English 1028 . . . Essay #1 . . . Spring 2004
· Assignment genre: Analysis/Synthesis
· Audience: Students like you at universities in Tennessee
· Purpose: To write clearly and effectively in relation to a topic suggested below
· Format: Essay; formal analysis with optional research
· Length: 3-5 pages
· Special instructions: Your essay must contain at least 5 quotes from the piece(s) you use in your analysis; if you do research, your essay should also include at least one quote from such secondary material(s) as well as an MLA-formatted citation for the material(s). Be sure to avoid plagiarism like the plague!
Choose one of the topic suggestions below and write an essay of 3-5 pages in which you introduce the topic in some interesting way, state your idea(s) in a clear thesis, and argue effectively and rationally in support of your analysis.
· Using up to five handout pieces generated by Native American writers or cultures, explore the following question: How do we whose world view and thought processes come from Western culture approach Native American literature and/or culture in such a way as to avoid seeing it as "primitive" or "pagan"?
· Consider the poetry of Roger Williams and Philip Freneau. How do these Euro-American writers use images and characteristics of Native American people and culture to comment on their own Western cultures?
· Consider William Cullen Bryant's "The Prairies." What does Bryant seem to be up to in this poem from early in the period of American romanticism? What use does he make of the "mound builders" and the "red man" as means to his end(s)?
· Compare the creation myth of emergence we read from the Navajo ("Four Worlds") with the earth-diver myth from the Onondaga ("The Earth on Turtle's Back") and/or the Seneca ("The Woman Who Fell from the Sky"). Describe how each type of myth envisions the creation. Are there similarities? What qualitative differences appear in the different creation stories, perhaps especially in regards to humans?
· Compare and contrast the two stories of stealing fire: "Grandmother Spider Steals the Fire" (Choctaw) and "How Coyote Stole Fire" (Karok).
· Analyze the Okanogan story of "The Great Spirit Names the Animal People: How Coyote Came by His Powers" or the two pages of Native American poems and songs (extra handout) according to the ideas found in Brian Swann's "Introduction: Only the Beginning" and/or Paula Gunn Allen's "The Sacred Hoop: A Contemporary Perspective."
Schedule
Bring thesis and ideas; begin discussing/organizing/drafting/ on Wednesday, February 4
Complete introduction (to turn in) and sketch of content due Friday, February 6
Complete draft for peer review due Wednesday, February 11
Final draft to be graded due at the beginning of class on Friday, February 13