English 101
Knudson
Major Essay 1: Jumping off from David Brooks’ “In America We Have a Little
Problem with Self and Society.”
Shitty First Draft Due: Tuesday, January 18
Polished Draft Due: Monday, January 24
In about 2-4 pages, use our discussion of music videos and Brooks’ essay to write
your own paper outlining some stance that is based on Brooks’ analysis or responds
to it in some way. Choose one of the following:
Imitate David Brooks and do your own assessment of the female character in Paula
Abdul’s “Rush, Rush” (Billboard Top Ten 1991) or Rihanna’s “Only Girl (In the
World)” (Billboard Top Ten for the week of Jan. 15, 2011).
Compare the female character in one of the above songs with one of the female
characters in one of the songs Brooks mentions in his essay (Avril Lavigne’s
“Girlfriend,” (2007) Pink’s “U + Ur Hand” (2006) or Carrie Underwood’s “Before He
Cheats (2007)). Who is each character/what is she interested in? Do you see some
sort of a progression going on from one to the next? What would Brooks say about
Paula Abdul or Rihanna?
Set Brooks straight about something. What did he fail to consider or get wrong in
his essay? Use lots of evidence from the texts (songs/music videos) to support your
claims.
Continue and deepen Brooks’ analysis of Pink, Lavigne and Underwood. We agreed
in class that his basic point is that the character he sees in each of these songs seems
to be descended from archetypal male movie characters from the past (like Bogart
and Eastwood), and that Brooks thinks this young angry girl character must be a
reaction to societal psychological trauma about the new “Wild West” of dating.
Whether you agree with this or not, go more in depth and explain where Brooks
makes these connections, and/or what he missed.
A few notes:
*Make this approachable in 2-4 pages by limiting yourself to a discussion of no more
than two songs.
*You can assume that your audience has some basic knowledge of all of these texts,
but be specific and describe details that seem significant to you. (Don’t assume your
reader can recall every second of each video without you explaining a bit about it.)