English essay

English 1341E and 1341F. Fall of 2015.

Essay #1: The Odyssey. Topic: The Purpose of the “Arrival/Awakening Scene” (XIII, lines 236-279).*

Write a three-paragraph, double-spaced, argumentative essay (about two or to two-and-a-half pages) on the above topic.

In paragraph one, write a “statement” in which you offer your interpretation of what you think the story is “about”—its main theme.**

In paragraph two, quoting and paraphrasing liberally from the scene, you should focus on what you consider to be the more important thoughts, dialogue, and descriptions contained in that scene.

In Paragraph Three, you should show the purpose of that scene—how it contributes to the ‘meaning’ of the whole work”: how this part of the story embodies the theme that you have noted in paragraph one.

Be sure to “unify” your argument by offering clear transitions from one paragraph to another so that your reader (someone who, like you, has read the story or play)

*(You are asked to focus on his awakening and his reactions to being in, what he believes to be, yet another foreign land, or “One More Strange Island,” and cursing[!] the very people who have made it possible for him to get there. )

**(Do not merely summarize the plot. Your reader has read the work and is looking forward to reading your “take” on it. A plot summary would be, at best, redundant.)

Please complete the sentence that begins "Be sure to 'unify' your argument..." by adding, after the closed parenthesis, the following: "...will be better convinced of its validity. (Think of an attorney's closing argument to a jury.)"