Elliott Moore

11/18/2015
Cooper 5, Whipple 6
Light vs. Dark Project

The portrayal of irrational justification for Manifest Destiny and the irrationality in the
Gothic Romance genre is shown through the trampling of Indians while the Americans move
west. The Gothic movement in the Romantic era in the Romantic Movement is mostly by the
comparison of irrationality. The Gothic movement and Manifest Destiny represents irrationality
in the romantic era as a whole. The irrationality is present in many works of literature made
during this Romantic Time period, such as, Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe, and Rappaccini's
Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. These influential works of literature paved the way for
further gothic novels.
Manifest Destiny was the period where Americans thought they were destined to spread
from the coast to coast in North America. They used religion to justify their path of destruction
they caused to civilize the Western United States. Americans were irrational in thinking that they
are better than anybody else, they trampled the Native Americans in their way of expansion. The
American government rationalized their movement west by saying they are destined by God.
They used incentives to implement growth expansion, access to natural resources and ultimately
increase of wealth for the country as a whole. They used an irrational rationale to justify their
expansion policy.
The irrationality in the Gothic period was one of the most important motifs for the genre.
Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe, is about a narrator who is an old mans caretaker, the old

man "Had the eye of a vulture a pale blue eye, with a film over it" (2) this eye was making the
narrator go crazy, so the narrator decides to do a very irrational thing; kill the old man so he
never has to see the eye again. This is just the beginning of irrational decisions that this narrator
makes. The narrator kills the man and keeps telling the reader that he isnt crazy, he uses this
irrational rationale to explain his sanity. In Rappaccini's Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne,
Beatrice becomes poisoned from taking care of a poisonous plant from her fathers garden, the
father knew of what the plant would do to his daughter, he wanted her to be safe from the outside
world so he purposely made her become poisonous so she would be outcasted from society.
Rappaccini is debatably the worlds most dedicated father, he wanted her to be safe from the
outside world. He does this irrational thing because he didnt understand why his daughter would
want to live a normal risky life. Rappaccini is like the United States Government, they told the
American people to move west because they will have a better life, the poison was the thought
that they deserved this better life in the western United States and they were destined to kill and
displace the Native Americans who were west. These two novels showcase irrationality in the
Gothic genre very well, both of the main characters make irrational rationales to believe that they
are doing the right thing, in Tell Tale Heart, the narrator keeps telling the readers that he isnt
crazy to believe in his sanity, and in Rappaccinis Daughter, the father thinks he is doing what is
best for his daughter to keep her safe while she may not want that.
The train in my artifact represents a irrational rationale for conquering the western United
States. It also is a symbol for Manifest Destiny and the thought that Americans are better than
everyone else because the train is able to trample the Native Americans with ease. The Native
Americans beating a drum underneath the tracks represent the dying Indians and it is also a
metaphor for Tell Tale Heart and the irrationality of the narrator thinking the heart was still

beating in the novel; just as the irrational justification of the settling of the western United States.
The smoke coming out of the train and into the darkness ahead represents the dark future the
United States has laid for itself because of Manifest Destiny and their irrational decisions.