Literature

Please write a 250-300-word post on this week’s readings. Be sure to make at least one comment in which you discuss your own opinion about the text, as well as at least one question you would like to discuss in class.* Some prompts to guide you: How is time understood as sacred and profane?  What is the significance of the creation in terms of people’s later thinking about the world?  What does Eliade mean when he says religious man assumes a humanity that has a transhuman model?  What are the ‘gods’ for Eliade’s religious man?  In what ways is nature fraught with religious value for him? I will provide the book in a pdf. Chapters 2 and 3

Please synthesize these two water bottle ads to understand the larger topic of water bottles and what we want from the water we buy. Identify a similarity or difference among these advertisements and use it as a topic sentence for a paragraph of discussion (topic sentence is the first sentence of the paragraph and acts as the topic for the paragraph). Then use why and how questions to generate a discussion/analysis of this point. Why does this similarity or difference matter? How does it influence our understanding of water bottles and water we buy? Why do these advertisers want to emphasize this point? How do advertisers use this point to persuade us to buy (or desire) this product?  Create your own why and how questions to generate your discussion.  Please write at least 100-words for your synthesis.  Respond to a Colleague’s Post Please write a 100-word response to a colleague’s post regarding their synthesis of these water bottle ads. You can agree, disagree (in a civil manner), add to your colleague’s ideas, take your colleague’s ideas in a new direction, or take other approaches to this topic with your response.  Purpose of this Assignment You will analyze and synthesize readings from the book for homework and the first paper. This assignment prepares you for these tasks. the water brands are Dasani and Fiji

How is Roman theatre different from Greek theatre? How is it similar?

Caryl Churchill’s play Love and Information is written in an unusual format. It is a series of short, enigmatic scenes within each of 5 sections.  In each scene, no characters are named, and no details about setting are provided, in fact the playwright doesn’t even tell you how many characters are in the scene. A theatre company is free to play each scene any way it wishes to. It can even move scenes around within each section of the play. You will be reading a short scene from Love and Information.  Note that each line could be said by a different character (or maybe not…), but how many characters there are is not specified.  Also notice that there are very few periods at the ends of lines.  This should be interpreted as a character not really finishing the line – the character either trails off, starts another thought, or is interrupted by another character.  Periods indicate a full stop, a complete thought. Read through the scene a couple of times and as you do, think about different ways it could be done. Can you think of a humorous way to do the scene?  A dramatic way? How would the lines break out if there were 2 characters?  Or 3? Or more? Write a brief reflection (500-750) that describes 3 different ways the scene could be done.  Be sure to include all the following points for each of the 3 ways: How many characters?  What is their relationship to each other? Where is this scene taking place? What is the secret? (The actors need to know this in order to play the scene.  It does not change the text itself – just the way they say the text.) What feeling(s) do you want the audience to experience during the scene? What do you want the audience to go away thinking about?

After reading the Columbus’s biography and letter of discovery, what do you think were his true motivations? For instance, he writes that he does not understand the language or beliefs of the new land; yet he moves forward in claiming the land, including its people. What clues do you receive about his intentions? Are there any words or phrases that you found to be misleading?  Create one original post and respond two other posts for this week.

How is the Puritan religion a significant theme in Hawthorne’s writing? Choose one – three lines to quote that show the theme. Then, analyze the meaning of what he is saying. Use the quotation sandwich method to introduce, cite, and analyze the quote. What themes or broader messages does Hawthorne explore in his stories? How are these themes similar or different to the themes in the works of Washington Irving? Choose one – three lines to quote that show the theme. Then, analyze the meaning of what he is saying. Use the quotation sandwich method to introduce, cite, and analyze the quote. What literary elements do you notice in Hawthorne’s works? Style? Form? Allusion? Irony? Figurative language? Description? Story arc? etc. How does his use of these forms strengthen his stories? Quote or summarize one or two specific examples and explain how/why they are effective. Use the quotation sandwich method to introduce, cite, and analyze the quote or summary. Happy discussing!

Your response paper should be no fewer than 4 pages Times New Roman 12pt. double spaced. A response paper is intended to capture the following: What is the main topic that the author is addressing? What are some of the author’s major points? What theories does the author cite? How well did the author explain the theory or theories? What empirical evidence does the author present? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the text? Do you have any personal counterarguments regarding the claims this paper makes? Is this paper interesting/important? Why or why not?

Ethical Dilemma:  You are the CEO (chief executive officer, in other words, the person in charge) of a very successful non-profit organization in a city in the United States. Your organization has been responsible for supporting many highly effective educational and cultural initiatives, including work with public schools, towns and municipalities (assisting in downtown revitalization, for instance), and even infrastructure advances, such as bringing high speed internet to more remote locations.  You are about to receive a major donation (think $1 million+) from a very successful retired local business person who is impressed with your organization’s work.  However, you are contacted by a local newspaper reporter that one of your board members has been accused of sexual harassment by a number of co-workers several years ago, prior before working for your organization.This board member is also a personal friend of the potential donor, who has let it be known to you that the money will be donated in part because of that friendship.  The reporter has asked to speak with you  and that the story will run in paper within 48 hours (whether you go “on the record” or not).  You have known this board member for some time; you have no personal knowledge of any complaints or concerns raised by anyone during this particular time period.  What do you do– and why?  In other words, what ethical system are you engaging as a framework to help you make decisions, why are you employing it (rather than other possible systems), and how are you going to employ it to ensure that an ethical response (or set of responses) occurs?  You may use ANY ethical perspective we’ve encountered so far to help with your response and also employ documented outside readings.

Short Answer Questions (50 points each) – complete all four ANIMAL RIGHTS: 1. Describe Bentham, Regan, and Warren’s views on animal rights/ welfare. Which view do you find most convincing and why? (3 sources – Animal Rights Powerpoint) WAR/VIOLENCE: 2. Describe the doctrine of double-effect in the context of war and illustrate with two unique examples. 3. Describe the Militarism, Strict Pacifism, and Moderate Pacifism views about the morality of war. Which view do you find most convincing and why?  IMMIGRATION 4. Discuss Miller’s distinction between refugees and economic migrants. Then, explain Wellman’s justification for not allowing immigration. Discuss the metaphors that he uses. (2 sources, one from each article)

Watch the first 30 minutes of Part Two of Race: The Power of an Illusion and then use one reading from this week to put it in disucssion with. How do the points in the video relate to whatever reading you have chosen? Be sure to follow the word count (300).  The deadline for your first post is Thursday at 11:59 PM instead of Wednesday .