BBL 3230
American Literature
WEEK 2 & WEEK 3
• THE AMERICAN NATIONAL
CHARACTER AND REPRESENTATIVE
THEMES
• -COLONIALISM
• -NATIONALISM
• -THE ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENT
• -THE AMERICAN DREAM
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
• It is not known how long humans have
wandered the expanse of land that came to be
known as America.
• The earliest identified inhabitants, those now
recognized as American Indians, are believed to
have entered the North American continent
through an icy Siberian passageway that once
existed between northeastern Asia and the
region now called Alaska.
• In terms of recorded history, the story of the
American nation and its culture begins with the
1492 discovery of the New World by Italian
explorer Christopher Columbus.
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
• Christopher Columbus believed that God
directed him to set forth on a westward journey
across the Atlantic Ocean.
• In a journal, he wrote, “It was the Lord who put
into my mind (I could feel His hand upon me) the
fact that it would be possible to sail from here to
the Indies.…There is no question that the
inspiration was from the Holy Spirit, because he
comforted me with rays of marvelous illumination
from the Holy Scriptures.”
• Columbus’ personal vision was limited to finding
a water-route to India. The actual outcome had
far greater impact on mankind than he could
ever imagine.
•
His proposal drew the interest of King
Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.
• Though the Spanish monarchs were skeptical,
they yearned to break Italy’s trade monopoly
with Asia.
• After a four-year period of deliberation, Queen
Isabella consented to support the venture.
Ferdinand & Isabella of Spain
• On August 3rd, 1492, Christopher Columbus’
fleet of three ships set sail from the Spanish port
of Palos.
• At a point where hope of success had virtually
vanished, and with the crew threatening mutiny,
land was finally sighted.
• On October 12th, 1492, Christopher Columbus
set foot upon the beach of a Caribbean island in
what was later known as the Bahamas.
• Planting a cross in the soil, he christened the
island San Salvador, meaning “Holy Savior.”
• Because Columbus was convinced he had
reached the Indies, he referred to the island’s
brown-skinned inhabitants as Indians.
•
Christopher Columbus never realized that the land he
discovered was not Asia.
• In the end, the New World would not bear his name.
• That honor went to an Italian adventurer, Amerigo
Vespucci, who enthralled Europeans with broadly
embellished tales of his own travels to the New World in
1497.
• Vespucci was first to assert that the New World was not
Asia, but rather an entirely different continent altogether.
In the decade that followed, other explorations
substantiated his claim, and in honor of Amerigo
Vespucci, German map-maker Martin Waldseemuller
named the region “America.”
•
Like Christopher Columbus, Giovanni
Caboto—better known as John Cabot—
was born in Genoa, Italy, yet made his
voyage to the New World on behalf of
another country.
• In the service of England, Cabot made the
1497 discovery of the large North Atlantic
island that came to be known as
Newfoundland.
• The first landing on the actual mainland of
North America was made by Juan Ponce
de Leon, who explored the eastern
coastline of the Florida peninsula in 1513.
• That same year, Vasco Nunez Balboa
arrived at what is now Panama, crossing
the Central American isthmus on foot to
make the first European sighting of the
Pacific Ocean.
• By this time, it was apparent that the earth
was larger than previously imagined.
SPAIN IN THE NEW WORLD
• Spain alone reaped treasures from the New
World, and with other European countries losing
interest in the Americas, the Spanish seafaring
fleet controlled the high seas for most of the
sixteenth century.
• Spaniards arriving in the New World represented
two extremes.
• While the Conquistadors sought treasure and
dominion over lands, missionary friars were
unselfish Christians who sacrificed wealth,
status, comfort—and in some cases their own
lives—to exemplify the compassion and servanthood of Jesus Christ to the natives.
• The nomadic inhabitants of the Americas—those
called Indians—were a people who hunted, fished,
and performed rudimentary farming.
• Clustered in separate tribal communities (each
with their own dialects and customs) the American
Indians were rarely united.
• Tribes commonly battled one another, having
experienced widespread death, torture, and
enslavement long before the Spaniards arrived.
• The next influx of Europeans would differ greatly
from the Conquistadors and Catholic friars they
encountered.
•
UPHEAVAL AMONG THE EUROPEAN POWERS
• In 1531, England’s King Henry VIII, at one time a
staunch Catholic, rebelled against the Church in
Rome after the Pope refused to annul one of
Henry’s marriages.
• The king founded the Church of England,
establishing himself as its supreme authority, in
the same way the Pope served as head of the
Catholic Church.
• The Church of England adopted many of the
reforms advanced by the Protestants, including
the distribution of Bibles to the masses.
Henry VIII
(28 June 1491 – 28
January 1547), King of
England and Lord of
Ireland. Established the
Protestant Church of
England.
•
•
•
•
•
In 1585, Walter Raleigh planted 107 men on Roanoke
Island, in Chesapeake Bay, off the coast of what is now
North Carolina.
Frustrated over the absence of women, the men
returned to England the following year.
On his second attempt to establish a settlement, Raleigh
allowed women and children to accompany the men.
The new group of 114 people landed at Roanoke in July
1587. The island served as gateway to a large expanse
of land that Raleigh called “Virginia” in honor of
Elizabeth, England’s celebrated “virgin queen.”
On August 18, 1587, the Roanoke settlers celebrated the
birth of Virginia Dare, the first English child born on
American soil.
JAMESTOWN COLONY
• Queen Elizabeth I, last of the Tudor family monarchs,
died in 1603, passing the English crown to her second
cousin, James I of the Stuart family.
• Encouraged by English businessmen and adventurers,
King James, in September 1605, granted a charter to
two business groups committed to colonizing Virginia.
• The London Company was licensed to settle southern
Virginia, at that time extending from the Chesapeake
Bay to the James River, while the Plymouth Company
was licensed for northern Virginia, extending through
most of what is presently the New England seaboard.
• The London Compay dispatched three ships to
repopulate the settlement. They arrived in May of 1607.
• A mercenary soldier, Captain John Smith, was
commissioned to bring order to Jamestown. He decreed
that anyone who did not work would not eat.
• While waiting for crops to grow, Smith sustained the
settlers on food seized from surrounding Indian camps.
• Over time, the raids grew increasingly violent, eventually
leading to Smith’s capture by the Indians.
• Tribal chief Powhatan took pity on the starving
Jamestown settlers, returning John Smith to his people,
along with a large supply of corn.
• (Through repeated tellings of his story, Smith eventually
included the popular—but unlikely—scenario in which he
was spared the executioner’s blade after Powhatan’s
twelve-year-old daughter, Pocahontas, intervened.)
• During that time, a Dutch ship arrived in Virginia,
offering the services of thirty Africans as low-cost
laborers.
• Their acceptance opened colonists to a mindset
that eventually permitted slavery in America.
Relations between the Jamestown settlers and
neighboring Indians began to deteriorate after
the 1619 death of Chief Powhatan.
• In 1622, hostile tribes massacred 347
Virginians. In the seventeen years that followed,
more than 4,000 settlers lost their lives in Indian
raids.
• Recognizing Virginia’s potential as a moneymaker through tobacco, England’s King James
revoked the Virginia Company’s charter in 1624,
declaring the land a royal colony, henceforth
governed by agents of the crown.
COLONIZATION FOR RELIGIOUS
FREEDOM
• The Church of England was the only legal
religious denomination of the English
people, and by law, every household was
ordered to pay a tithe (ten percent of
income) to the national denomination.
• For one to hold a government position, or
be accepted at a prominent university,
membership in the Church of England was
mandatory.
• What to believe and how to worship were
matters dictated by England’s monarch.
• Though prison awaited those protesting the corruption of
England’s church, one group of devout Christians stood
firm in their faith.
• Branded as “Separatists,” these believers called for the
church to return to its biblical model. The Separatists
also promoted the idea of each individual having a
personal relationship with Jesus Christ—a concept
beyond the scope of Church of England doctrine.
• Facing persecution at home, a congregation of roughly
three hundred Separatists from Scrooby, England fled to
Leyden, Holland during the first decade of the 1600’s,
only to enter a culture more corrupting to their children
than the one they escaped.
• By 1620, stories of Jamestown’s survival and success
inspired the notion of a Separatist settlement in America.
In such a place they could remain true to their faith
without sacrificing English social customs.
• On September 6, 1620, the Mayflower
departed Plymouth, England. The
harrowing, 66-day journey through stormy
seas finally ended and the "pilgrims" (as
they were called) landed in a settlement
near the mouth of the Hudson river.
• On November 11, the Pilgrims
disembarked at a land they named
Plymouth, after the last English town they
saw.
• The Plymouth settlers learned of the best
places to fish, and were instructed in the
planting and harvesting of crops.
• By the following autumn, the Pilgrims
acquired a bounty of food.
• In October 1621, they invited their
Wampanoag and Massasoit Indian
neighbors to join them in a celebration
feast, thanking God for the harvest.
• The event would serve as the origin of the
American holiday of Thanksgiving.
• Overseas, turmoil intensified over
doctrinal issues in the Church of England.
One faction within the body called for
reforms to purify the church.
• Though King James I had been tolerant of
these “Puritans,” his son, Charles I, who
ascended to the throne in 1625, refused to
allow anyone to question church policy.
• To avoid persecution, the Puritans
followed the example of the Separatists,
setting their sights on America.
• A convoy of eleven ships, containing
approximately seven hundred passengers,
sailed from England in November of 1630.
• Upon arrival in Massachusetts, John
Winthrop was elected governor.
• He considered his colony to be the biblical
“City upon a Hill,” with hopes of showing
the world—and especially the Church of
England—the benefits of a Puritan society.
After Columbus – The Puritans
Jamestown, Virginia
Puritans
LITERATURE-Puritans & Pilgrims
• The Puritans and the Pilgrims both migrated to North
America to escape religious persecution due to their
views about the Church of England.
• They created very little literature because writing was
viewed as satanic in both cultures.
• All that was written in Puritan New England were works
to glorify God and record journeys for historical
purposes. The most famous poets of this period include
Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor.
• William Bradford, the governor of the Plymouth Colony,
kept a journal of the events that took place on the
journey over on the Mayflower and life within the colony.
Jonathan Edwards, a minister during the Great
Awakening wrote the sermon "Sinners in the Hands of
an Angry God."
Anne Bradstreet
(1612-1672)
• Father was John Dudley, a nonconformist
soldier
• 1630, sailed with family to America
• His coworker, Simon Bradstreet, married
Anne when she was 16 and he was 25
• Anne was well tutored in literature, history,
Greek, Latin, French, Hebrew, and English.
• In her memoirs, she wrote of America: "I found a
new world and new manners at which my heart
rose [up in protest.]“
• Bother her father and husband were governors of
Massachusetts, allowing her some luxury of
lifestyle.
• Though her men had social prominence, "any
woman who sought to use her wit, charm, or
intelligence in the community at large found
herself ridiculed, banished, or executed by the
Colony's powerful group of male leaders."
• Her husband, in quest for more land and power,
constantly moved them to the edges of the
dangerous frontier.
• Through this dangerous life, Anne and Simon had
8 children, all of whom lived through childhood,
which was rare enough in mire populous areas.
• Anne herself was frequently ill and constantly
expected death, but survived to be 60 years old.
• Because of the tendency of the Puritans to
ostracize female intellectuals, Anne was
hesitant to publish any of her poetry.
• Her brother took some of her early poems to
England (legendarily against her will) and
published them as The Tenth Muse Lately
Sprung Up in America when she was 38. It
sold very well.
• Her later poetry was published posthumously,
and contained a much more well-developed
poetic voice.
• Her Apologies, especially, dripped with sarcasm in
her response to the male opinion of women in
society.
• Anne was a radically feminist poet, challenging
the banishing of women to the private sphere of
life and questioning the idea of an unforgiving
Puritan god.
Criticism
• Anne’s poetry was heavily influenced by
Guillaume du Bartas, who was heavily favored
in the 17th century. He impacted the format
and stylistics of her earlier poetry, especially
before she developed her real independent
voice.
• Since she stuck to this traditionally accepted
courtly style, her Tenth Muse was wellacclaimed among critical circles.
• Anne was viewed as an intriguingly feminist
writer, merging her sometimes overtly sexual
imagery with the concepts of both her love for
God and for her husband and family.
• She examined the paradoxical reconciliation of
a woman in the Puritanically repressive role’s
carnal love for her husband and her more
stately and respectable relationship with God
and the church.
• This led to a more in-depth examination by
feminist critics in the mid-20th century of her
individualist take on more traditional doctrine.
Under President James Monroe, America’s foreign and
domestic policies reflected rising nationalism and the
growing economy.
Foreign Policy
• The War of 1812 sparked national pride for Americans.
• Monroe’s foreign policy included
– The Adams-Onís Treaty (1819): Acquired Florida as a boundary
between Louisiana and Spanish land; let Americans
– The Monroe Doctrine: Made America offlimits to European colonization; stated that
America should stay out of European
affairs and vice versa
–
settle Oregon for 10 years
The Missouri Compromise
•
Pride in the rapid spread of settlement fueled American nationalism, though
it also caused some controversy.
•
Of the 22 states existing in 1819, exactly half legally allowed slavery, most
of which were Southern.
•
This exact balance allowed for equal representation in the Senate, which
would be disturbed if Missouri were granted statehood as a slave state.
•
The Missouri Compromise admitted two states to the union instead of
one: Missouri, a slave state and Maine, a free state.
• Though the Missouri Compromise kept the
balance, feelings of sectionalism, or the
belief that the interests of one’s own
region is more important than the whole,
were emerging between the North and
South.
Missouri Compromise
Sectionalism
The Industrial North
• The Industrial Revolution (mid-1700s to mid-1800s) included
the birth of modern industry and the social changes that
accompanied industrial growth.
• The Revolution began in the British textile industry when
inventors created water-powered and steam-powered weaving
machines.
• The steam engine was crucial to the British Industrial Revolution,
mostly due to improvements James Watt made late in the century.
• The British made laws to prevent their knowledge of these
industrial machines from spreading, but Samuel Slater violated
those laws by building a textile mill in Rhode Island, launching the
Industrial Revolution in America.
• By 1810 there were more than 60 textile mills in New England.
• Industrialization led to urbanization, as the percentage of the
population who lived in cities doubled within 30 years.
Cotton and the South
The Cotton Revolution
Slavery Spreads
• Eli Whitney’s cotton gin, which
separated the seeds from the
usable parts of the cotton,
made large-scale cotton
production possible.
• Even with the use of the cotton
gin, farming cotton required a
large number of workers.
• The cotton gin was simple, but
had a major impact on life in
the South
– The booming textile
industry in the North
bought cotton to weave into
cloth that was sold to
Americans.
– The British Industrial
Revolution raised the
demand for cotton, making
Southern cotton very
valuable to grow.
• The first cotton farms were
small and didn’t use enslaved
African Americans, but
wealthier farmers soon bought
huge plantations and needed
additional workers.
• Planters knew that the more
enslaved African Americans
they used, the more valuable
cotton they could grow.
• Between 1810 and 1840 the
number of enslaved African
Americans in the U.S. more
than doubled to 2.5 million.
Anti-Slavery Efforts in the South
•
Some African Americans in the South were freemen, or African Americans who had
been emancipated.
•
These men and women faced legal and social discrimination, yet still played a large
role in anti-slavery activities.
•
Many freemen helped enslaved people escape, and many bravely spoke out for
freedom for all African Americans.
•
In 1831 the deadliest slave uprising in American history took place. Nat Turner and
his accomplices killed dozens of whites before the uprising was put down by a local
militia.
•
Other enslaved African Americans chose to attempt escape, trying to reach the free
states of the North, Canada, or Mexico.
•
Over the years, a constantly changing network of escape routes
developed called the Underground Railroad. Sympathetic whites and
freemen provided help to escaping slaves. Harriet Tubman, who
escaped slavery herself, helped many on their journey to freedom.
The Abolition Movement in the North
• The number of enslaved people trying to escape increased in the
1830s, possibly encouraged by an anti-slavery movement in the
Northern states.
• The Second Great Awakening’s focus on morality caused many
Northerners to see slavery as wrong and ungodly.
• Many joined reform societies to stop slavery
• 1833: William Lloyd
Garrison founded
the American AntiSlavery Society.
• It was the first
group to call for an
immediate end to
U.S. slavery.
• In five years, had
over 1,500 chapters
in the North.
• Many abolitionists
were women.
• Sarah and Angela
Grimké, daughters
of a Southern
slaveholder, were
abolitionists.
• They moved to the
North to support
abolition and
women’s rights.
• Frederick
Douglass, who
escaped slavery,
was a leading
abolitionist.
• He published an
1845 biography,
Narrative of the
Life of Frederick
Douglass.
Opposition to Abolition
• Though the majority of white southerners did not own
enslaved people, the minority who did found abolition
outrageous, as if it were an attack on their livelihood and,
to some, their religion.
• Slaveholders argued that slavery was essential to cotton
production, which was a powerful argument even in the
North, because cotton accounted for 55% of American
exports.
• In fact, most Northerners supported slavery as well, since
freedom for slaves meant more competition for jobs.
• Still, the pressure to abolish slavery in the U.S. was
undeniable.
What is the American Dream?
• The term "American Dream" first was used
by the American historian James Truslow
Adams in his book "The Epic of America"
published in 1931.
• At that time the United States were
suffering under the Great Depression.
• Adams used the term to describe the
complex beliefs, religious promises and
political and social expectations.
• "The American Dream" has become a
widespread term to describe the American
Way of Life in general, but it is by far not
that easy."
• The American Dream" always has
something individual.
• That is, why till today no one succeeded in
giving a universally acceptable definition of
the term.
• For a lot of people "The American Dream" is
connected to becoming wealthy and the ability to
achieve everything if one only works hard
enough for it (From rags to riches).
• For others it is much more and is beyond
materialism.
• For them it is the dream of living a simple, happy
and fulfilling life and the most important features
being faith and equality.
• "The American Dream" also is about liberty and
America being the country of unlimited
opportunities.
American Dream Literature
• As America has evolved, its citizens have
struggled to define and capture the "American
Dream."
• Countless works of literature have been written
on this topic, among which the most prominent
are Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, F. Scott
Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, and Arthur
Miller's Death of a Salesman.
• Each of these classic works presents its own
take on the American Dream and the factors that
lead a man to achieve it, or fall short of it.
Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, often
regarded as one of the finest American novels,
describes the humorous yet enlightening
adventures of a poor country boy, motherless
and with an abusive father, who takes to the
river with a runaway slave in an effort to escape
the oppressiveness of society.
• For Huck, and consequently for Twain, the
American Dream means being free to come and
go with the river, to have no constraints or
restrictions, and to enjoy the wide-open Western
frontier.
• The beauty and freedom of this dream is
shown almost as a neccessity for Huck,
and certainly for Jim the slave, when
contrasted with the metaphorical and
literal slavery each finds himself in at the
opening of the novel.
• The American Dream thus becomes a
celebration of freedom, not only from
physical structure and rules, but from the
prejudices of Southern society in the age
of slavery.
F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby
• Nearly forty years later, the American Dream took on a
new shape, though not a wholly different one, in F. Scott
Fitzgerald's 1925 novel, The Great Gatsby.
• This story about a young Long Island millionaire who is
ardently in love with a now married woman raises
probing questions about the value of money and high
society.
• Through the character of Gatsby, Fitzgerald eventually
shows that, while the rags-to-riches American Dream
seems fantastic and wonderful, it is in reality shallow, as
well as devoid of true joy and love.
• Ultimately, the main character of the novel decides to
move back to the West, rejecting the gilded ugliness of
the New York metropolis.
Death of a Salesman-Arthur Miller
• In 1949, renowned playwright Arthur Miller crafted his
own version of the failed American Dream in his famous
play Death of a Salesman.
• In his depiction of the Loman family Miller presents all
the anxiety of a modern American family hemmed in by
industrialization and cut off from its roots in the free soil
of the frontier.
• After a lifetime of trying and failing to obtain the
American Dream for himself and his family, Willy Loman
ultimately commits suicide so that his son will have his
life-insurance.
• This play asks the age-old question: What is the
American Dream, and, is it even possible or desirable to
attain it?