The book I choose is “the jungle” by Upton Sinclair. Please write half page long abstract for the paper.
These are the basic components of an abstract in any discipline:
1) Motivation/problem statement: Why do we care about the problem? What practical, scientific, theoretical or artistic gap is your research filling? What will this project teach us?
2) Methods/procedure/approach: What did you actually do to get your results? (e.g. analyzed 3 novels, completed a series of 5 oil paintings, interviewed 17 students, used 7 websites)
3) Results/findings/product: As a result of completing the above procedure, what do you hope to learn/invent/create?
4) Conclusion/implications: What are the larger implications of your findings, especially for the problem/gap identified in step 1?
Here is the requirements for paper.
1. Summarize in your own words the life and journey of Jurgis Rudkus.
a. What kind of a man was he?
b. Name some of the choices he made throughout his life.
c. Do you agree with the way Jurgis made decisions? Why/why not?
2. How does Jurgis represent one or more defining American characteristic?
a. Think about what you would consider to be an “American” characteristic. In other words, what types of values, behaviors, and ways of making decisions do most Americans have?
b. Now think about the characteristics you’ve noticed as you’ve read Jurgis’s story. Are there any characteristics which you notice in Jurgis that you think are specifically American? Make sure to use examples from the reading to explain.
c. Describe Jurgis’s characteristics and discuss whether or not you think these characteristics seem American to you in nature and why or why not. Again use examples to explain.
d. One of the important themes Jurgis deals with is the disconnect between the American Dream and what America is really like. How do you think Jurgis represents the American Dream? Do you think it was possible for immigrants to fulfill the American Dream during this time? How about now?
3. How did reading The Jungle help you to understand turn-of-the-century America? Name at least one thing you learned from the reading that you might not have learned in any other way. Would you recommend that a friend read this book? Why or why not?