Litr 201 Essay PICK ONE! 

•Making a Hero: In our discussion of these works, we have talked a bit about how they all reflect elements of their cultures, particularly through the way that heroes are depicted. Choose 1 story (The Iliad OR The Sakuntala) and make a claim about what this tale shows us about heroes in this culture. Discuss no more than 2 characters from your chosen story in order to support your claim.

•Duty in Different Cultures: our readings in Weeks 2 and 3 show a concern for duty and responsibility. Choose one character from The Iliad OR a character from The Sakuntala that was not discussed on the forum, and make a claim about how duty affects that character in the text. Be sure to explain the cultural expectations shown by the text in regards to that character’s duty, and analyze how that character does or does not fulfill those expectations.

•The Role of the Supernatural: The works that we read in these three weeks have elements that take us beyond realism; in The Iliad, there is the intervention of the gods, and in The Sakuntala, a number of supernatural elements, from curses to flights to the heavens, feature in the story. Discuss either The Iliad or The Sakuntala and analyze the role of supernatural elements in the events of the story. How important a part of the plot are the supernatural elements? How would the story’s use of various themes change (or not) without those supernatural elements?

Final Draft Checklist

All essays for LITR 201 should:

•Have, instead of a title page, a cover letter that answers the questions specified below

•Be in MLA manuscript format

•Contain correctly formatted MLA-style in-text citations in the form of both signal phrases and parenthetical citations

•Contain an MLA-style Works Cited list of all works cited in the essay

•Be saved as a .doc or .docx file (NO .wps files, please!) with a file name formatted in the following style: YourlastnameFirstinitial_Unit#Essay.doc

•Essays missing one or more of these elements will lose points.

•600-900 word essay

Cover Letter Questions

•Please answer all of the following questions in paragraph form; give as much detail as possible to help me understand how you went about writing the essay. This will allow me to better tailor my feedback to help you.

•What assignment prompt did you decide to respond to and why?

•If the prompt allowed you to choose what works to write on, which work or works did you choose and why?

•What do you feel are the strengths of your essay?

•What parts of the essay do you feel are weaknesses or areas that could use more work?

•Are there any particular parts of the essay on which you would like more feedback?

•Remember that these questions should be answered in the form of a letter. See the Sample MLA Essay for an example of what the cover letter should look like.

Use citation

Kalidasa. Sakuntala. Trans. Sir Monier Monier-Williams. World Literature Anthology: Through the Renaissance, Vol 2. Ed. Linda Silva and William Overton. Charles Town, WV: APUS E-Press, 2011 

OR

Homer. “The Iliad.” Trans. Samuel Butler. World Literature Anthology: Through the Renaissance, Vol. 1. Ed. Linda Silva and William Overton. Charles Town, WV: APUS E-Press, 2011.