What Drives Human Behavior?
Unit Overview
So far this semester, I have explored vastly different attitudes toward life as found in transcendental (Thoreau), modernist (T.S. Eliot and Robinson), and contemporary (Dillard) literature. The goal of these units was to identify messages of what drives human behavior and also to identify my own attitude toward life. The focus was on literary analysis and supporting my assertions with evidence from the texts.
Enduring Understanding:
1. First on technical lessons—how to write a strong literary analysis essay. Think quote incorporation and thoughtful commentary on author’s ideas.
: To write a strong literary analysis essay, we must first include the following: identification of the author and the title, a thesis, short descriptions with evidence and details to back them up, and a conclusion which answers the essay question and repeats your thesis. When giving details, facts, or evidence, you should also include quotes from the text and expand/explain them a little. Another important thing that we have to remember when commenting on the text is the author's intentions, which can be known when we read between the lines or think of other sources the author might be alluding to.
2. What drives human behavior?
Here is where you will put your reflection of what you learned about this question from texts read in class. Consider the following texts: T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”; assorted modernist poems; Thoreau’s Walden, Dillard’s “Living like Weasels”
: In my opinion, human behavior is driven mainly by the mind as well as our surroundings. In T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," the recurring theme throughout the poem is the struggle of being captured within the mind of a desperate man. Prufrock is a great example of a case in which the mind is a huge influence that can work in our favor or against because throughout the poem, he is constantly battling with his own mind tricks which is continuously feeding him with fear. However, the mind does not work on its own. What is also does it collecting information from its surroundings to formulate its own. For example, Dillard's "Living like Weasels" and Thoreau's Walden both convey the idea of people changing their thoughts due to observing the differences between human societies and nature.
Reflection on Progress toward the Standards:
Strengths
Choose one standard (and type it in) that you felt you do well in. Explain why you think it was your strength. Look at rubrics for telltale signs.
I think I did well in reading and identifying quotes and characters in To Kill a Mockingbird, as well as inferring each character's thoughts and reasons to their certain actions throughout the book. Another thing I did well is characrizing: incorporating evidence from the entire book and connecting them together to back up my opinions on the book.
Areas of Improvement
The area I wish to improve is my writing skill. In the next semester, I plan to explore various writing techniques from various sources, and proof-read my work thoroughly to check if it makes sense or still needs grammatical corrections.
Evidence
Personal Response Essay:
To Kill a Mockingbird Movie Poster
