The Education of Henry Adams Literary Elements

Third Person Autobiography

The United States And Europe between 1838-1918

The narrator of the book is Henry Adams but referred to in the third-person as "Adams". The book is from the view of Henry Adams recollecting and looking back on his life. He examines his own life story as a personal history. "Adams" is treated as a figure of history. Henry Adams attempts to explain the complications of his own life and the world through "Adams".

Melancholic and anxious. Much of the book is dedicated to Adams anxieties about the world. He fears he has failed to become "educated", he fears the rapid development of technology, and he fears the approaching breakdown of global politics. Adams is disappointed in his own failures through his life despite his privileged position. Much of the mood is driven by how many regrets Adams has over his own failures through life or all the opportunities he failed to take.

Henry Adams (or "Adams") is the Protagonist. The book has no main Antagonist besides the many issues and failures Adams describes throughout his life.

Adams's effort to become "educated". As the book is titled "The Education of Henry Adams" much of it is dedicated to "education", but not in the stereotypical form of schools or colleges. Adams seeks "education" or to learn through his entire life. His family, his schooling, his jobs, and his travel are all parts of this "education". For Adams, "Education" is an effort to understand the world. For him, it is a rapidly changing world he fears he may never be able understand. Adams constantly struggles to become "educated".

The climax of the book occurs at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900. At the exhibition, Adams witnesses a "dynamo", or engine, which he feels "as much as the early Christians felt the cross". The dynamo Adams compares to the "Virgin" or artistic impulse. The two symbols of the "dynamo" and the "virgin" cause Adams to engage in a long diatribe about art, technology, and culture. It is there, sixty-two years old, Adams begins to understand his own effort to become educated. The world has begun to change so rapidly around him, through his entire life, he is not sure if he will ever understand it.

Adams's interest in European history as a professor foreshadows his later revelations in Europe. To Adams, there exists a difference between learning about something and experiencing it. It is one thing to learn about England and France, but it is another to actually live there. It is one thing to discuss the impact of technology through the dynamo, but it is another to drive a car. It is one thing to attend university, but it is another to "become educated". Everything Adams speaks about in his early life occur again in his later life, but he is never sure if he can properly appreciate them.

Much of Adams life is spent around historical events but he makes little note of them. During the Civil War, Adams spends his time in England away from the war as his father is a diplomat. Adams has very little to say on the actual impact of the war beside discussing the difference between the North and South, the issue of slavery, and his opinion on Robert E Lee. Adams discounts the entire war by stating Lee "should have been hung because he was a good man... that made it all the worse". To Adams, all the issues of history occur due to misguided people who believe too much in their cause. As such, Adams states very little on politics throughout the book beside stating his fears and observations on what the future might bring. Despite being an actual historian, Adams talks very little about actual history in the book.

As a historians, Henry Adams make common reference to history throughout the book (though he explains very little). The most prominent section comes near the end in Paris where Adams discusses sensuality, culture, churches, and architecture. It is common for Adams, due to his interest in architecture, to reference medieval French churches to prove a cultural or religious point. To Adams, architecture (especially with churches) reveals a greater spiritual point of culture. A theme he alludes to with the importance of the "Virgin" (Venus) in European culture.

Adams often describes the world around him to remind the reader of the rapid technological and social transformation taking place during his life. Adams was born into a world of horse and buggy, but, by the end of it, drives an automobile in 1902. His life saw the appearance of mass transit, electricity, and telegraph. All the technology Adams describes in symbols for the impossible evolution of mankind through technology. This world of modern technology clashes with the medieval world of cathedrals Adams so too describes.

The major paradox for Adams is the failure of education. His entire life, Adams was groomed to be an intellectual, but he feels all his achievements have been failures. The process of education, no matter how expensive, has taught him nothing. While school is meant to educate someone, Adams believes modern education has completely failed. Actual "education" has not educated him because the modern world has so outpaced it.

Much of the book is Henry Adams own parallel with world history. As Henry Adams develops, the world develops with him. By the end though, Adams fears the world has out grown him forever. He can never catch up with the acceleration of society to understand it. Sitting on a beach at the end of the book, Adams feels like the first being to ever walk on land. He has developed into a world so different than the one he knew. In the same way though, he feels as if he is as educated as such primordial creatures. They are both totally unaware of the world Henry Adams actually inhabits.

The concepts of the "dynamo" and "virgin". The dynamo, associated with America, comes to stand in for technology in general. The virgin, associated with Europe, comes to stand if artwork. The dynamo is the masculine impulse and the virgin is the feminine impulse. The term "education" too comes to mean Henry Adams's life in general. As, to Adams, all of life is a process of education.

The major figure of personification is Henry Adams's "Virgin". The "Virgin" (or Venus) is how Henry Adams imagines the artistic impulse. It is the ancient romantic, sensual, and erotic desire to create something. A force which Adams images as feminine. An impulse that has been totally bred out of Americans in favor of the "Dynamo" or technology. The Venus Adams identifies with Europe through the Christian symbol of the Virgin Mary, the Pagan goddess Venus, and the feminine side of the personality. It is a personification of the impulse of creation which lead medieval Europe to great feats of art and architecture.