ENGL 217
Prof. G. Steinberg

Paper

Read one Book of the Odyssey, Aeneid, or Metamorphoses that was not assigned for class.

Write a 5-page paper in which you argue that the Book you have chosen is (or is not) typical of the work from which it comes.  Before you start writing, think in terms of what we discussed together in class about the larger work’s unifying themes, values, motifs, techniques, style, and imagery.  But as you write your paper, be sure to focus narrowly on a single idea and look at your chosen Book in detail.

Go through the entire Book you have chosen, analyzing all its elements in relation to the larger work.  But be careful to focus your paper on a single main claim.  Do not merely summarize the plot.  (I’ve read all the Books of the Odyssey, Aeneid, and Metamorphoses, and I don’t need a summary of the plot of any of them.)  Also, do not simply list various unrelated ways in which your chosen Book is typical of the work from which it comes.  Find a unifying theme or idea to hold your paper together as a single, focused, logical argument.  How, for example, is the Book you have chosen especially typical of the larger work as a whole?  Or how do the plot elements in your chosen Book repeat, enact, or exemplify one of the main ideas of the larger work?  Or does your Book itself have its own theme or motif that fits in well with the themes and motifs of the larger work?

Click here to see the criteria that I will use when grading your papers.