Bouazza Azzouzi

Professor Michael Rumore

English 302

May 18, 20202

The glorious of the eighteenth century established and affected the richness of English literature. From Aphra Behn “Oroonoko”, Jane Austen “Northanger Abbey” to “the World is too much with us” by William Wordsworths through these samples of works we can discover some important literacy elements that shape English literature today.

The emerge of novels through the eighteenth century was shaped by a historical and political context that we cannot ignore. these characteristics were central themes of writers in the long eighteenth century. The emerge of the novel as an important literacy element was a powerful tool to convey the historical events that happened in this period. Eighteenth-century was a period where colonialism and enslavement were the targets of big empires. Thus, The European powers started to colonialize most parts of the world, especially the British empire also enslavement was the dark face of this period. These events have spawned the history of fiction; novels found a flexible climate to flourish, therefore, enslavement as an example produced a large number of novels some of them are well known some are not. “Oronooko” by Aphra Behn conveys the tragedy of how enslave brought from Africa to work in the sugar plantation in India. Behn states “ I do not pretend, in giving you the history of this Royal Slave, to entertain my reader with adventures of a feigned hero, whose life and fortunes fancy may manage at the poet’s pleasure; nor in relating the truth, design to adorn it with any accidents but such as arrived in earnest to him.” (10) Aphra Bahn is an example successful women fiction writer who uses the novel to give us a clear image of what happened in the long eighteenth century. Through her novel, she shows us the tragedy and horror of slavery.

The Theme of slavery is not only the topic that grabbed the attention of novelists through the long eighteenth century, but also, writing and going back to nature was phenomenal that emerge in this period. Nature was admired by a lot of poets as a reaction against the industrial revolution, which leads people to lose the ability to think of relationships and emotions as a high value of humans. Thus, poets blamed the city for destroying the relationship between nature and humans. William Wordsworth responds to this dilemma

The world is too much with us; late and soon,

Getting and spending we lay waste our powers;

Little we see in Nature that is ours;

We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,” (1-5)  Wordsworth admitted that the industrial revolution and nature cannot be in the same room. Unfortunately, it seemed that people have chosen the city over nature in the eighteenth century, for this reason, poets of English romantic  Era were in the front line to express their disappointment about the new world, the world that does not appreciate the values of nature. Work of Words Worth is important here because it can convey the relationship between humans and nature in terms of loss through the long eighteenth century.

The eighteenth century was also the time where the gothic novel become popular and got what they deserve. Before this transformation in literature, gothic novels were considered as unserious literature. Furthermore, novels were considered as women’s creation, thus, people tried to ignore the theme. However, during the eighteenth century, especially with the emerging of the middle class, gothic novels started to become part of literature, so thanks to the middle class who were able to read them and gave them a place in their library. Jane Austen describes novels as “ in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humor, are conveyed to the world in the best-chosen language” (36-37) this important because it shows the power of novels, in particular gothic novels, through the novels we can use our imagination and take long flight thinking about our life. Not only that novels were and still a perfect tool that addresses women’s experience especially in old English literature where men are the ones who dominate the different types of literature. So, the emerge of novels and gothic novels helped women to open their imagination and express their experience. Thanks again to the Eighteenth century, which allowed us to see this diversity in literature, and discovered themes from women’s perspective.

The work of Aphra Bahn, Jane Austen, and Wordsworth contributed literature in the long eighteenth century to be rich and diverse, also eighteenth century was a time where women found a place in English literature.

Work cited

Aphra, Behn. Oroonoko, Penguin.2003

Jane, Austen. Northanger Abbey. Penguin. 1995 William,

Wordsworth. The world is too much with us.

Bouazza Azzouzi

Professor Micheal Rumore

English 302

April 20, 2020

1. Why Nature plays a huge part in Romanticism era ?

“The world is too much with us; late and soon,

Getting and spending we lay waste our powers.

Little we see in Nature that is ours.

We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon” (1-6) William wordsworth.

The oxford learner’s Dictionaries defines nature as “  all the plants, animals, and things that exist in the universe that are not made by people, and the way that things happen in the physical world when it is not controlled by people”  the poets in romantic era gave tremendous respect to the nature against the material changes. With changes that happened people started to shift to material word and left the nature behind, so the romantics specifically the poets put themselves in the first lines to remind people of nature. In addition to that nature has the power to shape the mind ad the imagination of the poets than an industrial revolution cannot achieve.

1. What “Shepherd” symbolize in the poem of “The Sea View” by Charlotte Smith

“The upland shepherd, as reclined he lies

On the soft turf that clothes the mountain brow,

 Marks the bright sea-line mingling with the skies.

  Or from his course celestial sinking low

 The summer sun in purple radiance glow” (1-5) Charlotte Smith

Smith uses the Shepherd which refers to a man who control a group of cheap. Smith

Chose “the upland Shepherd” as a symbol of peace mind in a place far away from the

 The dirty city. Smith also uses Shepherd to connect spiritually god and earth. Shepherd

 Also has a literal meaning of being an innocent person and the closest one to nature

  Whom knows the value of the nature. Thus, Smith maybe is tying here to compare two

 type of people the one who evaluate the nature, and the ones who destroy it.

3-

“His face was not of that brown rusty black which most of that nation are, but of perfect ebony, or polished jet. His eyes were the most awful that could be seen, and very piercing; the white of ’em being like snow, as were his teeth. His nose was rising and Roman, instead of African and flat. His mouth the finest shaped that could be seen; far from those great turned lips which are so natural to the rest of the negroes. The whole proportion and air of his face was so nobly and exactly formed that, beating his color, there could be nothing in nature more beautiful, agreeable, and handsome. There was no one grace wanting that bears the standard of true beauty.” Aphra Behn (Oroonoko)

In this passage, we see that Oroonoko described as a European hero. However, throughout the novel, these high European qualities such as roman name or his color are different than Africans, eventually all these fake names and could not help him defeated to fight enslavement because it is too powerful to be solved by European qualities. None of these European old forms and honor gave him the freedom to choose his life as he wants to live. Adapting European characteristics never been a solution for enslavement. The solution is to fight the enslavement disease until you be free as you are as an African man not a free man with European qualities.

1. Why many of poet’s chooses “the sea” in their poems

“Is there a solitary wretch who hies

 To the tall cliff, with starting pace or slow,

  And, measuring, views with wild and hollow eyes

 Its distance from the waves that chide below.

Who, as the sea-born gale with frequent sighs?

Chills his cold bed upon the mountain turf,” (1-6) Charlotte Smith

The sea was the central subject for many poets throughout the romantic era. the sea

has a strong connection with nature knowing that nature was one of the main thems and held at a higher level of attention from the poets in the romantic era. Thus, the sea was a symbol of being free from the rules of human and dirty cities during the 1800 century.

1. ON BEING BROUGHT FROM AFRICA TO AMERICA.

“Some view our sable race with scornful eye,

  Their colour is a diabolic die.”

  Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain,

  May be refin’d and join th’ angelic train.” (5-8) PHYLLIS WHEATLEY

This passage gets my attention because of its powerful of imagery that Wheatley used

To deliver her thoughts. Reading the poem in the first time was hard to understand, but

  After reading it for the second time, I started to get its meaning by its strong imagery

   that Been used “A poem, however, must build its pictures from words. by taking note of    its imagery.” Kennedy a Dana Gioia (443). The poet used imagery in such a way that

  makes me engage and entering the rooms of the poem. And makes poem enjoyable    For readers.

Work Cited

Kennedy, X.J and Gioia Diana. backpack Literature “an introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing.” California, Pearson.2016

Osborn, Michael. The evolution of the Archetypal sea in rhetoric and poetry. Quarterly Journal of speech 1977, vol.63, p.347.

https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/nature

                   

Reading Communities

Bouazza Azzouzi

Professor Micheal Rumore

English 302

April 20, 2020

From 1807 To 2020

I have been living in New York for five years since I moved from my original country (Morocco). since then and year after year, I keep discovering and observing a lot of things in the city of extreme as they said. Even sometimes I keep forcing myself to ask questions, where I am? What I am doing here? How did I end up here? Everything seems different for me than the life I was living in my backcountry. However, and after a while, I started getting into the system that drives people every day in the city of extremes as they say. Indeed, I accept this way of living by force of trying to fit myself in a different type of living that focuses more on work and money. In fact, at a certain time, I felt that I lost my true nature in this city. Thus, I decided to change the way I am living, and I went back to school to study English literature. As they say, literature is a reflection of society, William Wordsworth proves that in her beautiful poem called “ the word is too much” (1807)Wordsworth points out the Idea of how people are much consumed with the material world and living nature outside of their thinking.

 Wordsworth is reflecting on her society in the early 1800 century, but her idea still is very related to the way New Yorkers living in their everyday life. He makes a clear point on how people live and how to live become with all these industrial revolutions. “

“The world is too much with us; late and soon,

Getting and spending we lay waste our powers.

Little we see in Nature that is ours.

We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

This Sea that bears her bosom to the moon,” (1-5) Wordsworth

 Throughout the poem Wordsworth argues that people lost the ability to think of nature instead of following their economic status also he mentions that we have all kind of powers of soul we can use for getting and spending, he’s speaking of materialism means that getting ad spending all that is wasting our happiness, however, we need to go back and connect more with nature in order for us to live a happy life.  He argues that we are too busy with the industrial and mechanical world, therefore we lost our self among these factories. This piece of literature from the early 1800 century is an example that literature can reflect on our societies, and literature has the power to connect the past and present.

   Even if Wordsworth wrote this poem in the early 1800 century, it still has a valid message to be applied to New York now. Because after five years of living and discovering New York,  I can say that people are too concern about time and making money, yes I do not blame them because they are part of the system that values work and work, people are chasing the time in their daily life New York forces people to become machines that never stop and sometimes cannot try to enjoy their relationships. In other words, their souls already dead for making money to pay their expenses

 What William Wordsworth addresses in his poem. “the world is too much for us” I think it was the beginning of world transformation; from time to time becomes worst, complicated and sophisticated until we end up dealing with material life.

Work Cited

Wordsworth, william. Prose and poetry, the prelude. V,1, London 1802.

Bouazza Azzouzi

Professor Micheal Rumor

March 16

Being Enslave

Nothing is stronger to illustrate the life of enslaved Africans during the seventeenth and eighteenth century than pictures or diagrams, because of their ability to create an image of their life in our mind and express what language cannot do. For this reason, I have chosen one picture and one diagram of enslaved Africans to be the main objects for my paper. These pictures illustrated the struggle of enslaved during their voyage and continuing of this miserable life in the new land. also, these objects are proving the theme of slavery in “Oroonoko” by Aphra Behn.

During the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century thousands of enslaved Africans were preferred subject for British Empire and brought them to America as enslaved labor on the plantation as Mighty Sparrow addresses this sad moment in our history in his powerful and emotional song.

“I was caught

And I was brought here from Africa

Well it was licks like fire

From de white slavemaster

Every day I down on knees” (5-9)

Let us imagine that we never had learned about slavery and focus just on this diagram then try to have an idea about the life of enslaved Africans and their living condition. This diagram from 1789 shows British ships full of enslaved Africans in unhuman condition some of them are sitting, and rest are standing and how they were cramped. We can say that the journey of transporting enslave was violent and brutal. Furthermore, we can describe this British cargo ship as a slow death journey, This ship  supposed to be used just for goods because they are designed just for that purpose, but the owner of this kind of cargo ship used them to carry hundreds of enslaved not carrying for their health and safety.“ Middle Passage of the transatlantic slave trade was crowded and often deadly. Many historical accounts have linked the overcrowded conditions on the voyages to slaves’ ill health and high mortality rates … a that, without meeting with unusually bad weather, or having a longer voyage than.” Nicolas J Enslaved Africans were placed underneath the decks of the ship in a miserable condition and were very crowded.  they were packed closely to each other. Thus, tens of them could not make it to another world because they were vulnerable to deadly diseases such as malaria, yellow, and fever. At the same time, the enslaved Africans and the ship owners sometimes had to fight with other powers on the sea as Kenneth Morgan “The slave trade, however, was a particularly risky form of maritime enterprise. It was frequently interrupted by warfare on the high seas when conflicts between European trading powers impinged on Atlantic and Caribbean shipping lanes” (3). These conflicts between European powers made the sea a very dangerous and deadly place, enslave Africans had to fight with the owner of the ship just to save their life, sometimes they forced to fight by their traders and if they rejected they got punched. Merely, the life of enslaved Africans was full of challenges and they faced a lot of obstacles when they were crossing the sea to the new world.

After the survived the miserable life on the British ship, they had to deal with another life that differs from their homeland in Africa, so how their life looks like when they got to the new world?

Based on pictured and on what the life of “Oroonoko” by Aphra Behn Enslave, life was not different than what they faced during their voyage. After they had sold to the new owners, enslaved Africans forced to wok in plantation, building roads and nearly every sort hard job that required physical actions  as Aphra Behn stats in her book Oroonoko “Those then whom we make use of to work in our plantation of sugar are Negroes, black slaves altogether, which are transported thither in this manner.” (12) Not only that they forced to serve their owners and they were not allowed to refuse their demands, but also as we can see in the picture white owners treated enslave Africans as animals without any mercy. Therefore, enslave Africans had to obey their owners otherwise, they will get punishment and get killed. “and had him carried to the same post where he was whipped; and causing him to be tied to it, and a great fire made before him, he told him he should die like a dog,… that he was the only man, of all the whites, that ever he heard speak the truth.” Behn (76) this quotation from “Oroonoko’’ confirms what the picture that I have chosen is about. The white owners of plantations made the life of enslaved African miserable and tough enough that let them think that death was better than surviving. thus, a lot of them died from this brutality or diseases, in another hand, some of them decided to end their life by themselves. Also, what made their life also difficult is that they could not escape because they did not have much knowledge about the new land also their skin made them easier to recognize by others in the case, they decided to escape the plantations.

In brief, I chose these two objects from our dark history to refresh the struggles that enslave Africans in the seventeenth and eighteenth century and; for this reason, I focused on diagrams and pictures from that time because of their ability to grab our attention and demonstrate part of human history.

Work cited

Getty Images ” whipping post, Delaware” Slavery and Antislavery, A Transnational Archive. 1865

Getty Images “ Eighteenth-Century Collection Online” 1789

Behn Aphra. Oroonoko, edited by Janet Todo, Penguin Books, 2003

Duquette Nicolas J. Revealing the Relationship Between Ship Crowding and Slave Mortality, Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Economic History Association, Vol. 74, p 535-552.

Morgan Kenneth. Remittance Procedures in the Eighteenth-Century British Slave Trade. The President and Fellows of Harvard College. Vol.79. p 715-749.

Mighty Sparrow. Slave, The Guardian,2018.