The Influence of Faith in Colonial American Literature

This module took you on a journey through literature written during a time period that was greatly influenced by religion, beliefs, and a pursuit of freedom. While you studied these selections, you learned about rhetoric, propaganda, allusions, archetypes, and figurative language, and you built new vocabulary and grammar skills. Many of these terms and skills are ones that you have been exposed to before, but in this module you were able to strengthen your understanding of them.

The American dream is about freedom; persuasion is a big part of that. The American authors that you looked at in this module wrote about their faith and the freedom to persuade others to share their faith. Persuasion and convictions still influence American writers today. This country’s literary history began with persuasive rhetoric. Persuasion, and the descriptive language techniques that go with it, surround you in advertisements, public-service announcements, news coverage, political campaigns, and narratives. Now, you can better recognize persuasion and use it yourself in your own writing and speech to try to persuade others to do something or to think a certain way.

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