LITERARY EXPLORATION ASSIGNMENT

Read the following excerpt from a famous speech and complete the assignment that follows.

On Laws
Kahlil Gibran

You delight in laying down laws,
Yet you delight more in breaking them.
Like children playing by the ocean who build sand-towers with constancy and then destroy them with laughter.
But while you build your sand-towers the ocean brings more sand to the shore,
And when you destroy them the ocean laughs with you.
Verily the ocean laughs always with the innocent.

But what of those to whom life is not an ocean, and man-made laws are not sandtowers,
But to whom life is a rock, and the law a chisel with which they would carve it in their own likeness?
What of the cripple who hates dancers?
What of the ox who loves his yoke and deems the elk and deer of the forest stray and vagrant things?
What of the old serpent who cannot shed his skin, and calls all others naked and shameless?
And of him who comes early to the wedding-feast, and when over-fed and tired goes his way saying that all feasts are violation and all feasters lawbreakers?

What shall I say of these save that they too stand in the sunlight, but with their backs to the sun?
They see only their shadows, and their shadows are their laws.
And what is the sun to them but a caster of shadows?
And what is it to acknowledge the laws but to stoop down and trace their shadows upon the earth?
But you who walk facing the sun, what images drawn on the earth can hold you?
You who travel with the wind, what weather-vane shall direct your course?
What man's law shall bind you if you break your yoke but upon no man's prison door?
What laws shall you fear if you dance but stumble against no man's iron chains?
And who is he that shall bring you to judgment if you tear off your garment yet leave it in no man's path?

People of Orphalese, you can muffle the drum, and you can loosen the strings of the lyre, but who shall command the skylark not to sing?

The Assignment

When we reflect on our lives, we come to see that seeking out justice for ourselves, as well as rendering justice to others, is an important element of a happy life.

What is justice, and what role does the pursuit of justice play in our lives?

In your writing, you should:

§ discuss a character(s) from the readings (either Plato’s Apology, Twelve Angry Men, or Amistad). Remember that you need to focus your response, so do not choose to write about too many characters.

§ reflect upon your own knowledge and/or experience.

§ carefully consider your controlling idea, your thesis, and how you will create a strong unifying effect in your response. Organize your discussion so that your ideas are clearly and effectively presented.

§ make sure that the examples and details that you select are relevant and support your opinion about justice and its importance in our lives.

LITERARY EXPLORATION ASSIGNMENT

PARAGRAPH ONE - INTRODUCTION

Consider the details in the text on the assignment. You may want to include a quotation from the poem by Gibran in your introduction.

General Statement about the topic ________________________________________________________________

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Brief Statement summarizing personal experience or observation

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Brief summary of a character(s) from one of the texts we have studied in this unit.

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Thesis statement – your answer to the question

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PARAGRAPH TWO – PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OR OBSERVATION

Use your own experiences and/or observations to support your opinion

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PARAGRAPH THREE – CHARACTER FROM TEXT STUDIED

Select supporting examples from one of our texts in the legal literature unit. Focus your discussion on a particular character and/or situation

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PARAGRAPH FOUR – CONCLUSION

Connect your ideas and generalize about them.

Restate your thesis

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Generalize about your personal experience or observation to the character in the text

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Generalize about the topic

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ENGLISH 20-2

Legal Literature Unit

PERSUASIVE WRITING IN CONTEXT

Read the article below and use it to complete the assignment that follows.

Socrates drinks the hemlock in prison among his friends

A friend, in consulting the Oracle at Delphi, asked if there was any man wiser than Socrates. The Oracle replied that there was not. Upon being told of this answer, Socrates maintained that this implied that he alone had this claim to wisdom - that he fully recognised his own ignorance.

From that time he sought out people who had a reputation for wisdom and, in every case, was able to reveal that their reputations were not justified. Socrates regarded this behaviour as a service to the god, and he decided that he should continue to make efforts to improve people by persuading and reminding them of their own ignorance. However, his continued dialogue and questioning with others, which led to the exposure of human ignorance, led to him being hated and eventually killed by democratic vote in Athens for corrupting the youth and introducing new gods into the city.

The Assignment

Write a speech that either defends or prosecutes Socrates for his crimes of “corrupting the youth” and “introducing false gods into the city.”

In preparing your letter, BE SURE TO

• consider your purpose and audience

• use an appropriate tone

Remember that you must clearly and directly choose either to defend or prosecute Socrates. You might want to reflect on your own knowledge and/or experiences as they are relevant to the task.