Thursday, September 9, 2010

So, like, whats the deal?

Charles Brockden Brown was one of the first great American authors of all time, and he strangely enough doesn’t seem to be a great representation of the mindset of the era. Two of the most prominent examples of this are the strong central female lead, and the representation of the darks side of religious fervor as we sit back and watch it destroy the lives of almost everyone in the book (sometimes literally).

Clara may make poor decisions from time to time, but at the end of the day she has been able to handle most of what has been happening to her. Most importantly, she has been able to survive, which appears to be quite a feat in this book given the slew of recent murders.

In terms of religion, this book has not made it look good. Clara’s religious father devoted his whole life to it and he spontaneously combusted. Religion also was what convinced Theodore that killing his family was a good idea. He took his religious beliefs quite seriously, and Carwin took advantage of him and those he loved because of it. At that point it has become all too obvious that Brown doesn’t exactly endorse superstitious beliefs, and when we see that Theodore stands by his actions and his god we almost get the vibe that the author is mocking religion at this point. Strangely enough, while people don’t believe Theodore’s whole “God told me to” excuse, they instead believe that the younger Wieland has been possessed or influenced by a daemon in some way.

All I’m saying is this book conflicts a little bit with the plethora of history classes I’ve taken,

2 comments:

  1. I agree with your ideas the conflicts with novel and the time period. This is why I am trying to hold on to the belief that in the end there is going to be some kind of twist that does not make religion the critique here. I have not quite finished the book yet so I still cannot figure out what the final conclusion maybe. There seems to be so many other themes at play here other than religion, I personally hope he is just using it as a vehicle to portray a bigger, deeper message.

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  2. I think the very points you have brought up are why Charles Brockden Brown and this book sticks out on reading lists. The themes in this book are relatively modern, or "progressive" if you will, which makes Wieland and outlier of his genre. When readers look back through history and explore and critique era's of literature, I am sure Wieland stands out significantly as something different. Moreover, the fact that the themes you described are now considered the norm reflects Brown's possibly ingenious forward thinking that has clinched himself in history. However, it ultimately comes down to the interpretation of the reader. I tend to not give authors the benefit of the doubt, because I think people spend way too much time looking for themes, symbols, and allusions to other things that the author never intended. For all we know Brown just wanted to make some cash and decided to write about whatever he thought would get peoples' attention.

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