Pick two literary periods that we have studied this semester; they may be British or American or both. Describe the characteristics of these periods.

Choose one question and complete a 1.5 page essay.

Your essay should be double-spaced, in Times New Roman 12 point font, and formatted according to MLA style.

1. Pick two literary periods that we have studied this semester; they may be British or American or both. Describe the characteristics of these periods. Then choose at least two authors from each period and demonstrate how their works reflect these characteristics. Give specific examples from the authors’ texts.
Periods are: The Cavalier and Puritan Period 1603-1660
British Romanticism 1789- 1832
American Literature up to 1820
American Romanticism 1820-1860
The English Renaissance 155-1603
The Age of Enlightenment/The Restoration
Age of Realism and Victorian Age
The Romanticism Period

2. Nature is an important topic in literature for many British and American writers. Chose at least
two writers and explain how they treat nature in their works. What are the similarities? What are
the differences? Offer an explanation for these similarities and differences.

3. For this particular essay prompt you are expected to reflect on the role that imagination plays in the works of at least two authors from the course. How does imagination impact the ways in which the author of the work, or the protagonist within the work, sees the world around them? How does this reflect their inner-state of being? Is this a calm or tumultuous state? Ultimately, what does this reflection say about the particular work and the underlying themes that it represents?
Authors: Guy de Maupassant- The Necklace
Shirley Jackson- The Lottery
Lisel Mueller- Hope Poem
Aesop- The Fox and the Grapes
The Prodigal Son
Edgar Allen Poe “Cask of the Amontillado”
Nathaniel Hawthorne (Young Goodman Brown)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Dejection: An Ode)
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Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Dejection: An Ode)William Wordsworth (I Wandered Lonely…Daffodils)
Charlotte Perkins Gilman- Yellow Wallpaper
Nathaniel Hawthorne-Young Goodman Brown
T. Coraghessan Boyle- Greasy Lake

4. The idea of independence or self-worth is a theme that runs through much of literature. Take at least two authors
from our assigned readings and compare and contrast their views of independence and self-worth. How do these works demonstrate the search or struggle to find self-worth through the journeys of their protagonists?