Activator: What Matters to You?

1. Activator: What Matters to You? As we delve into the time period of American Romanticism, we will be reading literature that deals with criticizing the development of the industrial world. Much of this criticism focuses on concepts of morality in relation to material goods and gains. Rank the following items/entities from 1 to 13, with one being the most important to you and thirteen being the least important. You will be given three minutes to complete this portion of the activity. • Friends • Car or Truck of Choice • New House • Job that You Enjoy • High School Diploma • Family • Money • Sense of Humor • Popularity or Fame • Good Looks • Talent (musical, athletic, artistic, etc.) • Happiness • Independence

2. American Romanticism 1800-1870

3. Important Historical Background • Period of rapid growth: Louisiana Purchase, nationalism, and self-awareness. • War of 1812- America is “for real.” • Mexican-American War (1846-1848) – Texas comes in as a slave state • Rapid Growth in transportation—canals, roads, railroad • Industrial growth—telegraph, steel plow, reaper • Conflicts arise from growth: women’s rights, abolitionism, child labor laws.

4. Romanticism • Romanticism is the name given to those schools of thought that value feeling and intuition over reason. • Romantics believed that the imagination was able to discover truths that the rational mind could not reach. • Usually accompanied by powerful emotion and associated with natural, unspoiled beauty. • Imagination, individual feelings, and wild nature were of greater value than reason, logic, and cultivation.

5. Characteristics of American Romanticism • Values feeling and intuition over reason. • Place faith in inner experience and the power of imagination. • Shuns the artificiality of civilization and seeks unspoiled nature. • Prefers youthful innocence to educated sophistication. • Champions individual freedom and the worth of the individual. • Reflects on nature’s beauty as a path to spiritual and moral development. • Looks backward to the wisdom of the past and distrusts progress. • Finds beauty and truth in exotic locales, the supernatural realm and the inner world of the imagination. • Sees poetry as the highest expression of imagination. • Finds inspiration in myth, legend, and folklore.

6. Romantic Techniques • Remoteness of setting in time and place. • Improbable plots. • Unlikely characterization. • Informal writing style. • Experiments in new forms. • Individualized form of writing.

7. What is Dark Romanticism? • Dark romanticism is a literary sub-genre that emerged from the Transcendental philosophical movement popular in America from about 1836 through the 1840’s. Works in the dark romantic spirit were influenced by Transcendentalism, but did not entirely embrace the ideas of Transcendentalism. • Dark Romantic works are notably less optimistic than Transcendental texts about mankind, nature, and divinity. Authors considered most representative of dark romanticism are Edgar Allan Poe ("The Raven", "Annabel Lee", The Murders in the Rue Morgue), Nathaniel Hawthorne (Ethan Brand, The Scarlet Letter), Herman Melville (Bartleby the Scrivener).  

8. Tenets of Dark Romanticism: • Dark Romantics believed that human beings were inherently evil. • Dark Romantics present individuals as prone to sin and self-destruction, not as inherently possessing divinity and wisdom.  •  Secondly, while both groups believe nature is a deeply spiritual force, Dark Romanticism views it in a much more sinister light than does Transcendentalism, which sees nature as a divine and universal organic mediator. For these Dark Romantics, the natural world is dark, decaying, and mysterious; when it does reveal truth to man, its revelations are evil and hellish

9. American Romantic Writers • Washington Irving • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • Edgar Allan Poe

10. Transcendentalism: • Definition: Transcend---to rise above, to pass beyond limits. • Basic truths of the world lie beyond the knowledge we obtain by our senses. • Through intuition, rather, we can “know” the existence of our soul. • The human spirit can transcend to a higher, spiritual plane---above the material world, know fundamental truths about life and death, experience a union with God through an altered state of consciousness, and can know an ultimate spiritual reality. • Intuition allows you to transcend. Emerson says that intuition is the “highest power of the soul”---a power that “never reasons, never proves (but) simply perceives.” • The divine intellect allows man to make good decisions

11. Washington Irving (1793-1859) • Father of American Literature • First American writer to gain European respect. • Best-known for his short stories and caricatures that celebrate America’s past. • His characters are humorously drawn stereotypes that represent American traits. • Stories set in quant American villages (generally in New York’s Hudson River area). • His plots convey conventional morals. • Works include “The Devil and Tom Walker,”“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” and “Rip Van Winkle.”

12. “The Devil and Tom Walker” • The fictional story is meant to mirror the German Faust story. The tale describes the story of a magician who sold his soul to the devil for money and success. • Main Character: Tom Walker • Supplementary Characters: Tom’s wife, Old Scratch • Setting: (We will fill this bullet out after we read) • Theme: (We will fill this bullet out after we read)

13. Review: Characterization • Direct Characterization: when the author specifically reveals traits about the character in a directly stated, straightforward manner.  • Indirect Characterization: when authors indirectly portray characters using dialogue, appearance, actions, relationships, and overall place in the world.

14. Guided Reading Questions • What is the setting for this story? What is supposed to be hidden under one of the big trees beside the inlet? What happened to the person who hid it there? Who supposedly “presided” • Describe the marriage of Tom Walker and his wife. What bad traits do they have? • Describe the Walker’s house. • Why does Tom walk through the swamp on the way home one day? Where does Tom pause to rest? Why would most people not have stopped there? • What does Tom discover in the ground at his feet? What happens when he kicks it? • What does the tree with Deacon Peabody’s name on it show about him? (How is it used as a symbol of his character?) • After the devil cuts down a tree, what does he do with it? What is that a symbol of? • What does the devil offer Tom?

15. Guided Reading Questions • What proof does the devil give Tom that what he has said is true? • When his wife hears Tom’s story, what is her reaction? How does this change Tom’s attitude / why does he decide not to bargain with Old Scratch? (181) What does Tom’s wife decide to do on her own? • Explain the irony of “He leaped for joy; for he recognized his wife’s apron, and supposed it to contain the household valuables.” How does Tom feel about the devil after this incident? • Explain “In proportion to the distress of the applicant was the hardness of his terms.” How does Tom become rich? How does he spend his money? What shows he is still a miser? • When he gets old, what different things does he do to avoid keeping his end of the bargain he had made with the devil? (184) • What favor does a customer ask on Tom’s last day of life? Why does he think Tom might grant it? (184) • What is Tom’s response to this customer’s request? What happens immediately after? Why? What has happened to Tom’s wealth by the end of the story?

16. Summarizer: Making Predictions • Based on your understanding of the events within “The Devil and Tom Walker” and the elements of Romanticism, what are three plot predictions that can be made in reference to the second half of the story?

17. Activator: Question for an Answer Answer: an object representing another to give it an entirely different meaning that is much deeper and more significant What is my question?

18. Activator Continued • You will be provided with three pictures that are common symbols within our culture. • Please raise your hand and tell me what these symbols symbolize outside of their literal meaning.

22. Romantic Literary Element Chart • How are the following Romantic literary elements presented with “The Devil and Tom Walker”? • Shuns the artificiality of civilization and seeks unspoiled nature. • Looks backward to the wisdom of the past and distrust progress. • Finds inspirations in myth, legend, and folklore. Use your graphic organizer to assist you in developing your answers.

23. “The Devil and Tom Walker” Symbolism Assignment • Irving’s story “The Devil and Tom Walker” centers on revealing Irving’s thoughts about the dangers of materialism and greed. In order to reveal this theme, Irving uses a variety of symbols throughout the short story. For this assignment, you will choose three symbols and create an illustration of each. You will also write a two-paragraph explanation that includes the following: Paragraph 1: • An analysis of the significance/relevance of the three symbols that you have chosen. • (Why do you the symbols represent? What characters are connected to these symbols? How do the symbols aid the plot/progression of the story?) Paragraph 2: • An explanation of how each symbol connects to the themes of greed and the dangers of materialism.

24. Tenets of Dark Romanticism: • Dark Romantics believed that human beings were inherently evil. • Dark Romantics present individuals as prone to sin and self-destruction, not as inherently possessing divinity and wisdom.  •  Secondly, while both groups believe nature is a deeply spiritual force, Dark Romanticism views it in a much more sinister light than does Transcendentalism, which sees nature as a divine and universal organic mediator. For these Dark Romantics, the natural world is dark, decaying, and mysterious; when it does reveal truth to man, its revelations are evil and hellish

25. Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) • Father of the American detective story. • As famous for his trouble life as his literature. • Defined the short story as we know it today, as well as the psychological thriller. • Poetry reflects his belief in the power of sound and the impact of the death of a beautiful woman. • Stories are not typically American, in that they don’t highlight American characters or settings. • Works include “The Fall of the House of Usher,”“The Telltale Heart,” and “The Raven.”

26. Transcendentalism: • Definition: Transcend---to rise above, to pass beyond limits. • Basic truths of the world lie beyond the knowledge we obtain by our senses. • Through intuition, rather, we can “know” the existence of our soul. • The human spirit can transcend to a higher, spiritual plane---above the material world, know fundamental truths about life and death, experience a union with God through an altered state of consciousness, and can know an ultimate spiritual reality. • Intuition allows you to transcend. Emerson says that intuition is the “highest power of the soul”---a power that “never reasons, never proves (but) simply perceives.” • The divine intellect allows man to make good decisions

27. Transcendentalism: • Transcendentalists believed that everyone was absolutely pure and that each individual is a part of God. • Transcendentalists believed that people's thoughts and intuition were the voice of God. • Transcendentalists did not believe in institutions like government because they thought the individual human mind was the strongest power in the universe. •  Transcendentalists would be concerned with questions such as: Are all people good? Is the voice inside people's heads the pure voice of God?