American Ethnic Literature Analyzing the Nature of American Ethnic Literature America has a distinct history: like ancient Rome, its inhabitants have come from all over and few of them can truly say to be natives of the place. This fact alone makes American Literature a compelling label: what makes American Literature American? This paper will attempt to answer the question by showing how many ethnicities have converged in one nation allowing various

When we speak of Puritanical values, however, some events in America's history seriously clash with its "pure values" or its belief that it's a world liberator. The first one was slavery. No where in the world have we witnessed just harsh case of slavery as in the United States. To this day, African-Americans have been unable to liberate themselves completely from the ugly history of slavery that had seriously marred

One of his major works was a long poem written in three cantos about the horrors he experienced while being held prisoner on a British prison. ship. There we see a much edgier, angry Freneau who is willing to write about real life in real terms: Here, generous Britain, generous, as you say, To my parch'd tongue one cooling drop convey; Hell has no mischief like a thirsty throat, Nor one tormentor like

American Poetry Michael Wigglesworth, Edward Taylor, and Anne Bradstreet can all be classified as American Puritan poets. God makes an appearance in nearly every poem penned by each of these three writers. Yet the poetry of Wigglesworth, Taylor, and Bradstreet differs significantly as well. Bradstreet exhibits neoclassical trends: especially in poems such as "The Prologue," in which the poet refers directly to the Greeks: "shure the ancient Greeks were far more

Thus he becomes, much like the title sailor of Herman Melville's Billy Budd, a figure who is martyred as a result of intolerance. Budd draws the ire of the captain of his ship because he is attractive and charismatic in a way that defines conventional maritime rules and conventions. Budd is literally hung out to dry upon a mast, while Williams is only symbolically strung up -- but the kind

First, his use of rhyme is incredibly heavy, and quickly becomes awkward and intrusive: Ye sons of men that durst contemn the Threatnings of Gods Word, How cheer you now? your hearts, I trow, are sthrill'd as with a sword. (stanza 8) The internal rhyme in the odd numbered lines of each stanza, especially when coupled with the end rhyme in the even numbered lines (this pattern repeats in the second half of