American Literature Fall 2009
Ms. Radin
Thoreau Creative/Analytical Essay Topics
As part of your writing of this essay, you must:
- Complete the four-step
pre-writing process that you will turn in with your final draft. An essay without a pre-write is incomplete
and will not receive a grade until the pre-write is submitted. All good writing begins with a
substantial thought process beforehand, and I want you to document all parts of your
thinking so I can see how you arrived at the finished product.
- Complete a brief cover
letter where you explain to me what you achieved with this paper. Turn in
the final version of the essay.
Essay Topics
**For all essay topics choose which Thoreau essay will be the basis for
your creative approach**
- Write
a “chapter” on a subject of your c hoice. Like “The Bean Field” or “Higher Laws,”
the chapter should focus on an object or concept and raise it to
allegorical status. In exploring
the subject’s transcendental value,
you must write in the style and/or register of diction used by
Thoreau. You must also use three pieces of support from a Thoreau essay of
your choice.
- Create
a series of interrelated form poems as a response to one Thoreau essay of your choice. Poems to be written: 2 sonnets, 1
villanelle, 1 sestina. You will
want to develop a thesis that will structure the development of your
poems. Let me know if you will be pursuing this choice so I can give you
the structure of the poetic forms.
- Write
an essay connecting a specific technique or metaphor in Thoreau’s writing
to the argument he is making. For
example Walter Harding at SUNY Geneseo has made
observations about how the long paragraphs tend to crescendo to a climax
at the end or that the symbol of birth and renewal or seasons, is carried
from the beginning to the end of the book.
Choose your own symbol or observation about the structure or techniques that Thoreau employs. You can choose to look at one essay in
depth, or you can choose to compare two.
Due Date: Tuesday, October 13th.