More About Essays
I think that students learn three basic skills in humanities classes: (1) how to think, and how to express that thinking both (2) orally and (3) in writing. Thus it should not be surprising that all of the courses I teach include a substantial amount of writing, and that most of the writing assignments I give have no "correct" answer, but are a matter of the student forming a point of view based on class reading, and then articulating that point of view in an essay.
This page includes additional suggestions on how to write a good essay and additional suggestions on most of the essay topics I use in the various classes I teach.
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We hope that your
endeavors in writing will not prove as problematic as Marat's.
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SPECIFIC COURSES:
HUMANITIES
4: ARTS & IDEAS
HUMANITIES 5: ARTS
& IDEAS
HUMANITIES 9: AMERICAN IDENTITIES IN THE ARTS
HUMANITIES 10: WORLD RELIGIONS (classroom version)
HUMANITIES 10: WORLD RELIGIONS (online version)
HUMANITIES 10: WORLD RELIGIONS
(telecourse version)
HUMANITIES 11: RELIGION IN AMERICA
HUMANITIES 16: ARTS & IDEAS: AMERICAN CULTURE
HUMANITIES 18, DEATH
Return to Richard Mahon Homepage
For most of the essays I assign, a common basic structure will at least establish the potential for you to write an excellent essay. All of the essays I assign are interpretive. There is no right answer to any of these questions--which is why I can read a stack of them and not become a zombie. You may make an argument in your essay which is the opposite of a classmate, and both have the potential to be excellent essays. Thus the overall structure of an essay should (1) state what you think, (2) discuss the evidence that supports your thinking, and (3) indicate why your point of view matters. Let me discuss each of these in a bit more detail.
An excellent essay will begin with a clear indication of what the essay will attempt to prove. It is common for writers to discover what they think about a subject only after they have begun writing. This discovery, whenever it happens, should be anticipated in the first paragraph of the essay. This often means that you may have to go back and revise the beginning of the essay if you have begun writing before making your discovery. This is not a hard and fast rule: some writers know where they're going in an essay before they begin to write, and their introduction may be basically sound to begin with. Most writers, however, figure out what they want to say as they proceed, and will want to re-write the essay as though they had always known what their argument will be.
The body of the essay will discuss the evidence that makes your interpretation plausible. This will be the bulk of the essay, and it will illustrate in detail why your reader should respect the interpretation or argument you've indicated in the opening paragraph. You will discuss specific ideas, examples, passages of text--whatever it is that illustrates your argument. The more detailed and specific you are, the better. An argument should generally rest on more than one passage or piece of evidence, and while you may chose to discuss one passage in depth, you should briefly mention the various passages that support your argument. Few things support an argument as effectively as direct evidence in the form of quotes from the text you are interpreting, though you should remember that many passages can be interpreted in different ways and that you should explain what you think the passage states and why it supports your interpretation.
The conclusion of the essay should do more than rehash what you've already said in the essay. Ideally, you will have learned something about "life" from what you have written, and a short discussion of what your essay has to teach others is appropriate.
You should note that only the body of the essay is appropriate for me to grade in terms of content. Any interpretation you can support with evidence is acceptable, so both the introduction and conclusion depend on the clarity, detail, coherence, and thoroughness of the body of the essay. Similarly, you can have a very attractive and appealing argument, but without the detail and support the body of the essay provides, it's potential is unrealized.
While writing is substantially an art, there are a few suggestions regarding style that I think will improve essays. Here are my SEVEN COMMANDMENTS of good writing style:
First Commandment: Don't Over-summarize Your reader usually knows the basic details of what you are writing about, so it is not necessary to repeat those details. It is not clear to your reader, however, which details you consider most significant and why. Anything you're writing about, I've probably read, so I don't need you to tell me what happens. Because I respect and am curious about your view of what we have read together, I want you to tell me what you think a given text means to you, since you're the only person who can provide that information. Two students may both write about the Epic of Gilgamesh. The student who recapitulates the plot tells me nothing I don't already know. The person who tells me which characters, events, details, quotes are most important and why tells me something about what the story means to them, and only they can provide that perspective.
Second Commandment: Be specific. Though it may not seem so to you, five pages is not very much writing. You can have the greatest impact in a short space if you discuss a subject thoroughly and the beauty of writing is often in the details. Five pages devoted to the Epic of Gilgamesh can't be anything but general. Five pages devoted to a single character from Gilgamesh has much more potential to make interesting discoveries, claims, observations and to distinguish itself from other essays for its insights.
Third Commandment: Compare and contrast. Teachers have been requiring their students to "compare and contrast" since the dawn of time. Maybe cave drawings are even comparisons and contrasts of potential dinner. Why is this approach so universal? Most of the works you study in the humanities are complicated, and comparing and contrasting their elements is often the most effective way to illustrate your understanding of the relation of the parts to the whole. Whether its the design elements in a painting, the characters in a play, or ideas in philosophical dialogue, comparing and contrasting illustrates the thoroughness of your understanding of a work.
Fourth Commandment: Make good use of quotations. Two students can easily read the same text and come to different conclusions about what it means. Humanities classes concentrate almost exclusively on texts which admit different interpretations. The best way to focus your reader's attention on the subject that interests you is the effective use of quotes. If you argue that Gilgamesh is a self-centered and stuck up person, find a quote that illustrates your claim. Tell your reader what you think the quotation illustrates and then provide a quote that supports your interpretation. This not only provides support for your argument, but illustrates you understanding and command of the text you are discussing.
Fifth Commandment: Write sympathetically. Even if you disagree with the perspective of a text you are writing about, address it sympathetically. If you write arrogantly of your subject, your attitude will be contagious and your reader may begin to view your text unsympathetically. Thoughtful and responsible people can disagree, and if you write critically but respectfully of your subject, you will inspire your reader to respond respectfully toward your essay.
Sixth Commandment: There are a few things I expect all students to be responsible for. Before submitting an essay, you should (1) use your word processor to spell-check your essay; (2) make sure you have properly cited all quoted material (I'm not fussy about which citing convention you use as long as you do use one. The MLA is probably most appropriate for the courses I teach); (3) make sure the pages are numbered. You would not believe how many essays I have received with no page numbers in which the pages were not stapled together in the right order. I deduct one-third of a grade for each of these that you neglect. You should also proofread your essay carefully to make sure that it says what you think it says.
Seventh Commandment: On the seventh day God rested. Whenever it is at all possible, you should finish an essay early enough to leave yourself a day or so to think about other things, and then review the essay one last time before turning it in. Clearing your mind may give you a new clarity of understanding on some point which may make the difference between a good and an excellent essay.
THREE final general resources might be helpful:
RCC also has "e-tutors" available. Tutors only have 30 minutes to read and respond so you should be specific about what kind of help you need.
Darling's Guide to Grammar and Writing covers every aspect of writing, from punctuation to research writing.
Dan Kurland's Reading and Writing Ideas As Well as Words provides thorough coverage of critical reading and writing.
SPECIFIC COURSES
From here to the end of the page you will find the writing assignments I have most recently used in my various classes.
Humanities 4, Arts & Ideas: the Ancient & Medieval Worlds
first essay: Is the Iliad a pro- or anti-war poem? Does reading the poem glorify warfare in a way that would make its hearers approve of warfare, or does it depict the results of fighting in a way that would make its hearers seek to avoid conflict? You must submit the first essay on time or make arrangements for an extension to remain in the class thereafter.
It is important before you begin that you remind yourself that there is no right answer to the question. For example, most British interpreters of the poem consider it pro-war. Most American interpreters consider it anti-war. Neither answer is in itself correct. It's clear that Homer lived in a society that admired the warrior's virtues, and that he wrote to appeal to his audience's taste. What is less clear is whether he wrote in a way to show the destruction of war so clearly that his audience would be moved from admiration of war to horror. Thus you can find both praise for fighters, and also passages in which fighting seems to result in nothing but destruction for men and grieving for the survivors. Do you think Homer composed the poem in such a way as to clearly emphasize one over the other? Note that it is only the first question you need to address in your essay--the following questions are meant to get your creative juices flowing.
second essay: What aspect of Christianity most attracted Augustine to convert? What did Christianity offer that Roman culture did not? Was Augustine most attracted to Christian philosophy? to Christian ethics? to a Christian "lifestyle"? What aspects of Roman culture were the hardest for Augustine to leave behind? How relevant is Augustine's process of conversion to the attractions of religious conversion in our society?
Once again, I have given you a topic with no correct answer. To write an excellent essay, you will want to focus on specific passages that you can write about intelligently in 5 pages or so, and yet find a theme that is present in more than just one paragraph in the book. Ideally, you might find a theme that appears in three of four places in several books, and your essay can bring those passages together to analyze in your own essay.
Humanities 5, Arts & Ideas: the Renaissance to Modernism
first essay: Is justice accomplished by the end of The Tempest? For whom? Prospero? Antonio? Ariel? Caliban? Who has done right and who has done wrong in the events described and acted out in the play? Are all of the "guilty" parties punished in some way? Are all of the aggrieved parties vindicated in some way? In what ways does the story of The Tempest anticipate changes that will take place in European history over the following few centuries? You must submit the first essay to remain in the class thereafter.
Although The Tempest is not considered one of Shakespeare's best plays, it does focus on themes that will be profoundly important to the subsequent history of Europe and its colonial world. If Caliban represents the indigenous people of the world, the history of their treatment by Europeans--who typically considered them savages--leaves much to be desired. Does it mitigate Prospero's guilt (if he has any) for his treatment of Caliban if he himself is the victim of deception and exploitation? Formally, The Tempest is a comedy, a story with a happy ending. But is it? Will Prospero live happily ever after? Will Ferdinand and Miranda? What about the Tempest "lives on" as an unresolved tension in the world following the play's composition?
Second essay: In the course of a fairly short book, Civilization and its Discontents, Freud constructs a model of human happiness and describes the way that culture separates people from the sources of their happiness. Many of his arguments have been controversial: he claims our greatest pleasures are sexual and labels religion a "mass delusion." Write a critical essay exploring the strengths and limitations of Freud's analysis. What assumptions does he make that you question? What aspect of human beings does he give insufficient attention to? What aspects do you see in the culture of Freud's day (use the B&D book as a guide) or our own to support or undermine Freud's argument?
For this book I have given you a fairly broad range of topics you can write about. Everyone has pondered the topics Freud discusses: guilt, conscience, sex, work, the family, religion, happiness, peace and war, internal conflict. Pick a topic you can discuss intelligently in five pages and see what you can make of Freud's analysis. Be sure to indicate whether you consider his basic analysis persuasive.
Humanities 9, American Identities in the Arts
first essay: Drawing on Walter Benjamin's "The Storyteller," describe an experience that has shaped who you are at present and what someone else could learn from you. What did you learn? How will this experience continue to teach you? What could someone else learn from hearing your story?
It is unusual for college writing assignments to ask you to write about your own experience, but I begin this class with this assignment because so much of what we will read revolves around the connection between experience and identity. Though subsequent essays will not focus on your own experience, you should feel free to incorporate experiences that illustrate some aspect of your analysis of subsequent texts.
Second essay: Why are we so affected by our parents' lives? Should we aspire to carry on our parents' stories, or is it "better" to sharply differentiate ourselves from our families? Use The Woman Warrior and Maus to discuss the ways that our parents' experience--even experiences that took place before we were born--continue to mold us and what a healthy balance of heritage and individuality would look like.
In most respects, Maxine Hong Kingston and Art Spiegelman don't share very much. She grew up in a large Chinese family that ran a laudromat in Stockton, California. He grew up an only child son of Holocaust survivors in New York. Yet both books simultaneously pay tribute to their parents strength and will to survive while also reflecting on their own struggle to find a sense of personal identity as they grew up. Maxine Hong Kingston includes a whole chapter on Fa Mu Lan, the child warrior she fantasized becoming as a child. (And please note that Kingston wrote this book well before Disney got ahold of the story.) Spiegelman draws himself into the story showing the conflict he had getting along with his father as a child and as an adult. What do you think these two authors hope to accomplish by blending their own stories with their parents? What is their to be learned from that blending?
third essay: Both Indian Killer and Mabel McKay reflect on the question of Indian identity. What makes a person an Indian (or any other specific identity)? Can a person simply decide that they "are" something by choice? How do different parts our a person's identity--race, religion, class, sexual preference--interact to produce a person's sense of self?
What makes Sarris an Indian? Is it because (as Mabel says) "he kept coming back"? Would he have been Indian even without discovering the Indian grandfather he never met? Is he equally Jewish (as his mother was)? Is Violet's husband Indian, even though he was not born an Indian? Indian Killer includes a host of characters whose identity is ambiguous: John Smith, and Indian who is adopted by white parents at birth; Marie Polatkin, who grew up on the reservation but is a college student. Then there's the killer, who leaves Indian symbols behind, but is there any reason in the book to know that the killer is an Indian? Couldn't he be just as Indian as Professor Mather? What makes a person an Indian?
final essay: Both Duke Ellington and Malcolm X are remarkably articulate both about the factors that led to their personal evolution and how and why they chose to evolve in the way they did. Use Music is My Mistress and The Autobiography of Malcolm X to discuss the factors that seem to empower individual to choose the ways in which they will respond to the circumstances of their lives.
It's hard to imagine to more different biographies than Ellington and Malcolm's. One was born to a comfortable family and indulged and encouraged as a child. The other's father was murdered when he was six and saw his family broken up by social workers, and went on to a life as a street hustler. Is there even a common "African American experience" you can see the two sharing? Use their texts to discuss the qualities that empower an individual and make it possible to follow one's muse. Are Elijah Mohammed and Music two names for the same muse?
Humanities 10, World Religions, classroom version
first essay: You should (1) suggest a definition of what religion is (about a page) and (2) apply that definition to primal religions, Confucianism, & Taoism (about 4 pages). I am not asking what the content of your religious views are but that you describe what definition you think describes religion itself: "dinner" is not just what you ate last night. Huston Smith suggests several aspects of religion that you might consider in writing your essay (pages 92-94). An excellent essay will not only draw on the description of these traditions in Smith but will give illustrations from the writings of Confucianism & Taoism found in Van Voorst. You must submit the first essay to remain in the class thereafter.
The key to writing an excellent essay on this topic is beginning with a clear definition of what you consider religion to be. I suggest that your definition have three elements. You will take most of the first page to discuss those elements. For example, does a "higher being" have to be conscious or possess intelligence? Your answer will effect whether the Tao will meet your criteria for this element. Once the three parts of your definition are clear, they will structure the body of the essay, since your discussion of primal religions, Confucianism, and Taoism will be guided by your discussion of whether each religion includes the criteria you have chosen. If a religion does not include one of your criteria, you should briefly explain why. For example, Confucius seems to have been something of an agnostic about high powers and didn't discuss what he had no personal knowledge about. Your ability to cite and discuss passages which illustrate your claims about how the three traditions fit the elements of your definition will contribute to an essay's excellence.
Second essay: Adopt the perspective of a first century Jew--who might or might not be a follower of Jesus. Describe the continuity between Judaism and Christianity: is Judaism "completed" or "fulfilled," in Christianity (as Christians claim) or does Christianity require a significant reinterpretation (and possibly change or betrayal) of Judaism? While I am interested in your opinion, be sure to reinforce it by discussion of specific passages from the assigned reading that support your view from both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament. In order to grade all students fairly, I will be particularly interested to see how you interpret the readings from the course syllabus, though you may supplement them with quotes from other parts of the Torah and New Testament. Avoid reference to the "Old" Testament, since there is no "New" Testament in the first century.
I like this assignment because it is equally difficult for both Christian students and those students who are mostly ignorant of Christianity, thus making it about equally challenging for most students and therefore fair. There are a few ways you can approach this essay, though all will be based on the readings we've done. You could explore thematic questions. For example, who does God love? Is the emphasis on Jews as the chosen people in the Hebrew Bible consistent with the way Jesus or Paul speak or write about Gentiles? Can the Jewish attitude toward law be harmonized with the teachings of Jesus or Paul? You could also focus on Jesus as a person and write about the way his words and actions embody Jewish values or bring to life passages you consider messianic prophecy from our readings in the Hebrew Bible. In either case, part of your challenge will be to balance a discussion of passages from the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament.
It is fine to approach this essay more creatively. Since I ask you to place yourself in the first century, you may want to write the essay as a letter, a newspaper editorial, or a diary. Each of these would allow you to adopt the tone of someone living at that time and to reflect the difficulty of coming to a conclusion.
Humanities 10, World Religions, online version
first essay should (1) suggest a definition of what religion is (about a page) and (2) apply that definition to three of the following: primal religions, Confucianism, Taoism and Hinduism (about 4 pages--5-6 pages total). I am not asking what the content of your religious views are but that you describe what definition you think describes religion itself: "dinner" is not just what you ate last night. Huston Smith suggests several aspects of religion that you might consider in writing your essay (pages 92-94). An excellent essay will not only draw on the description of these traditions in Smith but will give illustrations from the writings of Confucianism, Taoism, and Hinduism found in Van Voorst.
The key to writing an excellent essay on this topic is beginning with a clear definition of what you consider religion to be. I suggest that your definition have three elements. You will take most of the first page to discuss those elements. For example, does a "higher being" have to be conscious or possess intelligence? Your answer will effect whether the Tao will meet your criteria for this element. Once the three parts of your definition are clear, they will structure the body of the essay, since your discussion of primal religions, Confucianism, and Taoism will be guided by your discussion of whether each religion includes the criteria you have chosen. If a religion does not include one of your criteria, you should briefly explain why. For example, Confucius seems to have been something of an agnostic about high powers and didn't discuss what he had no personal knowledge about. Your ability to cite and discuss passages which illustrate your claims about how the three traditions fit the elements of your definition will contribute to an essay's excellence.
Second essay: It is commonplace to hear that "eastern" and "western" religions are very different in character. Do you agree? For your final essay you should assess this claim through a comparison of a feature common to at least two "eastern" religions (Confucianism, Taoism, Hinduism and Buddhism) and two "western" religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). For "eastern" religions you should discuss one Chinese (Confucianism & Taoism) and one Indian (Hinduism and Buddhism) tradition. It's up to you which "western" traditions you choose to discuss. Thus your essay will focus on a common theme but discuss it with regard to four distinct traditions. Once again an excellent essay will not only draw on the description of these traditions in Smith but will give illustrations from the writings found in Van Voorst.
The danger of this assignment is that it is so broad. To do excellent work here, you will want to narrow your focus immediately so that you can compare and contrast a theme that will fit in 5-6 pages. You will need to briefly indicate why your theme is significant and then get on to discussing the actual passages that illustrate the similarities and differences. A significant theme might be the presence or absence of a deity; a trivial theme might be the fact that all religions have designated holidays. It should be clear why the first theme is more important than the second. As with your first essay, your ability to focus on actual passages that illustrate the belief you are discussing will much enhance the essay.
Humanities 10, World Religions, telecourse version
essay: Choose three of the religions we have studied to that point (Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Primal Religion, Christianity, and Islam) and indicate which dimension (experiential, mythic, ritual, doctrinal, ethical) seems most important within each tradition other than the one Simmons associates it with. You must support your argument with illustrations from both Smith and Van Voorst. Essays should be five (or more) numbered pages, typed (double-space), spell-checked, proofread. If you use quotations you must cite them properly (I am not fussy about which academic convention you use).
Note that you can choose a single dimension for the essay or choose a different dimension for each of the three traditions you discuss. As with the exam essays you'll write for the class, I particularly respect an essay which integrates all parts of the class. Thus you can draw on Smith and Simmons to provide a basic description of the religion, you can drawn on Van Voorst for scriptural passages to illustrate the dimension you discuss, and you can return to Simmons for examples (from the roll-ins in particular) to illustrate what the dimension looks like. That implies that each religion/dimension can include three subsections (Smith, Van Voorst, Simmons). I don't think you need to get all three into each religion, but all three should be clearly represented in the essay as a whole. You might find that Van Voorst is particularly helpful if you write about the mythical or doctrinal dimension of a religion and that Simmons works very well for the experiential or ethical aspects of a religion.
Humanities 11, Religion in America, online version
first essay: You should contrast three of the traditions (consider each week a separate tradition) we've studied around one of the four C's (creed, code, cultus, community--these terms will make sense after you read Albanese's introduction). Make SURE you incorporate all that you've learned so far in the class. You should make use of the reading (of course) but also what you've learned from your actual observations as well as your web research. Make sure you cite both the text and online sources appropriately.
Since the single most unusual aspect of this class is your personal observation of the traditions you're reading about, you cannot write an excellent essay without including details from your own observations. Thus if you choose to discuss cultus (ritual), be sure to draw on what you saw at Temple or Catholic Mass to make your discussion of cultus concrete. It might be useful to think of this class as one in which you learn from three different sources: our text, your web quests, and your observations. An excellent essay will integrate all three.
Second essay. Compare & contrast one Christian and one non-Christian tradition in terms of one of the four C's.
The core Christian traditions we've studied are Catholicism and the various forms of Protestantism. For non-Christian traditions, we've studied Native American Religion, Judaism, the various eastern Religions in Lesson 10, Metaphysical religion, New Age Religion, Civil Religion. One could make an argument that some of the Christian derived traditions we've studied are also non-Christian, such as Christian Science or Latter Day Saints. Since we looked at Judaism and Native American religion before the first essay, you should NOT include them here at the end of the course. As with your first essays, you should remember to integrate our reading, your web quests, and your personal observations into your essay. (I understand that it is trickier to describe one's observations of Civil Religion or New Age Religion, since there isn't a church you can visit, but you should still include your own observations.)
Humanities 16, American Culture
Both essays in this class require you to discuss a person, a painting, a poem and a prose text. Examples of persons are Jefferson, Winthrop, Anne Hutchinson or Martin Luther King, Jr. We've looked at paintings by Thomas Cole and Edward Hopper, Mary Cassatt and Richard Estes. We've read poems by a wide variety of poets, including Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson, Anne Bradstreet and Maya Angelou. A prose text is almost any text that isn't poetry. It can be fiction (The Gentle Boy or Rip Van Winkle) or non-fiction (The Declaration of Independence). It can be religious or secular.
Each of our lessons is an example of the kind of approach I want to see in your essays: I've mixed biography, poems, short prose texts, and paintings (or architecture or sculpture) to discuss a theme each of those works have in common. To say it another way, each lesson is a model of what I want you to do in your essays.One thing to be careful of: within each lesson I have mixed work from different decades and centuries. Emerson wrote in the mid 19th century, while Hopper painted in the mid-20th century. Be careful not to claim that a writer or artist represents a period other than the one he lived in unless you think you can clearly support that claim in your essay.
The first essay asks you to write about a theme that represents 'something old' in American culture while the second essay asks you to write about 'something new.' The works we've studied should be your starting place to think about how life in America has changed.
You should not need to do any research to complete this essay. You are free to choose a theme we've already discussed in class and study it in more depth (American religion is a popular topic). You could also choose a new theme (family, children, the status of women, for example) and discuss it by using works we've studied in different lessons.
I am always curious about what students believe, but the underlying skill I want people to develop is the ability to relate and interpret different kinds of materials (paintings and poetry, biography and prose writing) in connection to a common theme. I assume people will do better if they get to choose the theme, but be careful not to get too bogged down at that stage.
Note also that your writing on the bulletin board has a certain informality. Each of these two formal essays counts for 25% of your grade in the class, and you should take the time to make sure the essay you submit represents your best work.
first essay: What do we learn about life and death in The Epic of Gilgamesh? What theme most stands out to you? Is it the unfairness of Enkidu's death? Is it Gilgamesh' quest for immortality? Is it the failure of Gilgamesh's quest? Is it a failure? Does Gilgamesh live on after his death in his city or in the memory provided by the story?
The Gilgamesh myth is human kind's oldest story and as you've seen, one of its central themes is the meaning of death. For this essay you might want to weave together something you see in Gilgamesh and a personal experience you've had about death. For example, Enkidu doesn't die bravely in battle, but wastes away in bed from the sickness Ishtar inflicts on him. If you've watched someone waste away to death, you should be able to use your experience to interpret the story and use the story to reflect on your own experience. For example, were your thoughts about God effected by watching someone die, as Gilgamesh's attitudes toward the Gods were no doubt changed when they killed his friend. Be careful NOT to summarize the story, since I already know what's in it. You're likely to do the best job by choosing a single incident or a single character (though not Gilgamesh since he runs throughout the story) to focus on. Has the way we think about death really changed very much since Gilgamesh?
second essay: Use at least two different religious perspectives (from at least two different weeks--and do not write from the point of view of your own personal views) to describe how Ivan Ilych should have responded to his approaching death. How would his views toward his career, his family, his health, or the meaning of life itself have changed? Could he have adopted any of the religious views we've studied without making fundamental changes in his life? Be sure to distinguish between different versions of similar traditions (Native American, Buddhist, Christian, etc.). Also discuss how these beliefs would have effected his life both about how life should be lived and what happens after death.
One of the concerns that most religions share is a concern to explain the meaning of death. One of the most obvious characteristics of Ivan is that he is clueless about the meaning of life and death, though he's very conscious of what it means to "live well." As I've said in class, how we think about death reflects profoundly on how we think about life and living, so writing this essay will involve describing what kind of life should be lived from the perspective of different religions in order to be prepared to meet death.
Third essay: Philippe Aries describes a steady evolution of attitudes toward death? If you had to introduce a cultural conviction regarding one thing (an idea, practice, ritual, etc.) from our earlier readings to "improve" contemporary attitudes, what would that idea be? What difference would it make? Incorporate earlier readings as appropriate (this can include earlier chapters in Aries or earlier texts).
For this essay you can probably begin by reflecting on your own experience of attitudes toward death. When you told people you were taking this class, did they respond by wondering why anyone would take a class on such a morbid subject? I assume you don't share that sense of morbidity since you did decide to take the class. What kinds of changes would make death a less forbidden and obscene aspect of life in a culture which is death denying?
final essay: Both A Scrap of Time and The Measure of Our Days raise the problem of death which comes prematurely and apparently unjustly. In both cases the dying lose their dignity as persons because of the way society stigmatizes them. How should we think about death in which physical death is compounded by suffering from human causes that are completely "unfair"? Be sure to discuss the specific stories or medical case histories which most illuminate the aspect of the problem you wish to discuss.
Since I almost always teach this class fall semester, we come to the Holocaust and AIDS during the holiday season--after Thanksgiving and before Christmas. Both the Holocaust and AIDS raise the problem of human attitudes toward those society has less respect for: Jews and (primarily in society's eyes) Gays. Nazi Germany set out to exterminate Jews. There are many in our society who have said that Homosexuals are being rightly punished for their sins. Our earlier assignments have all concerned "natural" death, dying from sickness, old age, accident. How does our thinking about death changed when the hatred of other people either cause one's death (the holocaust) or suggest that one's death is deserved (AIDS).