Audrey Whisenhunt's Response

Audrey Whisenhunt


The Machine in the Garden by Leo Marx.

Leo Marx is trying to demonstrate in this essay how the Machine Revolution transformed the demeanor of American literature. He states that essentially the start of the first significant American literary movement began at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, which unbeknownst to the writers at the time, played a significant role in their work. Hawthorne and Melville used symbols to try and convey the images they saw. Their understanding of the affects of the revolution were not yet addressed because they were unaware of them at that time.
The images of machine were used to show America's future and progress. These emblems were seen as "man's new power over nature." The once vast American landscape was overcome by steam and allowed machines “to occupy the virgin land”. Emblems such as fire, the garden, the railroad, and steam engine were used to convey these emotions and ideas. They had not yet grasped the affects of the machine and the garden, but was aware of the conflict.
Marx uses Hawthorn's "Ethan Brand" as an example of a literary work written in the 1830's that does not refer to revolution at all, but that had to influence Hawthorne's emotions and ideas. In “Ethan Brand” the emblem, fire, destroys the landscape and “cripples man”. The emblem, sun, rids man of anxiety and evil and makes man one with nature again. Imagery is used to show the conflict between machine and nature. The writers are aware of the machine’s presence in nature. The garden is used to show nature’s significance and beauty, while fire is used to show man’s destruction.