Transcending our assumptions

We often think of writers simply as odd, reclusive figures that have no other role in society. That is even more true when we think of Henry David Thoreau and his reclusive life on Walden Pond. Read this short article. (Audio for this article is located here.) Then post a comment here that answers these three questions.

1. What is significant about the fact that Thoreau walked away from the financial gain his inventions could have given him?

2. Given what you know about Thoreau, was turning away from that wealth a good move?

3. Why do you think it is so rarely mentioned in English classes that Thoreau was a successful business man and inventor?

The Hudson River School

The Hudson River School was not really a school - it was a group of artists centered in New York from the 1820s to the 1880s. The group was the first major American art movement, and focused primarily on landscape paintings inspired by the Catskill mountains. The artists lived mostly in New York city, in a neighborhood that would later become known as Greenwich Village. Click here to learn more about the movement, and see some of the most famous Hudson River School paintings.

The paintings you see in the video below are representative of the dominant artistic pieces during the time that James Fennimore Cooper was writing.



For Extra Credit: now that you've read about and viewed the works of some great Hudson River School painters, look through magazines in your house and find a photo that resembles the work of a Hudson River School artist. Cut it out, attach a note card explaining how the photo is like the typical work of a Hudson River School artist, and turn it in for 5 points EC.

Washington Irving

The third author in our Pre-romanticism unit is Washington Irving. Famous for his humorous short stories and depictions of life in up-state New York, Irving was the first American author to find writing to be a profitable venture.

Learn more about Irving here.

Now check out this trailer for the 1999 film based on Irving's most famous story.



For extra credit - get your parents' permission to rent the movie (it's rated R for violence), watch it, and write a 1-page compare/contrast between the modern Hollywood version and the original text.