1. “My Generation” Essay (1-2 pages)
            Imagine that you are going to write a short story or novel about your generation. What is unique about your generation? What issues does it face? Does it face them honestly? How would you explain your generation to your parents’ or grandparents’ generation? To someone from another planet?
            In this essay, I don’t want you to write a story. What I want you to do is explain what you would write about, why, and what approach you would take. In other words, how do you think you would tell the story if you were to write it?
 

2. Critical Essay (2-3 pages)
            In this essay, pretend that you are a critic writing a review of Happyland for a magazine. I expect you to have a thesis and argue your thesis with evidence from the text. I also expect you to use one or more of the other assigned readings to help you with your critical perspective on the novel.
            Look at a recent issue of Harper’s, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Atlantic Monthly, or NY Times Book Review for examples of what book reviews look like.
 

3. Re-Vision (3-4 pages)
            The novel Happyland is written in the third-person. Re-write one of its chapters (just one of them) in the first person from the point of view of one its characters.
 

4. Mid-Term Exam
            The exam will ask you to write short (one paragraph) answers to questions. Each question will be nothing more than a passage from one of the stories or novels and a single term (e.g., metaphor or realism). To answer the question, you will do three things all at once: define the particular term, identify what story or novel the passage comes from, and use the term to analyze the passage.
 

5. Final Paper (4-6 pages)
            Choose three texts from Unit Three; compare and contrast how they diagnose society. In your discussion, also bring in at least one text from each of the previous units.