Humanities The Significance of Story Telling Essay – Description
“Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all: the conscientious historian will correct these defects.”- Herodotus
“Poets and story-tellers are guilty of making the gravest misstatements when they tell us that wicked men are often happy, and the good miserable; and that injustice is profitable when undetected, but that justice is a man’s own loss and another’s gain.” – Plato
“All great literature is one of two stories; a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town.”- Leo Tolstoy
“Only the story can continue beyond the war and the warrior. It is the story that outlives the sound of war-drums and the exploits of the brave fighters…The story is our escort; without it we are blind… It is the thing that makes us different from cattle.”- Chinua Achebe
This semester you have read a number of different texts. Some were told by bards and poets, others by historians and philosophers. Using one of the quotations above, develop an argumentative essay on the role of storytelling in our understanding of civilization and/or the human experience. Build on the ideas from the quotations to construct an argument about the relationship between culture, history, and storytelling. In your essay, use three examples from the readings assigned this semester as evidence for your interpretation of this relationship. This evidence can include historical events and primary sources covered in the course.
Here are the assigned readings, use three examples from them:
– Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince is available here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1232Links to an external site.
Read and respond to these sections with a very brief summary and your thoughts on the passages: Introduction-Dedication and chapters XIV-XIX.
– Frederick Douglass’ Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/23/pg23-image… to an external site.
– Revolutionary Writings:
The US Declaration of Independence: https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration… to an external site.Links to an external site.
The Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen: http://www.columbia.edu/~iw6/docs/decright.htmlLin… to an external site.Links to an external site.
The Declaration of Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt19b9jvh.24?seq=1… to an external site.Links to an external site.
Reflections on the Revolution in France, Burke: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Reflections_o… to an external site.Links to an external site.0
Liberty or Death, Dessalines: https://haitidoi.com/2013/08/02/i-have-avenged-ame… to an external site.Links to an external site.
– “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself” https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15399Links to an external site.
– The Communist Manifesto, by Karl Marx: http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/61/pg61-images… to an external site.Links to an external site.
– The Poetry of World War I:
“The Second Coming” by William Butler Yeats
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43290/the-s… to an external site.Links to an external site.
“Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46560/dulce… to an external site.Links to an external site.
“Anthem for Doomed Youth” by Wilfred Owen
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47393/anthe… to an external site.Links to an external site.
“Peace” by Rupert Brooke
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/po… to an external site.Links to an external site.
– “This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen”: https://www.pelister.org/courses/topics/borowski/t… to an external site.
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