For this assignment, students will analyze their chosen character, Thor, to argue for whether the character is moral according to Aristotle. Students will choose at least three films featuring that character as the texts to understand and defend their thesis. Students may use the film from the Becoming paper as one of the three required texts.
They must then use Aristotle’s ideas about ethics to discuss how their chosen superhero conforms to or rejects the concept of a “good person” or a “good life.” Students should refer to their course material(s) to explain their interpretation of how Aristotle’s theories on being a “good person” and living a “good life” apply to the superhero. Students will use both examples from the films and course material to prove their argument.
Paper instructions
Consider the following questions
As you write your paper, try to answer this main question: is your character living their best life according to Aristotle?
Formulate a central thesis
As you conduct your analysis, you should develop a thesis, argument, or line of inquiry that will structure the form of your paper. Your thesis will be the answer to your question, and should be presented in the opening of the paper to set the foundation for the argument you will present in the paper.
Pinpoint key examples
Isolate examples from your observations that in your judgment particularly illustrate or engage the concepts or ideas regarding how we define superheroes on which you have chosen to focus. By discussing specific examples, you will be able to balance your objective analysis and the course’s theoretical material with specific, concrete examples. You may wish to repeat the process and use two or more examples, but be sure that you strike a well-rounded balance between theory (i.e. course ideas, readings and other scholarly sources), analysis (your own critical inquiries, observations and patterns) and example (specific aspects from the observation that proves your argument). These examples can come from sources you find about the character’s actions and history, or from stories that illustrate these actions and history.
Write effectively
When writing your paper, keep the following rules in mind:
Use concrete rather than vague language.
Use active voice whenever possible.
Avoid overusing there is, there are, it is, it was, etc.
Don’t use two negatives to make a positive without good reason.
Use consistent grammatical form when offering several ideas.
Word order can make or ruin a sentence. If you start a sentence with an incomplete phrase or clause, it must be followed closely by the person or thing it describes.
Place descriptive words and phrases as close as is practical to the words they modify.
Avoid sentence fragments.
For more on these grammatical rules, please visit: http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar/effWrite.asp (Links to an external site.)
Works cited
You must include a list of your sources, i.e. a list of all books and articles that you have actually and directly cited in your work, whether quoting or paraphrasing. Please use either APA or MLA style when citing sources. You need to reference course material like Coogan in your work. You can reference my PowerPoints, but they must be in addition to using Aristotle. You can then reference any other professional sources (but not wikis or dictionaries) to help you support your argument.
USE: http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/nicomachaen.html
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