-
The Autobiography of Benjamin
Franklin
?
1.
Nature:
Probably
the
first
of
its
kind
in
literature.
A
simple
yet
fascinating
record
of
a
man’s
success
.
A
faithful
account
of
the
colorful
career
of
America’s
first
self-made man.
?
2.
Structure: The book consists of four parts,
written at
different times. Franklin
was 65 when he began to write.
?
3. Content:
?
(a)
Puritanism:
It
is
first
of
all
a
Puritan
document,
a
record of self-examination and self-
improvement .
?
(b)
Enlightenment:
It
embodies
the
new
order
of
the
18th century
Enlightenment. (Order and Moderation)
?
4.
Walden
, Thoreau’s
Masterpiece
?
A.
a
great
Trans
cendentalist
work
and
Thoreau’s
masterpiece
?
B.
a
faithful
record
of
his
reflections
when
he
was
in
solitary communion with nature
?
C.
a book on self-culture and human perfectability; a
book
about man, what he is and what he
should be and must
be.
?
D. prophet of
individualism in American literature
–
critical
of
modern
civilization
which
was
degrading
and
enslaving
man.
“Civilized man
is the slave
of matter”
–
a
medicine
for
the
fatal
modern
craze
for
monetary
success
in
the
wake
of
modern
mechanization
and
commercialization “Simplicity,
Simplify”
?
?
E.
he
was
impatient
with
the
overstress
on
the
external
development of human beings such as
railroad, telegraph
?
F.
Regeneration
became
a
major
thematic
concern
of
Walden
and
decided
the
structural
framework:
Walden
unfolds in
a single year, and progresses through summer
and
autumn
to
winter,
and
finally
to
a
climax
in
the
renaissance of spring.
?
G.
Walden
exhibits Thoreau’s
calm trust in the future and
his
ardent
belief
in
a
new
generation
of
men.
The
book
concludes on a clear
note of optimism and hope.
?
VI. The
analysis of his masterpiece
–
The Scarlet
Letter
?
1. Story and Plot:
an aging
English scholar Chillingworth
–
his
young
beautiful
wife
Hester
Prynne
–
young
and
promising priest Arthur Dimmesdale
–
Pearl
?
2.
Theme
:
?
A. Romantic or
Puritan? A story of love or sin? a moral or
immoral story?
?
B.
the
adaptation of
American
Romanticism
to
American
Puritan moralism
–
the
load of didacticism
–
the desire
to
elevate
?
C.
What
Hawthorne
was
predominantly
concerned
with
was the moral, emotional, and
psychological effect of the
sin on the
people in general
?
The analysis of
the characters
?
A.
Hester
Prynne:
This
book
is
not
a
praise
of
Hester
Prynne
sinning,
but
a
hymn
on
the
moral
growth
of
the
woman when sinned
against.
?
Hester’s
life
eventually
acquires
a
real
significance
when she
reestablishes a meaningful relationship with her
fellowmen.
?
Symbolic
of
her
moral
development
is
the
gradual,
imperceptible
change
which
the
scarlet
letter
undergoes
in meaning. A
–
“Adultery” “Able”, “Angel” (“Adamic”
the
original sin or
“America”)
?
B. Arthur Dimmesdale
banishes himself from the society.
Deeply concerned with himself, he lives
a stranger among
his
admirers.
He
undergoes
the
tragic
experience
of
physical and spiritual
disintegration.
?
C.
Roger
Chillingworth
,
the
real
villain
of
the
story,
embodies pure intellect, who commits
“the unpardonable
sin” (the violation
of heart)
?
V. His
masterpiece:
Moby
Dick
?
1. Essence:
?
a. Herman
Melville’s masterpiece is
Moby
Dick
, one of the
world’s
greatest masterpieces.
?
b.
To
get
to
know
the
19th
century
American
mind
and
America
itself, one has to read this book.
?
c.
It is an encyclopedia of everything, history,
philosophy,
religion,
etc.
in
addition
to
a
detailed
account
of
the
operations of the whaling industry.
?
d.
But
it
is
first
a
Shakespeare
tragedy
of
man
fighting
against
overwhelming
odds
in
an
indifferent
and
even
hostile universe.
?
2.
Content:
?
Ishmael,
Pequod, Ahab, Moby Dick
?
3. Idea: his
bleak view of the world
?
The world is at
once Godless and purposeless.
?
Man
in
this
universe
lives
a
meaningless
and
futile
life,
meaningless because futile.
?
Man can observe
and manipulate nature in a prudent way,
and
he
must
ultimately
place
himself
at
the
mercy
of
nature.
?
Man
cannot influence and overcome nature at its
source.
Once
he
attempts
to
seek
power
over
nature,
he
is
doomed.
?
The
idea
that
man
can
make
the
world
for
himself
is
nothing but a
folly.
?
Melville never seems able to say an
affirmative yes to life:
his is the
attitude
of “Everlasting Nay”
.
?
The
loss
of
faith
and
the
sense
of
futility
and
meaninglessness
were expressed in Melville’s
works.
?
. Themes and
subjects:
?
A.
Alienation:
he
found
existing
on
different
levels,
between
man
and
man,
man
and
society,
and
man
and
nature. (e.g. Ahab)
?
B. criticism
against Emersonian self-reliant
individual:
?
Ahab is too much of a self-reliant
individual to be a
good
human
being.
He
stands
alone
on
his
own
one
leg
among the millions of
the peopled earth. For him the only
law
is
his
own
will.
To
him
the
world
exists
for
his
own
sake. His selfhood must be asserted at
the expense of all
else.
?
C. Rejection
and Quest:
?
Ishmael resembles his namesake in the
Bible in that he is
a wanderer. Tired
with and rejecting his early lifestyle, he
tried
to
seek
for
a
happy
and
ideal
life.
He
gradually
comes to see the folly of Ahab seeking
to conquer nature
and
begins
to
feel
the
significance
of
love
and
fraternity
among mortal
beings. Voyaging for Ishmael has become a
journey
in quest
of knowledge and values.
?
5. Symbolism in the novel
Moby Dick
?
A.
the
voyage
itself
is
a
metaphor
for
“search
and
discovery,
the
search
for
the
ultimate
truth
of
experience.”
?
B.
the
Pequod
is
the
ship
of
the
American
soul
and
consciousness.
?
C. Moby Dick is
a symbol of evil to some, of goodness to
others, and of both to still others.
?
D.
The
whiteness
of
Moby
Dick
is
a
paradoxical
color,