Assignment Paper

You have a choice of four topics to write on and you need to write on two. Read each choice carefully and after you make your choice, create an outline for each response before you begin writing. Remember that an essay must have an introduction paragraph that ends with a thesis, body paragraphs that begin with topic sentences, and a separate conclusion paragraph that wraps it up without repeating material. Each essay is worth 50 points, so divide your time accordingly.

*This exam should only take you two hours to complete.

Please note:

(1) A superior essay will be organized as per above directions and will not retell the text but will rather extract meaning from it, analyze it, and will support all analysis with specific details from the text. Quality is preferred over quantity!

(2) You can use the novel on the exam if needed, but do not use the Internet or other sources. Your final exam will be scanned by VeriCite (and me!). Any plagiarism will result in a zero for the exam.

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CHOOSE TWO:

1. “We are what we live.” Choose a main character from Song of Solomon and show how the character’s values, norms, and way of living in the world of the text have been shaped by small and large occurrences in her or his life. In other words, how did this character come to be formed by social, political, and environmental issues? Make sure you include specific examples to support your opinion.

2. “You can’t just leave a body and fly away” (147). Discuss the symbolism of the flying motif in the novel. You might want to also include the peacocks and their symbolic nature. The narrator connects many of the characters to “flying,” so keep in mind “flying” has multiple meanings in the novel and is not limited to physical “freedom.” Develop your response using specific characters and references to specific details.

3. The community versus the individual. Many communities are represented in the novel: families, friends, secret societies, villages, cities. In each of these communities, we learn about individuals who seem to be marginal to, and sometimes critical of, the community in question. Do we see more happiness and fulfillment in individuals who ignore communities or in individuals who blend “into the population like a stick of butter in a churn” (335). Does Morrison argue for one over the other? Support your opinion with references to specific examples in the text.

4. “It’s about loving us. About loving you. My whole life is love” (159). Love is the one thing that humans need to realize a sense of self; without love, life is meaningless. Song of Solomon develops and supports various versions of love, including, but not limited to, love for one’s self, one’s friends, one’s community, one’s family, and one’s ideals. Choose one or two of the versions of love and explain, using specific examples, how they function in the novel.