Hero Essay

Goals

• To explore the nature of heroism as represented by Classical epic poetry
• To build a persuasive argument about your conclusions, using literary evidence
• To practice skills of analysis and exposition in essay form

Submit at the beginning of class on Monday, 14 April:

• Specific considerations:
  • What qualities or relationships mark a person out as a "hero" in these texts? How are the qualities demonstrated? How do we see the relationships functioning?
  • What challenges does the "hero" face? Where do they come from? How does the nature of the challenges speak to the conditions of human life generally, and to the nature of "heroism" specifically?
  • How does the "hero" go about meeting his challenges? What resources does he bring to bear? How does he get access to them? What considerations direct or constrain his approach to meeting his challenges?
    • In the interests of not bogging down in all the special considerations that surround the question of female heroism in Classical thought-worlds, let's just go with the fact that our texts are fairly androcentric, and consider male heroes. Female heroism is a valid question, an important question - but a more complicated question, and we've got a lot on our plates already.
  • Focus on one specific scene that gives you good material to address these questions.
    • Free choice: our material includes many excellent possibilities, so work with a character in a particular moment that especially interests you.
    • Tight focus: our texts are rich with detail. Go into it deeply. Your scene should cover no more than a few pages of text. You can compare other passages that help you to explain and contextualize your scene, but don't spread yourself too thin by trying cover everything at once.
    • Close analysis of specific text: as a literature class, we're contracted to work on developing specifically literary skills. Take full advantage of what the poet gives you by studying it in detail, and pass that concrete richness of understanding on to your reader. She will appreciate all that she learns!
• General considerations:
  1. Think through the problem first. Form a preliminary answer, then keep testing it against the evidence that relates to the question. Refine your preliminary answer in light of your investigations. Repeat until you are sure you have thought of everything.
     • What evidence is relevant?
     • What does the evidence show? How does it show it?
     • How does the evidence help answer the question?
     • Taking all the relevant evidence into account (including counter-evidence that leads away from your conclusion), how can you best answer the question?
  2. How can an argument most persuasively demonstrate the answer you arrive at in phase 1 above? NB: The route by which you arrive at your answer may or may not be the most efficent route to take somebody else to the same point. Consider carefully what will work well.
     • Refer to concrete, specific pieces of relevant evidence, so that your reader can see you are building your answer on a solid basis.
     • Explain clearly how your evidence supports your conclusion, so your reader can see how your argument is operating.
  3. Write your essay so that it advances and defends your answer, according to the plan you arrived at in phase 2 above.
  4. Reread your essay. Does it work the way you planned it to? Now that it's all together, can you think of any ways to make it stronger and more persuasive? Modify as seems appropriate.
• For more suggestions about formulating an argument, see this Guide to Writing Papers. Use the BACK button on your browser to return to this page.

This file last updated 4 April 2003 by jlong1@orion.it.luc.edu.
http://www.luc.edu/depts/classics/