Essential Questions

Romantic's Beliefs

 

 

Optimism and individualism are expressed by authors from the beginning of the story to the end. Usually the author starts the story off by telling who the main character is. It leads to optimism because usually an event happens that is tragic like the lady's death in "A Rose for Emily" or the outings of Connie in "Where are You Going Where Have You Been". Individualism is more expressed in stories like "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" or "Everything that Rises Must Converge".Optimism is usually expressed in quotes such as "Then we were sure that they were to get married."("A Rose for Emily") and "There was one good thing, June went places with girl friends of hers..." ("Where are you going where have you been"). Those both show optimism because in a "A Rose for Emily" the man that they were talking about who was going to get married was gay and the people were hopeful that he would marry a women. Then, in the other story the girl was finding any reason to be positive. The sleepy hollow story shows uniqueness in many ways, for instance "The gallant Ichabod now spent at least an extra half hour at his toilet, brushing and furbishing up his only suit, of rusty black." That's about as unique as one can get. In the story O'Conner wrote certain aspects make it unique "...in spite of all her foolish views, he was free of prejudice and unafraid to face facts" That is unique because most people who are judged tend to judge people more.

Romanticism- movement in literature during the 18th century where the focus is inspiration and individualism.

 

Gothic Romanticism- Form of literature that focusses on mysterious and supernatural objects and settings. Also has a deep connection between two characters.

 

Southern Gothic Romanticism- Mysterious piece of work with the added affects of basic Romanticism and a more southern setting from the past.

 

All of these are similar in the aspect of tone, mood, and overall goal of individuality. They have their difference in the way that Gothic Romanticism and Southern Gothic Romanticism are more dark and mysterious than Romanticism. They are also different because Romanticism is more in a "normal" setting considering the 18th century focus where as Gothic Romanticism is in a more haunting setting and Southern Gothic Romanticism in down south with the porch swing and ice tea with a twist of creepy.

America kind of gave way to Gothic Romanticism's dark side in the way that we as a nation developed very harsh feelings towards the slaves, as well as this nation hid a lot of stuff beginning in the 18th century. There are a lot of things in this country's roots that developed in the 1800s and part of Gothic Romanticism is that story no one knows about until the end.

 

These writing that have been read throughout the unit influence today's literature by giving way to a dark side and opening up an imagination that may not have progressed without these pieces. Poe was very influential with his works because they show that everyone has a hidden secret. This really helps with today's literature because it lets a person know that it's ok to be different. Without these writers the writers of today may be afraid to express more differences.

 

Southern Gothic Romanticism is a response to other movements before it like Romanticism and Gothic Romanticism. It responds to this by adding to these movements with an American twist which is the southern part. The southern idea comes from the evolving of this nation. It is a manipulation of Romanticism because it breaks it down piece by piece. It is just a sub genre because it isn't the complete product of Romanticism.

 

 

 



"The Fall of the House of Usher"

1. This story was a very challenging story to understand or interpret. Seeing as it was not a story that one can collect too many ideas on there may be an interpretation that Usher's faults were the cause of Madeline's vampireness."
It was this deficiency, I considered, while running over in thought the perfect keeping of the character of the premises..." He has an obsession with his house so he needs someone. The only way to keep a person in his life because of his issues. "It was no wonder that his condition terrified..."



2. Frequently authors describe directly the faults of human nature. This is proven when in "The Black Cat" Poe states "Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or stupid action, for no reason other than he know he should not?" By saying this his tone reflects the fact that he feels angered by this. It is also pointed out directly when Faulkner says "In a Rose for Emily" "When the next generation, with it's more modern ideas, became mayors and alderman, this arrangement created some little dissatisfaction." He is entertaining the idea that the younger generation is at a major fault because they want to change tradition. The fact of the fault of human nature is also described in the short story "Everything that Rises Must Converge" as the narrator says "Julian thought he could have stood his lot better if she had been selfish, if she had been an old hag who drank and screamed at him. The fault provoked at this moment is the fault of greed which is still a character of human nature. This is also indirectly brought up when the story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" says "....but is unconsciously imbibed by everyone who resides there for a time" the human nature fault here is the desires to do what isn't right. The wrong thing to do stated in the quote is being at a place in the wrong time and drinking with the absence of knowledge. The authors all communicate this in the same way and it appears that they all think the same way about human nature. They communicate this in a way that is directly-indirect. With that being said they stress the ideas of human nature by giving the reader a characters bad characteristics to focus on and driving them out harder. They also express this is the tone of their pieces. The tone is usually negative with a mood of apathy. Their thoughts on human nature is that human nature makes a person very unstable mentally and makes one a somewhat negative because they do many things wrong. Such as when they let someone go, or when they drink, or do other things that would be considered morally wrong.

 

"Swing Low Sweet Chariot"

"Swing Low Sweet Chariot"

 

This song is representative of escaping the physical conditions of slavery because the slaves who were singing would rather be dead then be living in the conditions given by their masters. This can be concluded when they sing the first verse of the song. The overview of the song can be sought out to be hopeful and faithful because they are singing to God to bring the Chariot of Fire to them. They are hopeful to get out of the land they are in because of their poor physical and emotional state. The only way to get out of it though would be "going home" as they sing where "home" is Heaven.  The song is reflective of it's time period because it was written in the early 1900s and during that time the major problem was slavery and that was what the main focus of the world was on. It reflects that because these people are not only singing to go home to Heaven, but they could also be singing to go home to the land they come from. This relates to today because often times certain people talk about going home or the world being in the end times. In which case this applies to a majority of people, weather they are desiring to go home to a town or state they grew up in, or if they are hoping that Jesus will call them to Heaven soon to be with him. It doesn't as much reflect the desires to escape how exactly they are living. In way it is possible for "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" to foreshadow any reoccurring problems of the world.



"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"

Picture this ("The Legend of Sleepy Holllow")

    The story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" captures the imagination of readers today by discussing briefly the topics of  wizardry, haunted spots, ghosts and headless objects. "The dominate spirit that haunts this enchanted region is the apparition of  figure on horseback without a head." This is giving a reader, most likely a child the free range to believe that there can be things in this world such as a headless cat, a mythical creature, or even a ghost. It helps develop this by restating these thoughts throughout the story such as when it says "...and listen to their marvelous tales of ghost and goblins, haunted bridges and haunted houses, and particularly of the headless horseman." It opens the readers minds up to the willingness of creating new creatures such as Ichabod "Ichabod was a suitable figure for such a steed."
     Irving's story helps one to create thing that without this story one may not be able to imagine. He even goes as far a there being a very detailed setting. This setting comes about when he is describing his passing of the farmers place. "Around him nature wore the rich and golden livery which we always associated with the idea of abundance." Of the course of the story as a reader someone might just develop a major idea of a new world with an entirely unique setting. Then again, maybe they already had an imagination and it just got evolved. 


Create your own short story

Mercade Sing                                                  Sing 1

Hasty

Honors Soph. Eng./4

26 November, 2014

Evil Doctor

Apartment building in the city

The light

His name was Sam. He lived in an apartment on the fifth floor in number 527. He maintained his living status off of his efforts of his operations. He wasn't your ordinary man. On his days off he tended to do experiments. In other apartments men and women questioned him. They would pound on his door with the request to know what the awful smell was or what the loud sound had came from, but they never got an answer. With his strange habits came late night sneaking around and an abundance of secrets. His secrets were kept because his family was gone. When they left him he had to fend for himself. Since he was abandoned at eight his level of social skills was extremely low.

Sam had dark hair and green-yellow eyes, he had them since birth. Each eye was half green and half yellow. When he was little his mother would always tell hime he wasn't worth much at all. He was tall like his father, but did not appeal to be on the skinny side. To preform his operations he went to his laboratory on the other side of his large city. His laboratory was in the back alley way in between the market Giggly Jones and the shoe store, so when he was going there he tended to walk because it was less noticeable than a fancy car or say a white van.It was about a 10 mile walk there but he didn't want anyone to know when he would pick up a child to operate on. Upon his walk one day he met with a lady of whom her name he did not know. This lady was petite and fairly skinny. When leaving work this man seen that she was sitting in the middle of the alley slightly hidden by the trash can. She didn't say anything or offer his a smile, she just observed. With her observations she decided she should hide a little more.

The lady sat there for a week without words or other expressions. The only exception was that she snuck into his office. When she was in there she found all his files. Anything that should be kept hidden was taped under his large table. When this man was leaving work one day he chose a different route out of curosity. On this route he encountered a thug like group standing in front of him. When he tried to motion around them, then Sam found there was around 12 of them and one of him. He knew he couldn't take them so then he tried to turn around all to find that there was a gate that just didn't seem right. This gate was iron with shocking electric currents flowing on the outside. After haggling with the men and giving up about a months worth of his profits he finally got through.

Now being a so-called doctor this man should have wanted to save but in his case he was out to steal lives. He often would operate on children in his apartment and find new things to do with their bodies after they no longer had a pulse. Sam mostly picked out the organs one by one for fun. He did this anywhere he stayed and that was often the cause of the restless noises in the night. To dispose of these bodies after he had his fun with them he dumped them into the alley trash by work. He figure that it already stunk bad enough that no one would think anything of it. After a few months the owner of the apartments decided the obnoxiousness of Sam was enough and decided to evict him, the owner would have never found out, but the nosey neighbor in apartment 525 always complained. When being evicted he decided the right thing to do was to move into his office. When he moved there he stayed for months to watch the little lady until one day she moved in with Sam. He found out her name was Evelynn. Him and Evelynn secretly got married. Now he was about 30 years older than her so people who assumed their love was happening tried to take her away. Three of the 12 men that tried to gang up on him broke into Sam's home one day and attempted to take Evelynn. One man was Evelynn's father. Of course she did not know because she was abandoned at age 13 and he lived in the country side. She didn't go with them, so one night at about 12:45 they came back. They found the woman laying in bed, but did not see Sam. They assumed that they would find him returning later so they considered hiding out. Instead of hiding they chose to come back another day. When they returned they were greeted with body parts surrounding the door and a heart as the door handel. They were mortified, but decided to brave it anyway. When the men entered they still hadn't seen him. They searched what they thought to be the entire house. They accidently tripped on the carpet and uncovered this passage. The men thought nothing of it because it wasn't leading to anywhere obvious, but then they seen something.

They seen a light that happened to be the man's eyes. They were shining brighter than ever. How did this happen might be a question the occurs to the boys that found him. The creepiness of the man's mind may have killed him, but without an autopsy they would never know what truly caused his death. Atleast there wouldn't be anymore dismantled children as a cause of his insanity and the little lady could find true love. Since she was only 17, then maybe one day she could find true love, with the exception that it happened later.

Sam no longer lives, but the people in his building could finally live in peace. The peace may only last for a little while. Who knows maybe another creeper will come along.  

Gothic Romanticism

Gothic Romanticism 

Southern gothic  romanticism- a form of literature that displays iron or unusual events as well as shows somewhat disturbing characteristic of the plot and setting. Often displays violence and some act or feeling of imprisonment.

In the story "The Life You May Save May Be Your Own" one way the author shows southern gothic romanticism is by giving details of the feeling of imprisonment. "Fifteen, sixteen," the old woman said. The girl was nearly thirty but because of her innocence it was impossible to guess." This is showing imprisonment because the author is saying that this young girl is stuck in an older women's body because of her simplicity and she will never be able to get mentally older. Another reason this is considered southern gothic romanticism is because of the front porch imagery. "The old woman slid to the edge of her chair and leaned forward, shading her eyes from the piercing sunset with her hand." This is unusual because of the fact that they are in the middle of nowhere and some man is coming up to them. Another element of southern gothic romanticism is when the old man marries the daughter of the story. "...Mr. Shiftlet and Lucynell were married in the Ordinary's office while the old woman witnessed." This qualifies as a reason for southern gothic romanticism because that is just unnatural and weird! One display of southern gothic romanticism is "A Rose for Emily" is "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." This is a prime example of level 90 weird. Seriously no one should sleep with a dead person. Another example would be "...a huge meadow which no winter ever quite touches.", this is showing that the setting is a bit out of the ordinary. Something that establishes the southern part of this story being southern gothic romanticism is all the talk about "negro's" in the story. 
These stories compare mostly to Gothic stories because the level of gross odd things that happen in these stories. Such as Lucynell getting married to Mr. Shiftlet and the man sleeping next to the dead woman in "A Rose for Emily".

One reason Miss Emily's crime goes unnoticed is because she disappears. In the story it says she vanishes and typically when someone is gone for a while they tend to be forgotten or at least the problems other people cause do. Another reason her crime went unnoticed was because "When her father died, it got about that the house was all that was left to her;" thus this made people feel bad for her so what she was doing didn't really matter. Her wrong doings also went unmentioned because "Now she too would know the old thrill and the old despair of a penny more or less." Over all her issues with the law went unnoticed because people felt sorry for her.
The hitch-hiker scene works because the man is now doing more for someone else than he was all along and he isn't getting anything out of it like he did when he was helping the mom at the beginning of the story. Also, it isn't very natural for people to pick up high-hikers so it just adds to the element of creepy in the story. 

   

Socratic Questions

Socratic Questions:

Close-ended question~ What was Connie allowed to do because her sister also did it?
"There was one good thing: June went places with girl friends of hers, girls who were just as plain and steady as she, and so when Connie wanted to do that her mother had no objections."
Answer~ She was allowed to go to the mall with her friends on the weekend because her older sister did it and always come home safe.

Open-ended question~ What happened to Connie at the end of the story?
Answer~ She was forced to go with Arnold Friendly to protect her family. He took he too a country side and did naughty things to her forcefully.

World connection~ What have you been allowed to do or not allowed to do because of your siblings?
"How've you got your hair fixed—what the hell stinks? Hair spray? You don't see your sister using that junk." this is a display of what Connie shouldn't be doing in her mother's eyes since June does not do it.
Answer~ I have certain dating rules because of the ones my sister had.

Core question~ How should a person really react when someone you don't know very well wants you to go somewhere with them?
"She said she would and so she tapped her friend's arm on her way out..." this is not how to react to someone when they approach you and they are a stranger.
Answer~ Make them understand that you have values and don't let them pressure you.

Literary analysis question~ What is the point of view of the story and how does it relate to the tone?
"She and that girl and occasionally another girl went out several times a week, and the rest of the time Connie spent around the house" by saying Connie spent time around the house the author is wanting to display sympathy for Connie and all of the "she" nouns show third person.
Answer~ The point of view is third person. It relates to the tone because it helps you to see that the author really wants you to feel sympathetic towards Connie by letting you see her opinion without coming out and saying it.