1841: Emerson, Self-Reliance

Emerson in 1857.

Harvard

Emerson was 14 when he enrolled in Harvard College. He graduated, four years later, in 1821 (550).

Schoolmaster

For several years after his graduation, he was a "hopeless Schoolmaster" at several Boston-area schools (550).

Ministry

In 1825, he began studying to become a minister at Harvard Divinity school, and began preaching a year later. Like Unitarians at the time, he did not believe that "human beings were innately depraved" (551).

Emerson aligned with those in his church who "interpreted biblical miracles as stories comparable to myths of other cultures." In time, Emerson developed "a greater faith in individual moral sentiment and intution than in revealed religion" (551).

Widower

After the death of his 19-year-old wife in 1832, Emerson resigned his pastorate. He claimed that "he had become so skeptical of the validity of the Lord's Supper that he could no longer administer the sacrament" (551).

Because of the money his wife left him, he did not need to produce a constant income, and he "began a new career as a lecturer, speaking around New England in the lyceums" (551).

Transcendentalists

Emerson and his allies became known as "Transcendentalists" for their faith in "the mind as actively intuitive and creative" (551). In time, he gave more than fifteen hundred lectures (552).

Social reform?

Emerson "accepted the idea of racial differences and hierarchies."

In 1844, "he delivered a passionate antislavery address," and in time he condemned the Fugitive Slave Law as an "outrage" and slavery as "abhorrent."

He was an advocate for women's rights.

Emerson was "skeptical of social reforms that required group participation," and he never achieved national prominence as a social reformer (552).

Legacy

According to the Norton Anthology of American Literature: Beginning to 1865, Shorter Ninth Edition, Emerson is "arguably the most influential American writer of the nineteenth century--the writer with whom numerous other significant writers of the time sought to come to terms."

1841: Harrison and Tyler

William Henry Harrison, Whig from Ohio, beat sitting President Martin Van Buren by 6% of the popular vote.

On the day he took office, Harrison gave a long speech in which he said it was wrong for anyone to try to make slavery illegal in states where it was legal. Harison said that if the people who opposed slavery continued to do that, the result would be "disunion, violence, and civil war, and the ultimate destruction our free institutions."

John Tyler (at left), Whig/Independent fom Virigina, became President in April after Harrison died of penumonia.

Invites Texas to Join the United States as a Slave State

Tyler, who held seventy African-Americans captive as salves on his Virginia farm, wanted to increase the number of states that allowed slavery, so he encouraged the Congress to invite Texas to join the United States. The Mexican Congress said the document that said Texas was an independent country was invalid because their President, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, was a prisoner of war when he signed it, and the Mexican Congress never approved it. In their eyes, Texas was still a part of Mexico. The leaders of Mexico said if the U.S. tried to take over Texas, they would consider it an act of war. In spite of this, in the spring of 1845, in one of his last acts as President, Tyler signed a document welcoming Texas to join the United States as a state where slavery was legal.

15-17B. "Self-Reliance" (1841) by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Undated image of an engraving of Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ideology: A Personal God

1. Emerson recounts a conversation with a religious friend who tells him not to listen to his impulses, as they may be of the Devil. Emerson replies “… if I am the Devil’s child, I will live then from the Devil.” He views a person’s relationship with the Christian god as something that is deeply personal, so religious rituals and the opinions of others are irrelevant. He even says that he prefers the “silent church” to “a Christianity entrenched in establishments.”

Ideology: The Individual and Society

2. Emerson’s “Self-Reliance” could also be titled “Pride.” I think that Emerson disregarded the idea that wisdom is not only found from within and from personal experiences but also from others and what people teach one another. To believe that one can succeed in life without the wisdom of others is a bit foolish.

Ideology: Children and Society
3. [Emerson] argues that people, especially Americans, do not act on instinct enough and instead “surrender liberty.” Emerson believes that “imitation is suicide” which is caused by adults copying one another because they think it is what they are supposed to do. He writes that we should instead be like children or animals as “their eye is as yet unconquered” by what adults (society) believe to be proper. If one where to allow their “childlike” wonder and instinct to shine through, then one would be one step closer to being “great.”

Ideology: The unity of all things
4. This excerpt from “Self-Reliance,” by Ralph Waldo Emerson sings the tune of that of a Taoist—endorsing the universal nature of all things in statements such as, “These roses under my window make no reference to former roses or to better ones; they are for what they are; they exist with God to-day. There is no time to them. There is simply the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its existence.” Emerson is placing the rose (a symbol of nature, a symbol of beauty, a symbol of nature’s beauty) on a pedestal in order to encourage mankind to embrace their essential qualities, those immutable truths of our character.

Ideology: Eastern Philosophy
5. Emerson’s [advocacy] for self-reliance retains elements of Eastern philosophy, such as Taoism, as I will define as the act of inaction and the release of attachments to expectation. To qualify this claim, I present the following quotation from his excerpt: “He who travels to be amused, or to get somewhat which he does not carry, travels away from himself, and grows old even in youth among old things. In Thebes, in Palmyra, his will and mind have become old and dilapidated as they. He carries ruins to ruins.” This notion suggests that to desire something, to form an attachment to an expectation, is falling short of the beauty and goal of life. From the Tao te Ching, there exists a similar quote, reading, “The Master’s power is like this. He lets all things come and go effortlessly, without desire. He never expects results; thus he is never disappointed. He is never disappointed; thus his spirit never grows old” [(55)]. Like the Tao te Ching, Emerson is arguing that true satisfaction is found from within oneself, and that the senseless pursuit of expectation will leave one feeling unfulfilled.

Ideology: The Benefits of Travel

6. I felt a certain interest in Emerson’s idea of travel, that I feel is very relevant to our world. “Travelling is a fool’s paradise,” said Emerson, “We owe our first journeys the discovery that place is nothing.” What I think he means by this is that people travel to discover new places and new experiences, the allure of it all. But at the end of the day, we are stuck with ourselves wherever we go, and cannot escape that. Emerson gives a scenario in which he paints a picture of this idea. Emerson says that “at home, I dream that at Naples, at Rome, I can be intoxicated with beauty, and lose my sadness.” However, when he wakes up, realizes that “there is the stern Fact, the sad self, unrelenting, identical, that I fled from.” This metaphorical situation introduced by Emerson is in reality a situation that happens every single day. People feel sadness, depression, and discontentment. So, they try to run away from those problems, by either travelling or simply leaving their houses. Instead of doing what should really be done, confronting the problems head on, and recognizing what is causing ill feelings.

Ideology: The Benefits of Study

7. Emerson mentioned something that I do not entirely agree with [...:]“Every great man is a unique… Shakespeare will never be made by the study of Shakespeare” (Emerson). This is a great point, originality and innovation are key in this area, but Emerson’s argument here feels as though influence and inspiration did not play a role in helping create a “great man”. I agree that a Shakespeare will not be made by studying Shakespeare, but I do not believe that anyone can become a “great man” just by being entirely unique. There’s a sense of genius to their originality that can not be fully replicated, but their influence can help guide others to that level.

Ideology: The Individual and Society

8. Emerson does not believe the [progress] of society means that individuals themselves improve. He believes that people only approve when they look inward and not outward, and that limiting your view of success to the success of society as a whole will leave you unfulfilled. He argues that being a man means being a “nonconformist” and that life is for the individual “not for a spectacle”.

9. Emerson’s “Self-Reliance” could also be titled “Pride.” I think that Emerson disregarded the idea that wisdom is not only found from within and from personal experiences but also from others and what people teach one another. To believe that one can succeed in life without the wisdom of others is a bit foolish.

10. He has quite a [skeptical] view of society and appears to be against working for someone, considering other people’s ideas and charitable efforts. He claims, “we have an ambition out of all proportion to our practical force, and so do beg day and night continually.” Although I can see the point he is trying to make in that one should always exercise their own awareness and truth so as not to be coerced into one centralized mentality, I think he could be neglecting to see a crucial element to evolution. Regardless of if you agree or disagree with the mechanics of society, refusing to see other opinions or beliefs can in some sense jeopardize the potential for change.

Quotations and Questions for Consideration

11.   "To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men,--that is genius" (596).

• Compare with imperialism
• Question: Is Emerson’s attitude friendly to imperialism?

12.   "An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man; as, Monachism, of the Hermit Antony; the Reformation, of Luther; Quakerism, of Fox; Methodism, of Wesley; Abolition, of Clarkson. Scipio, Milton called 'the height of Rome'; and all history resolves itself very easily into the biography of a few stout and earnest persons" (602).

• Compare the "Great Man" theory of history with the views of  Marx and Tolstoy
• Question: Does the “Great Man” theory of history encourage particular political attitudes? Is it anti-democratic, for example?
• Question: Which is a greater threat in society today: “herd mentality” or individual arrogance?

13.   "[The child, the babe, the brute] cumbers himself never about consequences, about interests: he gives an independent genuine verdict" (597).

• Compare with Kant's "categorical imperative"
• Question: Which is a greater threat in society today: people who think too much about the consequences of their actions (including how these actions will be seen and judged by others) or people who do what they think is right and don’t think about the consequences at all?

8.

14. "Discontent is the want of self-reliance; it is infirmity of will. Regret calamaties, if you can thereby help the sufferer; if not, attend your own work, and already the evil begins to be repaired. Our sympathy is just as base. We come to them who weep foolishly, and sit down and cry for company, instead of imparting to them truth and health in rough electric shocks, putting them once more in communication with the soutl. The secret of fortune is joy in our hands Welcome evermore to gods and men is the self-helping man. For him all doors are flung wide"  (608).

• Compare with Jane Tompkins on the power of tears in Uncle Tom's Cabin

15. "The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet. . . . He has got a fine Geneva watch, but he has lost the skill to tell the hour by the sun. A Greenwich nautical almanac he has, and so being sure of the information when he wants it, the man in the street does not know a star in the sky. The solstice he does not observe; the equinox he knows as little; and the ; and the whole bright calendar of the year is without a dial in his mind. His notebooks impair his memory . . ." (611).

• Compare with Thoreau

1843: Poe, The Black Cat

"Edgar Allan Poe" by Hadi Kraimi

An Orphan

Edgar Poe was two years old when his mother died in 1811. With his father out of the picture, Poe was taken in and raised by the family of John Allan, a Richmond, Virginia tobacco merchant.

Childhood Years with Foster Parents in England

In 1815, Poe was 6 years old, when he and the Allans moved to England. Poe went to good schools there.

A Familial Rift

In 1820, Poe and the Allans moved back to Richmond.

In 1824, John Allan's business failed, and he and Poe had a falling out.

Freshman Flame Out

In 1826, at the age of 15, Poe enrolled as a student at the University of Virginia. His father provided him with minimal financial support. Poe began drinking. He incurred debts, which increased when he tried gambling to pay them off.  He had to leave the University before the end of his first year.

In the Army

In 1827, John Allan kicked Poe out of his house, and Poe joined the army and published a collection of his poems.

In 1830, Poe was admitted to West Point. When John Allan remarried, Poe lost hope of inheriting his foster father's wealth (which included slaves), stopped going to classes, and was expelled.

Poverty and Publications

Beginning in 1831, Poe wrote and published poems and stories while living in poverty with relatives in Baltimore, including his aunt and his eight-year-old cousin Virginia.

Silent on Slavery

In 1835, he moved back to Richmond and became an editorial assistant at the Southern Literary Messenger, which "adopted a middle-of-the-road position linking slvery to states' rights rather than God's will" (Levine 732). According to the Norton Anthology of American Literature, Beginnings to 1865, "Like many white writers of the time, Poe sometimes resorted to racial stereotypes, and he sometimes conveyed his fears of the possibilities of black violence" (Levine 732).  Even though Poe "spent years in the South and even held hopes of inheriting the property of a slaveholder, the fact is that his relative silence on the political debate on slavery makes him notably different from most southern intellectuals of the time . . . who went on record with their proslavery views" (Levine 733).

My Cousin, My Child-Bride

In 1836, he was 27 when he married his thirteen-year-old cousin, Virginia.

Alcoholism and Literary Rise

Fired from his editorial job in 1837, in part because of his drinking, Poe and his wife and aunt/mother-in-law moved to New York City. That year, he published The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym.

In 1838, Poe moved to Philadelphia, where he got a steady job as a co-editor of Burton's Gentleman's Magazine. While there, he published "The Fall of the House of Usher." In 1840, he was fired for his drinking.

Inventing Detective Fiction

Poe was subsequently employed by a new magazine called Graham's, where he published "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," which "many critics regard as the earliest example of detective fiction" (Levine 733).

Literary Heights

"The Tell-Tale Heart" was published in January 1843 in The Pioneer.

"The Black Cat" was published in August 1843 in the Saturday Evening Post.

In 1844, he moved his family back to New York City, where he worked at another journal. In 1845, his poem "The Raven," "was published.

Tragedy and Death

In 1847, his wife, Virginia, died from tuberculosis.

In 1849, Poe was found unconscious in Baltimore and taken to a hospital, where he died.

Legacy

Poe was a pragmatic professional writer "who recognized the advent of a mass market and wanted to succeed in it." He did this by writing stories about "aristocratic madmen, self-tormented murderers, neurasthenic necrophiliacs" (Levine 734).  Poe, "more than most, understood his audience . . . and sought ways to gain its attention for stories that, aside from their shock value, regularly addressed compelling philosophical, cultural, psychological, and scientific issues; the place of irrationality, violence and repression in human consciousness and social institutions; the alienation and dislocations attending democratic mass culture and the modernizing forces of the time; the tug and pull of the material and the corporeal; the absolutely terrifying dimensions of one's own mind; and new ideas about technology and the physical universe" (Levine 734).

18B. "The Black Cat" (1843) by Edgar Allan Poe

"Edgar Allan Poe" by Pablo Lopez

Aesthetics: How Would the Cat Survive?
1) The cat also survives within the wall for four days, which a normal cat probably would not be able to do?

Ideology: Domestic Abuse

2) With his violent outbursts the narrator tries to defend himself by trying to reason that “Who has not… found himself committing a vile or a silly action for no other reason than because he knows he should not,” and that his violence was “because I knew it had loved me” (Poe). Domestic abusers often use these phrases to try and make others see sense in their actions or prevent consequences from arising.

Ideology: Do We Become What We Read?
3) His stories and poems have always been too dark to me, and I think this can be damaging to the human soul if we’re not careful. While it is not wrong to wrestle with hard truths in life, I do not recommend glorifying darkness or wickedness, and I think Poe is a villain of the arts because of this. I believe that art was and is meant to glorify God, and although mankind is fallen, we should not dwell too heavily on that fact, but look to the One Who made us and gave His Son to save sinners.

Ideology: Rage-aholic
4) The fact that the character later kills Pluto in a fit of rage demonstrates how men have difficulty controlling their anger even when it comes to a “friendship” that has lasted for several years. This idea is further supported by the main character killing his wife after the “blow was arrested by [her] hand” and she endures her husband’s wrath that was originally meant for the new cat. Before her death, the wife attempts to keep the main character from ruining another good relationship even though he has already damaged his with her, implying the difference in “cruel” men and “uncomplaining” women.

Ideology: Alcohol and the Author
5) Despite being a once good and caring man, due to his excessive consumption of alcohol he “grew, day by day, […] more regardless of the feelings of others,” and he began to “offer [his wife] personal violence,” and of his many pets he “not only neglected, but ill-used them” (767). Despite how Poe makes a character so easy to dislike, its concerning that Poe himself had his own experiences with alcohol, and that his explanation on the “spirit of Perverseness” could come from a place of personal experience. He explains that the horrible actions he carried out upon poor Pluto were due to “the unfathomable longing for the soul to vex itself- […]- to do wrong for wrong’s sake only” (767). Though he does not put much effort into displaying how to avoid or cope with this state of mental extremity, he describes the demented place’s atmosphere in such a way to invite the consideration of the “spirit of perverseness” and where and how it manifests in our lives.

Ideology: Self-Hatred
6) The narrator is slowly losing his humanity throughout the story, and when he sees the kindness of his cat and his wife, he becomes enraged and bitter at what he himself has become. This is why he lashes out and kills them.

Ideology: The Witch Made Me Do It
7) Poe does not depict a man who merely exclaims his own innocence, rather, he creates a character who shifts accountability and blame onto a black cat—not necessarily directly, but surely indirectly. The narrator first creates his red herring in his saying, “[My wife] made frequent allusion to the ancient popular notion, which regarded all black cats as witches in disguise. […] I mention the matter at all for no better reason than that it happens, just now, to be remembered,” and although it may be that black cats, and in particular, this black cat, is a supernatural force of nature to be reckoned with, the cat is used, effectively, in this story to justify a drunkard’s explosive anger and arrogance.

Aesthetics: For the Horror of It

8) There [are] several schools of thought regarding why humans enjoy the horror genre; excitation transfer theory proposes that enjoyment of horror (films, in this context) comes from the suspense of a threat, which Poe creates in the narrated telling of this story of the black cat and the escalating nature of the narrator’s transgressions against said cat. The theory further proposes that when the threat is resolved, a “euphoria” is born and the suspense is overcome. The empathetic reader’s resolution is offered directly in this story, as Poe writes, “No sooner had the reverberation of my blows sunk into silence, than I was answered by a voice from within the tomb!—by a cry, at first muffled and broken, like the sobbing of a child, and then quickly swelling into one long, loud, and continuous scream, utterly anomalous and inhuman—a howl—a wailing shriek, half of horror and half of triumph, such as might have arisen only out of hell, conjointly from the throats of the damned in their agony and of the demons that exult in the damnation.” At last! Our conflicted, habitually violent protagonist is damned by his own folly; the black cat he so brutishly struck down avenges his murdered wife, and we, as readers, get to enjoy the afterglow of deserved poetic justice. Alternatively, some theories about enjoyment of the horror genre are built upon precepts from the Five Factor Model, suggesting that those who are high in sensation-seeking may be more apt to turn to horror as form of entertainment. Thus, I propose that Poe effectively captures the off-putting nature of a horror tale, and he demonstrates that humans are drawn to what affirms their own safety and what disturbs them absolutely—ironically, in this context, the two coalesce into one.

Ideology: The Black Cat as Slave?

Lesley Ginsburg "Slavery and the Gothic Horror of Poe's 'The Black Cat'" (1998)

• "Not only does 'The Black Cat' reproduce the struggle between a helpless dependent and an abusive tyrant which figures so prominently in both gothic fictions and abolitionist discourses, but the crumbling edifice of denial exposed by the narrator's confession deconstructs the sentimental strategies of repression so common to antebellum rhetoric" (376).
• ". . . critics have shown that the story reflects contemporary sensationalist fictions, parodies the temperance confessional, and critiques the growing acceptance of the insanity defense in antebellum courtrooms (Reynolds, Matheson, Cleman). But the tale also invokes other discourses central to the 1830s and 1840s, including its rehearsal of the scene of pet abuse so often featured in antebellum child-rearing manuals and its repetition of the obsessive pitting of black against white, dependency against freedom and animal against human, which fueled contemporary debates over chattel slavery and social reform" (376).
• "At the core of the proslavery ideology was the equation of slaves with animals" (380)
• ". . . proslavery rhetoric was quick to sentimentalize the relationship of master and slave by repeated allusions to the cloying imagery of the bonds between humans and domesticated animals, esspecially pets" (381)

1845: Polk

James K. Polk, Democrat from Tennessee, beat Kentucky Whig Henry Clay by 1.4% of the vote in 1844.

Orders Attack on Mexico

Polk holds 25 Blacks captive as slaves on his Tennessee farm, and he is eager to increase the number of the states where slavery was protected by the law. Polk asks Mexico to sell the United States much of its land between Texas and the Pacific coast, but the Mexicans said "no." At the end of 1845, Texas voted to join the United States. At the time, the Texans and the Mexicans also did not agree about the border between them. The Texans said it was the Rio Grande. The Mexicans said it was the Nueces River, which was 165 miles farther north. In early 1846, Polk ordered General Zachary Taylor and 3,400 soldiers to the north shore of the Rio Grande, an area that was inhabited and goverend at the time by Mexicans. When the Mexican army attacked Taylor's forces there, Polk asked the Congress to delcare war on Mexico. They did. After more than 13,000 Americans and 25,000 Mexican were killed, the leaders of the Mexican government asked for peace. Polk told them that to get it, they would have to agree thta the Rio Grande was the border between Texas and Mexico. He also demands that Mexico sell the U.S. the land currently ocupied by California, Arizona, and New Mexico, plus Utah, Nevada, and western Colorado. Not wanting to continue the war, Mexico agrees.

Polk remains in office until 1849.

1845: Douglass

Frederick Bailey was about twenty years old on September 3, 1838, when he went to a Baltimore train station "disguised as a sailor and carrying the borrowed papers of a free Black seaman," boarded a train to New York City, and escaped slavery.

New Bedford Douglass

Days later, Anna, an enslaved woman he was engaged to, joined him, and they were married in New York City on September 15. "They soon left for New Bedford, Massachusetts, where the likelihood of his being captured on a fugitive slave was reduced by assuming the name 'Douglass'" (The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter Ninth Edition: Beginnings to 1865, 998).

Team Garrison

Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison "was in the audience when Douglass delivered his first antislavery speech, and shortely thereafter he hried Douglass as a speaker in his Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. During 1841-1843, Douglass delivered his antislavery message on behalf Garrison's organization in a number of northern states, and on one occasion in 1843, in Pendleton, Indiana, he was attacked by an anti-abolitionist mob and suffered a borken hand"(The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter Ninth Edition: Beginnings to 1865, 998).

Best-seller

Douglass published his Narrative in May 1845 and it became "a bona fide best-seller" (The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter Ninth Edition: Beginnings to 1865, 998).

Power and Violence

Garrison advocated "moral persuasion over violence," but in time, Garrison and Douglass became estranged, and in 1851, Douglass "defended the strategic use of violence as a response to the violence of slavery" (The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter Ninth Edition: Beginnings to 1865, 999).

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” (from Douglass's "West India Emancipation" speech, delivered on August 3, 1857, at Canandaigua, New York).

Douglass vs. Covey II

While in his "1845 Narrative, [Douglass] presented himself as relatively isolated from his fellow slaves, describing his fight with Covey as a heroic instance of individual rebellion; in the 1855 My Bondage and My Freedom, he depicted the fight as involving several other African Americans who came to his assistance" (The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter Ninth Edition: Beginnings to 1865, 999).

Militancy

By the late 1850s, Douglass "became more militant in his writing. Though he refused to participate in John Brown's 1859 raid on the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry, which he regarded as a suicidal action, he was obliged to flee to Canada and thence to England because of his known association with Brown" (The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter Ninth Edition: Beginnings to 1865, 999).

Recruiter

During the Civil War, Douglass "became a successful recruiter of Black soldiers, whose ranks included his own sons . . . Douglass subsequently protested directly to President Lincoln over Blacks' unequal pay and treatment in the Union army" (The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter Ninth Edition: Beginnings to 1865, 1000).

Women's Rights

Although "[a]t times his writing seems to celebrate black manhood, ... Douglass had a longstanding interest in women's rights. Though he broke temporarily with women's rights supporters in 1868-69, when he championed the Fifteenth Amendment (which failed to offer suffrage to women), he had attended the first Women's Right's Convnetion in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848, and he continued to attend women's rights conventions and to editorialize and lecture in favor of women's rights. His final speech, delivered just hours before he died of a heart attack on February 20, 1895, was at a women's rights rally" (The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter Ninth Edition: Beginnings to 1865, 999).

4C. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845)

The daguerreotype image of Douglass above was taken around the year 1855.
It is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

 Click here for the full text.

Logos and Pathos

1. Douglass began his narrative, stating matter-of-factly many details about his early life. He seemed detached from the emotions that his childhood should have provided him. He even stated that the death of his mother was not felt deeply in the way it should have [been], though the nature of his relationship with his mother was skewed to relate to the experiences of many slaves of the time. It seems that Douglass’ choice to state facts in the first few pages of his narrative served to assert his authority as a voice of a slave’s experience. Douglass did not shy away from the gory details of murders that he witnessed. Douglass described that after the murder of Demby, a fellow slave, “blood and brains marked the water when he had stood” (1018) and another was “killed with a hatchet, by knocking his brains out” (1019). This showed how used to violence slaves were after witnessing it so often.

2. It’s easy to contrast his first autobiography with his orations, as they take a much more somber and cold tone that conveys his views in a much more calm manner, but they still manage to appeal to the listener’s emotions all the same, as can be seen in descriptions of plantation brutality such as when “[Mr. Gore] raised his musket to [Demby’s] face, taking deadly aim at his standing victim, and in an instant poor Demby was no more. His mangled body sank out of sight, and the blood and brains marked the water where he had stood.” (1018) The development of his style is intriguing. Does he choose coldness when writing to an imperceivable audience as a matter of persuasive choice over the flames of his oration, or was the difference defined by the development of his experience as an abolitionist?

3. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself was probably one of the most enlightening and valuable readings I've done in college. The narrative was published in 1845, but the abolition of slavery didn't happen until 1865. I can only imagine this text's impact on a slave-owning society when it was published. Douglass mentions that while on the plantation, the men and women enslaved would sing. He writes, "I have sometimes thought that the mere hearing of those songs would do more to impress some minds with the horrible character of slavery, than the reading of whole volumes of philosophy on the subject could do" (Douglass 11). I could go on and on about the wretchedness of slavery, but I think Douglass makes the point pretty clear himself. By writing this, Douglass sang his own song. In light of his work's long-standing reputation, he was right in assuming that personal accounts and literature charged with emotion would do more to impress minds with an evil image of slavery than philosophy books ever would.

Vivid Excerpts:

• “I have often been awakened at the dawn of day by the most heart-rending shrieks of an own aunt of mine, whom he used to tie up to a joist, and whip upon her naked back till she was literally covered with blood.”
• “I have seen him whip a woman, causing the blood to run half an hour at the time; and this, too, in the midst of her crying children, pleading for their mother’s release."
• “My feet have been so cracked with the frost, that the pen with which I am writing might be laid in the gashes.”

Question: should students (college, high school, younger . . .) in history classes be required to read passages like the ones above?  How might Oklahoma House Bill 1775 (the "Critical Race Theory" law) affect the likelihood of that happening?

Emotional Paradoxes: When Learning is Painful

4. Something I found thought-provoking while reading this narrative was Douglass’s thoughts on learning how to read. He states, “I would at times feel that learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing. It had given me view of my wretched condition, without remedy. It opened my eyes to the horrible pit, but to no ladder upon which to get out.” . . . after grasping the extent of what he and his fellow people endured I could see how not having the option to learn how to read could have (in some way) protected the others from understanding the full extent of their conditions.

Question: Consider the difference between a learning experience that is painful and knowledge that is painful. What might persuade someone to undergo a painful learning experience that will bring them knowledge that is also painful?

How the Slave Became a Man: Violence

5. The disgusting and abhorrent abuses and neglect attributed to enslaved individuals are hard enough (though important) to learn about, without realizing through Douglass’ narrative just how inhumanely these people viewed the enslaved; literally buckling at the sight or idea of pain being inflicted upon them or their loved ones that even comes close to rivaling that which they inflicted so regularly, readily and easily upon the people they abused. What really drove this point home for me was the chapter in which Douglass talks about finally fighting Covey back, wherein he and his white friends visibly falter once they realize that Douglass has decided to treat them with the same (lack of) respect that he receives,and that they are also subject to his physical will. Douglas states that “The whole six months afterwards, that I spent with Mr. Covey, he never laid the weight of his finger upon me in anger”(Douglass). This both brought me joy for Douglass in that he was able to stand up for himself and subsequently reduce some of the abuse, but also so unyieldingly sad at the idea that this is what it took for him to be treated without even the most basic of human dignity and respect, as someone who is not only so worthy of respect as a human being but also as a clearly wonderful, creative and curious mind which should have been allowed to flourish rather than spent starving and protecting itself. This was a difficult read for me, but I am glad that I read it. It’s somethingthat after reading, I think everyone would benefit from reading.

Self-Reliance?

In the passage below, Douglass describes the pivotal moment in his life when he fought back against his cruel overseer. Is it fair to criticize this turn in the narrative for suggesting that slaves who didn't fight back were to some extent responsible for their own suffering?

This battle with Mr. Covey was the turning-point in my career as a slave. It rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom, and revived within me a sense of my own manhood. It recalled the departed self-confidence, and inspired me again with a determination to be free. The gratification afforded by the triumph was a full compensation for whatever else might follow, even death itself. He only can understand the deep satisfaction which I experienced, who has himself repelled by force the bloody arm of slavery. I felt as I never felt before. It was a glorious resurrection, from the tomb of slavery, to the heaven of freedom. My long-crushed spirit rose, cowardice departed, bold defiance took its place; and I now resolved that, however long I might remain a slave in form, the day had passed forever when I could be a slave in fact. I did not hesitate to let it be known of me, that the white man who expected to succeed in whipping, must also succeed in killing me.

From this time I was never again what might be called fairly whipped, though I remained a slave four years afterwards. I had several fights, but was never whipped.

How the Man Became a Leader of a Movement

Douglass's eloquence refutes the notion that Blacks were intellectually inferior to Whites.The following passage is one of the most often excerpted passages from Douglass's Narrative, partially because it makes use of several classical literary devices, such as apostrophe, antithesis, and personification.

I was sometimes prompted to take my life, and that of Covey, but was prevented by a combination of hope and fear. My sufferings on this plantation seem now like a dream rather than a stern reality.

Our house stood within a few rods of the Chesapeake Bay, whose broad bosom was ever white with sails from every quarter of the habitable globe. Those beautiful vessels, robed in purest white, so delightful to the eye of freemen, were to me so many shrouded ghosts, to terrify and torment me with thoughts of my wretched condition. I have often, in the deep stillness of a summer’s Sabbath, stood all alone upon the lofty banks of that noble bay, and traced, with saddened heart and tearful eye, the countless number of sails moving off to the mighty ocean. The sight of these always affected me powerfully. My thoughts would compel utterance; and there, with no audience but the Almighty, I would pour out my soul’s complaint, in my rude way, with an apostrophe to the moving multitude of ships:—

“You are loosed from your moorings, and are free; I am fast in my chains, and am a slave! You move merrily before the gentle gale, and I sadly before the bloody whip! You are freedom’s swift-winged angels, that fly round the world; I am confined in bands of iron!

Real Christianity

6. Douglass talks about religion when he brings up his cruel master, Covey, who claimed to be a devout man but was a prolific adulterer. Douglass makes many remarks about Christianity in his memoir to point out the hypocrisy of slave holders who practiced it. He states “The man who wields the blood-clotted cowskin during the week fills the pulpit on Sunday, and claims to be a minister of the meek and lowly Jesus. The man who robs me of my earnings at the end of each week meets me as a class-leader on Sunday morning, to show me the way of life, and the path of salvation,” and much more.

However, [Douglass] adds an appendix at the end of his memoir to clarify that Christianity as practiced by slave owners is distinctly separate from Christ and his teachings. He states “I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land.” He argues that the set of beliefs condoning slavery and real Christianity cannot coexist within the same man.

1848: Marx & Engels, The Communist Manifesto

Above: detail from “El Mundo de hoy y manana” (1935) by Diego Rivera at the Palacio Nacional in Mexico City

Karl Marx is a 24-year-old journalist writing for a radical journal in Cologne, Germany, when Friedrich Engels visits him on November 16, 1842.

The 22-year-old son of a cotton manufacturer who had emigrated to England, Engels works in his father’s business in Manchester by day and writes radical journal articles by night.

On August 28, 1844, Marx and Engels meet again in Paris, where Marx had lived since the previous October. A 10-day visit leads to a permanent partnership to promote socialist revolution.

When various German craftsmen form a socialist secret society that meets in London in June 1847,
Engels convinces them to call their group the “Communist League.”

From December 1847 to the end of January 1848, Marx and Engels begin writing a description of the group’s beliefs.

On February 21, 1848, Marx and Engels publish The Communist Manifesto.

They recommend confrontation and predict victory. They call for higher taxes on the rich, free education for all children, and an end to inheritances.

In the first months of 1848, democratic revolts break out throughout Europe and in the capitals of the three great monarchies, in Paris, Vienna, and Berlin, whose stunned governments do little at first to defend themselves. In time, however, the revolutions fall short of their goals.

"Workers of the world unite;
you have nothing to lose
but your chains."

1849: Taylor

Zachary Taylor, Whig from Louisiana, beats Michigan Democrat Lewis Cass by 5% of the popular vote in the election of 1848.

Invites Free States to Join the Union

Taylor believes free white men in every state should be able to vote to decide whether slavery should be allowed where they live. Taylor, himself, holds 144 Blacks captive as slaves on his Louisiana plantation. Even so, he encourages the territories of California and New Mexico to join the United States, even though neither of them is likely to allow slavery. This makes other slavers angry because if California and New Mexico join the United States as free states, the United States would have more free states than states where slavery was legal.

Says He Will Kill Southern Rebels

When some Southerners start talking about dividing the United States into two countries--one where slavery is legal and another where it is not--Taylor says that if anyone attempts to divid the United States into two parts, he will take control of the army and have those people killed as traitors.

Taylor remains in office until 1850, when he dies of cholera.

1850: Fillmore

Millard Fillmore, Whig from New York, becomes President when Zachary Taylor dies of cholera in 1850.

Orders Escaped Slaves Sent Back to the South

Though he had said he was opposed to slavery, Fillmore signs a law in 1850 making it legal to caputre people who flee to the free states to escape slavery. After the fugitives are arrested, they can be sent back to the slavers who claim to own therm. When some people who hate slavery try to help some people from Maryland who escaped from slavery, Fillmore claims that they are traitors.

Dickinson, 1850: Magnum Bonum, Harem Scarem

Female Seminary

Dickinson was 16 years old when she enrolled at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, which was ten miles from her home in Amherst, Massachusetts. The Seminary hoped that its students would become missionaries. Dickinson dropped out less than a year after she enrolled. She refused, as the Norton Anthology puts it, "to capitulate to the demands of orthodoxy."

The Homestead

After leaving Mount Holyoke, Dickinson returned to the home she grew up in with her older brother and younger sister. She lived there, in her parents' home, for the rest of her life. She called it a place of "Infinite power" (1247).

Magnum Bonum

Dickinson's first publication, a letter prefaced by a short poem ("Magnum bonum, harem scarem")  appeared anonymously in the Amherst College version of  ECU's Originals in 1850. Critics believe the letter was intended for the editor of the journal.

Susan

Some critics believe Emily had a long-term romantic relationship with Susan Huntington Gilbert Dickinson, her older brother's wife.

A Prominent Family

Dickinson's father served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1853-54), state senator, helped found Amhert College "as a Calvinist alternative to the more liberal Harvard and Yale," and served as the Amherst College treasurer for 36 years (1247).

The Civil War

Dickinson wrote half of the poems we have today during the Civil War (1248).

Publication

Today over 1800 of Dickinson's poems survive. Only a dozen of them appeared during her liftetime. Her first editors "saw her formal innovations as imperfections," but Dickison "was unwilling to submit" to the changes they recommended, which she described as "surgery" (1249).

Many of her poems were published for the first time in 1890, ten years after Dickinson's death. Their republication in 1914 helped keep her work from falling out of favor (1250).

23 by Emily Dickinson

Daguerrotype taken at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (December 1846 or early 1847), when Dickinson was a student there. It is the only authenticated portrait of Dickinson after early childhood.

23

In the Name of the Bee --

And of the Butterfly --

And of the Breeze -- Amen! 

122 by Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson's desk, in her Amherst, Massachusetts home. Photograph by Benjamin Norman of the New York Times (2017).

 122

These are the days when Birds come back -

A very few - a Bird or two -

To take a backward look.

These are the days when skies resume

The old - old sophistries of June -

A blue and gold mistake.

Oh fraud that cannot cheat the Bee.

Almost thy implausibility

Induces my belief.

Till ranks of seeds their witness bear -

And softly thro' the altered air

Hurries a timid leaf.

Oh sacrament of summer days,

Oh Last Communion in the Haze -

Permit a child to join -

Thy sacred emblems to partake -

Thy consecrated bread to take

And thine immortal wine!

124(s) by Emily Dickinson

There are five different versions of this poem. How do the changes affect their meanings?

I.

Safe in their Alabaster Chambers -
Untouched by morning -
And untouched by noon -
Sleep the meek members of the Resurrection,
Rafter of Satin and Roof of Stone.

236(s) by Emily Dickinson

 

Here are two different versions of 236. How do the changes affect the meaning of the poem?

236

Some - keep the Sabbath - going to church -

I - keep it - staying at Home -

With a Bobolink - for a Chorister

And an Orchard - for a Dome -

Some - keep the Sabbath, in Surplice -

I - just wear my wings -

And instead of tolling the bell, for church -

Our little Sexton - sings -

"God" - preaches - a noted Clergyman -

And the sermon is never long,

So - instead of getting to Heaven - at last -

I'm - going - all along!

[B, 1861, Fascicle 9]

 236

Some keep the Sabbath going to Church -

I keep it, staying at Home -

With a Bobolink for a Chorister -

And an Orchard, for a Dome -

Some keep the Sabbath in Surplice -

I, just wear my Wings -

And instead of tolling the Bell, for Church

Our little Sexton - sings.

God preaches, a noted Clergyman -

And the sermon is never long,

So intead of getting to Heaven, at last -

I'm going, all along

[C, 1862, sent to Higginson]

259 by Emily Dickinson

 

"A watchmaker at his bench in London" (1748) engraving

259

A Clock stopped - Not the Mantel's -
Geneva's farthest skill
Can't put the puppet bowing
That just now dangled still -

An awe came on the Trinket!
The Figures hunched -with pain -
Then quivered out of Decimals -
Into Degreeless noon -

It will not stir for Doctors -
This Pendulum of snow -
The Shopman importunes it -
While cool - concernless No

Nods from the Gilded pointers -
Nods from Seconds slim -
Decades of Arrogance between
The Dial life -
And Him.

269 by Emily Dickinson

 

"Wild Nights by Emily Dickinson." Illustration by Sarah Perkins.

269

Wild nights - Wild nights!
Were I with thee
Wild nights should be
Our luxury!

Futile - the winds -
To a Heart in port -
Done with the Compass -
Done with the Chart!

Rowing in Eden -
Ah - the Sea!
Might I but moor - tonight -
In thee!

320 by Emily Dickinson

 

"Cathedral Rocks, Yosemite Valley, Winter" by Alfred Bierstadt

320
There's a certain Slant of light,
Winter Afternoons –
That oppresses, like the Heft
Of Cathedral Tunes –

Heavenly Hurt, it gives us –
We can find no scar,
But internal difference –
Where the Meanings, are –

None may teach it – Any –
'Tis the seal Despair –
An imperial affliction
Sent us of the Air –

When it comes, the Landscape listens –
Shadows – hold their breath –
When it goes, 'tis like the Distance
On the look of Death –

340 by Emily Dickinson

 

"I" created the image above using the Midjourney server in Discord by typing these words: "realistic photo funeral inside Emily Dickinson's brain." I am not sure which artists had their work ripped off by this process. Still thinking that through . . . 

340

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,
And Mourners to and fro
Kept treading - treading - till it seemed
That Sense was breaking through -

And when they all were seated,
A Service, like a Drum -
Kept beating - beating - till I thought
My mind was going numb -

And then I heard them lift a Box
And creak across my Soul
With those same Boots of Lead, again,
Then Space - began to toll,

As all the Heavens were a Bell,
And Being, but an Ear,
And I, and Silence, some strange Race,
Wrecked, solitary, here -

And then a Plank in Reason, broke,
And I dropped down, and down -
And hit a World, at every plunge,
And Finished knowing - then -

355 by Emily Dickinson

"I" created the image above using the Midjourney server in Discord by typing these words: "Emily Dickinson floating in space chaos despair photograph." I am not sure which artists had their work ripped off by this process . . . 

 355

It was not Death, for I stood up,
And all the Dead, lie down -
It was not Night, for all the Bells
Put out their Tongues, for Noon.

It was not Frost, for on my Flesh
I felt Siroccos - crawl -
Nor Fire - for just my marble feet
Could keep a Chancel, cool -

And yet, it tasted, like them all,
The Figures I have seen
Set orderly, for Burial
Reminded me, of mine -

As if my life were shaven,
And fitted to a frame,
And could not breathe without a key,
And ’twas like Midnight, some -

When everything that ticked - has stopped -
And space stares - all around -
Or Grisly frosts - first Autumn morns,
Repeal the Beating Ground -

But most, like Chaos - Stopless - cool -
Without a Chance, or spar -
Or even a Report of Land -
To justify - Despair.

359 by Emily Dickinson

Artwork (2013) by Gavin Aung Than at zenpencils.com

For the full poem illustration, click here

 359

A Bird, came down the Walk -
He did not know I saw -
He bit an Angle Worm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw,

And then, he drank a Dew
From a convenient Grass -
And then hopped sidewise to the Wall
To let a Beetle pass -

He glanced with rapid eyes,
That hurried all abroad -
They looked like frightened Beads, I thought,
He stirred his Velvet Head. -

Like one in danger, Cautious,
I offered him a Crumb,
And he unrolled his feathers,
And rowed him softer Home -

Than Oars divide the Ocean,
Too silver for a seam,
Or Butterflies, off Banks of Noon,
Leap, plashless as they swim.

Three versions of the 4th stanza:

I.

He stirred his velvet head

Like one in danger, cautious,
I offered him a crumb

II.

He stirred his Velvet Head

Like One in danger, Cautious,
I offered him a Crumb

III.

He stirred his Velvet Head. –

Like one in danger, Cautious,
I offered him a Crumb

365 by Emily Dickinson

 

"I" created the image above using the Midjourney server in Discord by typing these words: "forest landscape, in the distance a small dark-haired woman without a hat, alone in a forest , in very simple white 19th century dress, looks for something hidden, cinematic, realistic photo " I am not sure which artists had their work ripped off by this process . . . 

365

I know that He exists.
Somewhere – in silence –
He has hid his rare life
From our gross eyes.

’Tis an instant’s play –
’Tis a fond Ambush –
Just to make Bliss
Earn her own surprise!

But – should the play
Prove piercing earnest –
Should the glee – glaze –
In Death’s – stiff – stare –

Would not the fun
Look too expensive!
Would not the jest –
Have crawled too far!

372 by Emily Dickinson

 

"A Formal Feeling" (2014) by Phillip Hanson

372
After great pain, a formal feeling comes –
The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs –
The stiff Heart questions ‘was it He, that bore,’
And ‘Yesterday, or Centuries before’?

The Feet, mechanical, go round –
A Wooden way
Of Ground, or Air, or Ought –
Regardless grown,
A Quartz contentment, like a stone –

This is the Hour of Lead –
Remembered, if outlived,
As Freezing persons, recollect the Snow –
First – Chill – then Stupor – then the letting go –

1851, Melville

The photo above depicts Melville in 1861.

A Grade School Education
Herman Melville was 12 years old in 1831, when his family took him out of school. One year later, his father died suddenly, leaving his family with massive debts.

"A Whale-ship was my Yale College and my Harvard"
At the age of 20, Melville served as a cabin boy on a ship that traveled to and from Liverpool, and at age 21, he spent over a year at sea on a whaler bound for the South Seas.

"The Man Who Lived Among Cannibals"
In 1842, Melville and a shipmate abandoned ship in the Marquesas Islands and for a few weeks he "lived among the supposedly cannibalistic islanders of Tapait Valley" (Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter Edition: Beginnings to 1865, 1154). 

After his return to the United States, he was living with his brother in New York City when he wrote Typee, a novel inspired by his experiences in the Marquesas Islands. Published in 1846, the book was a best-seller, and he followed up a year later with Omoo, another best-seller inspired by his experiences in the South Seas.

As a result of these successes, Melville was known as the "man who lived among the cannibals" (Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter Edition: Beginnings to 1865, 1157). 

The Price of Literary Ambitions
Melville's third novel, Mardi, published in 1849, was much longer and more difficult than his first two novels. It was panned by critics and did not sell well.

Melville wrote two more popular novels published in 1849 and 1850 that were based on his experiences at sea.

With Moby-Dick, published in 1851, Melville attempted to bring together his successes writing about life at sea and his ambitions to write more challenging, ambitious literature. Critical reception was mixed.

"Crazy"
A year later, his next novel, Pierre, published in 1852, was condemned by  as "the work of a maniac" (Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter Edition: Beginnings to 1865, 1156).

Obscurity
Throughout the rest of the decade, he wrote short fiction that paid little and novels that were not as popular as his earlier works. During the Civil War, he wrote poems that were "barely noticed by reviewers" (Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter Edition: Beginnings to 1865, 1156).

When he died in 1881, his obituary in the New York Times was brief and it misspelled the title of the novel that he would become best known for ("Mobie Dick").

Posthuous Revival
In the 1920s, "the neglected Melville suddenly came to be regarded in the rarefied company of Shakespeare'"  (Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter Edition: Beginnings to 1865, 1157).

1B: "Etymology" and "Extracts (Supplied by a Sub-Sub-Librarian)."

Moby-Dick; or, The Whale (1851) by Herman Meville. First edition.

From Moby-Dick (1851) by Herman Melville

Click here for full text.

Other themes worth exploring:

A Late Consumptive Usher to a Grammar School

“The ‘Extracts (Supplied by a Sub-Sub-Librarian)’ was a little confusing to consume at first, especially because of how Melville speaks of the ‘Sub-Sub,’ which I cannot figure out still.”

    Consider: What is achieved by the juxtaposition of this humorously deflating introduction and the scholarship that follows?

Pekee-Nuee- Nuee

    Note the arbitrary relationship between the signifer (word) and the signfied (the thing it indicates): “Whale” and "Ballena" and "Pekee-Nuee-Nuee" are all perfectly adequate as names for this particular animal and all different from each other.

From Genesis to Petticoats

I was surprised by the variety of the texts mentioned in the extracts, everything from bible verses to sailor songs are quoted. One that I particularly enjoyed reading from the list was
“To fifty chosen sylphs of special note,
We trust the important charge, the petticoat.
Oft have we known that seven-fold fence to fail,
Tho’ stuffed with hoops and armed with ribs of whale.” (“Rape of the Lock.”)

I thought this quote was very impactful because most of the quotes are speaking literally of whales and their splendor. This one, however, is speaking of women’s clothing. To investigate this further, I researched the poem of reference. The poem is a mock-epic surrounding a character named Belinda, and a Baron who wants a lock of her hair. I think the imagery of being “armed with rib bones” is powerful.

    Consider: What changes in the human relationship with the natural world are suggested by the chronological progress of the extracts from Biblical passages to more recent whaling expeditions?

Sea of Oil, Sea of Water
What stuck out to me most was the statement, “The mighty whales which swim in the sea of water and have a sea of oil swimming in them."

    Consider: Commercial enterprises valued whales for their oil.

Colonization: Ocean Edition

The extracts in Moby-Dick speak of whales as aggressive predators causing humans a great deal of trouble, such as the extract from “Apology for Raimond Sebond” that says, "And whereas all the other things, whether beast or vessel that enter into the dreadful gulf of this monster's (whale's) mouth are immediately lost and swallowed up, the sea-gudgeon retires into it in great security, and there sleeps." Including an index of whale references in a book about a whale can be leading for the reader, especially when all of the references seem to portray a particular image. It sets the reader up to see the whale as a natural symbol rivaling the human experience. Before reading these extracts, whales were rendered in my mind as very peaceful, calm, and wise creatures. However, these extracts have led me to believe that this book is not about our friendly ocean giants but rather humanity's fear of the unknown. The text should've been titled “Colonization: Ocean Edition.”

2B. Moby-Dick (1851), Chapters 1-4

From Moby-Dick (1851) by Herman Melville

Click here for full text.

“Call me Ishmael.”

    Question: Why not: “My name is Ishmael," or “I am Ishmael.”

    Consider:  “The name of the first-person narrator implies that he is an outcast from a great family. In the Bible, Ishmael is the oldest son of the patriarch Abraham, by the Egyptian Hagar, servant to Abraham’s then-barren wife, Sarah; Sarah mistreats Hagar, who feels in the desert, where an angel feeds her and reveals that she is pregnant with Ishmael, who will be ‘a wild man,’ whose ‘hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him’ (Genesis 16.12). Years later, after Sarah bears Isaac, she prevails upon Abraham to send Hagar and Ishmael away; in the wilderness, an angel again protects them. Traditionally Ishmael is identified as the ancestor of the Arabs, whereas his younger half-brother Isaac is the ancestor of the Jews” (Melville, 16).

    Source: Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick, Third Norton Critical Edition. Ed. Hershel Parker. W. W. Norton and Company, 2018.

A Mysterious Painting

When Ishmael enters Sprouter’s Inn, he sees a painting portraying a “Cape-Horner in a great hurricane… and an exasperated whale, purposing to spring clean over the craft, is in the enormous act of impaling himself upon the three mast-heads.” . . . The painting depicting a whaling ship being attacked by a whale in the middle of a storm leaves the reader thinking Ishmael’s whaling voyage will end disastrously.

    Consider: On one side hung a very large oil painting so thoroughly besmoked, and every way defaced, that in the unequal crosslights by which you viewed it, it was only by diligent study and a series of systematic visits to it, and careful inquiry of the neighbors, that you could any way arrive at an understanding of its purpose. Such unaccountable masses of shades and shadows, that at first you almost thought some ambitious young artist, in the time of the New England hags, had endeavored to delineate chaos bewitched. But by dint of much and earnest contemplation, and oft repeated ponderings, and especially by throwing open the little window towards the back of the entry, you at last come to the conclusion that such an idea, however wild, might not be altogether unwarranted.

    Question: What purpose is served by introducing the painting this way?

Mocking the Bible?

The biblical references are a little hard to follow sometimes because I cannot tell if Ishmael respects such things or is making fun of them.

    Consider: “The act of paying is perhaps the most uncomfortable infliction that the two orchard thieves entailed upon us.”

    “The Whale (October 1851) omitted this humorous biblical allusion along with dozens of other jocular or otherwise disrespectful sallies throughout the book” (Melville, 19).

    “The pioneer scholar Nathalia Wright counts 250 biblical allusions in Moby-Dick alone” (Delbanco).

    Sources:

    Delbanco, Andrew. Melville: His World and Work. Random House Digital, 2013.

    Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick, Third Norton Critical Edition. Ed. Hershel Parker. W. W. Norton and Company, 2018.

“Retreat from” or “Exploit for” Society?

When caught in the routine of life, a trip to the sea can charge the soul. Money is a consistent topic in the first four chapters, particularly the first two. Ishmael talks about how being a sailor is better than a passenger because sailors are paid, which means that he is partly venturing out to the sea so that he can make money: “I always go to sea as a sailor, because they make a point of paying me for my trouble, whereas they never pay passengers a single penny that I ever heard of.” The juxtaposition between the sea being a retreat from society and the sea being a profitable market for society is something I find noteworthy.

    Question: Is money essentially a source of corruption?  Or is disdain for money a luxury only the rich can afford?

Who are the monsters?

Ishmael [explains] the various weapons constructed by man to kill whales and other humans. He goes on to describe these weapons as 'horrifying' and 'monstrous' (22).

Sleeping with Cannibals, I

S1: I am confused by the description of Queequeg. Was it typical for ethnic people to be described in such language as “savage” and as a “cannibal”? Even the language used to describe Queequeg’s actions have animalistic tones.

S2: What makes Queequeg so interesting is how ominous he is treated within chapter three. The first bit of information we have surrounding him is from Peter Coffin, the landlord, and he says “the harpooner is a dark complexioned chap. He never eats dumplings, he don’t—he eats nothing but steaks, and he likes ’em rare”(Ch.3).

As this chapter progresses, Ishmael … thinks over Queequeg more and more and becomes more unsettled by the idea of him. We see Peter [trickle] more information to Ishmael about Queequeg[,] almost as if he is purposely trying to mess with him. Eventually, Ishmael comes to terms with sharing a bed with this mysterious [harpooner], but it is only after Peter tells him that he is out selling human heads. . . .[eventually, Ishmael] became more accepting of sleeping next to him. (Although, he was still incredibly uneasy.)

S3:  Melville does a good job of building tension for the bedroom scene by having Ishmael ask questions about his mysterious roommate, and then describing each thing the cannibal does once he finally comes home and prepares for bed.

I feel that a reader would find humor in Ishmael waking up in the morning to find Queequeg’s arm wrapped around him. “Upon waking the next morning about daylight, I found Queequeg’s arm thrown over me in the most loving and affectionate manner. You had almost thought I had been his wife” (31).It was funny that Ishmael described it as loving and affectionate, especially because he had been so frightened the night before. I think it is important to consider how Ishmael viewed and spoke of Queequeg, and how that related to the societal views during the time when the book was published. “Thinks I, Queequeg, under the circumstances, this is a very civilized overture; but, the truth is, these savages have an innate sense of delicacy, say what you will; it is marvellous how essentially polite they are” (33).

S4: An interesting [ideological] point is that Ishmael doesn't seem to judge the drunken, rowdy sailors as much as he does his cannibal roommate, and yet Queequeg treats him with respect.

 . . . Ishmael stows away his fears and prejudices after sensing Queequeg’s ‘civil’ nature and allows himself to share beds with the fellow man and woke up to find he was certainly under safer hands than he had previously predicted (61).

S5:  . . . with the introduction of Queequeg, Melville was trying to convey that one should not judge someone else by the way they look. The text reads, “It’s only his outside; a man can be honest in any sort of skin” (Melville 70).

When met face-to-face with the Queequeg, Ishmael is at first shocked to discover his “unruly” acts of bringing a Tomahawk into bed and smoking. Calling on the landlord “landlord! Watch! Coffin! Angels! Save me!” However, upon general introduction by the landlord Ishmael and Queequeg soon fashion the best way to coincide with each other. While this section could have been used by Melville for pure entertainment, I could also see how it could represent the objective of learning to understand and respect the differences of each individual person.

    Several:  “Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.”

    Consider: Cosmopolitanism; America as an ideal