Essay Skeletons

For each of the books that there was a mini-presentation on, I am going to structure an essay for each based on an essay prompt given by the group. Here goes nothing.

1. Kafka on the Shore:

Essay Prompt: Explain how the author develops a character through the use of relationships and encounters with others

 Themes known from presentation:
1. The difference between dreams and reality
2. The power and beauty of mucis in the world
3. Interactions between family members.

Characters in Kafka:
Kafka and Nakata (One and the same?)

What I know about character relationships:
1.Kafka has a bad family life, with a longing to see his mother and sister whom also ran away
2. There is a similar sex life as in Oedipus Rex. 
3. Kafka's plotline meets up with Nakata's plotline.

General Statement to summarize essay: 
Through Kafka's broken family affairs, the author exhibits the sense of longing and confusion which encompass him as a character.

Paragraphs:
1. Based on how he comes from a broken family life. Shows how broken his life is at the beginning of the book. He plotline is completely seperated from Nakata's, and he begins his journey to find himself
2. Plotlines converge. Nakata's character and Kafka's seem to become one as they come together. Through the murder of Johnny Walker, you are able to see both Kafka's mental and physical struggles in the book.
3. Confusion. He confusion in his sexual relationship with his family.

2. Carrie

Essay Prompt:
Is bullying a good enough reason to kill? Use examples from the novel "Carrie" to support your position.

Themes:
1. Need of acceptance in society
2. Revenge on those who deserve it.
3. The play of religion and its restrictions

Bullying in Carrie:
1. Other girls are mean to her
2. Her parents tell her everything she does is wrong and sinful
3. A group of girls pour pigs blood on her at a dance.
4. This causes Carrie to unleash pyschic powers, killing 440 people in the town in a rampage called the assassination.

Ideas:
1. Hard topic to relate to since it encompasses the death penalty argument. Stick to things in the novel.
2. Schadenfreude
3. They drove her to the breaking point. So she broke them.
4. They lead their own fate.

General Statement for essay:
The book Carrie exhibits a situation in which characters in the book seal their own fates through horrible deeds that go unpaid for expect through their untimely deaths.

Paragraphs:
1. Bullying. The effects it has on Carrie, and how is slowly drives her to the breaking point
2. The assassination. How Carrie went crazy on the member on the town, and the way she wasn't completely in control as it happened
3. How it was deserved. The members in the town made her life hell, and she sent them there.

3. Life of Pi

Essay Prompt: Religion plays a big role in Life of Pi. Discuss the part of religion in the novel and how it affected Piscine's journey.

Themes in Life of Pi:
1. Self Discovery
2. Religious Acceptance
3. Territorial/Animalistic Behavior

Religion in Life of Pi:
1. Piscine  grows up Hindi, and lives his life in that manner, until he meets a priest and accepts Christianity, then meets an Imam and adds Islam to his list.
2. It is a story of self discovery, and he takes the best parts of all three religions, and refutes none of them.
3. He takes religion in a very pure manner, just wanting to worship god.

General Statement for the Essay:
Religion plays a role in Piscine's story by showing how he discovers himself through the ideas and experiences he meets and accepts throughout his life.

Paragraphs:
1. How Pi sees all three religions. How he accepts each one as it comes.
2. How Pi shows the three religious leaders how poorly they are acting towards each other. How his purity opens their eyes.
3. How through his journey on the boat, he truly finds himself, and how his background in spirituality plays a vital part in this discovery.