Final Exam Review – Hunter HIST 112 – Fall 2009

Essay #2 – Things Fall Apart

Essay #2: Things Fall Apart

DUE: FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11

May be handed in in class or submitted by email in a DOC or RTF format. Note: Your email submission only “counts” if you receive a reply back from me saying I got it. As stated in the syllabus, any late submissions are marked down 10 points per class meeting.

Please format your essay as follows. Your essay should

• Be typed, double-spaced, in 12 pt. Times or Arial, with one-inch margins on all sides. Please spellcheck and, if you’re not sure about your writing, have a friend read it. I will not mark down for grammar, but clarity is very important.
• Have a cover page with the title, your name, my name, and the date, and have page numbers on each page after the cover page.
• Run 2½–3 full pages, not including the cover page.
• Have all direct quotations, indirect quotations, and ideas from other sources footnoted according to a standard citation style. This is extremely important and failure to do this will seriously affect your grade. In this case your source will be the novel itself; but you may use secondary sources that discuss this novel as additional resources if you want to. Whether you use additional sources will have no effect on your grade, since I am interested in your interpretations and how well you support them with evidence. (See the Citations section of the research project handout.)

ASSIGNMENT

Choose ONE of the following topics.

1. It has been argued that the conflict relating to the supernatural world drives Things Fall Apart. How does Achebe describe the beliefs and traditions of the Igbo differently from those the white man brings with him? Cite specific examples of how these beliefs are depicted and used by Achebe. How does his use of the supernatural reflect the author’s message about the contact between Europeans
and Africans?

OR

2. Examine Okonkwo’s relationship with any other major character from the story. How does this relationship change over the course of the novel, and how does this change in the relationship reflect what’s happening to the Igbo people? Cite specific examples from different sections of the book. Also, does the relationship change because Okonkwo changes, and do his changes reflect what’s happening to Okonkwo’s people?

Remember that, as always, I am looking for your opinion and how well you support it with evidence; this essay is less about “right answers” than it is about well-supported ideas. Feel free to praise or complain about the author’s style, techniques, or attitude, as long as you cover the points of the assignment described above.

Here are the readings for the American Civil War. These are the assigned readings for this topic, and so you are responsible for them.

Civil War Readings

2009-3hc Schedule-Updated

I’ve had a couple of questions about the exam, so I thought I would send a general email just to be clear about a few things.

1. The exam is going ahead as scheduled on Tuesday. Losing a class on Friday primarily affected our coverage of Chapter 16, which will not be on the exam.
2. The essay question will involve discussing changes, comparing different areas over the period covered for the course, under some general topic.
• For example, the importance of religion in various societies and times, how different empires build and wield power, the effect of trade on relation between societies, changes in gender roles.
• What you’ll be doing is discussing the general topic by giving examples from different times and places — what changed and why.
• To prepare for this, have a clear idea of the key religious, political, economic, and social changes in the regions we discussed, and have a strong sense of what happened and why.
3. I realize that this course covers a vast amount of material. But common sense and what we’ve emphasized in class will help you. Also think about connections between the most important subjects.
• Random examples: The Black Death connects with the end of the Mongols and later the rise of the Ming and other empires, and the rivalry of the European powers. That rivalry sparks European exploration and imperialism and ends the meso-American empires. The exploitation of mercantilism plus the rise of new science and Enlightenment culminates in the wave of Atlantic revolutions. The threat of foreign intrusion helped spark the unification of Japan.
• In other words, don’t think about all of what we’ve talked about as a bunch of unrelated facts. These events are all fluid, and they relate to each other. That is what I am interested in.
• Finally, don’t forget that economic power must come before political power. Many of the motivations and causes of events we discuss are economic.

Email me with any questions about the material.

2009-3hc Midterm Review

In class on Friday I announced the following homework assignment, due in class on Tuesday.

1. Please read the following three documents in their entirety and write a short essay, at least one page, discussing their key similarities and differences in terms of ideas and principles, as well as intent (what the authors intended to accomplish). This will count as a quiz grade. My preference is for it to be typed.
   • Declaration of Independence
   • Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
   • Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen
2. In addition, please read Thomas Paine’s Common Sense for class discussion.

These four documents constitute the “To Be Posted” readings for Tuesday in the syllabus.

As you can see, it’s quite possible to do this on one page. The main elements are the Statement of the Problem (what questions are being debated?), the Thesis Statement (what is your position on the problem?), and a Preliminary Outline (what areas will you need to cover to support your argument?).

Sample Proposal (PDF)

• Research Project – Requirements
• Research Project – Available Topics
• Research Project – Formulating a Thesis
• Research Project – Opinions, Structure, and Outlines
• Research Project – Citing Your Sources

The main idea here, remember, is to try to ascertain the motive for writing the document and use that to look at how it affects the author’s description of events and environments.

Examining Primary Sources (PDF)