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.