Essay 2/Morality/Exemplification Jackson’s “The Lottery” (p. 303) Life is Beautiful (film in class) Meyer’s “If Hitler Asked You to Electrocute a Stranger, Would You? Probably” (on Bb) Gansberg’s “Thirty-Seven Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call Police” (p. 127) Chun’s “The Banana Trick and Other Acts of Self-Checkout Thievery” (on Bb) Ericsson’s “The Ways We Lie” (p. 463) Valencia and Sayers’ “Florida Teens Who Recorded Drowning Man Will Not be Changed in His Death” (on Bb) In a 3 page essay, you will explore the idea of morality by developing a thesis statement that takes a position related to morality in some way, and you will support this position with examples from at least two of the texts from this unit. You might choose to focus on one or more specific moral transgressions you read about such as the following: blindly following tradition, senseless murder, mob mentality, blindly following authority, not standing up for what is right, lack of integrity, indifference, selfishness, cowardice, lying, etc. Or, you may also choose to develop a thesis statement by answering a more general question like the ones below. These are all just examples; you are free to write about anything you want as long as the overall topic is morality and you can use specific evidence from at least two of the texts from this unit to support your ideas. You will need to use quotes from the readings. If you use the film in your essay, you will refer to specific examples rather than quoting. You can also use real-life examples, but you don’t have to. You will not use personal experience (no “I”) or outside sources (no research). Since you are responsible for developing a specific topic, it will be essential that you create a clear, specific thesis to explain your focus. Here are some questions that might help you when deciding on a topic for this essay: Are we “good” people? What does it mean to be moral or immoral? Who decides on these definitions? Does the definition of morality change depending on the situation? Why do people behave the way they do? How do people justify their actions? Are these actions surprising? Society has certain expectations of its citizens when it comes to morality. Are there times when these expectations are wrong or unreasonable? How are concepts related to morality more complicated than what some may think?
