Description of task

This task is designed to allow you to show your strength as a creative writer.

With a particular audience and purpose in mind, compose your most impressive piece of vignette writing. Make sure you employ the traditional features of the vignette text type to demonstrate your understanding of the genre, and to achieve your purpose.

Assessment conditions

A vignette of up to 1000 words Refer to rubric for requirements.

Performance Standards – Vignette

Knowledge and Understanding Analysis Application
A Detailed knowledge and understanding of ways in which ideas, perspectives, and values are represented in texts.
Thorough knowledge and understanding of a range of ways in which authors use stylistic features to communicate ideas.
Detailed knowledge and understanding of a range of stylistic features and conventions of different text types. Perceptive analysis of the ways in which texts represent ideas, perspectives, and values.
Perceptive analysis and evaluation of the complex ways in which stylistic features are used to influence the interpretation of texts.
Perceptive analysis of similarities and differences between texts in comparative tasks.
Perceptive analysis of ways in which different critical perspectives inform critical interpretation. Sophisticated use of a wide range of conventions, and/or stylistic features to create coherent texts that address the meaning and intention of the task.
Detailed and appropriate use of evidence from texts develop, support, and justify responses, with textual references incorporated fluently in discussion.
Use of precise and fluent expression, which is appropriate for audience and purpose.
B Knowledge and understanding of a range of ways in which ideas, perspectives, and values are represented in most texts.
Knowledge and understanding of a range of ways in which authors use stylistic features to communicate ideas.
Knowledge and understanding of a range of stylistic features and conventions of different text types. Clear analysis of the ways in which texts represent ideas, perspectives, and values.
Clear analysis and evaluation of the complex ways in which stylistic features are used to influence the reading of texts.
Clear analysis of similarities and differences between texts in comparative tasks.
Clear analysis of ways in which different critical perspectives inform critical interpretation. Use of a range of conventions, and/or stylistic features to create coherent texts that address the meaning and intention of the task.
Appropriate use of evidence from texts to develop, support, and justify responses, with textual references incorporated in discussion.
Mostly accurate and fluent expression, which is appropriate for audience and purpose.
C Knowledge and understanding of some ways in which ideas, perspectives, and values are represented in texts.
Knowledge and understanding of some ways in which authors use stylistic features to communicate ideas.
Knowledge and understanding of some of the stylistic features and conventions of different text types. Some analysis of ways in which texts represent ideas, perspectives, and values.
Description, with some analysis and evaluation, of ways in which stylistic features are used to influence the reading of texts.
Description, with some analysis, of similarities and differences between texts in comparative tasks.
Some analysis of ways in which different critical perspectives inform critical interpretation. Competent use of conventions, and/or stylistic features to create texts that address the meaning and intention of the task.
Competent use of evidence from texts to develop, support, and justify responses, with some use of textual references in discussion.
Generally fluent and clear expression, which is mostly appropriate for audience and purpose.
D Some knowledge and restricted understanding of a narrow range of ways in which ideas and values are represented in texts.
Some knowledge and restricted understanding of a narrow range of ways in which authors use stylistic features to communicate ideas.
Some knowledge and restricted understanding of a few of the stylistic features and conventions of different text types. Description of the ideas and values represented in texts.
Description of some ways in which stylistic features are used to influence the reading of texts.
Some description of similarities and differences between texts in comparative tasks.
Recognition of some ways in which different critical perspectives inform critical interpretation. Use of some language features to create texts that address the meaning and intention of the task in a limited way.
Some use of evidence from texts to develop, support and attempt to justify responses, with use of a narrow range of textual references.
Occasionally clear expression, which is appropriate for some audiences and purposes.
E Simplistic knowledge and very restricted understanding of the way in which an idea or a value is represented in a text.
Limited knowledge and restricted understanding of a restricted range of stylistic features used by authors.
Limited knowledge and restricted understanding of different text types and conventions. Reference to an idea or value represented in a text.
Limited description of a way in which a stylistic feature is used to influence the reading of a text.
Simplistic description of a connection between texts in a comparative task.
Reference to a critical perspective. Attempted use of some language features to create texts that attempt to address the meaning and intention of the task in a limited way.
Restricted use of evidence from texts to develop and support a simple response, with minimal textual references.
Emerging development of control of expression.

Sample Solution

Sample solution

Dante Alighieri played a critical role in the literature world through his poem Divine Comedy that was written in the 14th century. The poem contains Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Inferno is a description of the nine circles of torment that are found on the earth. It depicts the realms of the people that have gone against the spiritual values and who, instead, have chosen bestial appetite, violence, or fraud and malice. The nine circles of hell are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed and wrath. Others are heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Dante’s Inferno in the perspective of its portrayal of God’s image and the justification of hell. 

In this epic poem, God is portrayed as a super being guilty of multiple weaknesses including being egotistic, unjust, and hypocritical. Dante, in this poem, depicts God as being more human than divine by challenging God’s omnipotence. Additionally, the manner in which Dante describes Hell is in full contradiction to the morals of God as written in the Bible. When god arranges Hell to flatter Himself, He commits egotism, a sin that is common among human beings (Cheney, 2016). The weakness is depicted in Limbo and on the Gate of Hell where, for instance, God sends those who do not worship Him to Hell. This implies that failure to worship Him is a sin.

God is also depicted as lacking justice in His actions thus removing the godly image. The injustice is portrayed by the manner in which the sodomites and opportunists are treated. The opportunists are subjected to banner chasing in their lives after death followed by being stung by insects and maggots. They are known to having done neither good nor bad during their lifetimes and, therefore, justice could have demanded that they be granted a neutral punishment having lived a neutral life. The sodomites are also punished unfairly by God when Brunetto Lattini is condemned to hell despite being a good leader (Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). While he commited sodomy, God chooses to ignore all the other good deeds that Brunetto did.

Finally, God is also portrayed as being hypocritical in His actions, a sin that further diminishes His godliness and makes Him more human. A case in point is when God condemns the sin of egotism and goes ahead to commit it repeatedly. Proverbs 29:23 states that “arrogance will bring your downfall, but if you are humble, you will be respected.” When Slattery condemns Dante’s human state as being weak, doubtful, and limited, he is proving God’s hypocrisy because He is also human (Verdicchio, 2015). The actions of God in Hell as portrayed by Dante are inconsistent with the Biblical literature. Both Dante and God are prone to making mistakes, something common among human beings thus making God more human.

To wrap it up, Dante portrays God is more human since He commits the same sins that humans commit: egotism, hypocrisy, and injustice. Hell is justified as being a destination for victims of the mistakes committed by God. The Hell is presented as being a totally different place as compared to what is written about it in the Bible. As a result, reading through the text gives an image of God who is prone to the very mistakes common to humans thus ripping Him off His lofty status of divine and, instead, making Him a mere human. Whether or not Dante did it intentionally is subject to debate but one thing is clear in the poem: the misconstrued notion of God is revealed to future generations.

 

References

Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). Dante’s inferno: Seven deadly sins in scientific publishing and how to avoid them. Addiction Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, 267.

Cheney, L. D. G. (2016). Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno: A Comparative Study of Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Stradano, and Federico Zuccaro. Cultural and Religious Studies4(8), 487.

Verdicchio, M. (2015). Irony and Desire in Dante’s” Inferno” 27. Italica, 285-297.

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