The Importance Of Literature In American Literature

Through the various primary sources, a theme of hypocrisy is introduced, revealing the constant contradiction of freedom in America during the 19th century. This theme is exemplified in “America”, a poem written by James Whitfield. The poem begins with the lines, “America, it is to thee, / Thou boasted land of liberty, - / It is to thee I raise my song, / Thou land of blood, and crime, and wrong” (Whitfield “America” 1- 4). Within the first four lines of the poem, Whitfield introduces the notion that America, albeit boasting of freedom, is truly a land of wrongdoing. This idea is further enhanced later in the poem, as it is mentioned, “Oh no; they fought, as they believed, / For the inherent rights of man; / But mark, how they have been deceived / By slavery’s accursed plan” (Whitfield “America” 37 -

In the 19th century, political philospher Alexis de Tocqueville claimed, “the in habitants of the United States have… properly speaking, no literature.” This will be demonstrated as false by looking into the unique literature produced by America. Two examples we will be looking at are from Sarah Orne Jewett and Edgar Allen Poe. The pair will prove that Alexis de Tocqueville’s statement is not accurate, and that America has very distinct literature.

Even in the early stages of American history there was an urge to put legally protected freedoms into written government documents. The result was the drafting of the first ten amendments to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, by James Madison. The applications of the personal freedoms described in the Bill of Rights, particularly the freedom of speech, have been challenged repeatedly in American courts of law and elsewhere. These incidents and challenges of authority reflect the defensive American attitude toward the ever-important freedom of expression and the growing significance of personal rights throughout American history.

Back in the year of 1791, when our grand country was at the tender age of fifteen, two gentlemen gathered together to form a written document that would protect their newly attained freedom. These written principles, later know as the Bill of Rights, were penned primarily by George Mason and James Madison. The Founding Fathers of the American public’s home country. It is interesting to note that not only were these two men the authors of Bill of Rights but were also successful in their own careers too. George Mason, a prospering planter in the state of Virginia and James Madison a graduate of the College of New Jersey, known as present day Princeton. Madison was a lawyer by trade, but was driven with a profound interest in ministry. They came together to compose one of the greatest treasures in the nation’s history: the Bill of Rights. In this written expository, this author will be discussing the first of the ten of these amendments: the amendment that guarantees Americans the freedom of Speech. The necessity of free speech and the important values it contains is a main foundation for this country, therefore, Rosenblatt 's argument for the freedom of “expression” is valid because it certifies our right to speak freely, form an opinion, and exercise the correct function of democracy while on American soil.

One of the most interesting things about a culture is the voice of the people. In the United States, the American Voice is the combined voices of the people who live in America and the mixing of thousands of different perspectives and ideas. The natural mixing of American culture leads to change whether for better or for worse, as time goes on, so does America and the American people. American literature commonly has strong themes of unity and equality. The clearest way to see the voice of a culture is through its literature, essays by american authors like The Declaration of Independance, Ain’t I a Woman, and Letters from Birmingham Jail.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with inherent and inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," says the Declaration of Independence. This phrase encompasses three major values shown throughout early American literature. The strong belief in religion, freedom, and a strong will for a better life. Each piece had one or more of these themes within them.

Soon, tensions rose between the majority of colonists and Britain. The colonists began boycotting, rioting, and rebelling against the British guards and officers that lived in the colonies. Quickly, a revolution broke out and the American colonists fought for their freedom and independence. Finally, in 1776 the American colonists won the ultimate battle and became victorious in the Revolutionary War. A famous document written during the time of the revolution, written by Thomas Jefferson, was the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence states that every human was created equal and, therefore, should all attain equal rights. Another popular statement within the Declaration of Independence includes how humans all have the rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. These natural rights that Americans believed to be

American literature 1865-1914 is an American literary time period that began in 1865 and ended in 1914. This time period was flourished by three distinct features and the first of these features is: The Aftermath of the Civil War. It is estimated that a total of 620,000 Americans were killed in the Civil War, and for what? At the time, we were an America that was divided by one huge issue that ran supreme and it was slavery and the unequal treatment of African Americans. At this time the nation needed to figure a way to unite the North who were against slavery and the South who were for slavery. As Abraham Lincoln says in our Bedford Anthology of American Literature: “No one man has authority to give up the rebellion for any other man, we simply must begin with, and mould from, disorganized and discordant elements,” (4). He is saying that we must not start a new, but rather we need to start from what we had and mould and shape our country into one. Prior to the Civil War, America was not a whole, it was ruled by states’ rights and was divided on countless issues, and when referring to America, people said the United States are… It wasn’t until under President Lincoln, and concluding the Civil War that the United States began to be referred to as the United States is.. Honest Abe, brought our nation together as one, but the racial tension that remained was something one man can never fix. The literature around this time period was dominated by ideas and feelings circled

“A Tale Intended to be After the Fact…” is how Stephan Crane introduced his harrowing story, “The Open Boat,” but this statement also shows that history influences American Literature. Throughout history, there has been a connection among literary works from different periods. The connection is that History, current events, and social events have influenced American Literature. Authors, their literary works, and the specific writing styles; are affected and influenced by the world around them. Authors have long used experiences they have lived through and/or taken out of history to help shape and express in their works. Writing styles are also affected by the current trends and opinions of the period they represent. By reading American

Back then there were many diverse ideas about religion. The way people had viewed god back then was quite interesting . As time passed, philosophies changed .Beliefs and views on god started to transition. It all began with god and how he had to be worshiped. Then, it started to transition to the belief that god still existed but was no longer here and that he had created and left laws of nature. Lastly, the people were able to connect with god in a spiritual way through nature. Throughout the major literary philosophies in the United States, one can see how the movement from once “worshiping” god slowly transitions to connecting with “god” in a different way.

Moral power held by literature or art has often smashed against some form of material power and censorship. For instance, books against the ideas of the Nazi regime such as Marx’s “The Communist Manifesto” were burnt in the Nazi’s book burning of 1933 and The Bible is currently banned from North Korea. Authors have therefore been pressured into finding a method to avoid the strict restrictions forced by material power. In this paper, I will argue that Philip K. Dick was able to criticize the government and the situation of America in the 1960s, without suffering consequences, thanks to the generation of a time shift in his novel and the construction of a parallel between story and history hence manipulating the line between fiction and reality.

Early American literature does a tremendous job of revealing the exact conditions and challenges that were faced by the explorers and later by the colonists of the New World. From early shipwrecks to the later years of small colonies barely surviving through dreadful winters, the literary works of the time period focus on some very recognizable themes. The theme of any given work – being simply the unifying subject or idea – is a very important element of any piece of writing. As one reviews some of this early literature, it becomes obvious that several themes appear repeatedly, and it is these subjects that were clearly very common among people from all over the New World. While a number of themes

The theme of freedom Haggard constructs in this essay underpins major concerns of the late nineteenth-century: freedom of speech and the rise of the new woman. The freedom of English writers is constricted through the takeover by America, which is referred to critically: “America has scarcely produced a writer of first class” (Haggard 175). America monopolises the English: “most of the books patronized by this enormous population are stolen from the English authors” (Haggard 174). Haggard

With American Literature, the authors expressed these freedoms through their works, but there was a point in time (1820-1865) where freedoms of thought and expression were the primary ideas for most of the texts. During this period, the authors openly voiced their discontent with institutions and systems, such as slavery, criticizing them for how they restrict people from thinking for themselves. They also demonstrated their freedom of expression through the text itself, not just the content of the text. In other words, the act of writing and publishing their work was an act of rebellion against the customs they disliked, because they have the freedom to do so. They not only have the right to have ideas that are different from those of the majority, but also the right to share those ideas with everyone, even if people don’t want to hear them.

The Colonial Period in American Literature Blake Quickel The Colonial Period of American Literature was vital not only to the timeline of literature in our country, but it shaped the values and tradition that we identify America with. Literature from this period gives us a look into the beginnings of our country from different views such as Poems and stories from Native culture, Puritans, and the founding fathers. These writings give us an honest view of the way of life during this time. The Puritan writings we read in this class were very interesting in how they showed the early stages of America’s religion. Although religion in our government and our country’s values has become less and less extreme over time, it is amazing knowing how much control it had over society in our country’s beginnings; and many of the morals exorcised in the Puritan culture are still values relevant to our society today. In a reading from the “Introduction: Puritan Voices” assignment (a), the writer refers to the Massachusetts Bay Colony as a “man’s world”, describing the limited roles of women in society and how men were portrayed in the church as superior. Puritan ministers often preached that the soul had two parts, the immortal masculine half, and the mortal feminine half. Gender inequality is an enormous part of American Literature throughout all periods, and here you can see where these values originated in our country. Puritan society exists as a valid demonstration for why the first