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

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

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BECOMING AMERICA<br />

REVOLUTIONARY AND EARLY NATIONAL PERIOD LITERATURE<br />

have written ction? Believe me, scenes like these are <strong>of</strong> no unfrequent occurrence<br />

at the South. The world does not aord such materials for tragic romance, as the<br />

his<strong>to</strong>ry <strong>of</strong> the Quadroons.<br />

4.12.2 Reading and Review Questions<br />

1. What edicts <strong>of</strong> society build a wall <strong>of</strong> separation between Rosalie and<br />

the other inhabitants <strong>of</strong> Sand-Hills? Would Rosalie consider this wall a<br />

matter <strong>of</strong> reality or semblance? Why?<br />

2. What is signicant about Child’s describing Rosalie as highly cultivated<br />

in mind and manners, graceful, beautiful, having purity and bright<br />

intelligence <strong>of</strong> mind, and a high, poetic nature?<br />

3. How, and <strong>to</strong> what eect, does Child connect Edward’s betrayal <strong>of</strong> Rosalie<br />

with ambition and <strong>America</strong>n laws and politics?<br />

4. Why do you think Edward feels such grief at leaving Rosalie but expresses<br />

none <strong>to</strong>wards leaving their daughter Xarifa? Why and how is she the<br />

cause <strong>of</strong> Charlotte and Edward’s estrangement?<br />

5. What is the wall against which Xarifa fractures her head in the frenzy <strong>of</strong><br />

despair? Why?<br />

4.13 NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE<br />

(1804–1846)<br />

Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in<br />

1804 <strong>to</strong> Nathaniel Hawthorne, Senior<br />

and Elizabeth Manning Hawthorne.<br />

His father was a sea-captain who died<br />

in 1808 <strong>of</strong> yellow fever. Hawthorne’s<br />

mother then moved with her children <strong>to</strong><br />

her family’s home in Salem. Her family<br />

had a long his<strong>to</strong>ry in Salem, and among<br />

Harthorne’s ances<strong>to</strong>r was a judge in the<br />

Salem witch trials <strong>of</strong> 1692.<br />

During his childhood in Salem,<br />

Hawthorne acquired a love <strong>of</strong> reading,<br />

particularly <strong>of</strong> long prose works and<br />

early novels-as-genre by such writers<br />

as John Bunyan (1628–1688), Tobias<br />

Smollett (1721–1771), and Sir Walter<br />

Scott. Intent on becoming a writer,<br />

Hawthorne entered Bowdoin College in<br />

Maine, where the Manning family had<br />

Image 4.12 | Nathaniel Hawthorne<br />

Artist | Charles Osgood<br />

Source | Wikimedia Commons<br />

License | Public Domain<br />

Page | 915

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