one.
Element of protest:
The question the novel seems to ask: what is to be done now that the key premise behind the American republic has failed? Without the Jeffersonian farmer, what is America?
The Joad family and the novel in general is not of a revolutionary spirit; instead, it advocates reform. By leaving rather than acting out, they commit the simplest and most passive form of protest possible. The last scene of the novel, when Rosasharn nurses the starving man, also indicates this strange evolution: she is nursing a symbol of the present, not of the future. (this is also an example of secularizing a Christian trope)
Jim Casy and Tim later in the novel go against this, both actively voicing their views on the issue. Jim Casy becomes a labor organizer, and this can be viewed as the ‘solution’ presented through the protest. Tom picks up the reigns Casy created, and goes mysteriously into the future with just the idea of helping others.
Works to be compared to:
From the works we read in the course, this book fits in most neatly with Let Us Now
Praise Famous Men because of the proximity in time period. The images present in this novel can be almost viewed as expressions of what the characters in The Grapes of Wrath are going through. Additionally, the nature of the protest is in line with that of The
Jungle , criticizing what is essentially a broken American system of work. The nature aspect of it fits in with Walt Whitman’s poetry, in addition to the concept of the
‘collective spirit,’ where he ‘contains multitudes.’
Although this wasn’t explicitly on our syllabus, but the professors chose to play FDR’s
New Deal speech. This is definitely an important speech in the context of The Grapes of
Wrath . Things mentioned in this vain of though include the 1/3 unemployment rate at the time of his election to the presidency, and how he served as an inspiration. A man crippled by polio talking about fixing the economy showed that he was willing to actually work. The New Deal, like the Joad family, was about reform, not revolution.
Something to keep in mind is that this specific work of Steinbeck’s does NOT involve race into the equation, which separates it rather significantly from most things we’ve seen on the reading list. This distinction can be explained through economic bullying by rich people, who would rather see the lower classes divided, and through race loyalty. Okies, though, can be likened to Afrian Americans
WEEK ELEVEN Sean Robinson scrobins@fas.harvard.edu
James Baldwin The Fire Next Time

The key to understanding Baldwin is that he criticizes a “death” that black people face in believing what the white men tell you, that you are a nigger and will aspire to nothing greater.
“My Dungeon Shook” is a letter to Baldwin’s nephew which works to communicate that theme of don’t believe what the white man tells you, or you have already been beaten, it is a voice somewhere between realist and sentimentalist, combining social critique with personal hope and faith. Baldwin explains you have been put into the ghetto for the sole reason that you are black and for the sole purpose that you are to die there because you are worthless. The white man tries to tell you that you are not meant to aspire to greatness but can only reconcile yourself to mediocrity. The letter is meant to be a hand to cover his nephew’s ears so he won’t listen to the white man and he will learn to look at himself and identify who he is and what he can be on his own terms.
“Down at the Cross” elaborates on the themes addressed in the previous chapter, providing greater personal detail into that one-track life black people seem destined to.
He recalls seeing the whores and pimps, knowing they came from the same circumstances as him, and that he might easily fall into their lot. Black people are stuck however because if they give up they lose, but if they try they will still lose because even the well-educated can’t pull themselves out of the ghetto. He describes his fear of unknown boundaries, in which stepping over them results from black people believing they can accomplish anything a white person can. These boundaries are ferociously enforced by parents, who are fearful for their kids in the same way they fear for their physical safety. So Baldwin fled. While some fled to war or other ghettos to find a gimmick, Baldwin went to the church, which is itself a gimmick. He blames organized religion for its sanctification of power and its emphasis on the institution of religion over spirituality is disturbing to him.
Martin Luther King, Jr. “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”
King’s text protests the criticism he has received from white, Southern clergymen who refer to his civil rights work as unwise, untimely, extreme, and outsider. His voice is distinctly logical as he addresses each criticism and writes to persuade his audience to understand his perspective. As far as being an outsider, King believes he is putting out the fire in one room to prevent the house from burning down because “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”. It does not matter that he is not from Birmingham because he must fight against segregation and racial animosity or else it will consume the entire nation. King insists he is not leading an extremist movement, because he represents the moderate blacks who protest nonviolently between the whites who oppress them and the blacks who do fight back with violence. Their call for direct action is justified because negotiation has failed and King works toward a tension which will bring both parties back to the negotiating table. Why do they break some laws when they call for moral, legal action? King distinguishes just from unjust laws. Whereas the former is in tandem with God’s moral law, unjust laws degrade human personality. King criticizes the church for siding with Man’s law and segregation rather than God’s law. Timing is an unacceptable issue to King, who asserts the black people cannot be asked to wait any longer for the rights to which they are entitled.

Malcolm X “The Ballot or the Bullet”
Malcolm X speaks with a strong rhetorical voice. He hopes to incite his audience to action and he protests the notion of racial progress in recent years because there is no progress until the goal has been achieved. The theme is like King’s, justification of one’s own ideology. However unlike King, Malcolm X is willing to resort to violence to attain human dignity for the black population.
As the 1964 election draws near, Malcolm X asserts blacks must take a stand because the white politicians will be coming to their communities with false promises in exchange for votes. Despite the integration of other ethnicities around them into society, blacks still are not themselves American but are victims of the American system. The government is a hypocritical conspiracy, which demands civic responsibilities of its black citizens (such as military service) but fails to be responsible to them (education, civil rights legislation).
Malcolm X contends no progress has been made because racial animosity is worse than it was 10 years earlier. Why should blacks be thanking whites for “progress” toward civil rights goals which they should already have in the first place? He insists the turn-the-other-cheek patience is over and there will be escalation as blacks become willing to use violence to defend themselves, using shotguns and rifles as examples because the government isn’t doing its job to protect them.
WEEK TWELVE: The Personal Gets Political Olivia Brown obrown@fas
Tony Kushner, Angels in America, Part I (1984)
Summary: Play focused on the rise of HIV/AIDS in New York in the 1980s. Prior Walter discovers he has HIV and his boyfriend Louis Ironson leaves him when his sickness becomes too difficult. Louis then starts seeing Joseph Pitt, a closeted, married, conservative mormon. Joe’s mentor is Roy Kohn – an historical figure who is fictionalized for the play but bears much resemblance to his real self. Roy Kohn is also closeted and contracts HIV, although he pays his doctor to say it is liver cancer. He dies (although we weren’t told to read that far) and his nurse is
Belize – a former drag queen and Prior’s former lover. When Louis leaves Prior and starts with the conservative mormon (in a tortured bout of self-hatred), Belize is the one who really sticks by
Prior and offers some of the most insightful comment of the play. The “angel” is a figure who visits Prior in his dreams. She is female but causes Prior to ejaculate when he dreams of her, and they have sex in one dream. We only had to read half of the play (Part I) so the story of the second half I will not cover here.
Other Important Characters (not mentioned above):
 Harper Pitt – Joe’s wife – “agoraphobic with a mild valium addiction” – appears in
Prior’s fantasies (or Prior appears in hers) when she is high and he is suffering from his illness.
 Hannah Pitt – Joe’s mother who lives in Salt Lake City and comes down to NY when Joe tells her he is a homosexual. When she comes to NY she haphazardly becomes very close to Prior.
 Rabbi Chemelwitz – jewish rabbi who appears at the very beginning.
 Mr. Lies – Harper’s imaginary friend – a travel agent who appears when she is high.
 The Man in the Park – Gay person who has sex in the park.
 The voice – the voice of the angel
 Henry – Roy Kohn’s doctor

 Emily – Prior’s nurse
 Prior’s ancestors’ ghosts – visit him in his illness
 Ethel Rosenberg – ghost of the dead historical figure visits Roy Kohn as he is dying, as he supposedly was the force that led to her wrongful execution.
Themes and Style:
 Pretty didactic play – with each actor playing two or more roles.
 The language is written to express and specify characteristics of the speaker – for example much of Roy Kohn’s speech is in capitals and he frequently uses swear words.
 Kushner also often uses split scenes to juxtapose the events of one story line with another.
 Kushner explores themes of homosexuality – Roy Kohn memorably defines homosexuals as not men who have sex with other men, but “men who know nobody and who nobody knows. Who have zero clout.” (p 51) – religion (Judaism, Mormonism), politics (Reagan and conservatism), drugs (both medicinal – the scarce new AZT drug for HIV patients – and recreational – Harper’s valium addiction), racism (through the black character of
Belize)…
 His is a play explicitly mocking and trying to make sense of the issues that were important in New York in the 1980s, protesting the ironies and contradictions of the corruption and prejudice rife throughout the city.
Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (1963), chs. 1*
Summary: The Feminine Mystique is a non-fiction critique of women’s roles in society in 1960s
America. Friedan offers a view of the way in which women are viewed and view themselves, and the corner they find themselves backed into in the contemporary society. She focuses on the plight of middle-class, white women, who find themselves confined to a solitary and depressing life in the home as house-wives and subordinates to their husbands, unable to reach their potential – intellectually or otherwise. She discusses the technology of the day, as well as social norms, and makes the case for the silent suffering of women in their pristine, picket-fence prisons.
Themes and style:
 Uses “they” for women – but uses personal stories like that of women in the “suburban development.”(bottom of page 19) o Trying to separate herself from the issues to make it more academic, distanced and reasoned – and to keep from accusations of sentimentalist, personal stories?
 Uses sarcasm to describe the contradictions of the “feminine” ideal. Eg. “All they had to do was devote their lives from earliest girlhood to finding a husband and bearing children.” Compare to other uses of sarcasm in protest lit – eg. Angels in America or Custer
Died for our Sins.
 Theme of silence – most important part of her argument is that women have been suffering in silence and without knowing that others feel the same sense of quiet desperation. (Perhaps superficial, but still a theme in modern culture – eg “Desperate

Housewives”) Her aim is in part to break the silence and let women know that they are not alone. o The amazing thing is how far she succeeded in doing so, when The Feminine
Mystique was published in 1963. One of the examples of incredible success in terms of books sold and national (and international) impact we’ve seen in this syllabus.
 Historical context of post-war America o Moving back to the home and leaving their jobs was supposed to be a luxury for middle/upper class white women. Appliances – mentioned frequently by
Friedan – were billed to make home life easier and free up time for feminine activities. Friedan mentions the deficits in nursing and teaching and other jobs that women had undertaken during the war when they were needed, as women were told it was unfeminine to hold a job, and it was talked of as a privilege to have the luxury of staying home.
 New (second) height of feminist protest. Now protesting more subtle subjugation – where before the focus had been on more basic and outright inequality, achieving suffrage etc. Compare Friedan to other recent works of feminist writing like Sister
Outsider or The Yellow Wallpaper.
Audrey Lorde, Sister Outsider (“Poetry is not a Luxury”; “The Master’s Tools Will Never
Dismantle the Master’s House”)
Summary:
“Poetry is not a Luxury”: This is an article on the importance of poetry for women. Lorde writes of the importance of poetry “as illumination,” giving name and form to ideas that otherwise are only “felt.” Lorde wants poetry not to be stagnant, but to be imagination and insight – a
“revelatory distillation of experience” for women. She denounces the “poetry” that has been misrepresented and corrupted by the “white fathers.”
“The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House”: This is a response and protest to Lorde’s assigned panel at the Second Sex Conference, New York, 1979. She mourns the absence of the consideration of more traditionally marginalized groups of women in “feminist” consideration and literature, citing specifically a lack of consideration for Black, Third World, poor and lesbian women. She says racism, homophobia and sexism are inseparable. Lorde laments the patriarchal structure of society, and claims that women have been conditioned to ignore their differences, and not take them as they should – as a foundation for community and a
“crucial strength.”

Themes and style:
 Audrey Lorde is writing as a lesbian feminist in 1970s – 80s, and responding specifically to the feminists of the 1960s, like Betty Friedan. She sees their exclusive focus on the experience of white, middle-class women as the basis for a definition of femininity and struggle as inappropriate. She argues instead – through her poetry (or prose) – that differences within the sexes are as formative of a person’s experience as the particular sex they are. o Her focus is the difference of race, sexuality, class and age. She says “The absence of these considerations weakens any feminist discussion of the personal and the political.” (“The Master’s Tools…” p 110) o “Difference must not merely be tolerated, but seen as a fund of necessary polarities between which our creativity can spark like a dialectic.” (p 111)
 The readings we were assigned are not traditional poetry – but her self-assigned title is poet and she has written more typical poetry – with stanzas and broken rhythmic lines – that we were not assigned to read. Sister Outsider is a collection of essays and speeches
(flowing text formed in paragraphs) that speak to her work as a poet and as a black, lesbian mother and activist.
 She addresses race also – referring to the “european mode” or consciousness, and “the white fathers.” “white” and “european” receive no capitals, whereas “Black” does. In her writing black and female are always linked, and white and male always linked.
Comparison with Friedan:
 Instead of using “they” as Friedan does to describe women, Lorde refers to women as
“us” and “we.” In “Poetry is not a Luxury” Lorde quotes one of her poems in which she addresses the audience directly and optionally includes herself in the statement by putting the “y” of your in parentheses: “beautiful/ and tough as chestnut/ stanchions against (y)our nightmare of weakness/” (p 36)
 Most important line: “For women, then, poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity for our existence.” – Compare this to Friedan’s less explicit but equally as important recognition of the need for women to express themselves and their feelings/emotions.
 “Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought.” – parallel idea to Friedan’s theme of silence around the plight of women.
Anita Bryant, The Anita Bryant Story, chs. 1-2, 4 (1977)*
[Full title] The Anita Bryant story: The survival of our nation's families and the threat of militant homosexuality
Summary: Anita Bryant was a public figure – a gospel singer in the 1960s and 1970s and former
Miss Oklahoma and Miss America third place winner – a Christian and active homophobe. She speaks of her feelings of obligation, as a public figure, to stand up and become involved in political protests for the first time on the issue of homosexual teachers in Miami. She is reacting to a move to amend the Dade County Code to stop discrimination in housing, public accommodation and employment based on sexual preferences. Her arguments are based on scripture and the idea of the family (put very simply). (“Save Our Children Movement)

Analysis:
The least important reading from this week – The Anita Bryant Story is important mostly because of the reaction that followed its publication. [Her staunch reliance on the Bible and religion might also be interesting to some – although I find it depressing.] After she took her stand against homosexual educators there was a mass reaction against her – boycotting of her merchandise, tshirts assailing her, marches and demonstrations, death threats, public mockery... She did succeed, it seems, in getting many people across the country to rise up and take notice of her and of the issue she was protesting, but much of the reaction was opposite to the one she intended and in that sense her protest was a spectacular failure. Good.
Style:
Her story is written in the first person, as a direct narrative of her involvement in the campaign.
She talks at length of her own feelings and apprehensions (akin to some of the self-reflective analysis of doubt and fear, as well as of conviction found through faith, of MLK in his writings), and reasons through her decisions always pointing to God as the lead that pulled her through to do what she did. Her text is littered with Bible quotes and arguments based in the scripture, and there is a subtle self-importance in her emphasis on the passivity of her involvement – which she claims was pushed upon her by her religion and by her status.
WEEK THIRTEEN Ann Mary Olson amolson@fas.harvard.edu
Week 13 Readings
Dee Brown, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (Chapters 1 & 19)
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, published in 1971, is a historical monograph by Dee
Brown. Brown chronicles the history of interactions between the Native people of North
America and European colonizers, from 1492 to 1890, from a Native perspective
(although, notably, Brown himself is not of Native heritage.) Bury My Heart is primarily concerned with the part of this history occurring in the American West during the late nineteenth century.
Chapter 1, “Their Manners are Decorous and Praiseworthy,” begins with a brief summary of various first encounters between different groups of Native people and Europeans:
Columbus and the Taino and Arawak in the Caribbean; the English and Powhatans in
Virginia; Pilgrims and the Pemaquids and Wampanoags in Massachusetts. In some cases, conflicts occurred immediately. In other places, like Massachusetts, Europeans and Natives coexisted peacefully for some time before hostilities began. But in every case, bloodshed proved inevitable, and Native people typically ended up on the losing side of things. Chapter 1 then zooms through the history of Native-white interactions from 1620 to the mid-nineteenth century. Highlights include King Philip’s War and the
Trail of Tears. Essentially, the point of this chapter is to summarize a very long history of unfair dealing between white Americans and Native North Americans.
Chapter 19, “Wounded Knee,” details the massacre of Hunkpapa Sioux at Wounded
Knee, South Dakota, in 1890, and the events leading up to it. After the assassination of
Sitting Bull (by Red Tomahawk), the now-leaderless Hunkpapa people were in turmoil.
On December 28, Big Foot was leading his band to Pine Ridge, South Dakota, when he

encountered the Seventh U.S. Cavalry. The Cavalry ordered Big Foot’s band to disarm, but one man (who may have been deaf) did not immediately comply. When this man fired, the Seventh Cavalry killed him and the rest of the weaponless band, including women and children. (About 300 of the 350 members of Big Foot’s band were killed.)
Unlike many of the texts we’ve read this semester, Bury My Heart is, in many ways, a secondary source. It’s an evidence-based work of history. Brown’s work is a narrative history, but also an argumentative and analytical one. Basically, before Brown’s book, the standard narrative of the settling of the American West was a narrative about progress, success, and Americans triumphing over the terrain and battling fierce and mean Native people – the classic “cowboys and Indians” tale. Brown is implicitly arguing that this history is wrong. He’s revising that narrative to argue that, in fact, the history of whites and Natives in the American West is more accurately framed as a history of conquest. He attempts to tell this story from a Native perspective, something that hadn’t been done before.
It’s most fruitful, I think, to compare this work to Helen Hunt Jackson’s “Century of
Dishonor.” See lecture notes for 4-28-08; Prof. Stauffer explicitly does this. I think the most interesting questions about this book are genre-based. How does it, as a work of history, also operate as a work of protest? Brown is trying to debunk white myths – in what ways is that an act of protest? In lecture, Prof. Stauffer said that Brown frames each chapter to inspire outrage in his reader, typically ending each chapter with a tragedy.
Brown wants his readers to get inside a Native person’s head and imagine the history of
America from their perspective. It’s important to remember, as Prof. Stauffer notes, however, that Brown sometimes romanticizes Native people.
Vine Deloria, Jr., Custer Died for Your Sins (Preface and Chapter 1)
Custer Died for Your Sins, published in 1969, is also, in some ways, a work of history.
However, as Prof. Stauffer said in lecture, it’s also the “diametric opposite” of Bury My
Heart. Where Dee Brown is earnest, occasionally sentimental, writing in the tradition of
Victorian protest writers, Deloria is ironic, sarcastic, one might even say bitter. (See lecture, 4-28-08).
Deloria’s preface essentially summarizes the changes between the book’s first printing, in
1969, and this reprinting, in 1987. Major changes include: Pres. Nixon’s “disavowal” of termination as federal policy, the achievements of the American Indian Movement, and an increased interest in Indian culture and religion.
Chapter 1, “Indians Today, the Real and the Unreal,” confronts common stereotypes about Native people: “The American public feels most comfortable with the mythical
Indians of stereotype-land who were always THERE. These Indians are fierce, they wear feathers and grunt. Most of us don’t fit this idealized figure since we grunt only when overeating, which is seldom” (2). This passage is a pretty good example, I think, of how

Deloria relies upon humor to make white people see the fallacies of the stereotypes about
Indians that they hold.
I think the best text to compare with this one is Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. Both of them, in some way, are relating Native history, and both purport to be presenting it from a Native point of view. They are also both very concerned with debunking
American mythology. I think it’s useful to think about whose style is more effective, as we did in section. Deloria quite specifically says that “we need fewer and fewer
“experts” on Indians” (27). So I wonder what Deloria would think of Brown, a white man, writing Native history?
Michael Herr, Dispatches (Chapters 1 and 6)
Michael Herr was a war correspondent for Esquire magazine in Vietnam during the
Vietnam War. It was first published in 1977, and was one of the first books to give
Americans an insider’s account of what the war in Vietnam was like.
The book is basically a memoir of Herr’s experiences in Vietnam. As far as plot goes,
Herr is more concerned with relating a general sense of what it was like to be there than narrating a series of events. He meets soldiers, talks to them, flies in helicopters, and gets shot at. He sees perhaps hundreds of men in body bags. Part of his point, I think, is that there is no real “plot” in Vietnam. Life is a series of seemingly random attacks, and one is constantly under fire.
Notably, though, Herr was writing Dispatches while in Vietnam, and portions of it were published in Esquire and other magazines during the war. Prof. Stauffer noted in lecture that it’s much easier to protest the war by writing about it and publishing after the fact, but Herr did not wait. He was writing and publishing during the war, which takes greater courage.
Identifying passages from Dispatches on the exam should be fairly easy. Things to look for, of course, are any Vietnamese places names (Ia Drang, Saigon, for example) and the names “Dana” and “Sean Flynn,” two of his fellow journalists in Vietnam. One passage that might come up is Herr’s remark, “I went to cover the war, and the war covered me.”
(I’m not sure exactly how that’s phrased.) Herr also compares looking at war photographs to looking at porn.
Dispatches is a work of New Journalism. See notes on lecture, 4-23-08. Characteristics of New Journalism include: highlighting the subjectivity of the author’s responses to people and events (the author is a character in the story); including fictional elements, and it dramatizes the story; it aspires to the condition of fiction, blurring fiction and nonfiction; seeks to down the relationship between viewer and viewed; the narrative style explicitly seeks empathy and connection between subject and object, reader and text, narrator and subjects. Herr uses New Journalism “to capture the hallucinatory experience of the war.” Dispatches is, according to Prof. Stauffer, Herr’s own journey through his

consciousness. But notice the gap between representation and reality – the war in
Vietnam is not exactly as it is being represented to Americans back home. For example, there’s a huge difference between what the government is telling Americans and what journalists are telling America. This creates a crisis of knowing what is fiction and what is reality.
In lecture, Prof. Stauffer noted that New Journalism is similar to the style of James Agee in Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, so that would be one good place to start making comparisons. For example, one might talk about how each of these texts are voyeuristic, or, rather, how the narrator is a voyeur.
WEEK FOURTEEN Stella Lee
Kevin Bales, Disposable People
Summary:
Kevin Bales describes the conditions of slavery in modern countries: Thailand,
Mauritania, Brazil, Pakistan, and India. He describes “new slavery” as one that is defined by control of a people, rather than legal ownership of a people; “new slavery” is also marked by the low value attached to people—they are treated poorly and simply disposed of when they are no longer useful. He explains historical and social conditions that make slavery acceptable in these countries, details the economic profitability of slavery as well as the financial difficulty of the slaves in obtaining freedom, and describes the day-to-day lives of a few individuals in each system of slavery.
Names and Terms:
Siri- a 15-year old girl who was sold off by her family to work as a prostitute in a brothel probably until she contracts HIV, an example of a disposable person; both prostitution and the selling of daughters is widely accepted in Thailand
Mauritania- an island off the coast of Italy, the high-class White Moor (Spanish Muslim) families keep families of African slaves, slaves are usually treated well but in a paternalistic way, slavery is engrained into the culture, and freed slaves would have nowhere to go
Pakistan- entire families, including children, are trapped in debt slavery, many work dawn to sundown in the fields and kilns of Punjab making mud bricks
Baldev, Shivraj, and Munsi- agricultural slaves in India also trapped in debt slavery, dependent on their masters for all farming supplies, pushing them further into debt
Leela- a woman in India who received two oxen from an external government for help with farming, which drastically improves her independence
Themes:
New slavery vs. old slavery; the low value of human life/slaves such that proper care is not necessary; the impossibility of escaping from debt slavery; overworking slaves; the

contrast between how much profit (usually 200-400%) slaveholders make and how little amount of money it would take to free the slaves; living and working condition of slaves
Rhetorical style:
Kevin Bales uses a combination of writing styles. This book is based on a series of investigate trips to the countries and interviews with individual slaves; thus much of the book is journalistic and presents the facts about the day-to-day lives of the slaves: what they do, how much they earned, how they ended up in slavery. In most of the books, he describes individuals and families with names, making slavery a personal issue. The writing is clearly not sentimental, but in the descriptions we see the harsh realities of their lives. He also presents research on the social and historical background of the country, which helps the reader understand why slavery is so prominent in these countries. Lastly, he ties in the narrative with statistics on the cost and prevalence of slavery, and the finances associated with being a slaveholder or a slave. He does not enjoin readers to help abolish slavery until the final chapter; even then, Bales shies away from detailing the moral wrongness of slavery but instead describes the realistic economic and political methods of and constraints on ending slavery, using as examples several organizations working to expose slaveholders and help slaves gain and maintain independence.
Tradition of Protest:
Disposable People differs greatly from Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a protest against “old slavery,” because it does not focus on the morality and ideals associated with slavery.
Instead, it focuses on the economic, political, and cultural forces that tie these individuals to slavery; these forces also those we must battle to end slavery. It provides a more realistic protest. Perhaps the reason is that Bales does not address the government of the country in which slavery takes place. Because the country’s own government condones slavery, we must end slavery as outsiders. As a result, it is not simply a question of the central government declaring slavery immoral but outside organizations working within the system’s limitations to create change.
Barbara Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed
Summary:
Barbara Ehrenreich reports on the lives of the American poor by experiencing it firsthand: working minimum-wage jobs in the service industry and sticking to a fixed budget during a series of month-long experiments. In Key West, Florida, she looks for a job as a hotel housekeeper but is told to work as a waitress, presumably because she is an
English-speaking white woman. She works at the Hearthside restaurant, which is physically taxing and barely covers her rent, but she befriends several people there. She moves to a new, better-paying job at Jerry’s, where she eventually works two jobs as

waitress and housekeeper. On the first day, she is pushed to her limits and walks out the door. In Portland, Maine, she works at a nursing home feeding and cleaning up after the elderly. She manages decently financially there only because she works 7 days a week, receives some weekend meals at the nursing home and is able to live cheaply in a residential motel, the Blue Heron, during her off-season stay. In Minneapolis, Minnesota, she works at Wal-Mart, a lower-paying job than other service jobs, and is unable to find affordable housing.
Names and Terms:
Gail: an older waitress at the Hearthside, befriends Ehrenreich, shows that Ehrenreich does make some personal connections to her co-workers during her experiment
George: a foreigner new to the country, working as a dishwasher at the Hearthside;
Ehrenreich tries to help him learn English and takes pity on him
Pete: a cook at the nursing home; Ehrenreich takes up social smoking while chatting with him outdoors; potential interest?
The Maids: housekeeping service that Ehrenreich works in Portland
Holly: co-worker at The Maids
Themes:
Degradation and poor treatment of workers (example: urine tests and personality tests required for employment); how any illness or minor accident could completely overwhelm the tight budgets; that the lower-class are not any less special or intelligent because of their job; how current living situations prevent the poor from even taking the steps to obtain a higher-paying job; that working one full-time minimum-wage job is not sufficient to live on; shortage of labor workers doesn’t mean that employers will increase wages; shortage of affordable housing; resulting overcrowded housing and living in cars and motels
Rhetorical style:
The basic premise of the book is that by spending 3 months living as a minimum-wage laborer, this upper middle-class writer can better protest against low wages and high cost of housing. Ehrenreich mostly focuses on the logistics of work and living: how much she earns, how much she spends on rent, how many hours she works. From the weekly budgets that she shares with the reader, we can see clearly that what she earns is clearly not enough to earn a living. The numbers make sense and are convincing. But in addition, it is the personal stories-- having just hot dog buns for lunch, the scrabble to find free dental care because of an impacted tooth, not having 50 cents to pay for the toll—that makes ‘the poor’ not just a socioeconomic class but a group of individuals. It calls for the sympathy of the reader. It shows the reader that although they ‘manage’ somehow, it is always at the expense of emotional and physical pain.
Tradition of Protest:

Nickel and Dimed is similar to Disposable People in that it makes use of numerical figures to make a clear, rather objective argument for why their employment is not sufficient to give them financial freedom. It is also similar in that it uses personal, truelive stories to illustrate poverty and appeal to the sympathy of the reader.
Ronald Reagan, Inaugural Address (1981)
Summary:
Ronald Reagan addresses the economic problems existing at the time of his inauguration: high taxes and large amount of public spending, increasing the government deficit. He argues that high taxes discourage individuals from earning their full potential, limiting the productivity of the country. Calling back to the Founding Fathers and the idea of checking the powers of the government, he calls for a more minimal form of government.
He intends to ‘put Americans back to work’ and care for the individuals in the country
(presumably through tax breaks) by returning some of the federal rights to the state and to the individual.
Names and Terms:
N/A
Themes:
Minimal form of government (low tax, little public spending); checking the federal government’s powers; that taking care of America means taking care of American individuals, the collective ‘we’; ideals of the Founding Fathers; grand history of America and optimism for the future
Rhetorical style:
Reagan speaks about the economic problem in vague terms, only briefly referring to the high taxes and high public spending. Instead, he appeals to the pride of Americans through emotion and “feel-good” speech. He does this in three ways: the collective ‘we’, recall of American history, and display of optimism. In the first method, he uses inclusiveness, writing that there is a special interest group of “we the People,” the group of Americans without distinctions to race or politics. He supports this method by referring to American workers (farmers, businessmen) as American heroes. By personalizing America, he wants the reader to believe that minimizing the power of government means taking care of individuals. In the second method, he recalls the greatness of the country in history, the Founding Fathers, Lincoln, and Vietnam War veterans, implying that America has been such a great nation in the past that we must

continue to be great. In the third method, he asks the audience to put faith in him and in
American through optimism: all things he hopes to achieve are written as “we will
…”
Tradition of Protest:
The most striking aspect of this protest, which differs from most other works of protest, is that Reagan addresses the problem from the perspective of an insider, seeming to or pretending that his audience is also on his side; the ‘other’, against which we must protest, is not identified. The speech also focuses heavily on optimism. These factors can be used to contrast it to several works of protest, but one interesting one is King’s “I
Have a Dream” speech. King identifies the ‘other’—white America, which failed to provide a complete freedom for blacks upon emancipation. King also claims, he has a dream , but he does not claim things will happen.
Ronald Reagan, Address to the Nation on the Iran Arms and Contra Aid Controversy
(1987)
Summary:
Ronald Reagan addresses the controversy created when covert operations involving the trading of arms to Iran for hostages, and for providing funds for Nicaraguan contra became public. He claims that both he and the NSC employees carried out all actions with the best intentions, but that these mistakes were made due to overlooking facts and inadequate record keeping (right…). However, he admits that these mistakes were made and that, as President, he is ultimately responsible. He claims that he has learned from his mistake and seeks to improve the NSC operations by hiring new personnel, ensuring that even covert operations are in keeping with American policies, and improving the process of overseeing projects.
Names and Terms:
National Security Council (NSC) – the government organization involved in the controversy
The Board – the Special Review Board created to review these controversial operations
Themes:
Learning from mistakes: “You take your knocks, you learn your lessons, and then you move on.”
Rhetorical style:
Reagan shirks responsibility for the controversy by claiming that most of it occurred because he was not properly informed about the details of the covert operations. At the same time, he says that he accepts responsibility for the mistakes, which appears to be an

attempt to make himself out as a hero in this situation. On a different note, the language in this address clearly differs from the language in his inaugural address. The conversational tone (for example, using contractions such as I’ve and there’s) gives the impression that he is speaking frankly with his audience.
Tradition of Protest:
Reagan is in a unique position in that he is the one who has made the mistake; he is not protesting against another group. In terms of the changes to the NSC that he proposes, similarly to his inaugural address, he recommends the changes to NSC as an insider.
There is absolute confidence that what he proposes will be put into effect. Reagan is the person in power, not anyone else—he appoints the new people to NSC, and he orders the
NSC to review all operations.