Concise Essay/Book “Bel Canto” – By Ann Patchett

Concise Essay/Book “Bel Canto” – By Ann Patchett

 

 

Concise Essay/Book “Bel Canto” – By Ann Patchett

For your first Discussion posting, write a concise essay on ONE of the following topics, both of which relate directly to the above passage. Depending on which topic you choose, please label the subject line in your post either SEEING or GRIEVING:

Option One – SEEING: Patchett says that in writing Bel Canto she “wanted to explore the idea that if we were forced out of our normal lives, taken away from all we know, we might be given the opportunity to see the world in a new way.” Choose two or three characters in Bel Canto and analyse the various ways in which they come to “see the world in a new way” through the course of the novel. Please support your response with at least three quotations from the novel as well as at least two from the linked sources in this module’s lesson content. Quotations must be properly introduced/integrated into your writing and must be cited according to MLA convention. All works cited must be listed at the end of your posting.

Option Two – GRIEVING: Follow up on this notion of Ann Patchett writing Bel Canto as a way of grieving a media event. By drawing direct reference to the terrorists in the novel, to the relationships they form with their hostages, and to the novel’s violent ending, analyze the ways in which Bel Canto could be read as a testament to grief. Does Patchett’s use of language, plot, and characterization soften the realities of the events she describes, or do these artistic tools risk detracting from the gravity or the horror of such events? Please support your response with at least three quotations from the novel as well as at least two from the linked sources in this module’s lesson content. Quotations must be properly introduced/integrated into your writing and must be cited according to MLA convention. All works cited must be listed at the end of your posting.

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