Frankenstein: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=c3R1ZGVudC5iY3Nkbnkub3JnfG1yLWFsYmFuby1ob21lcGFnZXxneDo2MTYzNDAyY2ZjMmM1Y2Uz
Gulliver’s Travels: https://www.fulltextarchive.com/page/Gulliver-s-Travels/
Choose one of the following topics for your second paper. Be sure to that you refer to the text as a way of supporting your argument. Quote passages in the style that we have discussed in class. If you choose to do research on the topic, please follow the MLA stylesheet for the proper form of citation. This paper should easily be between three and five pages in length.
Compare the narrators and the narrative structure of Gulliver’s Travels and Frankenstein. Who is telling the story? Does the teller’s character and actions influence the style and the viewpoint of the narrative? Can you trust these narrators?
Compare the level of self-knowledge between these two characters: Gulliver and Frankenstein (you may even include Captain Walton). Is each aware of his identity? Of his faults? Of the impact of his viewpoint on those around him?
Each character, Gulliver, Victor Frankenstein and Captain Walton is a ‘hero’ on a journey. What do they learn about themselves and about humanity? Does each work offer a definition of what it means to be human? Does either of the character believe that what he is doing is significant? Does each character as ‘hero’ attain the self-awareness of that the journey promises? Is the journey a success or a failure?
Write a paper evaluating the levels of anti- feminism in these two works, specifically analyzing the newly created term, male toxicity, as a way of looking at what we have read this semester. You must use Frankenstein and Gulliver’s Travels; I encourage you to use some of the other readings from the course as well. Think about the destiny of the female characters in these two books. What does this say about the idea of a toxic patriarchal world?
Racism plays a major role as text and subtext in Gulliver’s Travels and Frankenstein. Gulliver certainly feels racial prejudice; he is subject to it as well as a practitioner of racial thinking. The creature in Frankenstein is of a different ‘race’ and is punished for it by both Victor and by townspeople. Write a paper examining how each of these writers presents, explores, depicts and rejects racial thinking and imagining.
Each work contains various depictions and analyses of nature. What is the natural? What are the specific alterations of nature? Is there a common definition of nature in these books? Are ‘monsters a part of nature? What are monsters? Does each book contain an exploration of the idea of the monster as unnatural? How does it play out for the consciousness of each character? Where do monsters come from and what is their possible meaning in human life, in nature and in self-awareness?
