ENGL 1102 - Comp II - BELFORD: Home

Review the essay prompts and the essays you’ve written for this course so far: in one, you’ve written about a contemporary story that addresses race; in the other, you’ve written about a story that addresses marriage and gender.  Since then, you have read Othello, a play that tackles both topics.  In addition, you have read poetry that addresses race and/or gender and marriage, too.  In each instance, you’ve encountered writing that takes a stand on one (or both) of those topics.  In other words, the authors of these texts have used them to express an idea about that topic in “real life” i.e. a fictional marriage to make a statement about marriage in general.

Your task now is to synthesize:

• Select a topic, either race or marriage/gender.  Consider the contemporary story—either Yiyun Li’s “A Flawless Silence” or Gish Jen’s “No More Maybe”— about that topic on which you have written earlier this semester. 
• Then consider The Tragedy of Othello’s treatment of that topic.
• Finally, consider a poem from the list that addresses that topic, too.

Analyze those three texts. Determine which of the three makes the most compelling case for its statement about its topic (race or marriage/gender) and why.

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