Final Paper Assignment (Due on Exam Day)

In all cases, your paper should be between 6 and 8 pages in length, formatted to MLA standards, double-spaced, and stapled in the upper left corner.  Your work should quote from the text/s you are using, and it should feature a clearly articulated, personal thesis statement, as well as sufficient evidence and a practical conclusion. 

Option 1:  Compare and contrast two (2) of the texts we have worked on this semester (including all novels, stories and Rashomon) as they relate to the theme of this course (“Truth in Fiction”).  Your should carefully select texts which 1) deal with the course theme in interesting and related ways, and 2) enhance one another (that is to say, each text should “know” something about the course theme that the other doesn’t, and these points should be compared and  contrasted).  The dangers for this option are: 1) picking two texts which don’t speak to each other in any kind of an interesting way, and 2) dealing too explicitly with plot and not explicitly enough with themes and the “meaning” of the text.  You should start by thinking: how do each of the texts we have dealt with this semester illuminate and complicate the idea(s) of “Truth in Fiction”?

Option 2:  Use the following quote to discuss six (6) of the texts we have worked on this semester:

"I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the book we are reading doesn't wake us up with a blow on the head, what are we reading it for? [...] We need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us."

- Franz Kafka, in a letter to Oskar Pollak, written 27 January 1904

Your essay should spend equal time on each of the texts you use, and it should include a clearly articulated thesis statement which answers the following question: Why is the kind of fiction Kafka describes valuable and how does it facilitate our understanding of Truth?

Option 3:  Select one (1) of the texts we have read so for this semester and explain how it has personally affected your life.  You should begin by spending an hour alone thinking about the texts: what one(s) did you enjoy the most?  What lessons did you learn from them?  Do you feel your life is any different—for better or worse!—because of something you read in this course?  Another way of imagining this question is to think about the Kafka quote from Option 2 as it personally relates to you: did any of these novels accomplish what Kafka says all good fiction should?  How?  The key to answering this question is to think both honestly and critically: it will not be enough to simply say you loved one of the books—you need to tell me 1) specifically what moved you, 2) why it moved you, and 3) what lasting impact it has had.  Your paper should still have an introduction, thesis, body, evidence and conclusion.   Please use specific quotes from your selection.

  

Reading Response: White Noise

If you choose to submit a reading response for Don DeLillo's White Noise, please do so in the comments section of this post.  Remember: your response should be thoughtful, it should evidence a careful consideration of the text, and it should include at least one question for your instructor/your classmates about the text.  Your response should be no less than 200 words and no more than 500 words, and at least relatively well-written (you will not be graded on grammar, but please remember that poor grammar/syntax reflects poorly on you/your ideas).  If other students have posted before you, your response can be, in part, a response to their posts--feel free to take up other students questions or concerns and use this space as a forum for intelligent discussion.  You may also post more than once, particularly if your initial post is short or ambiguous.  Your grade for the reading response will be based on your collective input in the comments sections of this post.

Reading Response: Life of Pi

If you choose to submit a reading response for Yan Martel's Life of Pi, please do so in the comments section of this post.  Remember: your response should be thoughtful, it should evidence a careful consideration of the text, and it should include at least one question for your instructor/your classmates about the text.  Your response should be no less than 200 words and no more than 500 words, and at least relatively well-written (you will not be graded on grammar, but please remember that poor grammar/syntax reflects poorly on you/your ideas).  If other students have posted before you, your response can be, in part, a response to their posts--feel free to take up other students questions or concerns and use this space as a forum for intelligent discussion.  You may also post more than once, particularly if your initial post is short or ambiguous.  Your grade for the reading response will be based on your collective input in the comments sections of this post.