Answer one of the following questions. You may use your books when preparing for and writing this essay, and you should quote from the text(s) in your answer, using MLA format. Works Cited page is not necessary, however. Plan to write about two double-spaced, typed pages in 12-pt font, 1" margins. Your essay should have a short introduction with a thesis statement.

Do not conduct any outside research and do not work in group

1) Voltaire once wrote, "Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities." Compare and contrast any two writers so far this semester who challenge the "absurdities"-social, political, or spiritual-that they see in the world around them, and who challenge the entrenched authorities that condone such absurdities. What, specifically, does each of your writers regard as absurd? Who or what is responsible for this absurdity, and what does each writer propose as a solution?

2) As we have been moving into and up through the nineteenth century in our readings, one recurring phenomenon is the rise of the bourgeoisie and the values that this class enshrines. Using two texts that we have read this semester, compare and contrast the ways in which those texts depict bourgeois values and what sort of critique, if any, they offer of those values. Even if the writers of the two texts you have chosen had no idea of each other's existence, put their respective texts into conversation. This should not read
like two separate essays!