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6- An introduction to the nineteenth century (nineteenth century American literature):Introduction to the 19th-century. Impact of the French Revolution – Romanticism. /W.Irving – Spain, / Cooper – the frontier; Indians /William Apess, “An Indian’s Looking-Glass for the White Man”.// Once the North American colonies were settled, the colonizers set out in search of new lands to farm, cultivate and inhabit. Those lands were the ones that laid to the west, and hence, the expansion of land began in that direction, towards the lands of the Native Americans. The aim of this essay is to show, how the marginalization suffered by the natives was, in a great deal, due to racial prejudices. / Thanks to historical voices that were witness of the time, like that of William Apess, we now know that the treatment that the colonizers gave the natives was far from being fair. The white colonizers, due to their developed “civilization” and rationality, looked at themselves as a superior race. That is why they started locking up the natives in those natural reservations, where they could barely make a living, deprived from what had formerly been vast areas of land. /As it was a common practice among those writers that wanted to go against their colonizers, William Apess also used the Christian faith for his own purpose. As he believed that all men were born equal, and basing on the fact that he shared his belief with the white men, since he was of mixed ancestry, he wanders whether with these practices the white man isn’t committing sin. He regards the white men as his brothers, as “my fellow creatures”, and later on, he puts the colonizers with their backs against the wall, /For these reasons, it is certainly reasonable to think that what the white men did to the native Americans was completely wrong. Keeping them into those reservations and depriving them of the basic human rights was totally out of place. 15- Racism, slavery and gender: Kate Chopin, “Desiree’s Baby” – marriage and slavery, miscegenation; /“The Story of An Hour” – feminism // Slavery meant to “give” all your life for your boss, forgetting your own dreams, needs and even the health itself. Unfortunately, marriage involves similar terms for many women all around the world./ First of all, it is clear that many women have been just real slaves for their husbands. The wife had to do all the domestic duties, prepare the meals, take care of the kids… The husband was the one working and this was enough reason to justify her situation. Not only this, the woman had to be ready to satisfy her husband’s impulses. There is a similarity with slaves as many of them were used to fulfill the sexual appetite of their bosses apart from working, something which generated a big quantity of bastards./ Secondly, all this generated an enormous dependence of the woman on her husband. In spite of the bad conditions and neglect they could suffer, they even love their couple, as some slaves could appreciate their bosses. It was a kind of love-hate relationship. But when their couple died, they could feel an enormous sensation of freedom and relief, the hope that life can also be for them, just for themselves. This is perfectly portrayed in Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour, in which the protagonist is sad at first when she knows the death of her husband, but suddenly she becomes aware of the freedom and hope life brings her now. / In conclusion, we can see that marriage “contract” can bring a situation not so different from slavery for the woman in many cases. This dependence becomes so deep that the victims accept the situation in a way and even love their oppressors. In any case, this still happens nowadays and the story is useful for today. 12-Song of America: Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself”- the poet of democracy.// The United States of America were at first called “The New World” and the Founding Fathers (and their followers) of this territory of North America tried to imagine and create a completely new world with its own systems and structures./ In relation with this, most cultural movements and consequently, literary trends tried to break up with European tradition and create complete new works and styles. They did not want to work with forms and topics related to Europe and past trends. Authors such as Walt Whitman started to praise their new country, the people and nature, as he did in his poem Leaves of Grass: They did so producing works which lacked a clear pattern, in that attempt to break with traditional form. This can be clearly seen in Whitman’s Songs of Myself, in which we can see messy and unstructured paragraphs and not clearly related topics./ In conclusion, all those attempts of creating new literature are connected with that conception of the new ideal world, planned by some arrogant leaders who did not take into account that the world, America and the natives existed before their arrival.