English 2327 American Literature
Instructor: Cathy Clay
In Class Essay
Choose one of the following. Cite the texts to support your response. Response should be
2-2½ pages in length. Do not write on the topic sheet, and return the sheet with your
response. No questions during the essay. You may use notes, textbooks, and dictionaries
(including mobile dictionaries). Also, indicate your choice on your essay.
1. Analyze how spirituality operates in two of Anne Bradstreet’s poems.
2. Discuss Jonathan Edwards’ use of imagery to convey mankind’s sinful (careless)
nature and the horrors of hell in “Sinner’s in the Hands of an Angry God.”
3. Using Hawthorne’s “The Birth-Mark” as a reference address the issue of striving
for physical perfection and compare Alymer to modern man.
4. Choose two of Poe’ works and examine the theme of death or resurrection.
5. From The Scarlet Letter, examine Hester’s strength of character in the face of
adversity.
6. From The Scarlet Letter, examine Rev. Dimmesdale’s character as either a hero or
a coward.
7. From The Scarlet Letter, discuss how the theme of redemption operates in the text.