Romanticism: What is it? "The legend of Sleepy Hallow" and "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"

1. The story "The Legend of Sleepy Hallow" captures the reader's imagination by letting them decide what happened to Ichabod Crane. When the story ends it does not tell the readers about what did happen to him it just tells theory’s of what could of happened. In doing this it let the readers use their imaination along with the different clues it left like when it says "he knew more about the matter than he chose to tell" (Irving 14) to figure out what happened to him.
2. The song "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" is a song about getting out of the hard times because it talks about sweet chariot coming to take them home. This means that they are going to be free some day and out of the hardships they were in at the time.
3. It is also religious because in literal since because it talks about angels coming to take the singer away. Also the meaning behind the lyrics is that Jesus is going to come and take them to their home in heaven.
4. This song reflects its time period because when the African Americans were kept as salves it gave them comfort to know that it will get better in time and that Jesus will come back for them.
5. This song also reflects our time period because Christians and Jews believe that Jesus is coming back to end all of our suffering and takes us to heaven just like the African Americans believed years ago.

Choose Your Own Story

1.)    Close-Ended question-

          Question: Where did the grandmother want to go instead of Florida, and why?
   
          Answer: She wanted to go to Tennessee to visit some of her connections.

2.)    Open-ended question-

          Question: Why did the Misfit talk to the grandmother instead of just killing her from the begging.

          Answer: He could of just talked to her for the company and he felt sorry for her or remorse for what he is about to do. He also could have talked to her because she recognized who he was and he was glad he got recognition. 

3.)    World Connection question-

         Question: If kids from our time period were in June Star and John Wesley's position would they have acted the same way as June and John did or differently? 

          Answer: I think they would have been more afraid of the strange men and what they were going to do to them and their families since we have seen more crimes like this in our time period then they would have.

4.)     Universal/ Core question-

         Question: What lesson could be learned from this short story? 

          Answer: The lesson is that not everyone is a good person and you have to be careful who you are around.

5.)      Literary Analysis question-

        Question: Is this writing formal, informal, or neutral and how do you know?

        Answer: This story's writing is informal because it uses no big words but instead uses slang words through out the story.

Essential Questions for this unit

1. In Romanticism writings they show their beliefs of optimism and individualism by how they write. When they are writing they talk about nature and the past and human nature so it makes them write from their own perspective about how they see those certain topics. Also when they talk about the past in the writing they show optimism for the future.
2. Romanticism is writing that talks about nature, human nature, and the past. Gothic Romanticism is writing that is scary and dark and creepy. It has settings like ruins of cities and mansions and the woods etc. Southern Gothic Romanticism has most of the same characteristics that Gothic writing does except it has a character in the writing that gets both sympathy and dislike from the readers. Gothic Fiction is similar also to Romanticism it branches out of that category of writing. Southern Gothic also branches off of both Romanticism and Gothic writing.
3. Southern Gothic writing leaded to the writing that followed because it took a common writing of that time period and changed it to appeal to others than just from where it is at. It showed that writing could be both formal and informal and relate some to the people reading it to make the stories more appealing to read. This also explains how Southern Gothic Romanticism was a manipulation of romantic literacy conventions because it showed writers that you could create writing that was formal and informal and how ever you wanted it to be.
4. It made people start to question what was actually out in the wild beyond what they already knew. It made them wonder if there was actually demons and monsters that no one knew about. When they started to wonder about these demons and monsters that could be anywhere their imagination went wild in their writing and both Southern Gothic and Gothic Romanticism was born.
5. These writings help give many authors ideas for how to shape their writings. Also it helped show that could be more then Non-Fiction and formal or informal that it could come from purely the authors imagination and the unknown. 

Gothic Romanticism: Hawthorne, Poe, Baudelaire 

1. In the story "The Fall of the House of Usher" Usher the main character and the owner of the house is very nervous throughout most of the story especially after they bury the 'dead' sister in a tomb inside of the house. The reason he is so scared and nervous is because he believes that his sister, Madeline, was a vampire. In the story it shows hints that allow the reader to come to that decision. One example of this is when Usher says "...and her struggles with the coppered archway of the vault" (13). When it says this it shows that she was strong enough to try to break the door to the vault. Also when they put her in the tomb she was supposed to be dead but if she is breaking through the tomb she has to be alive. this is also shown when the story says "...there did stand the lofty and enshrouded figure of the lady Madeline of Usher. There was blood upon her white robes, and the evidence of some bitter struggle..." (13). This all shows that with days of being kept in the tomb without air and food or water she was still alive with supernatural strength. These are just a few of some of the hints that show that Madeline was a vampire.
2. The stories "The Fall of the House of Usher", "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment", and "The Masque of the Red Death" all express a criticism of human nature. The first story "The Fall of the House Usher" criticizes human nature by having the narrator of the story  run away when Usher needed help after he was attacked. This is shown in directly in the story that humans would rather save themselves then risk their lives to help out others in need. In "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment' it criticizes humans by directly showing the geed of humans. In the story the story the characters  , Mr. Medbourne, Colonel Killigrew, Widow Wycherly, and Mr. Gascoigne all got a taste of the fountain and then beacuse they liked the after affects of it making them younger the wanted more. Then when the affects wore off they moved to Florida where the fountain of youth is located so they can drink it all the time. Then in "The Masque of the Red Death" it was shown directly the conceded personality of the Prince when he shut out everyone except a select few so they could be saved from the Red Death while the others died. All the writers have the same outlook on humans because they all show the bad things humans do like the selfishness angd the greed but they don't show the good things people have done.

1.)  Southern Gothic romanticism is regular gothic archetypes with a southern twist acdded to them.
2.)  The first story "The Life You Save Might Be Your Own" shows examples of Gothic traits because Mr.Shiftlet did something bad by leaving Lucynell at the cafe and then later on he felt bad about it so he showed that he might not be as bad as you thought. The other story "A Rose for Emily" also shows examples of Gothic traits because the town never did anything to help miss Emily they just left her to herself but every once in awhile someone would try to do somethng to help her out.
3. ) Both stories compare to Gothic romanticism or dark romanticism because they both have a run down house and a grotesque or a character who requires both sympathy and disgust from the reader. It was also romanticism because it dealt with a greater idea of caring and kindness.
4.)  One reason why her crime was ignored was because she was pitied because she neve found love it shows this when it says "poor Miss Emily." Also when it talks about how she never married. Another reason is she was lonely. In the story it say "We remembered all the young men her father had driven away." So this meant she must have been alone alot through out her life. The last reason was because she would never listen to them and ignore what they had to say. It shows this when it says "Miss Emily just stared at him, Her head tilted back in order to look him eye for eye, until he looked away and went and got the arsenic and wrapped it up." Which shows she did not listen to what others thought and only did what she wanted to do.
5.)  The hitchhiker is very important to the story "The Life You Save May Be Your Own" because that is who Mr. Shiftlet told that by leaving lucynell at the cafe was a bad thing. If the Hitchhiker was not in the story we would not have known how he feels about what he did so it would not be Southern Gothic Romanticism.