Paper #2 -- Sample Topics
 

General instructions:

For your second paper, we encourage you to design your own topic.  We also recommend that you think about working with two texts instead of one, although we will not turn away strong papers on a single text.  You are welcome to include the secondary reading from the course packet in your paper, as well as texts from the first half of the course.  The only firm restriction is that you not write on the text you discussed in your first paper.  If you do design your own topic, you should see your preceptor as soon as possible to discuss the topic's scope, feasibility, etc.

You are also welcome to use -- or adapt -- one of the three sample topics below.  If you look closely, you'll notice that each of these sample questions concerns a similar general topic (the question of primitivism/heredity), but suggests a different way to focus that topic.  You might do the same sort of thing as you design your own question, whether it is on primitivism or some entirely different matter: begin with a general topic and then narrow it to a more specific focus or aspect.  If you do choose to adapt one of these sample topics, please also discuss your approach beforehand with your preceptor.

However you proceed, be sure to focus your essay on the close examination of very specific scenes.  As with your first essay, be sure to shape your discussion into a clear and sustained argument about these scenes, rather than simply a series of observations or a summary of your chosen text(s).  If you write on two texts, try also to avoid writing two mini-papers joined by a midpoint transition, with an argument that reads something like "this one book handles the topic this way, but this other book handles it this other way."  Instead, try to explain what those differences (or similarities) reveal, either about the texts or the topic.  Any comparisons or contrasts, in other words, should culminate in a specific argument about the texts in relation to your topic, not just "book #1 says x, but book #2 says y."  If you have any questions about this approach, please see your preceptor.
 

Sample topics:

1.  How does the primitive shape modern life in Riders of the Purple Sage, Tarzan, and/or The Age of Innocence?  In her essay on Tarzan (available through a link on the Tarzan page of this course website), Marianna Torgovnick argues that whatever is presented as primitive seems natural (45).  You can respond to her argument by extending it to other scenes from Tarzan or other texts that she doesn't discuss.  If you find things that the text presents as natural by making them seem primitive, be sure to explain what are the implications of this naturalness.  Another approach you may take is to find places in the text where the primitive has some other effect besides making something seem natural.  For instance, representing something as primitive may make it seem atavistic, debased, brutal, distorted by superstition, etc.  Again, be sure to explain the implications of whatever significance attaches to the primitive: why does it matter in the text? what effect does it have on the characters' lives?  In addition, if you draw on Torgovnick's essay (and it could be a useful starting point), be careful to make clear which ideas are hers and which ones you have developed in response to her arguments.

2.  Many of the books we have read this semester present young characters on the verge of adulthood, confronting what it means to “grow up,” and confronted by societal expectations often at odds with their personal desires.  Similarly, many of these novels present segments of society on the verge of, if not “growing up,” then of losing an “innocence” associated with the past.  One could argue that many of these novels are investigating and critiquing the very concepts “innocence” and “experience,” questioning the supposed “innocence” of the past in light of  the supposed “experience” of the contemporary moment, or questioning the idea of “the primitive” in light of supposed “civilization.”  One way to approach to this topic would be to consider how, for instance, The Age of Innocence or Gone with the Wind construct “innocence” and “experience,” or old and new civilizations, through individual characters.  In what ways do these societies’ “comings of age” parallel or contrast with Scarlett’s or Newland Archer’s?  It is very often the case that the expected binaries (childhood/adulthood; innocence/ experience; primitivity/civilization) do not quite hold, but are complicated by the novel—so that civilization can come to seem primitive, innocence rather more experienced, the “adult world” more freeing than the supposed freedoms of childhood.  Write an essay in which you investigate one or two novels’ takes on “growing up” -- be it individual, societal, or both—paying close attention to specific scenes and specific characters.

3.  In many of the texts we have read, there have been tensions among characters' inherited traits, early training, personal inclinations and/or life circumstances.  Consider the how one of these elements in a character's life shapes, reinforces, or thwarts another of these elements.  For instance, you might want to examine how Newland Archer's upbringing in New York high society relates to the tastes and desires that Ellen's presence brings out in him.  Or you may analyze how Scarlett O'Hara's Irish or French heredity equips or fails to equip her for what she faces in life.  Be sure to organize your observations on this topic into a focused argument.
 

Length: 8 pages

Due Date: Friday, December 15 (the end of week 12).  Please turn your papers in by 4:00 p.m. to your preceptor's mailbox in 22 McCosh Hall.  Work submitted after the due date will be penalized.

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