Due Date: 1/23
Minimum Length: 4 pages, double-spaced, Times New Roman 12 pt font
Hard Copy or email attachment: either, but attachments must be in Microsoft Word files
Assignment Goal: To create a thesis statement that describes how violence works in film and in literature.
Assignment Description: This essay will create and support an original argument about how violence works in two different kinds of texts -- one film, and one piece of literature. The essays will compare and contrast how fiction and film represent one important scene of violence. Students will discuss those scenes of violence for what they represent about American racial violence during the historical period in question.
Student should create an introduction that begins with a description of a key scene from film or fiction. This description should lead into an argument about how violence works in the two texts the student will discuss in the essay. The thesis-statement should be two or three sentences long.
The second paragraph of the essay should briefly summarize the major plot points and characters for both the film and the text: who are the main characters, what is the main plot, when were the texts made, who made them, and what was the general reaction of readers and viewers when the texts appeared (this will require just a little bit of research).
The remainder of the essay will consist of paragraphs that direct the reader's attention to a key scene of violence. Students will explain what the violence means, why it happened, and explain its significance. In order to convey the scene to the reader, the student should respectfully and coherently describe/summarize the scene(s) in question.
The conclusion of the essay will link the discussion to another text from class that the essay has not discussed so far.
How Violence Works: Violence works differently when it's enacted visually than when it appears in print. In addition to reflecting on how violence affects viewers differently than readers, students should be able to discuss how both the film and the literary text "build" toward violence. Remember, they should keep in mind that literature and film work in similar and different ways. The student's job is to create sentences that account for these similarities and differences.
Movie post from "1001 Movies To See Before You Die" (HERE).
