Essay Instructions: Choose 9-14 Questions they each have to be at least 1 page long.
Based on multiple books
I need the 9-14 because i need the extra credit.
Here are the directions....
INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Please answer 8 out of the 14 questions below. Each answer should be a minimum of 300 and a maximum of 450 words. The total length of the assignment should be 2400-3200 words. Please double-space your answers.
2. List the number of the question you are answering. For example: if question number 5 is the 3rd question you are answering, number that as “5” and not as “3.”
3. You may answer ONE extra question for extra credit that will count toward your class participation grade if you have not been participating. If you have been participating, do not answer this extra question. If you have not participated at all, this question is offered to help a little bit (not to make up for an entire semester).
4. In your answers (to the extent that this is not specified below), please keep in mind the general themes we've been discussing all semester, including the complexities of cross-cultural perception (exoticism, xenophobia, and the rarer approach of taking a different culture as seriously as one takes one’s own), colonialism and its aftermath, the complexities of identity, mis-readings based upon stereotypes, and the projection of ideas and identities from one person onto another person or group. When authors create characters from different backgrounds they must rely on a combination of observation and imagination. Sometimes this works and sometimes it does not, but keep this in mind as you answer your questions. (Translation: if you’re running out of things to say, refer to this note #4 to find things to say.)
QUESTIONS:
1. Explore the consequences of the use and misuse of power in Bad Day at Black Rock and two of the following works: This Blessed House, Pym, or Henderson the Rain King. Who has power? How do the protagonists of each story react to the use or misuse of power?
2. In Henderson the Rain King King Dahfu creates a productive synthesis of traditional and modern points of view that he has been exposed to. How does Dahfu synthesize these approaches to nature? How does he compare in this regard to other characters (such as N’Gana Frimbo in The Conjure-Man Dies)?
3. Bubber Brown in The Conjure-Man Dies and Garth Frierson in Pym are both less educated than the main characters around them and supply each story with both comic relief and a perspective different from the better educated characters.
4. Macon Detornay and Eugene Henderson are very similar in some important ways and different in other ways. Please discuss and elaborate their similarities and differences, taking into account the plots and themes of Angry Black White Boy and Henderson the Rain King.
5. Was Easley Jones a “real” person or was he completely a creation of Sam Crouch? Argue for or against and provide evidence from the text of The Conjure-Man Dies.
6. Compare these relationships and how the following relationships drive the plots of the novels in which they appear: Macon and Nique, Henderson and Dahfu, Archer and Frimbo.
7. Dr. Stephen Albert in The Garden of Forking Paths, Macon Detornay, and Mr. Kapasi are all “experts” or have developed some expertise after studying groups that are not the group they were born into. What are some interesting problems or questions that arise from these situations?
8. Many of the characters we have examined find themselves trying to adjust to new surroundings and trying to read the signs of their new surroundings. Do they exoticize (superficially celebrate) their new surroundings or do they perhaps project a pre-conceived image of what those surroundings should be onto their surroundings? Possible characters you may discuss are Twinkle, the narrator of The Aleph (“Borges”), the protagonist of “The Approach to Al Mu’Tassim,” Macon, Henderson, Archer, Chris Jaynes, Garth Frierson, or Arthur Gordon Pym.
9. Macready (in Bad Day at Black Rock) and Macon Detornay both find themselves in perilous situations. How did they get there, why are they there, and how did the situations end, and why? How are both narratives significant for their dissection and representation of the prejudices of Macready’s and Macon’s antagonists?
10. In The Aleph and The Congress, Borges deals with similar themes (the quest for universal knowledge, etc.). I see The Congress as a riff on The Aleph. But the stark difference, aside from the lack of a supernatural element in The Congress, is the opposite backgrounds of the narrators. Please discuss and explain.
11. In nearly everything we read or watched, something goes terribly wrong, or something very carefully planned ends up happening not as planned, and that leads the story toward its resolution, for better or worse. Please discuss how plans go awry in these works in detail using at least five works (possible choices include Henderson the Rain King, Angry Black White Boy, Pym, The Conjure-Man Dies, “The Congress,” “Interpreter of Maladies.”)
12. We noted that “Interpreter of Maladies” was derived from/inspired by Ernest Hemingway’s short story “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber.” a) Please compare and analyze the similarities and differences of these two stories. b) Discuss another story that was inspired by an older story and examine the similarities and differences between them.
13. Compare and contrast Chris Jaynes’s finding of Arthur Gordon Pym with Henderson’s finding of Dahfu and Yu Tsun’s finding of Stephen Albert.
14. Do you have your own great idea for a question and answer? Make up the question and answer it. You must make the question/answer deal with texts that we read (or the film we watched) and themes we discussed.
