Focus on two assigned texts and develop an argument about how they answer the question: “What
is America?” Your essay should identify a single, shared theme that appears in two assigned texts, a
theme that you can analyze and develop as part of your own argument about narratives of America and
Americans. Your primary goal is to offer insight into the literature, how it works, and what it communicates
within the context of our national history and cultural self-understanding.
Thesis:
Anne Bradstreets’ poems and Mary Rowlandson’s Narrarive of the Captivity and Restoration, illustrate the role that religious faith played for early Americans. Conveying how faith and belief in religion helped many overcome their darkest hours and struggles with adapting their new lives in America. Demonstrating how people in American today will their faith as hope to overcome their difficult obstacles.