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General Instructions:
This essay will be a five paragraph, three-prong thesis essay.
The three prongs are the analytical concepts of The Primordial, The Rupture, and Duality. Using these three concepts is not optional.
You must use the materials from the class, context from the introduction to the cultures in the textbook, ideas from the Joseph Campbell reading “The Emergence of Mankind,” along with the presentations and class notes. If you do a general Google search and pull material from the internet at large, you may fail this assignment. The point of the assignment is to show you have read, thought about, and organized your thoughts with the assigned materials of the course.
REPEAT: The assigned material as support is not optional. There are two main points to this assignment:
1. To show that you have read, organized your thoughts, spent time considering the material, and that you use the assigned material to support the claims you make. To do this you will also show you have spent time working on your academic writing as part of the thinking process.
2. To show that you can analyze the primary source material, in this case creation myths, write a thesis, support that thesis, and write a conclusion.
Some key information to keep in mind: In this essay, the rhetorical style you are to use is to assume that your reader knows the material. You are not introducing the material, and you do not need to summarize the myths. In fact mere plot summary is what you do not want to do. This is not about plot summary. I am not interested in you showing me you got the plot. This is analysis.
Assume your reader, me, knows the material. Your sole concern is introducing the idea and the thesis, then using the materials from the class to build support for your thesis or claim. Get to that point and remember that the star of this assignment is the assigned materials and thinking them through, not the plot summary. You can use the plot to explain your point of view and support your thesis, but plot summary alone is not analysis.
You must use MLA and do in-text citation, parenthetical documentation. I will allow you to write “as mentioned in class,’ or “as mentioned in the presentation” (name the correct presentation).
All quotes and uses of material must be in the correct context and illustrate you understand the original material.
This is not a mere opinion piece, this is a thesis you support with material from the class, or it is not supported. You are not to make claims that go beyond what can be supported in some manner. Stay focused and do not exaggerate. This is not a speech, so you are to refrain from writing in a style that is speech-like, such as writing “today I will discuss…” You will avoid using pronouns such as me, you, us, I, we, our. Make straightforward claims; it is assumed that they are your opinions without you needing to state they are your opinions. Just make the claim and support it, no need for “I or You” pronouns at all.
This is a formal essay, not a personal essay.
That means do not write sentences like: “In my opinion Eve is the mother of all humans.”
“If you think about it, there are women in many stories since the beginning of time, like Pandora.”
“Both women have a lot of similarities and a lot of differences.”
These are not a supportable sentences and they are not written in a formal style. You cannot merely state there are similarities and differences, you need to tie your claim to a very precise point. In our class that is the purpose of having analytical concepts, such as the three you must use in this essay. You also cannot exaggerate in your essay and suggest that anything in human culture has been around since the beginning of time since Homo sapiens are very recent in terms of the time of the earth. The myths in this book come from a certain time and place. There is map of the timeline in the front of the book. Also, these are characters in a myth, not real women or men or beings, in terms of the approach this class takes. They are cultural characters, even if there were some historical seed, by the time they reach us, they are characters, metaphors, and symbols. These are myths written in time about concerns of the cultures from which they emerge specifically and human concerns universally. Do not treat these myths as history, though you may look into historical insights. Do not treat the characters as existing outside of the myth. Use the context in the introductions to help you think through the cultural context. What concerns or central elements about the human condition might the myths teach? What mysteries might the myths address?
You should aim at something more like: Both the Ancient Greek and the Ancient Hebrew had myths featuring female characters. Using the concepts of The Primordial, The Rupture, and Duality, “The Garden of Eden” and “Pandora” reveal a movement from an original state of ignorance to a more problematic state of knowledge. Notice that I am using the three main concepts as three prongs of a thesis statement and I add to that a claim about ignorance to experience…it is that idea, using the concepts, which will be the spine the essay. This is an example. You can form your own focus using the themes or prompt ideas.
The Prompt ideas
These are not thesis statements, these are merely prompts you can choose that have built in themes. You still have to figure out your specific direction you will take and the thesis you will use. You may also ignore these prompts and choose your own idea or theme, if you have one that comes to mind, which is e.
You must choose one prompt or a clearly identified self-prompt from which to form an analytical essay. Beside the title of your essay, make sure that you clearly identify which prompt you are using with the corresponding letter (a. b. c. d. e.). Do not announce the prompt in the actual essay, just out the letter beside the title. This is a formal analytical essay, no need to say something like, “I chose prompt d because I relate to the theme” or anything like that. Remember this is an academic exercise at producing college writing.
You must create a thesis statement and support that statement using the notes you took on the chapters. Again, the prompt, though it provides the theme, is not a thesis; that is your job. Your answers are to be your own claims supported by the notes you have taken from the primary source materials, the presentations, class discussions, and PowerPoints. Absolutely do not go online and copy paste or replicate using an essay writing program any other person’s material, this is about you and your practice as a student. If you do copy paste, go outside the class materials, use someone else’s opinions as your own, you will fail. If you plagiarize, that is an automatic zero.
a. The pageantry of creation
Focusing on those stories in which there is a pageantry of creation in stages, days, generations, or degrees, focus your attention on the ways in which The Primordial is presented and how that Primordial is acted upon (The Rupture), and what comes about (Duality-multiplicity). In some cases there may be a series of Primordial stages and ruptures from which the world finally emerges, a Primordial arrangement of events. You are choosing one myth from one culture and comparing it to another myth from another culture. For example, you may choose the first creation myth in Genesis and compare it to Hesiod’s Theogony. What is the nature of God and how might this reflect the differences in the way the culture sees this pageantry? What kind of unity is behind the myths?
b. The origin of the human condition (loss of a golden age)
Focusing on the role of boundaries or taboos, discuss how the crossing of the boundaries can be used to illustrate the arising from a rupture into the world of duality (good and evil, male and female, immortal and mortal). How can this be used to discuss the arising of human consciousness? It is often that such myths explain death in some way or why the world is difficult. Keep in mind that while there is a literal plot, that plot can be read as metaphor. Try to interpret some using the key ideas Primordial, Rupture, and Duality as your tools.
c. The role of the women as characters
Pandora and Eve are both seen as the origin of the human complicated experience and/or knowledge of the world. This can be understood as consciousness or sentient awareness. In this sense they both can be understood as participating in some way with The Rupture from the original state of humanity in their respective cultures. This original state may be innocence or perhaps ignorance. What do you think about these symbols? Why women as characters? What does the cycle of birth have to do with the pain of the world? Using that idea, discuss how you understand this rupture. Are they malevolent or benign? Interpret what you think is going on, do not merely summarize the literal plot. What is the fruit? What is fire? What might the serpent represent (DO NOT SAY SATAN – at least when discussing the myth as it is, an ancient Hebrew myth, rather than Christian theology). In what ways are their roles similar and in what ways are their roles different with regards to how these characters actions set in motion the values and judgements of the human condition (Dualism). Form a thesis and be as specific as you can; rely on class materials to build the context to build your own response. Again, to do this you are using Primordial, Rupture, and Dualilty.
d. The role of nature
Using myths from at least two contrasting cultures, please form a thesis that focuses on contrasts there are with regard to nature. How is nature understood and presented differently? To help you think this through, what is the role of the god in the myth? The way nature is revealed in these creation myths gives a sense of what nature’s role is in the origin of the human sphere according to these cultures: Is nature divine or not? Is nature malevolent or not? Is nature merely a medium from which other things develop? Is nature itself personified? These are some questions that could help guide your discussion. In focusing on nature, please focus on The Primordial, The Rupture, and Duality as you see fit to best make you point and support your thesis.
Specific requirements:
You are only writing a response to one of the prompts. You get to choose. Make sure you tell me by letter to which of the prompts you will respond. Each answer has to be a minimum of three pages double-spaced and a maximum of five pages double-spaced. This DOES NOT include the MLA citation page or any cover page or other class information. The minimum length only refers to the analytical essay itself.
You must identify the primary sources you use using MLA citation. You MUST use in-text citation in your essays, with summary and/or quotes that refer to the notes you took from the materials, the presentations, and class discussions during the lead up to this assignment as support of your thesis. This in-text citation will refer me to an MLA work cited page at the end of your essay.
Double-spaced, Time-Roman or Arial size 11 font.
