discussion

Divided We Stand

It can be said that the transcendentalists celebrated the potential of the individual, as a unit.  But Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne depict individuals who are, in some ways, divided against themselves. 

Identify a character from any one of the six stories that we have read who is somehow divided and explain how you think that character is divided against him/herself. The divisions can be figurative or literal, and the characters may be divided in any way, including having contradictory motivations or spiritual versus physical longings at the same time. Provide precise, accurate, cited evidence to illustrate the division, and explain your thinking.

Book - The Norton Anthology of American Literature

- Read Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Rappacini's Daughter" (pages 405 - 426) and "The Minister's Black Veil" (pages 369 - 378)

- Read Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" (pages 629 - 643), "The Tell-Tale Heart" (pages 667 - 671), and "The Man of the Crowd" (pages 656 - 663)