English 102: Short Paper #2 Connections, Intersections, and Dichotomies Due Tuesday, March 5th 2-3 pages, typed

Option #1: Making Connections Discuss the connections and intersections between your life and one of the stories we have read so far this semester. Choose a story or a poem that you can relate to. Focus your discussion and analysis on a topic or theme from that story that parallels your own life such as assimilation, the American dream, familial conflict, sibling conflict, etc. Your own life does not have to tell the exact same story as the work of literature. For instance, your personal story may be about a negative father-daughter relationship. You can still draw a parallel between your experiences and Bukowski s poem about a conflicted father-son relationship. Include at least one quote from the story you discuss. Examples Theme: Father-Son Bond Charles Bukowski, in his poem My Old Man explores one type of father-son relationship, a relationship rife with conflict and anger; while, I have certainly had my fair share of disagreements with my own father, I also have memories of connection and bonding. Theme: Sibling Connection In Sonny s Blues, James Baldwin depicts two brothers who learn the importance of unconditional love. This story resonates with my own experience with my sister. As we grew up and grew apart, we both realized that we had to accept each other s differences if we were going to make our relationship work. Theme: Assimilation/Acclimation to a New Culture In The Unforgetting, the parents watch as their son assimilates to a new culture. This parallels my own life. My family and I moved to America when I was seven, and throughout the years, I acclimated to the culture more quickly than they did. Sometimes, I feel disconnected from my parents and uneasy when I look at the person I am becoming. Option #2: Passion versus Reason In Sonny s Blues, two brothers stand in tension with each other, illustrating a complicated dichotomy between passion and reason. Discuss the dichotomy between passion and reason in Sonny s Blues. Which brother do you relate to? What is more important making a living or pursuing your passion? We keep coming back to this topic, but it s an important one to think about, especially in college AND in this economy. Write an essay that discusses how the characters in the work struggle between passion and reason. Which side does each brother embody? How so? Include at least one quote from the story to support your points. Option #3: Static versus Dynamic What is the central conflict in Sonny s Blues? Analyze the conflict between the narrator and Sonny showing ways in which the characters change over the course of the story. In what ways are the two brothers both static and dynamic characters. Illustrate your points with direct references to the story, including at least one quote. Hint: the final scene must be discussed since it is an important moment for understanding the final resolution of this conflict. Note: There are basically only two responses that a main character can have to events in a story: they can change in response or they can remain the same. Dynamic characters change in some way during the course of the story, while static characters do not.