ENG 340: Multicultural American Literature My Year of Meats

Your essay on My Year of Meats is formally due in hard copy at the final examination meeting @ 10 a.m. on Tuesday, December 12, in Stalker Hall 301. However, you may submit the paper to me in hard copy at any time prior to our final examination meeting, and since a short paper on Arthur Miller’s Focus will also be due in hard copy at the final examination meeting, I suggest that you complete the Meats essay and submit it during one of our class meetings in the last two weeks of classes.

Essay Length: Three to four pages presented to me in hard copy[a minimum of 1,200 words]

Essay Due Date: Tuesday, December 12, @ 10 a.m. in Stalker 301 [or whenever you complete the paper prior to that date]

As I mentioned a number of times in class, the following approaches to writing about Ozeki’s novel are suggestions. Quite a few of you have declared specific approaches that I have approved in class. Feel free to continue orally clearing your topics with me prior to or after any class meeting.

Instead of study questions to prepare for our reading of Ruth Ozeki’s My Year of Meats, we will use the Penguin Readers Guide appended to the novel. Please read “An Introduction to My Year of Meats” (pages 2-5 of the Penguin Readers Guide) and the 10 discussion questions (14-16 of the Guide).

The final examination essay topics for this novel are derived from these discussion questions, so please review them carefully. The discussion questions emphasize thematic concerns (the nature of truth; the role of the media in culture, for example), cultural, ethnic, and gender issues, and the politics of the novel. These questions can help you to narrow your focus to points of interest through which you can develop an analytical thesis.

Early in your reading of the assignments, keep a list of the central characters and their relation to each other, stressing how they are described at their first appearance, and try to establish a focus for your essay that will allow you to take more directed notes as you continue reading. To perform well on the essay assignment, you will have to collect significant details that can be used to sustain your arguments.

Choose one of the following topics for your final essay on My Year of Meats; whichever topic you choose, be sure to avoid Penguin Readers Guide suggestions that urge you to discuss your favorite character or that encourage you to write about your own experiences. Instead, focus on analysis of the novel:

Questions 2, 6, and 9 of the Penguin Readers Guide all address portrayals of women in the novel. Discuss how any two women characters in the novel challenge and/or support gender stereotypes. What statement is Ozeki making about available roles for women in our culture? About pressures experienced by women to balance job and family, or to sacrifice one for the other? What roles do commerce and the media play in promoting stereotypes about women or in perpetuating the status quo?

Questions 5, 7, & 9 ask us to consider the male characters and representations of masculinity in the novel. Discuss how any two male characters in the novel challenge or support gender stereotypes of men? Do they cause you to question your preconceptions regarding masculinity, or do they simply confirm your views? Is there any variation among the male characters? That is, are any of these characters more self-aware than others regarding their relationships (either personal or professional) with women? Do the media in Ozeki’s novel perpetuate or dismantle male stereotypes?

Questions 5 and 8 both encourage us to consider how Ozeki addresses culture, ethnicity, and cultural diversity. Implicitly, question 10 also evokes cultural diversity in a changing world by commenting on the different meanings of “truth” and “authenticity” held by different characters. What comment does Ozeki make about globalization, commerce, the media, and cultural diversity? Ultimately, what values or positions does she promote? How do these values or positions connect with issues that we have raised throughout the course? Support your judgments with evidence from the novel.