LITR 4232: American Renaissance

UHCL, spring 2002

Sample Student Answers to Midterm Exam

Essay section

Option Z: Cultural / historical option

Copied below are answers (complete or excerpted) by students in LITR 4232 2002. They are posted as submitted. Some editing and other errors may remain. In general, though, these answers are models of outstanding work for present and future students to review in order to gain a fresh approach to course materials and become acquainted with course standards.

[Assignment] 

In the Declaration of Independence during the American Revolution, Thomas Jefferson wrote, "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal . . . ." In 1863, during the American Civil War, Lincoln said (in "The Gettysburg Address"), "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure."

               Between the American Revolution and the American Civil War came the literary and cultural movement now known as the American Renaissance. Citing at least 3 sources from the literature of this period, describe how authors, texts, or characters challenged the USA to live up to the Declaration’s promise of equality.

               Develop your commentary on this cultural-historical situation by using literary concepts like voice, literacy, and the strategies authors used to help readers identify with those they might consider unequal or consider ideas they might not have respected otherwise.

[complete essay from email exam]

Although the framers of the constitution may not have been thinking of the equality of women and people of color, the underlying principle of their words, “All men are created equal.” continued to raise question among these groups during the American Renaissance. Since the tradition of the country and represtentation of the people was that white men of property had the real power and voice the weaker parties not in that category had to find their own voice and method of influence. 

     Indians were set apart from society as an obstacle to the countries growth.  William Apess, a man of white,  Indian, and black race  is a singular voice in this nation of traditionally educated white men.  His education at the Mission school helps him to develop his forum.  He uses the authority of Bible scripture and the questioning of the white men’s strong personal beliefs to get his message across: “If any man say, I love God and hateth his brother, he is a liar” John iv.20.  He also asks that if men were judged by “national crimes written upon there skin” rather than the color of their skin which skins would stand out the most among all races.  This device of questioning is also found in fictional material at the time also finding it’s voice.  Harriet Beecher Stowe’s character, Eva’s father, a white man, puts forth the question to readers:

“I wonder, now, if I was divided up and inventoried…how much I would bring?”

Women at this time in history were beginning also to find their place in the public forum.  This was certainly new and as writers and speakers for their cause of equality they had to create a new model.   While Stanon rewrites the Declaration to serve the truth that women should follow,  she echoes words of Thoreau: “Whenever any form of government becomes destructive…it is the right of those who suffer from it to refuse allegiance to it.”  Women like Margaret Fuller also assert that women must be their own voice saying their “wishes” must be “publicly presented by women.”  This statement must go along with the need of education among women in order for them to represent themselves in such a way.

     Black Americans were powerful voices as many stood and spoke with the authority of scripture, pointed questions, and the moving stories of the horrible experiences as slaves.   along with Bible scripture served to interanimate each other so that they all might be heard.  Douglass is seen as a prophet warning society and using the doctrines of Christianity.  Douglass points out the mixing of races as white men are fathering children with female slaves will put end to the support that the Bible story “that God cursed Ham, and therefore American slavery is right.”  He says that if this is true then “slavery at the south must soon become unscriptural.”  Harriett Jacobs like Douglass reveals her experiences as a slave, and tell of the dehumanizing effects on blacks and white.  They both first see their masters a humans who might care as in Jacobs writing, “…perhaps she had some touch of feeling for me.”  In both of these writings Douglass and Jacobs reveal how slavery takes hold and the white people begin to be filled with power and hatred.  In this matter of bringing out the affect on whites the speaker might gain interest by relating a specific white man’s problem to their reader.   These voices of Indian, Blacks, and White women along with the use of the authoritative scripture of the Bible served to interanimate each other, so that together they had more power in their cause. [LL]

[conclusion of essay z from in-class exam]

Cooper, Truth, and Stowe are all writers who beg the question, "Are all men really created equal?" They challenge what the word "men" actually means. Cooper makes the reader consider whether Cora, who is interracial, is really equal to Alice, who is white. Truth suggests that "all men" includes all women.

Stowe asks if "all men are created equal," aren't slaves also men?  These writers use literature as a means to have their voices heard and to express their views on the injustices society has placed on certain groups of people.

[complete essay from in-class exam]

    Slavery and women's rights were central issues throughout the American Renaissance.  The question is, in the Declaration of Independence, who does it mean when it says "All men are created equal"?  Does it mean just men or are women included?  If it is just men, is it all men or only white men of means?  This is a problem that America still struggles with today.

     One way to address this problem of unequal rights within a free country is through voice.  For a person to have a voice in a democracy, that person must be literate.  When Frederick Douglass' mistress was teaching him to read and write her husband became angry and said "It would make him discontented and unhappy." (Douglass, Narrative of Frederick Douglass).  Douglass realized then "Now I understood what had been to me a most perplexing difficulty-to wit, the white man's power to enslave the black man." (Douglass)  It was literacy.

     Elizabeth Cady Stanton addresses the idea of voice in her Declaration of Sentiments.  This declaration (formatted after the Declaration of Independence) was written after the World Anti-Slavery Convention refused to seat the women delegates.  In her declaration, she says "He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she has no voice."  (Stanton, Declaration of Sentiments)  Since the white men were the only ones with a voice, the laws were naturally slanted in their direction.

     Another way that the authors show a lack of voice is in Harriett Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin.  Mr. Shelby is having financial troubles and has decided to sell a couple of his slaves.  One of them is Eliza's son.  Eliza has no voice in this and neither does Mrs. Shelby.  Stowe uses the scenes where Eliza is running away with her son to appeal to the mothers when she says "If it were your Harry, mother, or your Willie, that were going to be torn from you by a brutal trader, to-morrow morning - if you had seen the man and heard that the papers were signed and delivered . . . how fast could you walk?  How many miles could you make in those few brief hours?" (Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin)  By speaking directly to the reader in this passage, the reader is able to feel how helpless Eliza is when it comes to her boy getting sold.  It appeals to the reader's sense of motherhood and justice.

     There are also writers where the reader does not hear the woman's voice at all such as Irving's, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.  The reader does no hear Katrina's voice at all throughout the story.  Although the reader knows she is there by what Ichabod or Brom Bones is saying, doing, or thinking.  Such an absence of voice is noticeable.

     Fuller points out the lack of women's voice by using her conversation with the trader in Woman in the Nineteenth Century.  While she is making an appeal on behalf of women the trader replies "Is it not enough that you have done all you could to break up the national union . . . but now you must be trying to break up the family union . . . She has more leisure time than I have, every means of improvement, every indulgence."  To which Fuller replies "Have you asked her whether she was satisfied with these indulgences?" (Fuller, Women in the Nineteenth Century)  By referencing this voice issue as a conversation, Fuller brings the reader into the debate.  She shows that "The wife" has no voice, not even with her husband.

     Throughout much of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries it has only been white male voices that have been heard.  As education standards have changed and literacy is mandatory for day to day life, we are hearing more from these silenced voices from the past.  From the American Indian to Slaves to Women, we are now able to hear a variety of voices to completely participate in the Democracy of America. [LAM]

[complete essay from email exam]

This semester we have seen the progression of our country through literature.  The selections we have read reflect the changing ideals and viewpoints that the citizens of our country held. In the beginning stages of the American Renaissance we see story telling at its best. At the end of this section of selections we see the turmoil that is tearing the country apart. What changed? What was happening in the midst of these stories that helped these ideas and movements along? How did the authors find that link between the reader and the story?

The authors of this time, and the characters that they wrote about, led Americans to change the way they thought, lived and ran the country.  In James Fenimore Cooper’s novel The Last of the Mohicans we are shown characters that we would not have seen before in unconventional roles and through this gain an unprecedented respect and concern for certain groups of people.

 In Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s work Declaration of Sentiments, we see the beliefs and moral standings that are behind the women’s rights movements.  In Harriet Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl we see characters that behave in such noble and passionate ways that the reader is compelled to feel a kinship for them.

All three of these authors use the honor and strength of character to endear them to the reader. All three of these authors use the relationships and power of women in their stories.  They also use literacy and intelligence as a means of representing the culture that they are writing about.  Also, the characters that they write about all have a relationship and an understanding with a higher power. Their characters relationships with God also compelled readers to identify with them.

First, let’s look at the use of Christianity and God to show the humanity of the characters.  In Cooper, we see Uncas and his father in a constant state of communal with nature and the “Almighty Creator”.  These Indians would not have been seen as God-fearing men to the average reader and Cooper showing them in this way, while showing Hawkeye, a white male, as a “man without a cross”, compels the reader to think about them in a different way than would be the norm.

Stanton writes her Declaration of Sentiments completely based on the idea that we all are born with certain God- given rights. If the reader tries to separate Stanton’s belief in God from her views about equality, there is no stability in her arguments.  If Stanton did not believe that there was a higher power giving them life, then how could she argue that everyone is deserving of the same rights.   Also, in modeling her declaration after the Declaration of Independence she reminds readers of the founding fathers belief in God, and therefore, links herself to those men who were so esteemed in this time.

Jacobs also uses Christianity to form a link. This time it is between slaves and whites. Her characters have a powerful faith in God, and that faith is shown throughout the story. Like Douglass, her story is powerful because it is true.  For the white readers who see the piety of the slaves, they are humanized and shown as being just like the whites.

Second, we will look at the use of literacy and intelligence to show the sameness of the character and reader.  In Cooper we see several characters as being extremely intelligent, where as in previous literature these characters would not have been allowed to speak, let alone show intelligence. Cora, a mixed blood female and Uncas, a Mohican warrior, are the leaders of the group.  We see them time and again show their intelligence while the white men in the novel are at a loss of how to act.

In Stanton, her own education helps her show men that women are intelligent beings, worthy of being allowed to voice their opinions.  Also, she shows that women are not satisfied with merely being allowed an education; she shows that they also want to be able to perform duties in society such as teaching, and being doctors.  To show men that women are capable and desirous of higher places in society develops that bond, even if there is resistance against it.

The most compelling use of literacy and intelligence is found in Jacobs’ work.  We see a young slave girl being taught to read.  Even when her mistress betrays her, Linda, the young slave says, “While I was with her she taught me to read and spell; and for that privilege, which so rarely falls to the lot of the slave, I bless her memory.”  Linda overcomes many obstacles to obtain her freedom.  Without her ability to read and write, she may not have overcome them at all.  The power that comes with literacy is shown to the reader, and we are shown that time and again.

Another way that these authors link their characters to the readers is through the relationships that women have in the pieces.  In all three of these selections we are shown strong women who are the major voices in the piece. Cora protects Alice; Stanton is speaking on behalf of women, and Jacobs’s risks her life for her children to be free. The power of the women in these passages is undeniable. Every person on the earth has a link to a woman, that is how they came to be on the earth, and to show them in this way is a powerful tool that the authors use.

The one tool that all of these authors, that all of the authors we have read use is that link between the reader and characters.  That link is made time and again through the strength of character that the reader is shown.  We identify with these characters, even hundreds of years later.  We are shown intelligence, piety and love in these characters.  These characters are so deserving of our respect that we are compelled to concern ourselves with their well-being. [KP]

[opening to essay z from email exam]

  Between the American Revolution and the American Civil War came the literary and cultural movement now known as the American Renaissance. If you had to characterize it you would compare it to a toddler who was developed and is born dependent on the people around them, followed by the troubled teen years where there is rebellion on the way to action. Then as a young adult you have to decide what values you take from your family, and what changes need to be made to be productive. This is the story of America, and how it has come along, and how it has made changes for the better, but not without the shed of blood, tears and pain. . . . [LH]

[opening & closing of essay z from email exam]

The Declaration of Independence promised equality to upper class, white men, excluding women and people of color. . . .  Considering this, one must examine how the overlooked minority was able to have their voices heard.  As discussed in class, the foremost important component was literacy.  In general, to reach the majority (upper class, white men), education was necessary.  Some representative writers, such as Native American Elias Bondinot, were taught the English language at a mission school.  Others, including Frederick Douglass, were practically self-taught.  Secondly, the one who is appealing for equality attempts in some way to relate to those he or she is appealing to.  For example, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, an incredible woman’s rights advocate, formulates her “Declaration of Sentiments” after the Declaration of Independence.  By mirroring an authority, she helps to convey her point.  She begins and ends just as the Declaration of Independence does, except Stanton substitutes the wrongdoings of men against women, instead of Britain’s wrongdoings against America….

…The American Renaissance was a time for growth and change, and great writers and figures emerged from that time of struggle.  What would the women and people of color of the 19^th century think about the progression of today?  This is uncertain, but hopefully they would see their works and efforts as a great triumph.  The Declaration of Independence is a solid foundation for a country to begin, but change, as is with most institutions, is necessary.  Abigail Adams, in a letter to her husband in 1776, promised a “rebelion” if women were not paid any attention.  A rebellion was indeed sparked, and it continues still today.  Unfortunately, Adams, in all of her influence, failed to be heard publicly, unlike Apess, Truth, Stowe, and Stanton, so her voice fell on deaf ears.

               The representation of women, Native Americans, and African-Americans in the American Renaissance, while somewhat a small collection, is highly moving and thought provoking.  To imagine such a time where women and people of color had no voice is difficult without these texts.  But because of essential strategies like the fearlessness of Truth, and the clever styles of Stanton and Apess, under-represented peoples were beginning to be heard.  It is safe to assume that their strength to speak and write what they felt necessary influenced many other future generations. [MY]