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(2013
midterm assignment) Index to Sample Student Midterm answers 2013 #1: Long Essay |
LITR 4232 |
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Jenna Crosson
1 October 2013
Part 1: Long Essay: Well, This Took Me
By Surprise
To be quite honest, I entered this course with no
prior knowledge and no real expectations. I cannot help but associate the term
“Renaissance” with the visions of ornate costumes, jousting, Kings, and, of
course, turkey legs. But, as I take a step back and pay attention to the
readings we have done so far in this course, I realize that this term has a much
wider and more significant meaning that pertains to almost everything we still
read today. Renaissance pertains more to a style, a time of change for
literature, culture, and education than to just the festivals we see emerge in
the fall. I have, not to my surprise, learned more than I could imagine about
this style of writing in just a short 5 weeks. Some things, however, did take me
by surprise.
The Renaissance style
contains many different aspects, one of those being Romanticism. I am very
familiar with “Romance” novels. I am a “twi-hard”,
Twilight fan for those who are not, and I guiltily
read all 3 Fifty Shades of Grey
novels in a week. When I heard the term “Romanticism” brought up in class, my
mind immediately went to those books; and to all the sappy love stories I have
seen my mother read since I was young. But, to my surprise, Romanticism is
something much larger than just a good love story. This side of Renaissance
Literature contains many terms I am familiar with, having taken many Literature
courses in my college career, but none that I would have before tagged to
Romanticism. Terms like the sublime; the feeling of something far bigger than us
alone, the subject of nature or of children, longing and loss. Terms like
desire, love, and heroes are terms I would have alone associated with
Romanticism.
One of the first readings we
studied thus far, Poe’s Romance,
is a prime example of referring to a subject of children as Romantic. Children,
in this type of Literature, are seen as divine and the way we can feel close to
God. Line 1.10 we see Poe refer to “a child with a most knowing eye” saying that
children are knowledgeable. Poe also describes a sense of loss and longing in
this poem. He once had his love and now he has lost her, not exactly the most
romantic of topics but it is, however, a Romantic theme.
Emerson’s
Nature itself is an aspect of
Romanticism. Nature scenes and all their beauty is a common subject in this type
of Literature. In line 25 Emerson says to “kindle science with the fire of the
holiest affections, then will God go forth anew into the creation.” Nature is
more beautiful than science. Emerson also discusses the subject of children in
many of his lines with “shines into the eye and the heard of a child” and “has
retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood.” He refers to
children like all Renaissance and Romantic writers do, they are all knowing, and
the closest we can get to knowing God. If we can revert back to a childlike
state, or keep the feeling of infancy, we can be pure and innocent too.
In
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
we see a typical romance hero described as “a burly, roaring, roistering blade,
of the name of Abraham, or according to the Dutch abbreviation, Brom Van Brunt,
the hero of the country round which rang with his feats of strength and
hardihood.” We also meet Ichabod Crane, a man who wants to take a journey west.
Quests and journeys, we have learned, are a common theme in Romantic works.
There is also a feeling of nostalgia in The Legend
of Sleepy Hollow. This little town seems untouched
by time. It is an unchanging place in an ever-changing world where you get a
Utopian feeling.
Romanticism is also present
The Last of the Mohicans.
This novel was my least favorite. I found it very hard to follow. I am not one
of those that are interested in Historical Fiction, although I do find it more
fascinating than opening up a History textbook. Nonetheless, this novel still
has aspects of rescue, adventure, love, trials and tribulations, and even the
sublime. The sublime is ever-present in line 5.29, “collected at a spot where
the high bank threw a deeper shadow than usual on the dark waters.” The use of
the word “dark” and the image of the high bank are sublime because they are wide
and open, bigger than us as individuals. We also see a picturesque nature
setting, powerful Indian figures, especially the sculpted and beautiful Uncas.
