Author Archives: JSylvor

As promised, I am sharing a written version of the information that I provided in class about how to organize your final essay. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions about these guidelines.

How does one organize an essay about two different texts?

To begin, let me state the obvious:  Before you begin to draft your essay, you MUST have a plan!  It doesn’t matter whether your plan is a traditional outline or just a list of body paragraph ideas, but you need to sketch out the structure of your essay before you begin to write.

When I write a paper, I start by collecting the “textual evidence” that I want to use (all the quotations and examples from the text that address my question).  Then I sort the evidence into different paragraphs, based on the idea that each piece of evidence illustrates or supports.  Then I decide what order of paragraphs would be most effective.  This means that before I begin writing my first draft I already know what idea each body paragraph will be exploring, what textual evidence I will be including in each body paragraph, and what order I will be presenting my ideas in.

For your final essays, you have two different possible paths for organizing your body paragraphs:  The Sequential Option and The Alternating Option.  I describe both below.  The alternating option is slightly more challenging to execute.  It works best when you discover that your texts are very closely aligned and that the ideas you have about one text hold true for the other text as well.  Do not “mix and match.”  Choose one of these structures, and stick with it!  These examples each have three ideas.  I just stopped at three because that was enough to make my point; I would imagine that you would have at least three ideas for each of the texts you’re writing about.  By “ideas,” I mean claims about the text that respond to your over-arching question.  Each of these ideas gets its own body paragraph.  You will notice that in both options, only the introduction and conclusion discuss the two texts together in a single paragraph.  Each body paragraph focuses on a single text.

The Sequential Option 

1.Introduction:  Lays out your question in relation to both Text A and Text B

2. Text A – Idea #1

3. Text A – Idea #2

4. Text A – Idea #3

5. Text B – Idea #1

6. Text B – Idea #2

7. Text B- Idea #3

8. Conclusion – Brings together Texts A and B, recaps the argument you have made in the body of your paper, and provides an answer to the “so what?” question.  What are the implications of what you have shown us in this essay? What do we learn from it?

The Alternating Option

1.Introduction – Lays out your question in relation to both Text A and Text B

2. Text A – Idea #1

3. Text B – Idea #1

4. Text A – Idea #2

5. Text B – Idea #2

6. Text A – Idea #3

7. Text B- Idea #3

8. Conclusion – Brings together Texts A and B, recaps the argument you have made in the body of your paper, and provides an answer to the “so what?” question.  What are the implications of what you have shown us in this essay? What do we learn from it?

–What do you think the significance of Allende’s title is? What does it mean to be made of clay? –

-What happens to Rolf in his encounter with Azucena?

–Why do you think Azucena becomes a symbol of the tragedy that is unfolding in the story?

–What did you make of the President’s visit to the site of the disaster? What kind of commentary is Allende making here?

–How can you connect this story with your own experiences of natural or other disasters? Are there elements of the story that you can relate to? How?

• How is the theme of maternity explored in the story? Give at least two examples.
• Morrison adds issues of class to what is already a complicated story about race. Why? Where in the story do you see evidence of this?
• What is the meaning of Morrison’s title, Recitatif? How does it work as a title for this story?
• What are Twyla and Roberta fighting about in the section about school busing? What’s going on between them?
• Is the story’s perspective on race relations ultimately pessimistic or optimistic? Why?
• Why do you think Morrison chooses not to be explicit about which girl is African American and which girl is Caucasian?

–The narrator tells us that “every new generation finds the doum tree as though it had been born at the time of their birth and would grow up with them.” What do you make of this?

–What seems to be the story’s perspective on the government in newly independent Sudan? What’s the relationship between the government and the villagers?

–Explain the shift in narratorial perspective in the final passages of the story? How does it change our own view of the text

–At the end of the story, the old man refers to his own son and says, “it is my hope that he will stay where his is and not return.” How do you explain this?

–What do you think this story’s ultimate perspective is on the issue of tradition vs. modernity?

–Do you think that Gregor is more powerful BEFORE or AFTER his metamorphosis?  Explain your response.

–How is Gregor’s family transformed in the wake of his metamorphosis?

–At the end of the second section of the story, Gregor’s father pelts him with apples.  What do you think this episode is about?

–Gregor emerges from his room one last time when he hears his sister playing her violin for the lodgers.  What is the significance of this? What meaning does music hold for Gregor here?

–Ultimately, what do you think Gregor’s metamorphosis means?  What does it mean to be transformed into a giant bug?

–Explain your understanding of Gregor’s death.  How/why does he ultimately die?

–The story’s narrator is revisiting a place he once lived. Explain the significance that this “revisiting” has in relation to the themes of the story.

–What is the connection between our narrator and Weifu? Why do you think so much of the story is spent on Weifu’s life, while the narrator shares very little about his own life experiences?

–Explain the significance of the story about reburying Weifu’s little brother?

–Weifu recalls when he and the narrator used to pull the beards off religious statues in the Temple when they were younger. What is the significance of this memory?

–Describe an instance of filial piety in the story. What is its significance?

–What aspects of this short story seem to you to be particularly modernist?

As an extension of our study of Modernism, you will be exploring Modernism in visual art through a visit to one of the NYC museums listed below.  All of these museums are currently requiring that visitors book their visit ahead of time, so be sure to go to their website and follow instructions to make a reservation before your visit. 

Museum of Modern Art (www.moma.org) 11 W.53rd Street

CUNY students can visit MoMA for free.  When booking your visit, click on the button that says “Reserve Affiliate Tickets”.

Neue Galerie (www.neue galerie.org) 1048 Fifth Avenue

This small museum focuses specifically on Austrian and German art.  It is housed in a beautiful mansion.  Admission is free on the first Friday of every month.  All other times, student admission is $12.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (www.metmuseum.org) 1000 Fifth Avenue

This museum is “pay as you wish” for full-time students in NY and for all NYC residents. There is a suggested price listed for students, but you can choose how much you want to pay for admission. However you may still need to make a reservation to book your visit!

At the museum, you will select one piece of work created between 1890 and the beginning of WWII in 1939 that you believe can be described as modernist.   It might be helpful to keep in mind that impressionism, expressionism, cubism, and surrealism are all streams of modernism. 

On our course blog, post an image of the work (preferably a photograph taken by you at the museum or an image found online) and a post of 400-500 words about the work.  If you consult any sources to complete this assignment, please include that information.  It’s fine to look up basic biographical information, but all description and thoughts about the work you’ve selected should be entirely your own.  Be sure to include the following elements:

–Basic information about the artist.

–A description of work you selected.

–An analysis of how this work reflects the aesthetic preferences associated with Modernism.

–A description of the context in which you encountered the work. 

–An explanation of what drew you to this piece.

–Any questions you have about the work.

***Your work must be posted to our course blog by Wednesday, Dec. 6th. Please retain proof of your visit and either email it to me (by taking a picture) or show it to me in class after your visit.

• The poem opens, “Let us go then, you and I….” Whom do you think the speaker is addressing here?
• What is Prufrock’s relationship to time?  How can you tell?
• Look at the description of the yellow smoke in the second and third stanzas of the poem. What do you make of this description?
• “I have measured out my life with coffee spoons,” laments Prufrock. What do you think this line means?
• Describe the overall mood of the poem. What feelings does it leave you with?
• In the final lines of the poem, the speaker shifts from “I” to “We.” How do we explain this shift?

–How does justice work in the world of “Punishment”?  What happens when one tells the truth? What happens when one lies?

–What do we make of Chandara’s choice to take responsibility for the death of her sister-in-law? Do you see her as a hero or as a victim?

–Explain the significance of the details Tagore offers about the marriage between Chandara and Chidam.  How do they help us understand the events of the story?

–How do you understand the title of the story?

–As she approaches death, Chandara both says, “to hell with him,” and maintains that she loves her husband.  How do you reconcile these two apparently contradictory statements?

This week, rather than posting a list of questions for you to reflect on, I’d like you to do the following:

Choose a line or passage from the”The Death of Ivan Ilyich” that seems to you to be particularly interesting and important and share it in a comment on this post.

Once you’ve shared your quotation (and identified the page on which it appears), please do the following:

• Provide the context for your quotation.  This means sharing where this passage fits into the larger narrative.  What’s happening when this line appears?
• Share its meaning.  What do you think this quotation means?
• Discuss its significance.  Why do you think this is an important quotation? How is it related to the larger themes of “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”?

Please post your responses no later than Wednesday, November 8th at 2 pm.