Wk. 3 American Romanticism

My Kinsman, Major Molineux and Rip Van Winkle were actually kind of similar in the sense that the main characters were still exploring and attempting to define what it means to be an American. In Major Molineux a young boy tries to find his kinsman that lives in a big town in hopes that Molineux will bring him up into society. Major Molineux and Rip Van Winkle both have strong reservation of the 'brave new world' that is America. These reservations that Hawthorne and Irving write about tie in to the developing Romanticism of the time period. It was a period of transition from Gothic to Transcendentalism. Where the Gothic view is a response to the emphasis on reason and human nature (the thought that all humans are sinners) and Transcendentalism is a sort of idealism. Hawthorne shows very strong writing in the romance tradition in his Young Goodman Brown and The Birthmark. I found The Birthmark very intriguing because of Hawthorne's tie in of the Romance between a man and a woman, but also the man's essential need for his wife to be absolutly perfect that he kills her. It is a good example of a representation of the American Romanticism- that these new Americans see the world in a new way and it must be free and perfect for them because they are Americans.