Pre-write: Entire essay.
On Wednesday: Bring hard copy of final draft of intro. paragraph and 3 body paragraph topic sentences.
Honors 9 Notes for 11/26/18
What is the theme of the
story? We could state this in a number of ways:
1. One should not have too
much hubris if they are attempting the push bounds of the universe.
2. We have to accept man’s
place in the universe and remember we are bodies as well as minds.
3. We should strive for
excellence, but we must avoid hubris.
The man thought he could use
his subjectivity to overcome his objective state. He had no imagination – he
couldn’t imagine his own death. We are bodies as well as minds. Body =
objectivity and the mind = subjectivity.
The man has hubris because he is living in
the subjective world and not the objective world. We see ourselves as having an incredible power to overcome anything. The man has a moment of anagnorisis when he realizes that he should have listened to the old man from Sulphur Creek.
In a character paragraph, you
want to focus on why he has hubris. This will include an Existential
analysis. You could combine this analysis with a discussion of how the man follows the Homeric pattern and how he demonstrates the qualities of a tragic hero. All of these things combined will be the "full monty".
Existentialism: We are the
only beings in the universe whose existence precedes our essence. Our purpose
for being born comes after our birth. Furthermore, it is not our purpose as a
whole (humanity), but rather an individual purpose that is unique to each
person. Existentialism comes from the philosophy of Descartes. What do we know
for certain? The only thing we can know for certain is that we exist. This is
because the only thing we have direct experience of is our own consciousness. We
are certain that our minds exist, but the existence of the outside world cannot
be confirmed. We negate (or doubt) the existence of other objects and people in
our universe in order to confirm that we exist.
Everything is composed of
matter and we are all part of the objective world in that we are composed of
matter and we exist physically. This is not just a matter of logic and
philosophy – this is how we live our lives. We tend to see ourselves as being a
mind that is tenuously attached to our body.
