Lathon Lewis
LITR 5535
Prof. Craig White
Fall 2000 Midterm

Experiencing the "Other": An Opinion of the Sublime

The sublime, as a term of Romantic Literature, will be understood here as that which is beyond language or expressionCertainly, it is a powerful experience and probably even dreadful. It is the thing that begins on the edges of our imagination and from there expands. When we are in front of a mountain we are in awe, but when we consider all that went into creating the mountain and the power that it represents, we are entering the sublime. Still, we do know and understand, conceptually, what a mountain is. For the pioneers on this continent, and even for anyone today, coming into contact with the unknown would provide the more sublime experience. The concept of that creator of the mountain, or God, is a prominent example of the sublime, and His presence or acknowledgment is the thread that weaves most consistently throughout early American Romantic literature. I would also suggest that coming into contact with the Native Americans provided a sublime experience for the early Americans. (We look at this issue from the perspective of those that came and not from those that were already here.) Tzvetan Todorov describes in his book, The Conquest of America, how Columbus and the other explorers defined the indigenous people of the Americas as "other." I would go further in stating that the Native American became the inferior other, or "not like me," in the eyes of those that came. It was the Christian perspective of God that settlers brought with them from Europe and used, whether correctly or incorrectly, to define the "other" they encountered. That concept of God or creator can be defined as the superior other in contrast to the Native American, or inferior other. Having an experience with either of them would prove sublime, because both could be held in awe, even though the native was considered inferior, and both could be dreadful. Also, the actions of both were a mystery to those that experienced the other.

Jonathan Edwards describes the superior other in terms of both awe and dread. His sermon, Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God, expounds on the awesome and complete power of God, as well as on the helpless individual upon which his anger is directed. At the end of his sermon, Edwards issues this warning:

The individual is threatened with the prospect of confronting an angry God. This is a situation that the mind cannot fully imagine yet the consequences it can understand. The greatness of God inspires awe through His creations and fear through His unyielding wrath, with both being supported by immeasurable power. Therefore, the individual wants to experience the superior other in a state of communion and not one of confrontation. Edwards details his spiritual communion through the trials of his conversion in his Personal Narrative. He mentions how he "rejoiced" in the knowledge that God ordered "all things according to His own pleasure," and how to do what was, "agreeable to the holy mind of God" caused him "to break forth in a kind of loud weeping," (Edwards, 186). The reader senses that the physical manifestation of weeping is brought about by a spiritual manifestation. That is, something inside of Jonathan Edwards the person has connected to the spiritual entity of God. As far as description goes, the relationship is "sweet beyond all expression" according to Edwards.

Furthermore, when one is aligned with God, the superior other, one is also aligned with the ultimate good. The ultimate good cannot be fully imagined except in the concept of God, who Himself cannot be fully imagined. God punishes Edwards’ sinner not for being ignorant of Him but for not aligning with Him. The early Native American however has no knowledge of the Christian God and is by default not only inferior but also evil to the Christian individual.

Mary Rowlandson describes for us in her captivity narrative a state of confrontation between the individual and the inferior other. A state of constant communion seems improbable because the settlers enforce their superiority by declaring the native to be heathen and, more importantly, by encroaching on the native’s homeland. Her experience with the inferior other is sublime partly because of the violence and death involved. Many close to her are killed in the rampage, and when she dwelled among the natives there had to be a sense of finality that attempted to over take her own spiritual being. Also, since she was a captive of the "heathens," the inferior other was controlling her. It was a situation that was beyond her control. The most significant act she could make was prayer—communion with the superior other—and her rescue she ultimately attributes to the kindness of the superior other. The "heathen," or inferior other, represents evil just as the superior other represents the ultimate good and it takes help from the latter to overcome the first. Both good and evil are states of the sublime as we can begin with an understanding of their concepts but realize that their meanings expand beyond expression.

In Last of the Mohicans, James Fenimore Cooper introduces ambiguities into these specific states of good and evil. The inferior other is not blanketed as evil and the definition of the superior other expands beyond the Christian God. We first read of the inferior other as being aligned with good in the writings of William Apess. Apess, an Indian and a Christian, uses the written philosophy of the Christian—the Bible—to dispute the state of the inferior other. That is, if God created man in the image of Himself then there could be no inferior other among men. Even in the work’s title, An Indian’s Looking Glass for the White Man, Apess challenges the white man to look into the mirror and see one that is like himself and not one that is inferior. In effect, he complicates how the white man experiences the inferior other.

Cooper goes further by validating the Native American beyond the Christian God. Hawk-eye, the protagonist of The Last of the Mohicans, soliloquizes the issue:

First, we see that the Christian God has expanded to become the "Great and Good Spirit." < The experience with the superior other has become more profound. Secondly, we consider that the Indian is not evil but has made a truce with the "wicked one" as anyone would with "an enemy he cannot conquer." Evil is a power as good is a power and man is at the mercy of both.

Evil can no longer be completely personified. There is an ultimate good and ultimate evil and if we are to assume that the ultimate good is the superior other/,/ then its antithesis becomes the ultimate evil. This displaces the state of the inferior other onto evil, a sublime state, and not onto a man. Therefore, what men confront in the other are states of being and to experience the other is to experience the sublime. Part of what makes early American literature Romantic is the overwhelming presence of Good and Evil and the effect—joy, fear, dread—that it has on man’s experience.