Harris 1 Dionte Harris ENGL222 Dr.

Wyatt, Daniel Kason Final Exam: Prompt 2: History A Moment Like This: History in American Literature If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do, and how to do it (Pearson 1). The opening line from Abraham Lincolns A House Divided Speech defines American view on, progressing forward and understanding, history: that in order to make great strides as a country, we need to first analyze the trail of footprints that we have left behind. The enthrallment with historymore specifically: recreating, progress from, and reflecting on ithas been a main topic for American writer, especially after 1865. One strategy that writers use to make sense of history is to attempt to recreate it; however, what does is mean to recreate history? Is it to simply erase your past experiences and relive the past in a way that ensures life is perfect or is it to piece together lost moments of the past, in the present, and move forward so your current life is perfect? James Gatz recreates himself into Jay Gatsby; therefore, deletes the memory of his past in order to become a man suitable for the woman he loves, Daisy, to have a relationship with. On the other hand, Sethe and Paul Ds paths have crossed again after eighteen years and they attempt to pick return to living as though time had paused while they were apart and continued to move when they returned to each other. To be stuck in the past, or rather to be obsessed with reliving the past. In Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby, the protagonist, has recreated himself into the image of a man that would be suitable for Daisy, someone who is rich and powerful, in order to relive his past

Harris 2 fling that they had when they were young adults. Gatsby comes from a humble background, so it would not be socially acceptable for him to court Daisy, who comes from a privileged background. Nevertheless, their paths do cross when they are younger and Gatsby falls in love with Daisy prompting him to erase his past and make sure that he will meet her again as a wealthy man. While Gatsby deleted traces of his history before Daisy, he had trapped himself into being stuck into the short period time that he was with Daisy. This entrapment has Gatsby stuck on the idea of loving Daisy, loving and trying to recreate past memories, rather than actually loving the present-day Daisy (Fitzgerald, 110). Gatsby explicitly says, of course you can [repeat the past] (111). Showing that grown Gatsby believes that his history, or a certain time in history, is better than his past; however, Nick notes that this obsession is due to something deeper than a youthful fling. Nick notes that [Gatsby] talked a lot about the past[as if] he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself that had hone into loving Daisy (111). Gatsbys fascination with history and recreating history is not about finding true love with Daisy, but it is about rediscovering the true love for himself. Gatsby is searching for the person, the memories, the history, that he had erased since he met Daisy: the lost self, the true Gatsby. Since Gatsby has lost himself, his life has been confused and disordered; therefore, it is understandable for him to believe that he can relive the past, to return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly, to keep his life ordered and to keep the real Gatsby. Gatsbys engrossment with reliving his history is to ultimately find where he lost himself; however, in Toni Morrisons Beloved, Sethe and Paul D have an intimate moment in which they feel as though they have gone back eighteen years and are creating almost two decades worth of memories in a matter of minutes. Paul D has returned to 124, Sethes house, and they have not seen each other for eighteen years. The two begin to talk about what has happened in their lives

Harris 3 since they last saw each other, more specifically, Sethe is telling the story of how the milk that she had for Denver, her daughter, was stolen from her and how she got the chokecherry tree or scars on her back (Morrison, 20). The emotions begin to run wild and soon Paul D and Sethe are upstairs in bed together. Paul D is not quite in a hurry, but [surely] not losing [any] time [for] the certainty of giving her his sexdropped twenty-five years from his recent memory (24). Paul D has been waiting to have sex with Sethe; she was Baby Suggs replacement, the new girl they dreamed of at night (24). Since Paul D has been waiting so long to actually live out this moment of his history, he is surprised of how the physically having Sethe falls short to the idea of being with her. Nevertheless, the yearning to create a missed opportunity of history has an adverse effect, for after they finish having intimate relations, Paul D is described as sorry [it had happened] and too shy to make talk (25). Moreover, as Sethe turns from Paul D he notices her scars for what they are: a revolting clump of scars, and begins to become revolted by her (25). Paul D, as Gatsby was with Daisy, had been enamored with the dream of Sethe, now that he has had the real thing he knows that it was better to chase after the dream for his dreaming of her had been too long and too long ago (25). However, Sethe does not react the same to the sex, the making up of a chance of lost history, the same was as Paul D. Sethe had her milk stolen and since has not been able to dream; therefore, she was happy to see Paul but there was no way that she could remember desire..or how it worked (24). Sethe has not had it easy since the Sweet Home men had left and an incessant sadness [had] crouched in the corners of her; consequently, Sethes deprivation [of] not having any dreams of her own hinder her from being able to recreate history with Paul (24-25). Moreover, time never worked the way [they] thought proving it to be impossible to make-up for lost time because Sethe and Paul D were not in the same mental

Harris 4 places as they were eighteen years ago. Their feelings and attitudes about life have drastically changed, so after finally filling a void of their lost history both Sethe and Paul were sorry and too shy to make talk (25). To be obsessed with recreating history is a frivolous burden, for we cannot go back in time and actually alter the way that our future will turn out. Instead, it is better to accept the past for what it was and to live progressively so our futures are bright and favorable instead of regretful. In Abraham Lincolns A House Divided speech, Lincoln states that A house divided cannot stand (Pearson, 1). Here Lincoln argues that instead of bickering over history, something that cannot be changed, we must move continue to look forward, for it is the only way to sustain the state of the country. However, Lincoln knows that history has a way of entrapping our minds so that we can only think about the past; we eventually live in the past. He says [this argument about history] will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached, and passed; moreover, in his second inaugural address he states and then war came (1,9). The civil war is the crisis that Lincoln knew needed to occur so that American citizens could stop living in the past but to use our past experiences to guide our future. God gave the civil war to both the North and the South as the woe due to those by whom offences came to show that our history was not right or just, both sides, the North and South, committed acts that were egregious. Therefore, both sides will suffer war fatalities as a sign to learn from our history, not revel in it, to progress as a nation. Lincoln closes his speech with as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in as a message from God telling the American citizens that He gave us these rights for us to move forward and complete that work that we were put on Earth to do.

Harris 5 Just as Lincoln tells the American people that progression is essential in order to advance as a country; however, in Robert Frosts Home Burial shows how difficult moving on from the past is when there is a constant reminder of it before you. The speaker in the poem is looking out the window and her husband walks up and sees that she is staring at the mound marking the burial site for their lost son, and he exclaims that he sees what she is upset about. However, it is not the mound, or lamenting for their son, that the wife is sad about; she is forlorn about how her husband reacted to their sons death. The wife says you cant [speak of your son] because you dont know how, if you had any feelings, you that dug with your own handhis little grave (Pearson, 199). Here we see how the husband wants to progress from the sons death, their history, but the wife remains frozen because of his response to the death. She cannot believe that her husband, the childs father, could actually dig the grave for his only child and not show an ounce of remorse (199). Moreover, now every time she notices the mound on the hill from the house window, she is reminded of their history: how he had not portrayed any emotion and she has come to be made sick by his presence. At the end of the poem, the wife leaves with the husband pleading her not to leave (200). The conflict about how to accept and move on from our past eventually broke the marriage apart; the husband could not understand why the wife chose to live in the past, while the wife could not understand why the husband could not express any emotion to her. So instead of finishing the work we are in as Lincoln advises, the couples history is too much for the to move on from, so they separate, leaving their work unfinished. As hard as progressing from history may be, the only way to adequately reflect on it is to progress from it. In Elizabeth Bishops In the Waiting Room the speaker reflects on all that she was taught, and what she truly believes to come to the realization that people are more alike than they are different. The speaker, a six year old girl, is in the dentists waiting room waiting on her

Harris 6 aunt; she reads a National Geographic magazine and notices black , naked women with necks wound round and round withhorrifying breasts (Pearson, 243). Next the speaker hears an oh! Of pain that she assumes to be the aunts voice, for the aunt is a foolish women; however, she was completely [taken] by surprise that it wasmy voice (243). The speaker subconsciously, yells oh in fear of the images of the women. The yelp is subconscious because she has been taught, by her foolish aunt, that these people were different from her; therefore, the sight of them naked struck a reaction out of her. However, she notices that she is as foolish as her aunt, and the rest of society because it was her voice. She says you are an I, you are an Elizabeth, you are one of them to show that when you only listen to what is being told to us, rather than form our own opinions about things that you we allow for history to continuously repeat itself. The progression from I, to Elizabeth, to one of them shows that by accepting the history of others we cannot truly be an individual; we cannot make our own history because we are living the history of others: we have become a them instead of and I. However, the speaker reflects on her beliefs and questions why should [she] be [her] aunt (244). During this moment of reflection, she notices that unless she progresses from the societal views, to look at those who appear to be different with disdain, that she will be her aunt; never-the-less, she question what similarities lie between her and her aunt that do not lie between her and the women in the magazine. This realization that people are not as different as history makes them out to be, is fully noticed when the speaker acknowledges her own progression and ability to think for herself; therefore, making her own opinion, her own history, when she utters the reflective line: a cry of pain that couldve gotten loud and worse, but hadnt (244). Although the speaker in In the Waiting Room had a reflective moment early in life, many people reflect towards the end of their life. In Emily Dickinsons Because I Could Not

Harris 7 Stop for Death the speaker reflects on the stages of life, to show that in order to have a sense of history we need to take time to look back on our lives. Death is personified in the poem, and he picks up the speaker in his carriage; however, the carriage only holds the speaker, death, and immortality (20). This shows that people are going to die, but history, memories, lasts forever. They drive slowly, to depict the journey of a fulfilling life, as the pass a schoolyard with children playing, fields of grain, and the setting sun (20). But the speaker notices that the sun passes them, for the sun is immortal; the sun will be here when we die. The carriage was able to pass, outlive, the children and grain because they are living things. They pause at the house where the speaker is to live for eternity, since she is dead. Moreover, here in this house, the speaker can make sense of life by reflecting on her past and how it fits into history. The speaker has been in the house for centuries- and yet [it] feels shorter than the day (21) because reminiscing on good times, moves time faster than actually living through history. How can we progress from history if we are not allowed to live in it, or attempt to recreate it? How can we reflect on history if we cannot progress from it? Maybe Gatsby is right for erasing his past to get closer to the person that he loves, but how can he finish the work he is in, as Lincoln states, or fully reflect in his house for eternity as Bishop states if he omits a part of his history. The American history has been a conflicting topic for writers; it is painful, but the way to make some sense of it is to fully assess, live in it, see what is the best way to progress from it, and finally reflect on it.

Harris 8 Works Cited Wyatt, David. American Literature. 5. Boston: Pearson Learning Solutions, 2005. Print. Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. J-2.65. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1953. Print. Morrison, Toni. Beloved. New York: Vintage International, 2004. Print.

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