Problem
Write 750 to 1250 words essay that explores one of the dominant literary themes addressed in American Literature (innocence/loss of innocence, tradition, salvation, industrialism/technology, alienation/isolation, identity, death/mortality) and how that theme is exemplified in one or multiple texts reading list, which includes readings from the Harlem Renaissance, Southern Gothic, Modern and Contemporary periods.
Center your essay on one theme within a literary period. For example, you could take a closer look at alienation and isolation in T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. Or you might explore tradition in Alice Walker's "Everyday Use." Those are just a couple of examples. You would also need additional sources from critics who have examined these texts (or similar texts). As a slight variation, you could choose a theme and compare how it is explored in one literary period/genre vs. another; for example, compare good vs. evil in Zora Neale Hurston's Harlem Renaissance story "Sweat" with Flannery O'Connor's contemporary Southern Gothic story "Good Country People."