Craft a compelling argument about the ways that Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age generates meaning within and through specific systems of cultural values. Focusing on one specific theme or topic.

•Focusing on one specific theme or topic, advance an argument about what and how the novel means to you and how those meanings are situated within broader systems of cultural values
•Your argument must be thesis-driven. In other words, make a strong, focused, debatable claim about the novel, and then provide compelling evidence designed to persuade your reader to see it your way
•You don’t need to have “right answers.” You just need to craft compelling arguments
•4-5 pages of cleanly written, well-organized, lucid, insightful prose
•Support your argument with 3-6 secondary sources; half of your sources can be from course materials
•MLA format (double-spaced, 12 pt Times New Roman font, etc.)
•Be sure to include in-text citations, in MLA format, for all borrowed words and ideas
•Be sure to include a works cited entry for every research source and for the novel
Some possible themes/topics to explore within the novel:
•Individuality and conformity
•Coming of age
•The nature and aims of education
•Social class
•Ethnicity and/or race
•Gender, women’s empowerment
•Tricksterism, brains over brawn
•“Tribalism,” or modes of forming human groups
•Nature vs. nurture
•Technology (many, many options here)
•Utopia vs. dystopia

Last Completed Projects