Write a paragraph length answer (100 word+ minimum) for each reading question. Include observations about basic literary elements (character, structure, plot, setting, tone, and theme for prose; theme, structure, rhyme, symbols, images, etc. for poetry). Include specific, parenthetically documented observations and/or short quotes from the unit readings to support each answer. Edit each response for clarity, conciseness, and grammatical correctness before submission.
Avoid using online sources like Wikipedia, SparkNotes, Grade Saver, etc. in place of your own analysis. If you borrow ideas, words, or other information beyond the course text, they must be documented parenthetically and a Works Cited page included.
NOTE: Turnitin (a function of Canvas) will generate an originality report on your responses. Inappropriately borrowed and/or undocumented wording will lower the grade, possibly to zero, depending on the level of borrowing.
Do not include the instructor’s prompts in your Reading Questions submission to avoid inflating the Turnitin word count. Number each response.
Unit 1: On Faith, Doubt, and Reason
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-64) was a sixth-generation resident of Salem, Massachusetts. Two of his Puritan ancestors were implicated in various religious persecutions, Indian genocide, and the trial and execution of supposed witches in the 17th century, the setting in time for “Young Goodman Brown.” What causes Goodman Brown to “abandon his faith”? Why is his dying hour “gloom”?
Identify the speaker of the following words in Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”: “Depending on one another’s hearts, ye had still hoped that virtue were not all a dream. Now are ye undeceived! Evil is the nature of mankind. Evil must be your only happiness. Welcome, again, my children, to the communion of your race!” (619). Does Goodman Brown trust the speaker and his words? What, if anything, is missing in the speaker’s understanding about human nature in relation to truth, justice, and God? Compare these words and their speaker to those of the Misfit in Flannery O’Connor’s story “A Good Man is Hard to Find.”
Leo Tolstoy (1847-1910) embraced a very personal form of Christian belief that minimized wealth and ambition in favor of relative simplicity and mercy toward others. His novella The Death of Ivan Ilych describes the dual trajectories of one man’s “conversion” from the shallowness of bourgeois (materialistic middle-class life) to the acceptance of essential truths, including mercy, transformative suffering, and death. Chart Ivan’s movement away from a life of trivialities to one characterized by the acceptance of fundamental human virtues and truths realized through suffering.
Most characters in The Death of Ivan Ilych exhibit little or no mercy for the main character’s suffering and death. Contrast the attitudes and actions of Gerasim and Vasya with those of any two other characters in the story. Why are Gerasim and Vasya important thematically to the story?
Flannery O’Connor (1925-64) was an observant Roman Catholic whose short stories often address issues of faith and redemption. Like Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown,” O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” addresses the issue of human depravity (lostness). Two of her characters speak the “truth” about human nature, namely Red Sammy and the Misfit. State and analyze what each says about human nature. Are these characters on the side of good or evil? Does what they say apply to everyone? Does it apply to the grandmother and her family? Are they “good” or “not good”? Do they deserve to die?
Christians generally believe that human beings have a problem that only God can solve. The Apostle Paul writes, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Trace the grandmother’s spiritual movement in “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” What is she like before meeting the Misfit? How does she change through interacting with him? According to the Misfit what did the grandmother need to make her “a good woman”? How does the grandmother demonstrate “redemption” by the end of the story?
Compare/contrast the sentiments concerning death of John Donne’s (1572-1631) sonnet “Death be not proud” with Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilych. Do the authors agree or disagree about the reality and nature of death in human experience?
Margaret Atwood (b. 1939) has embraced a life-long commitment to agnosticism, the view that we cannot “know” whether God exists or not. She limits her beliefs, understanding, and values to what can be known, observed, and tested scientifically. Her experimental story “Happy Endings” explores human relationships from various points of view. What “truth” does she arrive at? In what way does that truth affirm or question her agnosticism?
Stories:
Hawthorne, N., “Young Goodman Brown,” pp. 611-20
Tolstoy, L., The Death of Ivan Ilych, 303-40
O’Connor, F., “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” pp. 399-409
Poems:
Donne, J., “Death be not proud,” p. 1082
Atwood, M., “Happy Endings,” pp. 187-89
View:
Bill Moyers on Faith and Reason: Margaret Atwood (34:36) (Click link to view.)
Time Saver Hint: View the video at a faster speed (like 1.25x). See the opening screen menu for the speed function. Films on Demand also provides a transcript function for each film to assist in time management and quoting in the Interactive Assessment assignments.
