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Name____________________________________ Date_______________________________
Mr. Warshawski Aural Tradition
The Commitments by Roddy Doyle – writing assignment (50 points)
The assignment: a 2-4 page thesis paper in which you argue a point related to The Commitments.
You are expected to use any of the following prompts as the basis for your thesis.
Joey The Lips Fagan says he can’t live a life without soul and therefore needs to go back to America. Jimmy doubts his story and Imelda later brings some information to his attention as well. Is Joey The Lips a fake? If so, was the ‘Dublin Soul’ of The Commitments a fake? Does it even matter if Joey The Lips was a fake? Were The Commitments and their ‘Dublin Soul’ real? If so, was it because of or in spite of Joey?
True or false: The women in the novel function only to look pretty and fill in the background vocals. Jimmy muses that Imelda (and, by extension, perhaps the three Commitmentettes) holds the band together. But it could also be argued that the women break the band up. Which statement is more accurate: The female roles are inconsequential to the story / The story is theirs more than anybody else’s / The women are equally vital to the band and to the story.
Consider the name of the band: The Commitments. To what extent is the band’s name appropriate? OR, conversely, to what extent does this name incorrectly characterize the true nature of the band? In what way is ‘commitment’ the principal motif of the novel?
How do the last pages of the novel compare with the novel’s opening pages? Compare the ideologies of the two groups. How have The Brassers learned from their experience as The Commitments? Are these the same people playing essentially the same songs? Why or why not? How far have these musicians come/evolved?
Is The Commitments a novel about identity? Jimmy says, “Yis want to be different, isn’t th’ it?” (6). We then hear his manifesto on pages 7-9. We also hear lots throughout the novel about the importance of Dublin as a setting for the story. To what extent is the idea of identity a driving force in the novel?
Reminders and requirements: This assignment should have a proper heading and should be creatively titled, double-spaced, and 2-4 pages in length. It should employ multiple quotes from the novel that are properly integrated, cited, and punctuated. The novel’s title should be in italics. Remember that we write about literature in the present tense and we do not use personal pronouns.
Due Date: Friday, May 14 (8:30 pm) – Schoology upload, please.
