Introduction In Elizabeth Hardwick′s article, ″The Apotheosis of Martin Luther King,″ we are presented with an interesting vision of one possibility for understanding King′s historical significance, but we are also given some good philosophical speculation about the nature of knowing. Hardwick, in her essay, shows us that the stage promises action. She writes that even ″the emptiness [of the streets of Memphis] is the signal of dire and dramatic possibilities″ (319). Hardwick also explains a bit about how identity can be constructed and how the roles we play in a drama are interdependent. The actors, from the protesters to National Guard to the Klansmen, use costumes to assume roles in the drama (325). Martin Luther King, she argues, kept the people in the movement together, and without him people lost a part of their identities and even became something new (324). In Death in the Afternoon, Ernest Hemingway also speaks of life as a stage. This author sees morality played out not directly, but metaphorically, in the bullfighting ring. For Hemingway, the promise of action is not in the stage′s existence, but instead due to what the spectators project onto the fighters, the bulls, and their surroundings. For Hemingway, too, the roles played (by, in his case, the matador and the spectator) are interdependent. Without the spectator′s presence a sunrise is just a sunrise. Through the right eyes, however, the horizon becomes full of meaning. Prompts What I would like us to do for this essay is to use comparisons and contrasts between the two texts to answer one of the following questions: Is one′s morality determined more by the dramas we see acted out, or by the individual who sees it? Once one has become aware that there are actors and plots in their life, is it possible to take control of the situation? Or are we hopeless in this show? In any given real-life drama, how does an individual become the show′s hero? Whether one is a matador fighting in a ring or a political leader fighting in the streets, how can the protagonist (hero, principal character, lead man or woman) rise above the drama and achieve lasting fame or real cultural significance? Tips This is a comparison and contrast essay, which you are likely familiar with. The only difference here (maybe) is that I am asking for a thesis. Begin as you would with any essay of this sort and find quotations that relate to one another in their ideas. Between Hardwick and Hemingway, you can set up a good ″he said-she said″ dialog on the page. Write about what their ideas have in common. Write about where they differ. Use the essay prompt to direct your reading in terms of which ideas you select from the texts, so that at the end of your work you will be able to arrive at a claim (thesis) that neatly summarizes the relationship (as you see it) between the two texts.
