Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Influences

During the Victorian era, many literary pieces of work were based around the topics of struggle and societal problems. These topics are introduced in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte as well as many other literary pieces during the time. In Jane Eyre, the main character is Jane Eyre, a girl who struggles with family and her social status. She was raised by Mrs. Reed, whom she eventually left, and encountered many paternal figures in her life. The way she consistently encounters different paternal figures influences her own views on affection. Jane’s consistent finding of a paternal figure, shows how consciously or subconsciously she is finding someone to fill the void of not having that higher figure in her life.

Authors write poetry for many reasons including to prove a point, share life stories or to just make the reader think. Robert Frost is a great example of a poet influenced by his experiences. These influences show up in most of his poetry, but especially in “The Road Not Taken”, “Stopping by Woods On a Snowy Evening”, and “Birches”. Moving to the New England region the nature and people helped him become a poet of worldly fame.

“The way to Everest is not a Yellow Brick Road” - Jon Krakauer. This statement derives from Krakauer's thoughts and takeaways from his disastrous climb up Mount Everest that completely upset Krakauer's viewpoint of his lifelong dream, to climb the tallest mountain in the world. Krakauer recounts his journey while scaling Mount Everest in his non-fictional book Into Thin Air, that supports his statement of why the climb is not a Yellow Brick Road. Jon Krakauer's countless mountaineering adventures are the foundation of most of his books, including Eiger Dreams, Into Thin Air, and Into the Wild. Krakauer also uses religion as a base of his book Under the Banner of Heaven.

Surrounded by great minds like Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne, Thoreau traded philosophies and refined his own continuing to write, all the while being pushed by his contemporaries to lecture and write until finally he traveled to New York. His stay would not last long. The hustle and bustle of the big city exemplified the country's materialism and disgusted Thoreau. He promptly returned to Concord where he built a small cabin on Emerson's land alongside Walden Pond. For two years he experimented with farming and writing, and studied nature.

“I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul….I do not belong to that sobbing school of Negrohood who hold that nature somehow has given them a lowdown dirty deal….No, I do not weep at the world--I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife” (“Zora Neale Hurston,” 2009). One woman wrote stories focused on the lives and relationships of black people within their communities. In many of Zora Neale Hurston’s written works, she incorporated her beliefs, race, culture, and personal experiences. Hurston included feminism as well as pride of her race in her literary works to combat issues such as sexism and racism.

John Greenleaf Whittiers early life was simple, basic, and promising. Born December 17, 1807 in Haverhill, Massachusetts, John Greenleaf Whittier was a small town farm boy (Britannica 1). He had limited education because of the rural area in which he lived, but read lots of books (Britannica 1). He not only read books, but British poetry and soon learned how to write (Britannica 1). His early life set him up for exactly what

William Faulkner was a quite man who rarely spoke to anyone. Although he did not graduate High School, Faulkner had an innate ability to remember even the slightest detail of things he heard. The past has always played a role in the telling of most of his stories. However, before we can understand his style of writing, it is important to understand what influences played an important role in his writings. William Faulkner was heavily influenced by his culture, love of his family, and passion for hunting to produce some of his most compelling stories.

The Romanticism era let writers express their thoughts about various ideas through their words. While some focused on nature or the imagination, others wrote about their own opinions on different subject matter. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Henry David Thoreau both depicted their individual thoughts in their works. To convey specific truths about life, Longfellow and Thoreau use their own views in their writings to reveal the truths.

Henry David Thoreau was born on July 12, 1817 in Concord, Massachusetts. But not long after he was born his parents decided to make a move. They felt they should try something new and give their kid a chance to grow up in a more suitable environment. But that did not last long for him and his family, Thoreau started to miss his hometown and the many rivers, streams, and woodlands that were abundant in the area. Thoreau was the third child to come from his father, who was a small business man, and his obnoxious mother who tended to stay home while Thoreau and his siblings were at school. In 1828, his parents sent him to the Concord Academy where he was very successful and admired by his fellow teachers. His College future looked tip-top as he

John Steinbeck was an incredibly popular and highly respected writer of the early 1900s. He was awarded the Nobel prize in Literature, as well as a Pulitzer prize for Fiction. His works were so influential because of his experience in the hardships that others were going through, his ability to write in a way that spoke to people of a class other than the subject matter he wrote, and the fact that he was helping to pioneer a new form of writing. Steinbeck was born in 1902 in California, and grew up in a period of time where life was rough, as America was going through the Great Depression after World War I. Jobs were hard to find and many people were living in Poverty. Steinbeck himself had a relatively happy childhood; his father was able to provide for their family.

Born July 12th 1817, Thoreau grew up very educated. Education surrounded him everywhere. At home, his sister was his educated tutor. Thoreau loved to read. Thoreau would read and memorize Shakespeare, John Bunyan, and more. Thoreau worked so hard that he was accepted to Harvard. After graduating Harvard in 1833, he returned to his home town. When he got back home, he became a teacher at an elementary school.

Writers in The romantic Period wrote their pieces with emotion, compared to the Colonial Period when it was about information, and politics. Writers like Nathaniel Hawthorne, Washington Irving, Ralph Emerson, and Henry Longfellow are some of the writers of this time. They all help shape and, make a path for the Romantic Period. The Romantic Period took place in the 1800’s, and was at its peak around 1850 or so. It originated in the area of Europe and was all about the spread of art, music, and writing.

In 1825, Longfellow graduated fourth in his class, he would later continue to publish poetry throughout his time in college and during that time of his, Longfellow befriended the American author Nathaniel Hawthorne who would come to be one of America's premier epic representatives of the nineteenth century.

Many of Longfellow’s influences on his works have sprouted from his early life experiences. Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine to Stephen Longfellow and Zilpah Longfellow. As a child Longfellow was known for his vivid imagination. Little did he know that his childhood experiences sparked many of ideas for his future works.

To begin with, Samuel Langhorne Clemons or Mark Twain is known to be one of the greatest and most influential artists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Not only is he intelligent and influential, he is very humorist. Mark Twain's work was mostly influenced by his childhood. Mark Twain was born as Samuel Langhorne Clemens on November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri in a small cabin which is now preserved and is a historic site in Missouri. He is the son of John Marshall Clemons and Jane Lampton Clemens and is 1 of 7 children. In 1839, he and his family moved to Hannibal, Missouri. Mr. John Marshall Clemens worked extremely hard as a Tennessee country merchant to provide for his family until his passing in 1846 from pneumonia forcing the family into financial hardship. Mark twain’s tragic lost caused him to quit school and become a printer’s apprentice from 1846-1851 with Hannibal Journal in order to take the major role his father had which was taking care of the family. Mark Twain was greatly inspired by this and is even more inspired by his Hannibal days which were his childhood. Mark Twain was quite an intelligent person, although he knew he couldn’t finish school because of the responsibilities he had to take, he later learned that he could be self-educated. Mark Twain learned to educate himself through life experiences and by reading in the library in the evening in his spare time. Mark Twain was then given a promotion to become a typesetter where he