1. Unit 3 The American Within 1800-1900

2. Advances in American Life  At the beginning of the 1800s:  Population just over 5 million  Area of nation was 889,000 square miles of territory

3.  By the mid-1800s, both the population and area of the United States had nearly quadrupled.

4.  The prosperity of the growing country was fueled in part by advances in  Transportation  Agriculture  Manufacturing

5. Romanticism and Democracy  Writers in the United States kept in step with the changes taking place in the 1800s.

6.  They began to break away from the rationalism of the Age of Reason.

7.  Romantics valued  Intuition and emotion over reason

8.  In their works, Romantics focused on  The personal experiences of the individual  The splendors of nature

9.  Some well-known Romantics:  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow  John Greenleaf Whittier  Washington Irving

10.  The growth of democracy in politics corresponded to the rise of Romanticism in literature.

11.  In both areas, the common person acquired new importance.

12.  Some changes were:  All free men granted the right to vote  A movement toward free public education

13.  Some changes were:  The first abolitionists questioned the morality of slavery  The beginnings of agitation for women’s rights

14. Romantics with a Darker Vision  Some Romantics were haunted by a darker vision of human existence.

15.  Their stories are characterized by  A probing of the inner life of their characters  An examination of the complex, often mysterious forces that motivate human behavior.

16.  Nathaniel Hawthorne:  Agreed with the Romantics emphasis on emotion and the individual, but

17.  He did not see these as completely positive forces.

18.  Hawthorne’s stories reflect his fascination with his Puritan ancestors.

19.  He drew on the dark side of his Puritan heritage to examine the darker facets of human nature, such as  Greed  Vanity  Guilt

20.  Edgar Allan Poe  Considered today to be an eccentric madman and a skilled craftsman

21.  Poe explored human psychology from the inside  Used first-person narrators who are sometimes criminal or even insane.

22.  In many of his stories and poems, Poe portrayed the psychological effects of  Evil  Terror  Grief on the human soul.

23. Transcendentalism  A literary-philosophical movement that shared the general characteristics of Romanticism.

24.  Transcendentalists were:  Mostly young intellectuals  From the Boston area  Gathered at Ralph Waldo Emerson’s house to talk about art and ideas.

25.  Transcendentalists emphasized  Emotion  Individualism  Nature (like Romantics)

26.  In addition, Transcendentalists  Placed great faith in higher forms of knowledge  Held the view that human spirituality is reflected in nature.

27.  Henry David Thoreau  Emerson’s protégé  Retreated from society to live simply and experience the “fundamental unity” between humans and nature.