ESTUDIOS CULTURALES EN LENGUA INGLESA II

2024-2025
ESTUDIOS CULTURALES EN LENGUA INGLESA 2, 2024/25

Contents

1. The Eighteenth Century.

John Locke, Second Treatise of Civil Government. Alexander Pope, Windsor Forest. Daniel
Defoe, Robinson Crusoe. The American Declaration of Independence. Mary Wollstonecraft,
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.

2. The Industrial Revolution.

William Blake, “The Chimney Sweeper.” Lord Byron, “A Song for the Luddites.” Thomas
Carlyle, “Signs of the Times.”

3. The Frontier Experience.

J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer. Chief Tecumseh,
Address to General William Henry Harrison. The Seneca Falls Conference, The Declaration
of Sentiments. Sojourner Truth, “Ain’t I a Woman?” H. D. Thoreau, The Journal.

4. The US Civil War and Reconstruction.

Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address.

5. Victorian England: Empire and Commonwealth.

Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist. Rudyard Kipling, “The White Man’s Burden.” War poetry:
Wilfred Owen, “Dulce et decorum est” & Rupert Brooke, “Safety.” W. B. Yeats,
“September 1913.”

6. Naturalism and the Growth of the Cities

Emma Lazarus, “The New Colossus.” David Grann, Killers of the Flower Moon.

7. Modernism & The Jazz Age.

Langston Hughes, “The Weary Blues.” John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath.

8. From WWII to the New Millennium.

Arthur Miller, The Crucible. Martin Luther King, Jr., “I have a dream.” John Milius &
Francis Ford Coppola, Apocalypse Now (Redux). Monica Ali, Brick Lane.
ESTUDIOS CULTURALES EN LENGUA INGLESA II, 2024/25

Recommended Bibliography

Abrams, M. H. and Stephen Greenblatt, eds. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 7th
ed. 2 vols. New York: Norton, 2000.
Baker, Kevin. America: The Story of Us. A&E Networks, 2010.
Baldick, Christopher. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Oxford: OUP, 1991.
Barclay, Sarah. A History of Scotland (DVD). BBC, 2010.
Black, Jeremy. A History of the British Isles. London: Palgrave, 2002.
Briggs, Asa. A Social History of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1983.
Cannon, John. A Dictionary of British History. Oxford: OUP, 2004.
Carroll, Peter N., and David W. Noble. The Free and the Unfree: A New History of the United
States. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1987.
Corbishley, Mike, et al. The History of Britain and Ireland. Oxford: OUP, 2006.
Cuddon, J. A. A Dictionary of Literary Terms. 3rd ed. Oxford: Blackwell, 1991.
Drabble, Margaret, and Jenny Stringer, eds. The Concise Companion to English Literature. 5th
ed. Oxford: OUP, 1993.
Foner, Eric, and Lisa McGirr, eds. American History Now. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 2011.
Gilbert, Martin. The Routledge Atlas of American History. London: Routledge, 2006.
Haigh, Christopher et al. The Cambridge Historical Encyclopaedia of Britain and Ireland.
Cambridge: CUP, 1995.
Harvey, Christopher. 19th c. Britain: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: OUP, 2000.
Howard, Michael. The First World War: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: OUP, 2002.
Jenkins, Philip. A History of the United States. London: Palgrave, 2007.
Jones, Maldwyn. The Limits of Liberty: American History 1607-1980. Oxford: OUP, 1990.
Kearney, Hugh. The British Isles: A History of Four Nations. Cambridge: CUP, 1995.
McMahon, Robert. The Cold War: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: OUP, 2000.
Metford, J. C. J. Dictionary of Christian Lore and Legend. London: Thames and Hudson, 1986.
Morales, Helen. Classical Mythology: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: OUP, 2004.
Morgan, Kenneth O. 20th c. Britain: A Very Short History. Oxford: OUP, 2000.
Morgan, Kenneth O. The Oxford History of Britain and Ireland. Oxford: OUP, 2006.
Morrill, John. Stuart Britain: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: OUP, 2000.
Mulholland, Marc. Northern Ireland: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: OUP, 2003.
Oxford English Dictionary.
Randle, John. Understanding Britain. Oxford UP, 1992.
Schama, Simon. A History of Britain (DVD). BBC, 2006.
The Hutchinson Dictionary of American History. Abingdon: Helicon, 2005.
Tindall, George Brown, and David Emory Shi. America: A Narrative History. New York:
Norton, 2010.
Woodhead, Linda. Christianity: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: OUP, 2004.

e-resources in FAMA/Universidad de Sevilla

[Link]
[Link]
[Link]
other interesting links on the internet
[Link] : BBC site for British history
[Link] : British history
[Link] American history
[Link] American history
[Link] American history
[Link] American history
[Link] American history
[Link] Literary Encyclopaedia
[Link] History through Films
1. The Eighteenth Century

John Locke, Second Treatise of Civil Government.

Alexander Pope, Windsor Forest.
Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe.
The American Declaration of Independence.
Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.
From John Locke, Second Treatise of Civil Government (1690)

CHAPTER IX

Of the Ends of Political Society and Government.

Sec. 127. Thus mankind, notwithstanding all the privileges of the state of Sec. 129. The first power, viz. of doing whatsoever he thought for the
nature, being but in an ill condition, while they remain in it, are quickly preservation of himself, and the rest of mankind, he gives up to be
driven into society. Hence it comes to pass, that we seldom find any regulated by laws made by the society, so far forth as the preservation of
number of men live any time together in this state. The inconveniencies himself, and the rest of that society shall require; which laws of the
that they are therein exposed to, by the irregular and uncertain exercise of society in many things confine the liberty he had by the law of nature.
the power every man has of punishing the transgressions of others, make
them take sanctuary under the established laws of government, and
therein seek the preservation of their property. It is this makes them so
willingly give up every one his single power of punishing, to be
exercised by such alone, as shall be appointed to it amongst them; and by
such rules as the community, or those authorized by them to that
purpose, shall agree on. And in this we have the original right and rise of
both the legislative and executive power, as well as of the governments
and societies themselves.

Sec. 128. For in the state of nature, to omit the liberty he has of innocent
delights, a man has two powers. The first is to do whatsoever he thinks
fit for the preservation of himself, and others within the permission of the
law of nature: by which law, common to them all, he and all the rest of
mankind are one community, make up one society, distinct from all other
creatures. And were it not for the corruption and vitiousness of
degenerate men, there would be no need of any other; no necessity that
men should separate from this great and natural community, and by
positive agreements combine into smaller and divided [Link]
other power a man has in the state of nature, is the power to punish the
crimes committed against that law. Both these he gives up, when he joins
in a private, if I may so call it, or particular politic society, and
incorporates into any common-wealth, separate from the rest of mankind.
From Alexander Pope, Windsor Forest (1713, 1736)

Here hills and vales, the woodland and the plain,

Here earth and water, seem to strive again;
Not Chaos like together crush'd and bruis'd,
But as the world, harmoniously confus'd:
Where order in variety we see, [15]
And where, tho' all things differ, all agree.
Here waving groves a checquer'd scene display,
And part admit, and part exclude the day;
As some coy nymph her lover's warm address
Nor quite indulges, nor can quite repress. [20]
There, interspers'd in lawns and opening glades,
Thin trees arise that shun each other's shades.
Here in full light the russet plains extend;
There wrapt in clouds the blueish hills ascend.
Ev'n the wild heath displays her purple dyes, [25]
And 'midst the desert fruitful fields arise,
That crown'd with tufted trees and springing corn,
Like verdant isles the sable waste adorn.
Let India boast her plants, nor envy we
The weeping amber or the balmy tree, [30]
While by our oaks the precious loads are born,
And realms commanded which those trees adorn.
Not proud Olympus yields a nobler sight,
Tho' Gods assembled grace his tow'ring height,
Than what more humble mountains offer here, [35]
Where, in their blessings, all those Gods appear.
See Pan with flocks, with fruits Pomona crown'd,
Here blushing Flora paints th' enamel'd ground,
Here Ceres' gifts in waving prospect stand,
And nodding tempt the joyful reaper's hand; [40]
Rich Industry sits smiling on the plains,
And peace and plenty tell, a Stuart reigns.
From Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (1706)

CHAPTER I on the other, who went abroad upon adventures, to rise by enterprise, and
make themselves famous in undertakings of a nature out of the common
I was born in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a good family, though not of road; that these things were all either too far above me or too far below me;
that country, my father being a foreigner of Bremen, who settled first at Hull. that mine was the middle state, or what might be called the upper station
He got a good estate by merchandise, and leaving off his trade, lived afterwards of low life, which he had found, by long experience, was the best state in
at York, from whence he had married my mother, whose relations were named the world, the most suited to human happiness, not exposed to the miseries
Robinson, a very good family in that country, and from whom I was called and hardships, the labour and sufferings of the mechanic part of mankind,
Robinson Kreutznaer; but, by the usual corruption of words in England, we are and not embarrassed with the pride, luxury, ambition, and envy of the upper
now called - nay we call ourselves and write our name - Crusoe; and so my part of mankind. He told me I might judge of the happiness of this state by
companions always called me. this one thing - viz. that this was the state of life which all other people
envied; that kings have frequently lamented the miserable consequence of
I had two elder brothers, one of whom was lieutenant-colonel to an English being born to great things, and wished they had been placed in the middle
regiment of foot in Flanders, formerly commanded by the famous Colonel of the two extremes, between the mean and the great; that the wise man
Lockhart, and was killed at the battle near Dunkirk against the Spaniards. What gave his testimony to this, as the standard of felicity, when he prayed to
became of my second brother I never knew, any more than my father or mother have neither poverty nor riches.
knew what became of me.

Being the third son of the family and not bred to any trade, my head began to
be filled very early with rambling thoughts. My father, who was very ancient,
had given me a competent share of learning, as far as house-education and a
country free school generally go, and designed me for the law; but I would be
satisfied with nothing but going to sea; and my inclination to this led me so
strongly against the will, nay, the commands of my father, and against all the
entreaties and persuasions of my mother and other friends, that there seemed to
be something fatal in that propensity of nature, tending directly to the life of
misery which was to befall me.

My father, a wise and grave man, gave me serious and excellent counsel against
what he foresaw was my design. He called me one morning into his chamber,
where he was confined by the gout, and expostulated very warmly with me upon
this subject. He asked me what reasons, more than a mere wandering
inclination, I had for leaving father's house and my native country,
where I might be well introduced, and had a prospect of raising my fortune by
application and industry, with a life of ease and pleasure. He told me it was men
of desperate fortunes on one hand, or of aspiring, superior fortunes
From the American Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776

He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public
When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people good.
to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance,
to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and, when so
which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people,
which impel them to the separation. unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a
We hold these truths to be self-evident: right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and
That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing
certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit them into compliance with his measures.
of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, with manly
men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people.
whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is
the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new
government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its
powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety
and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long
established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and
accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to
suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the
forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and
usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce
them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off
such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the
necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of
government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of
repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the
establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let
facts be submitted to a candid world.
From Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)

universally injurious to morality, than all the other vices of mankind

collectively considered. To adulterous lust the most sacred duties are
CHAPTER XIII sacrificed, because, before marriage, men, by a promiscuous intimacy with
women, learned to consider love as a selfish gratification--learned to
Some instances of the folly which the ignorance of women generates; with separate it not only from esteem, but from the affection merely built on habit,
concluding reflections on the moral improvement that a revolution in female which mixes a little humanity with it. . . . But that noble simplicity of
manners might naturally be expected to produce. affection, which dares to appear unadorned, has few attractions for the
libertine, though it be the charm, which, by cementing the matrimonial tie,
secures to the pledges of a warmer passion the necessary parental attention;
[…] Moralists have unanimously agreed, that unless virtue be nursed by for children will never be properly educated till friendship subsists between
liberty, it will never attain due strength--and what they say of man I extend parents. […]
to mankind, insisting, that in all cases morals must be fixed on immutable
principles; and that the being cannot be termed rational or virtuous, who Asserting the rights which women in common with men ought to contend
obeys any authority but that of reason. for, I have not attempted to extenuate their faults; but to prove them to be
the natural consequence of their education and station in society. If so, it is
To render women truly useful members of society, I argue, that they should reasonable to suppose, that they will change their character, and correct their
be led, by having their understandings cultivated on a large scale, to acquire vices and follies, when they are allowed to be free in a physical, moral, and
a rational affection for their country, founded on knowledge, because it is civil sense.
obvious, that we are little interested about what we do not understand. And
to render this general knowledge of due importance, I have endeavoured to Let woman share the rights, and she will emulate the virtues of man; for she
show that private duties are never properly fulfilled, unless the must grow more perfect when emancipated, or justify the authority that
understanding enlarges the heart; and that public virtue is only an aggregate chains such a weak being to her duty. If the latter, it will be expedient to
of private. But, the distinctions established in society undermine both, by open a fresh trade with Russia for whips; a present which a father should
beating out the solid gold of virtue, till it becomes only the tinsel-covering always make to his son-in-law on his wedding day, that a husband may keep
of vice; for, whilst wealth renders a man more respectable than virtue, wealth his whole family in order by the same means; and without any violation of
will be sought before virtue; and, whilst women's persons are caressed, when justice reign, wielding this sceptre, sole master of his house, because he is
a childish simper shows an absence of mind--the mind will lie fallow. Yet, the only being in it who has reason; the divine, indefeasible, earthly
true voluptuousness must proceed from the mind--for what can equal the sovereignty breathed into man by the Master of the universe. Allowing this
sensations produced by mutual affection, supported by mutual respect? position, women have not any inherent rights to claim; and, by the same rule
their duties vanish, for rights and duties are inseparable.
That women at present are by ignorance rendered foolish or vicious, is, I
think, not to be disputed; and, that the most salutary effects tending to
improve mankind, might be expected from a REVOLUTION in female
manners, appears at least, with a face of probability, to rise out of the
observation. For as marriage has been termed the parent of those endearing
charities, which draw man from the brutal herd, the corrupting intercourse
that wealth, idleness, and folly produce between the sexes, is more
2. The Industrial Revolution

William Blake, “The Chimney Sweeper.”

Lord Byron, “A Song for the Luddites”
Thomas Carlyle, “Signs of the Times.”
William Blake, “The Chimney Sweeper” (1789)

When my mother died I was very young,

And my father sold me while yet my tongue
Could scarcely cry “'weep! 'weep! 'weep! 'weep!”
So your chimneys I sweep & in soot I sleep.

There's little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head

That curled like a lamb's back, was shaved, so I said,
“Hush, Tom! never mind it, for when your head's bare,
You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair.”

And so he was quiet, & that very night,

As Tom was a-sleeping he had such a sight!
That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, & Jack,
Were all of them locked up in coffins of black;

And by came an Angel who had a bright key,

And he opened the coffins & set them all free;
Then down a green plain, leaping, laughing they run,
And wash in a river and shine in the Sun.

Then naked & white, all their bags left behind,

They rise upon clouds, and sport in the wind.
And the Angel told Tom, if he'd be a good boy,
He'd have God for his father & never want joy.

And so Tom awoke; and we rose in the dark

And got with our bags & our brushes to work.
Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy & warm;
So if all do their duty, they need not fear harm.
Lord Byron, “A Song for the Luddites” (1816)

As the Liberty lads o'er the sea

Bought their freedom, and cheaply, with blood,
So we, boys, we
Will die fighting, or live free,
And down with all kings but King Ludd!

When the web that we weave is complete,

And the shuttle exchanged for the sword,
We will fling the winding sheet
O'er the despot at our feet,
And dye it deep in the gore he has pour'd.

Though black as his heart its hue,

Since his veins are corrupted to mud,
Yet this is the dew
Which the tree shall renew
Of Liberty, planted by Ludd!
From Thomas Carlyle, “Signs of the Times” (1829)

Were we required to characterise this age of ours by any single epithet, we We may trace this tendency in all the great manifestations of our
should be tempted to call it, not an Heroical, Devotional, time; in its intellectual aspect, the studies it most favours and its manner of
Philosophical, or Moral Age, but, above all others, the Mechanical Age. It is conducting them; in its practical aspects, its politics, arts, religion, morals; in
the Age of Machinery, in every outward and inward sense of that word; the the whole sources, and throughout the whole currents, of its spiritual, no less
age which, with its whole undivided might, forwards, teaches and practises than its material activity.
the great art of adapting means to ends. Nothing is now done directly, or by
hand; all is by rule and calculated contrivance. […] But leaving these
matters for the present, let us observe how the mechanical genius of our time
has diffused itself into quite other provinces. Not the external and physical
alone is now managed by machinery, but the internal and spiritual also. Here
too nothing follows its spontaneous course, nothing is left to be
accomplished by old natural methods. […]
Thus we have machines for Education […] Instruction, that mysterious
communing of Wisdom with Ignorance, is no longer an indefinable
tentative process, requiring a study of individual aptitudes, and a perpetual
variation of means and methods, to attain the same end; but a secure,
universal, straightforward business, to be conducted in the gross, by proper
mechanism, with such intellect as comes to hand.

Then, we have Religious machines, of all imaginable varieties […]

These things, which we state lightly enough here, are yet of deep import,
and indicate a mighty change in our whole manner of existence. For the same
habit regulates not our modes of action alone, but our modes of thought and
feeling. Men are grown mechanical in head and in heart, as well as in hand.
They have lost faith in individual endeavour, and in natural force, of any
kind. Not for internal perfection, but for external combinations and
arrangements, for institutions, constitutions, for Mechanism of one sort or
other, do they hope and struggle. Their whole efforts, attachments, opinions,
turn on mechanism, and are of a mechanical character.
3. The Frontier Experience
J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer.
Chief Tecumseh, Address to General William Henry Harrison.
The Seneca Falls Conference, The Declaration of Sentiments.
Sojourner Truth, “Ain’t I a Woman?”
H. D. Thoreau, The Journal.
From J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer (1782)

“What Is an American?”

What attachment can a poor European emigrant have for a country where them all; without any part being claimed, either by a despotic prince, a
he had nothing? The knowledge of the language, the love of a few kindred rich abbot, or a mighty lord. Here religion demands but little of him; a
as poor as himself, were the only cords that tied him: his country is now small voluntary salary to the minister and gratitude to God; can he refuse
that which gives him land, bread, protection, and consequences: Ubi panis these? The American is a new man, who acts upon new principles; he must
ibi patria, [“where there is bread, there is my country”] is the motto of all therefore entertain new ideas, and form new opinions. From involuntary
emigrants. What then is the American, this new man? He is either an idleness, servile dependence, penury, and useless labour, he has passed to
European, or the descendant of an European, hence that strange mixture toils of a very different nature, rewarded by ample subsistence. This is an
of blood, which you will find in no other country. I could point out to you American....
a family whose grandfather was an Englishman, whose wife was Dutch,
whose son married a French woman, and whose present four sons have
now four wives of different nations. He is an American, who, leaving
behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from
the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and
the new rank he holds. He becomes an American by being received in the
broad lap of our great Alma Mater. Here individuals of all nations are
melted into a new race of men, whose labours and posterity will one day
cause great changes in the world. Americans are the western pilgrims, who
are carrying along with them that great mass of arts, sciences, vigour, and
industry which began long since in the east; they will finish the great
circle. The Americans were once scattered all over Europe; here they are
incorporated into one of the finest systems of population which has ever
appeared, and which will hereafter become distinct by the power of the
different climates they inhabit. The American ought therefore to love this
country much better than that wherein either he or his forefathers were
born. Here the rewards of his industry follow with equal steps the progress
of his labour; his labour is founded on the basis of nature, self-interest;
can it want a stronger allurement? Wives and children, who before in vain
demanded of him a morsel of bread, now, fat and frolicsome, gladly help
their father to clear those fields whence exuberant crops are to arise to feed
and to clothe
From Chief Tecumseh, Address to General William Henry Harrison (c. 1810)

Houses are built for you to hold councils in. The Indians hold theirs in No tribe has the right to sell, even to each other, much less to strangers.
the open air. I am a Shawnee. My forefathers were warriors. Their son is Sell a country?! Why not sell the air, the great sea, as well as the earth?
a warrior. From them I take my only existence. From my tribe I take Did not the Great Spirit make them all for the use of his children?
nothing. I have made myself what I am. And I would that I could make
the red people as great as the conceptions of my own mind, when I think How can we have confidence in the white people? We have good and just
of the Great Spirit that rules over us all. I would not then come to reasons to believe we have ample grounds to accuse the Americans of
Governor Harrison to ask him to tear up the treaty. injustice, especially when such great acts of injustice have been
committed by them upon our race, of which they seem to have no manner
But I would say to him, "Brother, you have the liberty to return to your of regard, or even to reflect. When Jesus Christ came upon the earth you
own country." You wish to prevent the Indians from doing as we wish killed him and nailed him to the cross. You thought he was dead, and you
them, to unite and let them consider their lands as a common property of were mistaken. You have the Shakers among you, and you laugh and
the whole. You take the tribes aside and advise them not to come into this make light of their worship. Everything I have told you is the truth. The
measure. You want by your distinctions of Indian tribes, in allotting to Great Spirit has inspired me.
each a particular, to make them war with each other. You never see an
Indian endeavor to make the white people do this. You are continually
driving the red people, when at last you will drive them into the great lake
[Lake Michigan], where they can neither stand nor work.

Since my residence at Tippecanoe, we have endeavored to level all

distinctions, to destroy village chiefs, by whom all mischiefs are done. It
is they who sell the land to the Americans. Brother, this land that was
sold, and the goods that was given for it, was only done by a few. In the
future we are prepared to punish those who propose to sell land to the
Americans. If you continue to purchase them, it will make war among the
different tribes, and, at last I do not know what will be the consequences
among the white people.

Brother, I wish you would take pity on the red people and do as I have
requested. If you will not give up the land and do cross the boundary of
our present settlement, it will be very hard and produce great trouble
between us.

The way, the only way to stop this evil, is for the red people to unite in
claiming a common and equal right in the land, as it was at first, and
should be now -- for it was never divided, but belongs to all.
From The Declaration of Sentiments, Seneca Falls Conference (1848)

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one portion is their duty to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for
of the family of man to assume among the people of the earth a position their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of the women
different from that which they have hitherto occupied, but one to which the under this government, and such is now the necessity which constrains them
laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the to demand the equal station to which they are entitled.
opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes that impel The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on
them to such a course. the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of
an absolute tyranny over her. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created world.
equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights;
that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective
these rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the franchise.
consent of the governed. Whenever any form of government becomes
destructive of these ends, it is the right of those who suffer from it to refuse He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she had
allegiance to it, and to insist upon the institution of a new government, laying no voice.
its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as
to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, He has withheld from her rights which are given to the most ignorant and
indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed degraded men--both natives and foreigners.
for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that
mankind are more disposed to suffer. while evils are sufferable, than to right Having deprived her of this first right of a citizen, the elective franchise,
themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. thereby leaving her without representation in the halls of legislation, he has
oppressed her on all sides.
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the
same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it He has made her, if married, in the eye of the law, civilly dead.
Sojourner Truth, “Ain’t I a Woman?” (1851)

Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter.
I think that ‘twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking
about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what’s all this here
talking about?

That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted
over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into
carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain’t I a woman?
Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into
barns, and no man could head me! And ain’t I a woman? I could work as much
and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And
ain’t I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to
slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me!
And ain’t I a woman?

Then they talk about this thing in the head; what’s this they call it? [member of
audience whispers, “intellect”] That’s it, honey. What’s that got to do with
women’s rights or negroes’ rights? If my cup won’t hold but a pint, and yours holds
a quart, wouldn’t you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full? Then
that little man in black there, he says women can’t have as much rights as men,
‘cause Christ wasn’t a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your
Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.

If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside
down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it
right side up again! And now they are asking to do it, the men better let them.
From Henry David Thoreau, The Journal (1852)

1 February, 1852

The recent rush to California and the attitude of the world, even of its Did God direct us to so get our living, digging where we never planted, —
philosophers and prophets, in relation to it appears to me to reflect the and He would perchance reward us with lumps of gold? It is a text, oh! for
greatest disgrace on mankind. That so many are ready to get their living by the Jonahs´ of this generation, and yet the pulpits are as silent as immortal
the lottery of gold-digging without contributing any value to society, and Greece, silent, some of them, because the preacher is gone to California
that the great majority who stay at home justify them in this both by precept himself. The gold of California is a touchstone which has betrayed the
and example! It matches the infatuation of the Hindoos who have cast rottenness, the baseness, of mankind. Satan, from one of his elevations,
themselves under the car of Juggernaut. I know of no more startling showed mankind the kingdom of California, and they entered into a
development of the morality of trade and all the modes of getting a living compact with him at once.
than the rush to California affords. Of what significance the philosophy, or
poetry, or religion of a world that will rush to the lottery of California gold-
digging on the receipt of the first news, to live by luck, to get the means of
commanding the labor of others less lucky, i.e. of slaveholding, without
contributing any value to society? And that is called enterprise, and the
devil is only a little more enterprising! The philosophy and poetry and
religion of such a mankind are not worth the dust of a puffball. The hog
that roots his own living, and so makes manure, would be ashamed of such
company. If I could command the wealth of all the worlds by lifting my
finger, I would not pay such a price for it. It makes God to be a moneyed
gentleman who scatters a handful of pennies in order to see mankind
scramble for them. Going to California. It is only three thousand miles
nearer to hell. I will resign my life sooner than live by luck. The world’s
raffle. A subsistence in the domains of nature a thing to be raffled for! No
wonder that they gamble there. I never heard that they did anything else
there. What a comment, what a satire, on our institutions! The conclusion
will be that mankind will hang itself upon a tree. And who would interfere
to cut it down. And have all the precepts in all the bibles taught men only
this? and is the last and most admirable invention of the Yankee race only
an improved muck-rake? — patented too! If one came hither to sell lottery
tickets, bringing satisfactory credentials, and the prizes were seats in
heaven, this world would buy them with a rush.
4. The US Civil War and Reconstruction
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address.
From Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)

In consequence of all the various delays, it was about three-quarters of an “Yer a brave gal, now, whoever ye ar!” said the man, with an oath.
hour after Eliza had laid her child to sleep in the village tavern that the party Eliza recognized the voice and face for a man who owned a farm not far from her
came riding into the same place. Eliza was standing by the window, looking old home.
out in another direction, when Sam's quick eye caught a glimpse of her.
Haley and Andy were two yards behind. At this crisis, Sam contrived to have
his hat blown off, and uttered a loud and characteristic ejaculation, which “O, Mr. Symmes!--save me--do save me--do hide me!” said Eliza. “Why,
startled her at once; she drew suddenly back; the whole train swept by the
window, round to the front door. what's this?” said the man. “Why, if 'tan't Shelby's gal!”

A thousand lives seemed to be concentrated in that one moment to Eliza. Her “My child!--this boy!--he'd sold him! There is his Mas'r,” said she, pointing
room opened by a side door to the river. She caught her child, and sprang to the Kentucky shore. "O, Mr. Symmes, you've got a little boy!”
down the steps towards it. The trader caught a full glimpse of her just as she
was disappearing down the bank; and throwing himself from his horse, and “So I have,” said the man, as he roughly, but kindly, drew her up the steep
calling loudly on Sam and Andy, he was after her like a hound after a deer. bank. “Besides, you're a right brave gal. I like grit, wherever I see it.”
In that dizzy moment her feet to her scarce seemed to touch the ground, and When they had gained the top of the bank, the man paused.
a moment brought her to the water's edge. Right on behind they came; and,
nerved with strength such as God gives only to the desperate, with one wild “I'd be glad to do something for ye,” said he; “but then there's nowhar I could
cry and flying leap, she vaulted sheer over the turbid current by the shore, on take ye. The best I can do is to tell ye to go thar,” said he, pointing to a large
to the raft of ice beyond. It was a desperate leap--impossible to anything but white house which stood by itself, off the main street of the village.
madness and despair; and Haley, Sam, and Andy, instinctively cried out, and
lifted up their hands, as she did it. “Go thar; they're kind folks. Thar's no kind o' danger but they'll help you,--
they're up to all that sort o' thing.”
The huge green fragment of ice on which she alighted pitched and creaked as
her weight came on it, but she staid there not a moment. With wild cries and “The Lord bless you!” said Eliza, earnestly.
desperate energy she leaped to another and still another cake; stumbling--
leaping--slipping-- springing upwards again! Her shoes are gone--her “No 'casion, no 'casion in the world,” said the man. “What I've done's of no
stockings cut from her feet--while blood marked every step; but she saw 'count.”
nothing, felt nothing, till dimly, as in a dream, she saw the Ohio side, and a
man helping her up the bank. “And, oh, surely, sir, you won't tell any one!”
“Go to thunder, gal! What do you take a feller for? In course not,” said the
man. “Come, now, go along like a likely, sensible gal, as you are. You've arnt
your liberty, and you shall have it, for all me.”

The woman folded her child to her bosom, and walked firmly and swiftly
away. The man stood and looked after her.

“Shelby, now, mebbe won't think this yer the most neighborly thing in the
world; but what's a feller to do? If he catches one of my gals in the same fix,
he's welcome to pay back. Somehow I never could see no kind o' critter a
strivin' and pantin', and trying to clar theirselves, with the dogs arter 'em and
go agin 'em. Besides, I don't see no kind of 'casion for me to be hunter and
catcher for other folks, neither.” So spoke this poor, heathenish Kentuckian,
who had not been instructed in his constitutional relations, and consequently
was betrayed into acting in a sort of Christianized manner, which, if he had
been better situated and more enlightened, he would not have been left to do.
From Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address (1863)

Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a
new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all
men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing
whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long
endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to
dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here
gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper
that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot
consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead
who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or
detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but
it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be
dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus
far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great
task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased
devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion-
-that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that
this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that
government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from
the earth.
5. Victorian England: Empire and Commonwealth
Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist.
Rudyard Kipling, “The White Man’s Burden.”
Ireland: W. B. Yeats, “September 1913.”
War poetry: Rupert Brooke, “Safety” & Wilfred Owen, “Dulce et decorum est”
From Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist (1838)

The room in which the boys were fed, was a large stone hall, with a The master was a fat, healthy man; but he turned very pale. He gazed in
copper at one end: out of which the master, dressed in an apron for the stupified astonishment on the small rebel for some seconds, and then
purpose, and assisted by one or two women, ladled the gruel at clung for support to the copper. The assistants were paralysed with
mealtimes. Of this festive composition each boy had one porringer, and wonder; the boys with fear.
no more--except on occasions of great public rejoicing, when he had
two ounces and a quarter of bread besides. The bowls never wanted “What!” said the master at length, in a faint voice.
washing. The boys polished them with their spoons till they shone
again; and when they had performed this operation (which never took “Please, sir,” replied Oliver, “I want some more.”
very long, the spoons being nearly as large as the bowls), they would sit
staring at the copper, with such eager eyes, as if they could have The master aimed a blow at Oliver's head with the ladle; pinioned him
devoured the very bricks of which it was composed; employing in his arm; and shrieked aloud for the beadle.
themselves, meanwhile, in sucking their fingers most assiduously, with
the view of catching up any stray splashes of gruel that might have been The board were sitting in solemn conclave, when Mr Bumble rushed
cast thereon. Boys have generally excellent appetites. Oliver Twist and into the room in great excitement, and addressing the gentleman in the
his companions suffered the tortures of slow starvation for three high chair, said,
months: at last they got so voracious and wild with hunger, that one boy,
who was tall for his age, and hadn't been used to that sort of thing (for “Mr Limbkins, I beg your pardon, sir! Oliver Twist has asked for
his father had kept a small cook-shop), hinted darkly to his companions, more!”
that unless he had another basin of gruel per diem, he was afraid he
might some night happen to eat the boy who slept next him, who There was a general start. Horror was depicted on every countenance.
happened to be a weakly youth of tender age. He had a wild, hungry
eye; and they implicitly believed him. A council was held; lots were “For MORE!” said Mr Limbkins. “Compose yourself, Bumble, and
cast who should walk up to the master after supper that evening, and answer me distinctly. Do I understand that he asked for more, after he
ask for more; and it fell to Oliver Twist. had eaten the supper allotted by the dietary? “He did, sir,” replied
Bumble.
The evening arrived; the boys took their places. The master, in his
cook's uniform, stationed himself at the copper; his pauper assistants “That boy will be hung,” said the gentleman in the white waistcoat. “I
ranged themselves behind him; the gruel was served out; and a long know that boy will be hung.”
grace was said over the short commons. The gruel disappeared; the boys
whispered each other, and winked at Oliver; while his next neighbours Nobody controverted the prophetic gentleman’s opinion. An animated
nudged him. Child as he was, he was desperate with hunger, and discussion took place. Oliver was ordered into instant confinement; and a
reckless with misery. He rose from the table; and advancing to the bill was next morning pasted on the outside of the gate, offering a reward
master, basin and spoon in hand, said: somewhat alarmed at his own of five pounds to anybody who would take Oliver Twist off the hands of
temerity: the parish. In other words, five pounds and Oliver Twist were offered to
any man or woman who wanted an apprentice to any trade, business, or
“Please, sir, I want some more.” calling.
Rudyard Kipling, “The White Man’s Burden” (1899)

Take up the White Man's burden -

Send forth the best ye breed - Take up the White Man's burden -
Go bind your sons to exile To And reap his old reward,
serve your captives' need; To The blame of those ye better,
wait in heavy harness The hate of those ye guard -
On fluttered folk and wild - Your The cry of hosts ye humour
new-caught sullen peoples, Half
(Ah slowly !) towards the light:-
devil and half child.
“Why brought ye us from bondage,
Take up the White Man's burden -
"Our loved Egyptian night ?”
In patience to abide
To veil the threat of terror And Take up the White Man's burden -
check the show of pride; By Ye dare not stoop to less -
open speech and simple, An Nor call too loud on Freedom
hundred times made plain, To To cloak your weariness;
seek another's profit, By all ye cry or whisper,
And work another's gain. By all ye leave or do,
The silent sullen peoples
Take up the White Man's burden - Shall weigh your Gods and you.
The savage wars of peace -
Fill full the mouth of famine Take up the White Man's burden -
And bid the sickness cease; And Have done with childish days -
when your goal is nearest The The lightly proffered laurel,
end for others sought, Watch The easy, ungrudged praise.
Sloth and heathen Folly Bring Comes now, to search your manhood
all your hopes to nought. Through all the thankless years,
Cold-edged with dear-bought wisdom,
Take up the White Man's burden -
The judgement of your peers.
No tawdry rule of kings,
But toil of serf and sweeper -
The tale of common things.
The ports ye shall not enter,
The roads ye shall not tread,
Go make them with your living,
And mark them with your dead!
Emma Lazarus, “The New Colossus” (1883)

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Ireland

W. B. Yeats, “September 1913”

Yet could we turn the years again,

What need you, being come to sense,
And call those exiles as they were
But fumble in a greasy till
In all their loneliness and pain,
And add the halfpence to the pence
You'd cry 'Some woman's yellow hair
And prayer to shivering prayer, until
Has maddened every mother's son':
You have dried the marrow from the bone;
They weighed so lightly what they gave.
For men were born to pray and save;
But let them be, they're dead and gone,
Romantic Ireland's dead and gone,
They're with O'Leary in the grave.
It's with O'Leary in the grave.

Yet they were of a different kind,

The names that stilled your childish play,
They have gone about the world like wind,
But little time had they to pray
For whom the hangman's rope was spun,
And what, God help us, could they save?
Romantic Ireland's dead and gone,
It's with O'Leary in the grave.

Was it for this the wild geese spread

The grey wing upon every tide;
For this that all that blood was shed,
For this Edward Fitzgerald died,
And Robert Emmet and Wolfe Tone,
All that delirium of the brave?
Romantic Ireland's dead and gone,
It's with O'Leary in the grave.
War Poetry

Rupert Brooke, “Safety” (1914) Wilfred Owen, “Dulce et decorum” (1920)

Dear! of all happy in the hour, most blest Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
He who has found our hid security, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
Assured in the dark tides of the world that rest,
And heard our word, “Who is so safe as we?” And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
We have found safety with all things undying, Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
The winds, and morning, tears of men and mirth,
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
The deep night, and birds singing, and clouds flying,
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.
And sleep, and freedom, and the autumnal earth.
We have built a house that is not for Time's throwing.
We have gained a peace unshaken by pain for ever. Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling
War knows no power. Safe shall be my going, Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
Secretly armed against all death's endeavour; But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—
Safe though all safety's lost; safe where men fall;
And if these poor limbs die, safest of all. Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams before my helpless sight,

He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace

Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
6. Modernism and the Jazz Age
David Grann, Killers of the Flower Moon
Langston Hughes, “The Weary Blues”
John Steinback, The Grapes of Wrath
From David Grann, Killers of the Flower Moon (2017)

Many Osage, unlike other wealthy Americans, could not spend their money as
they pleased because of the federally imposed system of financial guardians.
(One guardian claimed that an Osage adult was “like a child six or eight years
old, and when he sees a new toy he wants to buy it.”) The law mandated that
guardians be assigned to any American Indians whom the Department of the
Interior deemed “incompetent.” In practice, the decision to appoint a
guardian—to render an American Indian, in effect, a half citizen—was nearly
always based on the quantum of Indian blood in the property holder, or what a
state supreme court justice referred to as “racial weakness.” A full-blooded
American Indian was invariably appointed a guardian, whereas a mixed-blood
person rarely was. […]
At a House subcommittee hearing in 1920, lawmakers combed through a report
from a government inspector who had been sent to investigate the tribe’s
spending habits, including those of Mollie’s family. […]
The investigator insisted that the devil had been in control of the government
when it negotiated the oil-rights agreement with the tribe. Full of fire and
brimstone, he declared, “I have visited and worked in and about most of the
cities of our country, and am more or less familiar with their filthy stores and
iniquitous cesspools. Yet I never wholly appreciated the story of Sodom and
Gomorrah, whose sins and vices proved their undoing and their downfall, until
I visited the Indian nation.”
He implored Congress to take greater action. “Every white man in Osage
County will tell you that the Indians are now running wild,” he said, adding,
“The days have come when we must begin our restriction of these money or
dismiss from our hearts and conscience any hope we have of building the Osage
Indian into a true citizen.”
Langston Hughes, “The Weary Blues” (1925, 1926)

Droning a drowsy syncopated tune,

Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon,
I heard a Negro play.
Down on Lenox Avenue the other night
By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light
He did a lazy sway . . .
He did a lazy sway . . .
To the tune o’ those Weary Blues.
With his ebony hands on each ivory key
He made that poor piano moan with melody.
O Blues!
Swaying to and fro on his rickety stool
He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool.
Sweet Blues!
Coming from a black man’s soul.
O Blues!
In a deep song voice with a melancholy tone
I heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan—
“Ain’t got nobody in all this world,
Ain’t got nobody but ma self.
It’s gwine to quit ma frownin’
And put ma troubles on the shelf.”

Thump, thump, thump, went his foot on the floor.

He played a few chords then he sang some more—
“I got the Weary Blues
And I can’t be satisfied.
Got the Weary Blues
And can’t be satisfied—
I ain’t happy no mo’
And I wish that I had died.”
And far into the night he crooned that tune.
The stars went out and so did the moon.
The singer stopped playing and went to bed
While the Weary Blues echoed through his head.
He slept like a rock or a man that’s dead.
From John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath (1939)

CHAPTER 5
The squatters nodded—they knew, God knew. If they could only
The owners of the land came onto the land, or more often a spokesman for the rotate the crops they might pump blood back into the land.
owners came. They came in closed cars, and they felt the dry earth with their Well, it's too late. And the owner men explained the workings and
fingers, and sometimes they drove big earth augers into the ground for soil tests. the thinkings of the monster that was stronger than they were. A
The tenants, from their sun-beaten dooryards, watched uneasily when the man can hold land if he can just eat and pay taxes; he can do that.
closed cars drove along the fields. And at last the owner men drove into the
dooryards and sat in their cars to talk out of the windows. The tenant men stood Yes, he can do that until his crops fail one day and he has to borrow
beside the cars for a while, and then squatted on their hams and found sticks money from the bank.
with which to mark the dust.
In the open doors the women stood looking out, and behind them the But—you see, a bank or a company can't do that, because those
children—corn-headed children, with wide eyes, one bare foot on top of the creatures don't breathe air, don't eat side-meat. They breathe
other bare foot, and the toes working. The women and the children watched profits; they eat the interest on money. If they don't get it, they die
their men talking to the owner men. They were silent. the way you die without air, without side-meat. It is a sad thing, but
Some of the owner men were kind because they hated what they had to do, and it is so. It is just so.
some of them were angry because they hated to be cruel, and some of them The squatting men raised their eyes to understand. Can't we just
were cold because they had long ago found that one could not be an owner hang on? Maybe the next year will be a good year. God knows how
unless one were cold. And all of them were caught in something larger than much cotton next year. And with all the wars—God knows what
themselves. Some of them hated the mathematics that drove them, and some price cotton will bring. Don't they make explosives out of cotton?
were afraid, and some worshiped the mathematics because it provided a refuge And uniforms? Get enough wars and cotton'll hit the ceiling. Next
from thought and from feeling. If a bank or a finance company owned the land, year, maybe. They looked up questioningly.
the owner man said, The Bank—or the Company—needs—wants—insists—
must have—as though the Bank or the Company were a monster, with thought We can't depend on it. The bank—the monster has to have profits
and feeling, which had ensnared them. These last would take no responsibility all the time. It can't wait. It'll die. No, taxes go on. When the monster
for the banks or the companies because they were men and slaves, while the stops growing, it dies. It can't stay one size
banks were machines and masters all at the same time. Some of the owner men
were a little proud to be slaves to such cold and powerful masters. The owner
men sat in the cars and explained. You know the land is poor. You've scrabbled
at it long enough, God knows.

The squatting tenant men nodded and wondered and drew figures in the dust,
and yes, they knew, God knows. If the dust only wouldn't fly. If the top would
only stay on the soil, it might not be so bad.

The owner men went on leading to their point: You know the land's getting
poorer. You know what cotton does to the land; robs it, sucks all the blood out
of it.
7. From WWII to the New Millennium
Arthur Miller, The Crucible.
Martin Luther King, Jr., “I have a dream.”
John Milius & Francis Ford Coppola, Apocalypse Now (Redux).
Monica Ali, Brick Lane.
From Arthur Miller, The Crucible (1953)

Our difficulty in believing the -for want of a better word- political The analogy, however, seems to falter when one considers that, while
inspiration of the Devil is due in great part to the fact that he is called up and there were no witches then, there are Communists and capitalists now, and
damned not only by our social antagonists but by our own side, whatever it in each camp there is certain proof that spies of each side are at work
may be. The Catholic Church, through its Inquisition, is famous for undermining the other. But this is a snobbish objection and not at all
cultivating Lucifer as the arch-fiend, but the Church’s enemies relied no less warranted by the facts. I have no doubt that people were communing with,
upon the Old Boy to keep the human mind enthralled. Luther was himself and even worshiping, the Devil in Salem, and if the whole truth could be
accused of alliance with Hell, and he in turn accused his enemies. To known in this case, as it is in others, we should discover a regular and
complicate matters further, he believed that he had had contact with the conventionalized propitiation of the dark spirit, One certain evidence of this
Devil and had argued theology with him. I am not surprised at this, for at my is the confession of Tituba, the slave of Reverend Parris, and another is the
own university a professor of history -a Lutheran, by the way- used to behavior of the, children who were known to have indulged in sorceries with
assemble his graduate students, draw the shades, and commune in the her.
classroom with Erasmus. He was never, to my knowledge, officially scoffed
at for this, the reason being that the university officials, like most of us, are
the children of a history which still sucks at the Devil’s teats. At this writing,
only England has held back before the temptations of contemporary
diabolism. In the countries of the Communist ideology, all resistance of any
import is linked to the totally malign capitalist succubi, and in America any
man who is not reactionary in his views is open to the charge of alliance with
the Red hell. Political opposition, thereby, is given an inhumane overlay
which then justifies the abrogation of all normally applied customs of
civilized inter-course. A political policy is equated with moral right, and
opposition to it with diabolical malevolence. Once such an equation is
effectively made, society becomes a congerie of plots and counterplots, and
the main role of government changes from that of the arbiter to that of the
scourge of God.

The results of this process are no different now from what they ever were,
except sometimes in the degree of cruelty inflicted, and not always even in
that department. Normally the actions and deeds of a man were all that
society felt comfortable in judging. The secret intent of an action was
left to the ministers, priests, and rabbis to deal with. When diabolism rises,
however, actions are the least important manifests of the true nature of a
man. The Devil, as Reverend Hale said, is a wily one, and, until an hour
before he fell, even God thought him beautiful in Heaven.
From Martin Luther King, Jr., “I have a dream” (1963)

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where
demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their
character.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand
today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as I have a dream today!
a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in
the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its
night of their captivity. governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and
"nullification"--one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and
the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and brothers.
the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely
island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred I have a dream today!
years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and
finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we’ve come here today to
dramatize a shameful condition.

[...]

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have
a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning
of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves
and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table
of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with
the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed
into an oasis of freedom and justice.
From John Milius and Francis Ford Coppola, Apocalypse Now Redux (1979/2001)

The TAPE is TURNED OFF.

GENERAL: Walter Kurtz was one of the most outstanding officers this WILLARD (carefully): Yes, sir. Very much so, sir. Obviously insane.
country's ever produced. He was brilliant The three men pull back, satisfied.
He was outstanding in every way. And he was a good man, too. A
humanitarian man. A man of wit and humor. He joined the Special Forces, COLONEL: Your mission is to proceed up the Nung River in a navy patrol
and after that, his ideas, methods, became … unsound. Unsound. boat, pick up Colonel Kurtz's path at Nu Mung Ba, follow it, learn what
you can along the way. When you find the colonel, infiltrate his team by
COLONEL: Now he's crossed into Cambodia with this Montagnard army whatever means available, and terminate the colonel's command.
of his, that worship the man like a god,and follow him every order,
however ridiculous. Well, I have some other shocking news to tell you. WILLARD (to General): Terminate ... the colonel?
Colonel Kurtz was about to be arrested for murder.
GENERAL: He's out there operating without any decent restraint, totally
WILLARD: I don't follow sir. Murdered who? beyond the pale of any acceptable human conduct. And he is still on the
field commanding troops.
COLONEL: Kurtz had ordered the execution some Vietnamese
intelligence agents. Men he believed were double agents. So he took CIVILIAN: Terminate with extreme prejudice.
matters into his own hands.
The civilian hands Willard a cigarette, and lights it for him.
GENERAL: Well, you see, Willard, in this war, things get confused out
there. Power, ideals, the old morality, and practical military necessity. But COLONEL: You understand, Captain, that this mission does not exist, nor
out there with these natives, it must be a temptation to be God. Because will it ever exist.
there is a conflict in every human heart between the rational and the
irrational, between good and evil. And good does not always triumph. CLOSE ON WILLARD Smoking the cigarette, thinking about the
Sometimes, the dark side overcomes what Lincoln called the better angels mission.
of our nature. Every man has got a breaking point. You have and I have
them. Walter Kurtz has reached his. And, very obviously, he has gone
insane.

Willard looks from the colonel to the general to the civilian. They are
intensely interested in his response, which they want to be "yes."
CUT TO: EXT. THE MEKONG DELTA - DUSK

A HUEY helicopter flying over the mountains moves over rice

paddies, the Mekong River, MOVING CLOSER until we view a dock area.

WILLARD (V.O): How many people had I already killed? There were
those six that I knew about for sure ... close enough to blow their last
breath in my face. But this time it was an American, and an officer. That
wasn't supposed to make any difference to me, but it did.

We SEE a small patrol boat. It moves away from the dock, out into the
delta.

WILLARD (V.O.: Shit. Charging a man with murder in this place was
like handing out speeding tickets at the Indy 500. I took the mission. What
the hell else was I gonna do? But I really didn't know what I'd do when I
found him.
From Monica Ali, Brick Lane (2003)

The girl took the money. She looked at Nazneen and the baby. She Mrs. Azad yawned. 'Oh yes, my husband is a very refined man. He puts
looked at Chanu. The doctor gripped his seat. His feet and knees pressed his nose inside a book because the smell of real life offends him. But he
together. His helmet-hair held a circle of light. He would never let go of has come a long way. Haven't you, my sweet?'
that chair. It was the only thing holding him up. The girl tucked the
money into her blouse pocket. 'Salaam Ale-Koum,' she said, and went He comes to our flat to get away from her, thought Nazneen.
out to the pub. 'Yes,' said the doctor. His shirt collar had swallowed his neck.

Mrs. Azad switched off the television. Let's go, thought Nazneen. She 'When we first came--tell them, you tell them--we lived in a one-room
tried to signal with her eyes to Chanu, but he smiled vaguely back at her. hovel. We dined on rice and dal, rice and dal. For breakfast we had rice
'This is the tragedy of our lives. To be an immigrant is to live out a and dal. For lunch we drank water to bloat out our stomachs. This is how
tragedy.' he finished medical school. And nowlook! Of course, the doctor is very
The hostess cocked her head. She rubbed her bulbous nose. 'What are refined. Sometimes he forgets that without my family's help he would not
you talking about?' have all those letter after his name.'
'The clash of cultures.' 'It's a success story,' said Chanu, exercising his shoulders. 'But behind
'I beg your pardon?' every story of immigrant success there lies a deeper tragedy.'
'And of generations,' added Chanu. 'Kindly explain this tragedy.'
'What is the tragedy?' 'I'm talking about the clash between Western values and our own. I'm
'It's not only immigrants. Shakespeare wrote about it.' He cleared his talking about the struggle to assimilate and the need to preserve one's
throat and prepared to cite his quotation. identity and heritage. I'm talking about children who don't know what
'Take your coat off. It's getting on my nerves. What are you? A their identity is. I'm talking about the feelings of alienation engendered
professor?' by a society where racism is prevalent. I'm talking about the terrific
struggle to preserve one's sanity while striving to achieve the best for
Chanu spread his hands. 'I have a degree in English Literature from one's family. I'm talking'
Dhaka University. I have studied at a British university--philosophy, 'Crap!'
sociology, history, economics. I do not claim to be a learned gentleman.
But I can tell you truthfully, madam, that I am always learning.' Chanu looked at Dr. Azad but his friend studied the backs of his hands.
'So what are you then? A student?' She did not sound impressed. Her 'Why do you make it so complicated?' asked the doctor's wife.
small, deep-plugged eyes looked as hard and dirty as coal. 'Assimilation this, alienation that! Let me tell you a few simple facts.
'Your husband and I are both students, in a sense. That's how we came to Fact: we live in a Western society. Fact: our children will act more and
know each other, through a shared love of books, a love of learning.' more like Westerners. Fact: that's no bad thing. My daughter is free to
come and go. Do I wish I had enjoyed myself like her when I was young?
Yes!'
Mrs. Azad struggled out of her chair. Nazneen thought and it made her
feel a little giddy she's going to the pub as well. But their hostess walked
over to the gas fire and bent, from the waist, to light it. Nazneen averted
her eyes.

Mrs. Azad continued. 'Listen, when I'm in Bangladesh I put on a sari and
cover my head and all that. But here I go out to work. I work with white
girls and I'm just one of them. If I want to come home and eat curry,
that's my business. Some women spend ten, twenty years here and they
sit in the kitchen grinding spices all day and learn only two words of
English.' She looked at Nazneen who focused on Raqib. 'They go around
covered from head to toe, in their little walking prisons, and when
someone calls to them in the street they are upset. The society is racist.
The society is all wrong. Everything should change for them. They don't
have to change one thing. That,' she said, stabbing the air, 'is the real
tragedy.'

The room was quiet. The air was too bright, and the hard light hid
nothing. The moments came and went, with nothing to ease their passing.