
American Literature
Course #:
LIT
6-365
Division:
English
Department:
High School English
Suggested Age:
15‐18
Prerequisites:
Completion of H.S. English 1 or upon approval of the instructor based on a writing sample.
Course Description:
Purpose
The course’s first semester focuses on the culture of the United States surrounding the Civil War while the second semester highlights the consequences of our country’s progressive social evolution away from being predominantly Christian.
Process
Students will learn how classic American authors utilized characterization, setting, irony, and other literary tools to expand upon various themes, often in ways that are unique to American culture. Students consider the use of these tools and themes and analyze them from a Christian perspective through class discussion and writing assignments. Lessons include:
An overview of the history of the time period and its predominant worldviews;
An explanation of the authors’ backgrounds and personal worldviews;
Charts, essay questions, and literary analysis essays.
Parental Responsibilities
Parents are responsible for purchasing the course workbook and each of the reading titles (print version preferred) for their student at the beginning of the year. While library editions are also permitted, students must have the workbook and the current reading book with them in class each week. Parents are also asked to help their student pace out their reading, fill in the worksheets, and submit their writing and worksheet assignments on time.
Curriculum/Materials:
Original, unabridged versions of the following titles:
• The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
• Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott
• My Ántonia, by Willa Cather
• The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
• The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway, preferred edition: Simon and Schuster ISBN: 978-0-684-80122-3