Romanticism: What is it? "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Swing Low Sweet Chariot"

How does "The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow" capture the imagination of readers today? 

             "The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow" is a classic tale of two love birds, thrown in with some comedy and horror. For those reasons that is how it captures our imagination. Children and adults (especially women) have their own idea of love and can't help but awe over Romance novels and movies. This quote from "The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow", “There is a sacredness in tears....They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition and of unspeakable love", shows how love is incorporated in the story. You can't help but to fall in love with love itself. Your imagination is captured by things you want, or are drawn too, so everyone that longs for these things, has been captured.

How is the song "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" about escaping the physical conditions of slavery? How is this song about religious hope and faith? How is this song reflective of its time period? How does it relate to today?

                "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot", is about escaping the physical conditions of slavery. You can especially see this by the quote. "If you get there before I do, Comin' for to carry me home", because it is showing how she might not make it. She is still enduring the punishment so it might take her longer to get there. This song is about religious hope and faith by the line, "A band of angels comin' after me". This quote shows that by having faith in God throughout all of her slavery/punishment in the end she will be with the angles. This song is reflective of its time period because of the "slang" used. The line, "Comin' for to carry me home". You can hear the country type of accent and the words are shorted. Finally this song relates to today because we can see what the people who were slaves thought as they went through this punishment. We can also see how they kept religious faith and that can help some of us to keep our faith in hard times as well.

            

Essential Questions

1. How are the Romantics' beliefs of optimism and individualism reflected in their writing?
             ~Optimism is reflected in their writing because throughout the stories when the authors are criticizing human nature they are hoping for us as humans to change. One quote from the story "The Masque of the Red Death" is, "And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all." This quotes shows that because one person couldn't be kind enough to let everyone into the party, the Red Death conquered everyone. So when the reader reads this story they should understand to be kind and not selfish, and to treat everyone equally.

2. What is Romanticism, Gothic Romanticism and Southern Gothic Romanticism? How are they similar how are they different?
             ~"Romanticism is a movement in the arts and literature that originated in the late 18th century, emphasizing inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual", a definition which Google gave me. Gothic Romanticism is a genre that contains a mix of fiction, horror and romanticism. Southern Gothic Romanticism is writing that usually took place is the 1800's and includes "deeply flawed, disturbing or eccentric characters who may or may not dabble in hoodoo, ambivalent gender roles and decayed or derelict settings, grotesque situations, and other sinister events relating to or coming from poverty, alienation, crime and violence", another definition which Google gave me. They are similar because they all generally include some type of romance, various forms, but still romance. They are different because that romance varies greatly. In Gothic Romance it has some dark twisted plot, when Southern Gothic is also dark but includes elements of the South such as slang, and Southern settings.

3. How is the Southern Gothic movement a response to literary movements that have preceded it as well as a manipulation of Romantic literary conventions?
            ~It is a response because of how it adapted to Romanticism. In the 1800's the "pride for the South" was growing so Romanticism evolved into Southern Gothic Romanticism. It just added darker elements to the stories and placed the settings in the South. An example of these stories being dark would be Poe's quotes from "The Black Cat", "This had probably been done with the view of arousing me from sleep. The falling of other walls had compressed the victim of my cruelty into the
substance of the freshly-spread plaster; the lime of which, with the flames, and the ammonia from the carcass, had then accomplished the portraiture as I saw it."  There are influences from the other genre's in it, such as: Southern Gothic took the romantic aspects from Romanticism and the darker aspects from Gothic Romanticism.

4. How did the American culture prompt the dark sides of Romanticism (think Gothic and Southern Gothic)?
            ~The American culture prompted the dark sides of Romanticism by all the crime and other odd things going on. There was many witch trials going on during this time period, which Walter Kirn said a great quote about ,“Everyone loves a witch hunt as long as it's someone else's witch being hunted”, so that helped the writers of Southern Gothic with there writing genre. There was also rebellions going on against Europe and other places that also helped cause Romanticism.

5. How do the writings of these time periods influence the writings of today?
            ~These writings help influence today greatly. Without us having Gothic we would not have any of the horror or serial killer books that we have today. We wouldn't have the deep dark twisted elements in the books either. These writings are where  authors get ideas for there books are, a big example being Stephen King. "Romanticism was more widespread both in its origins and influence. No other intellectual/artistic movement has had comparable variety, reach, and staying power since the end of the Middle Ages", a quote said by Paul Brians, which shows how great Romanticism influenced writers.

Gothic Romanticism: Hawthorne, Poe and Baudelaire

"The Fall Of The House Of Usher"

             The reason for Roderick Usher's weaknesses and always being nervous are accounted for his sister, Madeline, being a vampire. It is very clear throughout the story that she is in fact a vampire. From her before she killed Roderick wearing a white, bloody robe, to her being buried in a tomb. Poe does a very good job as putting in the details to make me as a reader see what he is trying to say. After Madeline was supposed to be dead, she somehow rose back up, which confirms my theory even more because as everyone knows, vampires are immortal. I believe that the reason Madeline went to kill Roderick in the end is because she had to have blood to drink to be able to come back from the dead, and survive. This part of the story reminds me of how when Bella, from The Twilight Saga, in the the book New Moon was having her birthday party at the Cullen's house and cut her finger when opening a present. It reminds me of this because of how Jasper jumped across the room to try and attack her.
    
                In the story "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" Hawethorn criticizes the human nature by focusing on our selfishness as humans. He does this by using the quote, "I would not stoop to bathe my lips in it--no, though its delirium were for years instead of moments. Such is the lesson ye have taught me!". He is showing that the men who took this potion were taking advantage of what they have had and did not deserve any of it. In "The Masque Of The Red Death" Poe criticizes human nature by showing how people who think they are better than everyone, are in fact not. By Prospero only letting disease free victims into the party he was destined to die by showing favoritism and discriminating against the others. In the end yes, both authors do have similar attitudes towards human nature. They both show the bad sides of us humans and think that we are way to full of ourselves.

Southern Gothic Romanticism

• Southern Gothic Romanticism is a sub-genre to Gothic fiction unique to American Literature that take place exclusively in the South. While it may include supernatural elements, it mainly focuses on damaged, even delusional, characters.

• In "The Life You Save May Be Your Own" shows and exhibits Southern Gothic traits by having Lucynell Crater be very innocent. She has never thought of a man before little lone kissed, or had any sexual contact with one. Innocence's is a big part of Southern Gothic as well as having a few "off the wall" characters, just as Lucynell also is. Mrs. Crater, Lucynell's mom, asked Mr. Shiftlet this question about Lucynell and what traits he wants to have in a wife, ""You want you an innocent woman, don't you?" she asked sympathetically." The Author also exhibits Southern Gothic traits by the way the language is. It has the slang in the dialogue just as people who live in the South speak like. This quote spoken by Mrs. Crater is an excellent example, "This car ain't run in fifteen year". In "A Rose For Emily" the story also shows and exhibits  Southern Gothic traits. This genre's writing is infused with people who have broken souls, and people who are already dead, or who are about to die. It is very obvious how this story shows these traits. "A Rose For Emily" contains many "broken" people and is extremely dark and twisted. Homer Barron was poisoned and killed by Mrs. Emily and this quote, "The man himself lay in the bed." shows how she kept him dead in her house, in a bed. In the story Mrs. Emily is also dead which shows more broken bodies and souls.

•  These stories compare very well to Romanticism and to Gothic Romanticism. They compare to Romanticism by both of the stories having romantic aspects. In "The Life You Save May Be Your Own" Lucynell and Mr. Shiftlet had a "romantic" relationship to the point where they got married, not much more than that. In "A Rose For Emily" it has romantic aspects by Mrs. Emily and Homer Barron hanging out a lot, people from the town thought that they were also going to get married and that's why he was always seen at her house. They also compare to Gothic Romanticism. In "The Life You Save May Be Your Own" Mr. Shiftlet ends up leaving Lucynell in a restaurant to fend for herself even though she so innocent, and deaf, and will surly not make it. That is a dark element. "A Rose For Emily" is definitely the darkest story. Mrs. Emily keeps Homer's dead body in her bed for several years, and she ends up dying also. 

•  Mrs. Emily's crime goes unnoticed because for 1. Nobody had been in her house for years, or if they did it was not past the front door as the quote, "...no visitor had passed through the door since she had ceased giving china-painting lessons eight or ten years earlier" (Faulkner) says. So they would have no idea a body would be hid there. 2. The man she killed nobody new, he was from the South so the town did not know him. For all they know he could have went back to the South late at night one day when everyone was asleep, and the 3rd reason is, because she kept to herself. She never left  her house and never spoke to anyone so she would not have been able to tell anyone that she had killed him when she made contact with no one. 

•  The hitchhiker in "The Life You Save May Be Your Own" makes the story because since Mr. Shiftlet abandoned Lucynell, it's like pay back when he abandons Mr. Shiftlet by jumping out of the car.

Short Story Socratic Questions

Questions

1. Close Ended Question
              ~What was Arnold Friend's friend named?
2. Open Ended Question
              ~Why does Connie's mom favor June over her?
3. World Connection Question
              ~In the 21st century do people still paint their cars how Arnold's was painted?
4. Core Question
              ~How has the idea of talking to strangers evolved over time?
5. Literary Analysis Questions
              ~Does Oates do a good job of reflecting Connie's parents point of view of her?

Answers

1. Arnold's friend name was Ellie.

2. She favors June because Connie reminds her of how she used to be beautiful but no longer is.

3. Normally people do not paint their cars crazy how Arnold did, but instead just stick to a single color with maybe a stripe or different accent.

4. The idea of talking to strangers has evolved because kidnapping has greatly increased. Hauge Conference said, "As a result of its high level of immigration and emigration and its status as common source and destination for a large amount of international travel the United States has more incoming and outgoing international child abductions per year." Now most parents teach their children not to talk to strangers at all, when it used to not be such a big deal.

5. Yes, because the story talks about how they favor June instead of Connie, just as the quote,  "Why don't you keep your room clean like your sister? How've you got your hair fixed—what the hell stinks? Hair spray? You don't see your sister using that junk." which Connie's mom said.