Miguel De Cervantes
Biography
Don
Quixote
Poor Alonso Quijano, insane after reading
too many romance novels, decides to become a Knight. He takes old weapons
from his barn and renames himself Don Quixote, and begins his adventures.
Essay Prompt on a Literary Element:
Show how a character's attempts to recapture or reject the past is used
to develop an important theme in a longer poem. Don
Quixote Essay Prompt on a Literary Element:
In this novel, a confidant (male) or a confidante (female)
is used to be present when the hero or heroine needs a sympathetic listener
to confide in. Frequently, as Henry James puts it, this friend or
relative of the protagonist can be as much "the reader's friend as the
protagonist's." Write an essay in which you discuss the various ways
this character functions in the work. Another
Essay Prompt on a Literary Element:
In this novel, a character's apparent madness or irrational behavior plays
an important role. Write a well-organized essay in which you explain
what this eccentric behavior consists of and how it might be judged reasonable.
Explain the significance of the madness to the work as a whole. Another
Essay Prompt on a Literary Element:
Critique Roland Barthes has said, "Literature is the question minus the
answer." Choose a novel or play and, considering Barthes' observation,
write an essay in which you analyze a central question the work raises
and the extent to which it offers any answers. Explain how the author's
treatment of this question affects your understanding of the work as a
whole. Avoid mere plot summary. |