American Literature Vocabulary for Unit 1: Dreams
Test Date: __________
Note: some of these terms will be defined in your textbook; otherwise will be defined in class. Pay
attention, begin studying these early on, and do the homework for review.
Slave narrative
Sensory details
Anecdotes
Countenance
Consternation
Pestilential
Copious
Scruple
Nominal
Argument
Claim
Support
Counterargument
Preamble
Declaration
Conclusion
Ethos
Pathos
Logos
Impel
Unalienable/inalienable
Usurpation
Despotism
Arbitrary
Abdicate
Mercenary
Perfidy
Redress
Rectitude
Free verse
Cataloguing
Repetition
Parallelism
Tone
Rhythm
Refrain
Speaker
Character traits
Character’s motivation
Protagonist
Antagonist
Blatantly
Camaraderie
Flux
Mundane
Patrimony
Petulance
Precarious
Precipitate
Retinue
Surfeit
Summary
Response
Analysis
Anaphora
Internal conflict
External conflict
Simile
Metaphor
Allusion
Speech
Audience
Proclamation
Form
Diction
This particular unit will address the following selections and authors:
“Declaration of Independence” by Thomas Jefferson (234-242)
“Gettysburg Address” and “Emancipation Proclamation” by Abraham Lincoln (562-8)
“The Interesting Narrative…” by Olaudah Equiano (78-85)
“Life for My Child is Simple” by Gwendolyn Brooks (1230)
“Winter Dreams” by F. Scott Fitzgerald (936-960)
“I Hear America Singing” by Walt Whitman (508)
“I, Too” by Langston Hughes (843)