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Are humans responsible for the choices that they make OR are they simply subject to outside forces?

It should also include references to (that is, quotations/paraphrases from) all of the works in this section: Oedipus, Macbeth, and Fences.

Your essay should present YOUR answer to that question. You are free to use these plays and at least three academic sources to support your answer in any way that you choose. Below are a few examples of how you might approach this:

You could focus your essay on one play and use the others to comment on it. For example, you might argue that Troy Maxson (in Fences) is subject to racism (an outside force) but that he has also made some bad choices himself that had negative consequences as well. You could suggest that this complex view of responsibility is the correct one. This view could be supported by scholarly articles from sociology, psychology, philosophy, or religion.

You could begin with a philosophical or religious view (documented in scholarly articles) such as determinism or divine election. You would then support your argument with the plays themselves. For example, if you believe that God (or the universe or your DNA) determines your actions, you could cite Oedipus and Macbeth in support of this. You would then have to argue that Troy’s bad “choices” were not really choices at all.

You could focus on a contemporary controversy that centers on this issue. For example, it is frequently reported that women are underrepresented in STEM fields and that they hold only 18% of Bachelor’s degrees in IT and 20% in Engineering. If these numbers are accurate (which you should confirm through research), is this the result of parental sexism, that is, of treating girls differently than boys? Or is it educational sexism, that is, of high school counselors directing girls AWAY from the sciences? Or do college and university STEM departments create a hostile environment for women? Or does this just reflect REAL, INDIVIDUAL choices? That is, most women just don’t want to work in these fields. The plays (and other sources) would just provide evident to support your view.