Romanticism Discuss romanticism and the enlightenment in Rousseau, Goethe’s Faust and Madame Bovary. Write a research paper of around 5 pages including bibliography on one of the following subjects. Cite your sources, preferably according to MLA format. Other formats are also allowed Back up your argument with citations and Secondary sources.
The Garden of Eden and Tower of Babel. Do human beings behave like God in “The Garden of Eden” and “The Tower of Babel”? Or does God behave like a human being? (1 page)
The Death of Ivan Ilyich and The Metamorphosis are similar in that each focus on a main character in a very realistic writing style. We, the readers, see the daily events, no matter how trivial, of these characters’ lives. The difference, though, is that Tolstoy has presented a brutally honest portrayal of real life while … Read more
Ghalib’s sacred version of “I’ve made my home next door to you” and Yeats’ “The Second Coming” both portray a god in a very nontraditional way. Ghalib casts his god as beloved person who torments worshippers, and Yeats portrays Jesus as a “rough beast.” Compare and contrast how these portrayals support the message in each … Read more
Achebe’s “Chike’s School Days” and Walcott’s “The Sea Is History” both confront prejudice but in different ways. Achebe uses subtle humor to show how people from a single tribe treat one another differently while Walcott invokes a wide span of history—primarily Biblical—to illustrate how different races treat one another differently. However, at the root of … Read more
Zaabalawi” by Mahfouz, “Digging” by Seamus Heaney, “Girl’ by Jamaica Kincaid, and “The Old Gun” by Yan all depend on a rich cultural heritage to create their messages. Which of these works depend most on an understanding of the cultural background, and which depend the least explain why by comparing and contrasting all four works.
Although written over a hundred years apart, Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey” and Yeats’ “Leda and the Swan” are both poems that reflect on particular moments in time and meditate on their historical significance. For Wordsworth, the moment was the beginning of the social revolution in France, and for Yeats it was the aftermath of the First … Read more
Nabokov’s “The Vane Sisters,” Marquez’s “Death Constant Beyond Love,” and Silko’s “Yellow Woman” all deal with illicit sexual relationships. Compare and contrast which partner in these affairs is more powerful—the person cheating or the lover.
Respond to the following with an essay in at least one full page. Political dilemmas punctuate The Guest by Camus, “God Has Pity on Kindergarten Children” by Amichai, and “In Camera” by Saadawi. Compare and contrast the directly political messages of “In Camera” with the more philosophical tones of The Guest and “God Has Pity … Read more
Divine Comedy Identify and explain another crux in the poem, selected from somewhere between Cantos VI and XXV. Find a particular moment of apparent ambiguity, ambivalence, and tension – a “crossroads” at which the reader must choose a direction to continue. (1) Identify the crux. (2) Explain its context or implications. (3) Formulate a series … Read more
