ENGLSIH 12 AP LITERATURE
DANTE’S INFERNO
WRITING ASSIGNMENT
DUE DATE: Wednesday December 12, 2012
As a culmination of our study of THE INFERNO, you have two options. Both options
require a 3 – 5 page paper. It will take that long to cite the references from each text
(yes QUOTE TEXT!) explain those references, and then create meaning from those
references. BOTH options also require you to read a scholarly article and to reread
the work in question.
OPTION A:
Read the article entitled “Damned in a fair life: Cheever’s ‘The Swimmer’”.
Then in an essay explain the sustained allusions to the INFERNO in this short story.
You must also discuss the thematic implications and meanings such allusions
suggest. In other words, identify the allusions to THE INFERNO and explain how
these allusions help to communicate meaning. In other WORDS YOUR PAPER MUST
NOT ONLY IDENTIFY THE REFERENCES TO THE INFERNO, YOU MUST ALSO
EXPLAIN HOW THIS HELPS YOU SEE THE STORY AND/OR NEDDY MERRILL IN A
DIFFERENT WAY
OPTION B:
Read the article entitled “The Night Journey” in which Mina Doskow identifies the
allusions to Dante’s INFERNO in chapter 39, “The Eternal City” in Joseph Heller’s
CATCH-22. In an essay identify the allusions to THE INFERNO and explain how these
allusions help enrich or amplify the meaning of the text. You may want to focus on
Yossarian and compare his descent to that of Dante, noting the similarities and
differences and connecting those to a deeper reading of Catch 22. Use the references
to THE INFERNO to create meaning in CATCH 22. In other WORDS YOUR PAPER
MUST NOT ONLY IDENTIFY THE REFERENCES TO THE INFERNO, YOU MUST ALSO
EXPLAIN HOW THIS HELPS YOU SEE CATCH 22 and YOSSARINA IN A DIFFERENT
WAY