How do you think Denis Johnson’s Jesus’s Son or Sophocles’ Antigone relates to our earlier readings—on the basis of religion or “innocence” or anything else?
Here are some possible areas of focus:
What is the meaning of the child here?
How does the literature we have read examine the meaning of work or vocation?
How do the stories explore the idea of self-making or self-definition?
What is the role of the “parent?”
What role do women, especially mothers, play here?
Sin and redemption: what role does moral responsibility play in any of the texts? How do characters “fall” from grace, and in what ways are they redeemed?
What is the role of emotions/grief?
What versions of the family/kinship are being explored in these texts?
Sample Solution
