Unit 5: American Literature

Power of Imagination

Edgar Allan Poe

While these New England intellectuals presented perspectives of literature and life, other writers were concentrating upon human imagination and emotion rather than the intellect. A young Virginian, Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), was publishing poems of musical language and extravagant imagery, which made him a worthy rival of the European Romantic poets. Brilliant but unstable, Poe earned his living as a journalist, often writing devastating reviews of other writers' works. In 1835, he also began writing bold, original short stories, such as "The Masque of Red Death" and "The Fall of the House of Usher." These suspenseful, sometimes terrifying tales plunged deep into human psychology, and explored the realms of science fiction and the mystery story long before such genres were recognized.

Hawthorne

Meanwhile, in 1837, a young writer in New England named Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) published a volume called Twice-Told Tales, stories rich in symbolism and peculiar incidents. Although he knew the Transcendentalists, Hawthorne did not share their beliefs. His way of rebelling against the traditional New England outlook on life was to write imaginative "romances," stories and novels which were not necessarily realistic but which were designed to explore certain moral themes such as guilt, pride and emotional repression. His masterpiece was The Scarlet Letter, a novel published in 1850. Set in the Puritan past, it is the stark drama of a woman harshly cast out from her community for committing the sin of adultery.

Herman Melviile

Hawthorne's writing had a profound impact upon another writer, originally from New York, who was living at the time in New England. Herman Melville (1819-1891), whose wealthy father had gone bankrupt, had worked at many jobs before signing on in 1839 for the first of several sea voyages. Seven years later, he began writing accounts of his adventures on the open seas and in exotic ports, which won him instant success. Yet Melville longed to write something more serious. Inspired by Hawthorne's example, he began writing novels which were fundamentally allegories on politics and religion. The public rejected them, however, and, discouraged, Melville published little except poetry for the rest of his life. Ironically, the very books that proved unacceptable during his lifetime are the ones most admired today. Moby Dick, published in 1851, uses a story of a whaling voyage to explore profound themes such as fate, the nature of evil, and the individual's struggle against the universe. It is considered an American masterpiece.

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