American Literature

							American Literature                               Name:_______________________
Struzziero
           Notes for Literary Analysis of The Autobiography of Frederick Douglass

Essential Questions
1. How can individuals attain freedom? (challenge rules, question authority, religion (?),
formal education, informal education)
2. What are some obstacles or institutions preventing individuals from attaining
freedom? (racism, segregation, classism, sexism, heterosexism, etc.)
3. What has the "story of American literature" taught us about freedom?

To address the essential questions, please use the historical lens:
Realism (1855-1900):
 influenced by Civil War
 Americans sought truth in observations about real life as real people lived it.
 reaction to Romanticism (no longer believed in the unrealistic Romantic Hero)

Situational Irony- occurs when there is a contrast between what could seem appropriate
and what really happens, or when what we expect to happen is, in fact, quite
contradictory to what really does take place.

Imagery- words that create a picture in the reader’s mind.

Pathos- to persuade using the character of the reader; in its critical sense, pathos signifies
a scene or passage designed to evoke the feeling of pity or sympathetic sorrow in a reader
or viewer.
Logos- to persuade using logic
Ethos- to persuade using the character of the author