Social Views On Death

Assignment Sheet
Assignment Sheet: English 2045 Research Essay
Assignment Description: In this essay, you will select a specific text
from our content and argue how the text teaches the reader about the
time, place, and culture of its creation. The thesis of your essay, in
other words, will argue that one of our specific stories can help
modern scholars better understand the time from which it came.
Possible themes to explore include (but are not limited to) the
following:
Love and Marriage
War and Responsibilities of a Soldier
Social Views of Death
Conflicting Ideas of Morality
Family Dynamics
Social Punishment
Mental Illness and its Treatment
Racial Tension
Gender Struggle
Fear of/Fascination with the Unfamiliar
Importance of Tradition
Causes/Effects of Violence
Here is an example thesis (Please note: students may not use this
thesis for their own essays.):
“In the story ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find,’ the grandmother illustrates
moral hypocrisy demonstrated in the 1950’s American south.”
Advice: Please follow these suggestions as well as those listed in the
“Advice for Writing about Literature” worksheet.
You will need at least two main points to support your stance. For
example, I can support my above thesis in these ways:
The grandmother secretively manipulates her son Bailey, allowing
his authority as “Man” to overshadow her authority as “Mother.”
This reinforces the strict gender roles of the 1950’s.
The grandmother sees herself as morally righteous yet still
demonstrates racist thought and behavior. This fits with the
ENGL-2045-W86 – Introduction to Literature OA
11/12/22, 1:46 PM Assignment Sheet – ENGL-2045-W86 – Introduction to Literature
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demonstrates racist thought and behavior. This fits with the
apathy of the Christian south when faced with Jim Crow Laws of
the 1950’s.
The grandmother wears her Christian beliefs as a costume, able to
disrobe them when threatened. This shows the fallout from World
War 2 in which the American South began to question the nature
of Good.
You will need textual support from the primary story you select as well
as support from secondary sources. The secondary sources should
justify that what the primary text suggests about the
time/place/culture is valid. I encourage you to use our Library
Databases in finding these secondary sources; please consult with me
or the librarians on how to access and use these. Here are some
examples of secondary sources I can use for my thesis:
A newspaper article/editorial from the 1950s criticizing women in
the workforce
Martin Luther King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” in which he
criticizes the apathy shown by white church leaders concerning
racial struggle
A biographical excerpt about the formation of the Hell’s Angels
being motivated by disillusioned WW2 veterans