Choose one topic from the choices below and compose a 500-700 word essay, including three credible and cited sources:
Choose one topic from the choices below and compose a 500-700 word essay, including three credible and cited sources:
In Act II of The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh, Katurian says, “There are no happy endings in real life.” Make a case for the end of the play being happy. How, after all the darkness and violence contained in the play, can the play be interpreted as happy, optimistic, and life-affirming?
One of the play’s themes is the sometimes fine line between art and reality. In what ways do Katurian and Michal—and even Tupolski and Ariel—use stories as a way of coping with, interpreting, and, ultimately, understanding the challenges that real-life often brings?
Compare one of Katurian’s stories to a more familiar, or well-known, fairy tale.
Explore the theme of brotherhood in the play. Katurian and Michal are obvious examples, but so are the two cops. Law enforcement is sometimes described as a brotherhood, or family. But relationships are complicated. How do the play’s characters navigate the difficult and often fraught relations between people who share blood or a common purpose?
Free choice. Explore—in writing—a theme, symbol, character, or other aspect of the play that interests you.
