Edgar Allan Poe born January 19, 1809, was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic. He was considered part of the American Romantic Movement and best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre. His mother was a prominent actress which was considered a disreputable career. His father deserted the family when Edgar was 1 year old. His mother died when he was 2 years old. He was taken into the family of John and Frances Allan. Edgar's brother and sister were sent to different foster parents. He was renamed Edgar Allan but was never legally adopted. Allan lost interest in supporting Poe financially and provided only minimal funds to Poe for studying at the University of Virginia in 1826. Poe ran into debt and began to drink and gamble. He had to leave the university before his first year was completed. After a quarrel with Allan in 1827, Poe was ordered out of the house at the age of 18 years old. Poe lived in poverty and moved in with his Aunt Maria Poe Clemm and her daughter, Virginia [http://www.eapoe.org/papers/psbbooks/pb19871c.htm].
Edgar Allan Poe never knew his natural mother and that important affection between mother and child. Poe had a persistent need to be closely associated with some woman who could play the role of mother to him. In looking at Poe's tempestuous life, it has been said that the women with whom he was on intimate terms, either by birth, "adoption," and marriage or by ties of friendship and love, was most unfortunate. He was extremely chivalrous to women and normally polite and courteous to all. Probably due to his Southern breeding. Women usually found him fascinating, but there were those that found it easy to take advantage of him [http://www.eapoe.org/papers/psbbooks/pb19871c.htm].
The relationships between Edgar Allan Poe and the many women in his life, were tenuous and disastrous, and provided inspiration for some of the finest darkly romantic poems and short stores of the early 19th century. Poe's idealized views of everlasting love were clouded by the real life pain and trials that kept him from experiencing spiritual and romantic love. His ideal, as told through his poems and stories, is not an attainable Eden, but rather an unattainable, nightmarish vision that echoed his real-life tagedies with calculated skill [http://www.helpfulresearch.com/edgar.html].
Poe's favorite topic was lost love, the most haunting and melancholic kind of love. Poe saw love, politics, and death as three sides of the same coin. None could exist without the others. Like other men during his time, Edgar Allan Poe appears to have very sexist views in the early 19th century. Poe's writings contain sexist views, although they are subliminal [http://www.helpfulresearch.com/edgar.html]
[http://www.blogger.com/goog_1897074963 kcollins/].
During the 1800's, America was still considered a new nation. The United States was at war with Great Britain from 1812-1814. The U.S. Army was persecuting Native American tribes which included the Creeks, Seminoles, Sioux, Cheyenne, Kiowa, Comanche, and the Apache. Four policies ran the country during this time period: Manifest Destiny, war, slavery and gender inequality. White women climbed a little more on society's ladder, but they wanted more. In 1839, Mississippi granted women the right to hold property, but they had to have their husbands' permission first. In 1848, 300 women and men signed a "Declaration of Sentiments." This was a plea to end gender discrimination in all phases of society. Before, women's roles in American society were only inside the family home. In 1869, the Wyoming territory passed the first women's suffrage law. Territories and Northern states offered more for women than Southern states. In 1889, Wyoming granted women the right to vote in all elections. The rest of the country granted that right in 1920. America in the 1800's was about war, slavery, corruption and Indian extermination. Black women suffered through years of slavery, racism and discrimination. White women took their concessions and moved slowly forward [http://www.helium.com/items/1165568-sojourner-truth-1869-1870-fraticide].
Women in the early 1800's were not supposed to be involved in politics. Men felt that women were too emotional and they couldn't handle the extra stress. Around the 1820's, women stood up and took part in politics. They fought against slavery, abortions, women suffrage, and governmental issues. They spoke out using the media and at public gatherings. At first no one listened and were thought to be foolish. They continued to speak until finally someone listened. Women joined the American Society for the promotion of the Temperance in 1826 to wage a battle against alcohol. They wanted to reduce the high consumption of alcohol in men, women, and children [http://www.angelfire.com/ca/HistoryGals/Linda.html].
Despite his unconventional ways in his writings, in his personal life Edgar Allan Poe held the most conventional early 19th century views about the subordinate place of women in a man's world. Poe routinely mocked the successful, professional woman. Poe considered female writers in America to be mediocre. In his own poetry and fiction, Poe often depicted the suppression or annihilation of women who because of overpowering beauty, intellect, or wealth departed from the conventional and threatened man's superior position. Poe and his avatars such as Dupin work to punish and silence womankind in the world that threatened a masculine society [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_7008/is_2_20/ai_n28363536/].
Washington Irving was an American author of the early nineteenth century. Irving was best known for his short stories, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle." Both of these short stories appear in The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon. Irving was also a prolific writer of essays, biographies, and other literary forms. He was one of the first American writers to earn acclaim in Europe. Irving is said to have mentored authors such as Nathanial Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Edgar Allan Poe [classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/wirving/bl-wirving-rip.htm].
"Rip Van Winkle" was written overnight while Irving was staying with his sister and her husband in Birmingham, England. This story was based on a German folktale, set in the Dutch culture of Pre-Revolutionary War in New York State. Rip Van Winkle is a farmer who wanders into the Catskill Mountains. Rip helps a dwarf carry a keg into the mountains and is rewarded with its contents. He falls into a deep, enchanted sleep. When Rip awakens 20 years later, the world has changed significantly. He is an old man with a long, white beard. He goes into town and finds everything has changed. His nagging wife is dead and his children are grown [http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Washington_Irving] [http://kirjasto.sci.fi/wirving.htm] [http://www.bartleby.com/195/4.html].
Washington Irving wrote this story from facts taken from history and from occurrences within the range of his own experience and observation. Irving's writings appear to be written merely for amusement but his most comical pieces have a serious end in view. "Rip Van Winkle" was popular and the most reprinted piece of the nineteenth century because it directly or indirectly chronicled his reaction to the failure of America to live up to the expectations of the Founding Fathers. Irving's most compelling subject as a writer was the uneasiness and uncertainty of the American people as they awaited the fate of the nation in the early decades of the nineteenth century. His vision of a time of simple harmony was an exaggerated sense of the disinterested benevolence of those who fought the struggle for America's independence (Rubin-Dorsky).
In "Rip Van Winkle," the image of the "house divided" was terrifying and signified the dissolution of the Union. Rip's wife could be viewed as representing the North and Rip representing the South. His wife was not pleased with Rip's disregard for their home. She continually reprimanded and "nagged" him. Rip looked on her with disregard and continued his life as he saw fit. Rip Van Winkle is an overgrown version of a child seeking to gratify boyish impulses for a carefree life without the adult male responsibilities. Dame Van Winkle also represents the shrill and incessant demands of the present. Upon awakening from his 20 year sleep, Rip awakens with a great deal of trouble and anxiety. Rip returns to his home, only to find that both the village and its inhabitants had undergone a metamorphosis. Political events had transformed the world of "drowsy tranquility" into a growing commercialism that displaced what he had known. The expanding village is a reflection of a growing America. The "lost" generation of Americans symbolically could trace the source of this anxiety to the birth of the nation. Two significant events were the ratification of the Constitution and the election of the president. Rip reflects the nation's anxiety in Irving's text when he states that everything had changed and he couldn't tell his own name or who he was. On one side of his 20 year sleep, lies the past, plotted, cultivated and safe; on the other awaits the future, uncharted, coarse, and terrifying. In the time of the story, the colonies are on the verge of nationhood. For Rip, the country had shifted overnight from a communal organization based on mutual dependence to a fragmented body of opposing self-interests. The stranger's voice that called out Rip Van Winkle's name comes from the threatening glen to the west and not from the lush, woodland to the east (Rubin-Dorsky).
Like Rip, Irving may be an amusing, friendly person, but up until the time of his departure for England he performed no necessary function and had not secured a permanent place in his native community of New York. In Irving's fantasy, Rip makes a success out of his own inadequacy. He is ultimately recognized, welcomed and accepted by the town once it is understood that he wants nothing more than to be allowed to relate his adventure to all who will listen. Rip is unaggressive and poses no threat to the business of post-Revolutionary America. He becomes a favorite with "the rising generation" since he has a story to tell of the past. Irving's desire for a setttled life is depicted into the fabric of the story. The anxiety of estrangement is transformed into the ease of acceptance (Rubin-Dorsky).
Pre-revolutionary politics were confined to the reading of an antiquated newspaper and the leisurely discussion this activity engendered, while post-revolutionary politics involved the thunder of an election-day debate. Contented farmers were giving way to aggressive businessmen (Rubin-Dorsky). Irving was a politically influenced writer who consistently sought to be free from contention. The nagging wife in some sense symbolizes the political world that was always prodding him to declare himself. Additional political meaning that may be intended, was that the shrewish wife is the tyrant Britannia of the late colonial era. Rip's daughter, Judith, who welcomes him back and takes him in, is the loving symbol of republican America, now at peace (Burstein).
Modern Americans know very little about the year 1819. It was an especially turbulent year, and this must have conditioned reader's reactions to the first Sketch Book offering. A nationwide financial panic occurred, though Irving could not have anticipated this when he wrote "Rip Van Winkle." As a symbol of that historical moment, the story is a fair portrait of the country's adolescent charm, something that was being contested as banks across the country called in loans and caused ruin for many (Burstein).
Rip Van Winkle is a vulnerable, malleable, human. He is the perfect protagonist in a fable designed to remind us that memory, both fragile and powerful, preserves what is good in the world. This story has a timeless, imaginative existence of its own. Storytelling itself is a timeless and eternal activity. Irving hoped that the nation would expand its idea of "usefulness" and accept him, just as the village finally welcomed Rip as chronicler (Dorsky).
Burstein, A. The Original Knickerbocker. Basic Books, New York, 2007.
Rubin-Dorskey, J. Adrift in the Old World. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, 1988.
Both Douglass and King were transformed by education and reading. They marveled at the beauty of the spoken and written word. When Martin Luther King was a boy, he was a bit of a troublemaker. His father gave him a copy of Frederick Douglass' autobiography and it changed his life. Both of them have similar oratory styles. They both had the amazing ability to move their audience to action [http://www.thekingcenter.org/upbringing-studies] [http://www.frederickdouglass.org/douglass_bio.html]
Neither Frederick Douglass nor Martin Luther King were extremists. Both of them argued that African-Americans have a natural right to equality. Douglass and King claimed that black people had been robbed of their equality by white Americans who refused to acknowledge their own hypocrisy by not affording people of color the liberties that were guaranteed them in the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. In using America's stated ideals as the basis for their appeals for equality, Douglass and King sought to influence reasonable Americans, not hard core racists. Both of them were recruited into their leadership roles as spokesmen for racial equality. One hundred years after Douglass'
fight against slavery, segregation was the prevailing system. Segregation was not nearly as cruel as slavery, but still evil and of great hardship to racial equality.
Race relations between blacks and whites have always been a problematic and fiery issue throughout United States history. Frederick Douglass was a self-taught black man who wrote about his experiences as a slave. In his book, "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself," he makes many insights into the injustices and cruelty of slavery. In 1863, Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation and blacks were forever freed from slavery. However, this did not put and end to racial tension or to the black man's hope for equality in the twentieth century. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote a letter from jail justifying his "nonviolent" crusade to end segregation forever. King's letter is thorough and his ideas and arguments are expressed efficiently with well-grounded rationale. Douglass' writings are more difficult to understand because there is more substance under the surface. Although they are separated by a century, Douglass and King parallel each other significantly. King's rhetoric and system of analysis are a helpful lens through which to scrutinize and extract the important realizations found in Douglass' writings [http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/bassr/heath/syllabuild/iguide/king.html]
[http://www.thekingcenter.org/beyond-civil-rights].
In the speech, "I Have a Dream" King creates visual images of the equality clause from the Declaration of Independence. In the speech, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" Douglass contends that the Fourth of July is a reminder of centuries of gross injustices perpetrated by a nation that prides itself on its democratic ideals. King abhorred the lack of equal opportunity that resulted in black america's lack of access to basic economic security. King stated, "All segregation laws are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality." Douglass declared, "I believe in agitation." Douglass complained about the failure of white Americans to live up to American ideals of liberty [http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Frederick_Douglass]
[http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1964/king-bio.html].
Frederick Douglass
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Both Douglass and King changed their names. Frederick Douglass was born Frederick Bailey. Changed his name to Frederick Douglass when he was free from slavery. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born Michael Luther King, Jr. and changed his name later in his teens. Both of them began lecturing when they were in their 20's. Douglass and King both wrote books and articles in addition to their exceptional speaking ability. Frederick Douglass had President Lincoln to deal with regarding the plight of the slaves. Martin Luther King, Jr. had President L. B. Johnson to contend with in the battle against segregation. Both men had four living children. It was obvious that Providence influenced both of their lives [http://www.biography.com/print/profile/martin-luther-king-jr-9365086]
[http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Frederick_Douglass].
Reading Douglass' and King's speeches are able to move someone to action. It would be amazing to hear Frederick Douglass' eloquent speeches. I can only imagine that James Earle Jones in the video below does Douglass justice. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking ability was effective enough to move thousands to action, regardless of color.
