SOC 100C: Contemporary Society
TuTr 2-3:50, Asbury Hall 301
 FALL 2006
Professor Thomas Hall
 Office: 106 Asbury, x4519, email: thall@depauw.edu
 OFFICE HOURS:  TuTr 1-1:50; W 11-12; & by appt
Third Reaction Paper
Due Thursday November 30
Last Updated 11-12-06

Write a 4 to 5 page (1200-1800 word), typed, double-spaced, essay on ONE of the topics below. Be sure to consult the general instructions, How to Write Essays for Professor Hall.
Paper form: NO Cover pages or binders Name, course, paper, & topic in one of the top corners :

Your Name
Soc 100C F06
RP 2, TOPIC X, where X = topic letter
Page x

If you do not know how to set running headers, you may write it in by hand!

References:  For references to class texts you need only put author and page in parentheses [e.g., "blah, blah, blah...." (Margolin, p. 133)]. For references to material OUTSIDE OF COURSE TEXTS use " blah, blah, blah,....." (Smith & Weson 1938, p. 45) and a bibliography at the end (NOT on a separate page).

Remember:   Essays are FORMAL exercises, no slang, no contractions, correct spelling and grammar are required.  In your FIRST draft, work at getting your ideas on paper. In your SECOND draft, work on getting the argument in order. In your THIRD draft work on grammar, spelling etc. Keep the introduction, BRIEF, get right to the point.  Write it last!

Note: the answer to "WHY" is the heart of each essay. That is, logic and evidence, not position on the issue, is the key factor. Try to think of arguments FOR & AGAINST your position, and state why those FOR it are more persuasive. To answer the why part you need to pull your own assessment out of what you have read. The answer is not "in the book on  page xxx," rather, it is in your interpretation what you read. That is, these are thought questions, NOT research questions.

GENERAL: Pramoedya Toer's Child of All Nations is part 2 of a four part series about life in Java, called the Buru Quartet. It tells the story of a Dutch educated, Indonesian writer, Minke. The events of the first book are summarized in the beginning of this one. This book follows his early life as a writer and reporter and his attempts to expose some of the negative aspects of colonialism.

Topic A: Some writers argue that both the colonizers and the colonized are "deformed" by the colonial relationship. Does Toer's account support this contention?  Give examples. Is there any contradictory evidence in Toer's account? How does the latter part of Things Fall Apart illustrate this distortion or deformation?  How does it contradict it?

Topic B: Some writers argue that the colonized must move through assimilation into revolt, and how that process often entails a special hatred about the colonizers or anyone associated with them. How does the life of Minke in Toer's book illustrate [or not] this process? What stage[s] does he pass through?  How is his life different from this pattern? Where it is different, try to construct an explanation for these differences. How do you think the pattern will finish for Minke? Explain.

Topic C: How do the events and relations portrayed in Child of All Nations add to the portrayal of colonial relations in Sanderson & Alderson? What does it add to the brief account at the end of Achebe's Things Fall Apart? For both how does Toer's account enrich our understanding of colonial relations? NOTE: this means going beyond noting the obvious, that Child of All Nations is a novel and Sanderson & Alderson is an abstract textbook.

Note: the answer to "WHY" is the heart of each essay. That is, logic and evidence, not position on the issue, is the key factor. Try to think of arguments FOR & AGAINST your position, and state why those FOR it are more persuasive.

Send comments or questions to thall@depauw.edu
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