Assignment Paper

Choose ONE of the four prompts below, and write an argumentative / analytical essay of at least 1,000
words in response. Your essay should make a focused claim (ie, it should have a thesis), and you should
support your discussion with close analyses of passages from our class texts.
1. Choose one key term from Locke’s Second Treatise of Government and, using at least three
sources from three different weeks of class, analyze how the word was used/defined differently
by different authors. (“Liberty,” “property,” and “slavery” are all possible key terms, but there are
others.) Your essay should, as part of its argument/thesis, attempt to explain how your audience
should interpret the evolving meaning of your chosen term.
2. Compare and evaluate the conflicting arguments from Karl Marx and Pope Leo XIII on whether
the abolition of private property is the right solution to the economic, social, and moral
problems faced by 19
th Century laborers. Start by comparing each author’s understanding of the
condition of the 19
th Century working class, using references to specific passages to show why
you think they agree and/or disagree about the nature of the problem. Next explain some of the
specific conflicting arguments offered by each author for or against the abolition of private
property. Finally, evaluate those arguments – which argument do you think we should believe,
and why? (Optional: Do you think the same arguments could be applied to the conditions of 21
st
Century labor? Why or why not?)
3. In a number of the texts we have read so far this semester, we have seen the soaring
Enlightenment rhetoric of revolutionary liberation and equality run into contradiction with the
realities of racial inequality and discrimination — whether the revolution in question was in
America, or Haiti, or in Dumas’s Ile de France / Mauritius. Choose at least two of the following
writers, and write an essay discussing how your chosen texts explore that complex contradiction
between entrenched racial inequality and the revolutionary promise of universal liberty and
equality. [Choose at least two: Phillis Wheatley; Gary B. Nash; Alexandre Dumas; Frederick
Douglass. You may discuss other writers from this semester as well, if you would like; but you
must write about at least two of the four listed above.] 4. Throughout the semester, we want to encourage you to develop your own interests and
questions about our course materials. As such, we encourage you, if you’re so inclined, to skip
the prompts above and propose your own essay topic for this assignment instead. If you would
like to take this option, just speak with your seminar professor by Friday, October 8. Even if your
ideas are not fully fleshed out, feel free to come talk to us — we can help you focus your ideas
into an essay topic that you’ll be excited to engage with.
Reminders / suggestions:
● Since this is an argumentative essay, structure your discussion around a focused, specific claim
(or thesis).
● Support your claim with specific evidence chosen from your texts. You are not writing plot
summaries of the readings. Instead, you are developing your own argument in conversation with
the writers you’ve read. Be sure to cite any texts you reference. Basic parenthetical citations
(author, page) are sufficient.
● Review your sem prep notes and questions as you plan your essay. The ‘low stakes’ work you do
in preparation for seminar discussion can help you identify ideas/issues/questions that are of
particular interest to you. And more formal writing, like this assignment, is always more
successful when it is grounded in your own distinctive questions and interests.