LITR 4232 American Renaissance 2012 final exam—Answers to Question A2 "1 or 2 terms or subjects" final exam assignment

Sarah Hardilek

Feeling Sentimental?

          Two young adults are sitting in a movie theatre watching The Notebook. They have been dating for a few weeks now, but this is the first time they have gone to see a movie with such a high reputation as inescapable tear-jerker. Strangely enough, the girl has stayed rather dry-eyed throughout the showing. The guy, on the other hand, has had to cry silently and only sniffle during louder moments in the movie, a task made all the more difficult with the approach of “that scene;” the part at the end were the audience is forced to endure heart-wrenching scenes of despair immediately followed by the impossibly happy scene that makes the entire movie worth it. This is an example of sentimentality.

Sentimentality, often perceived as “cheesy” with an emphasis on the “easy,” is the natural, emotional reaction to outside occurrences, such as watching a kitten play with a ball of string or passing a wrecked car on the side of the road. Critics of the concept argue that there is little to no reward for sentimentality. If the reaction is already present and fully appreciated by the characters, there is no journey to achieve that state and, thus, no reward for achievement. With the scenario of the couple in the movie theatre, the guy and the girl have had different experiences that lead to varying amounts of emotion from the two. Perhaps the girl has had more sad experiences in life and has become numb to the power of Nicholas Sparks stories. Or perhaps the guy has had a bad experience and scenes like those of The Notebook remind him of those experiences. It is because of differences in reactions like these that make critics so hard on sentimentality. With no clear reason for a child to appreciate life to the same degree as an 85 year old, it is difficult to relate to the character’s unearned wisdom.

Despite this issue, it is reassuring to have characters who react perfectly to every situation. The message is clearer with a character acting out the proper response to every situation. It also gives the texts the feeling of a sort of spiritual guide leading the text along. For example, Eva in Uncle Tom’s Cabin is the personification of literary sentimentality. Though only five or six years old, Eva already had an air of grace about her. Upon discovering the chained men and women of Haley’s gang, “she would glide in among them, and look at them with an air of perplexed and sorrowful earnestness; and sometimes she would lift their chains with her slender hands, and then sigh woefully, as she glided away.” Since she has little experience with cruelty, it is implausible that this tiny thing would be able to comprehend the full implication of this situation. She mourns for them, though she should be too young to understand why. In addition, after she falls overboard, Eva recovers pretty much immediately, “exhibiting no traces of the accident which had befallen her.” A typical child of her age would have at least had tears of fright if nothing else. Since she has such a broad knowledge of the world, her personal cares are hardly mentioned. Despite this unrealistic portrayal of youth, the audience has no choice but to respect her. She is kind to Tom and the oppressed and she is able to convince her father to buy Tom in order for him to be under the care of a kinder owner.

Ellen from Wide, Wide World is more realistically sentimental. When she is concerned for her mother and learns that she will be separated from her because of her illness, Ellen naturally weeps even violently it seems with the sentence, “she threw herself again on her pillow, yielding helplessly to the grief she had twice been obliged to control the evening before.” Not only does she have cause to weep for her mother, Ellen is able to weep for herself since she is being forced to pat from her. However, that natural selfishness is mare more forgiving, if not as easily acceptable with the statement, “Yet love was stronger than grief still, and she was careful to allow no sound to escape her that could reach the ears of her mother … her resolve was firm to grieve her no more with useless expressions of sorrow; to keep it to herself as much as possible.” Although this sentence presents the sorrow as more noble, it becomes harder for critics to accept this attitude as natural. After all, Ellen can still love her mother and seek comfort from her mother at the same time. While the character is more likeable by the reader with this clarification, the critics will view this and a forced perspective of self-sacrifice.

As stated by Eric G. Wilson in his article “The science of rubbernecking,” there is “an archive of all that we hate about ourselves, usually morbid impulses, such as the propensity toward melancholy or suicidal and murderous urges” that he refers to as “the shadow.” This “shadow” brings up the idea that sentimentality truly is not controllable; reactions are immediate and based upon more than noble conditioning. This concept supports the argument of the critics that sentimentality in literature is far from realistic. Although critics do not agree with the superficial perfection of sentimentality in novels, the work is more enjoyed by the audience and the morals of the texts are more clearly portrayed. Also, by having a character that reacts the correct way instinctively, the plot is able to progress more quickly than with a character who must work up to the deserved level of wisdom. Besides, literature is a work of art, not a perfect rendition of the human psyche.