Following the Colonial period, the Romantic era shifted styles in a couple of distinct ways. The times changed. People changed. Naturally, the literature changed as well. It changed in all aspects, including different topics and perspectives. One move the Romantic period made was starting to lean away from non-fiction. The Colonial literature was not necessarily bound to religious textbooks and poetry. However, the writing of that time period was not usually designed for entertaining. The Romantic period was finally starting to step out of that box and venture into stretched stories and many different kinds of genres. Of course, it wasn’t a black and white transition, seeing as though many stories still involved religion in one way or another. Consider an excerpt from “The Devil and Tom Walker” for example. It still has a point it’s trying to make, and it involves scriptural characters, but it talks of myths and legends that people understand are fiction. Washington Irving’s story even ends, “In fact, …show more content…
Argumentative essays and letters were very common forms of communication, especially for people involved with giving African American’s their basic rights. Writers like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Henry David Thoreau were not interested in entertainment, but in results. Their writings were incredibly purposeful and was essential for the freeing of blacks. Of course, when involved with society and legal matters, it’s important that the writing is only logical and intelligent, as it is clear in a segment of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from a Burmingham Jail.” “Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an