Henry David Thoreaus amerikanska ideal Nationell självbild i Thoreaus gestaltning av slaverimotståndaren John Brown

Sammanfattning

In his essay A Plea for Captain John Brown (1860), Henry David Thoreau does more than just defending the actions of the radical abolitionist John Brown – he expresses an american self-image. A self-image which bases itself upon commonly used national tropes during the period between the independence 1776 and the Civil War (1861–1865). By keeping to the study of known as imagology, this paper examines how Thoreau uses the figure of John Brown as a way to portray the american ideal character. More precisely, the paper brings to light the way Thoreau uses the Puritan heritage, the revolutionary heritage and finally the idea about the liberal american, as ways to justify Browns actions as inherently ”American”.By contextualising these tropes I create a deeper understanding of Thoreaus own view of the ideal american, but I also see him as part of more general ideas of what America was, what America is, and finally what America ought to be. By studying the way Thoreau portray John Brown as a Puritan, the paper view Thoreau as affected by the idea of America as the by God chosen nation with a special goal. The same historical view shows how Thoreau uses the idea of America as a revolutionary nation. Finally the paper also shows Thoreau as a part of a bigger idea of the liberal american during his time, but also how Thoreau creates his own version of the liberal idea.This study therefore provide a deeper understanding of general ideas-of-the-nation-America during the Antebellum-period.