The Black Veil
The Black Veil by Nathaniel Hawthorne is about a young minister, Mr. Hooper. He is a young Puritan minister who at first seems like every minister. But all of a sudden he starts wearing a black face that covers most of his face. First of all, Mr. Hooper is a Puritan minister in a Puritan community. Puritans came to the colonies seeking refuge from the corrupt English church and freedom to worth ship as they will. On important factor of the Puritan religions is togetherness. Togetherness is a strong concept since they believed that by sticking together, they can accomplish anything. By Mr. Hooper wearing the black veil he is isolating himself from the community.
“Strange and bewildered looks repaid him for his courtesy. None: as on former occasions, aspired the honor of walking by his their pastor’s side. Old Squire Saunders, doubtless by an accidental lapse of memory, neglected to invite Mr. Hooper to his table, where the good clergyman had been wont to bless the food, almost every Sunday since his settlement.”
Another example of trust is between Mr. Hooper and young fiancée Elizabeth. Elizabeth doesn’t like the veil and she pleads Mr. Hooper to take it off. He explains that the black veil is now part of him in both body and mind. Elizabeth gets upset and leaves him. The black veil disturbed Elizabeth so much that some of her trust in him faded. Thus, Mr. Hooper is alone for the rest of his life.
In this quote, Nathaniel is displaying an example of how people are beginning to avoid Mr. Hooper. Nathaniel Hawthorne also uses a black veil. A veil is often use if you want to hide your face. But the chosen of color is what makes the difference. The veil that Mr. Hooper wears is black. Black is often use for mourning or a symbol or sadness or evil. By choosing black Nathaniel Hawthorne is displaying a trait of Gothicism. Gothicism is use to emphasize the negativity of life.
Such was the effect of this simple crepe, that more than one woman of delicate nerves was forced to leave the meeting-house. Yet perhaps the pale-faced congregation was almost as fearful a sight to the minister, as his black veil to them.
The black veil caused people to be fearful. One example as demonstrate din the quote was that women need to be taken away. It also mentions that people were pale. A person is usually pale when they are sick or when they are frightened. In this case people were frightened. Other examples are show when people shunned him and when children run away. These actions followed him all the way to his deathbed. The black veil is also a symbol of spirits and death. One example is when a woman at a funeral says that she feels that the minister and the young lady are walking hand by hand. The young lady is of course dean, and the woman is referring to the young lady’s spirit, thus also another example of Gothicism.

Young Goodman Brown
Young Goodman Brown is a Puritan, as mention in the story. Puritans are people who believe very strongly in God and who look down at people who have fun at the expense of not worshipping correctly. The story also takes place in Salem which is a coincidence since Salem was the setting for the Salem witch trials. The Salem Witch Trials a time when innocent business women were accused by young girls and hanged by these false accusations. These hangings finally stopped when the governor’s own wife was accused of being a witch. So anyway, Goodman was summoned for a meeting supposedly but he doesn’t know what it is about. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses some Gothicism in his writing style.
He had taken a dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest, which barely stood aside to let the narrow path creep through, and closed immediately behind. It was all as lonely as could be; and there is this peculiarity in such solitude, that the traveler knows not who may be concealed by the innumerable trunks and the thick boughs overhead; so that with lonely footsteps he may yet be passing through an unseen multitude.
Gothicism often focuses on the darker and negative perspective of life. It is the complete opposite of Romanism. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses words such as dreary, darkened, and gloomiest. This words all make a somewhat reference to darkness, which is a trait of Gothicism. He also uses words such as solitude and lonely two times throughout this quote. Characters who are often portrayed in Gothicism are often characters who are alone, thus again making a reference to Gothicism. The reason he uses Gothicism is to emphasize the evil that awaits a good Puritan like Young Goodman Brown.
Another concept that Nathaniel Hawthorne uses is that Young Goodman Brown wife’s name is Faith.
So they parted; and the young man pursued his way until, being about to turn the corner by the meeting-house, he looked back and saw the head of Faith still peeping after him with a melancholy air, in spite of her pink ribbons.
An important factor is the Puritan religion was Faith. Faith was a strong concept because they needed faith to undertake a long journey from home. They also needed faith to strive for their own right. They also need faith if they want to be one of the few chosen ones. Nathaniel Hawthorne probably named her Faith due to her strong devotion not only to God but to her husband as it seems that she is very worried about him. Another factor that Nathaniel Hawthorne uses with Faith is that he always mentions her pink bows. Pink is very different from black which is the key color of Gothicism. Pink on the other hand symbolizes love and innocence which is a key factor of Romanism. This, Nathaniel Hawthorne makes it an irony. By also using that Faith uses bows he is bestowing her childlike innocence which is also another factor of Romanism.

Spontaneous Me
Spontaneous is an impulse of doing something that isn’t in your normal routine. How Whitman represents the feeling of being spontaneous is by nature. Nature is often changing from a calm scenario to all of a sudden a scene filled with recklessness and chaos.
“The same late in autumn, the hues of red, yellow, drab, purple, and light and dark green…”
Probably the two most unexpected seasons are those of spring and autumn. One moment it can be a warm and sunny day and the next an unexpected frost can come in or a violent storm may occurred. He chooses autumn for his setting. When he mentions the” same late in autumn” he is building suspense for the reader since after all, his poem is titled Spontaneous Me. He creates a lot of imagery throughout the story. Such as when he mentions the different colors of red, yellow, drab, purple, and light and dark green he is creating the illusion of autumn. He is also creating that autumn is spontaneous itself since it is all of these different colors. He also uses a lot of diction throughout his poem.
“The real poems, (what we call poems being merely pictures,)
The poems of the privacy of the night, and of men like me,
This poem drooping shy and unseen that I always carry, and that all men carry”
He repeats the word “poem” three times throughout the story. A poem is usually a group of words and phrases that focus on something but in a more artistic and personal way than writing. There are also different types of poems. He uses poems because some may be straightforward and others may not, thus again indicating the concept of spontaneously. He also mentions something curious. He mentions that all men are a form or a poem. A poem usually represents a very intricate soul. A man is often seen as very self-righteous and loud individual. By comparing himself and all men he is emphasizing that people don’t appeared to be what they seem, and that everybody is a somewhat complex individual. Throughout his poem Whitman keeps on making reference to nature, but now to a whole different concept. He uses the concept of sex in a male and a female. He uses again details and forms of imagery to demonstrate his point. One point that he makes is that the young man is red, ashamed, and angry. Red usually represents embarrassment. He also mentions that the young man is ashamed that is a somewhat weird concept. A woman is the one who is often seen as the ashamed one not only in life but in books and poems. With this idea he opens up a whole new concept of love making. He also makes a reference to masturbation in his poem.
“The young man that wakes deep at night, the hot hand seeking to repress what would master him;”
Maybe this is the cause of the young men’s shame. Whitman wrote this poem in the era in which such act was considered dirty and foul in God’s eyes. In all, Whitman tries to make the reader comprehend that nature and sex isn’t that all different in the whole spontaneously concept.

Learning to Read and Write
In his autobiography Frederick Douglass writes about his experience in learning to read and write, thus the title. In the beginning of the story he describes a kind mistress with kindness and compassion. Frederick Douglass was born in time where there was still slavery, and that the gift of reading and writing was unknown to most slaves. Reading and writing was also sometimes treated as dangerous, since often a good education can lead to revolutionary ideas or turmoil.
“The more you know the farther, you will go.”(Dr. Seuss)
A person who seems to have a somewhat profound impression on Douglass is his mistress.
‘My mistress was, as I had said, a kind and tender-hearted woman; and in the simplicity of her soul she commenced, when I first went to live with, to treat me as she supposed one human being ought to treat another.’
He describes his mistress ass “kind” and a “tender-hearted” woman. These words are often link to describe a very somewhat compassionate person, which she was in the beginning. He also mentions “to treat me as she supposed one human being ought to treat another”, this signifies that maybe at the beginning he wasn’t treated as a full right slave with the beatings, harsh job conditions, and cruel injustices. As he goes on throughout the story he mentions that his mistress’ demeanor has changed significantly from the compassionate woman he met at the beginning.
“Slavery soon proved its ability to divest her of these heavenly qualities. Under its influence, the tender heart became stone, and the lamb-like disposition gave way to one of tiger-like fierceness. She now commenced to practice her husband’s percepts. She finally became even more violent in her opposition than her husband himself. She was not satisfied with simply doing as well as he had commanded; she seem anxious to do better. Nothing seemed to make her more angry than to see me with a newspaper.”
He points out that slavery is an ugly thing that will change anybody’s prospection on things, such as was the case with his mistress. He uses the words “heavenly qualities.” Heaven is often seen as the uttermost paradise. Bu using the word heaven he is emphasizing her kindness towards others. He compares his mistress to a lamb. A lamb is often seen as docile and a gentle creature, thus emphasizing his mistress’ kindness. But then after the change on her demeanor he compares her to a tiger. A tiger is often seen as an evil and greedy person as seen in The Jungle Book. The reason that he compares her to a tiger is to emphasize her cruelty and inhumane behavior towards him. The lasts two example were metaphors. He also displays that her “heart became stone” which again is used to emphasize her cruelty to the slaves. When he describes her mood when she caught him with a newspaper is “most angry”. By adding the word “most” is that his crime of reading and writing was now a huge form of disobedience. A newspaper is a source of information of the outside word. By also mentioning the newspaper, he is hinting that his mistress probably didn’t wanted him from getting any ideas of becoming free or starting a riot that may cause the other slaves in the household to revolt against their masters.

From The Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson
Most people know who Thomas Jefferson was. He of course was the third president of the United States of American and he is also the writer of the famously known Declaration of Independence. Sounds like a very just man or was he? But in reality the Declaration of Independence has some form of hypocritical claim.
‘We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal; and that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secured these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it…”
He mentions that every man has the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Slaves didn’t had the right of life since they were own by white man who decided for them. They didn’t have any form freedom either. Especially with the “One drop blood”, it also affected the chances of their descendants of becoming free. The “One Drop Blood Rule” is that is at least halfway along your family line there was a person who was black that automatically made you black. Even if you look completely white but you great grandmother was black you were also black. He even made an equation and pointed out physical characteristics that indicated that you were black.He also mentions that if the people found the government unfair they had the right to go against it. If slaves try to revolt against the white man, it will had cause most of them their deaths. Thomas Jefferson didn’t even have the heart to free his own black children.
Thomas Jefferson said that all men are created equal but he didn’t include men who were slaves or black. Then shouldn’t he have said that all white man is equal?
“When, in the course of human event, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth to separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of that they should declare the causes which impel them to separate.”
Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence during the Revolutionary War. The Revolutionary war was the time when the colonies were fighting to gain their Independence from its mother country, England, thus the line:
“…and to assume among the powers of the earth to separate… “
The colonies separated from England because they were tired of the injustices it imposed on the colonies in general. So they fought to gain their freedom. But again if a black person try to do that it will mean their death. He also mentions God a lot, thus emphasizing that everything that happened was God’s will.

Phillis Wheatly
Phillis Wheatly was a woman who wrote poems and got them publish. How is this extraordinary? Well for one, she was woman. Phillis was born during the Revolutionary Era. During that time women’s right were far from the priorities of colonial governments.
“In an age in which even few white women were given an education, Wheatly was taught to read and write, and in a short time began reading Latin writers.”
Today very few people still have some knowledge of the Latin, but during that era, someone who knew Latin was considered a very intelligent and well-off individual. By the author mentioning this he or she is emphasizing Phillis intelligence. Phillis went to Britain to get her poems published but she never saw the outcome since she had to returned home to her mistress. Shortly after her owners died, Phillis was wed, but died shortly after which was not uncommon during that era. Phillis wrote several poems throughout her short life. One of the themes always mention in her poems is freedom, as demonstrated to her letter directed to George Washington. George Washington, of course, the leader of the revolutionaries. The revolutionaries were fighting for freedom. Another theme that she also focuses on is God, which is reasonable since religion has always been important throughout history.
“The blissful news by messenger from Heaven,
How Jesus’ blood from your redemption flows.
See Him with hands outstretched upon the cross;
Immense compassion in His bosom glows;
He hears revilers, nor resents their scorn:
What matchless mercy in the Son of God!”
In this quote, Phillis is describing the moment when Jesus is put on the cross. She uses imagery when she uses phases such as “Jesus’ blood from your redemption flows” and “Him with hands outstretched upon the cross”. By writing about this, thinks that by somebody dying for others is a great act of courage in human kind. In other poems she also mentions God.
“ ’Twas mercy brought me from my pagan land,
Taught my benighted soul to understand
That there’s a God, that there’s a savior too:”
On Being brought from America to America, is a poem by Phillis describing her journey on the slave ship. Again she mentions God. She does this to install a somewhat faint light of hope. She feels that even though is black and a slave, when she dies she is going to go to heaven. This claim can be supported by this quote.
Remember Christians, Negroes, back as Cain,
May be refined and join the angelic train.
The angelic train represents heaven. By adding Christians and black she is referring that whether the race, there is a heaven for everybody to share. In her biography it is mention that Phillis’ masters were deeply religious and so was she. This may have had some profound effect on her writing style.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is about Linda Trent, a young slave girl who seems to live a normal life until she is six years old. One of the themes that Harriet Jacobs focuses on is the injustice to being a slave. Harriet Jacobs uses irony in the first few paragraphs. How she uses irony is because Linda doesn’t know about the truth about her origin. She still doesn’t know what a slave is and that she is one. One of the reasons may have been because most of Linda’s family is mulattoes. Meaning that she isn’t full black and neither her family. Her family also seems to be respected throughout the society even though they are slaves. Her childhood is described as happy and carefree as possible.
“I was born a slave; but I never knew it till six years of happy childhood had passes away.”
It wasn’t until Linda’s mother had passes away that she finally discovered the true meaning of slavery. Even though Linda’s new mistress was kind to her, when she died she didn’t gave Linda her freedom. Instead she trusted Linda to a cruel master, Dr. Flint. How was this a form of injustice? Well first of all Linda’s mistress was Linda’s mother foster sister.
“She was the foster of my mother; they were both nourished at my grandmother’s breast. In fact my mother had been weaned at three months old, that the babe of the mistress might obtain sufficient food.”
Linda’s mother was also the slave for her foster sister, even though they had been fed by the same milk.
“They played together as children; and, when they became women, my mother was a most faithful servant to her foster sister.”
Harriet Jacobs adds the word most before faithful, thus emphasizing Linda’s mother’s loyalty, but Linda still remained a slave. When Linda’s mistress died she thought she was going to become freed. Alas, she was trusted in the care of a cruel and neglectful master, Dr. Flint.
“But I was her slave, and I suppose she didn’t recognize me as her neighbor. I would give much to blot out form my memory this great wrong. As a child, I loved my mistress; and, looking back on the happy days I spent with her, I try to think with less bitterness of this act of injustice. While I was with her, she taught me to read and spell; and for this privilege, which so rarely falls to the lot of a slave, I bless her memory.”
Linda mentions is this quote that she loved her mistress. By using the word loved Linda is emphasizing her loyalty to her. She uses the phase “great wrong” and the word “injustice” to name the deed that was taken with her. Again the deed was giving her to Dr. Flint. She does this to emphasize how this trading off was a cruel reward to her loyalty to her mistress. But even with this trading off she is still grateful to her mistress. She mentions that her mistress taught her to read and write. During the slavery era a slave was rarely granted this gift. This act of kindness still lets Linda to see her mistress with kind eyes. Through the story there are still more acts of injustices not only to Linda, but to other slaves among the society. As Linda grows up she encounters more and more of these acts of cruelty.