• text book- The American Tradition in Literature, George Perkins & Barbara Perkins (Vol. 2, 12th Ed., McGraw-Hill)

Step #1 (Pre-reading)

Please read the following selections from your anthology:

•Booker T. Washington, from Up From Slavery (page 100)

•W.E.B. Du Bois, from The Souls of Black Folk (page 672)

•Martin Luther King, Jr., “I Have a Dream” (page 1415)

Step #2 (Paper Prompt) Now that you have read these selections, please reflect on this course in its entirety and what you have learned about American history culture art and politics via American literature.

. How has the literature in this course contributed to your better understanding of American history, culture, art, and

politics? What do you predict will be topics in American literature in the next 50 years, and why?

Topics and motifs to remember:

•Generational divide stories

•Feminism & Women’s Literature

•The American Dream

•The American Hero

•The Tragic Hero

•Experimental plot structures

•The civil rights movement

•Modernism & Postmodernism

•Definitions of art and artists

•War and Literature

•Science & Technology

•Immigration stories

Step #3 (Specifications)

Please adhere to the following:

•You may use first person in this paper

•The paper must be written in MLA format and be 3-4 full pages in length

•MLA format requires double spacing, 12 points, and Times New Roman font throughout

•The paper must quote from 2 of the 3 pre-reading selections listed above

•The paper must also quote from 2 additional readings in the class that we read this term

•The paper must use at least 4 literary terms from the course (underline them)

•The paper requires a perfectly formatted MLA Works Cited page