Nick Colaco 10/11/16

Today's class objectives were to be able to look at literary and rhetorical devices in writing by using a historical lens and to identify how changes in writing represent changes that occur in history ( events which occurred in the past), philosophy (  study of beliefs and ideas), and culture ( the way that groups of people act, traditions). We began by understanding what using a lens to look at writing does. A lens is something that changes the way we look at or perceive what something is.  We then defined history as trends over time ( and space) and discussed that using a historical lens when looking at literature develops a reciprocal relationship ( back and forth),  meaning that the more we understand the history of the time a piece was written, the better we could understand the written piece itself. An example of this is that American literature is related to American history and the literature began at the time that our history began. Another example is that "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" shows us that at the time it was written (1741) the colonies were undergoing a religious awakening which is reflected in the writing. We then divided into groups of 2 and discussed how "Common Sense" by Thomas Paine differed rhetorically from "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"