Paper #2 is a comparison paper. In this paper you should compare at least 2 stories/books from the past year, answering the question, "What stories/characters are most relevant to our particular point in American history?" Nearly all of the stories that we have looked at could be categorized as Romantic or Realist, so please include one or both of these terms in your paper. Also, please do not simply take a broad-brush, binary—this story is good, that story is bad—approach to this assignment. A much more interesting approach would be comparing two stories that you actually like (explaining the merits of each) and then explaining why one approach is more relevant to today.
Word Count: 1200-1500 words
Due Date: May 22, 2007
This years readings (by memory):
The Crucible
Selections from Walden
Emerson's Essays
Huck Finn
"The White Heron"
"A Death in the Desert"
selections from The Land of Little Rain
Frost's poems
The Great Gatsby
"A Clean Well-Lighted Place"
"Blood-Burning Moon"
Their Eyes were Watching God
"The Death of Justina"
"The Swimmer"
"Are these Actual Miles?"
The Dharma Bums
"Seeing"
selections from The House on Mango Street
1950 to 2000: Counterculture and the Mainstream
America: Two Views of Progress