Edward Morgan Forster once said, “What is wonderful about great literature is that it transforms the man who reads it towards the condition of the man who wrote.” This quote really hits home with the themes of exploration, revolution, and slavery. The literature throughout all of these phases of America have allowed the readers to realize the pain that certain groups had endured and use it to frame our country into the world superpower and standard bearer of equality that it is today.
I enjoyed many readings throughout this course, the first of which was St. John de Crevecoeur’s Letters from an American Farmer. I enjoy reading stories that relate to American pride and patriotism. It had held for hundreds of years as the glue bonding this country together. In his story, Crevecoeur talks of a “mixture of English, Scotch, Irish, French, Dutch, Germans, and Swedes” that would become a “race now called Americans” (What is an American). This description of the American melting pot stands to describe the most ethnically diverse country in …show more content…
The description of the hardships of the middle passage were gruesome and was one of the first stories to bring light to the issue of slavery. This was an important turning point in the dark history of slavery. It was actually seen as a key piece of literature that influenced the ending of slavery in Britain. The ships were so packed that Equiano said “each had scarcely enough room to turn himself” and says that it “almost suffocated us” (166). The story of Equiano was later challenged on its authenticity. Whether he was on the ship or born in America, the conditions were still very real and needed to be displayed to the world so that people would realize the inhumane treatment on these ships and society would turn against slavery. Literature once again played it role in the changing on societies around the
I enjoyed many readings throughout this course, the first of which was St. John de Crevecoeur’s Letters from an American Farmer. I enjoy reading stories that relate to American pride and patriotism. It had held for hundreds of years as the glue bonding this country together. In his story, Crevecoeur talks of a “mixture of English, Scotch, Irish, French, Dutch, Germans, and Swedes” that would become a “race now called Americans” (What is an American). This description of the American melting pot stands to describe the most ethnically diverse country in …show more content…
The description of the hardships of the middle passage were gruesome and was one of the first stories to bring light to the issue of slavery. This was an important turning point in the dark history of slavery. It was actually seen as a key piece of literature that influenced the ending of slavery in Britain. The ships were so packed that Equiano said “each had scarcely enough room to turn himself” and says that it “almost suffocated us” (166). The story of Equiano was later challenged on its authenticity. Whether he was on the ship or born in America, the conditions were still very real and needed to be displayed to the world so that people would realize the inhumane treatment on these ships and society would turn against slavery. Literature once again played it role in the changing on societies around the