Choose the topic you would like to explore, offer some information on what interests you about this topic, and supply a working thesis and key ideas you would like to develop.
After reviewing the list of prompts, choose one that you would like to explore. In addition, you should choose a literary work to discuss that relates to your topic of choice. The suggested literary works for each topic are listed beneath each prompt. Please review the Week 5 model example to understand what you are working toward on this assignment and future assignments
Consider the role of setting, or context, in one of the works. For example, a story that takes place in a wild and natural setting might include characters struggling against nature to survive. A story set in a city might include themes of alienation and anonymity because of the impersonal crowds and busy city life. Cultural contexts can combine with both urban and rural elements to produce further meaning, as well. Consider the following questions as you critically read one of the texts below: Does the protagonist conflict with the setting or have particular interactions with it? Does the protagonist's relationship with the setting connect with his/her development as a character? Does the setting reveal other themes and conflicts?
Literary Works (choose one from any of the lists below):
"The Man of the Crowd" (Links to an external site.)
Links to an external site.
(Edgar Allan Poe, 1845)
- Guiding Questions: How does the city setting--busy streets, buildings with specific purposes, dark backstreets-- produce a disorienting and confining experience for people in the story?
- How may all of the different occupations and "types" of workers in the city combine to communicate that no one is an individual person and no one really knows each other?
- What sorts of problems do the narrator and some of the other characters have as a result of this alienating city life? (Think of the narrator's obsession with the man.)