History 371

Devine

Fall 2010

 

Essay Assignment #2 (Option A)

 

INSTRUCTIONS

 

This essay is due November 14 by 11:59 pm.  If you do not wish to do this paper, you can wait for one of the two following essay assignments (Options B and C).  If I do not receive your paper by 11:59 pm on November 14th, I will assume you are doing Option B or C.  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 the paper to me 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.)  Please “cc” Shirley as well.

 

How Long? 

Papers MUST be 1500 words. If you use MS Word 2003, 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 #1” or “Man in the Gray Flannel Suit”) 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. (Wilson, 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.

 

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.

 

 

 

Answer ONE of the following four questions:

 

 

  1. How do three of the “Four A’s” – anxiety, affluence, and alienation – play a role in Tom and Betsy Rath’s lives?  Compose an essay in which you explain to your reader how these three concepts relate to one another and combine to create much of the tension in the main characters’ lives.

 

 

2.    Why was it difficult for both Tom and Betsy Rath to adjust to life in suburbia and the corporate rat race in the years after World War II?  What kept them from being happy?  Was their unhappiness of their own making or were factors beyond their control to blame?  [Your thesis, stated in the essay’s first paragraph, should tell the reader your answer to the final question posed in the prompt.]

 

  1. “The man in the gray flannel suit” has entered the popular lexicon as shorthand for a colorless, one dimensional, conformist.  To what extent is Tom Rath the stereotypical “man in the gray flannel suit”?  [Whether you argue that he does fit the stereotype or that he challenges it, be sure to provide specific evidence from the novel to support your case.]

 

 

  1. In one of the novel’s most memorable scenes, Hopkins lays out the stark differences between himself and Tom, suggesting that Tom’s generation has fallen well short of the standards to which Hopkins and his generation held themselves. How do Tom’s and Hopkins’ values and priorities differ? Are men like Tom living off the success and hard work of men like Hopkins? Or are they simply trying to strike a better balance in their lives?  What are the pros and cons of both men’s approach to life? In answering, be sure to draw on specific evidence from the novel to show how these two men differ and how they represent different approaches to living one’s life.