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 narrative modes of historical writing, but he waits to present his thesis and major conclusions until switching to exposition and argument. In trying to interpret Brown’s motives for undertaking such a foolish attack, the author uses a primary source written by Brown depicting his childhood as the means of psychoanalyzing his actions. By deconstructing the document according to classical Freudian psychology, the author concludes as his thesis: “In attack...