Suggested Research Topics for American Literature Prepared by Mary C.

Enge
Colonial Period 1607-1765

William Byrd II contributed informative and amusing accounts of Virginia plantation life in colonial America Jonathan Edwards epitomized the Puritan definition of good writing in his sermons William Bradford recorded the first document of colonial self-government in English William Bradford attributes many of lifes events to Gods providence As first American poet, Anne Bradstreet was inspired by English poets: Spencer and Sydney Anne Bradstreet exhibits the Puritan plain style in her poetry Edward Taylors Meditations reflects both his education and his views on Divine Providence Mary Rowlandsons account of her 11-week captivity encouraged anti-Indian sentiment in the colonies Cotton Mathers writings of duties of parents to their children and of children to their parents reflect strict Puritanical philosophy Knowledge of the Salem witch trials comes from Cotton Mathers writings John Woolman exhibited his Quaker beliefs in his writings about the Native Americans and in his writings against slavery In his autobiography and his letters, Benjamin Franklin imparted instructional, practical advice

Revolutionary Period 1765-1789

Thomas Paine made the ideology of the American Revolution accessible to everyone in his pamphlet Common Sense Thomas Paine shaped an emerging definition of freedom in revolutionary America 1

Suggested Research Topics for American Literature Prepared by Mary C. Enge

Compare Common Sense to the Declaration of Independence Patrick Henry protested British tyranny and gained support to break from England through his fiery speeches Phillis Wheatley showed that black women could write verse comparable to the educated Bostonians Phillis Wheatley wrote neoclassical couplets in her poetry Phillis Wheatley was a precursor of American abolitionism In George Washingtons Farewell Address to the Army, he showed sensitivity to the soldiers hardships and purpose for the cause George Washingtons First State of the Union Address is similar, yet quite different from those given by recent presidents From her writings, Abigail Adams shows early feminist causes The genius of Thomas Jefferson comes forth in his drafting of the Constitution Phillip Freneau was a leader of 18th Century Naturalism in his poetry Phillip Freneau provided incentives and inspiration to the American Revolution Meriwether Lewis contributed vast knowledge of botany, geology, and geography in his journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition Lewis and Clark Expedition trace the different interpretations of the same events on the same days as viewed by Meriwether Lewis, John Clark, John Ordway, Patrick Gass and Joseph Whitehouse. Compare journal styles - use Clay Jenkinsons A Vast and Open Plain

Nationalism and Romanticism 1789-1830

Although recognized as an author, Washington Irvings studies and pursuits were not limited to literature Washington Irving used historical events and personalities as background for Rip Van Winkle

Suggested Research Topics for American Literature Prepared by Mary C. Enge

Washington Irving used various literary genres in The Sketch Book James Fenimore Cooper sentimentalized Native Americans in The Last of the Mohicans James Fenimore Cooper accurately depicts the colonial struggles in the wilderness James Fenimore Cooper wrote the first successful novels in America The Pilot by James Fenimore Cooper is a heroic tale In his poem Thanatopsis, William Cullen Bryant exhibits both transcendental and Calvinist elements William Cullen Bryants view of nature is shown in To a Waterfowl, The Yellow Violet, and The Prairies William Cullen Bryant, as an editor for the New York Evening Post, influenced Abraham Lincolns decision to issue the Emancipation Proclamation

American Renaissance 1830-1870

With the publication of his poem, Old Ironsides, Oliver Wendell Holmes saved the historic frigate Constitution Oliver Wendell Holmes blends humor with pathos in The Last Leaf. Oliver Wendell Holmes was termed the occasional poet because of his poetry celebrating events James Russell Lowells poem The First Snow-Fall differs in theme from Emersons The Snow-Storm James Russell Lowells sonnets differ, yet are similar to English 19th Century sonnets Henry Wadsworth Longfellows personal philosophy comes forth with purpose in A Psalm of Life Paul Reveres Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow blends the real story of Paul Revere in 19th Century verse

Suggested Research Topics for American Literature Prepared by Mary C. Enge

In Hiawatha, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow revives excitement of an Indian theme. The Courtship of Miles Standish tells the tale of John Alden and Priscilla showing again Henry Wadsworth Longfellows love of history Norse Ballads of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow extend Longfellows historical knowledge to Viking mythology John Greenleaf Whittier wrote New Hampshire displaying his Quaker abolitionist views Compare John Greenleaf Whittiers Snowbound to James Russell Lowells The First Snow-fall and Ralph Waldo Emersons The Snow-Storm Trace the Quaker theme in The Kings Missive by John Greenleaf Whittier Show how Concord, Massachusetts was the first rural American artists colony offering a spiritual and cultural alternative to American materialism Ralph Waldo Emerson reveals his transcendentalist beliefs in his essay SelfReliance Ralph Waldo Emersons From Nature reflects the 19th Century romantic thought Ralph Waldo Emerson took much of his spiritual insight from readings of Eastern religions as seen in his poem, Brahma Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau show changes in the concept of the American self in the early 19th Century Transcendentalists like Bronson Alcott and Robert Owens and George and Sophia Ripley created experimental utopian colonies to counteract the attitudes created by the Industrial Revolution Transcendentalism was a philosophical, literary, social, and theological movement Henry David Thoreau teaches us to open to self-discovery in Walden Henry David Thoreau can be considered a 19th Century ecologist Civil disobedience and peaceful resistance used today by activists had their base from Henry David Thoreaus beliefs

Suggested Research Topics for American Literature Prepared by Mary C. Enge

Margaret Fuller wrote of social activism and sexual discrimination against women in the 19th Century Herman Melvilles novel: Typee was autobiographical In Moby Dick, Herman Melville shows profound examples of mans struggle against forces of evil Herman Melville uses narrator Ishmael as a personification of himself in Moby Dick Captain Ahab seeks to destroy evil with evil in Moby Dick In Moby Dick, Herman Melville ties elements of the sea, the weather, the workings and social structure of a whale ship together creating brilliant structure and style Nathaniel Hawthorne mastered symbols and symbolism in The Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne reveals his keen interest in colonial history of Massachusetts in The Scarlet Letter The Scarlet Letter is a story of Arthur Dimmesdale Nathaniel Hawthornes short stories reveal characters of moral ambiguity Individuals isolation from community recur in Nathaniel Hawthornes stories Nathaniel Hawthornes attitudes toward women are seen in characters Hester Prynne and Beatrice Rappaccini Explain what Herman Melville meant by Hawthornes blackness in his essay Hawthorne and his Mosses Edgar Allan Poe masters the use of repetition in many of his poems - explain its effect Edgar Allan Poe invented American detective fiction Edgar Allan Poes short stories reflect characters with disturbed psyches Edgar Allan Poes poetry is both musical and metrical

Suggested Research Topics for American Literature Prepared by Mary C. Enge

Symbols of death predominate much of Edgar Allan Poes poetry Edgar Allan Poe creates plausible horror in his short stories Edgar Allan Poes The Purloined Letter and Ligeia exemplify structure and symmetry Compare short stories of Rod Sterling, Alfred Hitchcock, or Stephen King to Edgar Allan Poes Edgar Allan Poe was culturally informed, not isolated, as a writer during his time Edgar Allan Poes stories The Fall of the House of Usher and The Cask of Amontillado are American gothic literature reflecting unity of mood and theme

The Rise of Realism 1870-1914

Frederick Douglass, through his writings, was one of the foremost leaders of the abolitionist movement Frederick Douglasss speech The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro delivered July 5, 1852, was literate, poetic and stirring Frederick Douglass wrote with passion, logic and power In My Bondage and My Freedom, Frederick Douglass aroused sympathy to promote humanitarianism African American spirituals, sung mainly outside of church, linked their authors (the slaves) to one another by expressing personal feelings of hope and salvation Commonly sung by runaway slaves in the Underground Railroad, African American spirituals were rich in codes Sojourner Truth encouraged abolitionism and womans suffrage in her evangelistic preaching Although illiterate, Sojourner Truth drew crowds when she spoke and won the respect of Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincolns First Inaugural Address, though unsuccessful in preventing war, exhibited his education and humility

Suggested Research Topics for American Literature Prepared by Mary C. Enge

In his Second Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln is a master of logic and parallel construction Harriet Beecher Stowes Uncle Toms Cabin opened up the realities of slavery to the entire world Although an icon of the abolitionist movement, Harriet Beecher Stowes Uncle Toms Cabin is (or is not) moralistic and overwrought in style As a mother who grieved for lost children, Harriet Beecher Stowe felt a bond with slave mothers who lost their children at an auction block Walt Whitman portrays African Americans as equal partners with whites in a democratic future in Leaves of Grass In Walt Whitmans Song of Myself slaves enable for the narrator his identity Walt Whitman caroled throughout his poems Walt Whitmans greatest legacy is the invention of American free verse Walt Whitman conveys the nations loss of Abraham Lincoln in O Captain! My Captain and When Lilacs in the Dooryard Bloomed Emily Dickinsons poem Safe in their Alabaster Chambers shows the tension of her sense of faith and her cosmic indifference to faith Emily Dickinsons death poems range from sympathetic to the macabre Some of Emily Dickinsons poetry might indicate a mental breakdown Emily Dickinson is a master of imagery Sidney Lanier, a poet and musician, employs shifts of meter and tone to create a poem like a symphony orchestra in The Symphony In his short stories, Brete Harte romanticized life in California Brete Harte mastered the local color of the west in his poetry In The Rise of Silas Lapham, William Dean Howells wrote the first novel about American businessmen William Dean Howells uses paint and architecture as the central metaphors in The Rise of Silas Lapham

Suggested Research Topics for American Literature Prepared by Mary C. Enge

William Dean Howells was closely linked with Mark Twain in their antiimperialistic writings As a literary critic, Henry James was one of the best known intellectuals of the 19th Century Henry Jamess novels are understanding and sensitive lady portraits In Daisy Miller, Henry James uses a thematic approach of innocence in the New World vs. sophistication of Europe Ambrose Bierce exhibits Mark Twains wit and Edgar Allan Poes horror in his short stories Study some of Ambrose Bierces famous cynical quotations give reasons for his attitudes Stephen Crane captures the effect of fear in Red Badge of Courage Henry Flemings search for identity is seen throughout Stephen Cranes Red Badge of Courage Stephen Cranes Red Badge of Courage represents both naturalism and realism in literature Mark Twains The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is (or is not) a racist novel In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain epitomizes American childhood In his short stories, Mark Twain far exceeds contemporary humorists Mark Twain presents two opposing views of knighthood in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court The only true character in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court is Hank Morgan In The Country of Pointed Furs, Sarah Orne Jewett links women characters with those in Greek mythology making it a timeless novel Sarah Orne Jewetts A Country Doctor is (or is not) plot-driven In Kate Chopins short stories, characters search for female spiritual emancipation

Suggested Research Topics for American Literature Prepared by Mary C. Enge

Kate Chopin was a female author far ahead of her time Louisa May Alcotts Little Women captures the values, social life and culture of middle class 19th Century America Perseverance, unselfishness, and family relations are shown in all of Louisa May Alcotts novels Hamlin Garland dramatizes the tension between farmers and speculators who controlled the western lands in the late 19th Century in his short story Under the Lions Paw In his poetry, Hamlin Garland portrays realistic images of grass and wind on the prairies O. Henry (William Sydney Porter) mastered surprise endings using New York City as the setting for his short stories In The Ransom of Red Chief, O. Henrys energetic, humorous style can be likened to Mark Twain or Ambrose Bierce Charlotte Perkins Gilman portrays a realistic first person account of a mental breakdown of a physically-pampered, but emotionally starved wife in The Yellow Wallpaper Charlotte Perkins Gilmans suffrage songs and books show her to be an advocate of womens causes Compare the suffrage writing of Charlotte Perkins Gilman with those of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton Through his writings and speeches, Booker T. Washington showed his belief in the dignity of work Frank Norris shocks the conventional reader with a comic tone on such subjects as wife beating Frank Norris uses gender-based assumptions of the day creating submissive wives and violently aggressive husbands Jack London combines realism with humanitarianism in The Call of the Wild and White Fang Jack London exhibits his Darwinian thinking in South Sea Tales, a collection of short stories

Suggested Research Topics for American Literature Prepared by Mary C. Enge

Jack Londons novel, The Iron Heel, was his literary contribution to Eugene Debs Socialist cause To Build a Fire is Jack Londons best loved man vs. nature short story Theodore Dreisers highly critical view of the legal system deemed him a champion of social reformers In An American Tragedy, Theodore Dreiser shows Clydes downfall to be a result of the American economic system with social inequality Theodore Dreiser presents nature as grim and indifferent with vivid symbolism in his well-known classic Sister Carrie Muckrakers Ida Tarbell, Jane Addams, and Upton Sinclair through their writings were successful social reformers in the 19th Century L. Frank Baum recorded the fantastic American fairy tale in The Wizard of Oz Edgar Lee Masters Spoon River Anthology, realistic and cynical epitaphs of persons buried in a village graveyard, is timeless poetry Compare Edgar Lee Masters Spoon River Anthology to Eugene Wilders play Our Town Edith Whartons New York spans the years from the Civil War to the turn of the century. House of Mirth mirrors Manhattans wealthy during the Gilded Age In Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton presents passionate characters hemmed in by their desire to sustain membership in a social group Edwin Arlington Robinsons poem Miniver Cheevy is a comic self portrait Much of Edwin Arlington Robinsons poetry deals with failed lives Pulitzer Prize-winning Tristram ranks as one of the most acclaimed narrative poems of the 20th Century Paul Laurence Dunbar was the first African-American poet to express lyrical qualities of the black dialect In his famous Lyrics of a Lowly Life, Paul Laurence Dunbar shows influence of the British Romantic poets such as Keats and Shelley

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Suggested Research Topics for American Literature Prepared by Mary C. Enge

Paul Laurence Dunbar wrote race-conscious poetry in The Colored Soldiers and Black Sampson of Brandywine Booth Tarkingtons Penrod stories are comparable to Mark Twains Tom Sawyer Seemingly dated today, Booth Tarkingtons Seventeen was a major success in its time with Willie Baxter in love W. E. B. DuBoiss classic, The Souls of Black Folk, a collection of essays on race relations shows the two-ness An American, a Negro two souls in one body. Through his writings and political activism, W. E. B. DuBois was one of the most influential African Americans of the late 19th and early 20th centuries Willa Cather celebrates the early life on the plains of Nebraska in My Antonia, showing wholeness and self-sufficiency as the wellspring of American life In O Pioneers, Willa Cather creates a human tale of love and struggle with feminine heroines My Antonia captures Willa Cathers feelings of sex, ambition, and small-town life

Contemporary American Literature, 1914-to present

Robert Frost wrote many poems drawing ideas from his own life, recurrent losses and everyday tasks Using blank verse, Robert Frost wrote of nature in rural New England In Mending Wall, Robert Frosts narrator reveals much about his philosophy of getting along with others Robert Frosts The Road Not Taken has universal appeal as it deals with contemplation of lifes decisions in retrospect In Nothing Gold Can Stay, Robert Frost creates a synecdochic analogy Carl Sandburg was a worthy successor to Walt Whitman, paying tribute to the common man Carl Sandburgs biographies of Abraham Lincoln are considered unorthodox by some historians

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Suggested Research Topics for American Literature Prepared by Mary C. Enge

In Carl Sandburgs famous poem Chicago, he used free verse to reveal, explore, and celebrate the lives on common people Some of Carl Sandburgs works show him to be a radical socialist In his poem Caboose Thoughts, Carl Sandburg conveys hope for worried, troubled souls In Carl Sandburgs collection of poetry, The American Songbag, he records songs hes heard from his workdays and his days as a hobo Although Vachel Lindsay might have had different intentions, his poem The Congo has been criticized by some as racist Vachel Lindsay creates a musical, rhythmic account in his poem General William Booth Enters Into Heaven Wallace Stevens poem Anecdote of the Jar is deeper in meaning than the expression less is more In Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, Wallace Stevens uses inflection and innuendo Wallace Stevens dramatizes the action of the mind as it becomes one with the scene it perceives in his poem, The Snow Man William Carlos Williams, a medical doctor, novelist, essayist, playwright and poet experimented with meter and images when writing about everyday people In To Elsie or the Pure Products of America, William Carlos Williams creates Elsie as one who stands for the cultural breakdown of America Queen Annes Lace is William Carlos Williams true, still life landscape in poetic form Marianne Moore scientifically and accurately created the poem An Octopus Marianne Moore begins her well-known poem, Poetry with I too, dislike it. Explain what poetry she dislikes e e cummings is an inventive, imaginative modern American poet In Just by e e cummings is (or is not) written from a childs viewpoint

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Suggested Research Topics for American Literature Prepared by Mary C. Enge

e e cummings famous grasshopper poem Rpophessagr is Americas introduction to concrete poetry Harlem Renaissance Poets: Compare the feelings about life as an AfricanAmerican during the 1920s by giving poetic examples using Claude McKay, Jean Toomer, Countee Cullen, and Langston Hughes Harlem Renaissance Poets set the tone and imagery with language choice to represent realism and idealism in their poetry James Weldon Johnson humanizes God in his poem The Creation Lift Every Voice and Sing by James Weldon Johnson has come to be known as The Black National Anthem As a writer, Amy Lowell had a liberating influence on other women poets of her time Ode to the Confederate Dead is Allen Tates poem of heroism Several of Elinor Wylies poems are so poetically melodious, composers have set them to music Pennsylvania poet Robinson Jeffers shows (or does not) inhumanism in his famous poem, Hurt Hawks Fantasy is Robinson Jeffers poem of war Edna St. Vincent Millay is the poetic voice of eternal youth and feminine liberation In Renascence, Edna St. Vincent Millay writes of spiritual internment and resurrection through the cycles of nature Ezra Pound exemplified the avant-garde make it new philosophy in his poetic works Stephen Vincent Benet, a Pennsylvanian poet, blends the historical account of John Browns raid into John Browns Body In his A Book of Americas, Stephen Vincent Benet takes a nostalgic look at the past using historic figures and events as his topics for poetry Archibald MacLeish in You, Andrew Marvell establishes a tone of horror at the human experience on our planet through the empty universe

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Suggested Research Topics for American Literature Prepared by Mary C. Enge

Arc Poetica sums up Archibald MacLeishs poetic philosophy of imagery In Hands from Sherwood Andersons Winesburg, Ohio, the narrator brings readers to a climactic epiphany of self-defeat Sherwood Anderson, through the character George Welland presents the making of artist for life in Winesburg, Ohio F. Scott Fitzgerald personifies the jazz age in The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgeralds This Side of Paradise plays an ironic role in his own fate Obsession with wealth (or lack of it) is seen in most of F. Scott Fitzgeralds writings William Faulkners invention of Yoknapatawpha County proved that a writers best knowledge of people and place is the soundest source of material William Faulkners Soldiers Pay shows the disillusionment of society after World War I In The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner creates a tragedy with the decline of the Compson family In The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner uses the stream of consciousness style popular with the writers of the lost generation Ernest Hemingways style is crisp with emotional understatement, simple words and dialogue In Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway portrays the unconquerable spirit of man Rich in Christian symbols and metaphors, Old Man and the Sea can be considered a parable of moral value The Sun Also Rises portrays the theme of the lost generation: showing the disillusionment of Americans after World War I For Whom the Bell Tolls is Ernest Hemingways tragic novel, yet it shows mans ability to endure In Death in the Afternoon, Ernest Hemingways book on bullfighting, death is present on every page

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Suggested Research Topics for American Literature Prepared by Mary C. Enge

Gertrude Stein influenced writers: Sherwood Anderson, Ernest Hemingway, and F. Scott Fitzgerald Eugene ONeills Long Days Journey Into Night is an autobiographical play The Tyrone family in Long Days Journey Into Night characterizes (or does not) the modern dysfunctional family Eugene ONeill characterizes Hairy Ape as symbolic of man who has lost his harmony with nature In Mourning Becomes Electra, Eugene ONeill stages his version of tragedy in the house of Atreus from Aeschylus The tragedy of Iceman Cometh comes when derelicts are disillusioned by hope of rehabilitation Eugene ONeills plays are tragically realistic Sinclair Lewis satirizes small town life and attitude in Main Street By the end of the novel, Main Street, the main character comes to terms with her environment Sinclair Lewis Babbitt shows how individuality can be lost in middle class America Elmer Gantry is an attempt of Sinclair Lewis to attack church hypocrisy Look Homeward, Angel is an autobiographical novel of its author Thomas Wolfe Angels have mysterious symbolic meanings in Thomas Wolfes novel, Look Homeward, Angel In Thomas Wolfes You Cant Go Home Again, the main character finds that corruption has destroyed the things to which he desires to return John Steinbecks Grapes of Wrath portrays struggles during the Great Depression Grapes of Wrath exhibits both pity and anger John Steinbecks Of Mice and Men is a modern tragedy Of Mice and Men shows the inhumanity of the human condition

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Suggested Research Topics for American Literature Prepared by Mary C. Enge

The theme of death recurs in John Steinbecks The Red Pony John Steinbeck uses California for settings and migrant workers for characters in many of his novels In The Jilting of Granny Weatherall, Katherine Anne Porter masters irony Katherine Anne Porters short story Rope demonstrates a relationship gone bad Richard Wrights Native Son is a stark novel of racism full of naturalistic irony Black Boy is Richard Wrights autobiographical novel in which, despite racism, he sees meaning in individualism In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston creates a novel of the African-American woman in search of identity in the 1920s and 30s Zora Neale Hurston integrates folklore with fiction in her works The Algonquin Round Table in New York City set the standard for literary style and wit in its era beginning in 1919 In Eudora Weltys The Optimists Daughter, Laurel is forced to make peace with her past and present in order to go on with her future Eudora Weltys Losing Battles is light and comedic, yet possesses a southern gothic style Tennessee Williamss The Glass Menagerie is a drama of pathetic characters with lives of desperation artfully set in the 1930s. Thornton Wilders Our Town, by dramatically portraying everyday life in a small town, conveys the gift of life itself Compare Sinclair Lewiss and Thornton Wilders portrayal of small town America Ralph Ellison uses an unnamed protagonist in a journey of self-discovery in Invisible Man, an African-American novel, rich in history, folklore and symbols Harper Lees To Kill a Mockingbird, set in the 1930s, portrays prejudice and tolerance, knowledge and ignorance, and courage and cowardice

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Suggested Research Topics for American Literature Prepared by Mary C. Enge

Harper Lees distinctive narrative point-of-view in To Kill a Mockingbird balances the childish innocence with adult insight James Baldwin captures the ambiguity and irony of the African-American life in Go Tell it on the Mountain In Go Tell it on the Mountain, James Baldwin uses the stream of consciousness technique filtered through third person narrator in his final chapter J. D. Salinger uses stream of consciousness in Catcher in the Rye as a means to show Holden Caulfields refusal to grow up Holden Caulfields anger at almost everyone is because he sees their lack of authenticity in Catcher in the Rye Alienation and loneliness are the themes of Catcher in the Rye J. D. Salingers struggle with authenticity is prevalent in all of his writings Barnard Malamud creates The Fixer in a folktale pattern using the historical context of the Russian Revolution with themes of freedom, religion, and class conflict Barnard Malamud writes an allegory in The Natural linking historical, mythical, and fictional elements in the world of baseball Saul Bellows Herzog, while lacking action, is rich in prose and characterizes American life in the 1960s In Seize the Day, Saul Bellow creates a novel of alienation and loneliness in New York City Tommy Wilhelm is an anti-hero in Saul Bellows Seize the Day In The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck writes of the life-sustaining bond of human beings with the land Pearl S. Buck uses the traditional Chinese inferior status of women with great emotional impact in The Good Earth Pearl S. Bucks short story The Enemy raises high level moral, medical, wartime and family ethical questions

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Suggested Research Topics for American Literature Prepared by Mary C. Enge

Norman Mailer is an innovator in the non-fiction novel which combines actual events, autobiography and political commentary use examples of his works to back this form of writing In The Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer draws on his combat experiences of World War II and creates soldiers who are real persons speaking the vernacular of bitterness and anger The Executioners Song is Norman Mailers true-life novel based on the life and death of convicted killer Gary Gilmore John Updike uses a mythological framework to explore the relationship of a father and son in The Centaur In John Updikes autobiographical piece The Dogwood Tree: A Boyhood, he calls sex art and religion the three great secret things Flannery OConnors thematic element of facing death recurs in many of her short stories In the play, Death of a Salesman, Arthur Millers Willy Loman has lost at trying to live the American dream A major theme and source of conflict in Death of a Salesman is Willy Lomans inability to distinguish between reality and illusion Arthur Millers The Crucible, written during McCarthyism with a backdrop of the Salem witch trials, is really a play about the human condition The Crucible shows how hysteria tears apart a community Arthur Miller puts human integrity to the test in The Crucible Sylvia Plath reveals the social pressure of American women in the 1960s in The Bell Jar First person narrative gives (or does not give) readers reliable insight into Esther in Sylvia Plaths The Bell Jar Joseph Heller in Catch-22 traces the main characters efforts in war that seem meaningless to him Catch-22 satirizes bureaucracy in the army and in large institutions

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Suggested Research Topics for American Literature Prepared by Mary C. Enge

Ray Bradburys Fahrenheit 451 shows the main characters alienation from a society that has discouraged individual thinking Trace the transformation of the character Montag throughout Fahrenheit 451 Draw a parallel of the censorship issue of Fahrenheit 451 to modern times In Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut presents Billy Pilgrim, a man who is unstuck in time returning to his abduction by aliens and his time as prisoner-ofwar during World War II Slaughterhouse Five shows absence of free will In Lois Lowrys The Giver, the narrative point of view of the main character allows the reader to bond with all anxious moments In The Giver, Lois Lowry presents allegorical messages Joyce Carol Oates writes a cruel violent novel about race in Them Relate Them by Joyce Carol Oates to riots and burnings in America in 1967-68 In The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers creates characters missing elements which would help them function in the world Carson McCullers writes grotesque literature In The Member of the Wedding, Carson McCullers writes of an adolescents need to find identity and yet belong in society Robert Cormiers The Chocolate War is a novel of courage and cowardice Individualism and peer pressure abound in The Chocolate War In I am the Cheese, Robert Cormier has Adam stand alone against society Explain I am the Cheese as a coming of age story From his novels, Robert Cormier is associated with the movement called New Realism in young adult literature Paul Zindel writes novels for teenagers using the consequences for actions as themes

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Suggested Research Topics for American Literature Prepared by Mary C. Enge

Although one of her darker novels, Anne Tyler writes of ironic and humorous moments in Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant Anne Tyler masters multiple point of view and rich characterizations in Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant Death and loss trigger Macons problems in Anne Tylers The Accidental Tourist In Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan presents mother-daughter relationships influencing daughters identities In Kitchen Gods Wife, Amy Tan, through first person narrative, illustrates the status of women in Chinese society Daniel Keyes shows the use and abuse of science and technology in Flowers for Algernon Ken Kesey portrays the individuals struggle against conformist society in One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest John Knowles novel A Separate Peace is a coming of age story of guilt and innocence John Knowles shows how war impacts everyone despite mere indirect involvement in A Separate Peace Maya Angelous strong belief in the power of education is present in her autobiographical I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Maya Angelous portrayal of black males is negative in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison shows that black is beautiful Toni Morrison uses folklore to relate the African-American experience in Song of Solomon In Ernest Gainess The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, readers see political history from the Emancipation Proclamation to the early Civil Rights movements of the 1960s In A Lesson Before Dying, Ernest Gaines depicts the character Jefferson as one struggling with religious faith issues to his dying day

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Suggested Research Topics for American Literature Prepared by Mary C. Enge

Prejudice against Japanese-Americans is portrayed through an omniscient narrator in David Guttersons Snow Falling on Cedars Tim OBrien writes a testament to the men who fought in Vietnam in The Things They Carried Compare Tim OBriens The Things They Carried to Stephen Cranes The Red Badge of Courage Trace Tim OBriens theories of war, courage, and cowardice as found in his Vietnam Warm novels

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