Reading and short writing assignment
Sample writing assignment: Baudelairean Irony. One of the things that sometimes happens in writing assignments is that we forget there are really two parts to the process. The first is the “discovery”—in which you work out what your answer is. The second is the “presentation”—in which you set out your arguments in its strongest possible form. I’m sure you sometimes find yourself writing, in the final sentence or two of your assignment, a good articulation of your argument—but one that might be a little different to the opening claim. This is not unusual and is part of the “discovery” process: your argument will have developed as you work through the material (i.e. as you write out your thoughts) and by the end you might feel a little differently about the piece than you did at the outset. When you find that happening (i.e. when the final sentence or so makes a different claim from the opening sentence), you need to start again, using that last sentence as your new opening sentence. This is a good thing as it shows your ideas are developing, but it does mean that you need to rewrite your assignment to make sure it presents your new or revised argument. As always, I will be looking for a clear argument, strong textual evidence, and a well-formatted and written response. Please be sure to provide a Works Cited. This can be in any form you are most comfortable with (AP, MLA, Chicago, Oxford, etc.), but should make it clear what is being referred to and where that item can be found. Please note: the 250-word limit (plus or minus 10%) applies only to the text of your argument. It does not include the works cited or the heading information. Sample question: What attitude does Baudelaire adopt to the poor in “Let’s beat up the poor”? A. Student Writing Assignment, Module 4 Although the violence depicted in Charles Baudelaire’s “Let’s beat up the poor” might appear to reflect a negative attitude toward the poor, the prose poem itself resists articulating a clear position, choosing instead to highlight the shortcomings in contemporary responses to the poor. The speaker in fact draws attention early in the piece to the debates about economic and social policy that took place in France in the period by noting that he had consumed books “dealing with the art of making nations happy, wise, and rich” (37), but the poem’s multiple ironies mean that the reader is left uncertain about its attitude toward the poor. The speaker aligns himself with Socrates through a reference to his “Demon” (37), but rather than engaging in a philosophical conversation, he decides that the best response to the pleading gaze of a beggar is to beat him up, presumably to show him who has the power and who doesn’t. This is not, however, an act of bravery in any way: the speaker carefully checks that there are no policemen in the area. The beggar is initially beaten down, but then rises up to attack the speaker, thereby asserting the political power of the proletariat. The speaker claims to be thrilled that the beggar—the representative of the poor—has learnt that he must take responsibility for his own future and rise up against the bourgeoisie in order to achieve equality, but the reader is left wondering whether such lessons are to be taken seriously in any way. The focus, in other words, is on the reader’s response to the poem, not on the poem’s attitude to the poor. [275 words] Works Cited. Charles Baudelaire, “Let’s beat up the poor,” Module 4 Course Reader [pdf] English 220, Summer 2017.