an essay that focuses on personal responsibility as it relates to the treatment of “aliens”, interpreted broadly to mean outsiders such as immigrants and refugees. Your essay should focus on either Dawn or District 9, and should reference Cohen’s “Monster Theory,” but may draw on additional relevant course materials.
This paper offers an opportunity to consider the ways in which narratives of alien invasion impact our moral perspective and personal sense of responsibility, potentially inspiring fear and prejudice or, on the contrary, ethical thinking and action. In this essay, you should explain in depth, with detailed textual support, how Dawn or District 9 challenges readers or viewers to analyze the representation of the alien as monstrous, critique the treatment of (human) aliens in our own society, and consider our own personal responsibility towards cultural outsiders. Your essay should explore an ethical dilemma raised by the chosen work in which core values (such as freedom, privacy, family, etc.) come into conflict. You should then take a stand on how you would resolve this ethical dilemma, supporting your argument logically with reference to your own values and cultural background. Additionally, you should justify how you would apply this ethical perspective to a real life situation.
The essays should be approximately 6 pages long, double-spaced with a standard 12 point font and margin. It should include detailed textual analysis, quotation, and citation. Furthermore, it should be well organized and edited to ensure clarity of communication and to eliminate distracting errors.
Essays will be evaluated for argumentation (thesis construction, logic, persuasiveness), ethical reasoning (explanation of ethical dilemma, justification of ethical choices), support (evidence and citation), and communication (organization, clarity, grammar, mechanics, and style). See sample papers for examples of how to analyze, compare and contrast literary works, but understand that students from previous semesters had different instructions and were not required to write about ethical responsibility.
Students must produce individual interpretations of the texts under consideration and should not research the topic or make use of outside sources such as the internet without pre-approval from the instructor; use of words, ideas, information, or other materials from unacknowledged sources constitutes plagiarism and will result in failure of the course. Citations should follow MLA format. See the OWL website for help with citation of books, electronic books, films, etc.