Draft 1 (three copies).
Final draft (with all prior drafts attached) is due the week following the first draft.
Assignment . For this paper, you should address one of the following questions, depending on which piece of literature you would like to analyze. (The questions in parentheses should aid your analysis, but should not be the focus of your thesis.) Your thesis must be the basic, pared-down, underlined answer to the question before parentheses. Also, be sure to integrate at least two quotes from the readings in your essay:
1. Wollstonecraft : Wollstonecraft mentions that education for women comes in a distant second to "libertine notions of beauty" in order to establish themselves in marriage. Considering her argument and how it relates to today's world, to what extent does it seem women today are encouraged to gain an education rather than resort to methods typical in Wollstonecraft's day? (Consider defining what, for you, is entailed in a "good education?" For instance, are all "educations" equal? What does it mean--for Wollstonecraft or you, the writer, to "establish oneself through marraige?" For, example, is it possible to marry, for example, to marry for "right" reasons? If so, what are they? Is it possible for a woman to "exploit" herself? If so, how? To what extent are women themselves responsible--versus the usual suspects, those of the male gender?) Base your argument on the World of Ideas reading.
2. Martin Luther King, Jr .: In "Letter from Birmingham Jail", King opens his writing by defending his position as an outsider, a Christian aiding in the protection and defense of human rights. Is he in fact justified in intervening in a town what was not his own? (Why or why not? Analyze his logic to defend your view. When is it unacceptable to intervene on other people's behalf? Why? Consider defining terms he uses, such as, "network of mutuality", "injustice", "garment of destiny", "unjust laws", etc. to bolster your view. How are outsiders generally received by " insiders" who are facing "correction"? Why? What are one's "moral obligations" to other people, and therefore, in what areas of life can intervention in their lives be the difficult, though right road to take?)
3. Thomas Jefferson/Frederick Douglass : When the Declaration of Independence was penned, slavery was legal, even though Jefferson admitted to opposing it. In fact he helped establish Liberia to return displaced slaves (who wished to, get) back to their native continent. Still, some argue this paradox is a sticking point in our democracy--that some Founding Fathers themselves owned slaves even if philosophically or morally they resented it. Amid this context, individuals such as Frederick Douglass were born and grappled with an imperfectly interpreted Constitution which relegated a portion of the U.S. population irrationally to involuntary servitude. We see through Douglass' example that his freedom did not come cheaply. Considering the above, answer one of the following questions in your essay. You may take your quotes from Jefferson and/or Douglass' writings:
a. Thus, to what extent would you contend the concept of democracy must be fought for (therefore rendering documents such as the Declaration of Independence a blueprint rather than a plainly literal document)?
b. Douglass often directly tied literacy and education as essentials to being an equal citizen. To what extent is education necessary to a democracy and to achieve individual freedom?
c. What role does education play in a thriving democracy? (What responsibilities do individual citizens shoulder in a strong, healthy democracy?)
Length : This paper should be 3-4 pages long, using MLA standards. Refer to your Little, Brown handbook for clarification: 11-12 pt font, 1" margins, and last name and page number in the upper right corner of each page (use the header feature in your computer). In the upper left corner should be, on subsequent lines: your name, professor's name, class name, and date. Please use a works cited page for all sources used according to MLA standards.
