Your responses should each include specific references to the works for support. Each answer should be one to two substantial paragraphs in length (three at the most!). Save your answers in a single Word doc
1. Arthur Miller's play, Death of a Salesman, Ann Beattie's short story, "Weekend," and John Updike's short story, "Separating" have as one of their common themes the failure of relationships. Please discuss the main reasons for such failures, providing quotes from the texts to support your opinions. (There may be more than one failed relationship in each work; please select the major ones.)
Arthur’s Miller “Death of a Salesman”
http://www.wcusd15.org/kershaw/ENG%20302/DS%20Death%20of%20a%20Salesman%20Complete.pdf
Ann Beatties “Weekend”
https://lingualeo.com/en/jungle/weekend-by-ann-beattie-575005
John Updike “Separating”
https://kupdf.net/download/john-updike-separating_59e25a0008bbc56422e65471_pdf
2. How does the past continue to affect the present? Is the past a burden we can never escape, or in America is it possible to leave the past behind entirely and embark on a new life of freedom? Discuss using Art Speigelman’s “Maus” and ONE other text from the second half of the class.
Art Speigelman “Maus”
https://uniteyouthdublin.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/maus-a-survivors-tale-my-father-bleeds-history-by-art-spiegelman.pdf
George Saunders “CivilWarLand in Bad Decline”
https://moodle.swarthmore.edu/pluginfile.php/305783/mod_resource/content/1/Saunders.pdf
3. Over the last eight weeks we have surveyed the work of more than thirty writers representing American literature over the last century. This is, of course, a very small group of writers to represent a huge, vibrant and diverse body of work. Looking at the writers we have worked with, however, which are most important? Choose two writers from our reading list and make the case that their work will be remembered and studied for centuries to come as particularly representative and excellent examples of what American literature is in our time. To do this, you will need to go beyond your emotional responses and personal taste to consider what elements are most likely to valued in literary works by both scholars and general readers. If you wish, you may modify this topic by discussing one writer from our readings and one writer who we did not discuss, but who you believe will be recognized as a major author and should be included in future sections of the class on that basis. Again, of course, you must seek to provide an objective basis for your judgement.
Arthur Miller “Death of a Salesman”
http://www.wcusd15.org/kershaw/ENG%20302/DS%20Death%20of%20a%20Salesman%20Complete.pdf
Richard Wright “the man who was almost a man”
https://southinblackandwhite.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/the-man-who-was-almost-a-man.pdf