Essay 1
Write an essay that explores the meaning of the Pirsig passage. The first thing you must do is to introduce the writer, book, and text to your reader. You will do that in a first paragraph after you’ve researched the author, book, and its title. This should take you no more than five minutes to find on the internet, and then only five or six sentences to present in a first paragraph. (You don’t need to cite the sources you use—this is the one paper where that will not be required.)
After that, compose a paragraph that introduces the passage to readers in a sentence or two.
Then write about your perspective on the passage. You may consider these questions, if you wish to, but you don’t have to: What is the teacher learning in this passage? What is the student learning? What changes for the student as she focuses on the front of the opera house? Why is she able to write 5000 words when previously she could write none? What does Pirsig mean by “original and direct seeing”? Give an example or several examples from you own experience when you believe you “saw things originally and directly.” Give other examples of times when you depended on the views and statements of others to shape what you thought, what you said, and what you saw. How does one go about learning to see “originally and directly”?
Try to organize your essay as effectively as you can.
