Lesson Plan/Teaching Notes

American Literature 1700-1820 (425-433)

Short background essay on social aspects of "Rip Van Winkle"

General note
· Ask questions about introductory material

A time of contrasts. On the one hand, you have writers like Franklin and Irving who espouse the ideas of rationality and nationalism (the former) and the idea of a professional writer (the latter). Yet it is also a time of the Great Awakening, a period which saw the resurgence of Puritan ideas and ethos, as exemplified in Edwards’ “Sinner in the Hand of Angry God”

BTW, this is a common occurance. While we like to think of history and literature as occuring in movements, it’s important to remember that people do not act in lock step: in any given period there are wide disparaties in beliefs. Still, that doesn’t mean that attitudes and cultures don’t coalesce into basic shapes. And it’s important to examine these shapes of these cultures – including the dissenting forces – to see . . . what? Why do we examine these cultures? Why not just live for today?
On January 6, 1842, some 16,500 British and Indian Sepoy troops, civilians, wives and children, and camp followers left Kabul. On January 13, Dr. Brydon rode, alone, up to the gates of Jalalabad.

The legend notwithstanding, Brydon was not actually the sole survivor of the 16,500, but he was the only European to make it all the way from Kabul to Jalalabad (about 90 miles through snow-covered passes and through hostile tribesmen). Other Indians and friendly Afghans also straggled through, and over 100 British officers, enlisted men, wives and children were taken captive or hostage and later released or exchanged. But the image of Brydon riding alone into Jalalabad, sole remnant of a column of 16,500, burned itself into Victorian memory, aided by a dramatic painting by the Victorian military artist Lady Butler (above), called "Remnant of an Army".

http://www.theestimate.com/public/100501_dossier.html

Contrast b/t Puritan's and Franklin?

The Enlightenment

• Reason – learn through experience
• Optimism
• Science
• Philosophical
• Starts to question religion
• Puts emotion aside
• Plain style
• Class/money
• Group
• Ironic/satire
• Wit
• Locke? Tabula Rasa Rousseau’s “noble savages”

· What are “errata” to Franklin? What would Rowlandson have called these? Why did he choose that word? .

Terms/People to know

Discussion questions

Benjamin Franklin “Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America” [1784]

· I’ll ask the obvious question: How is his description of Native Americans different from Rowlandson?

· How is his style different from Rowlandson? NO RELIGION, FOR ONE. MORE CONTEMPORARY STYLE.

· How does the develop his argument?

· How does his argument reflect the thinking of the Enlightement? How does it reflect, for example, the philosophy of Rousseau?

from The Autobiography (538) [published in 1818-1868]

· Another obvious question: why open with the letters?

· What doesn’t Franklin let others know he is the driving force behind the subscription library – and what is a subscription library (589)?

Religion

· What are his religious views? (590 – esp. 591 “make us. . . good Citizens”)

· Why does he have such an open view of religion?

· On his list of Virtures, what do you make of 12 and 13? Particularly, his use of the word “Rarely” and his pairing of Jesus and Socrates (592)?

· What does he link party politics to? How is his view of religion different and similar to the Puritans?

· What does he want his religious society called? What are the connotations of this name?What did he hope would be the result of this society? How does it differ from the Puritans

· Why include the incident about Hemphill the plagiarist preacher?

· How does he show a distance from religion? (609)

His character/beliefs/connection to other ideas of the period

· How does his list of items avoid the appearance of being anal?

· What does the following quote suggest about his outlook: “I determined endeavoring to cure myself”? Consider also his many plans for self-improvement.

· How could some have accused him of manipulation? 589, 599, 600, **605. What would be Franklin’s response?

· The repetition of “Good” on page 600 suggests what English philosopher of the same period?

· Why such emaphasis on business? 601 “the Means of procuring Wealth”

· Why include comment about helping rear and set up his nephew in the printing business?

·

Politics/government

· What is his emphasis on politics on page 600? What should politics do?

· How does one of the writers of our Constitution feel about the free press?,

·

Style

· What seems to be his main purpose here?

Power of the pen and oratory

· What connection does Franklin make b/t words and action? (606-607

· Why include the passage about Whitefield’s asking for money to be sent to Georgia (608)?

Proto-Feminism?

· How does he feel about the “women question”? 602 – How does he hedge his bet? 603

Reform

· How would he like to reform education? 604

Franklin Discussion Questions

• An obvious question: why open with the letters?
• What seems to be his purpose in writing this autobiography? Does the style of his prose lend itself to this purpose? How does this fit with the ideas of his period (the Enlightenment)?
• What connection does Franklin make b/t words and action? (606-607 and letters)
• How does this text support the myth of the self made man? (see especially 586, 590) Why was this so important to Franklin? Is it still apparent today?
• How does he distance himself from the Puritans – or, how is he not like a Puritan? Make a quick list of ways and find quotes to support them.

Jonathan Edwards (written 1741) “Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God” (474-85)

Connect langauge and imagery to captivity narratives (cf. Slotkin 97)

· How many negative words are included in the first three paragraphs? What are they?

· What feeling is engendered by the repetition of the phrases “always exposed” and “slippery places” and “fall”? How does he develop this feeling/idea throughout the sermon? Identify at least two other passages that do so.

· How does Edwards threaten his congregation?

· How does he demonstrate his belief in the Puritan idea of Total Depravity?

· Why repeat “soverign pleasure of God” or “soverign hand” so many times? 503, And why repeat “wrath” so many times (505)? What kind of God is Edwards creating by this wording?

· What are some of the metaphors he employs to make his argument? Why are these effective?

· “He will crush out your blood. . .” What? What is this God doing? Why so cruel?

· Does he ever relent? Does he ever soften?

· How does this sermon connect to Rowlandson’s captivity narrative?

· How is this sermon similar to Rev. Whitefield’s (Franklin 607)?

Washington Irving “Rip Van Winkle” (980) [printed in 1819]

This is one of those snarky little tales that, on the surface, appears to be just an amusing bit of Americana, but when examined more closely, reveals the power of metaphor, symbol, and how narrative can be used as satire.

Why the old “found among the papers” bit? (cf. Hawthorne, Carlyle) ODDLY, IT WORKS BOTH WAYS: LENDS A VEENER OF VERACITY TO THESTORY, BUT IT ALSO MAKES IT MORE LIKE A TALL TALE – WHICH TYPICALLY BEGIN WITH TESTAMONIES TO ITS VERACITY. CONSIDER THE DIFFERENCE IF YOU WERE TELLING A “TRUE” STORY OR A MADE UP STORY.

• Would readers take this “found” trope seriously? IRONIC?

Setting

The two towns

• Let’s look at two contrasting paragraphs: description of the tavern 983/988: what’s the distinctions here?

Characters

• How is his wife characterized? 982. What about his treatment of other women? His Irving just a misogynist? Why set him up with a “termagant” wife? How does this fit in, say, with his political critique of America? (cf. 991)
• Does Rip seem like a typical colonialist? How? DOESN’T EXHIBIT THE VIRTURES ESPOUSED BY FRANKLIN.
• Are we meant to agree or disagree with Rip’s worldview? How can you tell? Is it good to get drunk? Or to be idle?
• What does he like best to do? What’s his dog’s name? EARLY EXAMPLE OF AN AMERICAN ARCHETYPE: HUCK FINN TYPE – HE FEELS CONSTRAINED BY DOMESTIC LIFE
• How has life changed in twenty years?

Commenting on America

• What is Irving saying about the American political situation? CF. “RIP, IN FACT, WAS NO POLITICIAN; THE CHANGES OS STATES AND EMPIRES MADE BUT LITTLE IMPRESSION ON HIM. BUT THERE WAS ONE SPECIES OF DESPOTISM UNDER WHICH HE HAD LONG GROANED, AND THAT WAS – PETTICOAT GOVERNMENT” (991)
• Providing a history of America:
• What’s the first question the men ask Rip when he returns from the village? How does it contrast with the earlier village?
• Why does Rip prefer “making friends among the rising generation” 991?
• Does Rip lack a work ethic? What does he seem to lack? THE CAPITALIST ETHIC – MAKING MONEY. What was the prevaling ethic at this time?

"I KNOW OF NO COUNTRY, INDEED, WHERE THE LOVE OF MONEY HAS TAKEN A STRONGER HOLD ON THE AFFECTIONS OF MEN AND WHERE A PROFOUNDER CONTEMPT IS EXPRESSED FOR THE THEORY OF THE PERMANENT EQUALITY OF PROPERTY." (Tocqueville 51)

• Why was the old tree removed and a flagpole put in its place?
• By making Rip 1) popular and 2) a source of pre-revolutionary information (991), what is Irving saying about nation building? I mean, why do they care about what went on before the war? Independence is won, right?

Nature

• View of nature: how does Rip feel about nature? NOT THREATENED Why not? MORE SETTLED. GET STUDENTS TO USE PROOF THAT HE’S NOT THREATNED BECAUSE SETTLEMENT IS OLDER, HOUSES ARE OLDER, A PART OF NATURE
• What happens here when he gets lost/taken in the Wilderness? HE GETS DELIVERED.
• How is this similar/different to Rowlandson’s narrative? HE’S “CAPTURED” AND TAKEN TO THE WILDERNESS. HE LEARNS FROM HIS EXPERIENCE.

Supernatural

• Why the supernatural?
• What about the economic?

Use hudson river pictures here

Notes from Critics

“Irving wishes in a gentle way to remind his readers that American "exceptionalism" should not be taken too far, and that, for all their innovativeness in the history of human societies, the Americans should not forget that they are human beings and therefore need a sense of the communal past, as have all societies heretofore” (Conlin)

“Even America has its demigods and superhuman founders who dwell in the mountains as a kind of brooding presence overlooking the community for all time. Rip's America is not really distinct from other, more traditional societies. It too has its divine origins not subject to strictly scientific study.” (Conlin)

“But a "general shout burst from the bystanders--|A tory! a tory! a spy! a refugee! hustle him! away with him!'" (36). Something like mob-rule has come to the village along with the new republicanism. Life is politicized, and no one can afford to be outside the mainstream.” (Conlin)

“Catherine Zuckert argues that there is "a characteristically American motif" in the great works of American literature anchored in the principles of the Declaration of Independence and which points back to the State of Nature philosophy of Hobbes and Locke. According to Zuckert, the "naturalistic" school in American fiction led by Cooper, Hawthorne, and Melville, involves the return to the "state of nature" in order to find a basis for the critique of American life. Zuckert argues that these "withdrawals" constitute "investigations" into "the purported basis of the American political creed" with its "Lockean" or "social contract theory" roots (246).” (Conlin)

“Rip is a reminder that all communities, no matter how free and enlightened they become, need to be attentive to their past, and need, no matter what their prosperity and success, some sense of the mysterious and awe-inspiring. Rip's experience is akin to a Biblical Revelation, except that his encounter is with local gods. Rip's "polytheistic" experience suggests an association with the Greeks and their "political" gods of the polis. Rip's tale-telling serves a political function in that it tends to enchant the history of his community and to give it roots in a mythic past. Rip reminds his auditors that their community has a long and various history even behind the original Dutch settlers. “ (conlin)

“Like the mythic 'noble savage' of Rousseau, or the heroes of westerns, Van Winkle is an Edenic figure, a man unfettered by society. That, above all else, is the source of his enduring appeal.” (Ozersky)

“The conflict between nature and the "civilized" world of the marketplace is at the heart of Rip Van Winkle. And it is at the heart of "Rip Van Winkle" because it was at the heart of the development of America in Irving's time.” (Ozersky)

“The coastal colonies, on the other hand, were deeply committed to commerce from their founding. This tension was to inform the entire early history of America. Jefferson's yeoman farmers and Hamilton's manufacturers, Democratic Republicans and Federalists, country and city. Everywhere market culture encountered subsistence culture, it derided it as lazy, backward, idle.” (Ozersky) VERY TRUE – SEE FRANKLIN

“At any rate a primal, primeval myth has been postulated (by Joseph Campbell in his Hero with a Thousand Faces), and has been described--as a "separation from the world, a penetration to some source of power, and a life-enhancing return." (Young)

My own questions:

• Where does Rip escape to? How does this mark a difference with the Puritans?

Irving Discussion Questions

• At least one critic takes a larger view of the purpose of the story, arguing for a more cultural reading:

Irving wishes in a gentle way to remind his readers that American "exceptionalism" should not be taken too far, and that, for all their innovativeness in the history of human societies, the Americans should not forget that they are human beings and therefore need a sense of the communal past, as have all societies heretofore. (Conlin)

Let’s take Conlin at his measure: How could this story be read as a cautionary tale about American exceptionalism?

• Let’s consider another critic’s interpretation who looks at this story from an economic perspective:

“The conflict between nature and the ‘civilized’ world of the marketplace is at the heart of Rip Van Winkle. And it is at the heart of ‘Rip Van Winkle’ because it was at the heart of the development of America in Irving's time.” (Ozersky)

How does this story show a conflict b/t nature and the civilized world of the marketplace?

• How does this compare and/or contrast with Franklin?

• How does this compare and/or contrast with the Puritan writers

• Why the old “found among the papers” bit? (cf. Hawthorne, Carlyle)
• Would readers take this “found” trope seriously?
  
• How is his wife characterized? 982 What about his treatment of other women?
  
• Does Rip seem like a typical colonialist? How?
• Why open with a reference to Nordic gods as opposed to Greek or Christian ones?
  
• Are we meant to agree or disagree with Rip’s worldview? How can you tell? Is it good to get drunk? Or to be idle?
  
• What does he like best to do? What’s his dog’s name?
  
• How has life changed in twenty years?
  
• Let’s look at two contrasting paragraphs: description of the tavern 983/988
  
• What is Irving saying about the American political situation?
  
• What about the economic?
• How can you read this story from a Freudian standpoint? (i.e. Id, Ego, Superego)
• What is this story, given the reference to Henry Hudson (the old men in the hills) and the twenty years sleep, and the difference between the story past and the story present, saying about history?
• Does Rip lack a work ethic? What does he seem to lack?
•  Why was the old tree removed and a flagpole put in its place?
• What’s the first question the men ask Rip when he returns from the village?  How does it contrast with the earlier village?

Voices from the Past

Pictures from the Past

Quotes from critics

On Irving
“Irving wishes in a gentle way to remind his readers that American "exceptionalism" should not be taken too far, and that, for all their innovativeness in the history of human societies, the Americans should not forget that they are human beings and therefore need a sense of the communal past, as have all societies heretofore”  (Conlin)

 “Even America has its demigods and superhuman founders who dwell in the mountains as a kind of brooding presence overlooking the community for all time. Rip's America is not really distinct from other, more traditional societies. It too has its divine origins not subject to strictly scientific study.” (Conlin)

 “But a "general shout burst from the bystanders--|A tory! a tory! a spy! a refugee! hustle him! away with him!'" (36). Something like mob-rule has come to the village along with the new republicanism. Life is politicized, and no one can afford to be outside the mainstream.” (Conlin)

“Catherine Zuckert argues that there is "a characteristically American motif" in the great works of American literature anchored in the principles of the Declaration of Independence and which points back to the State of Nature philosophy of Hobbes and Locke. According to Zuckert, the "naturalistic" school in American fiction led by Cooper, Hawthorne, and Melville, involves the return to the "state of nature" in order to find a basis for the critique of American life. Zuckert argues that these "withdrawals" constitute "investigations" into "the purported basis of the American political creed" with its "Lockean" or "social contract theory" roots (246).” (Conlin)

“Rip is a reminder that all communities, no matter how free and enlightened they become, need to be attentive to their past, and need, no matter what their prosperity and success, some sense of the mysterious and awe-inspiring. Rip's experience is akin to a Biblical Revelation, except that his encounter is with local gods. Rip's "polytheistic" experience suggests an association with the Greeks and their "political" gods of the polis. Rip's tale-telling serves a political function in that it tends to enchant the history of his community and to give it roots in a mythic past. Rip reminds his auditors that their community has a long and various history even behind the original Dutch settlers. “ (conlin)

“Like the mythic 'noble savage' of Rousseau, or the heroes of westerns, Van Winkle is an Edenic figure, a man unfettered by society. That, above all else, is the source of his enduring appeal.” (Ozersky)

“The conflict between nature and the "civilized" world of the marketplace is at the heart of Rip Van Winkle. And it is at the heart of "Rip Van Winkle" because it was at the heart of the development of America in Irving's time.” (Ozersky)

“The coastal colonies, on the other hand, were deeply committed to commerce from their founding. This tension was to inform the entire early history of America. Jefferson's yeoman farmers and Hamilton's manufacturers, Democratic Republicans and Federalists, country and city. Everywhere market culture encountered subsistence culture, it derided it as lazy, backward, idle.” (Ozersky) VERY TRUE – SEE FRANKLIN

“At any rate a primal, primeval myth has been postulated (by Joseph Campbell in his Hero with a Thousand Faces), and has been described--as a "separation from the world, a penetration to some source of power, and a life-enhancing return." (Young)

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Last Revised August 2002
David Bordelon