2008
Crime and Punishment
Tipton
English 1020-124
Ethics in Se7en (Essay 2)
Overview: For your second major essay, you will engage with a film that deliberates an ethical dilemma. This will
require you to consider the complexity of the film’s characters and the quandaries that they face and require you to
go beyond the movie, the characters, and the circumstances as just pure entertainment. Your five to six page essay
will be an investigation, analysis, and evaluation of the ethical issues in Se7en. This means you will analyze
and evaluate one/several/or all characters in the film and the ethical choices they make.
In watching a film, you are presented with ethical perspectives and you reach ethical conclusions, condemning
some characters and admiring others. Whether you are sitting in an armchair at home or in the theater, you enter into
the lives of the characters in a film and, along with the characters, experience a particular set of moral challenges.
You consider the various ethical decisions made by characters and examine the rationale behind their decisions. You
also consider your own point of view as a viewer, a perspective that makes you think about the ethics involved in the
film’s story. You question your own responses to the same ethical circumstances present in the film. Se7en poses
difficult questions that can be argued from at least two distinctly different perspectives.
Goal:
You will use this essay to practice analysis and using rhetorical strategies in argument.
Benefits:
Universities believe their mission includes imparting ethical knowledge and providing students with an ethical
framework from which to make decisions. The purpose of this assignment, then, is to help you learn about ethics
(the principles that define behavior as right, good, and proper) and to help you develop the skills needed to write
persuasively about ethics and about making ethical decisions. Because abstract ethical theories become vivid when
played out in the dramatic narrative of film, this assignment will engage you in a discussion of the complexities of
moral dilemmas in the context of this medium.
Audience: For this project, your audience is other college-students who have seen your movie. Your essay should
not be a summary of the movie; however, as you begin your discussion, you may need to include a few sentences
that recap important elements in the plot. Remember that your peers question easy assumptions, stereotypes, and
broad generalizations. You will only satisfy them if you are able to provide thoughtful, interesting examples and
backup your opinions with solid reasoning.
Tone: Academic, informed, persuasive, convincing
Assignment Specifics:
1. In the opening of your essay, you will note the name of the movie (underline or italicize), the director, and the
year of the movie’s release. If you mention characters by their name, do so with the character name and the
actor name in parentheses. i.e. Bruce Nolan (Jim Carrey). Identify the ethical themes at stake and briefly
describe the ethical dilemmas (the problem the character or characters face) in the film. Based on your ethical
perspectives, note your thesis statement, which includes your subject (that which you are evaluating) and your
judgment (your arguable and insightful position). Be very clear that your thesis statement is what you prove in
your essay. Any material not related to your thesis statement is irrelevant to your essay.
2. In the body of your essay, your very first topic sentence will begin to prove your thesis to be true. Think of
yourself as a trial lawyer who must present bulleted points of proof to the jury (the readers) before deliberation.
These topic sentences are succinct points of proof that refer back to your thesis. Each topic sentence (first
sentence in each paragraph) is another point of proof.
Initial topic sentence examples:
”She has to make a choice to have her son live while her daughter goes to the crematorium.”
“After God hands over his powers, Bruce begins to use them to benefit himself.”
Subsequent topic sentence examples:
2008
Crime and Punishment
Tipton
“Even Sophie’s unethical act of suicide is justifiable as a means of escaping the aftermath of World War II.”
“Another way Bruce practiced his powers was that he had neglected all of the prayers going to God.”
“In addition, on one of his first nights with the divine powers, Bruce moved the moon closer to his bedroom window
to impress Grace.”
3. Details that follow your topic sentences will explain the proof. Keep your details relevant to the topic sentence.
Always end your paragraph with a conclusive statement that guides the reader back to your thesis.
Examples of a conclusive statement that follows a paragraph of details:
“In using his powers to only help himself out, he was ethically wrong.”
“She tries to act ethically, but the powers of war overtake her and force her to make the most unethical decisions of
her life.
4. Conclusions should only summarize the major points that you’ve made and restate your thesis. Think of
your conclusion as the closing statement to your jury (the readers). You get a chance to bullet your main points
once more to drive your thesis home to the jury and prove your case. Never say, “in conclusion.”
Requirements: At least 5 FULL PAGES, MLA format, following ALL paper guidelines as noted in the syllabus.
Please use the following title block (double-spaced) at the top left-hand corner of your first page (…this is a part of
the MLA format requirement). This will be graded according to the Essay Two Grade Sheet, and is worth 20%
of your final grade. You must print out (from D2L) and attach the Essay Two Grade Sheet to the back of your final
essay packet.
Your Name
Prof. Tipton
English 1020-124
Date
Essay 2
Rough Draft due for Peer Review Wednesday, 3/12/08.
Final Draft due Wednesday, 3/19/08.