For this assignment, you will write a 4-5 page essay (at least 4 full pages!) that analyzes how Tim O’Brien’s In the Lake of the Woods treats one of the two topics listed below, as they are defined by the theoretical texts assigned in this unit: Alain Badiou’s In Praise of Love and Hannah Arendt’s investigation of evil. Your essay should clearly explain the definition of the concept you are working with – love or evil – and advance an argument about whether this concept as explained by Badiou or Arendt applies to Tim O’Brien’s In the Lake of the Woods. You must support this argument with evidence from the text, using your own close-reading and investigation of connotations, imagery, dialogue, characterization, plot, and style. Your essay must have a thesis statement that makes an interpretive deductive claim about your chosen subject that is not immediately obvious to the reader, and it must keep summary to a minimum. Remember that we have all read the primary text!
*There is one outside source requirement for this essay. You must use at least one of the secondary texts assigned in the Vietnam War unit in your essay. This includes interviews and documentaries. A Works Cited page must follow your essay, as its last page.
Sample Solution
