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American Literature: How different perspectives combine to create…

- - - - Christopher Columbus- “Columbus letters”
        
        "In conclusion, to speak only of that which has been accomplished on this voyage, which was so hasty, their highness can see that I will give them as much gold as they may need, if their highness will render me very slight assistance; moreover, spice and cotton, as much as their highness shall command" (Columbus, 50)
    - - James Fenimore Cooper- The Last of the Mohicans
        
        From the movie adaptation of The Last of the Mohicans, Hawk Eye and Chingachgook
    - - Mary Rowlandson- A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson
        
        This particular narrative is of interest because it comes from the perspective of a colonist, but describes the traditions and lifestyle of Native American's because Rowlandson is held captive by them. This narrative gives us insight into how the colonists felt about Native Americans, that they were savage, dangerous, and unpredictable. We also get a description of what it was like for colonists to be attacked by Native Americans and why they might have felt the way they did about them. It also gives us a look into their culture, and, in some ways, Rowlandson presents them as reasonable, kind, and even trustworthy. Rowlandson also depicts what it was like to return to civilization after being held captive. This narrative is important in understanding how many early colonists viewed Native Americans, and why they may have had misleading ideas about their culture.
- - - - Cherokee Phoenix- Elias Boudinot
        
        Issue of the Cherokee Phoenix
      - “Memorials of the Cherokee Council, November 5, 1829”-The Cherokee Memorials-
        
        "It is evident from facts deducible from known history, that the Indians were found here by the white man, in the enjoyment of plenty and peace, and all the rights of soil and domain, inherited from their ancestors from time immemorial, well furnished with kings, chiefs, and warriors, the bulwarks of liberty, and the pride of their race." (Cherokee Council, 644)
      - “An Indian’s Looking-Glass for the White Man” - William Apess
        
        William Apess, a Native American Preacher, uses Christianity to argue for the better treatment of Native Americans. He specifically uses the bibles teachings on how to treat one another to argue that white people have been completely unchristian in their treatment of Native Americans. He uses extremely powerful language and metaphors to argue his cause. He claims that many Christians would not welcome Jesus into their homes if he appeared to them because he is "colored", which is one of his more powerful statements. Apess describes many of the problems that Native Americans have been facing and why they are in such a disadvantaged state. He calls for the education of Native American populations. Apess says that those of them who have been educated prove their worth and the value of their hard work.
- - - - Anne Bradstreet- “The Prologue”
        
        "Men can do best, and women know it well/ Preeminence in all and each is yours;/ Yet grant some acknowledgement of ours." (Bradstreet, 115)
    - - Charlotte Perkins Gilman- “The Yellow Wallpaper”
        
        This short story centers around themes of mental illness in women, and control possessed by husbands. In the story, a women is staying with her husband on a rented estate for the summer. She is slowly falls into a state of insanity, all well being under the direction and control of her physician husband. She feels as though writing and working on small activities would be beneficial to her illness, which he describes as nervousness. Her husband however, will not allow her to do any such things, and demands she rests all day. This is a commentary on how women were treated at the time and how their illnesses were often minimized and viewed as hysterics. The narrator is unable to escape the control of her husband and his demand that she must stay in the room and rest is what ultimately drives her to complete insanity.
      - Maxine Hong Kingston- Women Warrior
        
        "To be a woman, to have a daughter in starvation time was a waste enough. My aunt could not have been the lone romantic who gave up everything for sex" (Hong Kingston, 1546"
    - - Beyonce - "Sorry"
        
        Frame from Beyonce's music video for "sorry"
- - - - Declaration of Independence
        
        "We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved"
      - Thomas Jefferson- “Notes on the State of Virginia”
        
        "Notes on the State of Virginia" is a rather long political document that discusses mostly farming and the economy, but one specific section focuses on Jefferson's beliefs about African Americans. He claims they are an inferior species that have distinct mental and physical differences and that is why they must keep their status of slave and be seen as property rather than individuals and human beings. Because this document was written by the President of the United it gives an idea of what was an acceptable view of black people, and how that in turn created not only the treatment they received as slaves, but the discrimination they experienced after emancipation. The idea that black people were inferior and thus less deserving of the same rights as white people was so ingrained in the culture, that they were viewed as part of the livestock and commodities that must be assessed in a document like "Notes on the State of Virginia".
- - - - Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl -Harriet Jacobs
        
        Jacob's describs what it is like to live as a slave and what it means to be bought and sold, and then eventually to gain freedom. She specifically targets a white female audience that might relate to her experience of desperately trying to hold on to her innocence (virginity) and her experience as a mother and her separation from her children. Jacob's argues that slaves are not able to follow their morals, even if they wish to, because they must do whatever it takes to survive and protect themselves, regardless of morality. She describes what it is like to be sexually pursued by her master, and her choice to get pregnant by another man in order to escape her master's sexual demands. She also describes her resistance to being sold to her friend in order to be freed. She was in the North at this time, and technically a freed person, but she is still able to be sold. This raises questions about what freedom actually is and if a former slave in America can ever actually be free.
    - - “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” -Frederick Douglass
        
        "Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? That point is conceded already. Nobody doubts it. The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. The acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave." (Douglass, 1068)
- - - - Walt Whitman- Song of Myself
        
        "All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses,/ And to die is from what any one supposed, and luckier" (Whitman, 1093)
    - - Henry David Thoreau- Walden, or Life in the Woods
        
        Thoreau describes his experience living a transcendental lifestyle in the woods apart from society, He takes inspiration from the ideas of Ralph Waldo Emerson about thinking and living individually instead of collectively. He argues for a country without any structures society, one that focuses on nature and individual thought as its driving forces. he encourages people to go out and live individual lives in order to reach their full potential. He claims that this must be done in nature. He describes living immersed in nature and claims that he is not lonely or lacking because he has found companionship in the woods around him.
        
        A replica of Thoreau's cabin on Walden Pond in Concord, MA
    - - Ralph Waldo Emerson- “Self Reliance”
        
        "Your genuine action will explain itself and will explain your other genuine actions. Your conformity explains nothing" (Emerson, 600)
- - - - Up From Slavery- Booker T. Washington
        
        Booker T. Washington Atlanta Exposition in 1895 giving his famous "Atlanta Compromise" speech
    - - Poetry
        
        "If We Must Die"- Claude McKay
        
        "Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,/ and for their thousand blows deal one death blow!/ What though before us lies the open grave?/ Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack,/ Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!" (Mckay, 936)
      - Short Story
        
        "How it Feels to be Colored Me"- Zora Neale Hurston
        
        Zora Neale Hurston describes a particular view of how being "colored" feels to her and what it means to be a black person in America. She explains that she is only "colored" in comparison to other people. She explains that when she is with other African American's, being black is normal and natural, and it is not until she is around white people that she feels her "coloredness". This is a unique perspective on what it means to be black. Instead of writing about how she has been discriminated against and harmed for being black, she describes how she is proud to be black and how it makes her experience things. She specifically talks about Jazz music and the effect it has on her, and how it would not have that effect on a white person. Specifically she desctribes a white man by saying "He has only heard what I felt. He is far away and I see him dimly across the ocean and the continent that has fallen between us" (Hurston 960). In this sentence Hurstin describes the divide between the races that has been created through the way they experience things, in this case specifically the way they experience Jazz.
- - - - Ezra Pound- “In A Station Of The Metro”
        
        A subway in France, where this poem is set.
      - William Carlos Williams- “The Red Wheelbarrow”
        
        "The Red Wheel Barrow" is a poem that consists of only a few lines and is purely a description of a simple scene. However, the poem can create a different feeling and experience for each reader. This how a lot of modernist writing works. Williams strays away from typical poetic forms and features, and instead creates something completely new. By writing something in this way, Williams is arguing about what can actually be characterized as literature or poetry. It raises questions to the reader about what counts as valid work and what is considered "good" writing.
      - T.S. Eliot- “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”
        
        This poem is narrated by a man that is growing older and watching his life slip away. He seems to be offended by the way women "come and go/ Talking of Michelangelo", and ignore him and his desires toward them. This seems to be a representation of white men feeling as though the enhancement of women's status and education has interrupted women's devotion to white men.
    - - "Barn Burning" - William Faulkner
        
        "He was! He was in the war! He was in Colonel Sartoris' cav'ry!' not knowing that his father had gone to that war a private in the fine old European sense, wearing no uniform, admitting the authority of and giving fidelity to no man or army or flag, going to war as Malbrouck himself did: for booty- it meant nothing and less than nothing to him if it were enemy booty or his own." (Faulkner, 1027)
      - "Hills Like White Elephants" - Ernest Hemingway
        
        This short story centers on an american man and his female companion described as "the girl". Without it ever being explicitly stated, they are discussing the girl getting an abortion. The story follows modernist styles, as it is not a typical story with an apparent conflict, climax, or conclusion. In this way it demonstrates the belief and ability for literature to be unique and without traditional form.