ENG102.032
−
English Composition II
Prof. Eileen Joy
Spring 2007
ESSAY #2:
Values-Based Argument
DUE: Thursday,
March 22nd
FORMAT: 4
typed, double-spaced pages (minimum), MLA-style citation
Figure 1. Timothy Treadwell in Alaska (from Grizzly Man film)
For
this assignment, you are going to write a values-based argument [see Chapter 5 in Everything's An Argument] that is a direct response to one of the following statements [you may respond as you see fit, either agreeing or disagreeing with the statement you choose, or using it as a point of departure for a slightly different argument, as long as you write an argument that is based on values, but which also is supported by various types of evidence--your own experience, other persons' viewpoints, facts, logic, etc.]:
- "It doesn't contradict the notion of human intelligence to believe . . . that wild animals represent repositories of knowledge we've abandoned in our efforts to build civilization and support ideas like progress and improvement. To 'hear' wild animals is not to leave the realm of the human; it's to expand this realm to include voices other than our own. It's a technique for the accomplishment of wisdom." [Barry Lopez, "The Language of Animals"]
- "When I walk in the woods or along the creeks, I'm looking for integration, not conversation. I want to be bound more deeply into the place, to be included, if even only as a witness, in events that animate the landscape. . . . in bathing in groundwater from the well, in collecting sorrel and miner's lettuce for a summer salad, I put my life more deeply into the life around me." [Barry Lopez, "The Language of Animals"]
- "The fundamental reinforcement of a belief in the spiritual nature of animals' lives . . . comes from a numinous encounter with a wild creature." [Barry Lopez, "The Language of Animals"]
- "Treadwell was, I think, meaning well, trying to do things to help the resources of the bears, but to me he was acting like he was working with people wearing bear costumes out there instead of wild animals. Those bears are big and ferocious and they come equipped to kill you and eat you, and that's just what Treadwell was asking for. . . . He got what he deserved, in my opinion." [Sam Egli, air pilot who helped clean up Timothy Treadwell and Amie Hugenard's remains, interviewed in Grizzly Man]
- "He wanted to become like the bear; perhaps it was religious, but not in the true sense of religion. I think perhaps he wanted to mutate into a wild animal, as he says in this last letter: he says, I have to mutually mutate into a wild animal to handle the life I live out here. And I think there's a religious sense in that, in the sense of connecting so deeply, you're no longer human, and that is a religious experience." [Marnie Gaede, ecologist, interviewed in Grizzly Man]
- "[Timothy Treadwell] tended to want to become a bear and sometimes acted like a bear . . . . Why he did this is only known to him; no one really knows for sure. . . . [The world of bears] is a simpler world, it is a wonderful thing, but in fact it's a harsh world--it's a different world that bears live in than we do. There's that desire to get into their world, but the reality is we never can, because we're very different than they are." [Larry Van Daele, bear biologist, interviewed in Grizzly Man]
- "[Treadwell's story' is tragic because he died and his girlfriend died, and because he tried to be a bear, he tried to act like a bear, and for us on the island you don't do that. You don't invade on their territory. When you're in their territory, you know they're there, and when you're nearby you make sure they know you're around. For him to act like a bear the way he did was the ultimate of disrespecting the bear and what the bear represents. . . . If I look at it from the perspective of my culture, Timothy Treadwell crossed a boundary that we have lived with for 7,000 years . . . and when we know we've crossed it, we've paid the price." [Sven Haakanson, curator of the Alutiiq Eskimo Museum in Alaska, interviewed in Grizzly Man]
- "What haunts me, is that in all the faces of all the bears that Treadwell ever filmed, I discover no kinship, no understanding, no mercy. I see only the overwhelming indifference and cruelty of nature. To me, there is no such thing as a secret world of the bears. And this blank stare speaks only of a half-bored interest in food. But for Timothy Treadwell, this bear was a friend, a savior." [Werner Herzog, director of Grizzly Man]
- "I have lived longer with wild brown grizzly bears, without weapons, in modern history, than any other human on earth. And I have remained safe. But every day, every second . . . I am on the precipice of great bodily harm or even death. And I am so thankful for every minute of every day that I found the bears . . . . Am I a great person? I don't know. We're all great people; everyone has something in them that's wonderful. I'm just different, and I love these bears enough to do it right. . . . This is it; this is my life; this is my land. . . . It's the only thing I know. It's the only thing I want to know." [Timothy Treadwell, from his own video of himself, included in Grizzly Man]
- "Ortega believed that in hunting we returned to nature because hunting is the 'generic' way of being human and because the animal we are stalking summons the animal still in us. . . . our identity as hunters is literally prehistoric--is in fact inscribed by evolution in the architecture of our bodies and brains." [Michael Pollan, explaining Ortega's ideas on hunting, in Pollans essay, "The Modern Hunter-Gatherer"]
- "Animals resist dying, but, having no conception of death, they don't give it nearly as much thought as we do. And one of the main thoughts about this we think is, will my own death be like this animal's or not? The belief, or hope, that human death is somehow different from animal death is precious to us--but unprovable." [Michael Pollan, "The Modern Hunter-Gatherer"]
- "Perhaps there is a . . . generous light in which to view the hunter's joy. Perhaps it is the joy of a creature succeeding at something he has discovered his nature has superbly equipped him to do . . . [and] the animal, too, has had the chance to fulfill its wild nature, has lived, and arguably even died, in a manner consistent with its creaturely character. Hers is [the boar he killed], by the standards of animal death, a good one." [Michael Pollan, "The Modern Hunter-Gatherer"]
- "There are obviously important differences between humans and other animals, and these differences must give rise to some differences in the rights that each have. Recognizing this evident fact, however, is no barrier to the case for extending the basic principle of equality to nonhuman animals. . . . our concern for others and our readiness to consider their interests ought not to depend on what they are like or what abilities they may possess." [Peter Singer, "All Animals Are Equal"]
- "Most human beings are speciests . . . . ordinary human beings--not a few exceptionally cruel or heartless humans, but the overhwhelming majority of humans--take an active part in, acquiesce in, and allow their taxes to pay for practices the require the sacrifice of the most important interests of other species in order to promote the most trivial interests of our own species." [Peter Singer, "All Animals Are Equal"]
- "Animals feel pain. . . . there can be no moral justification for regarding the pain (or pleasure) that animals feel as less important than the same amount of pain (or pleasure) felt by humans." [Peter Singer, "All Animals Are Equal"]
- "Becoming a vegetarian is a highly practical and effective step one can take toward ending both the killing of nonhuman animals and the infliction of suffering upon them." [Peter Singer, "Becoming a Vegetarian"]
By way of helping you think about an overall structure for your paper, I suggest the following outline:
- First, begin by providing a summary of the background to the statement you are using as your jumping-off point. So, if you are going to respond to a statement that is taken from Grizzly Man, you will want to provide some background information on the film and on Timothy Treadwell's story in order to make clear the larger context in which that statement was made. If you respond to one of Barry Lopez's, Michael Pollan's, or Peter Singer's statements, you will want to summarize the larger argument in which that statement is situated.
- Second, explain briefly to your reader what position you are going to take as regards the statement you have chosen to respond to, and why [in brief, since you will be elaborating on this in more detail as your essay develops]. Keep in mind that you are confronted with a values-based statement, and that your argument will be based on values that you hold or believe in. Therefore, do not make the mistake of arguing from fact--in other words, you should not set out to disprove one of the above statements by claiming you can show it isn't true at all in any situation. In an argument based on values, logic and certain kinds of evidence will definitely be crucial [so, facts will play some part], but the key is to make a case for a certain set of beliefs or core principles or ways of looking at the world [which is different than arguing something is factually true]. Arguments based on value are often aimed at persuading someone, through reason and evidence, to look at the deeper meaning of something, and "deeper meanings" are always contestable. They can never be 100% verifiable or "proven"--they can only be more or less persuasive, more or less appealing.
- Third, build paragraphs [4-5] around specific claims that you believe support your argument, and for each of these claims, provide supporting evidence in the form of logical reasoning, facts, your own experience and/or the experience of others, history [things that have actually happened], and the knowledge of experts [what others have written or said or done].
- Share any objections that you think reasonable people might have with your argument, and answer those possible objections as best you can.
- Conclude by summing up [without repeating what you have already stated] why you think your argument is a persuasive one. This is usually a good place to incorporate something from a source or your own experience [or both] that you have not yet used, in order to make a fresh statement on the subject that still emphasizes the main argument you want to make.
You are required
to incorporate into your essay at least THREE [but more
is fine] sources outside of your own thinking: 1) the source from which your
initial starting statement is taken [Grizzly Man, or one of the
essays by Lopez, Pollan, and Singer]; 2) at least one of the other readings
assigned on the syllabus and/or the film [the idea here is to make connections
between at least two of the sources discussed in class; and 3) an article
from a newspaper or magazine that you have located through either Academic
Search Premier or Lexis-Nexis [go here for
Lovejoy Library's Online Resources page]. Possible subject search terms might
include [remember to always enclose your search phrase within quotation marks,
unless it is a single word]:
- animal rights
- vegeterianism
- hunting
- Timothy Treadwell
- Grizzly Man
- Grizzly People [the name of the organization Treadwell helped found]
- grizzly bears
- Barry Lopez
- Peter Singer
- The Omnivore's Dilemma [Michael Pollan's book]
- Animal Behavior
- Animal Welfare
- Widlife Conservation
It is very important
that you read up on paraphrasing and using quotation in an esay like this:
look at Chapter 2 [pp. 65-116] in Writing from Sources. Tips on
MLA-style citation can be found in Chapter 22 [pp. 424-53] in Everything's
An Argument and in Chapter 5 [pp. 241-73] in The Bedford Researcher.