English/Philosophy 1218

Fall 2004

·        Assignment genres: Literary Analysis and Personal Reflection

·        Audience: Students like you at universities in Tennessee

·        Purpose: To write clearly and effectively in relation to a topic suggested below

·        Format: Essay

·        Length: roughly 5 pages / 1250 words

·        Special instructions: Your essay must contain at least 5 quotes from the piece(s) you use in your analysis; if you do any research, your essay should also include at least one quote from such secondary material(s) as well as an MLA-formatted citation for material(s) used. Be sure to avoid plagiarism like the plague!

Choose one of the essay prompts below and write an essay of five pages or so in which you introduce the topic in some interesting way, present your central idea clearly, and explore your chosen topic fully and rationally.

1.     We talk a good deal about humanism in relation to the story of Odysseus. In some ways, The Odyssey is the story of a man attempting to realize his full potential as a human—growing toward self-knowledge, trying to regain his position as husband, son, and king, following his passions and instincts often even in direct defiance of the gods. But fate or destiny plays a certain role in the adventures of Odysseus as well. For example, in Book 9 Cyclops admits in his pain that it was prophesied that a man called Odysseus would rob him of his sight; likewise in Book 10 Circe also suggests that Odysseus's arrival on her island was predestined. Do you see this story as ultimately supporting the notion of fate, of life governed by the will and whim of the gods? Or is it the story of a man being very human in the face of inexplicable forces? Or is it an ambiguous blend of the two? Write a paper in which you clearly offer a thesis that explains your opinion on this issue and then analyze the text to prove your point. (If you are interested in this idea but not in The Odyssey, the story of Antigone can be approached with a similar idea in mind.)

2.     Compare Lysistrata and Antigone. Do these plays suggest that men and women have different values? In what ways might the issues that lead to the women's strike in Lysistrata be said to contribute to the tragedy in Antigone? You can approach this topic from several different angles—how is what the men and women want in the two plays similar or different? which approach, tragedy or comedy, is most effective in portraying the conflict or differences between men and women? how do the similar or different values held by women and men manifest themselves in private and public life?

3.     Human beings—whether real or fictional—are complex creatures, characterized by both strengths and weaknesses, desires and fears. For this paper choose one of the people we've read about this semester—Odysseus, Penelope, Telémachus, Antigone, Creon, Lysistrata—and write a sketch of his or her character. In doing so, you must refer specifically to our text through quotes and paraphrases to identify clearly the character's most prominent personal traits, both positive and negative. That is, when you have identified a particular trait, draw evidence from the text to demonstrate how this character trait manifests itself in the character's story. Once you have created an accurate profile of your chosen character, think about yourself and the world you live in. You might think about who and where you are right now or who and where you would like to be ten years from now. Remembering that literature should teach as well as delight, explore what you have learned from your character about what it means to be human. Can the various human traits of your chosen character translate into our world? More specifically, what traits of your chosen character would you most like to see evident in your own life, either now or ten years from now? What traits of your chosen character would you most like to avoid—or get rid of—as you live now or as you hope to live in the future? In other words, what (and how) can you learn about yourself from what you read?

Schedule

Bring a draft of your essay to class on Thursday, 30 September

Turn in your final draft at the beginning of class on Tuesday, 5 October