The Life of Jean-Jacques Rousseau
World Literature II Interpretative Essay
Throughout the semester, you have explored many pieces of literature in journal entries. Now you will have the opportunity to deepen your interpretation of one of these pieces by drafting and revising a 1250 word essay.
To interpret a literary work requires patience, a willingness to read and re-read material slowly, carefully. Successive readings allow one to mine a work for details, for example word choice and images that often go unnoticed initially. An effective interpretation articulates the meaning of certain details, separately and comparatively, in its final form. Because of this selection process, literary interpretations provide close readings of specific works in order to advance a claim about its overall significance.
The Literary Interpretation due on 3/18 should include the following parts: an opening paragraph that introduces the topic, provides an overview of the literary work (what is it about?) and includes a thesis that asserts the central claim of the essay; several body paragraphs that develop the thesis with generalizations, textual details, and explanatory passages; and a conclusion that rephrases the main idea of the essay and leaves the reader with a lasting impression. All essays should adopt MLA format, conform to standard grammar and include a Works Cited Page. Below are several prompts around which to compose your Interpretative Essay. These prompts should spark some ideas, but it’s up to you to shape pre-writing into a polished essay.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau begins Confessions with the following statement: “This is the only portrait of a man, painted exactly according to nature and in all of its truth, that exists and will probably ever exist” (57). How does Rousseau set out to accomplish this aim in the pages that follow? Consider moments when he returns to this idea—rendering a life “according to nature”—as well as when he recounts his personal experience.
Olaudah
Throughout the semester, you have explored many pieces of literature in journal entries. Now you will have the opportunity to deepen your interpretation of one of these pieces by drafting and revising a 1250 word essay.
To interpret a literary work requires patience, a willingness to read and re-read material slowly, carefully. Successive readings allow one to mine a work for details, for example word choice and images that often go unnoticed initially. An effective interpretation articulates the meaning of certain details, separately and comparatively, in its final form. Because of this selection process, literary interpretations provide close readings of specific works in order to advance a claim about its overall significance.
The Literary Interpretation due on 3/18 should include the following parts: an opening paragraph that introduces the topic, provides an overview of the literary work (what is it about?) and includes a thesis that asserts the central claim of the essay; several body paragraphs that develop the thesis with generalizations, textual details, and explanatory passages; and a conclusion that rephrases the main idea of the essay and leaves the reader with a lasting impression. All essays should adopt MLA format, conform to standard grammar and include a Works Cited Page. Below are several prompts around which to compose your Interpretative Essay. These prompts should spark some ideas, but it’s up to you to shape pre-writing into a polished essay.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau begins Confessions with the following statement: “This is the only portrait of a man, painted exactly according to nature and in all of its truth, that exists and will probably ever exist” (57). How does Rousseau set out to accomplish this aim in the pages that follow? Consider moments when he returns to this idea—rendering a life “according to nature”—as well as when he recounts his personal experience.
Olaudah
Cited: Page. Below are several prompts around which to compose your Interpretative Essay. These prompts should spark some ideas, but it’s up to you to shape pre-writing into a polished essay. Jean-Jacques Rousseau begins Confessions with the following statement: “This is the only portrait of a man, painted exactly according to nature and in all of its truth, that exists and will probably ever exist” (57). How does Rousseau set out to accomplish this aim in the pages that follow? Consider moments when he returns to this idea—rendering a life “according to nature”—as well as when he recounts his personal experience. Olaudah Equiano also states his purpose for penning The Interesting Narrative: “to excite in your august assemblies a sense of compassion for the miseries which the Slave Trade has entailed on my unfortunate countrymen” (76). In achieving this aim, Equaino must address prevailing ideas about Africans that blocked his readers from feeling compassion. How does he address such ideas as well as arouse in his readers compassion for the suffering of “slaves”—a group without rights and stripped of dignity during this time period? Based on a historical event, “The Silesian Weavers,” by Heinrich Heine, represents the workers at their looms after the suppression of their revolt. How does the poem characterize the weavers through the descriptive stanza and monologue? What is their emotional state? What is their point of view on “god,” the “king,” and “fatherland” (417)? How are they responding to their oppressive circumstances and those in authority? Consider the “curse” as a form of power, though quite different from revolt. See Revised Schedule for due dates Rough draft due: (900 words, at least) Final draft due: (note word count at the end of essay; bring in peer review along with the final essay)