Pauline Christiansen

English 267 - American Literature

 

 

Suggested Paper Possibilities

 

Nature in Cooper, Thoreau, Emerson, Bryant, etc.

 

Use of Rebirth Symbols in Thoreau’s Walden

 

Hawthorne’s view of sin in

Scarlet Letter

“Rappaccini’s Daughter”

“The Birthmark”

“The Great Carbuncle”

“Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment”

 

Pearl as Personality and Symbol in Hawthorne’s Scarlett Letter

 

Use of Black and White in Poe’s “Narrative of A. Gordon Pym”

 

Life and Death Symbolism in Poe’s “Narrative of A.Gordon Pym”

 

Death and Rebirth Cycle in Poe’s Short Stories

“Pit and the Pendulum”

“A Descent into the Maelstrom”

 

Use of Point of View in Poe’s Short Stories

 

Concept of Justice in Melville’s “Billy Budd”

 

Appearance versus Reality in Melville’s “Benito Cereno”

 

Romantic Distortion in Cooper, Brown, etc.

 

Further topic suggestions:

Role of Women in...

Concept of Good versus Evil in...

Role of Science in...

Appearance versus reality in...

Use of Journey or Initiation Motif in...

 

Good and Evil in Hawthorne

 

Good and Evil in Melville

 

The role of mother love in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin

 

 

 

 

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