A Growing Nation
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Transcript of A Growing Nation
A GROWING NATION
Unit 4: 19th Century Literature
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Several factors aged the nation’s spirit• Industrialism• Population Explosion• Economic Growth• The Civil War
1800• 16 states clustered together near the east coast
1803• Louisiana Purchase doubled the nation’s size
• Orchestrated by Thomas Jefferson
Rapid Population growth inspired national pride and self-awarenessImproved transportation helped bind the old and the new states together
• Canals, turnpikes, railroads
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY AT HOME:1800-1840
Americans began taking more direct control of their government.Andrew Jackson
• “The People’s President”• Elected in 1828
Era of the common man• Property requirements for voting began to
disappear• Democratic advances were confined to white
malesIndian Removal
• Forced migration of Native Americans• Trail of Tears- 4,000 of 15,000 Cherokee died
on the trek from Georgia to Oklahoma
YO U NG NATION O N THE WO R LD STAGE
First decades of the 1800s were hopefulWar of 1812
• Convinced Europeans that the United States was on the world stage to stay
Monroe Doctrine of 1812• President James Monroe warned Europe not to
intervene in the new Latin American nations1830- conflict over the secession of Texas from Mexico
• 1836 Mexican Army attacks the Alamo• Every Texan defender was killed
THE WAY WESTAmerican history moved westward
• New territories opened up, transportation improved
• All 13 original states were on the eastern seaboard, blocked in by mountain barriers
Transportation was steadily changing and improving
• 1825- The Erie Canal• 1850- The Iron Horse• By 1869 rail lines linked the east and west
coasts
ADVANCES IN TECHNOLOGY
Spurred Social Change• Factories sprang up around the
Northeast• Steel plow and reaper
encouraged frontier settlement• Made farming practical on
the grasslands• Telegraph facilitated
communication across great distances• Inventor Samuel F. B. Morse
LEAD UP TO WARNew prosperity led to fierce competition
• Child labor• Unsafe working conditions• Limited rights for women
Slavery divided the nation• Conflicts between abolitionists and
advocates of states’ rightsCulmination of 250 years of tension
• The War of 1861
LITERATURE!
American literature was coming of ageAmerican writers were not widely read before this periodThe American voice was developing
• Personal • Idiosyncratic• Bold• The quest of the individual to define him
or herself
Artistic movement• Not necessarily
about loveElevated the imagination over reason and intuition over factWashington Irving
• First American to be widely read overseas
ROMANTICISM
Romantics • Reveled in
nature• Preferred nature
over civilization• Accented the
fantastic aspects of human experience
TRANSCENDENTALISM
Remarkably difficult to define• “The understanding a person gains intuitively
because it lies beyond direct experience.” – Immanuel Kant
• Core belief emphasizes the inherent goodness of both man and nature
References many historical thinkers• Plato, Pascal, Swedenborg, Buddhism• Philosophy, religion, and literature merged
producing a blend that was romantic, intuitive, mystical, and easier to recognize than explain
The real truths, the most fundamental truths lie outside the experience of the senses
THE DARK S IDE OF TRAN SCENDENTALISM
Not everyone shared in the optimistic views of TranscendentalismNathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville
• Expressed the darker vision of those who “burrowed into the depths of our common nature” and found the area not always shimmering, but often dusky.
• Hawthorne held onto guilt about Puritan heritage• Both men saw human life in grim terms, but they
were not identical.• Hawthorne was stable and shrewd.• Melville was tortured and at odds with the world.
GOTHIC LITERATURELiterary Genre
• The story is set in bleak or remote places
• The plot involves macabre or violent incidents
• Characters are in psychological and/or physical torment
• A supernatural or otherworldly element is often present
Poe, Irving, Hawthorne