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(2016
midterm assignment) Model Student Midterm answers 2016 #1: Long Essays (Index) |
LITR 4328 |
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Cassandra Waggett
The American Renaissance: Advice for the Modern Age
Modern readers have much to learn from the American Renaissance. The
principles that emerged during this period persist in American ideologies even
today, so that the words of authors such as Emerson, Whitman, Cooper, and Irving
sound as familiar to the American reader as the words of a parent, and yet, just
as children often disregard the advice of their parents at the most crucial
times in life, so modern people seem to neglect the teachings of these great
writers when they are most needed. Emerson’s discourse on man’s oneness with
nature and correspondence, Whitman’s and Cooper’s attacks on discrimination, and
Irving’s depiction of the American spirit all offer valuable lessons to the
modern audience.
The advice that Emerson conveys is
Nature is sorely needed and little heeded by modern people. Prior to the
Romantic movement, man was often viewed as apart from nature and apart from god,
occupying some place between them. In contrast, Emerson states that when he
embraces nature “the
currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I
am part or particle of God”.
Emerson does not distinguish between a supernatural god and nature, but rather
asserts that they are one and the same and that man’s place should be as a part
of nature and of god. This message about what humankind’s relationship should be
with the natural and the supernatural should resonate with modern readers, who
are increasingly cleaving themselves from nature through urbanization, from
god(s) through secularization, and from other people through digitalization.
This division translates into all sorts of agonies such as depression and
violence which, from the view of the transcendentalists, oneness with nature
could heal. Emerson says “The reason
why the world lacks unity, and lies broken and in heaps, is, because man is
disunited with himself”. By this Emerson meant that man is spiritually
fragmented. It is also applicable to the fact that today humans are increasingly
divided from each other—that is, man is divided from mankind. It appears that
humans increasingly endeavor to divide the outside world because they themselves
are internally divided. This idea agrees with Emerson’s concept of
correspondence, that man’s internal feelings are projected onto the world around
him, and that his experience of that internal world reflects back onto him,
reinforcing his state of mind. Instead of a positive cycle of correspondence
that establishes unity, humans are caught in a cycle of fragmentation. Emerson
speaks of a glorious, healthy, redemptive oneness with all that is the opposite
of today in which people are fragmented in every nearly sense.
Walt Whitman provides more insight into this issue of disunity. He warns against
isolation in “I sing the Body Electric”, saying “There
is something in staying close to men and women and looking on them, and in the
contact and odor of them, that pleases the soul well.” Whitman counsels that the
company of other people is beneficial, and even spiritually healing. This advice
is well-suited to modern audience members, who are minimizing their contact with
other people through digitalization and over-scheduling. Based on the words of
Emerson and Whitman, the answer to solving the mental and spiritual misery of
humankind begins with nature and human companionship, things that seem to be in
short supply today.
While Emerson is focused on man as a whole as a part or gear in the
cosmic organism that is nature and god at once, in “I Sing the Body Electric”
Whitman is concerned with the beauty of the human body as a natural phenomenon
and spiritual manifestation. He says “O I say now that these are not the parts
and poems of the body only, but of the soul”. Whitman answers Emerson’s call for
the reverent naturalist. He praises the human body in all its forms through the
use of catalogues of human anatomy. Remarkably, Whitman combined the scientific
objectification of the Enlightenment and Emerson’s concept of unity in his
catalogues. Whitman’s approach of using catalogue to examine nature and the body
piece by piece on an almost microscopic level parallels the pattern of
scientific inquiry. However, his glorification of nature and of humans as a part
of nature is resoundingly romantic.
Whitman often uses these anatomical catalogues to attack prejudice and
discrimination. For example, he says:
The man’s body is sacred and the woman’s body is sacred / No matter who it is,
it is sacred—Is it the meanest one in the laborers’ gang? / Is it one of the
dull-faced immigrants just landed on the wharf? / Each belongs here or anywhere
just as much as the well-off, just as much as you
In these few lines Whitman challenges sexism, racism, nationalism and classism.
The strange equalizing objectification that occurs through cataloguing human
bodies renders hierarchy and discrimination obsolete. Whitman examines the human
body in all its forms with the same loving, lauding tone. Through the leveling
lens of his catalogues he celebrates diverse human existence as a phenomenon of
nature, inseparable from it. Whitman demonstrates that human company is crucial
to spiritual health, and that discrimination and prejudice are absurd, illusory
divisions among humankind.
Like Whitman, James Fenimore Cooper also challenges discrimination in his
novel The Last of the Mohicans.
Specifically, Cooper challenged the stigma surrounding interracial heterosexual
relationships through the subtle romance of Uncas and Cora, and through the
repeated appearance of the phrase “man without a cross”, or man of pure race, as
a mark of pride. Hawkeye’s application of this phrase to Uncus and Chigachgook
demonstrates that the prevailing issue the Last of the Mohicans is not
discrimination against non-whites, but discrimination against mixed-race
individuals such as Cora, whom Heyward refuses to marry. When the others are
suspicious of Magua, Cora asks “Should we distrust the man because his manners
are not our manners, and that his skin is dark?”. In saying this, Cora
demonstrates racial indifference which makes her companions uncomfortable.
Today, people often profess to be “color-blind”, and some progress has been made
in eliminating bias against ‘pure’ races. However, the view expressed by Hawkeye
seems to prevail—that there is virtue in each race, but it is strange and
unnatural for races to mix. It is easier today for people to accept those of
other races, so long as they continue to be “others”, separate from their own
blood lines. Whitman and Cooper might challenge this view as an illusory and
harmful division among humankind.
Ultimately, Cora and Uncas were united in transcendent death, a common theme in
romance narratives. Furthermore, they were both stabbed in the “bosom”, close to
the heart, demonstrating both the fact that they were punished for considering
interracial love, and that their love was liberated in death. Additionally,
Uncas was stabbed three times while Cora was only stabbed once. The brutality of
Uncas’s death may indicate that the degree of his transgression was greater than
that of Cora’s. Cora only spoke of racial indifference, while Uncus’ affections
for Cora translated into action. He intervened to avenge her murder, and earlier
when he “acted as attendant to the females…
his dark eye lingered on [Cora’s] rich, speaking countenance”. The fact that
Uncas’s death was more violent indicates that while it is taboo to speak of
racial indifference, it is more heinous to act upon it. Cooper recognized that
contemporary society was not prepared to accept interracial relationships, and
so Cora and Uncas could only be united in death. However, almost two centuries
later, has much progress been made on this issue? Cooper’s discussion of the
stigma against interracial relations is as relevant now as it was at the time it
was written. Here again, humankind is divided and the result is violence and
sorrow.
Finally, Washington Irving’s Rip
Van Winkle, when read as running parallel to the American Revolution, yields
some commentary about what it means to be American in any age. Dame Van Winkle’s
heckling attempts to micromanage the wayward Rip Van Winkle is reminiscent of
Great Britain’s attempt to over-regulate and burden the American colonies, who
had other plans. Ultimately, the “hen-pecked” Rip ventures into the woods with
his rile, and when he emerges he find himself freed from the “petticoat
government” of Dame Van Winkle. These events parallel the fact that
revolutionary soldiers took to the woods and combatted the British with rifles
and guerilla warfare, ultimately earning liberation. Through this
interpretation, Dame Van Winkle is representative of Great Britain, and Rip is
symbolic of the enduring American spirit. This is supported by the fact that in
spite all of the changes that took place over the course of one generation (as
is common in American society), Rip’s son, “who was the ditto of himself”
carries on his name and legacy and perpetuates his attitude. Judith, Rip’s
daughter, has also given her son his name, promising that he will also carry on
in the pattern of the original. Regardless of societal alterations, the American
spirit remains unchanged and lives on in each new generation. Additionally, Rip
“preferred
making friends among the rising generation, with whom he soon grew into great
favor”, indicating that the American spirit transitions naturally into the next
generation.
A closer examination of the characterization of Rip provides insight into
Irving’s opinion of the American spirit. Irving states “I
have observed that he was a simple good-natured man; he was, moreover, a kind
neighbor, and an obedient
hen-pecked husband. Indeed, to the latter circumstance might be
owing that meekness of spirit which gained him such universal
popularity”. First, Rip being a “simple” man indicates that the American spirit
is that of the “common” man. Second, his “good nature” is an innate quality of
amiability that is independent of circumstance, and so possible in all
Americans. “A kind neighbor” indicates consideration for other human beings, and
hints at concerns about equity, which are so central to American values. The
“meekness of spirit” that Rip learned from Dame Van Winkle can be construed as
indicating that America’s time under the tyrannous rule of Great Britain taught
Americans the virtue of compromise and allowed them to hone their diplomatic
skills. Also, Rip’s “aversion to profitable labor” might indicate both that
colonists were averse to the kind of work Great Britain intended them for
(mainly generating revenue for the crown), and also that Rip was not concerned
with profits, but with people. Finally, “Rip was ready to attend to anybody’s
business but his own; but as to doing family duty, and keeping
his farm in order, he found it impossible”. Irving may have been satirizing
Americans’ tendency to have great concern for the affairs of others to a flaw by
focusing on large-scale moralistic issues while neglecting their own matters.
This is especially applicable to the America of today, which intervenes in all
sorts of foreign affairs, professing to be the bringer of enlightenment and
freedom, all while domestic issues such as poverty and discrimination worsen.
Irving seems to say that care and consideration for others is essential, but
that it is important to manage your own affairs first.
In
conclusion, the issues of the American Renaissance were not all that different
from issues going on today. Modern readers can learn a lot from these authors
about humankind’s relationship to nature, god, and self, as well as the virtues
and flaws of the American spirit. Perhaps it is time to listen to the voice of
experience and consider changing course.
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