Final Debate, 9th Grade English
You have finally made it to the final assignment of the semester! For this one, we will be
taking into account all that we have read this semester, so get ready to review!
Do you think man is born inherently good or evil?
(In other words, do you think that “goodness” must be educated through society or is
it something we are born understanding?)
In order to answer this question, we will be using evidence from all of the major
readings of this semester: Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies, Machiavelli’s The Prince and
Mencius’ Collected Works. This is a key question in all of these works and one that we
have discussed in many different ways this semester. It is now your turn to weigh in
with your own opinions by using these texts as evidence to prove your points.
Your first task is to choose for which side you will debate; try to choose the answer
with which you feel the most comfort, meaning you agree with it, but you also feel you
could argue for that side in the debate.
GRADING
Important to Note:
75% of your grade will come from notes that you prepare for the debate
How effective is your evidence?
Is it the best evidence for your side?
How well do you use it to prove your side of the argument?
25% of your grade will come from your debate performance
Were you able to present your evidence clearly?
Did you respond directly to those on the other side, countering their arguments?
DATES
We will be holding the debate Wednesday, December 19th and Thursday, December
20th (if necessary).
REQUIREMENTS
Each student will need to prepare for their chosen side:
1) A minimum five pieces of evidence from Lord of the Flies
2) A minimum five pieces of evidence from Animal Farm
3) A minimum three pieces of evidence from Machiavelli
4) A minimum three pieces of evidence from Mencius
EXAMPLE NOTES (Fiction)
Evidence
Source
Jack and his boys
Lord of the Flies
killed Piggy, Ch. 11
“All animals are
equal, but some are
more equal than
others” Ch. 10
Animal Farm
Good
The boys had lost
their natural
goodness because of
the environment; we
can see that all of
the boys show great
remorse when
rescued by crying in
front of the officer
and seeing their loss
of innocence for the
first time.
Evil
From the outset,
Jack and Roger
showed malicious
tendencies, wanting
control over others
and showing great
violence; though
they had learned
from society that
they should not do
these things prior
to coming to the
island, their killing
Piggy is proof that
they have reverted
fully to their
natural selves.
Napoleon,
Napoleon clearly
controlled by his
chose to manipulate
hunger for power
the other animals
and driven mad by
out of his innate
Farmer Jones’
evilness, riding on
neglect in the years the backs of those
leading up to the
good animals like
rebellion, has lost all Old Major and
of his natural
Snowball, by slowly
goodness; we know changing every
he once had this
commandment to
because he is
his own personal
conscience of always advantage. This is
covering up his
the high of this
wrong-doings,
manipulation and
showing a guilty
allows him to do
conscience.
whatever he wants.
Now, let’s do examples from Machiavelli and Mencius together.