Godot Essay Questions

Waiting for Godot

Essay Questions

Heltzel/deWit

draft due on Monday Nov 3

Final draft due Sunday Nov 9 2:45am (send to both of us)

6-8 pages 1”margins, proper citations

Eric: ewheltzel@gmail.com
Tom: humbug64@gmail.com

1. Hone in on three fundamental questions, write them at the top of the essay and stir them together into some super crazy mind boggling question. Then write an essay on it.
2. Write a paper of questions, that you weave in and out of the text from the play, any moment in the play and in any order. The only criteria is that your questions feel like some sort of quest to the reader. You question and weave text and question and weave and question. Create something out of questions, something we can save and use when we are trying to live. Go ahead and format this in some way that works for your purposeful purposelessness.
3. What does it mean to be waiting?  How would this play be different if Godot showed up at the end? OR How would this play be different if any of the characters were removed?  If Lucky wasn't in the play or Pozzo?  If it was just Estragon?
4. Choose two or three themes from our list, explore and analyze the development of those themes throughout the play?  What is Beckett saying about a certain theme in the context of the play?  You can approach this prompt in a number of ways.  You can analyze the relationship between characters like we have done in class.  You can explore the various objects in the play and their uses.  Or you can interpret the significance of the setting.  How you approach this up to you.  The possibilities are limitless!
5. Choose up to three scenes and analyze how they relate to one another.  How do they show a character's development?  How does it show a theme's ark?
6. Interpret Lucky's speech.  What do you think he is saying?  Who is he talking to / at?  What role does Lucky play in the play?  Why is Lucky in the play?  Why is his name Lucky?
7. Create your own topic!  Explore an idea that you are interested in. Write your topic at the top of your essay. 
   
   
   8. Bring something that WORKS the play into a froth, into a gift, into a curse, into a love poem, into a conversation with your Godot.
   
   
   9. Write this with someone else in the class, as your own Didi-Gogo dialogue, your own Pozzo-Lucky banter; your own duo-soliloquy, and submit it.

Homework 10/27

Before Wednesday, choose one scene from the play, any scene that speaks to you -- that you find interesting, confusing, challenging -- write at least 15 questions that your scene raises.  Try to relate your questions to the themes listed below.      

The struggle; Isolation; Adulthood; Self-interest; Meaning / knowing; Suffering; Patience; Oppression; Backstabbing; Deceiving; Confusion; Uncertainty; Nature of men; Friendship / companionship; Poverty; Mental hardship; Redemption / salvation; Language and how it's used / hope birth and death

You do not need to respond to the questions listed below.  You can, however, use them as a guide to help shape your own questions.

Questions:

·         Why is Lucky’s speech in Act I and not in Act II? What comes before and after it?

·         Why do we not see Lucky’s dance?

·         Why is Lucky dumb in Act II and why does he need a hat to think?

·         Why is Pozzo blind in Act II?

·         Why does he need Lucky, why is he a slave master?

·         Why does Godot never show up?

·         Why is the boy a boy and not a girl? And why is the boy the only character without a name?

·         Why does Estragon always forget?

·         Why don’t Vladimir and Estragon choose not to kill themselves at the end of the play?

·         Why don’t Didi and Gogo separate?

·         Why is it Didi that always says, “We are waiting for Godot”? And why does Didi say it the one time he does?

Questions about Godot

1.            What is your character like?  What is he not like?

2.            Identify the objects your character interacts with?

3.            Describe HOW your character interacts with the other characters.  Use specific examples!!!

4.            How does your character change?  How does your character behave in act 1?  How does      your character behave in act 2?

5.            How does your character make sense of his world?  What does he think?  How does he think?

First Homework on Beckett Waiting for Godot, do over weekend

Questions for you to respond to on your blog by Sunday night by 2am, I will check your blogs to see if you responded

1) Write 10 or so sentences putting Godot in the context of the "Power of 10" video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fKBhvDjuy0


2) What do  you think of Pozzo and Lucky? Why are they in the play? Choose some moments when you write about them.

3) How is Didi different than Gogo?

4) What are these two talking about, for what, for why?

5) How is your life like Didi and Gogo's?

6) If this play is not about God, claim 3 other things, ideas that the play is actually about? Point to parts of the play to support your claim.

7) Is this play cynical? What makes us insecure? How much do people act out of their insecurity? What's the flip side of insecurity?

HW for Wednesday 10/15

Please read all of Waiting for Godot by Wednesday.  Think about a scene you are interested in performing and be able to explain why you chose that scene. 


Three questions / ideas to consider:

1.  What is the right question to ask about this play?

2.  Keep your God in your pocket.

3.  How does this play influence what matters in your life?


In two weeks, you will perform a scene of your choosing from Waiting for Godot. 

Midterm Prompts

Midterm Questions: You have to write on one of the following questions. This should be 6-12 pages long, double-spaced. The challenge with this paper is to include some of the tons of information you have at your fingertips, while not just writing an information regurgitation paper. In fact, the majority of the paper should be you making an argument that harnesses the information. Cite properly.

 I.

In the section “How Can Things Look So Good Yet Be So Bad,” Hartmann uses two metaphors to describe why we don’t always perceive the world’s critical condition: “There are two ways that things can look fine even when an entire civilization is headed for trouble.  1. Don’t ‘pay as you go’ – just live off your ‘startup capital’ … 2. The ‘Ponzi scheme’ … Is the world run like a Ponzia scheme, or like the hopeful software company?” (20-23).

First, analyze what Hartmann is saying in his two metaphors.  Then synthesize the research you have conducted on your own topic with the knowledge you have gathered from the presentations, and apply Hartmann’s metaphors to 4 or 5 of the topics you learned about during the presentations. What, according to your research, or Hartmann’s arguments can we do to overcome the “startup capital” or “Ponzi” mentality; be specific.  Be sure to refer to other moments in TLHAS to support your claims. Make sure you have a clear thesis.

II.

Hartmann constantly remarks that “our problem is rooted in our worldview.”  In the final chapter of the book, Hartmann argues for three solutions that will solve “our problem:”

1. History demonstrates that the deepest and most meaningful cultural/social/political changes began with individuals, not organizations, governments, or institutions.  2. In helping to “save the world,” the most important work you and I face is to help individuals transform their ability to perceive reality and control the stories they believe … 3. Then, out of this new perspective, we ourselves will come up with the solutions in ways that you and I right now probably can’t even imagine. (352-353)

First, examine Hartmann’s assertion that “our worldview” is the cause of our problems.  Then, using your research as well as what you learned from the presentations, assess the validity of Hartmann’s three claims by identifying and arguing for or against solutions for 4 or 5 topics you learned about during the presentations.  Be sure to refer to other moments in TLHAS to support your claims.  Make sure you have a clear thesis.

Midterm Study Guide

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YzgWGrUnGNOJSRdHzzDc0Yug8begSha4CeC5Jk-eYXU/edit?usp=sharing