Becoming America - An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution, 2018a

BECOMING AMERICA
REVOLUTIONARY AND EARLY NATIONAL PERIOD LITERATURE
4.11.8 Reading and Review Questions
1. In “The American Scholar,” what role does nature play in an individual’s
development? How does Emerson reconcile nature with scholarship and
intellect? What relation do American scholars (or Americans in general)
have with nature?
2. What characteristics does Emerson ascribe to the American Scholar
(as opposed to a scholar from another nation)? Why? What are their
peculiar duties? How, like a hero of a Greek epic, does the American
Scholar reect American virtues?
3. In “Divinity School Address,” how does Emerson dene virtue? How, if at
all, does he reconcile his denition with religious doctrine and theology?
How are Unitarian clergy to model virtue?
4. In “Divinity School Address,” what are the failures of “historical
Christianity” to which Emerson brings attention? Why does he consider
them failures?
5. In “Self-Reliance,” on what grounds does Emerson promote self-reliance,
self-trust, non-conformity, and false consistency? What benets does
self-reliance oer, and how? What ills does it correct, and how?
4.12 LYDIA MARIA CHILD
(1802–1880)
Self-educated, Lydia Maria Child
showed her independence at the age of
eighteen by opening a successful private
academy. Upon her mother’s death, her
father sent Child to live with her aunt in
Maine, separating Child from her brother
Convers. In 1821, she rejoined Convers,
now a Unitarian minister, in Watertown,
Massachusetts, where she began writing.
Her rst novel, the popular Hobomok
(1824), included themes important to all
of Child’s writing: advocacy for oppressed
races, interracial marriage, and support
for Native American self-governance. It
was in Watertown that she also founded
and taught at her successful private
academy.
In 1828, she married David Lee
Child (1794–1874), an aspiring politician
Image 4.11 | Lydia Maria Child
Artist | Unknown
Source | Wikimedia Commons
License | Public Domain
Page | 906