The assignment for this lesson is to write two speeches that compare and contrast
Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi with Frederick Douglass's Narrative of the Life
of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.
The first speech addresses a group of educated adults who are trying to decide
which work to read and discuss at their book club. Your job is not to recommend one
of these books over the other. Instead, you need to analyze the style of each work in
order to help your listeners make the right choice for their reading interests.
Your second speech should describe the same two works to a group of fifth-grade
students. Your goal is to tell them about the texts and to get them excited about
literature