“What is uniquely Romantic [about this essay] is that

[my studies have] become a question [to themselves]”

-Louis Dupré (heavily edited)

What have I learned?  A deceptively simple question, particularly in conjunction with the ancillary, “and how did I learn it?”  Certainly, for 40,000+ dollars a year one would hope to come away with some modicum of new knowledge and insight.  Were this a course in science or mathematics, or even history or geopolitics, the answer would be as simple as the question itself.  Merely a list of new facts which have been mastered; different equations, dates of significant events, names of influential figures.  However, in an humanities course such as this, the answer becomes infinitely more complicated.  And that complexity gives rise to a certain level of stress when one’s own reflection is to be judged for a grade.  But having come this far, let me endeavor to continue, and in doing so perhaps discern that which I have learned, and the means by which I have come to know it.

Specifically, this assignment is interested in determining what new insights I have gained into American culture.  This at first seems odd, as I have grown up immersed in American culture, both as an actor and an observer.  But it is a fair question, as we often receive only a distorted or limited view of a thing when we are in the midst of it and American culture encompasses far more than simply the present day.

In the assignments I have completed for this course I have focused chiefly on the writings of Hawthorne and Poe.  The reason for this is simple.  I find the theocratic society of the Puritans to be intriguing in a troubling way and I find Poe’s despondent, haunting style to be darkly alluring.  But what does any of this have to do with American culture?  For the purposes of this essay, I shall focus on that which I have learned from Hawthorne with regards to Puritan society.

It is easy to see the Puritans as uptight fanatics, and that is certainly how Hawthorne portrays them.  Dogmatic, superstitious, and overbearing.  Yet even still, their culture, one of the founding cultures of America, was not without its redeeming values.  As I point out in my artifact “Regarding ‘The Maypole of Merry Mount’”, “Hawthorne seeks to illustrate that true happiness come from purpose, and while he may not have agreed with the purposes of the Puritans, he respected that what they did at least had meaning.” (McManus, “Regarding ‘The Maypole of Merry Mount’”)  In what we see from Hawthorne, the Puritans led dull, mirthless lives.  But, “While he obviously detests the drudgery of the Puritans it seems that he holds even greater contempt for the carelessness of the Merry Mounters.” (McManus, “Regarding ‘The Maypole of Merry Mount’”)  And that is not all he respects about Puritan culture.  There are certain aspects of it for which he truly seems to have an admiration.  For example, the Puritan culture involved a strict work ethic and a solemnity for fidelity and personal sacrifice, “As [“The Maypole of Merry Mount”] draws to a close, we see the newlyweds ready to sacrifice their very lives for one another, and this seems to be where Hawthorne’s respect for the Puritans stems from.” (McManus, “Regarding ‘The Maypole of Merry Mount’”)  Thus, when we think of American culture today the terms freedom and individualism readily spring to mind, but one thing that this course has served to teach me is that those values which we prize today are rooted in a foundation comprised of a redoubtable work ethic and a respect for personal sacrifice.

Now we know what I know, and the question becomes, how did I learn it?  In truth (and this holds for nearly each and every one of my classes) I find the greatest insight, if not necessarily the most new knowledge (knowledge here meaning facts and data), through completing assignments and the actual writing process.  This is a result of the fact that while a deal of information can be absorbed passively, the act of actually sitting down to write forces a synthesis and analysis of both the source material and my own thoughts and preconceptions, which often leads to new ideas.  For example, in my film trailer analysis, I mention that one possible theme of the movie is man’s inherent capacity for evil, “evil can be found in anyone and evil itself can never truly be destroyed…[in other words] everyone has the capacity for evil, and as a result evil will exist so long as mankind continues to exist.” (McManus, “On the Topic of the Horror Film ‘Fallen’”)  Now, I had seen the entire movie at least once (perhaps twice) before sitting down to write a paper about the trailer.  And each time I watched it I enjoyed it and I retained a great deal of information regarding the plot and characters, but it was not until I stopped to write that I actually synthesized this knowledge and understanding into a coherent theme.

Throughout this course I have gained a number of new insights into American culture, as I have spent my whole life living in it, but it was not until now that I viewed it as an objective observer.  Naturally, for the purposes of this paper I limited myself to discussing a specific insight.  But more than any cultural understanding I developed, or facts that I learned regarding authors and styles of literature, the most important thing that I have discovered in this course is having discerned just exactly how I learn.