“Americans value national literature because they value the culture, morals, and philosophies upon which the United States was built.”

In this course, you have read a variety of American literature that reflect our American values, morals, and philosophies. Choose the one piece of literature that you think best reflects American culture, morals, and philosophy. In an essay of at least three paragraphs, explain your choice.

Heres the stuff we read:

Bradford
“Of Plymouth Plantation”

Veilleux
"Indians Are a People, Not Mascots"

Bradstreet
"Here Follow Some Verses upon the Burning of Our House, July 10th, 1666"

Wheatley
"To The University of Cambridge, In New England"
"On Being Brought from Africa to America"

Edwards
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”

Equiano
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, The African (chapter 2 only)

Hawthorne
“Young Goodman Brown”

Poe
“The Tell-Tale Heart”
“The Masque of the Red Death”

Emerson
“Self-Reliance”

Thoreau
“Where I Lived, and What I Lived For” (excerpt from Walden)

Whitman
I Hear America Singing
There Was a Child Went Forth
I Sit and Look Out
Vigil Strange I Kept on a Field
Come Up From the Fields, Father
Inscription

Dickinson
"The Soul Selects her own Society—"
"I Heard A Fly Buzz"
Anything from The Complete Project Gutenberg Poems by Emily Dickinson

Jewett
Excerpt from The Country of the Pointed Firs

Twain
"The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"

Bierce
“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”

Chopin
“A Pair of Silk Stockings”

Chesnutt
“The Wife of His Youth”

Yamanaka
“The Lemon Tree Billiards House”