Thanks to all! Many of your questions are provocative and engaging! Some problems to consider:
- It will not be a good idea to compare/contrast two texts for this assignment, as it’s a relatively short essay.
- Look again at your question, and brainstorm about what is engaging for you. Robert Frost said, interestingly, “No discovery in the writer, no discovery in the reader.” In other words, if you’re not interested, no one else will be either, so really think about how you can make this question an exploration.
- After you decide what is truly engaging for you, try to narrow your focus of exploration. Try to get at something very specific.
- Remember the intent of this essay. Some of you are forgetting the journey model (it needs to be a part of the thesis) so read the assignment sheet, again, and ask questions in class.
Some of the more effective questions are (and although all of these could use some honing, but essentially are quite thoughtful). Remember, these are only questions, not thesis statements:
Chi: 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?
Myra: Allegory of the Cave by Plato shows there is more to life than what is in front of you. In “The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka can Gregor’s family be represented as the chained up prisoners to some extent before becoming the free prisoner?
Kelly: (and Kelly, your second question was also quite compelling!)
Plato’s theory of the Allegory of the Cave suggest that it is better to be the just man who encounters countless sufferings than the unjust man living life ignorantly. In “Bartleby the Scrivener,” by Herman Melville, Bartleby witnesses the truth of his life and job, but is he considered to be the ultimate ‘just’ man that Plato refers to?
Radia: In “The Metamorphosis,” Franz Kafka uses the protagonist to express the five stages of grief. The first stage, denial and isolation, are prominent themes found in the story. Gregor’s life as a cockroach eludes to alienation and isolation. However, is his transformation the root of the problem? The transformation may symbolize isolation, but did his isolation exist long before this?
Crystal: In the Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, Gregor’s family remained heartless throughout his transformation. In the five stages of grief, you have to go through denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. These stages help us identify how we’re feeling inside. Therefore, is it the reason why his family was acting “odd” in the story? Could the stages be used as an excuse of why his family wasn’t as caring? If so, how would you explain the bargaining stage in the story?
Zusanna: In The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, Gregor’s transformation could be compared to Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”. Once Gregor is no longer able to work and provide for his family, he becomes useless; in the “Allegory of the Cave”, the prisoner’s findings about the world of forms are rejected and anger the other sheltered prisoners. How does the treatment of Gregor by his family demonstrate humanity’s perception of the physical world and material goods in terms of importance? Once he is no longer able to provide anything of “substance”, how does the family begin to view Gregor? Like the prisoners in the cave, is Gregor’s family blinded by what they know and refuse to look at the world (or Gregor’s new form) in a different light?
Emily: In “The Judgment” by Franz Kafka, George’s father pulls his son from the shackles of ignorance and selfishness with which he has locked himself up in a false life. “So now you know what there was in the world outside of yourself. Up to this point you’ve known only about yourself! Essentially you’ve been an innocent child, but even more essentially you’ve been a devilish human being! And therefore understand this: I sentence you now to death by drowning!” How does this ending correlate with Plato’s Allegory of the Cave? Can one be involuntarily brought to the truth or do they have to willingly look for it themselves? Is this why George’s fate was what it was? Because the decision wasn’t his own to be set free from his “cave” in the first place?
Elizaveta: The Myth of Sysiphus focuses on human’s life as on an absurd struggle between a desire to have a meaningful life and a cold reality. According to that worldview, the climax of a journey is the choice between suicide or life. In the Melville’s Bartleby the Scrivener, protagonist chose suicide. Was Bartleby’s death an acceptance to meaningless of the life or he died from his destructive lifestyle?
Brian: The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus, gives us as insight as to what Sisyphus must be feeling as he goes through his struggle knowing that it will get him nowhere, however Camus proposes that once Sisyphus’s acknowledges that his struggle will never end, the power it has over him ceases to exist. Compare this to Herman Melville’s text, Bartleby the Scrivener, do you think that Bartleby could be compared to Sisyphus as he acknowledged the mundane, repetitive, pointless lives we as human beings have in our lives?