Literature 11 · Writing
The Super Simile Essay
This is an essay we're going to build throughout the semester, one paragraph at a time.
The assignment
We are writing one essay on Dante's images of birds and flight. The question in each set of similes is what the birds and flight mean. What is Dante trying to tell us about the nature of sin, the canto, and ourselves using these similes? We're going to write this one paragraph at a time, IN CLASS, on the days listed at the bottom of this page, about once a week. By December your essay should run about 7 or 8 pages.
The essay has three sections, one for each part of the poem: the bird images in the Inferno, then the Purgatorio, then the Paradiso.
The rules
- You write only in class, never at home.
- Your folder stays in the room. I initial each paragraph the day you write it. A paragraph without initials does not count.
- One paragraph per writing day. It takes about ten minutes, usually at the start of class.
- If you are absent on a writing day, you write the paragraph at the start of the next class you attend. A paragraph that is never written is a zero for that check-in.
- On Thursday, September 3 we wrote the first paragraph together. The rest you write on your own, at the same length and with the same three parts.
The three parts of every paragraph
Part 1 · Setting About two sentences. Say where we are in the poem, what the image is, and which canto it comes from.
For example: "In Canto XIII Dante enters the wood of the suicides, where the Harpies, birds with human faces, nest in the trees and tear the leaves."
Part 2 · Quotation One quoted phrase, with the canto and line numbers. Introduce it in your own words, quote the phrase, then explain what it means in your own words. A quotation with no introduction and no explanation does not count.
Part 3 · Argument Three or more sentences. Underline one sentence that states what the image means: what it shows about sin, desire, or grace. The remaining sentences support it.
"The Harpies are birds" states a fact. "The Harpies show flight twisted into predation" states a meaning.
Length: four to seven sentences. The paragraph is always about an image we discussed in the last seminar.
The paragraph we wrote together
We wrote this one on Thursday, September 3. It uses the Charon simile from Canto III. Your own first paragraph answered this question about Canto V: What do the bird images in Canto V indicate about the nature of sin?
Setting At the end of Canto III, Dante stands on the bank of the Acheron and watches the damned crowd toward Charon's boat. He expects them to hang back. Instead, they rush.
Quotation Dante compares them first to leaves falling from a branch in autumn, and then to a bird answering its keeper (III.115–117). The souls do not have to be dragged into the boat. They go toward it the way a trained bird goes to a lure.
Argument Sin does not destroy desire; it aims desire at death. The damned still want something, and they still move toward what they want. What has changed in Hell is their target. A bird flies to the lure because the lure has been made to look like prey, and these souls fly to Charon because Hell has been made to look like what they chose in their life on earth. That is why nobody in this canto is forced. Dante wants us to see that the punishment is the wanting itself.
The underlined sentence is the thesis.
Before you close the folder
Check these five things:
- Canto named
- Thesis underlined
- One quotation, introduced and explained
- About meaning, not plot
- Legible
If all five are there, I initial it. If one is missing, you fix it at the start of the next class.
Grading
The Super Simile Essay is one grade in the Writing category. It has two parts.
Check-ins, 40%. Each paragraph that is initialed on its day, or at your make-up, receives full credit for that check-in. A paragraph that is started but not finished receives half credit. A blank page receives a zero.
The finished essay, 60%. I grade the finished essay once, in December, on this rubric:
| Category | Points | Full credit |
|---|---|---|
| Thesis & argument | 40 | The essay makes one claim about flight and desire, and each paragraph supports it. The thesis of each paragraph is underlined and states a meaning, not a fact. |
| Use of the text | 30 | Each paragraph has one quotation with the canto and line numbers, introduced before and explained after. |
| Structure & unity | 20 | The paragraphs are in order (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso), the Purgatorio section introduction is in place, and the essay has an introduction with the main thesis and a conclusion. |
| Completeness & care | 10 | Every initialed paragraph is in the folder, the revisions from the fusion day are made, and the handwriting is legible. |
| Total | 100 | Graded once, after the fusion day on December 8. |
Writing days
One paragraph on each day listed. Dates may change. What I say in class is official.
| Date | Paragraph | Canto |
|---|---|---|
| Inferno | ||
| Thu, Sep 3 | ¶ 1 · The birds of Canto V (written together) | Inf. V |
| Fri, Sep 11 | ¶ 2 · The Harpies | Inf. XIII |
| Date to come | ¶ 3 · Geryon | Inf. XVII |
| Mon, Oct 12 | ¶ 4 · Satan's wings | Inf. XXXIV |
| Purgatorio | ||
| Date to come | ¶ 5 · The Angel's wing-sails | Purg. II |
| Tue, Oct 13 | ¶ 6 · The pigeon souls | Purg. II |
| Fri, Oct 16 | ¶ 7 · The falcons of the valley | Purg. VIII |
| Mon, Oct 19 | ¶ 8 · Lucy as a bird | Purg. IX |
| Mon, Oct 26 | ¶ 9 · The seeled falcons of Envy | Purg. XIII |
| Tue, Nov 10 | ¶ 10 · The Griffin. Then you put your folder in order and list the paragraphs you are missing. | Purg. XXIX–XXXI |
| Paradiso | ||
| Thu, Nov 12 | ¶ 11 · The Purgatorio section introduction: one paragraph on the Purgatorio images together | |
| Fri, Dec 4 | ¶ 12 · The Eagle | Par. XIX–XX |
| Tue, Nov 24 | Folder day (half day). Reread your paragraphs, underline each thesis, and list what is missing. | |
| Mon, Dec 7 | ¶ 13 · Beatrice the mother-bird | Par. XXIII |
| Date to come | ¶ 14 · The dovecote saints | Par. XXV |
| Date to come | ¶ 15 · The angel-bees in the Rose | Par. XXXI–XXXII |
| Tue, Dec 8 | Writing day. Main thesis, introduction, conclusion, and peer review. The essay is collected at the end of class. | |