Nature as a Theme in the History of American Literature. Richard Wright’s "Uncle Tom’s Children"

Seminar Paper , 2012 , 20 Pages , Grade: 2,0

Didactics for the subject English - Literature, Works

“Nature is perhaps the most complex word in language”, declared Raymond Williams once. This statement is connected with Jhan Hochman's distinction between Nature and nature. He believes that Nature is a principle which is rhetorically useful and has often been associated with the “highly suspect realms of the otherworldly or transcendental”. In contrast to that, nature is an expression which can be understood rather literally, as it is a synonym for a collective of “individual plants, nonhuman animals and elements.”
As one can see here the term N/nature itself is a very difficult and sophisticated expression. In this essay the focus will lie on the meaning of nature as our environment and surroundings. It will rather deal with different sorts of animals, plants, phenomena like night, day, sunlight, rain and others than it will concentrate on transcendence or the other world.
The essay will be separated in three parts: in the first part it will concentrate on questions like: how does it occur that nature is a topic which is so important for the history of American literature? Who were the most important American writers that dealt with nature as a main theme?
In the second part which will be rather brief, some of the most employed symbols which can be assigned to the field of nature will be presented.
And the third part it will illustrate that it is in fact possible to analyze literature concerning its natural aspects even if the text is not famous for its great employment of natural elements. The literature which will be treated is Uncle Tom's Children published in 1938 by the black modernist writer Richard Wright. This work is rather popular for its impressive demonstration of black life and the problems like discrimination, hunger and poverty blacks had to handle. So four short stories, namely Big Boy Leaves Home, Down By The Riverside, Fire And Cloud and Bright And Morning Star will be analyzed by first briefly presenting the content and subsequently picking different aspects of each story which have to do with nature and interpreting them and showing its role in the short story.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

I. Introduction: What is Nature?

II. Nature as a theme in American literary history
1. James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851)
2. William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878)
3. John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892)
4. Henry David Thoreau (1818-1862)

III. The meaning of some traditional natural symbols
1. The Tree
2. The Crop
3. The Violet
4. The Apple
5. The Snake
6. The Death

IV. The Role of Nature in Several Short Stories published in Richard Wright´s Uncle Tom's Children
1. Big Boy Leaves Home
2. Down By The Riverside
3. Fire and Cloud
4. Bright And Morning Star

V. Conclusion

VI. Bibliography

• College: Catholic University Eichstätt-Ingolstadt
• Grade: 2,0
• Author: Dennis Schmidt (Author)
• Publication Year: 2012
• Pages: 20
• Catalog Number: V295909
• ISBN (eBook): 9783656938835
• ISBN (Book): 9783656938842
• Language: German
• Tags: nature, theme, history, american, literature, richard, wright’s, uncle, tom’s, children