Midterm Paper

Description

Violence, powerlessness, hope, and redemption. In a 5-6 page double-spaced essay, consider the 4 concepts I have listed here as they inform the major themes of 4 different works we have studied so far this semester, dedicating one and a 1/2 pages approximately to each text. Do not repeat in too much detail from work done in your earlier quizzes on the Odyssey or Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and do not repeat any information in my audio files; you may however refer to those files and to class discussion as you form your own points, bouncing off of something I or a classmate has said. Contemplate these themes for a while and choose texts in which you see a dynamic engagement of these 4 themes in any variety of ways. In your essay you may in fact discuss more than 4 texts, but 4 is a minimum. That is you can always make brief mentions of other texts we have read here and there beyond the 4. But I do want a detailed, 1.5 page analysis of 4 different texts and how they engage with these major themes of violence, powerlessness, hope, and redemption. You may find that some texts engage with these themes in the negative, that is, in their absence–up to you to figure it out. As with all the work we do in this class, provide detailed quotations and close readings of the actual texts. Use in-text citation by page and line numbers when quoting. And make sure that you conceive of some larger unifying thesis for your essay, as opposed to simply going through one work at a time and an isolated, unrelated fashion. These are the instructions given by the professor. Please use The Longman Anthology, World Literature, Second Edition, Volume A. If you don’t have that book, I can send pictures. I want to focus on Homer’s Iliad: (Books 1,18,20,24), Homer’s Odyssey: (Books 1,5,6,9,11,14,22,23), Virgil’s Aeneid: (Books 1,2,4,6,8,12), Ovid’s Metamorphosis :(Books 1,2,3,6,8,10,11,15) Please, please do not use too many big words and use citations only from the book. No outside sources. Thank you so much.