Personal Experience Essay (for term two)

Earlier in the year I promised that we would return to personal essay writing. Now is the time.
Due January 4, 2011

Option #1 Explore your own existential dilemma or existential crisis

There are several ways of approaching the existential dilemma. Here's a set of questions that might help you think existentially:

What happens to your sense of self, sense of belonging, sense of the order and purpose of existence when you encounter radical trauma, painful loss, and the corrupted nature of humanity? 

Or to approach the dilemma from a slightly different angle, what do you do — what do you say, what do you feel, what do you think —  when you encounter trauma, loss, and/or determine that the world — mankind, human nature, human civilization — is corrupt (dishonest, debauched, defiled): “an unweeded garden / That grows to seed. Things rank and gross in nature / Possess it merely”?


Use the questions as a lens through which to examine your own life. I do not necessarily want you to answer the questions directly but to address the gist of the questions in light of some specific (not general) experience(s) in your life and/or observations of the world you live in. Use some of the tools of the storyteller: narrative structure, perspective, style, and tone; characterization both direct and indirect; suggestive imagery both literal and figurative; dialog; etc. Also reflect upon your narrative; reflection is a primary tool of the essayist.

Let me be clear if you pick this option you will be writing about your own experience(s) and/or observation(s) not about Hamlet!!!!!!!

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Option #2 Responding directly and personally to Hamlet

Choose a theme in Hamlet. Write a personal essay developing a personal response to the depiction of the theme in the play. There are two ways to develop this paper. (1) You may make a point by point comparison and/or contrast between the work and yourself. (2) You may refer to the work briefly and then devote the rest of your essay to your own response to the theme.

The essay should begin with a relevant quotation from the play. The essay should show an understanding of how the theme is developed in Hamlet. The essay should also show an understanding of how the theme relates to your life and/or the world in which you live. The essay should be thoughtfully organized and thoughtfully written. Rhetoric matters. Language matters.