ENG214.001 – Topics in World Literature: Ancient to Medieval

War and Heroism

Prof. Eileen Joy

Spring 2013

TAKE-HOME FINAL EXAM

DUE: Monday, April 29th, by midnight (emailed as a Microsoft Word document to: eileenajoy@gmail.com)

For your Final Exam, I would like you to write 3 pages (typed and double-spaced) in which you ruminate the following quotation, with reference to ONE of the literary works we have read + ONE of the films we have viewed:

This great evil. Where does it come from? How'd it steal into the world? What seed, what root did it grow from? Who's doin' this? Who's killin' us? Robbing us of life and light. Mockin' us with the sight of what we might've known. Does our ruin benefit the earth? Does it help the grass to grow, or the sun to shine? Is this darkness in you, too? Have you passed through this night? (Private Witt, The Thin Red Line)

Do not worry about writing a perfect essay or about having a perfect argument. I'm not interested in that, so much as I would like for you to genuinely engage the quotation and provide whatever commentary you might have upon it (and which will mean spending some time thinking about how the literary works and films we have encountered this semester might help to further illuminate Pvt. Witt's poetic musings). What you are being asked to write is more a commentary, than it is a critical analysis. What that means is to riff on the quotation above by placing it in the element (like water) of what we've read and seen, watching it grow, and writing what you see happen as a result. (Yes, that is meant to be maddeningly mystical sounding.) The term ruminate is key here:

ruminate (verb): to revolve, turn over and over in the mind; to meditate deeply upon; to meditate, consider a design with a view to subsequent action; to chew, turn over in the mouth, again; to chew the cud; to muse, to meditate, to ponder.

Whatever you decide to write, and in whatever form or style, the only real requirement is: be creative, be thoughtful, and be interesting. Remember: I actually read these! I'm in it for the fun, although you may not believe it. Hopefully, you are, too.