Grace Dow Essential Questions

Saturday, November 16, 2014

Essential Questions for This Unit

The romantics writing reflects their beliefs of optimism and individualism emotional and physical things in their writing. In the song "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" the slaves maintain a lively and happy spirit because they truly believe in their hearts that God is going to send a savior to come save them. Romanticism is all about emotion, and getting readers to feel the emotion that the writer is sending.

Romanticism isn't about getting the reader to only read the story, but feel the same emotions as the characters in the story, the authors want you to experience what is happening. For example, " His left coat sleeve was folded up to show there was only half an arm in it and his gaunt figure listed slightly to the side as if the breeze were pushing him" (O'Connor). In this quote the reader feels sympathy for Mr.Shiftlet because he doesn't have an arm, and the way O'Connor describes how he is leaning as if the wind were pushing him, the reader can infer that Mr.Shiftlet is very thin which also brings out the emotion of sympathy in the reader.

 Gothic Romanticism is all about keeping you as a reader on your toes, just when you think you know what is going to happen the opposite occurs. Gothic Romanticism is still about emotion but more about the darker emotions. Southern Romanticism has to do with a specific place, and usually has some sort of irony or coincidental plot that keeps you guessing.
All of these styles are similar, and they all usually leave the ending to the imagination of the reader. The writers that write these styles are out of the ordinary, they are a breed all of their own.

Southern Gothic Romanticism is more specific than writings that followed it. The stories usually have emotions of a sort of homey love, or a sense of belonging. There is always a sense of strange beauty, and uniqueness in Southern Gothic Romanticism stories.

American Culture made Gothic and Southern Gothic Romanticism darker than it probably would have been had it not been for the events taking place during the time period they were created. Slavery and religious issues were big controversies during this time period and are the reasons as to why Gothic and Southern Gothic Romanticism are a darker style of writing.

The writings of those time periods influence writers today immensely, since they are filled with such emotion, and they are so good at getting the reader engulfed in the story, authors today look back to these writing styles. Today's writing style may be different than during the times of Gothic and Southern Gothic Romanticism, but authors still today want their readers to really get into the story. Authors today still want their audience to feel the emotions they are portraying, they want their audience to become part of the story themselves and be able to relate to it.    

Grace Dow Romanticism

Saturday, November 16,2014

Romanticism

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

In "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" there is a lot of detail that brings out emotions in the reader, that is why it is classified as Romanticism. "I profess not to know how women's hearts are wooed and won"(Irving 7). This is a quote that many men can relate to, when they relate to this it can trigger a memory of a time that they have been in a situation like this. And that memory can trigger emotion, again why it is classified as Romanticism. "...chanting a melancholy psalm tune among the tranquil solitudes of Sleepy Hollow"(Irving 13).

Swing Low Sweet Chariot

This song gave the slaves hope that God was going to send a savior to free them from their troubles. There were several songs sang by slaves during this time period, all of which spoke of freedom, and better days to come. But slaves weren't the only ones singing for better times, most people during this time period were hoping for the light at the end of the tunnel to hurry up and get there. This relates to today because when your having a bad day, music is often a source of hope for people. And more specifically the slaves can relate to today because they were at the bottom of society so they had nothing to lose, that is still true for today. No matter your position in life there is always hope. 

Grace Dow Gothic Romaticism

Saturday, November 16, 2014

Gothic Romanticism: Hawthorne, Poe, Baudelaire

Gothic Fiction Writers

Gothic fiction writers always use human nature in the character(s) death or demise. Gothic fiction writers express human nature in two ways, by being obvious and directly saying it, or leaving hints by putting the human nature in little details throughout the story. That is why you must read very carefully in Gothic fiction stories, or you will miss important information. Throughout these stories when the human nature of the passage is revealed, the flaws in human nature are the qualities that are revealed. The human nature of the characters is the weakness that leads to their doom.

In "The Fall of the House of Usher" when the narrator enters the House of Usher he finds Rodrick Usher who is sibling to Madeline Usher. Madeline has a 'disease' that no physician can cure, "The disease of Madeline had long baffled the skill of her physicians"(Usher 7). The fact that Madeline is a vampire explains why the Usher's are nervous around her. The downfall of the Usher's was their fear of Madeline, when they buried her alive she came back with a vengeance. And that is why she killed them when she got out of her tomb. "There was blood on her white robes, and the evidence of some bitter struggle upon every portion of her emaciated frame. For a moment she remained trembling and reeling to and fro upon the threshold, then, with a low moaning cry, fell heavily inward upon the person of her brother, and in her violent and now final death-agonies, bore him to the floor a corpse, and a victim to the terrors he had anticipated" (Usher 10).

Grace Dow Southern Gothic Romanticism

Saturday, November 16, 2014

Southern Gothic Romanticism

Southern Gothic Romanticism is usually based in the southern United States, and usually has to do with 'old south' type of towns and people. Southern Gothic Romanticism also has to do with old buildings that are usually in a less than outstanding condition. The short stories, "The Life You Save May be Your Own" and "A Rose for Emily" ooze Southern Gothic Romanticism, both stories take place in the south. Both stories also have an elderly woman as one of the main characters, and both of these women own old and worn down homes that once had much grandeur. The stories compare to Gothic, and Dark Romanticism because the endings leave you as the reader wanting more.

In " The Life You Save May be Your Own" you want to know what happens to the hitchhiker, you also want to know what happens to Mr.Shiftlet. The story leaves you wondering if he ever gets back to his mother, or if that is what he was doing at all. The author leaves the story open ended to leave the rest to your imagination. The hitchhiker is how the author introduces the conflict between Mr.Shiftlet and his mother. Once the author reveals this peace of information to us then we are able to understand why it is so important to him to treat a woman right, specifically his wife. Learning about the conflict, whatever that may be, with his mother it also shows Mr.Shiftlet's thinking process as to why he doesn't want to take Lucynell from her mother. 

In "A Rose for Emily" the murder of Homer Barron goes undetected for so long because people think that Homer has left Emily. This can relate to today's time, when a couple breaks up you don't bring the topic up because you don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, we always leave the subject alone unless the person involved wants to discuss it. With this mind set the public has sympathy for Emily and they don't want to seem rude by telling her that her house stinks. They feel bad for Emily because she has had so much tragedy in her life, and so the public doesn't want to offend her. Since Emily taught children how to paint china they didn't suspect her to be capable of committing such a horrific crime, she was doing people a service by teaching their children how to paint so they thought they would return the favor by not mentioning anything abut her house smelling.
 "A Rose for Emily" is ended by the townspeople finding Homer Barron's decayed body in a sealed off room in Emily's house after her death. But not only is a body found, " Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indention of a head. One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-grey hair" (Faulkner 8). The ending leaves you wondering is Emily's spirit still living in that house, it leaves you wondering what they did with the house. Was it cleaned out and resold? If so what happened to the new owner's? Again the story leaves it up to your imagination. 

Grace Dow Socratic Questions

Socratic Questions

Saturday, November 16, 2014

"A Good Man is Hard to Find" by O'Connor

Q: Does Bailey have any brothers?
A: No Bailey is the grandmother's only son. " Bailey was the son she lived with, her only boy" (O'Connor 1).

Q:Why doesn't the Misfit pray like the grandmother tells him he should?
A: He doesn't pray because he says he doesn't need Jesus' help, that he is doing alright by himself. He doesn't think any good will come out of praying because Jesus throws everything off balance. " Jesus shown everything off balance. It was the same case with Him as with me except He hadn't committed any crime and they could prove I had committed one because they had papers on me" (O'Connor 12).

Q: Is the situation that the family gets in still a relevant concern for the families of today?
A: The situation is still relevant and will be forever, because there is always the possibility of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The entire situation is circumstantial, if the grandmother hadn't mentioned the house then they wouldn't have went in search for it, therefore they wouldn't have wrecked either. " The horrible thought she had before the accident was that the house that she had remembered so vividly was not in Georgia but in Tennessee.

Q: Do your beliefs, such as religion, effect your decision making?
A: Religion especially effects your decision making, the Misfit himself doesn't pray because he doesn't trust Jesus, and doesn't want anybodies help. If the Misfit had believed in Jesus maybe that could have helped him through his rough patches of life. "If He did what He said, then it's nothing nothing for you to do thow away everything and follow Him, and if He didn't, then it's nothing for you but enjoy the few minutes you got left the best way you can by killing somebody or burning down his house or doing some other meanness to him" (O'Connor 13).

Q: How does the author capitalizing Jesus affect the theme of the story?
A: The capitalizing of Jesus, Him, or He, affects the theme in an immense way. With them capitalized you could argue that the theme is that you should pray and Jesus will help you in your difficult times and that He will help guide you away from dark paths. If they were lower cased then the theme could be argued to be that life is circumstantial, and no matter how good of a person you try to be things can still go wrong. "It ain't right I wasn't there because if I had of been there I would have known...if I had been there I would have known and wouldn't be like I am now" (O'Connor 13). 

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