Movements In American Literature: Analysis And Examples

Baldwin has a different view on life and sees the things that many other people do not see. In Baldwin’s, The Creative process he talks about how people are scared to be alone and that is why many try not to be lonely. Darwin also talks about how we as humans must make life bearable and how we can never do anything without taking it for granted. In addition, he talks about us as a society that cannot change what we have become and says, we are stuck looking past the opportunities that are before us. Darwin’s idea is what makes his piece The Creative Process is such an inspiration to many people and is why many American Literature stories are based on his work.

Native American literature is based on Urban legends and has the purpose to entertain, give historical accounts, create stories, show religion, and to educate the reader. The Sky Tree is a myth, told with talking animals and a magic tree that gives off healing powers. In the creative process, Baldwin says, “that there is nothing stable under heaven” (Baldwin p. 2). That is in the sky tree when it says, “I had a dream” he said, “and in my dream I saw how I can be healed” (Bruchac p. 22). This article is guiding the myth and the non-perfection of human society that Baldwin is trying to show his readers. In the Coyote Finishes His Work the coyote travels with the Indians and helps them capture evil spirits and monsters. It says in the passage, “Your work is finished, Coyote. You have traveled far and done much good. Now you will go to where I have prepared a home for you” (Lopez p. 24). This message shows that they are not taking the coyote’s good work for granted and our giving him an award for doing such a good job. In The Creative Process, it says that “One cannot possibly build a school, teach a child, or drive a car without taking some things for granted”(Baldwin p. 2). Baldwin believes that people take everything for granted, and it cannot be helped but in a Coyote finishes his work it is shown that they give him a reward. This event shows they are trying not to take his good deeds for granted.

Dark Romanticism is a spooky haunted setting and has many supernatural and mysterious events. In the Fall of the House of Usher, the house appears haunted and possessed. It is the way Rodrick feels and how he has been consumed by the darkness. Poe writes about the house saying, “In this there was much that reminded me of the specious totality of old woodwork which has rotted for long years in some neglected vault, with no disturbance from the breath of the external air” (Poe p. 265). The house is in from a detailed perspective on the rotting away landscape and the lack of human life in it. Baldwin says, “They rest on the fact that in order to conquer this continent, the particular aloneness of which I speak-the aloneness in which one discovers that life is tragic, and therefore unutterably beautiful-could not be permitted” (Baldwin p. 2). Baldwin describes the loneliness that the dark captures and this idea describes the conditions of the House and that the lack of human life makes that house how it is. In the Minister’s Black Veil, a man named Parson Hooper wears a veil on his face covering up everything except his mouth. He does this to reveal the cost of darkness and shows that even the most innocent people sin. Mr. Hoppers Wife says that there is nothing terrible in this piece of crape, except that it hides a face which I am always glad to look upon” (Hawthorne p. 305). His wife is simply trying to prove to everyone that there is no crime in wearing the veil, and he does it to prove a point. In Baldwin’s The Creative Process, he perfectly describes Hawthorne’s meaning of the text when he says, “knows that the one face that one can never see is one’s own face” (Baldwin p. 2).

New American Poetry shows the feeling of the writer through a poem and shows us their personalities. In Emily Dickinson’s Heart! We will forget him! She is talking to her heart telling it to forget all the good things that he gave to her. When she says, “You may forget the warmth he gave-” (Dickinson p. 374). She is telling herself she needs to move on from him and stop living in the past. Baldwin says, “that whoever cannot tell himself the truth about his past is trapped in it” (Baldwin p. 3). This message is showing that you need to accept the past and move on or you will always be stuck thinking about it like Dickinson is. In Walt Whitman’s I Hear America Singing he is showing the roles of everyone during the Civil War. He says, “I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear” (Whitman p. 352). He then lists the jobs that each person contributes to help the war in their own way. When Baldwin says, “The human effort is to bring these two realities into a relationship resembling reconciliation”(Baldwin p. 2). It is showing how we need to work together to heal society it relates to how Whitman is healing America after the Civil War.

Realism and Naturalism are stories that are full of shocking and adventuring events. In the story, A Pair of Silk Stockings Mrs. Sommers is very poor but came across a few extra dollars. She goes to the store and was going to go and pick out a few items for her children and ends up buying herself a pair of silk stockings. Chopin writes, “Here, in a retired corner, she exchanged her cotton stockings for the new silk ones which she has just bought”(Chopin p. 438). Mrs. Sommers is taking the money that she was going to spend on her children to buy a newer pair of socks. When Baldwin states that “for they have the unshakable authority that comes only from having looked on and endured and survived the worst”(Baldwin p. 2). He is saying we as a society have a trend, that everyone wants to follow what everyone else does, just as Mrs. Sommers did. In An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Peyton Farquhar is being hung for his crimes. It tells the story of what he did and how Peyton tries to escape from his sentence. It is said, “As he is about to clasp her he feels a stunning blow upon the back of his neck; a blinding white light blazes all about him with a sound like the shock of a cannon-then all is darkness and silence”(Bierce p. 473). The author is putting into detail what it is like to be hung and the things that can happen in just a single second. This is shown in Baldwin’s piece when he says, “the mystery of the human being”(Baldwin p. 1). He talks about all the mysteries behind being a human, and Bierce showed us many in the piece An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.

Romanticism focuses on the narrator’s emotions and is a celebration of nature and imagination. In the poem The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls is about how even if there are struggles life will go on. When Longfellow writes, “The day returns, but nevermore Returns the traveler to the shore” (Longfellow p. 177). He is talking about how even when there might have been troubles the day before the sun will rise again the next day. This passage from the poem relates to when Baldwin says, “we have an opportunity that no other nation has in moving beyond that Old World”(Baldwin p. 3). To be able to move on from the old world and make it how we want it to be we must move on from the past and life will continue. In the story Snow-Bound: A Winter Idyll, is about a family who is living in a cabin during a snowstorm. They are all sitting by a fire telling stories to help the time go by faster. While they were sitting in the cabin Whitter says, “All day the gusty north wind bore” (Whittier p.184). This is why they are sitting by the fire as a family. When Darwin says, “In order to make life bearable and to keep the human race alive” (Darwin p.1). It summarizes what the family is trying to do, they are trying to be able to make the storm better by being together.

The Age of Reasoning is based on authors that are rationalists, who believe that humans use truth and reasoning to make decisions instead of their past. In The Autobiography by Benjamin Franklin, he tells the story of his life and some things that he had to go through. When Baldwin says, “we are responsible for our actions, but we rarely understand them” (Baldwin p.2). It relates to how Benjamin Franklin’s life was he made all of these decisions, and they all lead up to him being the historic person that he is. When he was little he did not understand that all the little things in his life all lead up to this. When Franklin writes, “A boy of but 17, without the least recommendation to, or knowledge of any person in the place, and with very little money in his pocket” (Franklin p.86). This passage shows just how much one little decision can affect your whole life without you even knowing it. In the Speech to the Virginia Convention, Patrick Henry gives a speech to his men on how they will fight through this war. In the famous quote from this story “Give me liberty, or give me death” (Henry p.104). He is talking about how strong we all are, and we fight until the end. Baldwin says, “We are the strongest nation in the Western world, but this is not for the reasons that we think” (Baldwin p.3). Which is shown in the speech that we are a strong country and can fight through anything.

Settler and colonial literature characters have been shaped by ethical, religious and moral conventions of puritans. In the story Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, the author Jonathan Edwards tries to warn everyone that God will punish them for their sins. In the story, he writes, “The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over a fire, abhors you” (Edwards p.81). This idea is also shown in the creative process when it says, that we “lied about all the darker forces in our history”(Baldwin p.3). They both trying to warn people of the dangers and the truths of the world. In the poem Huswifery, Edward Taylor is making a request to God to complete his spinning wheel. He says “Make me thy Loom then, knit therein this Twine” (Taylor p.73). He wants to be able to use his spinning wheel to make clothes. Baldwin writes, “The particular nature of this responsibility is that he must never cease warring with it, for the sake and for his own good”(Baldwin p.2). He talks about how the author must take things into his own hands for the sake of his own good like Taylor did in his book.

Baldwin’s work has really been an inspiration for many of the American Literature books that we read today. All the works from every Era can be related to the work of James Baldwin. From the books about the Romance to the ones about Nature and all showed lessons that we must learn in life. They embrace the creative process by disagreeing and agreeing with Baldwin’s thoughts. Therefore, they show the audience how not to take life for granted and to live every moment to the fullest. A thinker must start taking life as an opportunity and go reach for your goals as Baldwin tries to prove.