The works of literature you read for this course can be viewed as explorations of the American identity in their respective time periods. American literature reflects many aspects of American life. Choose texts from at least three periods on your required reading list to show the evolution of  family element central to American life,Through close textual analysis, illustrate how this element changes over time in response to a changing America. Three periods :Colonial & Early National Period using Mary Rowlandson: A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, Romantic & Dark Romantic Period using Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter, andRealism in American Literature using Frederick Douglass: A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.   The four sources need to  be primary and secondary sources.