Spring, 1991
DePaul School for New Learning
Foundations of New Learning
Teacher: Catherine Marienau
Male Literary Inspirations: Henry David Thoreau, Russell, Bertrand, & Martin Luther King Jr
Thoreau
FORM – The first English class exposed me to Henry David Thoreau, born in 1817. Thoreau used essay and book form; his ideas were seen as radical in his time, but succeeding generations viewed them with admiration. He is most famous for his living experiment where he lived for a couple of years alongside a pond in New England; he wrote occasionally in journal form. He also wrote poetry. He also expressed his civil disobedience (in addition to his work by the same name) by not paying his poll tax because it supported slavery. He thought human rights were a precious thing. Thoreau used eloquent language to express his views, for instance, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation”, seems profoundly true to me.
CONTENT – The basis of Thoreau’s content was to tell others to “simplify” their lives. He advocated defining success in your own individual terms, ignoring public opinion, and thinking for yourself. He criticized the current economic and social systems.
STYLE – His style was rather philosophical in nature. I was amazed at his sentences that frequently had 4 or 5 semi-colons in them! I was impressed. I was also impressed by the way he made simple everyday events seem somehow profound. He formed his unique ideas about life while at Harvard University and through the influence of his older neighbor and friend, Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Thoreau’s Walden contains several types of writing: descriptive, argumentative, and expository. In the book, he discussed 4 basic topics: the desperation in which most men lead their lives, the economic myths that led to their desperation, the joys of living close to nature, and the higher laws that lead man from wildness to genteel.
Bertrand Russell
I also came to love the work of Bertrand Russell; he was eloquent with his sarcasm and common-sense evidence to prove his points. His work called “Intellectual Rubbish” led to my examining my religious convictions and writing a paper about my idea of intellectual rubbish that earned me my first “A” in a written assignment in college. (My intellectual rubbish was the fact that in order to give the sacraments in the catholic church you had to have a penis – we all know of the absolute necessity of this piece of anatomical equipment in the catholic church).
FORM – Russell used book and essay form. Anyone who was raised catholic knew that those nuns never took off their habits. Russell would take that “general knowledge” literally to the point that you had to realize how ridiculous it was. He says that even in the shower those ladies kept their habits on. He wrote essays that eventually went together into books on related issues and subjects.
CONTENT – His contents in Intellectual Rubbish and Why I Am Not A Christian involved attempted to apply reason to subjects such as sexual ethics, morality, freedom, mortality, and education. He is brave enough to tackle subjects that leave him open to criticism by those who “believe” simply because of “faith”. He challenges the rationality of what we frequently don’t think to question – I love him!
STYLE – He used sarcasm, wit, humor, and logic to get his message across about how ridiculous some of our common assumptions are about religion and politics. While his work was philosophical, it was at the same time easy to read even for me in one of my first college classes.
Martin Luther King Jr.
My second English class exposed me to Martin Luther King Jr. His writing has the ability to grab at your conscious emotionally, intellectually, and at your innate sense of justice. I hope to someday write like him – I hope to write in a way that will move people and enable them to be tolerant of others whose morals and views differ from their own. (Examples being issues about abortion, the right to die, and racism).
FORM – The class assignment was to read his “Letter From Birmingham Jail”. He wrote it, of course, in letter form to fellow clergymen. He had been jailed for 8 days because of his campaign against segregation in Birmingham. He specifically directs the letter to WHITE clergymen who criticized his work and blamed him for breaking the law.
King also used speeches as a form to express his passion. I always get goosebumps and tears in my eyes when I hear, “I have a dream……….”.
CONTENT – The contents were brilliantly directed at the conscious, guts, and intellect of his fellow ministers. He talked about equality and human rights that no clergy could dare argue with.
He defends his civil disobedience to the other clergy so well that I’m surprised the whole country didn’t join him. The contents of the letter addresses the criticisms he received from white clergy who did not understand what he was up to.
He addresses their criticisms and questions about what he is doing. He simply tells them that he is there because his organization is functioning there in Birmingham and simply that injustice is there – isn’t that reason enough? He makes a correlation between what he did and what the apostles and Jesus did to spread their gospel; truly attacking the very principles that clergy stand for.
He explains why direct nonviolent action was necessary – to force negotiations that had previously been done but failed to remove racially degrading signs in the community. He said it was a historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up privileges voluntarily. The oppressed must demand that the oppressors stop. The clergy criticized his timing of the sit-ins and he said, “Justice too long delayed is justice denied”. When is the right time to demand your freedom? Negroes had waited 340 years for their constitutional and God-given rights. He said it’s easy to tell someone to wait for their freedom when you have not seen your mother and father lynched, your brothers and sisters drowned at will etc.
STYLE – His style was to intelligently clutch at your heart. I know I was not prepared for the emotion that it would wrench from me; I was glad I had decided to read it before I went to sleep because I could not contain my tears.
The style and content were directed at the very core of morality. He chooses words that have the ability to reach right inside your core to humanness and vulnerability that is the same for us all – black or white.
He writes with intelligent passion and clearly makes an eloquent unshakable argument for civil rights that is now a classic among arguments.
While reading his work I was also able to apply his ideas to the issues of patients and women’s rights.
Bibliography
Krutch, Joseph Wood. (1982). Ed. Walden and Other Writings of Henry David Thoreau. Essay pp. 105-340. Walden. Bantam Books, New York.
Miller, Robert K. (1986). The Informed Argument a Multidisciplinary Reader and Guide. Part 2-section 9. Some Classic Arguments. Letter From Birmingham Jail. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Russell, Bertrand. (1950). Unpopular Essays. Chapter 7. An Outline on Intellectual Rubbish. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Russell, Bertrand. (1957). Why I Am Not A Christian. New York: Simon and Schuster.