Outside Writing Assignment on REALITY

(1) Locate an article, story, poem, picture, movie, or other cultural item which to you has a clear view of the nature of REALITY. Many ideas will work. For example, a philosophical essay like the ones written by Taylor, Berkeley, or Descartes on reality would work. However, a movie such as The Truman Show or Gattaca also raises questions about what is real. In The Truman Show, the main character lives his whole life in a “fake” reality where all of the people around him are actors, not the people he thinks they are. Similarly, a Native American tale of Spilyay or one of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s stories of “magical realism” might raise questions about whether an unseen world of spirit or magic really lurks around us all the time. You might even choose to find a book of artwork by a surrealist painter like Salvador Dali who poses questions about the reality of dreams, visions, and symbols.

(2) In 1.5-2 pages, write out a summary and explanation of the ideas about reality expressed in the cultural item.

(a) Begin by introducing the item and its creator to the audience. Be sure to connect the creator with a particular culture (for example, linking Gabriel Garcia Marquez to the Mexican/Caribbean/Catholic culture in which he was raised).

(b) Then spend a page or so illustrating and explaining the ideas contained in the item. For example, what view of reality does the philosopher/writer/artist/creator express? What is real to him or her? Is that reality fixed and unchanging or fluid and changing or changeable? Can we (or characters in a story/movie/tale) be sure about the real world?

(c) Be sure to connect your analysis with specific details or events or dialogue or key passages from the item.

(d) Finally, in the conclusion connect the philosopher/writer/artist/creator’s ideas with the cultural context you identified in the introduction. If you wish, you may also inject your own commentary or reactions at this point.