-
Henry David Thoreau
Walden:
This
book,
entitled
Walden
(1854),
explained
his
ideas
about
how
a
person
should
live,
being
consciously aware of
his or her own nature and of the natural world
itself.
◆
is a
great Transcendentalist
work
超验主义作品
that
came out of the period under discussion.
He took a more than usual interest in
the natural world
自然世界
.and
tried to seek a way to unlock
the
secrets of the spirit.
◆
it
is a faithful record of his reflections when he
was in solitary communion with nature, of how
he tries to minimize his own needs on
Walden Pond. It is an eloquent indication that he
not only
embraced
Emerson’s
Transcendentalist
philosophy
but
went
further
to
illustrate
the
pantheistic
quality of natur
e.
梭罗不仅吸收爱默生超验主义哲学，还进一步说明自然的泛神特性
< br>
◆
he was very critical of
modern civilization, the book is full of people
waking
up
批评现代文明
唤醒人类
.“Civilized
man
is
the
slave
of
matter,”
As
he
saw
it,
modern
civilized
life
has
dehumanized man and placed him in a
spiritual quandary: by trying to amass material
possessions,
man is not really living,
he is digging his own grave.
只是试图积累物质财富，
人们不是真正在
生活而是在自掘坟墓
Nathaniel Hawthorne
The
Scarlet Letter:
Both Hester and
Dimmesdale are morally weak and deficient as we
all are,
according to Hawthorne, then
Roger Chillingworth is guilty of the unpardonable
sin: the invasion
into another person’s
soul in order to control the other’s will for a
very selfish purpose. To him this
is
the worst sin and a person guilty of this sin is a
completely corrupt.
The Scarlet
Letter
, always regarded as the best of
his works, tells a simple but very moving
story in which four people living in a
Puritan community are involved in and affected by
the sin of
adultery in different ways.
In this novel , Hawthorne focuses his attention on
the moral, emotional,
and
psychological
effects
or
consequences
of
the
sin
on
the
people
in
general
and
those
main
charaters
in
particular,
so
as
to
show
us
the
tension
between
society
and
individuals.
“The
Custom-
House
”
（海关）
as
an
introductory
note
to
The
Scarlet
Letter
proves
fruitful
to
Hawthorne’s imagination.
By relating his own experience, Hawthorne succeeds
in giving his tale a
sense
of
historical
reality.
By
using
Pearl
as
a
thematic
symbol,
Hawthorne
emphasizes
the
consequence the sin of
adultery has brought to the community and
the people. With the scarlet
letter A as the biggest symbol of all,
Hawthorne proves himself to be one of the best
symbolists.
As a key to the whole
novel, the letter A takes on different layers of
symbolic meanings as the plot
scarlet
letter
A
is
ambiguous.
And
ambiguity
is
one
of
the
most
important
characteristics of
Hawthorne’s art.
◆
symbolism:
It
is
rich
in
symbolism.
The
title,
itself,
keynotes
the
book..
“A”
in
the
book
represents the
adultery
, also
symbolizes
Able or Angel or Adamic
or prehistoric, an archetypal
vice
suggestive
of
“original
sin”
or
any
other
meaning
a
creative
reader
would
suggest.
Pearl,
brilliantly dressed,
is a living symbol of Hester’s sin.
Herman Melville
Moby Dick
1. Characters:
◆
Ishmael:
schoolteacher
and
part-time
sailor;
a
Presbyterian,
like
Melville,
he
projects
Calvinistic
thinking tempered by his background in literature
and philosophy. He discusses such
issues as free will, predestination,
necessity, and damnation. He is the sole survivor
of the Pequod.
◆
Captain Ahab:A man who is
obsessed with the killing of a white whale that
has maimed him.
He has a scar which
extends from his head to his leg.
◆
Starbuck:He the first mate,
is bold enough to criticize Ahab's vengeance,
considers mutiny but
fails.
◆
Stubb:He is the second mate
who is carefree, indifferent, and fatalistic.
◆
Moby Dick:It is
the White Whale; the world’s largest creature. It
is powerful, legendary image
of nature.
It swims peacefully in the sea until disturbed by
humans, then shows a terrible fury and
anger. For Ahab, Moby Dick is the
symbol of evil.
2. Themes:
◆
Search for truth:the story
deals with the human pursuit of truth and the
meaning of existence.
◆
Conflict between Good and
Evil.
◆
Conflict between Man
and Nature.
◆
Isolation
between man and man; man and nature; man and
society.
3
.
★
Symbols:
象征意义★
(1)The Pequod: is a symbol of doom. It
is painted a gloomy black and covered in whale
teeth and
bones,
literally
bristling
with
the
mementos
of
violent
death.
It
is,
in
fact,
marked
for
death.
Adorned like a primitive coffin, the
Pequod becomes one.
(2)Moby
Dick:Moby Dick possesses various symbolic meanings
for various individuals. Symbol
of
nature for human beings, because it is mysterious,
powerful, unknown/ Symbol of evil for the
Captain Ahab/ Symbol of good and purity
because of its whiteness.
自然
;
邪恶
;
纯洁
.
(3)V
oyage
of
the
Pequod:Symbol
of
the
pursuit
of
ideals,
adventure,
and
the
hunt
in
the
vast
wilderness.
Evaluation:
(1)Moby Dick is, critics have agreed,
one of the world’s greatest masterpieces. To get
to know the
19th century American mind
and America itself, one has to read this book.
想了解
19
世纪的美国
必须读
(2)One of the classics
of American Literature and even world literature.
The main theme of it is
about
alienation between man and man, man and society,
and man and nature
人与人，
人与社会，<
/p>
人与自然之间的疏远
. This work also
reveals the basic pattern of nineteenth century
American
life: loneliness and suicidal
individualism in a self-styled democracy.
< br>在自称的民主下的孤独和
自杀式的个人主义
(3)Moby Dick
is an
encyclopedia of everything, history, philosophy,
religion, etc. in addition to a
detailed account of the operations of
the whaling industry.
百科全书
(4)In this work Melville shows that Man
in this universe lives a meaningless and futile
life,
没有
意义无用的
mean
ingless because futile. Man can observe and even
manipulate in a prudent way,
but he
cannot influence and overcome nature at its
source. He must, ultimately, place himself at
the mercy of nature. Once he attempts
to seek power over it he is doomed. It show us the
“the
absurdity of man’s attempts to
attribute meaning and value to a world in
wh
ich these can have no
ground or
status.”
（
the main reason for
Melville’s resurrection in the present
century.
）
(5)Symbolism and ambiguity is the major
characteristics of writing techniques.
象征主义和模糊
是主要的写作技巧
Mark Twain
?
He wrote his
masterpiece,
Huckleberry
Finn
, at a time when the light-hearted
qualities of