Unit Essential Questions!

1.) Optimism and individuality is reflected in the stories read because they all have at least one character that stands out in the crowd and that one character has a different personality, has some type of mysterious flair or a different type of style emitting from them (Ichabod was different than the other boys in the town because he was taller and had a soft side for women. Emily was different because she was always locking herself in her house, returning tax payments, and sending her slave to go shopping for her. Shiftlet was different because he was a person who was wanting something special like Lucynell, who was also different because she couldn't talk or do much. Usher was different because he had a mental issue that made him go nuts at the end of the story, claiming he saw his dead sister at the door which was true and scared the narrator out of the house.). If individuality was not present in these stories then nothing would be eye catching or interesting. Everything would be very bland and boring to read. Nothing interesting would happen and wouldn't seem right in a Gothic or Southern Gothic Romanticism story.

2.) Romanticism deals with almost everything under the sun from nature to music, arts and literature to politics. It has 4 pillars: Love, Truth, Beauty, and Freedom. Romanticism also has different values ranging from emotional to material values. Gothic Romanticism is a counterpart for Romanticism. Gothic Romanticism is more of a mysterious, supernatural, dark and gloomy as opposed to nature, past and human nature romanticism. Gothic is more interesting rather than Romanticism, but both can be interesting. Gothic is more towards the weird and creepy, and it includes damsels in distress, grotesque characters, and tensions between the scientific and supernatural. Southern Gothic Romanticism is a sub-genre to Gothic. It has supernatural elements to it and focuses on the deep south in America. It has a notable feature and it is grotesque characterization. Grotesque characters are those who have sympathy and disgust at the same time. Southern also takes a Gothic creature (such as a monster or a knight) and twists it to become an American Southerner. Southern Gothic also has Freakishness, Imprisonment, Violence and a sense of place. All three are similar to each other because they all can deal with nature and music, arts to politics. They are also the same because they can also have dark sides to them (despite the fact that Romanticism on it's own deals with nature and emotional and material values).

3.) Southern Gothic Romanticism has taken the elements from Gothic and Romanticism and combined the two to become a more modernized version for Romanticism. It's a different genre of Romanticism but a sub-genre to Gothic. Just like Gothic Romanticism, it has supernatural events that lead the plot and also uses grotesque characters. Southern Gothic Romanticism has been manipulative in literary conventions because it uses either formal or informal ways of writing. The authors have used both ways of writing and using formal or informal ways of writing has helped put emphasis on many topics that were being offered in each of the stories.

4.) American culture has helped form the Southern Gothic and Gothic sides of Romanticism because Europe lacked the creativity the Americans had. (American Romantics tend to venerate Nature as a sanctum of non-artificiality, where the Self can fulfill its potential (the earlier Puritans tended to see nature as the fallen "wilderness," full of "savage" Indians)  Europe also lacked a new frontier while the Americans had a lot to write about (Frontier promised opportunity for expansion, growth, freedom; Europe lacked this element.
Spirit of optimism invoked by the promise of an uncharted frontier.
Immigration brought new cultures and perspectives
Growth of industry in the north that further polarized the north and the agrarian south.
Search for new spiritual roots.)
Europe already had their expansions and their freedom, while America was still trying to grow during this time period. Southern Gothic was formed because many European ideas were taken onto American soil and turned into Americanized versions (A monster or a heroic knight would be turned into an uneducated drunk or a quiet, wise lawyer).

5.) The writings of that time period has been reflected in many of today's writings ("The Deceleration of Independence"). If this time period did not have a unique way of writing, then books today would have been bland and boring. Without any of the Gothic genres, no creativity would be seen and if Gothic was created in today's times, many people would be recognized mostly for their intelligence on creating a new type of genre rather than for its deep meaning or how it criticizes many aspects of human nature. The Gothic genre helps many authors create different plots for their books and create a sense of place in a person. If the Gothic genre had not been around, we wouldn't be able to see the dirty, disgusting sides of human beings. We would only see the positive side and not the dark side that everyone tries to hide.