Quarter 1: What Drives Human Behavior?

 

 

 

Unit Overview

So far this semester, we have explored vastly different attitudes toward life as found in transcendental (Thoreau), modernist (T.S. Eliot and Robinson), and contemporary (Dillard) literature. The goal of these units was to identify messages of what drives human behavior and also to identify our own attitude toward life. The focus was on literary analysis and supporting our assertions with evidence from the texts.

 

 

Enduring Understanding

To write a strong literary analysis I had to analyze and fully understand the piece(s) I would be writing about. This is not always easy, since the vocabulary and terms used can be complex at times. An important step to begin with was to identify the thesis statement of the essay. This summarizes the main idea of the essay, and helped me decide what the thesis statement of my literary analysis essay would be. I had to analyze the pieces to see whether I agreed with their statements or not, and why. I had determine my own point of view on what is being discussed in the essay, an support my claim with three statements and quotes from the piece I was analyzing. 

 

Human behavior is driven by what we want to achieve in life. To this, add each person's insecurities, like J. Alfred Prufrock. He was an unseccessful, unhappy old man who's dream was to have friends and meet ladies and talk about fancy stuff, but he was too scared of what they might think, so he never interacted with anyone. For most people, their behavior is driven by dreaming of achieving success and happiness, by discovering what they are truly passionate about and making that their way of life. 

 

 

Areas of Strength

For our personal response essay, I was able to come up with my own point of view and response easily and effectively. 

 

 

Areas for Imrpovement

With both written assignments I struggled a bit trying to include quotes into my writing. 

 

 

Evidence

(modernization essay, personal response essay, pic of prufrock, comic of prufrock)