The minimum length requirement for the final paper is
2000 words; the maximum is 3000 words. This paper must provide critical analysis of a course
text and one of its film adaptations. It must be a focused, thesis-driven academic argument with
source support, and cannot simply be a copy-pasted discussion post with a few pages tacked on.
The final paper is an opportunity to more thoroughly explore a topic you’ve addressed in the
course and have gotten feedback on via peer responses and instructor commentary. The topic
will be your choice, but you will need to relate your work explicitly and concretely to the content
of the course, incorporate material we’ve worked with during the session, and demonstrate a
clear and sophisticated understanding of some critical idea from the course using detailed
support. The paper must also meaningfully incorporate supplementary material from one or more
of the secondary readings posted under “Readings” on Blackboard. A digital (.doc or .docx)
version of the paper must be submitted to our online Turnitin drop-box (under “Final Paper” on
Blackboard) by no later than Friday, August 8th.
The Puritans
The Covenant:
An agreement that brings about a relationship of commitment between God and
his people, as in the biblical covenants made with Abraham, Moses, and David.
“These professors, whose hearts the Lord had touched with heavenly zeal for his
truth, shook off the yoke of antiChristian bondage, and as the Lord’s free
people, joined themselves by a covenant of the Lord into a church estate, in the
fellowship of the gospel, to walk in all his ways, according to their best
endeavors, whatsoever it should cost them, the Lord assisting them.”
William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation
The Errand into the Wilderness:
“John the Baptist began his Ministry, not in Jerusalem, nor in any famous City
of Judea, but in the Wilderness, i.e. in a woody, retired and solitary place,
thereby withdrawing himself from the envy and preposterous zeal of such as were
addicted to their old Traditions, and also taking the people aside from the noise
and tumult of their secular occasions and businesses, which might have
obstructed their ready and cheerful attendance unto his Doctrine.”
Samuel Danforth, A Brief Recognition of
NewEngland’s Errand into the Wilderness (1670)
The City Upon a Hill:
“Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.”
Matthew 5:14
“The God of Israel shall make us a praise and glory that men shall say of
succeeding plantations, ‘the Lord make it like that of NEW ENGLAND.’ For we
must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are
upon us, so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have
undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be
made a story and a byword through the world.”
John Winthrop, A Model of Christian Charity (1630)
The Jeremiad:
“Such as have sometime left their pleasant Cities and Habitations to enjoy the
pure Worship of God in a Wilderness, are apt in time to abate and cool in their
affection thereunto: but then the Lord calls upon them seriously and thoroughly
to examine themselves, what it was that drew them into the Wilderness. Of
solemn and serious Enquiry to us all is whether we have not in a great measure
forgotten our Errand into the Wilderness. How sadly hath the Lord testified
against us, because of our loss of our first love, and our negligence in his Work?
It is high time to remember whence we are fallen, and repent, and do our first
works. Labour we to redress our Faintings and Swervings, and address our selves
to the Work of the Lord. Let us arise and build, and the Lord will be with us, and
will bless us.”
Danforth, Errand into the Wilderness (1670)
Independence:
“We whose names are underwritten, having undertaken, for the glory of God,
and advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our King and Country, a
voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do by these
presents solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one of another,
covenant and combine our selves together into a civil body politic, for our better
ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue
hereof to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts,
constitutions and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and
convenient for the general good of the Colony, unto which we promise all due
submission and obedience. In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed our
names at Cape Cod, the eleventh of November [November 21], in the year of the
reign of our sovereign lord, King James, Anno Dom. 1620.”
The Mayflower Compact (1620)
“We hold these Truths to be selfevident, that all Men are created equal, that they
are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these
are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of HappinessThat to secure these Rights,
Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the
Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes
destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and
to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles, and
organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect
their Safety and Happiness.”
The U.S. Declaration of Independence (1776)
“The Enlightenment had political as well as scientific and religious implications.
By the end of the 18th century, colonists in North America were establishing a
new polity. There would be a religious element to this new nation, but it would
be only one component of a state whose destiny, while still thought of as
divinely secured, was understood to be achievable through the spread of
democratic principles. The two assumptions held to be true by most Americans
were the perfectability of man and the prospect of his future progress.”
Norton Anthology of American Literature, Vol. A
“The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind. Many
circumstances have, and will, arise which are not local, but universal, and
through which the principles of all lovers of mankind are affected, and in the
event of which their affections are interested.”
Thomas Paine, Common Sense (1776)
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