Slouching Towards Bethlehem
Your essay will be a critical, analytical, thoughtful piece of work. Think of this essay as exploratory: you don’t have all the answers; you aren’t proving anything for all time. Avoid cliche and generalities. Focus narrowly and specifically. Support your assertions textually. Remember that text citation is meant to illustrate and illuminate your remarks for your reader. An engaged writer is an interesting writer: if you are bored, your reader will be bored. Be kind to the reader: explain, detail and connect your thinking for them. Show them how you have built your thinking about this subject. The essay will be 3-4 pages, double spaced, 1 inch margins, reasonable font. Choose one prompt. Choose one book. You may mix and match or tweak prompts to suit your interests. If there is something else you want to explore, run it by me.
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Didion is obviously not in extreme circumstances. She is though living through a very
disruptive period in America. Social and cultural upheaval is in full expression. The self she was supposed to grow up to be, didn’t happen. The world is not that of her childhood. Explore the ways she sees herself fragmenting along with the country
Look at the way Didion shows herself sometimes literally embodying the moment. Explore the ways she enters into the cultural moments and reads them.
