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Using Henry Dumas’ “Ark of Bones,” write an essay that explains the hidden moral or political meaning of the story. Before attempting to explain the individual symbols in the story, please make sure that you have a central thesis
In writing about Dumas’ “Ark of Bones,” please consider (but do not limit yourself to) the following questions: How does Headeye’s name relate to the role that he plays in the story? Keep in mind that he is also referred to as Eye-head and Eagle Eye. What is this mojo bone that Headeye carries around? He calls it a “keybone to the culud man.” What does the name Deadman’s Landing (the area of the Mississippi River where the story takes place) have to do with the rest of the story? How does the story relate to the biblical stories of Noah’s Ark and the Valley of Dry Bones (Genesis 5:32-10:1 and Ezekiel 37: 1-14)? What do the numbers on the steps leading up to the ark represent
ENGL 323: Final Essay Prompts
- Your final paper should be 6 to 8 double-spaced, typewritten pages.
- The thesis should be underlined and at the end of the first paragraph.
- The paper should cite three outside sources in MLA format (The text that you are writing about does not count as an outside source).
- The paper is due on Friday, May 6th—the last day of class.
Option A:
Analyze and interpret some aspect of the theme, imagery, language, or politics of the poetry of Amiri Baraka. Questions you might consider are does Baraka address similar themes throughout his poetry, and, if so, how do they come together to give you some notion of his worldview? How does Baraka use word-images to evoke emotion, and convey his ideas more effectively? What are the distinctive qualities of the images Baraka uses? Do they connote violence, anger, love, communal feeling, etc.? What kind of language does Baraka use, and for what reasons? Does he use poetic language, the language of the “street,” or other types of language? Why is music, particularly Jazz and the Blues, so important to Baraka’s poetry?
Option B:
An allegory is a story, poem, or work of art that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically moral or political. Using Henry Dumas’ “Ark of Bones,” write an essay that explains the hidden moral or political meaning of the story. Before attempting to explain the individual symbols in the story, please make sure that you have a central thesis that explains the hidden meaning of the story as a whole. The rest of your paper should then be an attempt to support this interpretation.
In writing about Dumas’ “Ark of Bones,” please consider (but do not limit yourself to) the following questions:
- How does Headeye’s name relate to the role that he plays in the story? Keep in mind that he is also referred to as Eye-head and Eagle Eye.
- What is this mojo bone that Headeye carries around? He calls it a “keybone to the culud man.”
- What does the name Deadman’s Landing (the area of the Mississippi River where the story takes place) have to do with the rest of the story?
- How does the story relate to the biblical stories of Noah’s Ark and the Valley of Dry Bones (Genesis 5:32-10:1 and Ezekiel 37: 1-14)?
- What do the numbers on the steps leading up to the ark represent?
- What do the bones in the hold of the ship represent?
Option C:
Write an essay explaining what African American literature is and why it should be considered an important part of any university’s curriculum. This essay is an opportunity for you to reflect upon what is unique about the literature that we have read this semester and the conversations that it has stimulated. Your essay should have a clearly articulated thesis and make at least three claims. Evidence from the texts that we have read over the course of the semester should be used to support each claim, but your essay should not contain any quotations that are more than three lines in length. In writing about specific texts, please refrain from referring to them as “the story” unless they actually are short stories. Instead, be specific and write “the novel,” “the poem,” “the play,” “the essay,” or “the short story,” as may be appropriate for each specific instance.
