Synthesize and evaluate your thoughts and response. Researching and preparing for a discussion helps to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of a collaborative discussion. To start forming your response, write down your initial thoughts on your chosen topic.
Here are some questions you can consider when formulating your thesis:
1. How did historical events affect American literature? (Sample question: How did the Civil War affect American Literature?)
2. How did the Civil War transform American literature?
3. Does literature affect history?
4. What events were affected by literature?
5. How does history affect current pieces of writing? Or does it only affect literature from the same period?

Match each excerpt to the correct stanza structure. 1. it was many and many a year ago, in a kingdom by the sea, that a maiden there lived whom you may know by the name of annabel lee; and this maiden she lived with no other thought than to love and be loved by me. (from "annabel lee" by edgar allan poe) 2. o thou, new-year, delaying long, delayest the sorrow in my blood, that longs to burst a frozen bud and flood a fresher throat with song. (from "in memoriam" by alfred lord tennyson) 3. nature’s first green is gold, her hardest hue to hold. her early leaf’s a flower but only so an hour. then leaf subsides to leaf. so eden sank to grief,; so dawn goes down to day. nothing gold can stay. (from "nothing gold can stay" by robert frost) 4. at sestos hero dwelt; hero the fair, whom young apollo courted for her hair, and offered as a dower his burning throne, where she should sit for men to gaze upon. the outside of her garments were of lawn, the lining purple silk, with gilt stars drawn; (from "hero and leander" by christopher marlowe) quatrain couplet octave sestet

Read the passage below and answer the question that follows. ‘you make me feel uncivilized, daisy,’ i confessed on my second glass of corky but rather impressive claret. ‘can’t you talk about crops or something? ’ i meant nothing in particular by this remark but it was taken up in an unexpected way. ‘civilization’s going to pieces,’ broke out tom violently. ‘i’ve gotten to be a terrible pessimist about things. have you read ‘the rise of the coloured empires’ by this man goddard? ’ ‘why, no,’ i answered, rather surprised by his tone. ‘well, it’s a fine book, and everybody ought to read it. the idea is if we don’t look out the white race will be—will be utterly submerged. it’s all scientific stuff; it’s been proved.’ in this passage, tom’s ideas about race relations come off as uncivilized. what literary device is fitzgerald using here? irony personification metaphor simile

Why didn't van gogh knock on breton's door? it seemed imposing and a bit scary. it looked alarmingly middle-class. he couldn't find the door. he saw a book that he liked instead.