6B

ENG 205 Week6 Unit B: Thomas Paine and John Adams (250 words)

1. Discussion board

Reading one: Washington Irving (1783-1859)

READ: Intro: p. 621-24

Stories:  624-43

The Author's Account of Himself

The Wife

Rip Van Winkle (you can listen to the audiobook / approx. 40 minutes  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb7QUmj3pTM )

Reading two: James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851)

READ: Intro: 644-47

The Pioneers, Chapter 1 (excerpt): pp. 647-63

Reading three:

From a drawing by Henry Inman ( 1801-1846) for the original edition of Cooper's The Pioneers (Philadelphia, 1823). Judge Temple, patron of the new community on the upstate New York frontier, has accidentally wounded Oliver Effingham, the hero. Leatherstocking is depicted in the background, where he technically belongs in a novel built about upper-class characters. He wears a fur cap and a hunting shirt of deerskin and carries a long rifle, but the artist does not insist on these details.

The five “Leatherstocking Tales” written by Cooper are often read as folktales: The Pioneers [1823], The Last of the Mohicans [1826], The Prairie [1827], The Pathfinder [1840], and The Deerslayer [1841].

Many of Irving’s stories are loose “translations” of Dutch or German folktales relocated to American geography (such as the Catskill Mountains).

Characteristics of folktales

· Simple and straightforward

· Often includes magic or supernatural powers

· Characters often represent human qualities such as good, evil, foolishness, laziness

· Problems and conflicts are clear 

· Ending usually happy or satisfying; cultural values reinforced

· Good usually rewarded; evil punished

The word “folk” comes from the Dutch and German word volk which means “common people” or “men” and most folk tales began as oral tales passed down from one generation to another.

DB Question: Why do you think these early American authors found popular success with folk tales? What about the genre appealed to readers in the first half of the 1800’s? Can any of the characters in the readings be described as a “folk hero”? Why would this be important for the development of American literature?

2. Write responses for another student’s work. (75 words)

 The poems of Freneau and Wheatley reveal diversity in Revolutionary America from two different points of view based on race and freedom.

 Freneau, a free, white, male, reflects on the different forms of diversity he witnesses during this period of time. Through all four poems, he reflects on the horrible treatment of African Americans, the migration of Europeans to America, and the lives of the Indians in America. In "To Sir Toby," Freneau uses a simile to express the lives of slaves in Jamaica to the burning torture of hell. In "On The Emigration to America," Freneau expresses that the Europeans are trying desperately to leave the reigns of England and move to the freedom of America. In "The Indian Burying Ground," Freneau explains the religious customs of Indians and the way they live. It is obvious that Freneau was exposed to a range of diversity in Revolutionary America.

 Wheatley is a young woman who was captured and made into a slave. It seems that the normal response from a slave would be the expression of fear and pity. On the other hand, Wheatley wrote on a more positive note to express the love of her race and her people. Being educated also helped the transition of Wheatley being a slave. She worked for many people and some of higher ranks. Through her poetry she expressed how alone she was and expressed the differences between a rich upbring of college students to the poor lives of slaves. Wheatley was not exposed to much diversity, but she was able to witness where she stood racially and expressed her discontent through her poetry.