1st Semester Test American Literature

1. The people of Plymouth Plantation left England to live a simpler life in the American wilderness. Thoreau left Concord to live a simpler life in the Massachusetts woods. Compare or Contrast Thoreau with Bradford. Possible questions to consider: What was each trying to get away from? What was each trying to find? How did each think about society and individuality and God?

2. Discuss a few key philosophical ideas that were important to the American revolutionaries who signed the Declaration of Independence. Explain how these ideas were related to Puritanism.

3. Discuss the relationships can you see between the ideas of the American Revolution and those of the Transcendentalists.

4. Trace the changes in religious ideas that occurred from William Bradford to Benjamin Franklin, and from Benjamin Franklin to Ralph Waldo Emerson, and from Ralph Waldo Emerson to Herman Melville. Explain your theory of what might explain these changes.