Jefferson and Wheatley
Directions: Choose one pair of passages below and write a cohesive essay response.
Your essay should be written in the following format and consist of five well-developed paragraphs of several sentences each, approaching 500 words total. Focus on original, knowledge-based analysis; do *not* spend time summarizing the basic plot of the passages.
Paragraph 1: Introduce your paper and end with an original and specific thesis statement–your main point about how and why your two passages compare.
Paragraph 2: Briefly identify the first passage you have chosen (title and author’s name) and discuss the context of the passage and the text it is from. Next, discuss and analyze the overall significance of the passage in particular and text overall in the broader context of American literature and history.
Paragraph 3: Briefly identify the second passage you have chosen (title and author’s name) and discuss the context of the passage and the text it is from. Next, discuss and analyze the overall significance of the passage in particular and text overall in the broader context of American literature and history.
Paragraph 4: First, discuss what thematic similarities the passages/texts they originated from have in common. Next, discuss how and why they differ, and what the significance of these differences might be.
Paragraph 5: Conclude your analysis by discussing what this all adds up to–what we can learn from this comparison, what it teaches us about early American Literature and the passage’s shared thematic interests.
