The texts for this part of the course have focused on how to “be” in the world either in relation to God/religion (including without God or religion). Within the context of this broad theme, write a literary analysis drawing from both The Plague and Life of Pi. You might consider the following questions, but your paper is not limited to these issues:
- How should we be in the world in relation to or without God/religion when we face severe crises?
- How should we be in the world in relation to or without God/religion when the “right” way to live or act seems complicated or unclear?
- How should we be in the world in relation to or without God/religion when there is not an easy or obvious way to make sense of existence?
For this paper, please take the following points into consideration:
- You should have a clearly stated and compelling thesis
- Your thesis should not be a statement of the obvious – it needs to be a disputable argument that you are making, grounded in the texts
- ***Your thesis is not your opinion about the texts – it is an argument about what the tests are saying and, thus, must grounded in the texts***
- You should draw on the two texts with enough interpretation and/or evaluation (including the background to the texts and authors’ intent) to develop a comprehensive literary analysis
- Papers should demonstrate an understanding of the themes in the context of the works you select
- You need to identify at least two literary devices from each work that support your thesis
- You should have a well-organized argument with evidence drawn from the texts. Any references to the text must include page numbers. For example: (Martel, 23). You may refer to the text broadly, but you also must use specific quotes to support your argument.
- ***The paper should be typed, left-justified, double-spaced, and approximately 1500 words.***
- You must indicate word count at the bottom of the last page. Papers must uploaded in a .doc or .docx format.
- Papers with excessive spelling, grammatical, punctuation, and other writing errors will be graded accordingly.