 |
| Natty Bumppo combines "the soul of a poet with the nature of a redneck." ." |
Due today: Washington Irving's Legend of Sleepy Hollow and James Fennimore Cooper's excerpt from The Prarie.In class: Bible as literature test and review of the above stories as they reflect the movement of Romanticism.
Due Monday, December 3: Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher with accompanying material
Due Tuesday, December 4: Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Minister's Black Veil. No accompanying material, but as previously been stated, you are responsible for being able to answer the following questions:
1. How
does the black veil affect Parson Hooper's perception of the world?
2. In
what ways does it isolate him from the rest of the world?
3. Why
does it make him a more effective minister?
4. What
does Parson Hooper mean when he tells Elizabeth that there will come a time
when we all cast off our veils?
5 Why
does the black veil have such a powerful effect on people?
6. What
does it represent?
7.Why
do you think Hawthorne chooses not to reveal why Parson Hooper begins wearing
the veil?
8.
Individual 15 minute quick write: Hawthorne suggests that all people have
certain secrets that they choose not to reveal to anyone. Explain why you do or
do not agree with this suggestion. (can you avoid I think?)
IN CLASS TODAY: The set of five historical novels known as
The Leatherstocking Tales is a complex and adventure-packed trip into the lush
and unpredictable wilderness of 18th Century America. The thread which ties the
five books together is the life story of a rugged and untamable hunter, Indian
fighter and American scout for the British military. Each book of The
Leatherstocking Tales showcases a different phase of the myriad struggles to
settle and control this vast and resource-rich land.
The Deerslayer takes place on Otsego Lake, the current site of Cooperstown, New York. Set in 1743, long before James Fenimore Cooper's family established the first settlement at the southern end of the lake, the story brings the young hunter, Nathaniel Bumppo, and his Delaware brother, Chingachgook, to the lake to rescue Chingachgook's bride-to-be from a Iroquois war party. They enlist themselves in a bloody battle to protect a family of settlers from the Iroquois, and the resulting scenes are dramatic and suspenseful, as loves and scalps are won and lost.
The Last of The Mohicans is the universal favorite and best known of the series. Cooper builds the story around the historic massacre at Fort William Henry on the shores of Lake George. Natty Bumppo, now in his thirties and known by his Indian name of Hawkeye, joins forces with Chingachgook and Chingachgook's son Uncas to save the lives of the daughters of the fort's commanding officer. Numerous exciting and complicated canoe and trail chases take place over the lakes and through the mountains and forests of Upper York Colony. Full play is given to the treachery of Montcalm, General Webb and the Mingo warrior, Magua, as Cooper describes in heart-rending passages the disaster of the terrible massacre and its aftermath on the lives of both his fictional and historic characters.
The Pathfinder is devoted to a love story for Hawkeye. Cooper, fascinated with the use of ships to wage war on the Great Lakes, moves the scene of the action to Fort Oswego, Lake Ontario and the Thousand Islands at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. Again, treachery drives the story as an officer of a Scottish regiment sells his loyalty to the French and their Indian sympathizers. Cooper displays a penchant for mystery and intrigue as the characters struggle to identify the traitor and avoid the capture of their island stronghold.
By 1794, the Cooper family had established the settlement of Cooperstown at the southern tip of Otsego Lake. The Pioneers returns to the site of The Deerslayer to portray an era in which the world of the game-rich forests and free roaming hunters and Indian tribes has been supplanted by property rights, civil law and a market economy. Natty Bumppo, now known simply as "The Leatherstocking", is in his seventies. Although he is still a formidable marksman and is not beyond effecting a dramatic rescue of a heroine from the historic Mt. Vision forest fire, society no longer has a place for him or for the skills which made him famous. With a heavy helping of nostalgia, Cooper devotes the book to a fascinating description of the living circumstances and activities of the Americans who built the frontier towns and who made the world of the rootless longhunters obsolete.
The frontier moved inexorably westward, and in The Prairie, we find Hawkeye removed to the uncharted territory which would become Wyoming and the Dakotas. Having fled the relentless sound of axes hewing down his beloved forests in the east, the Leatherstocking is now in his eighties and has isolated himself in the land of the Pawnee, the Sioux and countless herds of buffalo. Still there is no respite from the relentlessly encroaching settlers, and he finds himself expending the last of his strength and skills in the defense of a group of outcast Kentuckians who are seeking land rights as far as possible from the law.
Culminating in a magnificently written death scene, The Prairie brings the old hunter full circle with images of his youth and reminiscences of the remarkable life which made him the prototype of the American Hero.
The Deerslayer takes place on Otsego Lake, the current site of Cooperstown, New York. Set in 1743, long before James Fenimore Cooper's family established the first settlement at the southern end of the lake, the story brings the young hunter, Nathaniel Bumppo, and his Delaware brother, Chingachgook, to the lake to rescue Chingachgook's bride-to-be from a Iroquois war party. They enlist themselves in a bloody battle to protect a family of settlers from the Iroquois, and the resulting scenes are dramatic and suspenseful, as loves and scalps are won and lost.
The Last of The Mohicans is the universal favorite and best known of the series. Cooper builds the story around the historic massacre at Fort William Henry on the shores of Lake George. Natty Bumppo, now in his thirties and known by his Indian name of Hawkeye, joins forces with Chingachgook and Chingachgook's son Uncas to save the lives of the daughters of the fort's commanding officer. Numerous exciting and complicated canoe and trail chases take place over the lakes and through the mountains and forests of Upper York Colony. Full play is given to the treachery of Montcalm, General Webb and the Mingo warrior, Magua, as Cooper describes in heart-rending passages the disaster of the terrible massacre and its aftermath on the lives of both his fictional and historic characters.
The Pathfinder is devoted to a love story for Hawkeye. Cooper, fascinated with the use of ships to wage war on the Great Lakes, moves the scene of the action to Fort Oswego, Lake Ontario and the Thousand Islands at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. Again, treachery drives the story as an officer of a Scottish regiment sells his loyalty to the French and their Indian sympathizers. Cooper displays a penchant for mystery and intrigue as the characters struggle to identify the traitor and avoid the capture of their island stronghold.
By 1794, the Cooper family had established the settlement of Cooperstown at the southern tip of Otsego Lake. The Pioneers returns to the site of The Deerslayer to portray an era in which the world of the game-rich forests and free roaming hunters and Indian tribes has been supplanted by property rights, civil law and a market economy. Natty Bumppo, now known simply as "The Leatherstocking", is in his seventies. Although he is still a formidable marksman and is not beyond effecting a dramatic rescue of a heroine from the historic Mt. Vision forest fire, society no longer has a place for him or for the skills which made him famous. With a heavy helping of nostalgia, Cooper devotes the book to a fascinating description of the living circumstances and activities of the Americans who built the frontier towns and who made the world of the rootless longhunters obsolete.
The frontier moved inexorably westward, and in The Prairie, we find Hawkeye removed to the uncharted territory which would become Wyoming and the Dakotas. Having fled the relentless sound of axes hewing down his beloved forests in the east, the Leatherstocking is now in his eighties and has isolated himself in the land of the Pawnee, the Sioux and countless herds of buffalo. Still there is no respite from the relentlessly encroaching settlers, and he finds himself expending the last of his strength and skills in the defense of a group of outcast Kentuckians who are seeking land rights as far as possible from the law.
Culminating in a magnificently written death scene, The Prairie brings the old hunter full circle with images of his youth and reminiscences of the remarkable life which made him the prototype of the American Hero.
No comments:
Post a Comment