English 28 Narrative Assignment
This paper should respond to one of the prompts below, and for the first draft be two full pages, and by the second draft be three to four full pages. Remember it takes time to make a point, teach a lesson. Work on being clear, concrete, and convincing.
Be sure to describe the events in as concise but clear detail as possible.
Then explain what lessons were learned. The summary of those lessons should be included in the introduction as your thesis. Try to limit this point to three sentences in the introduction.
- From the book or from your knowledge—kindness. In the novel Cutting for Stone, Thomas Stone asks, “What treatment in an emergency is administered by ear?” The correct answer is “Words of comfort.” Consider a time when someone showed you (and/or someone you know or read about) mercy, forgiveness, or great tenderness, and how it changed your perspective about humanity (explain clearly how your perspective was changed). To what extent, then, is kindness a necessity to life (you may relate to a field other than medicine, of course)? Limit examples to two.
- From the book—something’s “missing.” The hospital where Stone and Sister Mary Joseph Praise work is called “Mission” but is mispronounced as “Missing.” Does something seem to be missing in one ore two (although there may be more, for this essay, you must limit your essay to two at most—one is also enough) of the characters? If so, what is it/are those things, and what particular lesson does that teach readers about a need for wholeness or healing, and how to achieve it? Limit your discussion to one or two characters.
- Secrets. Early on in the novel, we learn that Sister Mary Joseph Praise suffered a terrible even in Aden, though we do not know what it is. When can secrets be good, and when bad? Exploring one or two examples—from the novel, your experience or knowledge, etc—explain what precisely we can learn from the presence of unknown information in our lives. Be sure to describe the event surrounding the secret clearly, to paint appropriate detail that your readers can “see” and thus understand, be moved by.
