Progressive Essay Criteria: Grade 11
INTRODUCTION
How do America’s Major Literary Movements impact my philosophy of justice truth,
liberty, goodness, equality and beauty?
Step 1 (Hook): Choose one of the following quotes from the prezi OR choose one of your own (must relate to
one or more of the 6 great ideas, and must be approved by Mrs. Leonetti):
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Henry David Thoreau: Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.
Ralph Waldo Emerson: Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
Ray Bradbury: We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the
beautiful stuff out.
Mark Twain: The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at anytime.
F. Scott Fitzgerald: Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist, but the ability to start over.
John Steinbeck: The writer is delegated to declare and to celebrate man's proven capacity for greatness of heart and spirit-for gallantry in defeat, for courage, compassion, and love.
Arthur Miller: Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets.
Step 2 (Explanation): Explain the quote in your own words and who said it (and what he/she wrote).
Step 3 (Point): Apply how your quote applies to at least one source from class:
 Watch “Plato and The Cave” and explain how it applies to the quote you chose (tie the two ideas
together using your explanation).
 Introduce Adler and his 6 Great Ideas.
 The article on “Why We Read Great Literature” or the YouTube “What is Literature For?”
 The idea of reading through critical lenses
Step 4 (Thesis): Write a rough draft of your thesis to developing life’s philosophy (remember that eventually
your essay wil include your philosophy on justice, truth, goodness, liberty, beauty, and equality). In other
words, what is your philosophy about life in general in one sentence?
Example Introductory Paragraph(s)
YOLO. It’s a common phrase used these days meaning, “You Only Live Once.” It’s meant to describe a pattern of living in
which each person does whatever they want in the name of adventure. I, however, always the planner, the worrier, find instead, the
words “Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets” to be more in line with my own thoughts. Arthur Miller, the
great playwright of The Death of a Salesman and The Glass Menagerie, spoke these words, and I can only imagine, he meant them to
mean that a person may never know if the decisions they make are the right ones. One can only hope for the best outcomes, with the
best intentions. Often, at different periods of our lives on this planet, we look back and ask ourselves about the difficult truths that
have illuminated these events, such as in Adler’s Great Ideas of justice, truth, beauty, equality, liberty, and goodness. If, perhaps I am
lucky enough to find more goodness than not, when I look back, I will be fulfilled. Overall, living life with integrity and honesty, even
though it may prove difficult at many times, and making the best decisions I can make with all I know of the world so far, will make
me proud when I next glance into the past.
Life is darkened by illusions. A person thinks she knows her beliefs then suddenly, as in Plato’s “The Cave”, she is dazzled by
reality when another leads her into the light. In Plato’s “The Cave”, one of the men who was chained in the cave was set free, and
when he came into the world, he was blinded by the reality that he first saw. He later came to love the brilliance he encountered
because he understood it set him apart from his fellow cave-dwellers. Emerson once said, “To be yourself in a world that is constantly
trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment,” and this is what the man released from the cave came to realize.
Being myself has meant sharing my love of literature with a world of teenagers who, for the most part, would rather not read, but we
cannot know what we believe about justice, truth, liberty, goodness, beauty, and equality until we know what we do not believe, and
the only way to do that is to illuminate the darkness of ignorance with knowledge.