Compare and contrast how totalitarian societies manipulate history in order to control the political narrative in the novels The Handmaid’s Tale and 1984.
Assessment:
One of the key skills taught in ENG4U is the comparative essay. The purpose of the
comparative essay is to determine how different authors approach similar ideas (or how one author looks at an idea in multiple ways through two or more texts). Generally, a comparative essay looks at both the similarities and the differences, so often it is called a compare and contrast essay.
Usually, when my class finishes Handmaid’s Tale, I move on to King Lear, but considering the circumstances of this semester, I believe reading King Lear on your own for the purpose of a compare and contrast essay would be tackling too much at once. Since Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale was inspired by George Orwell’s 1984, this will be our next text. But we will be reading the text slightly differently than we read the Handmaid’s Tale.
We will be doing a critical reading of 1984. In other words, as we go through 1984, we will not simply be reading the text for information (plot). Rather, we will be looking for ways of thinking about a subject matter. In order to do this, we must have key questions in mind as we read. That way, as you read, you will not only learn the setting, characters, and plot of the story, but you will also be taking notes on key themes in the text. Rather than simply asking “what happens next,” you will also be asking “how does this text work?”
What is a “key question”? When reading Handmaid’s Tale in a critical fashion, you may ask: “How does Atwood imagine the role of gender in a totalitarian society?”, or “How does Atwood present the destruction of individualism as a means of control?”
Below is a list of possible essay topics that you will choose from for your comparative essay.
You will FIRST choose one of these questions as your essay topic, and you will then read the novel 1984 WITH THIS QUESTION IN MIND – thereby reading critically. As the month progresses, you will be giving reading updates, and key quotes from the text that address your particular topic. As there are multiple topics, you will NOT be given weekly guiding questions.
Rather, you will direct your own reading in order to best complete your comparative essay, which will be due in June. I will be giving handouts that explain how to write the comparative essay.
PLACE THIS ORDER OR A SIMILAR ORDER WITH SMASHING ESSAYS
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