I would like for you to write a minimum 1,200-word essay for the following:
Choose an author (or authors) that you think best illustrates the notion of what the American Narrative or the American Ideal represents to you and use textual examples (and, if you wish, an outside example for context) to support your ideas. I am choosing Henry David Thoreau.
In other words, you can explore any number of ideas about him, and I am pretty open to how you approach this. However, some of the themes you must tackle include:
• In a very brief paragraph, talk about Thoreau' life. When did he born? Where? And how was his life.
• What are the main ideas of Henry David Thoreau? What do you think about them? ( state your opinion).
• Why did he decide to go to the woods and be isolated from the "developed life"?
• Talk about Thoreau excursions? what do you think about them (NOT only state the excursions and mentioning them is enough! You must give your opinion about them, if you like them or no? and why?).
• Do use quotations from the works you chose. You may also paraphrase, but make sure you use MLA in-text citation for either. But you must do either and not generalize basic info!
• If you reference/quote from any work outside the Nortons, please include a Works Cited page at the end since you will be using quotes and paraphrasing.
The basic requirements once again for your essays are as follows:
• I ask that you use the MLA format for headings and page numbers like so:
(In the UPPER LEFTHAND CORNER):
Name
ENGL 2120-002
Professor
Day Month Year
• Use 12-point font, preferably Ariel, to be consistent.
• Create a good title for your essay. Remember, a title is a clue for what the reader will encounter
• When referencing any works in the Nortons, just include the page numbers as in-text citations, you don't need a Works Cited page for this.
• However, and this is not a requirement for this essay, if you choose to reference a work not in your Norton, do add in-text citations as well as a Works Cited page.