English 3070 . . . Essay #3 . . . Fall 2007

·         Length: 5 pages (double-spaced with one-inch margins, 12-point font) or 1,500 words

·         Special instructions: All materials used from the novels or Nothing But the Truth must be correctly identified, both in the text and in a page of works cited. Your essay must include an MLA-formatted citation for all research material(s). Be sure to avoid plagiarism like the plague!

Choose one of the topic suggestions below and write an essay 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.

·         Choose one of our authors for the semester and look into your chosen author's tribal background. If your author is of mixed heritage, try to discover her or his official tribal affiliation. For example, Sherman Alexie's heritage is Spokane and Cour d'Alene, but he is a registered member of the Spokane tribe. Once you identify tribal affiliation, look into the tribe's culture and history, and then write an essay in which you explore how the author's tribal culture and history is reflected in her or his work.

·         Write an essay in which you explore the presence and meaning of veterans in a selection of works drawn from throughout the semester. You might consider the following questions: Why do so many veterans appear in American Indian fiction (or poetry)? What is the situation or condition of these veterans, and what does this suggest about their use as a literary characters or ideas?

·         According to a definition by M. H. Abrams, the literary term "magic realism" refers to works in which "writers interweave, in an ever-shifting pattern, a sharply etched realism in representing ordinary events and descriptive details together with fantastic and dreamlike elements, as well as with materials derived from myth and fairy tales" (A Glossary of Literary Terms, 6^th ed., 135). While this style is most often associated with writers such as Gabriel García Márquez and Jeanette Winterson, it seems also characteristic of several works we've read this semester. Using Abrams's definition as a springboard, write a paper in which you analyze how an American Indian writer (or two or three) use this literary technique and to what overall effect.

·         Write an essay exploring some element of Susan Power's The Grass Dancer. You might write about her use of magic realism. You might profile a character or group of characters, analyzing and defining how the individual or group work to make the story effective. You might analyze and explain how Power's use of time—the flow backwards—works in the novel