THIRD

SELECT ONE OF THE OPTIONS AND WRITE AN ESSAY of at least 1,000 words (three typed pages). Be sure to use ample quotes from the readings to make your points. Please be sure to give me the author, title and link for any literature you use if not already assigned for reading. NO OUTSIDE/CRITICAL SOURCES should be used in your paper. This paper is entirely an analysis and discussion of your own!

NOTE: Either attach the paper as a Microsoft Word (.doc) document or paste it with proper margins into your email to me. I can't download WordPerfect (.wpd) or other odd formats. Sorry...

Click here for a Style Sheet which may also help you better structure and style your essay: Style Sheet. See the HINT ON A BETTER GRADE at the bottom of the page.

WHICHEVER OPTION YOU SELECT, REMEMBER PLEASE THAT THE HEART OF A GOOD LITERATURE PAPER IS IN THE QUOTES YOU SELECT FROM THE READINGS. Use a quote about, or better still, spoken by one of the characters to establish your own thematic points.

NOTE: YOU CAN'T USE THE PREVIOUS READINGS (PLAYS, POEMS). YOU MUST USE THE SHORT STORIES AND THE NOVEL! If you wish to use a novel or short story not on the reading list, you must GET PERMISSION! Email me to ask if you can use something not on my required reading list.

NOTE: DO NOT TELL ME YOU ADMIRE RON FOR HIS RELIGIOUS AND PATRIOTIC BELIEFS. You can tell me you disagree with his rejecting them. The point of his book is that he rejects the "brainwashing" of his earlier life. He feels the lessons were false.

1. Compare Ron in Born on the Fourth of July to any other main character in any other short story to argue who's the better model for how a young person should live life. Be sure to clearly state the philosophy, values and ethics of each character and give quotes you can use to explain their life-view. Your paper is an argument and so should proceed by giving convincing evidence, examples from the literature that would justify a person's wanting to do as they did. Be sure to use actual quotes as examples.

2. Compare yourself to Ron and any of the characters in the novel and at least two of the short stories to build a portrait of yourself. Your purpose is to say what you do or don't admire--what values you yourself would espouse or reject among the characters you meet in the novel(s) and stories. Stay with each character long enough that you make their belief clear and your judgment of them regarding your own life equally clear. Perhaps any three or four characters would be enough to tackle! Be sure to use actual quotes as examples.

3. Use Ron's story and the short stories to explain the behavior of the masses; how they are regarded by the leaders (the President of our country, "bosses," teachers, Town Elders, school administrators, etc.). Say how the masses live their lives and whether you are indeed one of the masses or someone who has set him/herself apart. Use quotes from the novel and stories, of course, to develop the view of the masses but also give examples from your own life to say how you are or aren't to be counted among them. Be sure to use actual quotes as examples.

Recall that, as with the second paper, you may include Major Barbara as a character in your choices when writing one of these options.

The last paper is probably the most personal you will write. However, because this is a literature course, your paper should be about the literature and literary characters first, and you second. That is the key to doing it well.

You can begin by saying, for example, that: I believe, as Ron does, that we are in danger if we let our government lie to us. I would want to stand up to injustice like Sammy in "A&P," not succumb to it like Paul in "Paul's Case." Thereafter, you would write a little introduction to set up what you want to prove. Each paragraph, thereafter, would find a key quote for each character.

Set the scene; quote, explain the quote, so I know what each character believes. Then--only after doing that literature part of the paper--you would say how you, yourself, agree or disagree with the character. Your own experience would come after your literary analysis to answer the question how you and your experiences are like the characters.

That puts the literature first in a proper literature paper even though it answers with your own personal point of view and experiences