essay two topics

Hi everyone,
Here are the topics for essay two:

(1)
Present your own view of how family members relate to one another during the holidays. To support your argument discuss elements of one or both of the following: “The First Thanksgiving” by Sarah Vowell, “Fish Cheeks” by Amy Tan or your own holiday experiences.

(2)
Agree or disagree with the position taken about photography in one or more of the following: Susan Sonntag’s “On Photography,” James Nachtwey’s“Ground Zero,” or Ethan Canin’s “Vivian, Fort Barnwell.”

(3)
Explain what makes childhood, youth (or, if you wish, innocence) important for the way of seeing explored by one or more of the following texts: “The Little Store” by Eudora Welty, “Seeing” by Annie Dillard, “Ode to an Orange” by Larry Woiwode, “Vivian, Fort Barnwell” by Ethan Canin or “The Streets Change, But Memories Endure” by Kenji Jasper.

(4)
Develop an argument in which you agree or disagree with David Guterson’s criticism of planned communties in “No Place Like Home”.

(5)
Define and explain how memory adds or subtracts to the meaning that things have for the writer in one or more of the following: “Seeing” by Annie Dillard, “Ode to an Orange” by Larry Woiwode, “The Little Store” by Eudora Welty, “The Streets Change, But Memories Endure” by Kenji Jasper or “Vivian, Fort Barnwell” by Ethan Canin.

(6)
In paragraph nine of “Homeplace,” Scott Russell Sanders writes that “many of the worst abuses” in this hemisphere have come about through “the habit of our industry and commerce…to force identical schemes onto differing locales”. In paragraph nineteen, Sanders gives an example of this practice near where he lives. Think about why Sanders considers the practice to be a form of abuse. (Specifically, what or who does he imply is being abused?) Then, based on your own observations, think of an example in which a franchise or corporation has established the same store floor plan, or same product lines, advertising campaigns or… to do business in different communities. Do you agree or disagree with Sanders that this corporate practice is a problem? What difference does it make if businesses approach one community in the same way that they approach another? If there is a leveling effect, in which places lose their authentic character, and, if so, why is this a bad thing? What benefits do national chains offer a community? The point (your thesis) is to agree or disagree with Sanders that the proliferation of national chains is one of “the worst abuses” of industry or commerce.

(7)
Compare and contrast Guterson’s criticism of suburbia to Sanders’s criticism of the corporate practice of selling the same products in stores that look the same in different communities. Are the planning principles, mechanisms of control or social consequences that each writer criticizes similar or different? What are some of the possible explanations for these similarities or differences? Discuss relevant examples of the practices that these writers dislike and use the examples to identify what Guterson and Sanders agree on and what they disagree about.

(8)
Compare and contrast ideas of what home is and what it is not in two of the following: “At Home. For Now” by Richard Ford, “The Streets Change, But Memories Endure” by Kenji Jasper, “Homeplace” by Scott Russell Sanders or David Guterson’s “No Place Like Home”.

(9)
Argue for the relative importance or unimportance of things that are invisible (including things that are seen indirectly or indistinctly) for our experience of the visible world. In your argument, be specific about what sort of invisible things you are discussing. To help you be specific about this, refer to and discuss the significance of relevant points and passages from one or two of the following texts: “The Streets Change, But Memories Endure” by Kenji Jasper, “The Little Store” by Eudora Welty, “Seeing” by Annie Dillard, or “A Matter of Scale” by K.C. Cole.

Two other suggestions are the topics given as number 1 and number 2 under the section labeled “Writing” on page 269 of the textbook.