This document provides a review of topics for a final exam on American literature, including Puritanism, Transcendentalism, works by Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Rebecca Harding Davis, slave narratives, issues of American identity, Calvinism, religion in Emily Dickinson's works, Anne Bradstreet's poetry, and more. Students are instructed to analyze selected works on several specified topics, focusing on themes discussed in class. Guidelines are provided for a paper evaluating the effectiveness of a television advertisement based on its rhetorical elements.

1. AL Final Exam Review
1) Puritanism bequeathed to America certain characteristics.
Basically, Puritans believed in Calvin’s idea of election, but
also believed that they had entered into a covenant with God
(Winthrop’s “City on the hill”), which meant that they had to
live up to certain moral ideals, often in a very public manner.
This sometimes led to despair, of the kind exhibited, for
example, by Anne Bradstreet in her poem about the two sisters,
Flesh and Spirit. Along with these ideas, of course, are to be
found Protestant rejection of most of the Catholic Sacraments
and much of Anglican and Catholic church hierarchy. After
Enlightenment Deism, roughly the beliefs of the founding
fathers, and Transcendentalism (make sure to look up the terms
in vol A), the old Puritan beliefs still remained a part of the
culture, as seen in the First Great Awakening (Edwards), the
Second Great Awakening (Wesley and Methodism). How did
these beliefs, in one way or another, influence American
literature?
Consider the above question, where relevant, in the works
below. For each one, be able to summarize it and explain some
of the issues that we specifically discussed concerning the
nature of each author and work.
2) Satire in Rip Van Winkle OR symbolism in Rappaccini’s
Daughter. Also, didactism in his introduction to “The House of
the Seven Gables”
3) Edgar Allen Poe’s Romanticism in Sonnet to Science,
Purloined Letter, and The Fall of the House of Usher.
4) Melville’s attitudes towards Africans, Spaniards, and slavery
in “Benito Cereno”

2. 5) Know well Emerson’s ideas in one of the following:
American Scholar, Self-Reliance, OR the Poet.
6) Any theme in Thoreau’s Walden Pond
7) Know the details of and issues addressed in either “Iron
Mills” OR “Slave Narratives”
8) The issue of American identity in Emerson, Thoreau, and
Melville.
9) Melville on Calvinism and Shakespeare.
10) Religion and language in Dickinson
11) Does Crevecoeur anticipate many of the themes of the later
Transcendentalists?
12) Analyze the meaning and prosody of Anne Bradstreet’s
poem. Also, be able to demonstrate an awareness of the
prosody of each poem you analyze from any author above.
BK A: 13-15; 365-76; Introductions in BK B.
Paper 2: Evaluating the effectiveness of an Advertisement
The purpose of this essay is to evaluate the effectiveness of a
television advertisement. Imagine that you work for
an advertising agency and your boss wants you to evaluate the

3. effectiveness of the ad. Examine the ad’s
rhetorical situation (subject, purpose, audience,
author/tone/mood, & context) and determine whether or not the
ad
is effective. Consider everything in the ad: text, images,
music, colors, location, the people (their clothing,
appearance, expressions, and activity), etc.
I have included a worksheet to help you work through the
analysis and to help you organize your ideas. See
below:
You MUST use one of the approved advertisements posted on
eLearn. No other commercials are allowed.
Expectations: A successful ad analysis will address or include
the following features:
A thesis statement: What do you say about the degree to which
the advertisement is effective? What do you
think the purpose is? Who is the audience? Do you think the
audience would have the reaction the author
probably intended? Why or why not? Take all of these things
into account when you compose your thesis.
Your thesis should include a claim about the topic and reasons
for the claim:
Claim Reasons for the claim

4. The advertisement is effective/not effective because [reason
1], [reason 2], [reason 3]..etc.
A brief summary: The primary goal of this essay is analysis.
Therefore, you will need to provide enough
summary that we will all be familiar with what is displayed in
the advertisement, but your audience does not need
more than a paragraph or so summarizing the ad because they
will have seen it.
A detailed analysis of the ad: This is the bulk of your analysis.
Convey your thinking about the elements that
make the piece more or less effective: purpose, audience, tone,
speaker, and context. You do not have to address
every element. Instead, focus on the rhetorical elements that
work together to make your ad effective or not.
Your essay should thoroughly explain how each element you
mention contributes to or detracts from the ad’s
effectiveness.
Specific supporting details: You must back up your claims with
specific examples from your ad. So if you are
arguing that the ad is effective because the tone is humorous,
you must give a specific example of how the tone is
humorous. Use the PIE paragraph structure for this (see
handout on eLearn).
Requirements:

5. according to the formatting guidelines we went
over in class, which are posted in the file “How to Format a
Paper” available on eLearn.
Papers that do not meet the minimum length
requirement usually don’t receive passing grades, so be sure to
write a full-length paper.
on eLearn). This must be included in the same
file as the paper you submit to the dropbox. Papers that do not
include this letter will automatically lose a
letter grade. (haha—did you catch the pun?).
th
: bring 2 PRINTED copies of your paper to class.
on eLearn before midnight on the due date,
which is February 19
h
. I will not grade papers received after this date unless you
have previously made
arrangements with me for an extension.
See me with questions or problems. The sooner the better!

6. Paper 2: Worksheet
The Ad’s rhetorical situation:
What is the subject of the ad?
How is the subject presented?
Who is the ad’s audience?
What in the ad indicates who the audience is?
What is the ad’s general purpose? (to inform, to persuade, to
entertain)
What is the ad’s specific purpose? (what does the writer want us
to know, think, feel, believe, or understand?)
What elements in the ad suggest this specific purpose?
Is the audience appropriate for the purpose? Why or why not?
Explain in detail:
Who is the ad’s author/speaker?
What is the tone of the commercial?
What creates the tone of the commercial? Be specific

7. What is the mood of the ad?
Explain how the mood is created in the ad.
What is the context of the ad? (this may require research. If
you use sources, you must credit the source for any
information you use. See me if you don’t know how to do this
because you can inadvertently plagiarize and fail
the paper if you do it incorrectly.)