Your essay must be at least three full pages long, have 12-point font, be double-spaced, and have one inch margins around the page. Do not make a cover sheet. Use MLA format for quotations. You must cite a primary text (the book or books from the syllabus that you are writing about). Please number pages starting on page 2. Secondary sources (websites or books that are not on the syllabus) are not required. If you do decide to use secondary sources they must be from scholarly sites or books (for example, Wikipedia is not a scholarly website). You must cite secondary sources correctly. Remember, if you did not come up with an idea yourself it needs to be cited. The Honor Pledge should be placed after the last line of the text of your essay and you should sign the pledge. The last page of your paper is the works cited page (the works cited page does not count towards your page count but should be numbered).
The purpose of your paper is to persuade your audience of a position you have taken. Your introduction should include your thesis statement (one or two sentences that explain your main argument/the main idea of the paper) as well as the name of the book and author you are analyzing. Consider your fellow classmates as your audience. Your audience is familiar with the text under consideration and therefore does not need a retelling of the story. Keep in mind that your thesis should not repeat the question you have chosen to answer, nor should it simply restate a point that was clearly established in class.
Please choose one of the following topics:
1. Throughout "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" the speaker asks several rhetorical questions. What purpose do these questions serve? What do they tell us about the speaker?
2. "The Wasteland" was first published in 1922. In your essay discuss the ways in which the poem reflects T.S. Eliot's reaction to World War I.
3. Choose a theme or symbol from "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" or "The Wasteland" and discuss its significance. Remember that themes are recurring ideas (such as birth, death, resurrection), whereas symbols are usually objects (such as water, fire, trees, etc.) or even colors.
4. Create your own topic and analyze any poem written by T.S. Eliot.
5. Select a piece of Postcolonial or Contemporary art. You can use a painting or other piece discussed in class, or select one we did not discuss (with my approval). What characteristics (subject matter, use of color, etc.) make this painting a product of this particular movement? What ideas or values might the artist have been trying to share? You may also want to consider whether or not the painting could be interpreted differently today. Keep in mind that you must cite the painting you have chosen using MLA guidelines.
6. Who is the intended audience of "Girl"? What are the expectations of a girl according to this piece? Do you think the author was trying to support social expectations or challenge them?
7. Gender and social class both play a role in the short story "Giribala." Analyze how a character's gender or social class impacts his or her interactions with others and his or her place in the community. You may consider a character's role in a family or in the workforce.
8. Is the graphic novel the best medium for the story Maus, or do you think Spiegelman could have used a different form? How does the graphic novel, as a form of story-telling, affect our understanding of the topic? Be sure to discuss how the pictures accompanying the words affect our perception of three different events or characters. You might discuss, but are not limited to, characters' relationships, characters' sense of identity, events leading up to the Holocaust, age, social status, the use of black and white (as opposed to color), or anything else that strikes you as important. Make sure that you use one concrete, critically-chosen example to support each event or character you discuss (for a total of three examples).
9. Why should students read and discuss Maus? Support your answer with three concrete, critically-chosen examples of scenes or topics.
10. Create an original topic inspired by Maus.