ESSAY
WILFRID LAURIER UNIVERSITY
Waterloo, Ontario
English 119B
Reading Fiction
Dr. L Shakinovsky Winter 2005
Office: 2-103 Alvin Woods Building
Essay Topics
Due: 14 March
Length: 5pages
Please note that on the due date, essays are to be placed in your tutorial leader=s mailbox which is located on the second floor of the Woods Building, outside the English Department Office. All essays must be submitted through Turnitin.com. Details to follow.
1. Discuss the way in which Updike uses Sammy=s narrative voice to discuss the intersection of the issues of class and gender in AThe A&P.@
2. Discuss the ways in which Bowen utilises setting and objects to explore the central concerns of AThe Demon Lover.@
3. Ghosts always possess a certain ambiguity. Discuss the function of both ghosts and ambiguity in ALigeia.@
4. Acts of violence might be personal, political, psychological or cultural. Choose any, some, or all of these aspects and analytically discuss the function of violence in either Jane Eyre, Heart of Darkness, or Things Fall Apart. You may choose to focus your discussion on a single episode if you would like to.
5. While AThe Daughters of the Late Colonel@ focuses primarily on the domestic world of the two sisters, the story also refers the reader to larger social and political issues. Discuss the ways in which Mansfield uses her representation of the familial world of the two sisters in order to explore the larger social and political issues of her time. You may focus your discussion on all or some of the various relationships in the story or on Mansfield=s use of setting and objects.
6. In Shakespeare=s tragedy King Lear, Lear, the tragic hero of the play, describes himself as a Aman / more sinned against than sinning.@ Using these terms, discuss the way in which things fall apart for Okonkwo in Achebe=s Things Fall Apart. Is he responsible for his own downfall, destroyed by circumstances beyond his control, or brought down by a combination of the two?
7. In 1919, Sigmund Freud wrote an essay titled "The 'Uncanny'" in which he writes about the phenomenon of the "double." According to Freud, the double in fiction is not limited to characters who merely look alike but by the fact that one character "possesses knowledge, feelings and experience in common with the other." Write an essay in which you discuss how the theme of the double enables us to understand the bond that exists either between Victor Frankenstein and his creature or between Jane Eyre and Bertha Mason.
Waterloo, Ontario
English 119B
Reading Fiction
Dr. L Shakinovsky Winter 2005
Office: 2-103 Alvin Woods Building
Essay Topics
Due: 14 March
Length: 5pages
Please note that on the due date, essays are to be placed in your tutorial leader=s mailbox which is located on the second floor of the Woods Building, outside the English Department Office. All essays must be submitted through Turnitin.com. Details to follow.
1. Discuss the way in which Updike uses Sammy=s narrative voice to discuss the intersection of the issues of class and gender in AThe A&P.@
2. Discuss the ways in which Bowen utilises setting and objects to explore the central concerns of AThe Demon Lover.@
3. Ghosts always possess a certain ambiguity. Discuss the function of both ghosts and ambiguity in ALigeia.@
4. Acts of violence might be personal, political, psychological or cultural. Choose any, some, or all of these aspects and analytically discuss the function of violence in either Jane Eyre, Heart of Darkness, or Things Fall Apart. You may choose to focus your discussion on a single episode if you would like to.
5. While AThe Daughters of the Late Colonel@ focuses primarily on the domestic world of the two sisters, the story also refers the reader to larger social and political issues. Discuss the ways in which Mansfield uses her representation of the familial world of the two sisters in order to explore the larger social and political issues of her time. You may focus your discussion on all or some of the various relationships in the story or on Mansfield=s use of setting and objects.
6. In Shakespeare=s tragedy King Lear, Lear, the tragic hero of the play, describes himself as a Aman / more sinned against than sinning.@ Using these terms, discuss the way in which things fall apart for Okonkwo in Achebe=s Things Fall Apart. Is he responsible for his own downfall, destroyed by circumstances beyond his control, or brought down by a combination of the two?
7. In 1919, Sigmund Freud wrote an essay titled "The 'Uncanny'" in which he writes about the phenomenon of the "double." According to Freud, the double in fiction is not limited to characters who merely look alike but by the fact that one character "possesses knowledge, feelings and experience in common with the other." Write an essay in which you discuss how the theme of the double enables us to understand the bond that exists either between Victor Frankenstein and his creature or between Jane Eyre and Bertha Mason.