Concept of resilience, as discussed in Deborah Blum’s article, “Finding Strength

Essay Assignment 2

Background:  In completing this essay assignment, we will be considering the concept of resilience, as discussed in Deborah Blum’s article, “Finding Strength:  How to Overcome Anything,” and connecting it to the novel Plainsong by Kent Haruf.  In this novel you will read about several characters who face stressful and painful challenges in their lives, yet they are still able to “survive and thrive,” to use the words of Blum.  Haruf’s novel especially illustrates how having the support of other people can be instrumental in a person’s ability to go through difficulties in life.

Purpose:  Through this assignment you will have the chance to read both extensively and intensively.   This assignment is designed to help you develop critical thinking skills by thinking deeply about the novel and the argument it makes about the healing effects of kindness and support, both financial or material and emotional, from people around us.

You will also build your writing skills, incorporating the elements of an effective essay into your paper.  You will also learn to select and integrate quotes from the text to use as evidence to support your claims (points) and then explain the meaning and importance of these quotes in terms of your purpose.

Assignment:  Write an essay – five or more paragraphs in length – in response to the following prompt.

How do the characters and the plot in Plainsong illustrate the point that getting support from others plays an important role in resilience?  In other words, how does this novel suggest that people can make it through painful and difficult experiences if they have connections to others?

Here are some questions to help you generate the content of your essay:

Which characters are resilient when they face challenges?

What are their challenges?

What role does the support of others play in these characters’ road to resilience?

Who provides support?

Why do they provide support?

How do they provide support?/What support do they provide?

What is the effect of the support?

Which sentences and events in the plot are especially relevant to this assignment? (Mark them as you read.)

Requirements:

• Save all of your prewriting and drafting and keep it in your two-pocket folder.
• Write a minimum of 900 words (introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion).
• Include a clear thesis at the end of your introduction.
• Use topic sentences to introduce key points (claims) at the beginning of each body paragraph.
• Develop your topic sentence points with solid evidence, including direct quotes from the novel in each body paragraph as well as your explanation of the importance/significance of the quotes – what they reveal in connection to your points/claims.
• Follow MLA style of documentation throughout.  (We will go over this in class.)

• Submit your essay through Blackboard and also in a two-pocket folder.