Need ideas for books that make an argument...

[Michelle in AL]

I'm planning my English class for next yr. It will be an honors or AP language and composition class that will focus mostly on nonfiction essays and writing. I'd like to tie in some novels that make an argument.

 

For example Frankenstein makes an argument against DNA manipulation. The students could then read scientific articles about the human genome project and gene therapy.

 

The Giver makes an argument against the overuse of psychotherapeutic drugs.

The kids could then read articles about the over use of anti-depressants and ADHD medications or they could argue that they are being used properly on our country.

 

From what i've read about Fahrenheit 451, it makes an argument that TV/media is making literature obsolete and the dangers of this.

The kids could than read essays on the importance of literature.

 

Any other book ideas?

 

Thanks in advance!

[HollyinNNV]

Michelle,

I'm not sure that I agree with your assessment of Frankenstein and The Giver.

 

It is a fine line. You could use those books to make those arguments.

 

However, I don't believe that the books actually make those arguments in and of themselves.

 

KWIM?

 

I think that Frankenstein, especially, is a much broader theme than what you mention. In fact, Mary Shelley might not have had any problem with DNA manipulation. I think that using F. to make an argument against DNA manipulation is really twisting the text to meet a need (IMHO) rather than discovering what the text actually says and leaving it at that.

 

That said, I do REALLY like the F451 idea and I think it would work well.

 

How about using Animal Farm?

Holly

 

I'm planning my English class for next yr. It will be an honors or AP language and composition class that will focus mostly on nonfiction essays and writing. I'd like to tie in some novels that make an argument.

 

For example Frankenstein makes an argument against DNA manipulation. The students could then read scientific articles about the human genome project and gene therapy.

 

The Giver makes an argument against the overuse of psychotherapeutic drugs.

The kids could then read articles about the over use of anti-depressants and ADHD medications or they could argue that they are being used properly on our country.

 

From what i've read about Fahrenheit 451, it makes an argument that TV/media is making literature obsolete and the dangers of this.

The kids could than read essays on the importance of literature.

 

Any other book ideas?

 

Thanks in advance!

[Guest]

What a great idea! I got really excited by this and started going through my bookshelves. Found:

 

Difficult works, but anything by Swift, although he tends to argue indirectly and/or with satire -- but my daughter loves this.

 

Samuel Johnson, Rasselas, on the nature of happiness.

 

Thoreau, Walden and/or Civil Disobedience.

 

Upton Sinclair, The Jungle (meatpacking industry).

 

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper -- yes, it has a female protagonist, but it is a fascinating study of the dynamic between a male model of medicine and the women it purports to "help." (Also very short.)

 

Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness and/or E.M.Forster, Passage to India -- colonialism.

 

Any of Shakespeare's tragedies or histories, on the nature of power.

 

G.B. Shaw, An Unsocial Socialist (novel) or Major Barbara (play) -- class struggles.

 

War books: Rupert Brooke and Sigfried Sassoon (WWI poetry); All Quiet on the Western Front; masses of others.

 

Persepolis (comic-type novel about Iran). This would tie in with a whole slew of fiction written by first and second generation immigrants. Achube has a new book of essays, The Education of a British-Protected Child, about growing up in British-administered Nigeria.

 

I'm going to watch this thread for more ideas, because I want to do this with my daughter too!

[Michelle in AL]

Hi Holly, I think I am putting my own bias into Frankenstein. Do you think it could make an argument against science "playing God?" I had just read an article in Discover magazine about the human genome project that prompted the whole Frankenstein idea, and haven't read the book in a year.

 

For The Giver, I was referring to the drugs they would have to take to suppress their emotions (this may not have been the author's intentions, but I immediately saw it as a parallel to our society today).

 

I would like to save Animal Farm and 1984 for their senior yr to coincide with government.

[Michelle in AL]

Hi Karen Anne, I do have Swift on my list in a unit on satire.

 

Heart of Darkness is one I keep coming back to but haven't read. I'll pick that one up and see how that will fit in.

 

The Jungle I haven't read yet either, but we're doing several pieces on slavery and civil rights that might tie in well with this, sort of a an abuse of the lower working class to maintain those in power.

 

I'll have to check out Achube too, I have lots of essays on what it's like to be an immigrant.

 

I'm excited about this now! I've been struggling for weeks trying to make this class appealing.

[Guest]

The Jungle is a quite straightforward piece, kind of like a journalistic whistle-blowing in the form of a novel, so would be an easier work to start with regarding your whole argument theme. It would be a great piece to pair with something like Fast Food Nation.

 

The others vary in how direct they are and how much they present an argument as such vs. opening up area for argument or going into a sort of debate with what is being culturally promoted at the time -- here I am thinking of the war writing, for example, some of which sharply critiques the view that war itself is somehow glorious; it does this by showing the view from the trenches rather than from the map of British victories/colonies type of viewpoint.

 

I do really like this whole idea of putting nonfiction and fiction, historical and contemporary, writing together around an issue.

[Michelle in AL]

Thanks Karen Anne, I went out and got Persepolis and Fahrenheit 451 today. I started reading Fahrenheit and it is an excellent tie in with today's culture and the effect of media. The Bedford Reader and 50 essays a Portable Anthology have lots of essays to combine with almost anything.

 

My favorite war story that shows the true effect of war on the common soldier is The Things They Carried. There's even a Times photo piece on today's soldier and "The things they carry." The book does have cussing and an inappropriate fantasy about an old girlfriend that some might find offensive for teens.

[Nan in Mass]

Scifi. Many, many science fiction books could be used for this.

 

And you probably have more experience in literature than I do, but in case it is helpful:

 

I like the word "explore" better than "argument" because although in some of them the writer has an agenda, many just set up a situation and then explore the implications, leaving judgements about whether this is better or worse to the reader. The most thought provoking scifi picks subjects which aren't clearly cut and then presents situations that illuminate the pros and the cons. Perhaps, too, it depends what your own agenda is. If you are mainly trying to use the literature as a way to teach your children your own values, then you will want to preread the book, pick the arguments within it illustrating a particular value, and then firmly lead the discussion that direction. If, on the other hand, you are mainly trying to use the literature as a way to teach your children thinking skills, then you may find (I did) that using a more open-ended approach and labelling it "explore" works better. It leaves the child something to think about. Among other things, the child can try to decide whether the writer has an opinion about the issues tackled in the book, or whether the author is just exploring the implications. (I said mainly because obviously we all are trying to do both. We don't generally try to do both with every subject, though. One family might use math to teach thinking skills and literature to pass on values, while another might use history to pass on values and literature to teach thinking skills.)

 

If the author is trying to make a point (rather than just exploring), the child can also try to assess whether the book successfully makes the author's point. I've found it easier to teach this in reverse by picking a book in which the author fails in a very obvious way. We accidentally discovered that Heinlein's Starship Trooper works well for this. The book is a fun, fast read for teenage boys. It is emotionally satisfying, somehow. However, Heinlein is preachy in a very obvious way. (It is necessary for any examples to be exageratedly obvious for my very boy-like boys to be able to see things in literature. We will not be doing AP literature, thank you very much. LOL.) Among other things, he argues in the book that war is a necessary evil. If you try to take the argument out of the book's context, however, it doesn't work because in the book Heinlein's characters are humans fighting unhumnanlike non-humans, whereas on earth, the situation is one of humans fighting humans. This is such a nice glaringly obvious flaw that it can lead to exploring whether Heinlein was really trying to pass along his own opinions in his book, or whether he just invented characters who were trying to pass along their opinions.

 

If you are going to take this approach, you might want to pick some glaring examples like this and use them as a demonstration, then pick some more with glaring examples for your children to find, and then pick some that make points on both sides of an argument so you all have something to argue about GRIN. Of course, I am only seeing all this in retrospect, after my older one has gone off to college. I wish I had figured this out in the beginning. We didn't do too badly, though, because we used TWEM and it lead us through this thinking process with each book. If you want a set of questions that will work for any book you choose and will help you to make your children come up with these points for themselves, get TWEM. I had no idea about any of this when we began great books. We just waded in and began reading and doing TWEM. After a few books, my sons and I began to think about our literature differently.

 

-Nan

Edited February 10, 2010 by Nan in Mass

[Michelle in AL]

Thanks Nan, "explore" is exactly what I want them to do! I'd like them to get an idea/theme from a book, hopefully the book would have consequences to that idea/theme, then research it further as to the effects that idea would have on our world today and then be able to write a persuasive paper on it, including evidence from the book and current research.

 

And I do have the TWEM! Love that gem!

 

Dot I'll look at Johnny Got His Gun, I'm not familiar with that one.

[Nan in Mass]

Sounds like you are all set then. If you want easy examples of this to demonstrate, you might consider some scifi short stories. : )

[Guest]

I just thought of Flowers for Algernon, if your son hasn't already read it, as a good companion to Frankenstein and the issue of artificially manipulating intelligence.

 

Johnny Got His Gun is a good call -- but really a creepy read. I found it hard to get out of my mind for years after.

 

I've heard of The Things They Carried, even almost bought it once; thanks for mentioning it again. It's on my to-read list now.

 

Would you post when you have a syllabus in mind so all of us can see what you finally decided on? It just sounds so appealing.

[Michelle in AL]

I'm waiting on one more book to get here and then I can write my syllabus. I'll post it here for those who'd like to see. It will probably take me a good 2-3 weeks to pull everything together.

[Nan in Mass]

I like The Eye of the Heron. You might want to pre-read it, though, because it may not be as clear-cut as you would like.

Edited February 10, 2010 by Nan in Mass