American Literature - Essay Example

American dream Without a doubt, one of the most represented American ideals during the 19th century was the exploration of the American dream. The quest to achieve the American Dream is the embodiment of living an ideal life that everyone is blindly pursuing. America is land of hope, dreams, ambitions and opportunities. The American dream itself is ideal in it is own unique way because it reflects the true personification of individualism that America was founded upon these principles. It is clear that the tone of these authors pertain to the nature of context.

As a matter of fact, a careful analysis of the diction throughout this description reveals the American fallacy of almost obsessive attention to material possessions. It is clear that Henry David Thoreau attempts to make that connection in his writing. He clearly depicts the clash of American Dream and the greed, slavery in which the government becomes greedy to sacrifice the morals of humanity against individual ethics.The tone of authors modify from the American dream to finding their identity in their life.

Waldo Emerson is a prime example of that because he continues to find an identity of himself. Emerson’s literature portrays great reflection of character. It is imperative to understand that romantic literature begin to deal with oneself, or ego as the time progressed. Emerson and Allen Poe are the two primary examples of this as they discuss the virtue and morality of humans. The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe is another monumental example that discusses the dark side of a human personality, and breaks the notion of traditional form of writing.

In addition, the tone of these two particular authors is to inform the public of different literatures. As a matter of fact, the term didactic emerged from this century in which Poe was often criticized. Literature matured in an aspect that it no longer confined to the standards of religious and society norms. Poets were more liberal in their writing, often speculating elements and portraying the taboos that dominated the society. Additionally, many writers depicted their literature in the context of Ethnophaulisms is appropriate in social context because it gives the essence of the culture and wording.

Mark Emerson tries to give a better understanding of ethnic slurs to reflect the originality of what was going in that time period. Both Poe and Emerson do a phenomenal job even though it may seem derogatory- but it must be given in a social context to give the reader a taste of paradigms of race and prejudice. Without understanding the basics of ethnophaulisms, the reader cannot truly understand the time frame of elements that are happening. The works are a great example of social context used by English writers during this time period.

Emerson also often depicted the personality of characters that go through constant emotion and instability rather than a traditionalist, perfect heroes. In essence, the authors emphasized the credibility of a fallen hero compared to their predecessors who often described the perfect American hero.The context and language of Poe and Emerson also indicates more emotional tone rather than the mellow tone of their predecessors. Thoreau was an excellent writer, but did not capture the essence of emotion because he was writing about an issue, and not a person.

On the contrary, Poe and Emerson fully depict their character in a great manner. Works Cited"Edgar Allan Poe, Short Stories, Tales, and Poems." Poestories. Web. 25 Jan. 2015. .Emerson, Ralph Waldo. English Traits. Hoboken, N.J.: BiblioBytes, 199. Print.Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Essays. Waiheke Island: Floating, 2009. Print.Hart, James David. The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 5th ed. New York: Oxford UP, 1983. Print.Poe, Edgar Allan, and Ryan Price. The Raven. Toronto: KCP Poetry, 2006. Print.