History 271

Devine

Spring 2009

 

All Souls Essay Assignment

 

INSTRUCTIONS

 

This essay is due on Tuesday, May 5 by 11:59 pm. If you did not submit an “Option A” essay on Coming of Age in Mississippi, you must complete this assignment.  If you did submit an “Option A” essay, you may complete this assignment as well and I will count the higher grade. You may email your essay to me as an attachment, turn it in to the History Department office (Sierra Tower 610) during business hours, or hand it to me in person. I am willing to read and go over drafts with you.

 

I prefer you email me the paper since this is the best way to ensure that your paper does not get lost.  When emailing, send a copy to yourself on the “cc” line. If you receive the email, it’s likely I did as well. I will send you a confirmation email when I receive your paper, however, it is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY (and not the email server’s) that I get it. (“But I sent it to you – didn’t you get it?” will not be a legitimate excuse for a late paper.) 

 

How Long? 

Papers MUST be 1500 words. If you use MS Word, you can check number of words by pulling down the FILE menu, selecting PROPERTIES, and then clicking on the STATISTICS tab.

 

Format?

• Typed, double-spaced, 12-point font with one-inch margins all around.  Margins can be set by using the FILE menu in MS Word and choosing “Page set up.”

 

• Please number your pages (use the INSERT menu on MS Word and choose “Page numbers…”)

 

• Give your essay a title that reflects what the paper is about. (Something more revealing than “Essay” or “All Souls”) Clever titles will be duly noted.

 

How to cite?

If you are quoting directly from the book, cite the author and page number in parentheses within the body of the text, i.e. (MacDonald, 47). All direct quotes from the book MUST be in quotation marks and must be cited. Paraphrases of ideas drawn from the book MUST also be cited. You do not need to, nor should you, use outside sources in writing your paper.

 

If you have any questions or are in any way unsure about what you are being asked to do, be sure to speak with me or the teaching assistant via email or in person.

 

How will I be graded?

You will be graded on focus (do you have a thesis statement and does it answer the question asked), evidence (do you back up your argument with specific information from the reading), coherence (is your argument consistent and understandable throughout the piece), and scope (does your paper deal with the question in appropriate depth and breadth). 

 

 

THE ASSIGNMENT

 

Answer ONE of the following three questions:

 

 

  1. The residents of Southie had a strong sense of “neighborhood.”  They stuck together and they did not trust outsiders.  What characteristics of this “neighborhood pride” were beneficial?  Which ones were destructive?  Or were the same characteristics both beneficial and destructive?  Ultimately, would you say this neighborhood cohesiveness was more a source of strength or the source of the people’s problems? Did it help them survive or keep them from living more fulfilling lives?

 

          [In answering, it is important not only to identify the various characteristics of the neighborhood and the people who lived there, but also to explain why these characteristics were harmful, helpful, or both.  To give a thorough answer, you need to draw this connection between the characteristics of the neighborhood and the effects they had on the people who lived there.] 

 

  1. Why did the white residents of Southie hate the white liberals?  Why did the liberals’ dismissal of Southie residents as “racists” (particularly during the busing crisis) tell only part of the truth?

 

[In answering, you should explain why white liberals and Southie residents saw the world differently and why the conflict over busing was not exclusively about race but involved other issues as well.  You might also consider the effect of class tensions (rich vs. poor) and hypocrisy (failure to “practice what you preach”) had on this conflict.]

 

  1. The ancient Greeks defined “tragedy” as a good man brought to a bad end by the very qualities that allowed him to achieve greatness in the first place.  How might one argue that this definition of “tragedy” fits the lives of several of Robert MacDonald’s siblings and the story of Southie itself?

 

[In answering, demonstrate how each aspect of this definition fits the life story of both individual characters and the neighborhood itself. Cite specific qualities of the characters and/or neighborhood and demonstrate how they allowed both for the achievement of “greatness” but also brought the character to a tragic end.]