Transcript REVOLUTIONARY WAR LITERATURE UNIT

REVOLUTIONARY WAR
LITERATURE UNIT
PHILOSOPHY OF
REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD
• RATIONALISM AND DEISM
– AGE OF REASON: (ENLIGHTENMENT)
BEGAN IN EUROPE IN 1600S
• RATIONALISM: BELIEF THAT HUMAN
BEINGS CAN ARRIVE AT TRUTH (SPIRITUAL
AND SCIENTIFIC) THROUGH REASON AND
LOGIC, NOT FAITH
– BELIEFS WERE OPPOSED TO THOSE OF PURITANS
– YouTube: What is Deism?
PHILOSOPHY OF
REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD
• DEISM: A philosophical perspective that believed
God created and set the universe in motion, but is
largely absent from our day to day lives.
– Deists do NOT believe that God revealed himself through religious
texts like the Bible, Torah, or Qur’an—while they respect these
books, they do NOT believe they are the word of GOD, just
perspectives of other flawed men.
• GENERALLY SPEAKING, THEY WERE FORWARD
THINKERS WHO WERE INTERESTED IN SCIENTIFIC
PROGRESS
PHILOSOPHY OF
REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD
• MAJOR BELIEFS OF RATIONALISTS AND
DEISTS
– UNIVERSE IS ORDERLY AND GOOD
– HUMANITY IS INHERENTLY GOOD
– PERFECTABILITY OF HUMANS is possible
THROUGH the use of REASON and logic
• BEST FORM OF WORSHIP: DO GOOD FOR OTHERS—
ROOTS OF SOCIAL WELFARE SYSTEM
• HUMAN HISTORY IS MARKED BY PROGRESS
TOWARD A MORE PERFECT EXISTENCE
– GOD CREATED THE UNIVERSE, BUT HE
DOESN’T CONTROL YOUR DESTINY
MAJOR INFLUENCES ON
AMERICAN RATIONALISTS
AND DEISTS
• SIR ISAAC NEWTON:
BRITISH RATIONALIST
AND SCIENTIST
• JOHN LOCKE: BRITISH
PHILOSOPHER—FIRST
TO CLAIM THAT ALL
MEN HAD
“INALIENABLE
RIGHTS
– HEAVILY INFLUENCED
JEFFERSON
Famous American Deists
• Presidents
– James Madison
– John Quincy Adams
– Thomas Jefferson
• Statesmen and
Revolutionaries
–
–
–
–
Benjamin Franklin
Ethan Allen
Thomas Paine
Patrick Henry
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
1706-1790
• ONE OF 17 CHILDREN—
WHOA!
• BY AGE 24—OWNED HIS
OWN PRINT SHOP AND
NEWSPAPER
• FOUNDED THE ACADEMY
OF PENNSYLVANIA
(UPENN)
• FOUNDED THE AMERICAN
PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY
• FOUNDED THE FIRST
PUBLIC LIBRARY
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
• SCIENTIST AND
INVENTOR
– RESEARCH INTO
ELECTRICITY
– OPEN HEATING
STOVE
– BIFOCAL GLASSES
– HARMONICA
– ROCKING CHAIR
THAT SWATTED
FLIES
BEN FRANKLIN
• POLITICIAN AND STATESMAN
– REPRESENTATIVE TO ENGLAND FOR
PA ASSEMBLY IN 1750S AND 1760S
– REPRESENTATIVE TO FRANCE FOR
AMERICA DURING REVOLUTIONARY
WAR
– MEMBER OF CONSTITUTIONAL
CONVENTION
– FIRST US POSTMASTER
– FIRST SECRETARY OF STATE
Literary Focus
• TABLE WORK
– Discuss and analyze the 13 virtues Franklin chose to master
on his quest for moral perfection…
• Answer Literary Analysis Questions on Tablework Assessment
• Create your own list of virtues to master for moral perfection
• Explain the rationale for the order and the mastery of each of your
virtues
• TURN IN YOUR GROUP’S LIST OF VIRTUES AND EXPLANATIONS
BY THE END OF THE MOD.
BEN FRANKLIN
• Autobiography
– Offers insights into Franklin’s life as a “self made man”
• Become archetype for American belief in re-inventing oneself
• Poor Richard’s Almanac
– Yearly publication for 25 years
– Calculated tides, moon phases, weather forecasts, crop
guidelines
• Also offered recipes, jokes, astrology, and “bits of wisdom”
– Aphorism: a short, witty statement that reveals a truth about human nature; has
both literal meaning and metaphorical meaning
– Introduced two ARCHETYPICAL characters to readers
• ARCHETYPE: an original pattern or model of which all things of the same
type are just copies
• “Poor” Richard Saunders—henpecked husband archetype
• Bridget Saunders—the nagging wife; the shrew
– Modern husband/wife characters who fit this description?
• Everybody Loves Raymond
Roseanne
• Friends (M&C) Malcolm in the Middle
– Became first situational comedy
Big Bang Theory
Persuasive Rhetoric
• Effective persuasion appeals to both reason/logic and emotion
– Reason/logic (Logos)
• Uses facts, statistics, and examples
– Emotion (Pathos)
• Uses words, images and anecdotes to arouse the
reader/listener’s feelings, hopes and beliefs
– Ethics (Ethos)
• Uses the speaker/writer’s personal credibility as an expert to
influence the audience
• Repetition: restating an idea using the same word
• Parallelism/Parallel Structure: repeating grammatical structure
• Antithesis: juxtaposition of strongly contrasting words, images,
ideas
• Exclamation: an emotional statement, often uses an exclamation!
Patrick Henry
• Considered the most persuasive orator of the period
• Influenced by the oratory style of Puritan preachers of
the Great Awakening (Think: Rev. Parris’ “hellfire and
damnation”)
• Chosen as a representative to the House of Burgess
(VA) at 29
– Stamp Act Speech 1765
– “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” Speech to VA
Convention 1775
Patrick Henry’s Speech the Va.
Convention
Speech was impromptu after several speeches urged the
people to compromise
– Outcome: persuaded delegates to arm the militias
• Why? Why was this speech so effective?
Thomas Jefferson
• Renaissance Man (a man with talents in many areas)
– Lawmaker: 3rd POTUS,
– Writer: author of Virginia’s laws on religious freedom and the Dec. of
Ind.
– Scientist and Farmer: accomplishments in botany and agriculture
– Architect: designed and built Monticello and UVA
– Inventor: plow, early copy machine, dumbwaiter
• Contradictory Nature
– Was a radical revolutionary and wrote Dec. of Ind. but did not fight in the
War.
– Spoke out frequently against slavery, but owned slaves all his life (freed
upon his death) and fathered many children with one of his slaves after
his wife’s death.
– Very wealthy Southern landowner, but forgot to pay debts and
championed the rights of small farmers and average citizen
Thomas Jefferson and The
Declaration of Independence
• Four parts to the Dec. of Ind.
– Preamble (foreword)
• Announces the reason for the document
– A declaration of the people’s natural rights
and relationship to the gov’t
– A long list of complaints against the King of
England (Geo. III)
– A conclusion that formally states America’s
independence
Thomas Jefferson and The
Declaration of Independence
• Literary Devices
– Parallelism or Parallel structure
• When a writer or speaker uses similar grammatical
forms or sentence patterns to express ideas of
equal importance
– “…we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our
fortunes, and our sacred honor.”
» Life, wealth, and honor are all of equal importance
» These men are equally willing to die, to spend all
their money, and to sacrifice their reputations for the
cause of independence.
Thomas Paine
• Most persuasive WRITER of the Rev. War Period
– Wrote “Common Sense” pamphlet
• Published in 1775; helped to inspire the Declaration of
Independence
• Denounced King George and supported American
Independence
– Wrote “The American Crisis”
• 16 pamphlets in total published from 1776-1783
• 47 page document published in Dec. 1776
– Rallied colonists’ support of the war effort during difficult
winter months
• Returned to Europe after Rev. War—continued involvement in
radical politics
– Wrote The Rights of Man—called for British overthrow of royalty
– Final work, The Age of Reason, laid out the principles of Deism
Thomas Paine
• Style: the distinctive way a writer uses
language
– Determined by sentence structure, diction,
figurative language, and imagery
• Paine mixes direct, common speech with
expressions that are sharpened by dramatic
rhetorical and literary techniques
– Lit. techniques used by Paine
» Analogy: a comparison between two things to show
how they are alike
» Anecdote: a brief story, used to illustrate a point or to
serve as an example
Benjamin Franklin—Speech in
the Convention
• Background
– After persuading France to support the US in the
Revolutionary War, Franklin signs peace treaty with
England in 1783.
– Delegate to the Constitutional Convention from PA,
helped to write the constitution and establish our
democracy
• After the war, each state had it’s own constitution, but the
federal gov’t had no power to tax or regulate trade
• After many disagreements regarding the language of the
constitution, Franklin’s speech urged his colleagues to accept
the constitution.
• Franklin played a decisive role in creating a Congress
composed of House of Representatives and Senate.