"Spoon River Anthology"-Edgar Lee Masters

"Spoon River Anthology" is a story about a Cemetery in Central Illinois called Spoon River. This story was written by Edgar Lee Masters. He wrote this story from many different perspectives and with many different characters.  He connected all of these people together through their eulogies and the gossip that intertwined between them(Masters). This work relates to the philosophies of Thoreau and Emerson because of individualism, and essentially believing strongly in your opinions and a lot of the character entertwined within the story did believe strongly withing themselves(Thoreau). Although this is a work of Realism, it is greatly a work of regionalism because the story relies on the culture of central Illinois and the Midwest to alter the main points of of the story. They use a light understandable dialect so it is still easy to understand which is realism. "His characters speak of guilt and loneliness, of the disappointments and thwarted ambitions caused by parenthood, insufficient talent, and bad luck, of the grief of loss and the pain of betrayal, and of the misery inflicted by small-mindedness, bigotry, and misunderstanding. More than anything, though, Masters' characters seek to tell the truth about their lives(Masters)." Spoon River, being a cemetery and all, is quite a good setting to base this story at because of its appealing used of charcters, who are all obviously dead.  Masters' use of Regionalism was quite helpful to the reader to understand the setting of the story, but that could just be that I live in the same area.  Edgar Lee Masters "Spoon River Anthology" relates to the philosophy of Emerson and Thoreau because in both of the stories presented, there was a strong presence that both of the main characters were for the abolition of slavery.  Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau both believed in the abolition of slavery and were for fighting against it in the war. It had to do a lot with Henry David Thoreau;s philosophy of Civil Disobedience which is doing what is right even when others may consider it wrong(Thoreau).

Masters, Edgar L. "1. The Hill. Masters, Edgar Lee. 1916. Spoon River Anthology."Bartleby.com: Great Books Online. Bartleby.com. Web. 29 Feb. 2012. <http://www.bartleby.com/84/1.html>