- In reference to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis”, while the “real” shadows on the wall are not real, what makes Gregor’s surreal state of being real to his family? Develop a thesis analyzing the defining factors that make up Gregor’s family’s reality and create a contrast between his family’s defining factors of reality and that of the prisoners’. A good starting point can originate from relating the prisoners’ unwillingness to break the thin wall of the safe and ordinary world in order to accept change versus their belief in the authenticity of shadows on the wall.
- One of Aristotle’s ideas about the tragic hero relates to the concept that the misfortune of the hero is not wholly deserved and that the punishment given exceeds his or her crime. To what extent is this true in the text Journey to the West in regards to Monkey? Was his punishment solely the five hundred years of solitude that he had spent under the mountain or was there more to it? Were all the punishments given to him justifiable?
-Chi Zhang
I can see a great amount of effectiveness in Question 2, Chi. This question requires the student to think very critically about Monkey’s punishment of solitude, perhaps looking at it from Monkey’s point of view in order to see whether it was justifiable or not. It also requires the student to look at if there was perhaps underlying aspects to his punishment that are not clear to the average reader. I believe this is a great way to create critical thinking. Relating it to Aristotle’s ideas of a tragic hero is a great way to create a basis for a thesis that might prove whether or not Monkey’s punishment was one that had sufficient reasoning. A good way to answer this question would be to describe the punishments that Monkey was given, and then to move forward to argue whether or not they had good worth.