English 155: Introduction to Literature: Global
Prof. Boyer, Fall 2020
Paper 1 (Haroun and the Sea of Stories)
Due via Canvas Assignments by 11:59 pm Monday September 21
The assignment for your first paper is to write a short essay of 1000-1500 words, normally 3-4 typed
pages, on one of the following topics. Make sure your essay has a good argument (thesis, main idea).
Give specifics details from the text and explain why those details are important for your argument. Do
not use outside sources except for factual information; be sure to cite the sources that you use.
Please read the statement in the syllabus on Academic Dishonesty. Do not turn in someone else’s paper
from a previous semester (I have copies of those) or take words or ideas from other sources, including
Sparknotes and similar sources. I will follow the syllabus statement in all cases of academic dishonesty
that I discover.
Then please read the General Instructions for Papers in English 155. Your paper must be written
following those instructions unless we make other arrangements (usually reserved for writers comfortable
with this type of paper). That document is available in Document Archive 1 in the CN Tasks and in
Modules on Canvas. There will also be links to it with the links to this assignment sheet on CN.
And please remember that your readers have read the novel or story you are writing about. Do not waste
our time by telling us what happens in the text—we already know that. Your task is to make and support
an argument about some aspect of that text, to explain why some aspect of the text is the way that it is.
For a style sheet and some suggestions on writing literature papers, see the Course Writing and Style
Guides section in Document Archive 1 in the CN Tasks and in Modules on Canvas.
1. “What’s the use of stories that aren’t even true” asks first Mr. Sengupta and then Haroun. And later
Khattam-Shud might well be answering the question “What’s the threat of stories that aren’t even
true?” (especially on pp. 159-161). Using Haroun and the Sea of Stories, write an essay in which you
respond to the question. Your paper must focus on the ideas presented in the Rushdie text (that is,
what Haroun and the Sea of Stories tells us about the use of stories), but you are welcome to refer to
other "stories" as well to supplement your discussion (for "stories" you might substitute "narratives,"
not necessarily only print narratives). Be specific: use specific details from the novel and the lecture
and explain why those details are important for your argument. Write a solid argument about one use
or threat. Do not make your paper into a list of uses or threats that you say very little about.
2. What is the most important thing Haroun learns from his experiences in the novel? He meets many
characters and learns many things, both about the characters and, in a wider sense, about the world in
which he lives. Write an essay in which you answer that question by arguing for what you consider
to be the most important thing he learns. Think widely: there are many things for a boy to learn and
many ways to learn them. Be sure to present a strong argument. Be specific: use specific details
from the novel and explain why those details are important for your argument.
3. Threats. There are many threats represented in Haroun and the Sea of Stories, such as the threat to
language (or at least to spoken language), the threat to stories and storytelling, the threat to the ocean
of pollution, the threat to equality (in terms of gender; in terms of differences between groups of
people). Write an essay in which you argue for the importance of one threat. Begin by pointing out
what that threat is and how it is presented in the novel, and then expand your discussion to consider
what Rushdie seems to be saying to us and to our world in his presentation of the threat you are
addressing. Be sure to present a strong argument. Be specific: use specific details from the novel and
explain why those details are important for your argument.
4. Opposites. It’s easy to think in opposites (or, more technically, dichotomies), as Haroun realizes
when he looks at Mudra’s eyes on pp. 124-125. Yet by the bottom of the page Haroun is moving
beyond thinking in opposites, or at least beyond thinking that one element of each set must be
positive and the other negative. This seems to me, and perhaps to you, to be one of the most
important moments in the novel in terms of the ideas the novel develops. So write an essay about it.
Start from this passage and look closely at one way in which this idea is developed in the novel. Your
argument should focus on the importance of the way you have chosen and on what Rushdie seems to
want us to make of it. Be sure to present a strong argument. Be specific: use specific details from the
novel and the lecture and explain why those details are important for your argument.
5. Haroun and the Sea of Stories as narrative. Think about the novel in terms of the essay by Delistraty
we read in the first week. How do what Delistraty says affect your understanding of the Haroun and
the Sea of Stories as narrative? Write an essay in which you argue in these terms. How can
Delistraty help us to understand the way the novel works as a narrative? Be sure to present a strong
argument. Be specific: use specific details from the novel and the lecture and explain why those
details are important for your argument.
6. The happy ending. In the end, Haroun gets the happy ending he undoubtedly wants. But it’s not that
easy. How do you respond to the ending? the most important elements I see are the Walrus granting
Haroun a (rare) happy ending, the changing tone in Haroun’s city, and the return of his mother. Write
an essay about this happy ending. How does it work? Does it need the Walrus’s intervention? What
is Rushdie saying about the ability of fiction to provide the (artificial?) happy endings that we seem to
long for? Does the essay we read by Delistraty help to explain the nature of this happy ending? (See
topic 5.). Be sure to present a strong argument. Be specific: use specific details from the novel and
explain why those details are important for your argument.
Themes and Motifs
7. Themes and motifs. Haroun and the Sea of Stories makes use of many themes and motifs. (For a
definition of the terms see the “Theme and Motif” document in Document Archive 1 in Tasks on CN
and in Modules on Canvas.) Some of those themes are identified by Isabel Allende on the cover of
The Kite Runner as “love, honor, guilt, fear, redemption.” And there are more. Write an essay on
one theme or motif that you find in Haroun and the Sea of Stories. Begin by identifying the theme or
motif and explaining its use in the novel. Then show in greater detail how it is used in that text and
consider how it relates to the text as a whole. Please remember that a work of literature is much more
likely to be putting a particular theme “on the table” for discussion and then presenting different
aspects of the theme for the readers’ consideration. Good works of literature normally do not tell you
what the theme “means” but asks you to look at the many things in could mean in that particular
work. Be sure to present a strong argument supporting your understanding of how the theme or motif
works in the text. Be specific: use specific details from the text and explain why those details are
important for your argument.
Your Own Topic
8. Your own topic. You are welcome to develop a different topic related to Haroun and the Sea of
Stories. Be sure to develop a strong argument for an important point about one thing (one character,
one idea, and so forth). Be specific: use specific details from the text and explain why those details
are important for your argument. Please check the topic with be before you begin writing, preferably
by email.