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LITR 4328 American Renaissance  |
Final Exam Essays 2015 Sample answers
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Elizabeth Myers
Reflecting on the American Renaissance
Although I started this semester not knowing what the American Renaissance
literary movement entailed, after reading and analyzing our authors’ works, I
now believe that I have gained a good understanding of the American Renaissance.
If asked about the American Renaissance, I would strive to get across the
uniqueness of this movement. The works of the American Renaissance include so
many different themes and ideas that they cannot be pigeonholed into one neat
classification. The literature studied during this course has had aspects of
Romanticism like the sublime, the gothic, and the value of the individual,
discussions about women’s rights, the abolition of slavery, and
Transcendentalism, and features of Realism as well. The differences found in
American Renaissance literature reflect the social, political, and technological
changes occurring during this period.
After
reflecting on all that I have learned during this semester, the main thing that
mattered the most to me was our study of Transcendentalism because it directly
relates to one of my goals in my future profession. As a future English
instructor, I want to inspire my students to be active, responsible, and
life-long learners who know the value in questioning not only themselves, but
also the world around them. I agree with Ralph Waldo Emerson’s assertion in his
essay “Nature” that an individual can attain a deeper understanding of
themselves and the world around them by going out into the world and discovering
the truth for themselves. When teaching “Nature,” I will have my students go
outside and reflect on Emerson’s words in order to make a stronger connection
with the material. Moreover, I plan to motivate my students to make a positive
difference in their own lives and in the world by reiterating Emerson’s
declaration in “Nature” to go out and “Build,
therefore, your own world.
As fast as you
conform your life to the
pure idea in your mind,
that will unfold its great proportions” (para. 28). In the end, I
believe that I can help create positive, independent, and reflective students
due to Dr. White’s American Renaissance course enabling me to learn about
Transcendentalism.
In
addition to Transcendentalism, I also plan to incorporate a study of the gothic
into my future classroom as well. As was discussed during class discussions and
in Dr. White’s notes, aspects of the gothic like the dark foreboding castle and
wilderness, the interplay of light and dark, and the juxtaposition of “fair” and
“dark” ladies are prevalent in movies and literature. Due to the gothic’s
historical and popular presence in modern times, I think that my future students
would find it interesting to study this aspect of Romanticism and how it is
portrayed in American Renaissance works. I am interested in having my students
compare how the authors, James Fenimore Cooper and Edgar Allan Poe, use gothic
settings in their works, and then discuss why Poe frequently utilizes the
traditional European gothic settings in his literature like is seen in his short
story, “The Fall of the House of Usher” while Cooper utilizes an Americanized
wilderness gothic setting in his novel,
The Last of the Mohicans. This class was the first time that I had read Poe
since high school, and I had never realized that Poe uses his gothic settings to
correspond with his characters’ psyches in his works. Furthermore, Cooper’s use
of the wilderness gothic demonstrates how American Renaissance writers transform
features of traditional European Romanticism to reflect American experiences.
In
regards to this course’s vast amount of supplemental information located online,
I agree with Mickey Thames when he states in his 2013 final exam how helpful it
is to have these resources available to students. I liked using the additional
sources to supplement my knowledge whenever I read the assigned American
Renaissance texts, and I felt more comfortable with the validity of Dr. White’s
information and recommended website links. One of links that I utilized when I
read James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of
the Mohicans, and when I was
narrowing down my research topic was the North Georgia Tourist Promotion on The
Trail of Tears. I found the Cherokee webpages to be a fascinating resource. If I
had not ultimately decided to research the noble and ignoble savage dichotomy, I
would have wanted to do one of my research posts on Elias
Boudinot. I was and still am interested in discovering if Boudinot’s experiences
with discrimination in regards to both his heritage and his marriage to
Harriet Ruggles Gold influenced his support of the
Treaty of New Echota, which caused the Cherokee Nation to be forcibly removed
from their land.
Although the history surrounding The Trail of Tears is incredibly depressing, I
enjoyed learning more about Native American history and how it connects to the
this course’s literature and the history of the United States. Furthermore, I
beg you, Dr. White, to please never take down your website for your literature
courses because I have begun to look at the resources you have made available
for your other classes, and I also would like to use your website in my future
classroom when I teach my students how to correctly conduct research and
evaluate resources.
As
discussed in my midterm, this American Renaissance class has been my second
foray into Romanticism since I had previously taken Dr. Marcoline’s Romantic
Movement in English Literature class. I believe that taking this American
Renaissance class has allowed me to gain a broader view of Romanticism and how
this literary movement evolved into Realism. Due to this course being my last
literature class in my undergraduate career, and with my graduation soon
approaching, I feel that Dr. White’s American Renaissance class has been a
culminating experience for me. I now feel better prepared to teach American
literature to my future students.
1865 flag of the USA