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Suggested Paper Topics, Paper 2, EH 392
5-7 page paper due Monday, October 12th
1. What details in The Handmaid’s Tale resemble current day circumstances?
2. Describe some of the cruelties and humiliations of slavery described in Beloved and connect that brutality to some of the cruelty or ethical lapses we see in characters who are former slaves.
3. Can you draw a connection between the environmental degradation in White Noise and that in The Handmaid’s Tale?
4. Compare and contrast the humiliation and lack of freedom in The Handmaid’s Tale and Beloved.
5. Consider the first volume of Maus (and the second if you’d like). How are the Jews dehumanized? Why don’t the Jews resist?
6. Consider two or three books—The Handmaid’s Tale, Beloved, and/or Maus. How are they similar in the brutality and dehumanization imposed upon the victim characters?
7. How does the character (or the incarnation) of Beloved influence the character development of Sethe, Paul D, and Denver throughout the novel?
8. How does the African American history represented in Toni Morrison’s Beloved differ from “official history?” One example: for white Americans, a major event during the several periods of time covered in the novel would be the Civil War. The black characters seem unresponsive to the war, even though Paul D takes part in it in several different capacities. The defining events for Paul D are Mister, the rooster, mocking him as Paul D is restrained by the bit and his experience on the abusive chain gang.
9. A topic of your own design.