01.05 19th Century Foundations of American Literature PDF

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PROMPT TWO
The Martyr and The Story Of A Hour...

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PROMPT TWO The Martyr and The Story Of A Hour "The Matyr" by Herman Melville is a poem published in 1866, and retales the assassination of president Abraham Lincoln in 1865 The poem paints Lincoln as a tragic hero. In his attempt to reunite the Antebellum north and south, the president had been killed in cold blood. Now that the "forgiver" was gone, there was only the "avenger" to take his place and to "Beware the People weeping when they bare the iron hand." This poem represents where America was culturally and politically at the time. The Civil War had just ended, and the government was deciding how to reintegrate the South into the Union. Lincoln intended for more leanient reconstruction policies to bring the nation back together, but his assassination put the South at the mercy of the Radical Republicans, who, wanted to completely rid any power from the Confederate states.The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin is a short story published in 1894. The story tells about a woman and the emotions she experiences when her husband "dies" and when she finds out that he is actually alive. In the story, a lady named Mrs Mallard, who we learn to have heart problems, learns of her husband's death in a railroad disaster. Momentarily she grieves for the loss of her husband, but she starts acting strangely. She goes away to her room, staring out the window at the site of nature, realizing her newfound freedom, and that she is "free, free, free" as she put it. However, as soon as she finds out that her husband was alive after all, she suffers from a sudden heart attack and dies. I think the story was a commentary on expectations of women's place in society in the 19th century. She was happy that her husband was no longer there to repress her will, but instantly realized she lost this new freedom when her husband suddenly reappeared at her door....