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Essay Available:
Pages:
6 pages/β‰ˆ1650 words
Sources:
2 Sources
Style:
Chicago
Subject:
Literature & Language
Type:
Essay
Language:
English (U.S.)
Document:
MS Word
Date:
Total cost:
$ 21.6
Topic:

Human Resilience and Defeat in 'The Old Man and the Sea' and 'The True Story of Ah Q'

Essay Instructions:

Length: 6-8 pages (excluding Works Cited) 

Objective: Comparative textual analysis, plus a consideration for comparability/the ethics of comparison. Engage in a comparison that enables a new understanding of (at least) one of the texts we have read. Enrich or otherwise nuance your comparison by arguing for how it benefits a global community of readers (in the spirit of Zhang Longxi’s “Distant Killing”). Make us smarter about at least one of the texts we’ve read and explain the greater benefit of your act of comparison.

Example: How does a comparison of the contemporary Tale of Genji manga with the original Tale of Genji make us aware of aspects of the original Genji that we didn’t see before? What makes the comparison of a “classic novel” to contemporary manga appropriate? Does it affect our definition of storytelling, or of “literature”?

Assessment: I will use the same 50-point grading rubric that I used with Paper 1, but add a category of extra credit for papers that productively respond to class feedback.

Citation: Use of outside sources will be essential. When employing ideas taken from other sources, you must add in-line citations or footnotes.

Use of generative AI remains the same as before. Two-sentence maximum unit for proofreading purposes, show all usage.

 

Essay Sample Content Preview:


THE EXPLORATION OF HUMAN RESILIENCE AND DEFEAT IN 'THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA' AND 'THE TRUE STORY OF AH Q'
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"The Old Man and The Sea" and "The True Story of Ah Q" are rich in the two nations' historical, social, and cultural values. The older man, Santiago, is on a mission to catch a fish while fighting with sharks and returns home with the skeleton of his achievement after dozens of days of struggle. He is still hopeful and renews his passion for catching fish, indicating his high resilience. Ah Q is an unemployed, ill-mannered man in Chinese society whom nobody likes, but he still mocks the world around him unless executed. His courage and strength at the time of execution show his hope and victory in the face of death. The former story by Hemingway, an American writer, and the latter by Lu Xun, a Chinese-Chinese writer, provides a chance to compare and contrast Eastern and Western cultures from two different historical backgrounds. However, both stories depict a resilient protagonist, meeting defeat in the end but never losing courage and hope. Both stories show different tragedies, arousing different emotions in the audience. Besides, both stories are rich in cultural implications in two significantly remarkable times in history: the colonization of China and the post-war period in America. The struggle of Santiago and Ah Q also question the world's absurdity, hence connecting their stories to existentialism with different meanings. The comparison of these two stories benefits the audience in multiple ways, such as improving their cultural empathy, social commentary, understanding of culture for man, literary analysis, universality of themes, and ethical consideration.
"The True Story of Ah Q" and "The Old Man and The Sea" represent a tragic protagonist arousing specific emotions in the audience through resilience and defeat. The former novella brings tragedy with the Chinese aesthetics of the character in a peculiar historical background. The author combines the elements of tragedy and comedy, which, in the end, leave a note of optimism and motivation rather than

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