The Literature of Realism and Revolution

1. Theology dominated the Puritan phase of American writing, and politics is the next great

subject to command the attention of minds.

2. Writers held vitally important places in the movement for American independence.

3. Original American states were persuaded to become a single nation by the arguments of

statesmen and writers.

4.They use “state” to replace “colony”, in order to guide the political trend.

5. Boston was a major center of thought, as well as Philadelphia, New York and the state of Virginia, etc.

6. The British government did not want colonial industries competing with those in England. 7. The Bourgeois Enlightenment gave much influence to the spiritual life in the colonies. 8.1776-1783, the United States achieved its independence.

Benjamin Franklin ( 1706-1790)

Literary Achievements

 Franklin produced satire that was good-natured or caustic at his pleasure.

 He had talents for irony, allegory and fable that he could adapt with great will to the

promotion of moral and practical truth.

 He was a very humorous man who knew how to use his humor to achieve social purposes.

He used his humor to create a public image.

 When he was 16 years old in 1722, Franklin wrote 14 humorous letters, commenting on

the social life in Boston under the pseudonym of “ Silence Dogood.” This name was a typical name that a Puritan woman might have, but this persona talks all the time. Here, the purpose of Franklin’s humor was to satirize human faults so that people would reform.  “ Silence Dogood” uses the language that is typically American.

 Franklin’s place in literature owes much to his almanac and autobiography. His Poor

Richard’s Almanac, published from 1732 to 1758 under the name of Richard Saunders, also reflects his humor.

 An almanac is the book that gives vital information for the year, the seasons, the sunrise

and the sunset, accurate information on tides, as well as information on how to cure hens, how to plant certain crops; all are practical information important to farmers.

 Franklin pretended that he was a man named poor Richard Saunders, and Richard was the

kind of man that Americans called a cracker barrel philosopher. Here ,he modeled his own style on the clarity, good sense, and simplicity. And later he put all these maxims in one book entitled The Way to Wealth (1774).

Style

 Franklin’s style of writing was clear and even plain in his time, but for modern readers, it

is a bit hard to read.

 His style is rather formal, but the organization of his material is informal. For it is a little

hard to call this autobiography a unified work of literature.

 The autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is an inspiring account of a poor boy’s rise to

wealth and fame and the fulfillment of the American dream.  It is a book on the art of self-improvement.

 It is significant because, on the one hand, it is classic of its kind in American literature,

and on the other hand, it indicates the fact that Franklin was the spokesman of American enlightenment.

 Using his life story as a shining example, Franklin eloquently demonstrated all the major

principles of the enlightenment in America.

Paine’s life

1. He was appropriately born into an age of revolution. 2. He was called the “Great Commoner of Mankind”.

3. He was born in England, and was apprenticed to his father, a staymaker and worked in

English communities.

4. He was employed as an excise officer for nearly 12 years, and his leisure time was devoted to

the books and ideas.

5. When he was the excise officer, he learned a lot about the hardship of the humble workers of

his own class.

6. Twice marriage, and twice divorces.

7. In 1772, he wrote his first pamphlet, The Case of the officers of the Excise (《收税官的案

子》)

8. He was dismissed because he joined in his fellow workers in a petition to Parliament for a

living wage.

9. 37 years old, he met Franklin in London, and the later recognized his peculiar talents in their

American perspective, and suggested him to go abroad—Philadelphia.

10. In Philadelphia, he worked for two papers: Pennsylvania Magazine and Pennsylvania Journal.

The readers liked his writing style as a political satirist of genius.

11. In 1776, his pamphlet Common Sense appeared, and it advocated the idea of “ Declaration

for Independence”.

12.After his enlisting in the army, he wrote a lot. But his chief contribution was a series of 16 pamphlets ( 1776-1783). It was entitled as “ American Crisis” and signed “ Common Sense”. The soldiers were moved and encouraged by them. It restored the morale and inspired the success of that citizen’s army.

12. The war was over, he turned to invention, and in 1787 he went to Paris and London , he was

received as an important international figure. But later people of the America were against him, because he was conservative in the action of the execution of Louis XVI. He died in 1809, and was buried New York. Literary Achievements:

1.Paine’s most famous political pamphlet is Common Sense, about 70 pages, and his argument divided into 4 parts.

2.Common Sense is often regarded as the greatest of the Revolutionary pamphlets. George Washington (1732-1799) said that this pamphlet more than any other persuaded Americans that the time had come to join in the Revolution.

The American Crisis

The features of The American Crisis

1. The pamphlets restored the morale and inspired the spirit of the army.

2. It is full of the reasons that the America should be independent and gave many

indisputable evidence. The demonstration was rational.

3. The author chose the words with great care and each analogy was aptly worded, touched

the people deeply in the heart.

4. It also favorably paved the smooth way to the pass of the Declaration of Independence

Thomas Jefferson ( 1743-1826)

1. Jefferson’s thought and personality have influenced his countrymen more deeply.

2. He was Virginian planter-aristocrat, and a vigorous humanitarian who was eager to acquire

the knowledge in many fields—law, philosophy, government, architecture, education, science, agriculture, mechanics etc.

3. He was greatly influenced by the product of the Enlightenment and absorbed the excellent

ideas of contemporary French liberalism in Montesquieu, Voltaire etc.

4. His important idea: He looked to merit and ability alone, not to privilege; the natural rights of

man must be secured by law inalienably for all, irrespective of station. For him, government, a necessary evil, found sanction only in the common consent of a social contract, its purpose was the benefit of the individual, not his exploitation; it must provide freedom of speech, thought, association, press, worship, education, and enterprise. 5. He was born in Albemarle County, Virginia, April 13,1743.

6. in 1769, he was in the life of public, and represented Virginia in the second continental

congress in 1775.

7. He drafted the Declaration of Independence with Franklin, Roger Sherman etc in 1776.

8. When he was in the political life, he was in the conflict with the extreme Federalism and the

aristocratic tendencies of Alexander Hamilton.

9. He won the election of 1800, and served for two terms as president.

10. It was a coincidence that his death in 1826 should occur on the fiftieth anniversary of the

signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Philip Freneau (1752-1832)

 He was the famous and transitional person between the neoclassical and romantic

literature, and romantic in essential spirit.

 He was named the “Father of American Poetry”.

 He was also at once a satirist and a sentimentalist, a humanitarian but also a bitter

polemicist, a poet of Reason yet the celebrant of “lovely Fancy,” and a deistic optimist inspired by themes of death and transience.

Poem: The Wild Honey Suckle

 The Wild Honey Suckle

1. He observed the surroundings and natural materials carefully and gave the exquisite

description of them.

2. The landscape of the America reminded the poet of many fancies because of their

ordinary lives and their experience, no matter they were little flowers or leaves of grass.

3. He was good at grasp the inspiration in an instant, and constructed them to be the

conceive of his poems and expressed his broadmind skillfully.

The Indian Burying Ground The Indian Burying Ground

1. He was quite interested in the customs of the local America, especially the common

practices of Local Indians.

2. He was one of the earliest writers to mention the concept / idea that the Local Indians

were the noble wild. And praised a lot about their lives.

3. This poem was written after his view of the funerals of the Indians.

4. He had the imagination that the spirits of the dead Indians were not extinct, even though

their bodies might decay.

5. He got the inspiration of the ordinary life of the Local Indians and it was Freneau that

created the tradition of the poetry of America, and it gave the great influence on the later poets, such as Longfellow, etc…