VOCABULARY FROM COULOMBE ESSAY ON TWAIN’S DISDAIN FOR NATIVE AMERICANS
1. ineluctability-n-the quality of being impossible to avoid or evade
—Synonyms
inevitable, unavoidable.
2. Epitomize—v—serve as a typical example of; typify: EX: This meadow epitomizes the beauty of the whole area.
3. ambivalence-n- mixed feelings or emotions, such as love and hate, toward a person, object, or idea.
EX: Jefferson's ambivalence about African American's equality cost Phillis Wheatley recognition for her talents.
During the Nature vs Nurture Debates, many were ambivalent since this argument has so many gray areas.
4. prejudice—n—
a. an unfavorable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without knowledge, thought, or reason.
b. any preconceived opinion or feeling, either favorable or unfavorable.
5. vitriol—n—speech, writing, etc, displaying rancor, vituperation, or bitterness
EX: Unfortunately, when our political parties refer to their opponents it's with such vitriol no one can ever reach a compromise. They should be more magnanimous.
6. ubi sunt —"Where are those who were before us?" - also synonym for nostalgia
pg. 265
7. magnanimous—adj—generous in forgiving an insult or injury
#3= proceeding from or revealing generosity or nobility of mind, character, etc.
Ex: She sent the murderer some flowers when his mother passed away as a magnanimous gesture of forgiveness.
pg. 266
8. epithet-n— a word, phrase, or expression used invectively as a term of abuse or contempt, to express hostility, etc
pg 268
9. sagasity—n—foresight, discernment, or keen perception; ability to make good judgments
pg 269
10. indolent –adjective a. having or showing a disposition to avoid exertion; slothful
b. causing little or no pain (Pathology)
11. condemnation —n—disapprobation: an expression of strong disapproval; pronouncing as wrong or morally culpable;
EX: "When he sign the Emancipation Proclamation Lincoln showed his uncompromising condemnation of racism."
12. aborigines –noun
a. one of the original or earliest known inhabitants of a country or region.
13. dissolute–adjective
14. insidious–adjective
a. intended to entrap or beguile: EX: The police's insidious plan led to 13 drug arrests.
b. stealthily treacherous or deceitful: EX: The al-Qaeda is on of our insidious enemies.
Side notes of other mentioned:
James Fenimore Cooper [pseudonym Jane Morgan] (1789-1851), American author and critic wrote The Last of the Mohicans (1826);
"Where are the blossoms of those summers!--fallen, one by one; so all of my family departed, each in his turn, to the land of spirits. I am on the hilltop and must go down into the valley; and when Uncas follows in my footsteps there will no longer be any of the blood of the Sagamores, for my boy is the last of the Mohicans." Chingachgook to Hawkeye, Ch. 3
Cooper's depiction of American Indians was sometimes criticised as unrealistic and implausible. Over fifty years after The Deerslayer (1841) was published Mark Twain served up a heaping plate of sardonic but scathing criticism of it and Cooper in his essay "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences" (1895). But as Cooper writes in his Introduction to The Last of the Mohicans; The Mohicans were the possessors of the country first occupied by the Europeans in this portion of the continent. They were, consequently, the first dispossessed; and the seemingly inevitable fate of all these people, who disappear before the advances, or it might be termed the inroads, of civilization, as the verdure of their native forests falls before the nipping frosts, is represented as having already befallen them. There is sufficient historical truth in the picture to justify the use that has been made of it.
Written during the 18th century days of the American Frontier, Cooper popularised the plight of Native peoples in his writings with a sympathetic although romanticised vision.
________________________________________
Letters From An American Farmer
by J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur
What then is the American, this new man?...He is an American, who, leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds. He has become an American by being received in the broad lap of our great Alma Mater. Here individuals of all races are melted into a new race of man, whose labors and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world. Americans are the western pilgrims. (from "Letter III," 1782)
“We learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself.” ~ Lloyd Alexander
1. ineluctability-n-the quality of being impossible to avoid or evade
—Synonyms
inevitable, unavoidable.
2. Epitomize—v—serve as a typical example of; typify: EX: This meadow epitomizes the beauty of the whole area.
3. ambivalence-n- mixed feelings or emotions, such as love and hate, toward a person, object, or idea.
EX: Jefferson's ambivalence about African American's equality cost Phillis Wheatley recognition for her talents.
During the Nature vs Nurture Debates, many were ambivalent since this argument has so many gray areas.
4. prejudice—n—
a. an unfavorable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without knowledge, thought, or reason.
b. any preconceived opinion or feeling, either favorable or unfavorable.
5. vitriol—n—speech, writing, etc, displaying rancor, vituperation, or bitterness
EX: Unfortunately, when our political parties refer to their opponents it's with such vitriol no one can ever reach a compromise. They should be more magnanimous.
6. ubi sunt —"Where are those who were before us?" - also synonym for nostalgia
pg. 265
7. magnanimous—adj—generous in forgiving an insult or injury
#3= proceeding from or revealing generosity or nobility of mind, character, etc.
Ex: She sent the murderer some flowers when his mother passed away as a magnanimous gesture of forgiveness.
pg. 266
8. epithet-n— a word, phrase, or expression used invectively as a term of abuse or contempt, to express hostility, etc
pg 268
9. sagasity—n—foresight, discernment, or keen perception; ability to make good judgments
pg 269
10. indolent –adjective a. having or showing a disposition to avoid exertion; slothful
b. causing little or no pain (Pathology)
11. condemnation —n—disapprobation: an expression of strong disapproval; pronouncing as wrong or morally culpable;
EX: "When he sign the Emancipation Proclamation Lincoln showed his uncompromising condemnation of racism."
12. aborigines –noun
a. one of the original or earliest known inhabitants of a country or region.
13. dissolute–adjective
indifferent to moral restraints; given to immoral or improper conduct; licentious; dissipated.
14. insidious–adjective
a. intended to entrap or beguile: EX: The police's insidious plan led to 13 drug arrests.
b. stealthily treacherous or deceitful: EX: The al-Qaeda is on of our insidious enemies.
Side notes of other mentioned:
James Fenimore Cooper [pseudonym Jane Morgan] (1789-1851), American author and critic wrote The Last of the Mohicans (1826);
"Where are the blossoms of those summers!--fallen, one by one; so all of my family departed, each in his turn, to the land of spirits. I am on the hilltop and must go down into the valley; and when Uncas follows in my footsteps there will no longer be any of the blood of the Sagamores, for my boy is the last of the Mohicans." Chingachgook to Hawkeye, Ch. 3
Cooper's depiction of American Indians was sometimes criticised as unrealistic and implausible. Over fifty years after The Deerslayer (1841) was published Mark Twain served up a heaping plate of sardonic but scathing criticism of it and Cooper in his essay "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences" (1895). But as Cooper writes in his Introduction to The Last of the Mohicans; The Mohicans were the possessors of the country first occupied by the Europeans in this portion of the continent. They were, consequently, the first dispossessed; and the seemingly inevitable fate of all these people, who disappear before the advances, or it might be termed the inroads, of civilization, as the verdure of their native forests falls before the nipping frosts, is represented as having already befallen them. There is sufficient historical truth in the picture to justify the use that has been made of it.
Written during the 18th century days of the American Frontier, Cooper popularised the plight of Native peoples in his writings with a sympathetic although romanticised vision.
________________________________________
Letters From An American Farmer
by J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur
What then is the American, this new man?...He is an American, who, leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds. He has become an American by being received in the broad lap of our great Alma Mater. Here individuals of all races are melted into a new race of man, whose labors and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world. Americans are the western pilgrims. (from "Letter III," 1782)
“We learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself.” ~ Lloyd Alexander
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The moral virtues, then, are produced in us neither by nature nor against nature. Nature, indeed, prepares in us the ground for their reception, but their complete formation is the product of habit.
Aristole
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