Choose ONE of the following topics.

1. Discuss the social standing of women in the Greek culture at the time that Medea was written. How does this background help to explain Medea's actions?

2. Discuss the religious backgrounds of the culture from which Beowulf was created. How do the pagan and Christian beliefs influence either the characters or the theme of the poem?

3. The Iliad is a poem about war more than anything else. Discuss the beliefs and rituals associated with war and battle for The Iliad in order to show how these help us understand Achilles. Is he seen as noble or deeply flawed, based on his actions?

4. Dicuss the historical facts of the culture at the time that Confucius wrote The Analects. How do specific parts of The Analects reflect the changes that Confucius was attempting to instill in his culture?

5. Examine the significance of The Ramayana of Valmiki for the Indian culture, both historically and today. In looking at its current significance, consider how it is influential in two or more areas, such as the religious, political, or entertainment areas.

6. Compare and contrast the characterization of one of the following pairs. In doing this, you will be explaining what critics have said about the characters and then drawing your own conclusions about the most significant character traits and whether these characters are very much alike or very much different:

Achilles and Beowulf

Odysseus and Rama

Medea and Odysseus



Without written permission from me, papers that do not match one of the above topics will be given a zero, with no opportunity to resubmit the paper.

Your research paper must be four to seven pages long for the text, plus another page for the Works Cited information. Use standard MLA format, so do not use a title page.

You must use articles from the online databases of the Macomb library for the research. I recommend the Literature Resources from Gale as a good start for information about the literary work. You may use other sources also, but these must be college-level sources, so do not use encyclopedias or other sources designed for pre-college work.

Your paper must use both internal and end citations that follow current MLA format. Any examples of plagiarism, such as not using internal citations or not putting direct quotes in quotation marks, will result in a significantly lower grade, failure of the paper, or failure in the course, depending on the type and degree of plagiarism.

Your paper should show your own original thinking about the conclusions reached through reseach, backed up with evidence from the secondary sources.

In assessing your paper, I’ll look for the following things:

Your paper indicates that you are able to find sources that are credible on the topic.
The research used is correctly documented according to MLA format for both internal and end citations.
The paper does not use cut and paste or rely excessively on the phrasing or organization of the research sources.
The paper has a well-developed discussion that shows your ability to put together an argument using the secondary research material as evidence.
The paper is well organized, with coherent, unified, and well-developed paragraphs.
The paper has no major errors (fragments, comma splices, run-together sentences, agreement errors, verb formation errors).
The paper has few or no minor errors.