Puritanism bequeathe
AL Final Exam Review
1) Puritanism bequeathed to America certain characteristics. Basically, Puritans believed in Calvin’s idea of election, but also believed that they had entered into a covenant with God (Winthrop’s “City on the hill”), which meant that they had to live up to certain moral ideals, often in a very public manner. This sometimes led to despair, of the kind exhibited, for example, by Anne Bradstreet in her poem about the two sisters, Flesh and Spirit. Along with these ideas, of course, are to be found Protestant rejection of most of the Catholic Sacraments and much of Anglican and Catholic church hierarchy. After Enlightenment Deism, roughly the beliefs of the founding fathers, and Transcendentalism (make sure to look up the terms in vol A), the old Puritan beliefs still remained a part of the culture, as seen in the First Great Awakening (Edwards), the Second Great Awakening (Wesley and Methodism). How did these beliefs, in one way or another, influence American literature?
Consider the above question, where relevant, in the works below. For each one, be able to summarize it and explain some of the issues that we specifically discussed concerning the nature of each author and work.
2) Satire in Rip Van Winkle OR symbolism in Rappaccini’s Daughter. Also, didactism in his introduction to “The House of the Seven Gables”
3) Edgar Allen Poe’s Romanticism in Sonnet to Science, Purloined Letter, and The Fall of the House of Usher.
4) Melville’s attitudes towards Africans, Spaniards, and slavery in “Benito Cereno”
5) Know well Emerson’s ideas in one of the following: American Scholar, Self-Reliance, OR the Poet.
6) Any theme in Thoreau’s Walden Pond
7) Know the details of and issues addressed in either “Iron Mills” OR “Slave Narratives”
8) The issue of American identity in Emerson, Thoreau, and Melville.
9) Melville on Calvinism and Shakespeare.
10) Religion and language in Dickinson
11) Does Crevecoeur anticipate many of the themes of the later Transcendentalists?
12) Analyze the meaning and prosody of Anne Bradstreet’s poem. Also, be able to demonstrate an awareness of the prosody of each poem you analyze from any author above.
BK A: 13-15; 365-76; Introductions in BK B.
