Write an essay in which you connect either Frankenstein or Brave New World

Please write a four-to-six page paper in response to one of the following essay questions. Your essay must contain a thesis, backed up by quoted and paraphrased evidence from course readings. Mount an argument about your chosen topic: in other words, you should take a position (which will likely originate with an opinion that you hold, and then you will develop it into an arguable thesis) and support it with relevant and appropriate evidence. Please use MLA citation method for sources. Format your essay as follows: double-space, 12 point font, Times New Roman, with one inch margins. The essay must be a minimum of four full pages or 1,000 words.  Maximum possible length is 6 pages, or 1,500 words.

The following essay questions contain sub-questions to spur on your thinking; you do not have to answer all of them. The most important goal is to identify a particular, narrow point you want to make about your chosen topic, and support it with carefully chosen evidence. Be careful to avoid plot summary; you may assume that your reader is familiar with the text. (If you choose Question Three, you should also minimize plot summary, unless an explanation of a plot point helps to support your argument.) When quoting, remember to introduce and contextualize quotations. Avoid “dropped” or “floating” quotations—quotations that are not explained or connected to your ideas. A frequent problem with this type of essay is that the thesis does not appear until the conclusion. This usually occurs because the author has waited until the last minute to write the paper. Give yourself some time to write a rough draft, and feel free to consult me in office hours. After you have written your first draft, look carefully at your intro and your conclusion: Does your introduction offer a narrowly defined line of argument? Check to see if your opener is a bit general, and then by the time we reach the conclusion, we have finally arrived at an arguable assertion; if that is the case, then you will want to rewrite the essay so that your conclusion becomes your thesis. I will give you time in class to work on your essays, so that you can ask me questions.

Please note: I do not read rough drafts over email or offer otherwise illegitimate assistance. If you bring your rough draft to office hours, I am happy to review it. I am also happy to simply discuss ideas in conference.

You will be graded primarily on content, cogency, use of evidence, and organization. This is not a writing course; as such, you will not be graded for the quality of your writing, per se. However, good writing goes hand in hand with good argumentation and good critical thinking. If it is difficult to comprehend your ideas due to problems with sentence-level writing, then your writing will affect your grade.

Essay Question One: Write an essay in which you evaluate the nature of humanity in Brave New World or Frankenstein through a specific ethical lens. Analyze one of the two novels through the lens of Aristotelian Virtue ethics, Kantian deontological ethics, or John Stuart Mill’s utilitarianism. How can we evaluate the actions and choices of the main characters from a particular ethical framework? How do these choices humanize them or dehumanize them? To answer this question, you will need to introduce the ethical lens you plan to use in your introductory paragraph, and you will want to quote from the ethics texts in a limited fashion in the body of your essay. Your essay will contain quotations from Huxley or Shelley, as well as analysis of specific events in the novel. What conclusions can we draw about these characters when we judge their humanity through the focus of one ethical theory? To answer this question, you must carefully fit a particular ethical framework over your chosen work of fiction and then use that theory to help create and support your argument. To answer this successfully, you will need to define what humanity means to you. (FYI, do not feel limited by or constrained to Kant’s humanity principle; it is not the only ethical theory we have learned that can be used in this analysis.)

Essay Question Two: Write an essay in which you connect either Frankenstein or Brave New World to the concept of the naturalistic fallacy: the concept that whatever is natural is right. According to evolutionary psychologist Steven Pinker,

The naturalistic fallacy is the idea that what is found in nature is good. It was the basis for social Darwinism, the belief that helping the poor and sick would get in the way of evolution, which depends on the survival of the fittest. Today, biologists denounce the naturalistic fallacy because they want to describe the natural world honestly, without people deriving morals about how we ought to behave (as in: If birds and beasts engage in adultery, infanticide, cannibalism, it must be OK).

Why should we strive to avoid the naturalistic fallacy? In other words, shouldn’t nature offer us guidelines for an understanding of right and wrong? Consider how the idea of survival of the fittest relates to either of the novels we have read so far. Ask yourself how what morals play out in these novels that genuinely describe the natural world. For example, how do Victor Frankenstein’s actions reflect behaviors found in the natural world? How does the rejection of nature in Brave New World relate to these concepts? Your essay should comprise a careful discussion of how the naturalistic fallacy (as well as the reality of nature) relates to your chosen novel.

Essay Question Three: Select an episode of “Black Mirror” that is relevant to course themes. Briefly summarize the plot, main characters, and central conflict. Then analyze the episode in terms of one of the ethical theories we have covered so far, and/or discuss it in relation to either Frankenstein or Brave New World. What is the primary theme of the episode, and how does it connect to ideas we have discussed? Use specific examples from your chosen episode, and analyze them through the lens of course concept(s). What is the critical theme of the episode, and how does it correspond to important themes we have explored?  Possible themes might include: what it means to be human; civilization vs. barbarism; scientific inquiry and its effects; artificial reproduction; the meaning of family; the effects of human arrogance; the role of empathy; the role of literature and the arts in society; education; sexuality and romantic love; the nature of evil; the individual vs. society; the natural vs. the unnatural. You are not limited to these themes; you may choose your own. Try to focus on one chief theme and make sure that all paragraphs in your essay relate back to a clear, focused thesis statement.