The RA Essay is probably different from other Rhetorical Analysis assignments you may have been asked to do in other classes, so it’s important that you read the general prompt carefully and pay attention to the directions I’ll give and the examples we’ll look at in class.
While the general prompt tells you what is expected in the essay, I’ve written more specific prompts that apply to our readings to give you stronger guidance in terms of what you should write about. You will choose one of these prompts to base your essay upon. Note that the essay is something we’ll work to build starting in Week 3 with drafts due in Weeks 4/5/6. This also gives you some time to think about which prompt(s) appeal to you and decide on a prompt you’d like to focus on.
For whichever prompt you choose, you’ll want to make sure that your argument discusses WHAT you see happening, HOW you see it operating, and (most importantly) WHY this is important, and/or WHAT the EFFECT of these rhetorical choices is! Your argument should, of course, be arguable.
AGWR Chapter 8 has some great examples of various kinds of rhetorical arguments—and the thesis statements that summarize them. Please read through these—we spent a lot of time collecting them for you because we thought they’d help you out. A lot of these will seem threateningly complex—but they’re the result of a lot of thought and a ton of revision over time.
STORIES YOU CAN FOCUS ON FOR THE RA (choose one):
Saunders: Civilwarland In Bad Decline
Saunders: Pastoralia
Saunders: My Chivalric Fiasco
RA PROMPTS:
1. Choose one story that we’ve read and that you would like to discuss in this essay. When this story was written, what kind of societal conversation or debate was taking place (and what kinds of changes had taken place recently) surrounding the issue of working conditions in the United States? How did George Saunders write his story in such a way as to provide a strong argument/commentary upon these trends or conversations? In other words, how does he add his own voice to this conversation, and what does he have to say about these issues?
[As an example: how does George Saunders use this story to create a statement or call to action about depersonalizing aspects of the contemporary workplace?]
This prompt will require you to look not only at WHAT HAPPENS in the story, but more precisely will ask you examine HOW the story is written in such a way as to provide commentary on the issues at this time. This means you’ll need to examine Saunders’s style choices to find meaning in the story that would not be obvious to a smart reader on their first read of the story.
2. Choose one story that we’ve read and that you would like to discuss in this essay. What message does this story seem to be sending about the way that we interact with (and learn from) history? How does the style of the story (not just WHAT HAPPENS) construct this message? What societal conversation, debate, event, trend, etc is this message responding to or challenging, and how is it doing that? In other words, how does the author add his own voice to an ongoing conversation, and how is the way that the story is written pivotal in letting the author respond in this way?
This prompt will require you to look not only at WHAT HAPPENS in the story, but more precisely will ask you examine HOW the story is written in such a way as to provide commentary on the issues at this time. This means you’ll need to examine the author’s style choices to find meaning in the story that would not be obvious to a smart reader on their first read of the story.
3. Choose one story that we’ve read and that you would like to discuss in this essay. When this story was written, what kind of societal conversation or debate was taking place (and what kinds of changes had taken place recently) surrounding masculinity in the United States? What did it mean to be “manly” or “masculine”, and how did George Saunders write his story in such a way as to provide a strong argument/commentary upon these trends or conversations? In other words, how does he add his own voice to this conversation, and what does he have to say about these issues?
This prompt will require you to look not only at WHAT HAPPENS in the story, but more precisely will ask you examine HOW the story is written in such a way as to provide commentary on the issues at this time. This means you’ll need to examine Saunders’s style choices to find meaning in the story that would not be obvious to a smart reader on their first read of the story.
4. Choose one story that we’ve read and that you would like to discuss in this essay. Each of these stories takes place at some sort of theme park (or place of public amusement) where things aren’t as perfect as they could be. When this story was written, what kind of societal conversation or debate was taking place (and what kinds of changes had taken place recently) surrounding the ways that Americans entertained themselves? What were the conversations surrounding modern amusement, and how did George Saunders write his story in such a way as to provide a strong argument/commentary upon these trends or conversations? In other words, how does he add his own voice to this conversation, and what does he have to say about these issues?
[As an example: how does George Saunders use this story to create a statement or call to action about violence in contemporary entertainment?]
This prompt will require you to look not only at WHAT HAPPENS in the story, but more precisely will ask you examine HOW the story is written in such a way as to provide commentary on the issues at this time. This means you’ll need to examine Saunders’s style choices to find meaning in the story that would not be obvious to a smart reader on their first read of the story.
5. Choose one story that we’ve read and that you would like to discuss in this essay. Each of these stories could be argued to represent a dystopian world. What dystopian genre conventions are present in the story you’re examining, and what dystopian genre conventions are absent (or are subverted)? What larger purpose do you think George Saunders’s achieved by including/disincluding these conventions in his text? Was he sending a certain message? How was that message sent, and what is that message about?
This prompt will require you to look not only at WHAT HAPPENS in the story, but more precisely will ask you examine HOW the story uses its genre conventions (or subverts its genre conventions) to achieve some larger effect. It is not enough to simply identify conventions that you do or do not see in the text. You’ll need to use the presence or absence of those conventions to make a bigger argument about the effect that Saunders achieved by doing this.
6. This prompt asks you to analyze the story “Pastoralia,” a story in which the narrator and his cave-roommate have numerous conversations about their children (and numerous interactions with their children), and where a family with a young child is the catalyst for the climax of the story’s action. When this story was written, what kind of societal conversation or debate was taking place (and what kinds of changes had taken place recently) surrounding the issue of parenting? What were the conversations surrounding the way that children were raised, and how did George Saunders write his story in such a way as to provide a strong argument/commentary upon these trends or conversations? In other words, how does he add his own voice to this conversation, and what does he have to say about these issues?
This prompt will require you to look not only at WHAT HAPPENS in the story, but more precisely will ask you examine HOW the story is written in such a way as to provide commentary on the issues at this time. This means you’ll need to examine Saunders’s style choices to find meaning in the story that would not be obvious to a smart reader on their first read of the story.
7. Choose one story that we’ve read and that you would like to discuss in this essay. What message does this story seem to be sending about simulation and/or simulacra? How does the style of the story (not just WHAT HAPPENS) construct this message? What societal conversation, debate, event, trend, etc is this message responding to or challenging, and how is it doing that? In other words, how does the author add his own voice to an ongoing conversation, and how is the way that the story is written pivotal in letting the author respond in this way?
This prompt will require you to look not only at WHAT HAPPENS in the story, but more precisely will ask you examine HOW the story is written in such a way as to provide commentary on the issues at this time. This means you’ll need to examine the author’s style choices to find meaning in the story that would not be obvious to a smart reader on their first read of the story.
Note for this prompt that it will be very easy to point out that around the time Saunders was writing, computers and computer simulations were on the rise around the world as technology progressed. Ideally you’ll go much further than that. Remember the readings we’ve done surrounding this concept and try to find a more creative approach to your conceptualization of simulation in this time period!
