Individualism In The Tell Tale Heart

Improved Essays
Antebellum experienced rapid societal change stemming from the industrialization and rapid urbanization of north, marking the economic transition to capitalism. With the shift to capitalism, individualism developed from the change in the value of individual labor and nostalgia for the frontier. As the increasingly moral middle-class became more solidified, the wage gap increased, and the northerners became increasingly economically different from the south, the reform impulse grew. Reform impulse borrowed from the rhetoric of the individualism, exploring its discrepancies concerning the working class, women, and both enslaved and freed African-Americans.
Individualism and the reform impulse reacted to the rapidly changing northern society.
…show more content…
For example, Edgar Allen Poe 's "The Tell-Tale Heart: A Murder 's Confession" echoed Emerson 's idea "society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of everyone of its members" : he wrote a story about an urban man losing his humanity to frustration with his lack of privacy—symbolized by his hatred of the old man 's eye--and his paranoia about society—metaphorically symbolized by his paranoia about the police knowing about his crime. Political literature, especially campaign biographies, focused the ideal of manhood as "[easiness] in solitude," showing the move toward romanticized frontier values. Campaign biographies, a genre perfected by Andrew Jackson, sought to personify the candidates by "grit, smarts, stubbornness, and love of country" by using the rhetoric of individualism. For example, David Crockett 's autobiography "Narrative of the Life of Davy Crockett" described helping a neighbor, calling waiting for employers to settle the area "now way to live." He utilized the rhetoric of individualism not only fulfills the Jacksonian values but also rejects capitalism 's creation of dependencies. Individualism 's had large, varied presence in literature and politics. Thus, individualism—through its adaptability—shaped the reform

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    n the 1800s, many regional cultures were developed. America began to see itself as a nation, however it was still divided by sectional interests, and this would only deepen with rapid industrialization and the issue of slavery. After president George Washington's presidency, a political calm fell over, but was disrupted by the conflict that arose between the Federalists and the Republicans. Throughout this time, industrialists began to remake rural villages into factory towns. However, textiles continued to be made in small household workshops.…

    • 753 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Big Business Dbq

    • 693 Words
    • 3 Pages

    During the nineteenth century, the rise of big business and monopolies sparked many different views and debates regarding the issues of the constantly changing American society. Some of the public reactions towards these debates were more radical compared to others, causing division and sectionalism to arise. Because of the rise of big business during the Gilded Age, debates over the changing national identity continued to be about the economy and society as a whole, but became more specifically focused on railroads, Social Darwinism and The Gospel of Wealth, and the different views on rich corporations. Just as the North was more industrial-based before the Civil War, it remained that way in many aspects post-reconstruction, but this brought…

    • 693 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Between 1800 and 1860, economic, social, and political factors contributed to the development of sectional differences between the North and the South. These differences included how best to expand the United States economy, the extension of slavery into the territories, and the relationship between the states and the federal government. These differences laid the groundwork for the Civil War. The North and South followed different paths, developing into two distinct and very different regions. The North economy is mostly relied on manufacturing and industrialization and the South economy is mostly relied on plantation and cotton.…

    • 1681 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Efforts To Reform Dbq

    • 610 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The greatest efforts to reform American society were taken during the antebellum years. The antebellum years took place in the four decades before the Civil War. During these years, Americans tried to resolve their social problems. They established public schools, promoted women’s rights, battled poverty, and worked to improve many other issues in the country, Abolitionism, the attempt to end slavery, became one of the biggest reform movements because Americans wanted to right wrongs and get rid of evils. Americans had sources of motivation that inspired them to push for these reforms.…

    • 610 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Civil War Dbq

    • 506 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The civil was a major part of American history which determined what kind of nation it would become. While the revolution created the United States the Civil War was going to decide whether the nation was going to be a confederation or an individual nation. This would also resolve two major factor that were in constant conflict with each other, which was the fact that either the United States would become a nation of equal right to all races and having freedom for all or continue to be one of the largest slaveholding country’s in the world. The North and the South had established to completely different economies that relied on many different resources.…

    • 506 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Social Reform DBQ

    • 1589 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Several reform movements regarding the advancement of democratic ideals gained traction from 1825 to 1850. Activists were concerned with social and institutional issues, principal among these being temperance, abolitionism, women's rights, religion, education, and the penal system. However, this period also saw the emergence of decidedly anti-democratic nativist policies designed to oppress recently naturalized citizens. The pressure for social reform began as a response to perceived degradations in American society.…

    • 1589 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    2003 Apush Dbq

    • 1940 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Coming out of the Civil War both the North and South were devastated emotionally, physically, and economically. To make matters worse, the assassination of President Lincoln threw a nation beginning to become whole again into the arms of untested leaders in Washington. While the government sought to reconstruct the South, the North was spurred into unprecedented economic growth and industrialization by the barons of industry who expanded their respective industries while simultaneously monopolizing them under the turned eye of a corrupt government system. As this era began to shovel the laboring and farming class deeper into their graves, new movements grew to fight for their rights as populists and progressives. This growth can be traced back…

    • 1940 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    In 1877 Rutherford Birchard Hayes is elected as president promising the end of the reconstruction era. Consequently one of the most important reforms in American history has officially failed its purpose which was to integrate the formerly slave population with equal rights, like white citizens. This event officially defines the start of the “Gilded age” and although the reconstruction era was over a different version of the reform was underway. Americas focus shifted towards the uncultivated and sparsely populated west that needed to join the north/ east in economic and social ways. This was made possible because of advancements in technology like the lightbulb, telephone, and telegraphs while also the forming of corporations which helped…

    • 1656 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Was the Civil War predictable? Did any events indefinitely cause the South to desire a split from the North? The North and the South had a growing tension between them for many reasons, and the northern abolitionists encouraged a Civil War through their actions of protest. Although many Americans were affected minimally by the changes of the nation, abolitionists inevitably foresaw a Civil War because the growing tensions between the North and the South became apparent in political and social changes, slavery issues, and the growing occurrence of rebellions. Political and social changes occurred in many ways, including The Second Great Awakening, Lincoln’s presidential election to office, the way the North and the South dealt with one another,…

    • 1394 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Myth of Individualism draws readers in with a captivating introduction through a controversial story about an individualist who kills to prove a point. This became a constant throughout the book, having examples used from topics that related to pop culture, politics and historical events to say the American values of individualism, mediocrity and self-sufficiency is overall fabricated. Therefore, American values are effected by the social structures on our lives which prove to be the thesis for Callero’s book. The book offers a weak first chapter with a strong fourth chapter that all fits into the message of Callero’s bestselling book. Callero’s book offered a first chapter that was the weakest out of the 214 paged body of work.…

    • 889 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Gilded Age Dbq

    • 1003 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Over the course of four years, this country was torn apart in one of the bloodiest wars it 's ever seen, one that would now be recognized as the watershed of a new modern age. The subsequent decade of reconstruction was full of change, both good and bad, which would play a key role in molding the future of the union. This change came in numerous different forms, and swept across the north and the south alike. A surprising cultural shift came in the form of both new religious awakenings, and the questionings of long held beliefs. Politically, this time period was one marked by an increase in the freedoms and liberties allotted to people other than rich white men.…

    • 1003 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Gilded Age

    • 1019 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Gilded Ages Affect on American lives In the years following the civil war and the reconstruction of America, a new age of economic advancements and development fell upon American know as the gilded age. This time period was able to open up Americans to new innovations and a new lifestyle that followed the hardship form previous years. During the gilded age of America, the life of all American’s could be drastically changed overnight by one persons thoughts and ideas being put into place, some of the actions that affected America the most were the Dawes and homestead Acts, Jim crow Laws, and new technology, inventions and the building of railroads.…

    • 1019 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    After a war that divided the nation into two and claimed the lives of thousands of men, the country was devastated. The relations between the North and South had crumbled, causing the country to desperately need reunification. Many changes were made in American society after the Civil War in an attempt to reunify the United States and improve the country as a whole; however, these changes were primarily detrimental to society. These changes developed across eras in American history, including reconstruction, westward expansion, and industrialization. The following periods American history incited an incorrigible level of exploitation that ultimately governed the rest of the country during the respective period and afterwards: reconstruction…

    • 1531 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The definition of an individual is a characteristic that distinguishes a person from others of the same kind. In 1984, by George Orwell, there is a lack of individuality in the citizens due to the control of the government. Since individuality would go against all of Orwell’s branches of ministry within the government, steps are taken to avoid it. Although there are singularity that arise within the community, it is fear that puts citizens back into what the government wants.…

    • 1638 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Apush 2000 Dbq Analysis

    • 1618 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Elana Shpunt APUSH DBQ 2000 March 13, 2017 To what extent was organized labor in improving the position of workers in the 19th century successful? After several years of Reconstruction and proceedings of the Civil War; the Gilded Age commenced as the American economy and population emerged in premodern civilization. In the Nineteenth century, the Second Industrial Revolution altered the factory system and how jobs were operated.…

    • 1618 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays