Length: 500 word
Write a short essay about either “The Garden Party,” “A Seat in the Garden,” or “Harrison Bergeron.” Remember to ensure that your introduction introduces your topic in a general way and develops that topic specifically until it arrives at your thesis statement, which states the argument of your paper. Your thesis should be the answer to an implied question, the solution to a problem, or the resolution to a paradox about a topic in the text. Also remember that you are not required to answer the specific questions in the assignment; think about them more like writing prompts or suggestions.
1) There are many metaphors for class distinction in Katherine Mansfield’s “The Garden Party.” Why is the bread and butter significant? What does her mother’s hat symbolize, and why is it significant? If an allusion is being made to the myth of Persephone and her capture and marriage to Hades, what is the point of it? What significant connections can you make between it and the theme of class distinction?
2) Racism is an obvious theme in Thomas King’s “A Seat in the Garden,” but is there another underlying, more fundamental source of this racism running throughout the story on a metaphorical level? What is it? If we’ve established that “Joe Hovaugh” is a reference to the name of God, “Jehovah,” what is the connection between that, and the theme of racism?
3) “Harrison Bergeron” focuses on “equality,” the concept most often used to defend communist ideals. And although seemingly benevolent, “equality” can mean many different things. Although the story is a bit satirical, its premise is not: What happens when “equality” is imposed by the state government? Are people really “created equal?” What is the difference between “equality of opportunity” and “equality of outcome?” The story portrays the latter in an unflattering manner, but why? Is the world of Harrison Bergeron, or something similar to it, possible or likely given our society’s current obsession with “equality?”
–For this assignment you should quote from the story at least once (if you are writing about a story), and the quotation must conform to MLA standards: the quotation should be properly introduced and grammatically correct with proper documentation in a “Works Cited” page at the end of the essay. If you choose to use secondary material, it must be quoted properly with proper documentation. Failure to do so constitutes plagiarism, a very serious offence. Copying sources from the internet and not citing them is plagiarism; paraphrasing without acknowledging the source is plagiarism; submitting work that you yourself did not do is also plagiarism.
