LITR 4232 American Renaissance 2010 final exam—Answers to Question B3

Eric Cherrie

The American Renaissance and New Historicism: Understanding Progress in a New Nation

          The American Renaissance represents the first growing pain of a new nation. There is a sense that something great and magical happened some 50 years prior. A united country took a stand against the tyranny and injustice of a colonial power. America was the first colony to successfully shed its oppressor. It was founded on the great Greek democracy from antiquity. However, when the shooting star of revolution has long since passed, and only a glimmer of its tail remains in memory, a country begins to get restless. The country begins to feel the need to reinvent itself; at the same time, it begins to look back at the past with nostalgia and has trouble giving up tradition; it even questions the very truths it held to be self-evident. Several writers of the time help depict the schism in American life. Walt Whitman's poetry gives up tradition for a style all his own. Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" also beautifully parallels the nation's struggle with faith and secularism. Finally, Abraham Lincoln's speeches portray a man ready to give up the rights guaranteed to every man for the sake of keeping the union together.

          Walt Whitman carries the torch through the darkness of the American Renaissance. Whitman will not let American poetry be subject to the form and style of its oppressor. He reinvents poetry; he creates a style uniquely American--free verse--a style meant to mirror the free country it was designed for. Whitman's poem, "There was a Child Went Forth," is a wonderful example of free verse poetry. The poem is centered on a young boy that becomes everything he sees. The poem uses a catalogue to capture all of the encounters. In a very basic way the poem is about the way that our experiences shape our lives. However, the poem is also about the way Americans embody the nation they live in. America in not just an assembly of people, rather, it is America and everything America has to offer that makes up the individual American. Whitman's view and style are rare and beautiful portraits of American during the American Renaissance.

          This can also be seen in Whitman's poem "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry." Whitman's style is completely different than anything else written at the time. His lines stretch on forever; they expand and expand. Similarly, America was undergoing the affects of Manifest Destiny. America was bent on expanding westward. His poem is also filled with parallelism and anaphora. While both of these styles are found in prior styles of poetry, he uses it to a level never seen before. There is also something so optimistic in Whitman's poetry. He celebrates America and what it means to be an American more than any other writer. There is a sense in his poetry that the poem and America will last forever.

          Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" also captures an interesting problem with America and religion—Americans are having a crisis of faith. There has always been some tension between reason and faith. However, post-enlightenment America was a battle field between God and man. Romanticism is both a celebration of both the power of man and the awe of God. "Young Goodman Brown" deals with the issues of growing up in a society caught between religion and man. The common interpretation of the Hawthorne's short story is that it is a coming-of-age story about a man discovering that there is evil in the world. However, that interpretation is so passé. Furthermore, that reading does not make any sense; Goodman Brown realizes that there is evil in the world and then becomes a miserable old man. So what? Instead, “Young Goodman Brown" is more about the conflict of religion as a institutionalized tradition.  Remember that Goodman Brown marries Faith. Faith becomes an institution. She is literally his wife; however, she also becomes a metaphor for his view of religion. Even though he has lost his faith, he has no choice but to stick with her after his tramp through the woods; he is married to her. Therefore, he also has to stick with religion because by the transitive property he is married to religion. He does not believe in Faith anymore, yet he has to sleep with her every night for the rest of his life. He is figuratively sleeping with the enemy. This would explain a grumpy and cynical old man.

          Last, Lincoln's speeches characterize a nation coming to terms with the evils of its past. However, Lincoln's speeches also depict a man trying to get two sides to come together no matter the cost. There is a common perspective taught in the great schools of the South that the Civil War was fought over state rights. For southerners the Civil War represents a war of aggression. In the North, the perspective of blame shifts to the South. For the North the war was fought for the rights of the individual; it was not a war of aggression; rather, it was a war for progression--moral progression. In many ways, both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line are correct. The Northerner's did infringe on the rights of Southern states; Southern states did infringe on the rights of the individual. Lincoln recognizes this fact; he has the ability to see both sides. In Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address he states: "Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came." The statement places responsibility of the war on the South; however, the divisive issues that started the war are left out. Lincoln is extending the olive branch to South in the only way he can. Lincoln wants to see the war and the resentment in the past. He wants to move forward as a united nation.

          Historically the American Renaissance in an incredibly interesting time in American history. America is sucking at the last fumes of the revolution; the high will end soon, and the reality of America's childhood will have to be dealt with. Walt Whitman will give America the voice of a free nation; Nathaniel Hawthorne will test its faith; and Lincoln will just try to keep the country together.