Herman Melville
Moby
Dick Essay Prompt on
a Literary Element: Analyze the
conflict created when the will of an individual opposes the will of the
majority. Discuss the moral and ethical implications that this conflict
has for the individual and for society. Another
Essay Prompt on a Literary Element:
Describe the major differences and similarites in a sequence of parallel
or recurring events that occur in this play and discuss the significance
of such events. Do not merely summarize the plot. Another
Essay Prompt on a Literary Element:
Choose a complex character from this play who might--on the bisis of the
character's actions alone--be considered evil or immoral. Then write
a well-organized essay that analyzes how and why the full presentation
of the character in the play makes us react more sympathetically than we
otherwise might. Avoid plot summary. Another
Essay Prompt on a Literary Element:
Analyze the recurring theme seen in this novel of the classic war between
passion and responsibility. For instance, a personal cause, a love,
a desire for revenge, a determination to redress a wrong, or some other
emotion or drive that may conflict with moral duty. Then, in a well-written
essay, show clearly the nature of the conflict, its effects upon the character,
and its significance to the work. Another
Essay Prompt on a Literary Element:
In questioning the value of literary realism, Flannery O'Connor has written,
"I am interested in making a good case for distortion because I am coming
to believe that it is the only way to make people see." Write an
essay in which you "make a good case for distortion," as distinct from
literary realism. Analyze how important elements of this novel are "distorted"
and explain how these distortions contribute to the effectiveness of this
novel. Avoid plot summary. Another
Essay Prompt on a Literary Element:
This work offers a happy ending through moral development. Write
a well-organized essay that identifies the moral reconciliation evident
on the ending and analyze its significance in the work as a whole. Another
Essay Prompt on a Literary Element:
In this novel, a character's apparent madness or irrational behavior plays
an important role. Write a well-organized essay in which you explain
what this eccentric behavior consists of and how it might be judged reasonable.
Explain the significance of the madness to the work as a whole.) Essay
Prompt on a Literary Element: Critic
Roland Barthes has said, "Literature is the question minus the answer."
Choose a novel or play and, and considering Barthes' observation, write
an essay in which you analyze a central question the work raises and the
extent to which it offers any answers. Explain how the author's treatment
of this question affects your understanding of the work as a whole.
Avoid mere plot summary. Billy
Budd Essay Prompt on a Literary
Element: Choose a complex character
from this play who might--on the bisis of the character's actions alone--be
considered evil or immoral. Then write a well-organized essay that
analyzes how and why the full presentation of the character in the play
makes us react more sympathetically than we otherwise might. Avoid
plot summary. Another Essay
Prompt on a Literary Element:
Write a well-organized essay that analyzes how the meaning of this novel
is enhanced by sustained allusions to myths, the Bible, or other works
of literature. Another Essay Prompt
on a Literary Element: Write a
well-organized essay that analyzes how this novel confronts the reader
with a scene or scenes of violence. Be sure to explain how these
scenes contribute to the meaning of the work as a whole. Avoid plot
summary. Another Essay Prompt on a Literary
Element: Select an important character
in this novel who is a villain. Then, in a well-organized essay,
analyze the nature of ther character's villainy and show how it enhances
the meaning of the work . Avoid plot summary. Do not base your
essay on a work that you know about only from having seen a television
or movie production of it. Another
Essay Prompt on a Literary Element:
In this novel, a character--not necessarily the protagonist--is pulled
in conflicting directions by two compelling desires, ambitions, obligations,
or influences. Write a well-organized essay that identifies each
conflicting force and explain how this plaguing conflict within one character
illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole. Benito
Cereno Essay Prompt on a Literary
Element: In questioning the value
of literary realism, Flannery O'Connor has written, "I am interested
in making a good case for distortion because I am coming to believe that
it is the only way to make people see." Write an essay in which you
"make a good case for distortion," as distinct from literary realism. Analyze
how important elements of this novel are "distorted" and explain how these
distortions contribute to the effectiveness of this novel. Avoid
plot summary.
Moby
Dick I-LXVII
Captain Ahab tracks the White Whale against all odds.
Moby
Dick LXVIII-CXXXIV
Captain Ahab tracks the White Whale against all odds.
Typee
Novel account of life in the South Seas as experienced by Melville. |