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LITR 4328: American Renaissance  |
Final Exam Essays 2015 Sample answers
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Dawn Iven
The End of Happily Ever After
Although American Renaissance embodies the term romanticism, the end of
the period begins to encompass a new era of realism, brought on by war and the
industrialization of America. While
romanticism takes center stage during this time with most stories taking place
in nature, mostly the wilderness in America, and intertwined with elements of
gothic, sublime, and transcendentalism, literature in the end of the American
Renaissance begins to thread elements of realism into stories as well.
Three of texts we read this semester, James Cooper’s
The Last of the Mohicans, Rebecca
Davis’ Life in the Iron-Mills, and
Walt Whitman’s The Wound-Dresser,
envelopes both romanticism and realism.
While realism is the literary style that follows romanticism, it is sometimes
found within the texts that are studied under the romanticism umbrella.
Romanticism is fantasy, imagination and a way for the reader to escape.
Realism on the other hand is in your face real, it tends to be depressing
and does not end in happily ever after.
Romanticism takes place in nature, and is symbolic, while realism is
“specific to details of time and place in history” and takes place in the city.
In Romanticism there is a hero, villains and damsels in distress, but
realism has none of that, and instead deals with “social relations” and
“characterizations of guilt and responsibility,” and whereas romanticism is
dubbed the “Era of the Common Man,” realism is known as the “Gilded Age”
(Realism term page).
While The Last of the Mohicans is
predominately written as romanticism, there are shards of realism mixed in.
Within the pages of this story is a gothic tale of two young women, Cora,
who has dark hair and is darker in skin coloring, and Alice, who has a fair
complexion and hair to match. The
two are sisters traveling in the wilderness along with Lieutenant Heyward, the
“golden boy,” and Magua, “the American Indian version of the Byronic hero
(Chapter 1 Introduction). Elements
of romanticism are at work using dark and light, and the Byronic Hero versus the
Golden Boy, much like in the classic British Romance, Wuthering Heights.
Other gothic elements are brought in through a description of an Indian
attack where a mother and her young child are killed, and through details of the
wilderness that they are traveling through.
While these are all classic elements of romanticism seen within the text,
there is realism observed in the text as well.
For example, the characterization of battle in the French and Indian War
is considered an element of realism, as is the death of Cora.
Cora’s death is gothic, but it is also not the expected outcome, nor is
it happily ever after for her, therefore it can also be seen as realism.
The mix of romanticism and realism is not glaring but it is there all the
same.
Life in the Iron Mills
is the opposite of The Last of the
Mohicans because while the latter is essentially romanticism, the former is
primarily realism because it takes place when America is becoming
industrialized. Poverty is
overwhelming the characters that are in thankless jobs and poor working
conditions. They have no hope, no
way out and their outcome is depressing.
The characters Hugh, Deborah and the Quaker woman all have elements of
romanticism because they do try to get out of their situation by finding God,
but because of the choices Hugh makes he ends up going in the wrong direction.
In the text Davis talks of “sunshine, and fresh air, and slow, patient
Christ-love, needed to make healthy and hopeful this impure body and soul” which
are romantic elements in this story (lecture notes).
Nature and patience of Christ, and hope are all part of romanticism.
The description of “a homely pine house, on one of these hills, whose
windows overlook broad, wooded slopes and clover-crimsoned meadows,—niched into
the very place where the light is warmest, the air freest” is a romantic notion
as well because of the reference of nature and the warm light with the fresh air
(lecture notes). Deborah finds her
way into the light of “Christ’s love” with the Quaker woman’s help.
Of course, Deborah’s story is not typical of most poverty-stricken people
of the industrial revolution. Most
of them despite scratching and clawing, never find their way out of poverty.
There is no hope for them, only depression within the realistic scenes
described in the story. This is
story is also a mix of romanticism and realism but seems to be a little more
ostentatious than the first.
The third text, The Wound-Dresser, a
poem by Walt Whitman is the story of a man who serves as a wound-dresser during
the war. The war, an aspect of
realism is very real to the people who lived through it.
Many lives were lost and many more were injured.
War is never a romantic notion because it is about loss and death,
although it could be considered gothic, which is a romantic element.
Within the poem, Whitman writes, “To sit by the wounded and soothe them,
or silently watch the dead” (1.6) and later “(Both I remember well—many the
hardships, few the joys, yet I was content.)”
(2.7) are extremely realist, especially “watching the dead,” and “the
hardships.” These not even close to
romanticism, but instead give a description of struggles and real in your face
situations of death, nothing beautiful about that.
He does talk a bit about the heroes and “young men and maidens who love”
(1.3) but the romanticism is short lived, overwhelmed by the realness of what
war can do to the soldiers and those left to put back the pieces when it is
over. His description of “…the long
rows of cots up and down each side I return” (2.18) gives tangible evidence that
makes us see what the hospital set up was.
It gives us proof that it did exist, at least in the mind of the
wound-dresser. He goes on to share
a bit of romantic sacrifice with the reader when he writes, “Yet I think I could
not refuse this moment to die for you, if that would save you” (2.26).
This is a romantic notion set in a very real situation.
To die for someone, to sacrifice yourself for another is a genuine
romantic idea that Whitman throws in to a seemingly, otherwise depressing poem.
Even though The Last of the Mohicans,
Life in the Iron-Mills, and The
Wound-Dresser arise from the American Renaissance, they all share
characteristics of romanticism as well realism.
With America moving into the Industrial Revolution, the style and
substance of literature begins to shift from that of fantasy, beauty, and nature
to a something urban, tangible and in your face real.
Gone are the days of happily ever after, and instead the hardships of
urban life have emerged.
1865 flag of the USA