Analysis Essay: Structural Violence
Assignment
Draw on your reading of Paul Farmer’s “On Suffering and Structural Violence” from
Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor and at least
three of the following sources:
Tracy Kidder’s, Mountains Beyond Mountains
the Padre Carney Essay
Howard Zinn’s, A People’s History of the United States
* “Business as Usual” and “The Externalizing Machine” of Joel Bakan’s, The
Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power
* The Corporation, the film
Upton Sinclair’s The Flivver King
1887: Grand Army of Starvation
Savage Acts: Wars, Fairs and Empire, 1898-1904
* Note: Use of the film and/or the book The Corporation, counts as one source.
to illustrate Paul Farmer’s idea of structural violence as expressed in the following quote:
According to Paul Farmer, “The term [structural violence] is apt because such
suffering is structured by historically given (and often economically drive)
processes and forces that conspire—whether through routine, ritual, or, as is
more commonly the case, the hard surfaces of life—to constrain agency.”
You will need to develop a clear thesis related to structural violence. The thesis will be
something debatable or arguable that you can support from the three sources you choose
to use for your essay.
You will need to choose, present, and explain writers’ ideas. Your explanation will
involve analysis or breaking down of what you hear and read to uncover meaning.
Beyond analysis, the crafting of your essay will involve ordering your explanation of
ideas and connecting your analyses to build to your new idea.
Note: You may also refer to additional sources presented or discussed in class, such as
the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the information on the Suffrage Movement,
“The 10,000 Hour Rule” from Malcom Gladwell’s Outliers, Mark Twain’s version of the
Battle Hymn of the Republic, etc. This would supplement and should not replace your
use of the three required sources.
Due Dates
4 copies of a rough draft are due on Monday, October 19.
The final draft of this essay is due on Monday, October 26.
Email if you have questions or need help
paul.petrequin@cgcmail.maricopa.edu and chris.schnick@cgcmail.maricopa.edu
Show Me the Money Learning Community – Fall 2009