Essay One: The Geography of Bliss
Support, refute, or complicate the notion that The Geography of Bliss evidences a strong connection between morality and happiness. Use Toulmin or Rogerian model. The essay should be 1,000 words with a Works Cited page of no fewer than three sources.
Essay Two: It’s Beginning to Hurt
In your first paragraph, your introduction, write an extended definition of the chimera and its connection to the Dionysian force in humankind. Then contrast that with metacognition and its connection to Apollonian force in human consciousness. This paragraph must show a clear understanding of extended definition.
In your second paragraph, your thesis paragraph, write a thesis that supports, defends, or complicates the assertion that in James Lasdun’s short stories the characters’ demise is the result of a juggernaut-like chimera obliterating their powers of metacognition. Follow your thesis with supporting paragraphs, including two paragraphs that show counterargument and rebuttal as modeled after the Toulmin argument. You must refer to no fewer than three of the assigned stories from Lasdun’s collection.
Your conclusion should be a restatement of your thesis in more powerful rhetorical form. You should end your paper with an MLA Works Cited page with a minimum of three credible sources. A week before your research paper is due, you will need to turn in an annotated bibliography with 5 sources (even though you don’t have to use all 5 sources, just 3).
Some Arguments Against the Above Thesis
The chimera is not necessarily a destructive agent. It can bring purpose to our lives.
We need Dionysian outlets to restore and rejuvenate our tired psyches.
By placing too much emphasize on chimeras, we paint people as victims rather than holding them morally responsible for their actions.
Second Option: Develop a thesis that addresses a theme about the human condition evident in the assigned stories of James Lasdun. Be sure your thesis is one of the four types of claims, argumentative, definition, cause and effect, or claim of value.
Third Option: Develop a thesis that addressing the conflict between Dionysian and Apollonian inclinations. Some say that all literature is about the conflict between Dionysian and Apollonian forces.
Be sure your essay is 1,000 words and includes a Works Cited page with a minimum of 2 sources.
Fourth Option: Analyze the corruption of fatherly love in "Cleanness" or "Caterpillars" (or both) with Erich Fromm's notion of the Authoritarian Personality. Be sure your essay is 1,000 words and includes a Works Cited page with a minimum of 2 sources.
Fifth Option:Compare the theme of the chimera (idealized love) and its resulting futility as it occurs in the "Peter Kahn's Third Wife" and F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Winter Dreams." Observe that both stories follow the Faustian Bargain motif. Be sure your essay is 1,000 words and includes a Works Cited page with a minimum of 2 sources. Here's another link to "Winter Dreams."
Sixth Option: In a 1,000-word essay, compare the Faustian Bargain in "The Half Sister" to the H.G. Wells short story, "The Country of the Blind."
“The Half Sister” (page 64)
Be sure your Works Cited page has no fewer than 2 sources.
Seventh Option: Analyze "An Anxious Man" in terms of the Faustian Bargain described in the essay "Love People, Not Pleasure," by Arthur C. Brooks.
Read these stories from the book:
One. "The Half Sister"
Two. "The Natural Order"
Three. "An Anxious Man"
Four. "The Incalculable Life Gesture"
Five. "Peter Kahn's Third Wife" and "It's Beginning to Hurt"
Six. "Cleanness" and "Caterpillars"
Essay Three: The Culture Code
In a 1,000-word essay, typed and double-spaced, support, refute, or complicate the assertion that The Culture Code evidences that marketing and advertising are evil agencies preying on anthropology, sociology, human psychology, the unconscious, the reptilian, and neuroscience to manipulate people into becoming helpless consumers. Be sure to use Toulmin model of argumentation and have a Works Cited page with no fewer than three sources.
Essay Four (Final): The New Jim Crow
Support, refute, or complicate Michelle Alexander's thesis that the current justice and prison system are perpetuating the old Jim Crow into a new Jim Crow. Use Toulmin or Rogerian model. Because this is your Final, it is a bit longer than your previous typed papers. While they are four pages (1,000 words), this essay is five pages (closer to 1,200 words). Be sure to have a Works Cited page with no fewer than three sources.
Grading
Four in-class writing exams: 50 each
Three typed 1,000-word essays: 100 each
One Final 1,200-word essay 200
Annotated bibliography: 50
Attendance and Class Participation: 50
800 Total Points
English 1A
Three In-Class Essays 50
Two Typed Essays 100
Attendance 50
Annotated Bibliography 50
Final Typed Essay 200
Total: 650 points
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