Analysis Paper #1

Paper copy to me and electronic copy to Turnitin.com due: Tuesday, November 11, 2008

 

This prompt is also available via the course webpage.

 

Directions: In an essay of no less than 700 words and no more than 1000, address one of the prompts below.  Include your word count and the question number you're responding to in your heading (if nothing else, this tells me that you're reading your assignment instructions).  Remember to use textual evidence to support your analysis and to be as specific as you can be. 

 

  1. Many define art and literature, in part, as that which is "timeless" and "universal"--that is, that art and literature transcend time and place and speak something of value to all people in all times.  Which work of literature that we have read so far seems to continue to speak pointedly to our time and place?  In other words, which of the works that we have read so far offers insight or a message or a truth that people in our time and place need to hear?

 

  1. In opposition to those who extol literature's ability to transcend time and place are those who argue that literature is a reflection or a product of the specific and unique historical circumstances in which it arose.  Select a work that we have read and explain EITHER what it tells us about the particular time and place in which it was created OR what an understanding of the particular time and place in which it was created can tell us about the piece.

 

  1. What are some of the defining characteristics of Puritanism and in what works we have read do you see these qualities reflected?

 

  1. Describe how some of the symbolism functions in “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” 

 

  1. What images or analogies does Jonathan Edwards use in “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” to evoke the situation of the unconverted? (In other words, what does it mean to be unconverted?).  What are the themes or ideas about God, humans, sin, and the human condition that are communicated by these images? 

 

  1. Many have argued that although "Rip Van Winkle" is a fictional tale, it presents truths that can teach the reader.  Are there any “truths” in the story?

 

  1. In "Rip Van Winkle," Washington Irving pays a great deal of attention to the landscape: the mountains, river, and weather that colors them.  What specific details does Irving include? What different moods does the landscape have? Does the landscape influence Rip's story in any way?

 

  1. When Rip enters town after his long sleep and is questioned about his identity, he says, ““ ‘God knows,’ exclaimed he, at his wit’s end; ‘I’m not myself—I’m somebody else—that’s me yonder—no—that’s somebody else, got into my shoes—I was myself last night, but I fell asleep on the mountain, and they’ve changed my gun and every thing’s changed, and I’m changed, and I can’t tell what’s my name, or who I am!’ ”  With these and other lines in this section in mind, explore how this story may be symbolic of American colonists’ experiences with separation from England.  What might Irving be saying about the consciousness and identity of the new Americans and their experience of the new America?

 

  1. What conclusions might we draw about 18th & 19th  century visions of “the American Dream” based on “Rip Van Winkle?”

 

  1. In "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," Irving pays a great deal of attention to the landscape.  What specific details does Irving include? What different moods does the landscape have? Does the landscape influence Ichabod’s perception in any way?

 

  1. Many have argued that although "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is a fictional tale, it presents truths that can teach the reader.  Are there any “truths” in the story?

 

  1. What kind of portrait does Irving offer in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” of rural, country folk, educated people, men, and women? 

 

  1. Most people know the story of the headless horseman and Ichabod Crane even without having read “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”  What does Ichabod represent and why is this story so popular?

 

  1. What point is Stowe driving at in Uncle Tom’s Cabin?  In other words, what does she want to impress upon readers, and how do the details and techniques employed in the story work toward this point?

 

  1. On 1702 of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Haley says, “Yes, I consider religion a valeyable [valuable] thing in a nigger, when it’s the genuine article, and no mistake.”  Explore the role of Christianity in the novel.  In what ways is Christianity “valuable” here?  Is it valuable in the same way to Shelby as it is to Haley?  What might Stowe be saying here about the affect of slavery on Christianity? 

 

  1. On 1702 of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Shelby says, “I am sorry to part with Tom, I must say.  You ought to let him cover the whole balance of the debt; and you would, Haley, if you had any conscience.”  Is Shelby a good man?  What does this exchange reveal about his character? 

 

  1. Haley says on page 1705 of Uncle Tom’s Cabin that his friend Tom Loker is a good man: “for a better hearted feller never broke bread….”  His only flaw was that he was a “devil” to slaves.  How can Haley consider Loker both a devil and a saint?  Does Haley think himself a good man?  How does he rationalize his actions?

 

  1. On 1729 of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Senator Bird, who is helping Eliza escape, ruminates on a dichotomy in his life: the week before he was making impassioned pleas on the senate floor to pass more stringent laws against helping runaway slaves and now he is helping a slave runaway.  The narrator explains this contradiction by saying, “but then [the week before on the senate floor] his idea of a fugitive was only an idea of the letters that spell the word.”  What is Stowe saying here about the cause of Bird’s change?  What is her more general point about slavery and suffering and our response to it?

 

  1. On 1742 of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Tom watches as Lucy [who later drowns herself] is told that her baby has been sold while she was distracted.  The narrator says of Tom, as he watches the whole scene, “To him, it looked like something unutterably horrible and cruel, because, poor, ignorant black soul! he had not learned to generalize, and to take enlarged views.  If only he had been instructed by certain ministers of Christianity, he might have thought better of it, and seen in it an every-day incident of a lawful trade; a trade which is the vital support of an institution which some American divines tell us has no evils but such as are inseparable from any other relations in social and domestic life.”  How are we, as readers, supposed to interpret the significance of this scene?  Unpackage as much meaning here as you can

 

  1. Look at the passage on 1744 of Uncle Tom’s Cabin in which the narrator addresses readers directly with questions like “But who, sir, makes the trader?”  What is the point Stowe is driving at here?

 

 

  1. Take any of one of the poems we have read and offer an explication of it.  This means that you will "unfold" or "unpackage" the poem by explaining the action, the symbols, the ideas, etc.  In short, to explicate a poem means to take it apart and examine the parts to understand how it functions as a whole.

 

  1. The dominant Western/European story of “genesis” (i.e. the story of the creation of the beginning of the universe and people) is the story of Adam and Eve.  Do you see any similarities between this story and the creation narrative of the Iroquois?  What are some of the differences?  What is the significance of some of these differences?  In other words, what might the different stories tell us about how each group of people understand their unique relationship to the earth and the particular place they inhabit; the meaning and purpose of their lives; the nature of and their relationship to God/gods; the relationship between the creator and the creation; the role of animals in the world; notions of wholeness, spirituality, and heaven; and reality itself?

 

  1. Consider the god-like figure of Juhwertamahkai in the Pima creation story along with the Judeo/Christian notion of God depicted in Genesis.  What are some specific ways these gods are different?  (try to name some specific things the writers claim these gods do or think)  What kinds of conclusions can you draw about the mindset of both Pimas and Europeans from a comparison of these two supreme beings?  In other words, knowing what you know about the nature of the gods the Pimas and Europeans worshipped, how would you describe the world-view, the values, the “approach to life and living,” etc. of both the Europeans and the Pimas?

 

  1. How would you explain what a “trickster” is to someone who was unfamiliar with the texts we read and Native American culture? 

 

25.  Paine and Jonathan Edwards were nearly contemporaries, and as quickly as Edwards’s power and authority declined, Paine’s rose—especially with the publication of Common Sense.  What do you suppose colonists may have found persuasive about Paine’s argument?  Are there ideas expressed here that still resonate with Americans?  Be sure to point to specifics in your response.

 

  1. Consider the assumptions and rhetorical strategies used by both Jonathan Edwards and Thomas Paine.  What kinds of assumptions do they seem to be operating from?  Are Paine and Edwards “coming from” different places or do they share some things in common?  How do their writing styles differ?  How are they similar?