American Literature Midterm Common Portion Review

Authors include Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Walt Whitman

founded upon or involving a visionary view of an ideal world

Often occurs in isolated areas

to express well in words

habitually silent or quiet, inclined to talk very little

a formal statement of commendation

to change from liquid to solid, thicken

Encourages defiance of authority

very much agitated or upset as a result of emotion or mental conflict

Often expresses a positive view of nature

an object that serves as a charm or is believed to confer magical powers, an amulet, fetish

Common themes include individualism, social justice, self-reliance, and nonconformity

clear, obvious, manifest

Includes supernatural events

Often includes short stories, poems, and parables

improper or disrespectful treatment of something held sacred

green in tint or color

unquenchable, ravenous, voracious

Common themes include God's holiness and wrath; life is God's ultimate test

Connections between biblical events and author's own lives; journey to salvation

done or acting in a shifty or underhanded way

Often includes diaries, poems, or sermons

to romp or prance around exuberantly

comprehensible, meaningful

hackneyed, trite, commonplace

standards of what is proper or socially acceptable

Often includes essays

a situation resembling a whirlpool in violence and destruction

concerned with acquiring wealth or property

to establish by evidence, prove

going back to the most ancient times or earliest stage

Common themes include betrayal, downfall of pride and vanity, unrequited romance

lacking a broad, realistic view of a situation

credit, trust, confidence

to copy, mimic, rival, match, measure up to

lacking in clarity and precision

relevant, appropriate, apropos, fitting

to remove from a grave

to work on excessively

desirous of something to the point of greed

Authors include Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Washington Irving

Has dark settings, insane characters, and grotesque aspects

to move in waves or with a wavelike motion

to confront in a challenging or aggressive way