DIRECTIONS:

Please choose Option A, B, or C (below). Please read the questions carefully. Regardless of which option you choose, your essay should be 500-1,000 words and five to ten paragraphs in length. The essay must have a TITLE and a THESIS STATEMENT. You must support your thesis statement with examples, facts, and/or other evidence in an essay that has a clear beginning, middle and end. You should use examples from the text you choose to write about, and possibly your personal experience and knowledge. You should use direct quotes, but you may also paraphrase and summarize. You may wish to use one or more prewriting techniques to generate ideas before you begin. Good luck!

OPTION A:

Write an ANALYTICAL essay on Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451, in which you answer ONE of the following questions. Please use examples (preferably direct quotations) from the reading to support your thesis and main points:

1. How is Clarisse McClellan different from Mildred Montag? Please discuss three or more traits that make these two characters different from one another. How do Clarisse and Mildred interact with Guy Montag in different ways?
2. In Part One of the novel (“The Hearth and the Salamander,”) Captain Beatty explains how our present society will gradually change in the future. List three or more social trends (such as censorship or infringement on human rights) Beatty talks about in his conversation with Montag that you believe are occurring in the year 2020.
3. Please discuss three or more modern inventions (such as the big-screen television, Bluetooth device, and online roleplaying games) that Ray Bradbury seems to predict in the novel. How do these inventions benefit and/or harm the characters that use them? Do these inventions benefit or harm people in the year 2020?

OPTION B:

Write a COMPARISON essay in which you discuss the similarities between two of the poems listed below. How are the themes (“implicit or recurrent ideas”) of these pieces similar? In addition to theme, you must discuss two or more of the following ELEMENTS in your essay: character, speaker / persona, setting, style, tone, symbol, and personification. 

Matthew Arnold, “Dover Beach” (Gardner pages 490-491).

Emily Dickinson, “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” (Gardner pages 493-494).                   

William Butler Yeats, “The Second Coming” (Gardner page 500).

Robert Frost, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” (Gardner page 505).            

T.S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (Gardner pages 516-520).              

Stevie Smith, “Not Waving but Drowning” (Gardner pages 528-529).

Dylan Thomas, “Do not go gentle into that good night” (Gardner pages 540-541).                     

John Donne, “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” (Gardner pages 431-432).

Andrew Marvell, “To His Coy Mistress” (Gardner pages 439-440).

Edwin Arlington Robinson, “Richard Cory” (Gardner page 502).

OPTION C (PROCESS ANALYSIS):

Write an essay in which you explain the steps required to write a RESEARCH ESSAY (such as our Essay Four assignment) using the MLA manuscript style. You must title your essay, using a title such as “How to Write a Research Essay Using the MLA Style.” Please refer to the section on research writing in our textbook, if necessary. You may use examples from the research essay you wrote for this course, if you wish. Remember what a process analysis essay and a research essay are before you begin to write.

Please discuss the following topics in your essay:

1. Prewriting.
2. Hook.
3. Thesis.
4. Topic.
5. Support.
6. Conclusion.

EXTRA CREDIT QUESTION:

To add an additional 5% to your Final Exam grade, please respond to the following question with a one-paragraph to three-paragraph response. Please write your Extra Credit response as part of the same document as your Final Examination Main Response.

Please write a reflection in which you describe the ways the COVID-19 Pandemic has impacted you, your family, and/or your education this semester. What has been the most difficult part of the Pandemic for you? Have there been any positive or inspiring aspects of this crisis for you?