Unit Three

Original Sin was basically the statement of Adam and eve eating the fruit off the tree when the were told not too. Total depravity really just sums it up because it say that every one is a born sinner because of Adams and eves eagerness.

The transcendentalist thought other wise of it though they didn't really to much believe in Original Sin. They believed that everyone had good inside of them, and that everyone was apart of god. The Transcendentalist also believed that a person's mind could interpret the word of god. A person conscience for example could that be god leading you towards whats right and wrong?

I would say that Hawthorne was a Transcendentalist himself. He thought that his great grand farther was in the wrong for sentencing them to death but he was only doing his job. That still doesn't mean it was right though like the Transcendentalist Theories they didn't believe in Original Sin and I'm pretty sure he didn't either. He supported the Transcendentalist thoughts by writing novels about his grand farther hideous deeds, and the possible wrongs of the puritan beliefs.

Herman Melville Is an Anti-Transcendentalist on the other hand. He witnessed seeing cannibals ( flesh eating human eat other humans) rip apart and cook other people. Obviously everyone can't be a pure and good person. As for Ahab he is another example of why every thing doesn't have a pure soul. he sacrificed all his to mean to fight his temptation of catching a killer whale. I feel him though because the killer whale bit off his leg i'll be mad too but after seeing myself lose my men i would have just gave up. forgive and forget right?


The Anti-Transcendentalist or Dark romantics were people who believed in original sin, which means that everyone is a sinner because of what Adam and Eve did. They also thought that it was the cause of the evil inside of everyone. Dark Romantics believed that there was evil inside of everyone. The Transcendentalist on the hand thought other hand; didn’t believe in original sin. They believed that god could talk to people through other peoples mind, and everyone was generally good.

I think I would fall under being a dark romanticist. Judging by myself I know for a fact that a lot of people are evil so everyone can’t be good. A person can have goodness in them though. But I don’t think Adam and Eve are the cause of it though. If’s that’s the case then how would you explain this: A man is on the brink of losing his mind because taxes are still rising, lost his job and can’t support his family what you think is going to happen? He will either do something about it or ask for help, and when you can’t get help you are forced to do some things on your own which includes robbing.

The black cat:
There was always something bothering him about the death of Pluto and the burning of his house. That he thought he could replace his losses so he tried to replace the cat. Every thing was good until he started having these feelings and thoughts turn up. So he decided to kill the cat and ended up killing his wife with no remorse. ‘I aimed a blow at the animal which, of course, would have proved instantly fatal had it descended as I wished. But this blow was arrested by the hand of my wife. Goaded, by the interference, into a rage more than demoniacal, I withdrew my arm from her grasp and buried the axe in her brain. She fell dead upon the spot, without a groan’. Perfect example of why people aren’t 100% good. 'The corpse, already greatly decayed and clotted with gore, stood erect before the eyes of the spectators. Upon its head, with red extended mouth and solitary eye of fire, sat the hideous beast whose craft had seduced me into murder, and whose informing voice had consigned me to the hangman. I had walled the monster up within the tomb'. In theis short little statement he was stating that he is nnow free of all the thoughts and dreams of the cat. He still had a little sense though because he still knew no matter what he killed his wife and that bothered him just a tad. "The monster, in terror, had fled the premises forever! I should behold it no more! My happiness was supreme! The guilt of my dark deed disturbed me but little. Some few inquiries had been made, but these had been readily answered".

The Raven
Deep into that darkness pearing, I wondered. This really stuck out to me because i could only wonder whether he was talking about dying or not."Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!" I shrieked, upstarting--"Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore!Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul has spoken!Leave my loneliness unbroken!--quit the bust above my door! Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!"
This whole Paragraph I think he was telling the bird to release him of all the pain he was feeling from Lenore's death. How her death made him miserable. but the bird was telling him to just move on, and try to let it go.
It goes against the Transcendentalist theory because of how in the story the man is slowly killing himself his self and his wife. How can a man go through with that? this basically is screaming that all people are not pure don't get wrong though some people are saints but not all. His conscience on the other hand was telling him to bad thing which were controlled by the raven you can say or his imagination. "But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, "Lenore?"This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, "Lenore!"

In the story of The Raven Edgar Allen Poe used alot of symbolism as for darkness was an example of probably fright or the objection of being scared. "Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before;
The Black bird is like possibly a sign of the grim reaper or something i think it represented death. ""Wretch," I cried, "thy God hath lent thee, by these angels he hath sent thee Prophet! said I, "thing of evil!--prophet still, if bird or devil! And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreamingAnd the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadows on the floor;And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floorShall be lifted--nevermore!. This supports my idea because the raven did come for his life and to set him free as well because he turned insane.