Professor McCay mentioned a scramble by writers to define an American style or genre. The balance eventually struck in American literature stemmed from the set religious ideals and the progressive nature of writers. Poe and Hawthorne, among the writers sculpting an identity out of the very green American culture, tempered the harsh perspective of humans on God’s earth with sympathy, making naïve clowns out of the hopeless colonists were claimed to be. This sympathy takes shape in Hawthorne’s The Birthmark as Georgiana chances her life on Alymer’s confidence in his science (innocence), or as the desperation built up by Robin’s attempts at finding comfort and stability in the strange town. A hooded figure “dabbled in blood” puts the masquerade attendees in normality, again creating sympathy in Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death. The strange, decadent, and ambitious which would be condemned by ‘natural depravity’ is regulated by the two writers as they place something much worse in the position of evil. In this is the balance struck, the American style defined. Abundance tempered with justification, reward with work, etc. The guile is taken out of characters who would have been considered hopeless by 18th/19th century American society and it is exchanged for curiosity, hope, and innocence.
Mauricio, What do you think is a clearly American genre? Good point about writers being more liberal than the religious leaders. However, remember, Cooper was a very conservative writer and saw himself as an aristocrat.
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