ENG208.501 Topics in Early British Literaure: Into The Wild

Summer 2013

SHORT RESPONSE #2

The Tale of Balin and Balan & Garden State

Figure 1. Zach Braff and Natalie Portman in Garden State (2004)

Please respond to the following 2 prompts with at least one double-spaced, typed page per response, and BE SURE to include in your responses very specific details from the works under discussion [specific scene and plot details, direct quotations, etc.]. There are no right or wrong responses to the prompts below, but whatever your interpretations of the narratives you discuss, you MUST ground that interpretation in a very CLOSE attention to the small details and language of the works under consideration.

1. How does Christian Cotroneo's essay "The Politics of Violence in Malory's Treatment of the Arthurian Legend" help us to better understand better the world of Balin's story, and his place in that world?

2. What are some of the specific connections that could be made between the 17 stages of the hero's journey [as described by Joseph Campbell] and Andrew Largeman's story in the movie Garden State?

This Short Response #2 is due to the Instructor by the end of the day [11:59 pm] on Saturday, June 22nd; please type your Response as a Microsft Word document, saving it with either a .doc or .docx file extension, and send it to Eileen Joy as an email attachment: eileenajoy@gmail.com. It's a good idea to cut and paste the Exam questions and prompts from here into your Word document and then fill in your own responses after each one. Please save your file as: Response2_YourLastName.