Comparative Review

The Madness of John Brown & Declaring Independence

Article One: The Madness of John Brown

The Madness of John Brown is an article that deals with a particular historical event, John Brown's leadership of the raid on Harper's Ferry, Virginia. The function of this article is to provide a possible psychoanalytic theory for the motives of Brown in leading an attack on a state that many felt was tantamount to insanity. In The Madness of John Brown, the author uses all three forms of historical writing. The author begins his story with descriptive writing that evokes the senses as a way of recreating the tense atmosphere just prior to Brown leading his attack. The attic is "cramped", "an autumn chill filled the air" and a "sleepy stillness covered the small town nestled in the hills" (Madness 122). These kinds of descriptive passages help set the mood and tone for this specific moment in history. They involve our senses and help make a moment in the past come alive in the present.

The following section changes to the narrative mode of historical writing, as the author gives us a precise chronological unfolding of events during the raid. The attack "began without a hitch", "two raiders cut telegraph lines" next, and then "others seized a rifle works, the armory, and three hostages" (Madness 122). This kind of chronological mode of writing gives us a factual account of the event as it actually transpired. The author uses both descriptive and

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the process of the writing and signing of the Declaration of Independence as a means of demonstrating different modes of interpreting documents of great historical value. The author uses descriptive passages to invoke a sense of the present in a past moment, but these come from primary sources like Jefferson's recollection of events or Ben Franklin's depiction of why he avoids writing documents for public approval. Narrative modes of historical writing are also used to place people, time and events in proper order. However, the author's use of exposition and argument comprises the majority of the article. He uses exposition and argument to show the motives of historical actors in the writing and signing or reluctance in signing of the Declaration of Independence. In showing a puzzle-like analysis of different drafts of the document, different meetings held during three weeks in July of 1776 that created the Declaration's final form. By presenting such an exposition, the author demonstrates that in examining any such document of such historical significance one must adopt different approaches to interpreting it. The author lists five methods of approaching a historical text in order to piece together an overall impression o

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