Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 2,0, Samford University, course: American Literature, language: English, abstract: HABE Mut, dich deines eigenen Verstandes zu bedienen! This saying by German philosopher Immanuel Kant, one of the main representatives of the epoch of enlightenment, says: Have courage to help yourself with your own brain! It is much more than just a dogmatic proverb, which can be seen by the fact that it has not only revolutionized humanitys confidence in its own mind in an age when self-reliant mental activity was a foreign word, but also by its timelessness. Theres reason to argue its applicability both in Mary E. Wilkins Freemans The Revolt of Mother, written in 1891, and Sherwood Andersons Winesburg, Ohio, composed in 1919. However, making use of autonomous thoughts does very often only avail if those are articulated adequately. Both works state that an inability or reluctance to express oneself respectively results in a loss of self-determination.