 |
Web Hosting by Netfirms | Free Domain Names by Netfirms |
|
|
|
|
|
The Awakening of the Modernist Era |
Ralph Waldo Emerson's poem "The Sphinx" is about the
re-awakening of the Sphinx. From The Sphinx's perspective, she describes
the many changes that have taken place around her. Eventually, the Sphinx
is met by a man who invites the her to come out of her, as the author William
James claims, "saltatory" ways and become
more "ambulatory" (James "A Word About Truth" Xerox
Package). This awakening of the Sphinx is a method of viewing the
transition from the classical era to the modernist era. There are areas
of Emerson's poem "The Sphinx" that accurately describes this process
of transition from the classical to the modern ways of thought.
The beginning
of the modernist era is a time of change in the terms of literature.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, in "The Sphinx", describes this process of
awakening as "out of sleeping a waking" (Emerson "The
Sphinx" Xerox Package). The process of "awakening" is
similar to that of Emerson's Sphinx awakening. The Sphinx, as mentioned
before, awakens to realize the world has changed into a beautiful array of
sites to see. The Sphinx's attention is diverted several times from the
sight of the "The waves, unashamed" (Emerson "The Sphinx"
Xerox Package) to "the babe by its mother" (Emerson "The
Sphinx" Xerox Package). This process jumping from one thing to
another is similar to that of modernist thinking. Modernists tend to
think on a ambulatory level. Therefore, the
modernist author must, as William James writes, "[the reader] is guided
from the one [idea] towards the other" (James "A Word More About Truth" Syllabus, 901). This type of
thinking is different from the classical ideology because pre-modern writers
"jump from one term to another" (James "A Word More About Truth" Syllabus, 898). In other words classical
writers tend to think in a vertical way, whereas, the modernist writer thinks
in a horizontally.
The modernist awakening is also the removal of the shackles of the
expectations from the others and a movement towards a more freedom of
writing. This is best characterized in "The Sphinx", when
Emerson writes, "the babe by its mother lies bathed in joy; glide its
hours uncounted, -- the sun is its toy" (Emerson "The Sphinx"
Xerox Package). The babe does not have a care in the world, because he is
free to do as his pleases. This is similar to
Emerson's writing from his essay the "Self-Reliance", when Emerson
writes "...the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with
perfect sweetness the independence of solitude" (Emerson
"Self-Reliance" Norton Anthology, 495). The baby has been born
into the crowd of humanity and already knows to do as he pleases in the
solitude in which he has been placed. By being independent, Emerson
continues in his essay "Self-Reliance", you can avoid being a
contributor towards a "dead Bible-society" (Emerson "Self
Reliance" Norton Anthology 495). Emerson refers to this because it
is in the Bible. And Emerson views the Bible as being the reason for conformity. Christians, throughout history, have been
forced to believe in the teachings of the preacher, as Emerson writes, "who announced for his text and topic the expediency of one
of the institutions of his church" (Emerson "Self Reliance"
Norton Anthology 495). Emerson provides a good response to this by noting
that the preacher may have "pledged to himself not o look but at one side;
the permitted side, not as a man but as a parish minister" (Emerson
"Self Reliance" Norton Anthology 495). This type of conformity
needs to be changed to a more individualistic approach in which several
conflicting ideas of the church and its doctrine are permitted.
The end of the classical era can also be found in Emerson's poem
"The Sphinx". Near the end of the poem, Emerson writes, "Uprose the merry Sphinx, and crouched no more in stone; she
melted into purple cloud, she silvered in the moon; she spired
into a yellow flame; she flowered in blossoms red; she flowed into a foaming
wave" (Emerson "The Sphinx" Xerox Package). The shedding
of the stone is The Sphinx's way of removing herself from the conformity found
in classicism. The changing physical features that the
Sphinx exudes is her birth into the individualistic era.
The movement
from the conformity of classical era and into the modernist era is found in the
concepts of Emerson's poem "The Sphinx". This can be seen today
when we study the movement from the conformity of the classical era and into
the independence of the modernist era. This transition can also be found
today throughout society because of our encouragement to be individuals within
the crowd of humanity. For example, the United Church of Canada allows its members to
have differing views of the religious beliefs of the church. Perhaps the
best example of this is from the United Church of Canada's own Moderator, Bill
Phipps, who expressed his own personal beliefs during a meeting with the
editorial staff of The Ottawa Citizen.1 These personal
beliefs, after explanation that they were his own and not the United Church of Canada's,
were accepted. Perhaps if Phipps had made these comments public in the
classical era, he would have been excommunicated immediately from the church
because he failed to conform to the church's doctrine and it's
teachings. This is only one example of how we have benefited from the
death of the conformity in the classical era and the birth of the
individualistic society of the modernist era.
______________________________
1 See Muriel Duncan's article in the
December 1997 issue of The United
Church Observer titled "The Moderator:
plain-speaking his faith" or
online at: http://www.ucobserver.org/archives/phipps1.htm
Duncan, Muriel. "The
Moderator: plain-speaking his faith." The United ChurchObserver. On-line. Internet.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "The
Sphinx." The Complete Works of Ralph
Waldo Emerson. Centenary Edition. ed. E. W. Emerson, vol. 9 of 12. Boston: Houghton Mifflin,
1903-1904.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "A Word More About Truth."
The Norton Anthology of
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Self-Reliance." The Norton Anthology of
James, William. The Meaning of Turth: A Sequal to Pragmatism, in Writings,1902-1910.
New York: Library of America, 1987
