Mrs.

Pinto Gann Academy

American Ethos Essay Prompt

Our challenges may be new, the instruments with which we meet them may be new,
but those values upon which our success depends, honesty and hard work, courage and
fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism these things are old. These
things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history.
What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new
era of responsibility a recognition on the part of every American, that we have duties
to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept, but
rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit,
so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task. (President Barrack
Hussain Obama, First Inaugural Address, 2009)

Since the first day of class, we have been discussing and defining the American Ethos. We have read
some of the countrys founding documents and poetry that focuses on this very topic, and we have
culled what we believe to be the idea of America. We have by no means exhausted these texts.

Over the summer, you read the story of a second generation American whose perceptions of the idea
of America differ significantly from these founding fathers. Just recently, we have read some texts that
challenge the founding fathers perception of the ideals on which this country was founded.

Here, then, is your prompt:

Choose one of the following texts
1
:
I, Too, Sing America by Langston Hughes
Excerpt from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by
Himself
My Dungeon Shook, James Baldwins Letter to his Nephew
Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

Write a well-constructed essay in which you examine how your chosen text does or does not
exemplify the American Ethos or the idea that is America as we defined it using the tenets
of the Puritans, the words of the Founding Fathers, and the poetry of Walt Whitman.

Your essay should:
Propose an original, thoughtful, and specific claim (thesis). This should not be a statement of whether or
not it exemplifies the American Ethos, but rather a statement of HOW it does or WHY does not. Thats
where the specific comes in. This, by the way, requires a lot of thought (hence the word thoughtful.
Provide an adequate number of examples direct and indirect to illustrate your thesis. Be sure to cite all
examples (page numbers for books and essays, line numbers for poems and excerpts).
Draw logical conclusions about your chosen text and its relationship to the American Ethos based on the
evidence collected.
Be approximately 2-3 pages in length. This is a soft rule. If your claim is effectively supported with
evidence and analysis, then length is less important.
Be submitted in MLA format. Check online if youve forgotten what this looks like.
Be turned in to turnitin.com before 11pm on October 1
st


1
Choose your text wisely, grasshoppers. There are merits and demerits to using shorter and longer texts. Take care
not to treat them all the exact same way.