Essay assignment two

Due Date:

Peer Review: 

Assignment Goal: Create a thesis-driven essay that explains the significance of a thematic pattern you find operating in both novels we've read so far.

Assignment Description: Look to the novels and re-read the key passages and your notes. Go back to class discussion. Find a theme, or two closely related themes, operating in both novels. Create an essay that explores the meaning of this theme using evidence from the novels.

Your thesis will very likely contain a set of ideas, or one big idea, that you see standing behind the theme(s). For example, someone might be able to see how the ideas of 'mushroom civilization' from the Destruction of Gotham also appear in Caesar's Column. Then you might begin to argue in your thesis that both writers locate the origins of social violence in urban blight, or neighborhoods of poverty. In this thesis, urban blight would be your key term. You would then identify moments from both texts that support this reading, while using critical thinking in each support paragraph to elaborate or contest elements of the theme (that is, you can 'extend' the thinking of the author to make historical connections, or inter-textual connections, but you could also 'take issue' with elements of the theme to note limitations or contradictions in its logic).

Please see our class discussions and notes for reference, and use your blogs and discussions to 'test' your ideas.