Explain how Whitman adopts the American principle of e pluribus unum (out of many one). This ideal is also relevant to other 19th century American texts insofar as they feature characters who live on the margins of society: wage laborers, prostitutes, slaves, soldiers, sailors, and so on. Choose two texts by different authors from the following list: Whitman, Melville, and Douglass. How do these authors illustrate the ways in which the characters are included or excluded from the principle of e pluribus unum? 2. Poe and Dickinson often write about the topic of death, which might lead you to conclude that they are utterly gloomy and pessimistic authors. Focusing on one story by Poe and one poem by Dickinson that we have read, answer the following question: how do these texts address the subject of death in a positive, ironic, comic, mocking, or parodic manner? You only answered question one and you divided it into two parts. You were meant to integrate Whitman and Douglass into one 750 word response.
