You may also wish to review
the general instructions on writing assignments.Review the general guidelines on writing assignments.
Write on one of the following topics:
(1) Subordinate characters can contribute in various ways to the "feel" and theme of the story. Explain how this works with Alexander Levine.
The job is to show how the concrete facts serve to raise thematically important issues. If you wish, you can go on to explain what you take the story to be inviting the reader to think upon these issues. (If you want, you can go further, and explain what your own position is on those issues, and why. But the main business of your answer must be to explain how the figure you choose to discuss helps determine a careful reader's understanding of what the story is "about.")
In the case of Alexander Levine, a useful angle would be to explore the ways in which the changes in this character's appearance and attitude relate help point to the thematic significance of the changes undergone by the story's protagonist.
(2) We immediately recognize this story an instance of a genre with a long history, reaching back to the Biblical story of Job: the trial of faith. What stages does Manischevitz's dialogue with God go through? What, evidently, does God have to teach him? (about himself? about other things?) How does the outcome make us feel about the protagonist? What does this have to do with what you take the theme of the story to be?
You may also wish to review
the general instructions on writing assignments.
Suggestions are welcome. Please send your comments to lyman@ksu.edu .
Contents copyright © 1999 by Lyman A.
Baker.
Permission is granted for non-commercial educational use; all other rights reserved.
This page last updated 06 March 2000.