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Time Period: Precolonialism

Date: Before 1607

Major Events: Virginia Company of London(1606), Colony of Jamestown(1607), Failed English colony on Roanoke islands(1601)

Main Authors: Sioux & Arapaho.

Kelly, Martin. “A Timeline of Important Events from 1601-1625.” ThoughtCo, ThoughtCo, 4 Dec. 2020, https://www.thoughtco.com/american-history-timeline-s2-104297.

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1. Name of Sample Work: “Ghost Dance Songs”

2. Time Period: Precolonialism

3. Dates: Published in 1869, took place in 1607

4. Point of View: First Person

5. Themes: Hope, Religion, Anger, Faith, & Nature

Connection: Arapaho sings, “My children, when at first I liked the whites” (1). This event being displayed could easily be the arrival of Europreans as they travelled further into the states. Arapaho demonstrates the regret that he felt for trusting whites as everything may have seemed calm bretween Natives and whites for some time.  Arapaho also sings, “I have no more sympathy with him” (23). This line symbolizes the climax of the events that took place during this time of European “discoverance”. Arapaho represents the anger that Natives began to build up as whites tried to completely dominate.

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Time Period: Colonialism

Date: 1607-1775

Major Events: Jamestown,Virginia(1607), Slavery made legal (1650), & First Great Awakening(1732)

Main Authors: Benjamin Franklin, John Withrop, and Johnathan Edwards

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1. Name of Sample Work: Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

2. Time Period: Colonialism

3. Dates: Published in 1741, Set in 1741

4. Point of View: First Person

5. Themes: Faith, Religion, Emotion, Evil, & Anger

Connection: Edwards states, “Yea, there is nothing else that is to be given as a reason why you do not this very moment drop down into hell” (4). Edwards displays the power that God has over any human whether they are very religous or not religous at all. The idea that everyone isn’t in control of his or her own life as God is the only one deciding when and where you end up. He also says, “O sinner!” (4). The significance behind this would be Edward’s argument that everyone is a sinner and could be punished at any given time.

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Time Period: Enlightenment/Rationalism

Date: 1776-1820s

Major Events: Declaration of Independence(1776), U.S Constitution(1789), & War of 1812

Main Authors: Thomas Jefferson, Elizabeth Cady, and  Ben Franklin

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1. Name of Sample Work: Declaration of Independence

2. Time Period: Enlightenment

3. Dates: Published in 1776, Set in 1776

4. Point of View: First Person

5. Themes: Freedom, Faith, Hope, Government, & Independence

Connection: Jefferson states, “...it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another…”(1). The very first line of this document displays the idea of government in which the United States hope to cut ties from Britain.  Jefferson also mentions, “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it…” (2). Independence is a recurring theme in this document as America continues to give evidence to later support the decision to split from Britain.

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Time Period: Romanticism
Date: 1820s-1860s
Major Events: Missouri Compromise(1820), Trail of Tears(1838), Nat Turner Rebellion(1831)
Main Authors: Nathainel Hawthorne, William Bryant, and  Edgar Allan Poe

“The Age of Expansion.” Age of Expansion: 1820-1860, http://www.thenagain.info/WebChron/USA/Expansion.html.

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1. Name of Sample Work: ​​​The Scarlet Letter
2. Time Period: Romanticism
3. Dates: 1820s-1860s
4. Point of View: First Person
5. Themes: Nature, Emotion, Independence, Intuition, & Judgement

Connection:  Hawthorne states, “...the child finally announced that she had not been made at all, but had been plucked by her mother off the bush of wild roses that grew by the prison-door” (103). Hawthorne incorporates the idea of nature by replacing the birth of a child to something as beautiful as the nature on the other side of the prison door. It also signifies the role that nature plays in Pearl’s life. Hawthorne also states, “She[Hester] wondered what sort of herbs they were, which the old man[Chillingsworth] was so sedulous to gather” (167). This is significant because it demonstrates a positive and negative lens to the nature present.

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Time Period: Transcendentalism

Date: 1840s-1860s

Major Events: Declaration of Sentiments(1848), Mexican War(1846), The Election of 1860

Main Authors: Thoreau, Emerson, and Dickinson

“American History 1840 - 1860 Timeline.” Timetoast Timelines, 5 Mar. 1836, https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/american-history-1840-1860.

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1. Name of Sample Work: “Walden”

2. Time Period: Transcendentalism

3. Dates: Published in 1854, Set in 1854.

4. Point of View: First Person

5. Themes: Nature, Reason, Knowledge, Confidence, & Self-reliance

Connection:​​ Thoreau states, “Heaven is under our feet as well as above our heads” (7). Thoreau demonstrates his knowledge of nature as it exists everywhere around us. Thoreau acknowledges that nature exists with or with humans so one should put every piece of time into respecting what is truly around them.  Thoreau says, “I wanted to live deep[in the woods] and suck out all the marrow of life…” (1). Thoreau expresses the importance of nature as one should completely separate themself from any human interaction in order to focus primarily on nature.

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Time Period: Slave Narrative

Date: 1820s-1865

Major Events: Civil War(1861-1865), Emancipation Proclamation(1863), & 13th Amendment abolishing slavery(1865)

Main Authors: Frederick Douglass, Olaudah Equiano, and Sojourner Truth

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1. Name of Sample Work: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

2. Time Period: Slave Narrative

3. Dates: Published in approximately 1845 & Set sometime relative to the year 1845.

4. Point of View: First Person

5. Themes: Injustice, Violence, Hope, Coming of Age, & Dehumanization

Connection: Douglass states, “The louder she screamed the harder he [Mr. Plummer] whipped; and where the blood ran the fastest, there he whipped longest”(4). Douglass recalls how violent his overseer was as he enjoyed whipping the slaves without any remorse. Douglass continues to explain exactly how he observed this event.

Douglass states, “When these[clothes] failed them, they went naked until the next allowance-day. Children from seven to ten years old, of both sexes, almost naked, might be seen at all seasons of the year”(6). This memory of the condition of slaves and more importantly the youth gives an understanding of the overall lifestyle of slaves everywhere as they were constantly dehumanized by limitations on neccessities for living.

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Time Period: Modernism

Years: roughly 1901-1950

Major Historical Events: World War I (1914-1918), The Great Depression (1929-1939), & World War II

(1939-1945, America entered 1941)

Major authors: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Zora Neale Hurston, & Gertrude Stein

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Sample Work: The Great Gatsby
Time Period: Modernism
Dates: Published in 1925 & Set in 1922
Point of View: First person
Themes: Wealth, Success, Relationships, Mystery, & Class

Connection: Nick states, “...he[Gatsby] stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was him,  could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward-- and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been at the end of the dock” (Fitzgerald 20 & 21). Gatsby’s description demonstrates the role that mystery plays in the novel as his actions aren’t normal. Nick also says, “Sometimes they[guests] came and went without having met Gatsby at all…” (41). This holds significance because no one truly knows Gatsby and he is demonstrated by obtaining mystery through the eyes of party-goers in the novel.