Unit 2- Romanticism and Transcendentalism

Rip Van Winkle

What about the story did you find particularly Romantic? When Rip decided to escape his nagging wife and then just one day woke up 20 years later is a fine example of romanticism in this story. i like the way he can just skip through the hard parts in life and just appear back where he used to live.
1. The villagers used their imagination to believe in the nine-pinners. That way they can explain what happened to Rip Van Winkle.


2. Rip fell asleep and woke up in the future. He didn't have to go to war or provide for his kids, he just skipped out and when he came back, he was a grandfather and he was kind of famous.





Thanatopsis

by: William Cullen Bryant

How does this poem illustrate all three of the main themes of Romanticism?
IMAGINATION- thinking about all the people whoo are burried in the earth you walk on as opposed to all of those still alive today
PROMOTION OF COMMON PEOPLE- when you die, you will be equal with kings and slaves
CELEBRATON OF NATURE- when you die, you will become one with nature


Georgia Performance Standards

Take a moment to review the Georgia Performance Standards we have studied so far:

ELAALRL1 The student demonstrates comprehension by identifying evidence (i.e., examples of diction, imagery, point of view, figurative language, symbolism, plot events and main ideas) in a variety of texts representative of different genres (i.e., poetry, prose [short story, novel, essay, editorial, biography], and drama) and using this evidence as the basis for interpretation. You will read a passage or listen to a work of literature and be capable of understanding by identifying the parts that are helping to explain what the passage is about.

ELAALRL2 The student identifies, analyzes, and applies knowledge of theme in a work of American literature and provides evidence from the work to support understanding. When you learn a new term, such as Romanticism, you can take evidence from the story or poem you are reading to prove that it is an example of whatever theme you are studying.

ELAALRL3 The student deepens understanding of literary works by relating them to their contemporary context or historical background, as well as to works from other time periods. You can take your own experiences or beliefs and apply them to halp you understand the deeper meaning of a poem or work of literature.
ex. Thanatopsis was trying to help you accept death, that's my biggest fear. I took my fear and tried to understand what William Cullen Bryant was trying to get me to realize and it helped me.

Transcendentalism

a. What is original sin? Original sin comes from the Fall of Man. Some believe that when God created Adam and Eve he put them in the Garden of Eden and told them not to eat the forbidden fruit. They couldn't resist temptation, and so when they defied God, sin was born.

b. How did the Puritans feel about original sin? The puritans believed that everyone was born a sinner except for those priests or heads of the church who could directly interpret the Word of God. They also believed that you could not earn God's grace, but it was given to certain people as a birth right.

c. How did the Rationalists differ from the Puritans? Rationalists did not believe that everyone was going to hell and that there was no way to earn God's forgivness and grace such as the Puritans did. Rationalists also believed that they didn't have to live stricly by the Word of God, that they could take what God gave themm and expand and learn on it.

d. What are the main themes of Romanticism? The main themes are using your imagination, believing in the celebration of nature and the promotion of common people.




"Nature" and "Self-Reliance" by Ralph Waldo Emerson

NATURE:
The way you see nature can define who you are. The lumberjack may see a tree as something to harvest and sell, yet a poet may see a tree as a towering grandmother to all the plants covering the forest floor. You can rely and have spiritual fatith in nature as you know it will change for you every year. The seasons have turned for centuries and will continue to turn. Emerson had a moment where he believed that he was one with the wooded field around him and then God spoke to him, he was enlightened and somehow felt he was connected with everything God has created and put on earth for him.

SELF RELIANCE:
This passage is telling me that you need to rely on yourself to achieve spiritual and tangible wealth in life. No one is going to give you money to feed your children, you have to work for your harvest and everyone has to learn their own trade. We need to make good of ourselves in our lifetime and not be so selfish with what we know and have, that way when we die, we will have peace that God will accept us into His Kingdom. Having peace with yourself may meean that you do not follow the crowd and become a selfish, money- hungry society. Maybe when you do not confrom, you will become an outcast; your lifestyle is no longer accepted and your thoughts are different from those around you. Lots of great people such as Jesus were outcasts and misunderstood, so Emerson says, and that's not a bad thing because you kept your faith in whatever you might believe in and god will reward you for that.

The passages Nature and Self- Reliance are good examples of Transcendentalism because they are describing to you what you will get from everyday strifes and beauties and how God comes through them to speak to you. In Nature, Emerson describes how God speaks to him in the middle of the forest on a day when the seasons are changing.
That's an example because he is not a natural sinner and God is speaking directly to him. Self- Reliance, on the other hand, is speaking of how God has provided you with the tools to learn and work to support your family. You will praise him and he will speak to you, but with others in the world becoming sinners and corrupting the neighborhood around you, if you stay pure, he will reward you.


Wilderness

How can you apply Transcendental philosophy to the man in this video?
He showed some examples of Transcendentalism by being one with nature and having a loving vision about the wildlife and the forests in which he would be inhabiting for the next 35 years. This kind of transcendentalism was also showed in Nature by Ralph Emerson.
The man also related to another one of Emerson's works: Self- Reliance. He built himself a house out of what God supplied him within mother nature and caught his own fish for nourishment. This man was alone for 35 years and had to rely on himself for everything he needed and wanted. He couldn't be corrupt or selfish by the ways of the new societies that were forming without him.