The Role of Humility in the "Letters" from and American Farmer

De Crevecoeur's "Letters from an American Farmer" are a rich, engrossing read into the hopes and dreams of a young America. We get to see how people viewed the young nation and what they deemed her unique traits and promises to be. Further aiding De Crevecoeur's masterful use of language is his masterful use of tone and genre in the writing of "Letters from an American Farmer." De Crevecoeur purposefully chooses to use the letter as a genre; why? Hopefully, this blog post will be able to uncover a few answers.

As I have previously discussed in my post regarding the letters between John and Abigail Adams, the letter is a uniquely powerful medium. It allows the author to directly address the audience; if the so chose, they may even address a particular member of a particular audience. Letters are also something that people are used to receiving on a day to day basis. De Crevecoeur is apparently aware of this. The letter has a naturally humble tone in it. It's one person getting down on another person's level to directly address them. His writing's humility is also greatly aided by his adopting the persona of an American farmer. The farmer is often seen as the average joe. He works hard and receives little but the feeling of a job well done in reward. By writing his "letter" from the perspective of a farmer, De Crevecoeur is again humbling himself. He could have titled his work "Essays from a Lofty American Noble." He chose, however, to speak directly to the people, using language that the common man may be able to more easily relate to. Hopefully, this post has allowed some new angles and ideas of De Crevecoeur to surface in the minds of the reader.

Thanks for reading.

Tongue in Cheek Poetry: Bradstreet and Wheatley's Use of Sarcasm

When trying to make a point, a little bit of dry wit can go a long way. This is a concept certainly well understood by two poets that we looked at this unit: Anne Bradstreet and Phillis Wheatley. These two women poets had to go through many struggles as women writers in their time periods, and their feelings on the subject of women’s rights, women in religion, etc. often shine through in their poetry. To further analyze this topic, I have selected two passages: one from a Bradstreet poem, and one from a Wheatley poem. I will compare the two side-by-side in order to demonstrate the similarities in the writing styles and use of “tongue in cheek” writing that both employ. First, a selection from Anne Bradstreet’s poem, “The Prologue”

            I am obnoxious to each carping tongue

            Who says my hand a needle better fits

            A poet’s pen all scorn I should thus wrong,

            For such despite they cast on female wits:

            If what I do prove well, it won’t advance

            They’ll say it’s stol’n, or else it was by chance.

Although one must read the rest of the poem to truly grasp Bradstreet’s tone, one can here see her tearing down her own work, saying that even should it become famous, men won’t believe it was her who wrote it, but rather it was stolen, or written by chance. Bradstreet demonstrates in the rest of her poem, and the rest of her body of poetic works, that she disagrees with the traditional male sentiment often seen in her deeply religious Puritan colony. She believes women to be strong and capable, and that her written works are just as good as those of men, calling to mind imagery of the Greek goddesses of poetry, song, art, etc, the Muses.

            Next, we turn our analysis to Phillis Wheatley, a poet who also uses sarcasm to drive her points in. In her poem “On Being Brought from Africa to America,” we see Wheatley “adopting” the stance of the white, Christian slave owner to show just how ridiculous their rationale is.

            ‘Twas mercy brought me from my pagan land,

            Taught my benighted soul to understand

            That there’s a God, that there’s a Savior too:

            Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.

While some may argue that this style of writing comes off as bitter or scorned, and in some cases it can, it also gives these two writers the punch that their poetry needed in a time when they weren’t accepted.

The Wisdom of Franklin

 What is it about the euphemism, cliché, and quirky saying that makes a person sound so wise? Franklin’s “The Way to Wealth” is chockfull of quippy thoughts and kernels of wisdom that leave a mind in shock and awe. How can a single human being be so wise? Although these saying are by no means irrelevant, I propose that the reason that sayings like these appear to be so wise is because of rhetorical strategies: their phrasing, word usage, source material and audience, etc. Let’s look at one specific example:

Great estates may venture more, but little boats should keep near shore.

The gist of this saying is that financial risks should only be attempted by those who can afford it. A reasonable enough piece of wisdom. But why is it more memorable when stated Poor Richard’s way? Through poetic devices such as rhyme and metaphors, the saying and its enshrined wisdom is easier (and more fun) to recall. We see similar wisdom in popular characters like Mr. Miyagi and Yoda. Want to sound wise? Just speak it riddles and rhymes!

The Letter as a Genre

We have looked at some literary genres so far this semester that may not first come to mind when thinking of American literature. The historical account, the public speech, and now the letter. Often overlooked as a literary genre, the letter offers unique angles to the audience, tone, and voice that the poem, novel do not. To begin with, let’s examine John/Abigail Adams’ letters to each other. Here, the reader gets insight into two prominent historical figures are only possible through the letter genre. We see how the Adams’ relationship works; rather then faceless political figures we all know from 5^th grade social studies, we see two living, breathing human beings, loving, lamenting, and living together. The letter can also be a powerful medium when purposefully chosen for its unique properties. DeCrevocoeur’s “letters” are able to speak directly to its reader through its disguising itself as a letter. Likewise, CS Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters can function more powerfully and uniquely as a work of fiction through its use of letters.

Anticipating American Lit 1700-1820

When I first thought of early American literature, I thought of this time period. Revolutionary war, Enlightenment, global political upheaval, all of this would combine to form potentially one of the most interesting periods in American literature. Thankfully, we spent little time with early colonial American literature and now we can dive straight into Ben Franklin, Thomas Paine, John Locke, and a host of other authors I don't know but am excited to get to know.

What intrigues me most about this time period is the politics of the day. Based on our readings from the introduction the text gives to 1700-1820 American literature, the politics did indeed shape the literature (or vice versa, perhaps). Documents like Common Sense, and the Declaration of Independence are still relevant today; they continue to shape politics both in American and abroad. It was interesting to me how the call for revolutionary war helped to spark American literature as a genre. People needed propaganda against the British, so writers and orators stepped up to fill the need. I also thought it was interesting how many of these people made a living entirely off of their writing and speeches, something that is difficult to do even today.

In addition to the interesting politics of this era, it also contains some of my favorite thinkers. People like Ben Franklin, Thomas Pain, Thomas Jefferson, etc. are all heroes of sorts to me. It's not like I'm super patriotic or anything, but men like these really seem to embody what I would call well-rounded individuals. They did it all, and they excelled at it, and for better or worse they changed the face of the world. The chance to read and study some of their works in this lit class is especially exciting.

As boring as it might sound, I hope we stay away from traditional ideas of literature like poetry, short stories, novels, etc. and focus more on these philosophical and political figureheads. Regardless of what road we take, I am excited to get to study this unit, and look forward to interesting thoughts.

The Mystery of Cotton Mather

Although Cotton Mather may have one of the oddest names that I have ever heard, it can't even hold a candle to that of his father, Increase Mather (seriously, who names their son Increase? If Cotton Mather had went to my elementary school, he would have been beaten up daily).

Now that the obvious elephant-in-the-room that is Cotton Mather's name has been addressed, we can discuss his writings. Let's on one hand look at how biased and uninformed The Wonders of the Invisible World is. Mather's, in his documentation of the trial of Martha Carrier, relies on evidence that would never hold up in a modern court: hearsay, attacks on the character of the accused, and "scientific evidence" all add up to a very unreliable case for prosecution. After reading all of this, it's a wonder that Mather managed to graduate from Harvard at all (or any school of higher learning, for that matter).

It is Mather's education level that is the real kicker when discussing our selection from The Wonders of the Invisible World. How could a man of higher learning commit such errors in his assessment of the trials of Martha Carrier? Did his religious views cloud his judgment? Was it the social norms of his Puritan colony that misled him? The whole thing smells of conspiracy to me. . . 

Perhaps he genuinely believed that Carrier was a witch, and he bought into the whole devil in the wilderness thing. Intelligent people have been known before to support questionable causes. I just find it really tough to wrap my head around the idea of somebody with the educational background of Mather supporting something as superstitious as the Salem witch trials.

Carnival Post: Am. Lit. to 1700s

Our class' time with the early years of American literature may have been brief, but it had no short supply of interesting conversation. Partially due to the nature of many of the writings that we read, Christianity and faith were commonly blogged about. The writings of Anne Bradstreet, Edward Taylor, and John Winthrop were inspirational to the faith of many bloggers:

I really appreciate that a lot of Edward Taylor's writings/meditations were not written for the public, or to make himself look better, but they were written during his personal time with the Lord. (Crista's Blog)

The more I read, the more I connected with Anne and her upbringing. I was able to empathize with much of her life and thoughts about God. (Julia's Blog)

Although faith was probably the most common theme in blogging/class discussion, the inner strength and character of Anne Bradstreet was a close second. Many of us identified with how approachable Anne Bradstreet is, and how her poetry gets down to the common person's level (at least in terms of themes). Feminism, inner strength, and Anne's Bradstreet's own personal suffering were all popular topics as well.

 Anne Bradstreet was lucky to receive a higher education than most women of her time. I feel like she made such bounds through being able to be a women writer. Even with the Puritan beliefs that she believed, she kept with her writing as well as with the household duties of the Puritan age and I find that very admirable. (Nicole's Blog)

Bradstreet endured a lot in her life. She had ups and downs just as any person does. Hearing about her faith and the challenges that arose within it gave me a better idea of what type of person she truly was. I think all people can connect with what she went through in some way. (Tanisha's Blog)

One final theme that was present in a few blogs was about the social/political norms of the time we were reading from. The Americas at this point were a unique time in history, and understanding the context from which many of these writings came from was important to a few of our bloggers.

 Before this class, if I thought of Anne Bradstreet at all, I thought of her as a stereotypical Puritan woman. To my mind, this meant she was a model of submission, obeying her husband to the point of reverence, and quietly bowing to all his desires and wishes.(Esther's Blog)

Darn colonists. You can't get captured by natives and let them out of your sight even for a minute.One would think Captain Smith single-handedly saved New England. (Nikki's Blog)

What does this all say about our class? I believe that the variety of topics, conversations, and interests present in our blogs and classroom discussions (hopefully) exemplifies the type of discussion that will we have throughout the rest of the semester. Here's to three more months of exciting American lit discussion!