Pre-AP American Literature Fall Semester | Final Exam Review

Puritanism beliefs

• natural depravity

• election

• absolute sovereignty of God

• need for plainness

• predestination

• manifest destiny

• grace

absolute sovreignity

• God ordains all that happens

• purpose for & in your life

• God’s will revealed in the Bible, so education is important

natural depravity

man is naturally wicked, therefore need for authority and laws

need for plainness

nothing material to distract one from following a religious path

the plain writing style

• simple sentences, everyday diction

• histories, journals, hymns, poetry

the ornate style

used arcane allusions, complicated grammatical structure, complex figures of speech

signs of election

• prosperity

• pass a Bible test

• good works done in the spirit of grace

• examination of self and others

• experience a personal conversion

neoclassicism

• the age of reason (enlightenment)

• deism

• rationalism

rationalism

man is good and can find truth through reason and logic

deism

aloof, intellectual God who does not actually intervene

Goal of the Enlightenment

perfection through science and reason, optimism

Puritanism vs. The age of reason

Puritans

• man is depraved

• God is judgmental

• God intervenes (miracles)

• focus on afterlife

• God is incomprehensible

Age of Reason

• man is good

• God is a watchmaker

• God is aloof

• this life can be perfected with reason

• God can be understood

similarities between puritanism and the age of reason

• Progress through hard work

• Suspicion of senses

neoclassicism celebrates

• normality

• balance & order

• reality

• control & constraint

• the classical age

• control of nature

• tradition

• even temperament

Thomas Jefferson

• wrote declaration of independence

• 3rd president

• established University of Virginia

romanticism idealizes

• natural scenery

• natural man

• rustic & primitive life

• the past (medieval)

• the individual

• solitude

• intuition

romanticism individualizes

• values the eccentric

• celebrates the abnormal

• revels in differences and uniqueness

romanticism escapes

• in time

• in distant, rural places

• into the emotions

• into the subconscious

• into the imaginations, supernatural

• into the senses

• father of the American short story

• first professional American author

Washington Irving

Washington Irving

author of “Rip van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”

• Most popular American poet of all time

• Badly burned trying to unsuccessfully save wife from dying in fire

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

wrote “The Cross of Snow”

“Psalm of Life”

“Paul Revere’s Ride”

• Poet, critic, editor

• Student of the University of Virginia and West Point

• Married his 13-year-old cousin

• Cursed by “the Red Death”

• Victim of a mysterious death

Edgar Allan Poe

wrote “The Raven” and “The Fall of the House of Usher”

Edgar Allan Poe

Born to old New England family; ancestor actively persecuted women in Salem Witch Trials

Customhouse surveyor, diplomat, writer

Friends with Longfellow, Franklin Pierce, and Melville

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne

wrote The Scarlet Letter and “The Minister’s Black Veil”

• one of America’s top 2 poets

• wrote 1,775 poems

• recluse

Emily Dickinson

wrote “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”

Emily Dickinson

• Called “father of free verse” and “poet of democracy”

• teacher, journalist, editor

• Proponent of temperance and prohibition

• Influenced by deism and transcendentalism

Walt Whitman

wrote Leaves of Grass

Walt Whitman

• civilly disobedient

• went to the woods… to live deliberately

• student and friend of Emerson

Henry David Thoreau

wrote Walden and “Resistance to Civil Government”

Henry David Thoreau

• Considered one of America’s greatest philosophers/poets

• Came from a family of seven generations of ministers; later resigned

• founder of American Transcendentalism

Ralph Waldo Emerson

wrote Nature, Self-Reliance, and The American Scholar

Ralph Waldo Emerson

origin of the term “transcendental”

German scholar Immanuel Kant

goal of Transcendentalism

to find God, truth, beauty, wisdom, peace, understanding, one must “transcend” this world and the limitations of our physical senses

two key elements for transcending

intuition and nature

plato’s allegory of the cave

We are men chained in front of a fire who only see a shadow of the reality that passes behind us. There is a higher reality that we can find if we seek true awareness in nature.

intuiton

the highest power of the soul

spiritual body

• sixth sense: intuition

• senses the true, right, and beautiful

• innately good - a piece of the oversoul

Romanticism + the oversoul

transcendentalism

the oversoul

• a universal soul

• nothing is trivial

• all is symbolic

• Composed of the True, the Right, and the Beautiful

• Unite with by contemplating Nature and simplifying life

Abigail Williams

Teenage girl who lies about witchcraft to avoid trouble and gain power; accuses Elizabeth Proctor.

Rev. Parris

Salem minister who cares more about his reputation than the truth and helps the hysteria grow.

John Proctor

A farmer who values honesty and stands up to the court instead of lying.

Elizabeth Proctor

John's wife, honest, and falsely accused by Abigail.