English assignment

Sample writing assignment: Baudelairean Irony. The writing assignments have improved significantly in the past couple of modules: the arguments

are clearer and are, in general, well supported by evidence from the texts. I’m still seeing too many,

however, where the main argument emerges in the final sentence or two. When you find that

happening (i.e. when the final sentence or so makes a very different claim from the opening

sentence), you need to start again, using that last sentence as your new opening sentence. Usually

this happens when your argument develops during the course of writing the piece. This is a good

thing as it shows your ideas are developing, but it does mean that you need to rewrite your

assignment to make sure it supports your new or revised argument. As always, I will be looking for

a clear argument, strong textual evidence, and a well-formatted and written response.

Please be sure to provide a Works Cited. This can be in any form you are most comfortable with

(AP, MLA, Chicago, Oxford, etc.), but should make it clear what is being referred to and where that

item can be found.

Please note: the 250-word limit (plus or minus 10%) applies only to the text of your argument. It

does not include the works cited or the heading information.

Sample question: What attitude does Baudelaire adopt to the poor in “Let’s beat up the poor”?

A. Student

Writing Assignment, Module 4

Although the violence depicted in Charles Baudelaire’s “Let’s beat up the poor” might appear to

reflect a negative attitude toward the poor, the prose poem itself resists articulating a clear

position, choosing instead to highlight the shortcomings in contemporary responses to the poor.

The speaker in fact draws attention early in the piece to the debates about economic and social

policy that took place in France in the period by noting that he had consumed books “dealing with

the art of making nations happy, wise, and rich” (37), but the poem’s multiple ironies mean that the

reader is left uncertain about its attitude toward the poor.

The speaker aligns himself with Socrates through a reference to his “Demon” (37), but rather

than engaging in a philosophical conversation, he decides that the best response to the pleading

gaze of a beggar is to beat him up, presumably to show him who has the power and who doesn’t.

This is not, however, an act of bravery in any way: the speaker carefully checks that there are no

policemen in the area. The beggar is initially beaten down, but then rises up to attack the speaker,

thereby asserting the political power of the proletariat. The speaker claims to be thrilled that the

beggar—the representative of the poor—has learnt that he must take responsibility for his own

future and rise up against the bourgeoisie in order to achieve equality, but the reader is left

wondering whether such lessons are to be taken seriously in any way. The focus, in other words, is

on the reader’s response to the poem, not on the poem’s attitude to the poor. [275 words]

Works Cited.

Charles Baudelaire, “Let’s beat up the poor,” Module 4 Course Reader [pdf] English 220.05, Spring

2016.