Don't forget! After the class responses are posted to the Message Board, read what everybody has to say about the discussion topic and respond to any or all of them, and feel free to respond to responses :)

Also remember that this is not an opinion question; you are not showcasing your personal beliefs here; we are looking at the literature as literature.

Answer one of the following:

  1. Although Milton's Paradise Lost is not part of our reading (check out the English 205 class), his epic was an attempt to justify God's ways to man--to look at "the fall" as part of a greater, positive plan many have called "The Fortunate Fall." What on earth could be fortunate about "all of the evils escaping into the world" in Pandora, or people having to work and women having to feel the pain of childbirth in Genesis? Why could the expulsion from a Garden of Eden or any other state of innocence be a positive thing, and HOW might it parallel our own lives?

    If you have read Paradise Lost, do feel free to quote/cite bits here as part of your Post and/or Responses, but that is completely optional.

    Tip for this topic: you MAY want to speculate on how this story is similar but different from Pandora (and, no, neither is because the woman is guilty of something).

  2. A lot of myths are what are called porquoi (why?) tales; they attempt to explain the origins of some phenomena that humans experience. "The Tower of Babel," for example, explains why humans speak different languages; "Deucalion and Pyrrha" explains how the world was repopulated after a massive flood, and "Apollo and Daphne" shows the origin of the laurel tree.

    No, they are not what we would call scientific; they are stories. There are some more-modern porqoi tales as well, for example the Just-So Stories written by Rudyard Kipling in 1902 (yes, that is outside our timeline and even crosses over into English Literature, but you might find them easier and quite enjoyable to explore this topic which is primarily about myth). My personal favorite is "How the Rhinoceros Got his Skin." Keeping in mind that porquoi tales were not written for a child audience, what elements in the stories are now largely associated with children's literature (folk tales, fairy tales [NOT Disney, please]. Quote some passages that show these elements. What elements might make us wonder WHY these are now thought to be children's stories (some have quite a lot of violence, deceit, punishment, misery, for example). Again, quote some specific examples that might give some parents pause before putting this in the nursery bookshelf.

    Tip for this topic: In the opening of your Post explain what phenomenon the story is explaining, and give a very brief (a few sentences max) summary of the story.