The End

     American Literature I has given me a greater understanding of and appreciation for American Literature.  I can't say that I was all that excited to take it in the beginning, (since I already had taken American Literature II) but it ended up being an enjoyable experience!  The biggest thing I have appreciated throughout this semester has been seeing how we got to where we are, reading the authors and thinkers that influenced how we write and think today.  Literature has a bigger impact on our culture than I ever imagined.  It also reveals underlying ideals and assumptions that I hadn't recognized prior to discussing them in class.  Understanding where we came from is crucial in our journey moving forward--we can learn from our mistakes and figure out how to repeat what we did right.  And along the way we can write about it ourselves, allowing our successors to have the same experience we have been gifted with.

Emily Dickinson, 620: Much Madness is divinest Sense

     I have been called crazy a few times (mostly by my parents or friends that knew the person I was when I was younger) for my developing thoughts and opinions.  I think at times they have thought my opinions to be "straightaway dangerous" and wanted to "handle me with a Chain."  But as Dickinson points out, "Much Madness is divinest Sense - / To a discerning Eye -" As we grow up, that's what we learn to do, to develop a discerning eye.  We learn to not instantly assent or deny new ways of thinking, but to wrestle with them in a state of indecisiveness for a while.  We learn to become okay with not having all the answers.  This is what Dickinson, Whitman, and many other poets and authors encourage--be comfortable with being uncomfortable.  This is certainly something I have learned in my time at college.  But I have also learned not to stop trying to understand things better, even if it is easier to give up and never form an opinion.

Emily Dickinson, 1263: Tell all the truth but tell it slant

     This is another one of Dickinson's poems that I really like, and this one is a little easier to read than some of her other poems (maybe that's part of the reason I like it so much?)  The speaker in "Tell all the truth but tell it slant" seems to understand that as we grow, we will learn new knowledge that can be painful at times.  And as we learn this new knowledge, it is our job to help others come into truth.  However, "The Truth must dazzle gradually / Or every man be blind -"  I've had people try to throw new truths at me that I just wasn't ready for yet, and it caused emotional turmoil.  It also caused me to deny what they said was true.  As I read this poem, I thought about it in light of spiritual growth.  I can look back at what I used to believe or where I used to be in my walk of faith and think condescendingly of myself.  But I can also look back and see that God met me where I was at and helped me to understand the truth gradually, instead of throwing things at me I wasn't ready for yet.

Emily Dickinson, 591: I heard a Fly buzz - when I died -

     Emily Dickinson's poems always confuse me the first time I read them, which frustrates me, but once I dig into them I appreciate them so much!  I really liked her poem that begins with "I heard a Fly buzz - when I died -"  Before I came to college, I definitely had a different view of death than I have now.  When people died, I always used the classic lines, like they're "somewhere better" or "finally at peace" or assured people (myself included) that their dead loved one wouldn't want them to be sad.  But after taking theology classes, I have come to understand that death is not a good thing, and should be grieved.  It disrupts life unapologetically.  Dickinson portrays it this way in her poem; death is not the next step to happiness or "stepping into the light," it's simply the end of life--life that is good.  Dickinson's poem is very anticlimactic and matter of fact.  She refuses to allude to the classic scene of "stepping into the light" that many use when describing death.  In this poem, Dickinson challenges the reader to recognize that life as it was meant to be is found in life--not death.  As Christians, this is something we can put our hope in; that although death is inevitable, Christ offers us life in resurrection--real, physical life.  Dying is not the end!  Thanks, Emily.

Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself"

     Although Whitman is understood to be the father of American poetry I can't say that he was my absolute favorite to read!  As I was reading I often thought to myself, why is this so sexual?!  Why is he relating anything he can to sex?!  However, I can say that I appreciate how he refused to make a divide between body/spirit, refusing to saying some experiences as a human are more valuable than others.  But before I throw him out all together, there were some things that I appreciated about his poetry.  I liked part 2, where he is basically calling people out for thinking they have everything figured out.

Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems?
Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin of all poems,
You shall possess the good of the earth and sun, (there are millions of suns left,)...
You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me,
You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self. (lines 32-34, 36-37)

Here he is questioning people who think they have all the answers, and suggesting that they go out and experience nature--how vast and wide and unknowable it is: "there are millions of suns left."  He says not to just listen to what others say, but experience life and come to have opinions for yourself.

However, he also recognizes that this will be a difficult process, one that he is still on.  I liked the last stanza of "Song of Myself":

Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop somewhere waiting for you. (lines 1343-1345)

Maybe I did enjoy reading Whitman after all.

Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin"

     One thing I found interesting about this novel was how Stowe often presented the women in the novel as the moral voice.  While the men were the powerful and autonomous ones out doing business, the women were at home with the slaves, and began to see the humanity in them.  For example, when Mr. Shelby decides to sell Tom and Harry, Mrs. Shelby reminds her husband of his promise to set Tom free and her own promise to Eliza that Harry would stay.  She then goes on to say that slavery is a sin--here Stowe is certainly not leaving her convictions in question for the reader.  She clearly has an agenda, and isn't concerned with talking around the matter, rather choosing to get right down to it.  Stowe takes on this blunt tone throughout the novel, which is effective in getting her point across for me, someone that agrees with her, but as I was reading, at times I wondered if her writing was as effective for those who didn't share her convictions.

Margaret Fuller "The Great Lawsuit"

     In the section about "The Great Radical Dualism," I appreciated Fuller's argument against such strict gender roles--ones that are said to come naturally.  She says, "Male and female present the two sides of the great radical dualism.  But, in fact, they are perpetually passing into one another.  Fluid hardens to solid, solid rushes to fluid.  There is no wholly masculine man, no purely feminine woman."  She argues that nature actually "provides exceptions to every rule," and goes on to talk about women taking on traditionally masculine roles and men taking on traditionally feminine roles.  She calls into question where we get our ideas of "masculine" and "feminine," because both genders participate in activities that are stereotyped to the opposite gender.  In regards to the work of men and women, she suggests to "let it be."  "Let it take what form it will, and let us not bind it by the past to man or woman, black or white."  Fuller desires inclusiveness in work, not separating out jobs based on sexes, but allowing people to participate in whatever work they do best.  There is no masculine job or feminine job, just jobs.  We should focus on what we're good at instead of discriminating based on sex or race.  As I read, I related Fuller's argument to church politics.  Although I would not argue as Fuller does, as her argument is based on Mother Nature distributing jobs, I would instead argue that the Holy Spirit distributes jobs and gifts without discriminating against sex and gender.  In this way, there are no definite "masculine" or "feminine" jobs, as the Spirit gives freely on its own accord.