Question :

1. Describe how the concept of reason was applied during the Enlightenment. How does Tartuffe reflect these ideas?

2. Describe how the character of Tartuffe is symbolic of religious hypocrisy. How do other characters in the play represent how Christians can fall prey to this?

3. Contrast the Houyhnhnms with the Yahoos. How does Swift apply his satiric message about human nature and reason?

4. Explain how Swift uses rational speech to explain the irrational in A Modest Proposal. How is Swift's serious message communicated through irony and exaggeration?

5. Analyze how man''s selfish desires are part of the dramatic monologues read this week.

6. How is nature depicted in this week's poetry? Choose two poems from this week and analyze their ideas about nature.

7. What is Dickinson's view of death? Is it a Christian view? Cite examples from her poems.

8. Choose a Dickinson poem from the list in the text's table of contents that is not part of the assigned reading. What is it about? What are its major themes?

9. How is Ivan's life, in many ways, like any man's life? Provide realistic details that make his life "ordinary" yet "terrible" as the story says.

10. Does Ivan Ilyich experience a Christian conversion? Explain your answer. Who are the characters involved in Ivan's life at the end that may have led to this? How does Tolstoy use symbolism to portray this?

11. Analyze how Kafka's style blends reality with fantasy in his famous short story. How are bizarre details and events combined with regular life?

12. Because it's absurd to say that a man could actually change into a bug, what are Kafka's points about change? Do the characters in the story have a change of heart? How does Scripture show examples of God's power to change us?

13. How does the story reflect the existentialist idea that man has free choice? What are the choices and consequences of the characters? Is there one choice that reflects truth and rightfulness?

14. The story is also known for its absurdism (the philosophy that humans can never find real meaning, and if they try, they will fail). What details in this story reflect absurdism? How does this contrast to a Christian worldview? Explain.