133 LBS (2) Spring 2003 Second Essay Assignment Write a three- to five-page essay on one of the following: 1. Taking full advantage of the comparison-contrast strategy, analyze McPhee's profiles of David Brower and Carol Ruckdeshel. Questions you might wish to address include: What are McPhee's feelings towards them? What roles does the narrator ["I"] play in each piece? Which portrait is more successful? Which person is more admirable? What attitudes towards science and technology are expressed in the two pieces? While showing how you know what you know and why you feel what you feel, strive to make the content of your essay specific, interesting, appropriate, and convincing. And don't just staple a two-page paper on David to the front (or back) of a two-page paper on Carol.
2.
Using both "Travels in Georgia" "Encounters and with the Archdruid," discuss how McPhee uses the four prose strategies--description, narration, analysis, and argument--in scenes involving eating or drinking. Questions you might wish to address include: What is McPhee's purpose in presenting these scenes? What makes his descriptions and narrations effective? What larger explanatory value might these scenes have? How do they help McPhee argue for a particular point? While showing how you know what you know and why you fee...