As you know, the story of Peekay takes the reader through several stages of his growth, some good and some not so good, and certainly some a lot more challenging than others. Each one, like each of us, affects who he was and who he will become whether by conscious choice or not.
For your prompt, write an essay that not only chronicles the benchmark stages of Peekay, but also develop how he is affected by each and consider outside sources to support how you interpret Peekay’s actions or how he grew from each stage. Some of the themes you may want to consider are his Coming of Age, Reunion, Justice v. Injustice, Loneliness, Individuality v. Conformity, Cruelty and Violence, Coping
with Peer Pressure, Loss of Innocence, and Forgiveness.
You are to synthesize a variety of sources into an essay where you refer to them to develop and support your position and then cite them correctly. Avoid summarizing sources.
What is a synthesis essay? The main purpose of a synthesis essay is to make insightful connections.
Those connections can show the relationship(s) between parts of a work or even between two or more works. It is your job to explain why those relationships are important. In order to write a successful synthesis essay, you must gather research on your chosen topic [note from Ms Theo &
Mrs. Burns: We have already provided you with an excerpt from the novel and a packet of articles;
you need to identify a song or poem on your own, however], discover meaningful connections throughout your research, and develop a unique and interesting argument or perspective. A
synthesis is NOT a summary. A synthesis is an opportunity to create new knowledge out of already existing knowledge. You combine, “synthesize,” the information in your sources to develop an argument or a unique perspective on a topic. <http://www.bellevuecollege.edu/asc/writing/essaysguides/documents/synthesisessay.pdf>
**Your essay needs to include a direct quote/citations from each source you reference for each of the following: a) The Power of One, b) One of the non-fiction reading s given c) One of the TEDtalks presentations.
We will discuss examples of these stages and themes in class as you consider possible examples you may consider when supporting his growth or development in character.
*The nature of this Synthesis Essay prompt is to see what you know as you come into your freshmen year.
-Use the back of this paper to brainstorm your ideas or first thoughts in developing this essay.