ENG 101
10/24/2002
Rasmi Sporny

Portrait of an Ideal World

Questions:
Who is Pithecanthropus erectus?
Mencken writes, “the average duration of human life to be cut down by 50%, would be an infinitely happier and more charming world than that we live in today”. Did Mencken want to die early or was it because the Prohibition law angered him at the time?

Themes:
1) The plus points of having an occasional drink
2) The dangers of drinking
3) Drinking as a social habit
4) Death by alcohol as a good thing
5) Religion (Christianity)

Idea for research:
Observe the behavioral patterns of people under intoxication. What are the after-effects?
You could also do research on the role alcohol played during past centuries.

Idea for Presentation:
- Collect lines from songs that have the words: “drinking”, “duped”, “high” or any other words that have a relationship with drugs and alcohol.
- Make a list of over 50 colloquialisms that mean “drunk” or “high”
E.g.: pickled, tipsy, out of it, three sheet to the wind, not all there, boozy, liquored-up, smashed, polluted, sloshed, stoned and stewed.
(refer :“Under the Influence” -pg 609)

ENG 101
10/24/2002
Rasmi Sporny

Only One Life

Question:
Is Tom Wolfe implying that the statement “If I’ve only one life, let me live it as a____” has a negative effect on people, because it makes them realize that they are missing something in their lives? Why does he do this?

Themes:
1) People’s dissatisfaction with life
2) Truth hurts
3) Obsessive behavior with appearance and social integrity
4) The “Me Decade”
5) Contemporary fads of the 1960s

Ideas for Research:
Find the different ‘trends’ of ‘fads’ that were practiced in the 60s.
Watch the movie “Scenes fro a marriage” and decide what the movie’s message is.

Idea for presentation:
Take a fairytale, like “Snowhite and the Seven Dwarves” and re-write it where all the characters are selfish, as if they were under the “Bergman spell”, and write dialogues between them where they try to see “who can take it”.

ENG 101
10/22/2002
Rasmi Sporny

Burl's

Question:
Do you think that certain people are gay or lesbian by birth, or that they just become confused later on in life? Cooper doesn’t mention his parents openly discussing his feelings. Would he have felt less guilty about his thoughts if his parents did talk to him?

Themes:
1) Dealing with homosexuality
2) Confusion of the sexes
3) Frustration
4) Guilt
5) Transvestites

Idea for research:
Collect several pictures of gay men or go to a gay bar and observe the people there. Can you tell if they are gay or not by first glance? What are the stereotypical characteristics of gay men?

Idea for presentation:
Write some journal entries by Cooper as a boy. Include all his feelings and questions.

ENG 101
10/22/2002
Rasmiliya Sporny

The Allegory of the Cave

Question:
Why do you think Plato cast his essay as a dialogue?
Does his style of writing help explain his ideas better or does it make it more confusing?

Themes:
1) Perception of reality
2) Philosophy of beleifs
3) Knowlege and discovery results in "truth"
4) Metaphors of darkness and light
5) Ignorance vs. Knowledge

Idea for research:
Search for other thories by Plato and Socrates and find out whether their philosophies are based mainly on life or on the wold as a whole.

Idea for presentation:
This may not have anything to do with the essy, but it does have something to do with 'truth'.
When people claim to be abducted be "aliens", we laugh at them.
If we look at it in another perspesctive, through the eyes of a fish for example, then it might be a bit different. A person catches a fish and throws it back into the water.The fish tries to explain to his other fish buddies what he encountered, but none of them believe him because they only know about the environment in which they live and nothing beyond that.
You could write several short shories concerning different perspectives of certain events, or the same event.