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John Winthrop's "A Model of Christain Charity"
John Winthrop delivered a sermon to the Puritans during their journey to America. He emphasizes that they must work together in order to survive. He also talks about how the whole world is watching them. "city upon a hill" Many settlements in the New World were occupied by organizations that seeked to create a better society usually involving religious reform. -
William Bradford "Of Plymouth Plantation"
Bradford writes an diary of the Pilgrim's settlement in the New World. He notices any fortunes that occur and sees them as gifts from God acting as a sign for the Piligrims that they are doing God's work. "...but Squanto continued with them and was their interpreter and was a special instrument sent of God for their good beyond their expectation." The Pilgrims believed that what they were doing was important, as it was by God's approval. The Pilgrims searched for any signs sent by God. -
Jonathan Edwards "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"
Edwards delivers a speech that scares his audience who have not accepted God. God's patience with them is coming to an end will send those who do not believe to Hell. "There is no other reason to be given why you have not gone to hell, since you have sat here in the house of God, provoking His pure eyes by your sinful wicked manner of attending His solemn worship." Edwards gave these speeches during the Great Awakening which was characterized by a mass religious revival in the colonies. -
Ben Franklin "The Autobiography"
Franklin writes about his condition upon his arrival in Philadelphia. He composes a list of virtues in sequential order that he will accomplish to achieve "moral perfection". "Temperance first, as it tends to procure that coolness and clearness of head, which is so necessary where constant
vigilance was to be kept up..." This reflects the Age of Reason characterized by the idea that we can reach truth and moral perfection through reasoning and logic. -
Patrick Henry's "Speech to the Virginia Convention"
Henry argues that they must fight the British and the war has already begun; the colonies have not realized this yet. He points out that they have done everything they can to maintain peace. "give me liberty, or give me death!" This speech is delivered during the American Revolution. Henry uses logos, or logic, as the main strategy for argument. -
William Cullen Bryant "Thanatopsis"
Bryant discuses how we are part of an "oversoul" in which everything on Earth is connected. When should not fear death, as it is a natural thing and acts as an equalizer to all people. "By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave / Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch / About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams." Romantics believed in the idea of an "oversoul" that connects everything on Earth. Truth can be found in nature and when you fear death, you should go out into nature. -
Washing Irving "The Devil and Tom Walker"
Tom Walker is greedy and miserly. He strikes a deal with the Devil and attempts to escape his fate that he made for himself by being a good Christain. His actions are futile and he gets taken away to Hell and all of his valubles dissapear. "Tom was as rigid in religious as in money matters..." This story talks about the idea of hypocracy; another sinful trait Anti-Transcendentalists focus on. The main character has no positive traits to portray all the negative human qualities. -
Ralph Waldo Emerson "Nature"
In order to be truly isolated, you cannot read books are anything else that is a work of man. Those who can see nature properly see it with an intuition of a child. "The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood." The intuition of the child is lost in most adults and we must preserve this in order to see clearly. Nature is a work of God and the stars remind us every night. -
Nathaniel Hawthorne "The Minister's Black Veil"
The minister of a town wears a black veil and nobody sees his face, even after his death. The black veil represents sin and everybody has a black veil, the minister's is just tangible. "There is an hour to come... when all of us shall cast aside our veils. Take it not amiss, beloved friend, if I wear this piece of crape till then" The concept of "secret sin" is the focal point of this short story. Dark Romantics emphasized sin the people hide. The black veil is a symbol of that sin. -
Henry David Thoreau "Civil Disobedience"
Thoreau advocates that people should follow their concious and not conform with society. He believes that we need to search for the next best thing to a democracy. "if one honest man, in this State of Massachusetts, ceasing to hold slaves, were actually to withdraw from this copartnership, and be locked up in the county jail therefor, it would be the abolition of slavery in America." The power of the individual is expressed in the this piece. It discuesses how people conform to society, -
Henry David Thoreau "Walden"
Thoreau isolated himself from society and lived by a pond; this was all part of an experiment. He was not completely isolated; he occasionally came in contact with people. He makes comparisons to simple things in nature such as beans and ants. "I was myself excited somewhat even as if they had been men. The more you think of it, the less the difference." "Walden" focuses on self-reliance and reducing life to its simplest form. Humans are no better than simple things such as ants. -
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow "A Cross of Snow"
The solitude of a man whos wife had died is compared to a cross of snow on the shadowed side of a mountain. "Such is the cross I wear upon my breast" Nature is used to compare the man's solitude and misery. This is a style that Romatics used. -
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow "The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls"
The "footprint" that we leave behind in the world is erased by nature. Time goes on, despite the death of a person. "The little waves, with their soft, white hands / Efface the footprints in the sands" Provides evidence of man's life erased by nature. -
Charlotte Perkins Gilman "The Yellow Wallpaper"
The narrator is a wife of a physician and is psychologically ill with nervousness. She talks about her time in her room and despises the yellow wallpaper. The yellow wallpaper symbolizes a jail for women. "But he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time!" The story is about a real life situation and essentially real world situation. The characters are realistic and do not resemble anything more than an average person.
