Paper Persuasive Essay (305 words)

This is a 5 page paper that gives a basic summary of Tony Hillerman’s book, The First Eagle. In the book it is the Black plague that has returned, or rather, has survived, for centuries. In the long interim it has developed a resistance to modern antibiotics, making it more virulent and much more dangerous. It is attacking prairie dogs and an occasional human. One of the main points to the story involves the efforts of a scientist to determine why some animals have developed an immunity and others succumb quickly. On the other hand is the murder of a Navajo Tribal officer. Lieutenant Jim Chee believes he has the murderer in custody, Robert Jano, a young Hopi man with a history of poaching eagles. The intertwining of the two story lines and the two cultural perspectives forms the basis for this novel. No additional sources cited. This 5 page paper compares and contrasts Stephen Crane’s ‘The Open Boat’ with Jack London’s ‘To Build a Fire.’ The concept of free will is explored in respect to the characters in these works. The short stories are compared and contrasted. No additional sources cited. A 7 page analysis of the Philip Roth’s tale of growing up Jewish and male in the late twentieth century. Portnoy has a rather odd ‘complaint’ that results in consequences that are both intriguing and hilarious. He expresses all of his considerable Jewish angst at having a domineering mother through obsessive sexual conduct. No additional sources cited. A 5 page look at a critical article by Claude Clayton Smith of Ohio Northern University, which focuses on a ‘lost allusion’ contained in Hemingway’s novel. The paper argues that this reference, which ties Hemingway’s novel to A.E.W. Mason’s ‘The Crystal Trench’, would be completely indecipherable without scholarship such as that provided by Smith. Bibliography lists 1 source.