LITR 4232 American Renaissance 2010 Student Midterm Samples 3. Web highlights: Review at least 3 posts from course website's Model Assignments (4-6 paragraphs)

Part 3: Web Reviews

          I am the kind of person who likes to take written word, books, poems, songs, etc., and hear the way other people have interpreted them against my own views.  Often times, other people get things I never thought of or connected before.  It’s absolutely intriguing to see things I didn’t see before.  While reading these old midterms, I realized a lot of things I didn’t notice before.

          Many people have written about Last of the Mohicans in their long essays.  I believe it is because Last of the Mohicans gives you so much to work with.  There is so much going on within the story, and so many elements that fit right into our class.  I sometimes have a hard time picking out the sublime, so I enjoyed this particular essay’s sublime connections.  This particular essay speaks of Chapter 6 in the book.  “Cooper also uses elements of the ‘sublime’ with this passage through the use of dark and mysterious forces.  The spiritual element is ‘sublime’ because the cries they hear cannot be explained – they seem to be ‘other worldly.’”  I suppose the sounds made them feel extremely fearful, for they had no idea what could be making such horrible noises.  I believe that is one aspect of the sublime is taking something that should be beautiful, nature, and making it terribly dangerous and unforgiving.  

          Another essay on Last of the Mohicans focused more on the romantic aspect.  Coronel Munro lost one of his daughters and was very upset. However, he was thankful for everything the Mohicans had done for him and his family.  He felt that even though on earth the Mohicans were not treated as equals, God viewed us all as equal.  In God’s eyes, we are all the same, and he would judge us all the same.  The notion of a Utopian society is a very romantic gesture.  While in the age of this book, they were even further from a Utopian society than we are now.  Another example of the sublime I did not see is Hawkeye’s response.  “Hawkeye’s response is sublime because his examples involve a change in nature so drastic that it would involve a supernatural event to prevent snow from coming in the winter.  If the sun shines more fiercely when the trees have no leaves, the trees would burn up, destroying the nature so closely identified with the Indians.”  Perhaps, the Indians themselves could be seen as sublime.  They are often compared with the elements of nature, and in the eyes of the white man, they can be seen as dangerous and unpredictable just like the unforgiving wilderness.

          One student wrote about The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. “However, the Gothic elements require a contrast of the light and dark elements.  In terms of horror and humanity, this means that the writer must first indicate a sense of serenity or peace.  Irving does this throughout the beginning of his story by describing the simplicity and normalcy of the town.”  I must agree that in order to make something scary, you must first make it seem harmless.  When something seems so beautiful and perfect on the outside, it only makes it that more terrifying when things start to go wrong.  Readers do not want to see this wonderful place put in any harm; however, that is what makes the story so unforgettable.  Even when I think of modern day scary stories, they often begin in a harmless setting where no one expects anything to go wrong.  For example, in Amityville Horror, a nice family buys a nice house in a quiet little town, until everything goes terribly awry.   This is a way to engage the audience and get them emotionally involved and swept up into the story.

          I learn something new every time I hear another person’s perspectives on the literature we have studied. I love learning new ways of viewing literature, and I love all of the different things people can get out of it.  It can speak to you in whatever way you like, and it is dependent on what you get out of it.  I learned new things from all of the old midterms and look forward to plowing through the next works we have in store.