II. Essay of Personal Response
Choose a character, a statement, a theme, an occurrence,
an image, or a scene in a novel and write a personal essay developing
your response to it. Your response may include a point by point
comparison and/or contrast, or you may refer to the novel briefly
(e.g., use the reference to the novel as a jumping off point)
and then devote the rest of your essay to your own response.
For instance, Crusoe's conversion may move you to write about your conversion, whether toward God or away. Crusoe on the island may lead to a discussion of your feelings of isolation or the value of being alone.
Minimum length:1200 words
Choose a character, a statement, a theme, an occurrence,
an image, or a scene in a novel which leads you into an analysis
of some aspect of society today. For instance, the character of Crusoe could lead to a criticism of corporate culture; the relationship of Crusoe and Friday could be the basis of a discussion of race relations in the US. The food and water pollution in Humphrey Clinker exist today as environmental issues, and luxury, ostentation, and gentrification continue in our culture.
Minimum length:1200 words
You could try an author or a character for one
or more crimes against modern readers, against humanity, against
characters in the novel, against the law, or against morality.
You may write a brief or motion for a trial. Or you may hold
a trial with judge, prosecuting attorney; critics and secondary
characters may be "expert witnesses" for both sides;
the defendants may have a chance to reply. Keep the audience
or jury in mind. You may ask questions and provide specific
summaries or quotations as evidence. Or you may report a trial
for a newspaper. Examples: Friday could sue Crusoe for coercion and kidnaping and slavery; the Harlowes could sue Lovelace for the alienation of their daughter's affections; Evelina could sue Sir Clement Willoughby for attempted rape; the reader could sue Sterne or Richardson for being boring.
Length: This paper will be longer than the 5-page
minimum of choices I, II, and III.
Write your own short story; it does not have to
have a connection with any novel read in this course. Or you
may experiment; try presenting the point of view of a minor
character from one of the novels, e.g., Friday, the Portuguese captain, Xury, Crusoe's mother or wife.
A short story must be fully developed; it is not merely a three-page
statement of the action of conversation. Characters must be
individualized, physically, emotionally, morally, spiritually,
etc.; they must have some sort of relationship to others, their
environment, and/or their society (note: one kind of relationship
is the inability to form attachments). They must be placed in
a physical world. The story must also have a point to be made
and/or an effect to be achieved. Therefore a short story will
be considerably longer than assignments I, II, and III.
Length: How long does the short story have to
be? As long as it needs to be to achieve its purpose(s). Successful
student short stories have ranged from ten pages to nearly fifty.
(I do not mean to encourage length by sticking in unnecessary
words. Wordiness and redundancy are serious flaws in any writing.)
The purpose of the Web paper is to insure that you
have explored at least three of the Websites which are listed on my site. I recommend that one be the Dictionary of Sensibility, which defines key terms of eighteenth-century discourse.
You will briefly analyze the three Websites: Was a Website
useful? why or why not? Whom would it be useful for–student, scholar,
general public, child, no one? Was it easy to use and clearly organized? Did you learn anything? If so,what? In other words, you are writing the kind of response you would give to a friend who asked what you thought of a particular Website
Minimum length: 1-2 pages