If you have a topic of your own, or if you would like to modify one of the topics listed below, please contact me with the details.

1. Using some of the journals from your text as models, write an original journal of colonial times. Create an original character, and write of the daily events in your character's life.  Limit yourself to a fairly short and specific time of American history such as King Philip's war, the early days at Jamestown, or the Salem witch trials Some of the journals you might use as models  include Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation, Thomas Morton's, Mort's Relation, the Journal of John Winthrop, the Journal of Samuel Sewall, Mary Rowlandson's  Narrative of  Indian Captivity, Equiano's Narrative, the Secret Diary of William Byrd, or any other journal that you find interesting.,  (One modern writer, John Barth wrote an entire novel on this subject, The Sot Weed Factor).  Us specific details, and write complete and grammatically correct sentences.

2. Using one or two stories as examples, compare Native American myths and legends to Bible stories. Creation stories, and flood stories are just about universal.

3. Compare the three versions of the Maypole of Merry Mount: Bradford's, Morton's, and Hawthorne's.

4. Using Arthur Miller's The Crucible as a major source, compare the witch trials of 1692 to the McCarthy hearings of the 1950's. What social conditions made each tragic event possible? Could it happen again?

5. Explain how Anne Bradstreet's poems reveal the conflicts, values, and joys of a puritan woman. Use specific evidence from Bradstreet's poetry.

6. Edward Taylor: Metaphysical Poet. Using at least three poems as evidence, explain how Taylor contributes to the metaphysical tradition of poetry.

7. Journals of Indian Captivity. Explain how Mary Rowlandson's A Narrative of the Captivity and Restauration contributes to the tradition of stories about Indian captivity. What attitudes towards Indians does she reveal? What is the main purpose of her story?

8. The Sermon as Literature. Do a literary analysis of one sermon by Jonathan Edwards.

9. How Thomas Jefferson Caused the American Civil War. (Or how Thomas Jefferson allowed the economics of slavery to take precedence over the immorality of slavery.)

10. The Protestant Work Ethic in Modern America. Or how business values and Christian values still combine to create the American Dream. (A new book on the subject, One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America by Kevin M. Kruse might give you some good ideas.)

11. How Thomas Jefferson Invented the United States.

12. How Crevecoeur and Jefferson Invented the American Character.

13. How the American landscape shaped American literature.

14. The Influence of African Folk Tales on American Literature

15. The Influence of Slavery on the American Character

16. How the Frontier influenced American Literature

17. Phyllis Wheatley's Contributions to American literature.

18. The Last of the Mohicans: the Book vs. the Movie.  Compare the novel by Cooper to any movie version.

19. The Brook Farm Experiment and Life in the Twentieth Century. Is communal living a viable alternative to the conventional life? Do some research on modern communal societies?

20.  Thoreau's life at Walden Pond was an experiment to see if a simpler life could be a happier life. Try to imagine duplicating Thoreau's experiment in modern day Hampton. Find the list of materials for building a house in Walden and see how much those supplies would cost at a building supply store. Find a cheap (preferably free) site for your house. Write out a budget that includes food, clothing, and heat (no air conditioning). Then calculate how many hours of your life you would need to work to meet that budget.

21. Make believe that you are a 19th century book reviewer and review one story by Poe and another one by Hawthorne. Be sure to demonstrate a clear preference for one story over the other.

22. Write the missing first chapter of the Scarlet Letter. How did the beautiful and intelligent Hester Prynne get together with the wimpy Reverend Dimmesdale? Use your imagination and as far as possible imitate the style of Hawthorne.

23. A Comparison Between Moby Dick the Novel and Moby Dick the Movie.  (There have been at least three movies of Moby Dick, one as old as the Barrymore version  of 1930, and one as new as  Ron Howard's In the Heart of the Sea in 2014,  but I think the best one is still Gregory Peck's in 1956.