Topics for Paper One

English 140
Teaching Associate: Patrick Mooney
Summer 2012

Turn in a typed paper of three to five pages on one of the topics below. You may also write on another topic of your own choosing, provided that you discuss the topic with me and that I approve it at least one week before the paper due date. Your paper should consist of a close reading of the text(s) with which you are engaging and an argument based on that reading. Your paper is due at the beginning of lecture on Thursday, 23 August 2012.

Your paper should be double-spaced, have one-inch margins, properly attribute words and ideas belonging to others, and in all other ways conform to the MLA standard for academic papers in the humanities. If your word processor does not conform to the MLA standard by default, it is your job to override your word processor's defaults in order to produce a correctly formatted paper. The degree to which you conform to the conventions of formal academic writing will also be a strong factor in your grade.

A more detailed description of my grading criteria can be found at http://is.gd/qijona, or from the course website.

Any instance of plagiarism will result in removal from the course and referral to the University's student conduct committee.

  1. In Philip Roth's The Plot Against America, the phrase plot against America or a close variant occurs nearly a dozen times to describe one or another plot that a character alleges is occurring. Which of these plots are the plot(s) to which the title refers?
  2. The speaker in the last section of of Toni Morrison's Beloved says It was not a story to pass on or This was not a story to pass on three times. Which story specifically is this narrator speaking about, and, given this assertion, why did Morrison tell the story contained in the novel?
  3. Philip Roth's The Plot Against America and Toni Morrison's Beloved are both semi-fictional novels set in the American past, and each takes a specific position on what the relationship is between historical events and the identity of present-day Americans. Contrast the two views of history, explaining the differences between the two and what is at stake for each author in his/her position on history.
  4. One aspect contributing to the atmosphere of normalcy against which the action of Philip Roth's The Plot Against America occurs is normal gender relationships in the 1940s. Choose a specific interaction in the novel that highlights how gender relationships are formed and show how that episode contributes to the formation of ideas about normal gender roles.
  5. As discussed in lecture, T.S. Eliot's Burnt Norton contains numerous sections in which the poem's meter illustrates, accentuates, and in other ways contributes to the philosophical speculations on time. Choose one or two short sections in East Coker that do the same thing and provide a reading of those sections, showing the ways in which poetic rhythm relates to the philosophical position the poem takes relating to time.