For this assignment. choose one of the short stories we have read for class. Choose an image from the story to examine as your
evidence. Follow the steps below to create an argument based on this image. Submit a Word file with the following format:
Story Title:
Image:
1. Collection
List at least three quotes from the story that relate to your chosen image. You may include more than three if necessary. Include the
page number for each quote in parentheses. If you use The Shining. include the time of the scene in parentheses.
2. Connection
Write a brief analysis of your quotes. What do these quotes tell us about how the image functions in the story? How are the quotes
related? What kind of work is this image doing?
3. Deduction
Briefly discuss the image, as you have analyzed it, in relation to the story as a whole. Why is this image important to the story? What
conclusion do you draw about the story, based on your analysis of this image?
Week 1: Myth
Jan. 9: Introductions
Jan. 11: The Myth of Isis and Osiris
Jan 13: Excerpt from Amos Tutuola, The Palm- Wine Drinkard
Week 2: Fairy Tale
Jan. 16: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day; No Class
Jan. 18: Excerpt from A Thousand and One Nights
Jan. 20: Hans Christian Andersen, “The Little Mermaid”
Week 3: Modern Fantasy
Jan. 23: Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis, Chapter One
Jan. 25: Kafka, The Metamorphosis, Chapter Two
Jan. 27: Kafka, The Metamorphosis, Chapter Three
Week 4: Horror
Jan. 30: Film: Stanley Kubrick, The Shining
Feb. 1: Film: Stanley Kubrick, The Shining
Feb. 3: Film: Stanley Kubrick, The Shining
Week 5:
Feb. 6: Film: Stanley Kubrick, The Shining
Feb. 8: Film: Stanley Kubrick, The Shining
Feb. 10: No class. Complete Writing Assignment 1 (Timed Writing)
Week 6: Science Fiction
Feb. 13: Octavia Butler, “Bloodchild”
Feb. 15: Ted Chiang, “Story of Your Life” to p. 119 (Coursepack 68)
Feb. 17: Chiang, “Story of Your Life,” finish the story
Week 7: Midterm
Feb. 20: Revision for the Midterm Exam
Feb. 22: Study Day; No Class
Feb. 24: Midterm Exam
Arguing from Evidence (15 points)
For this assignment, choose one of the short stories we have read for class. Choose an image
from the story to examine-as your evidence. Follow the steps below to create an argument based
on this image.
Story Title: “The Library of Babel” by Jorge Luis Borges
Image: Mirror
1. Collection
List at least three quotes from the story that relate to your chosen image. You may include more
than three if necessary.
0 “In the hallway there is a mirror which faithfully duplicates all appearances . . . I prefer to
5 dream that its polished surfaces represent and promise the infinite” (51).
o “The Library is a sphere whose exact center is any one of its hexagons and whose
circumference is inaccessible” (52).
l 0 “If an eternal traveler were to cross it in any direction, after centuries he would see that
the same volumes were repeated in the same disorder (which, thus repeated, would be an
order: the Order” (58).
2. Connection
Write a brief analysis of the connections between your quotes. What do these quotes tell us about
how the image functions in the story? What kind of work is this image doing?
The image of the mirror highlights the importance of the idea of infinity in this story. My
first quote shows how the mirror expresses the idea of the infinite: a mirror duplicates
appearances, so that the hallway of the library reflected in it appears to go on forever. This idea
appeals to the narrator, who wishes to see the mirror as a “promise” ‘of the infinite.
In the second quote, we see a mirroring of the hexagons. The hexagons are repeated
throughout the library, just as the mirror in my first quote repeats the image of the hallway.
Moreover, we are told that every hexagon can be the center of the sphere that makes up the
Library. In this way, every hexagon is a duplicate of every other hexagon, just like the reflection
in a mirror. Unlike the first quote, this one doesn’t show the narrator’s hope: it shows what all
the librarians believe. However, this quote also introduces problems into the story. How can each
hexagon be the center of a sphere? What kind of sphere would that be? In addition, the quote
mentions a “circumference,” which would be the end of the Library. This suggests that infinity is
not possible.
My third quote returns to what the narrator wants to believe. He imagines that the library
eventually repeats itself: that is, it becomes a giant mirror. This repetition would mean that the
library could be infinite, even though the number of books is limited. It would also create
order-“the Order”-which would mean that the universe is not an impossible shape, like the
many-centered sphere of the second quote, but a perfect one.
3. Deduction
Briefly discuss the image, as you have analyzed it, in relation to the story as a whole. Why is this
image important to the story?
The image of the mirror is important to the story because it expresses the idea of infinity.
The narrator is concerned with the question of whether the universe is infinite. He wants it to be
infinite and perfect. Just as he says the Library exists “ab aeterno” or eternally in time (52), he
wants it to be eternal, or infinite, in space.
The belief in a perfect, infinite universe is cOnnected to the idea of order, as shown in the
third quote. This is important because order suggests that there is meaning in the universe, and
v therefore, there is a God. The narrator is horrified by the idea of a meaningless universe.
Throughout the story, the librarians as a group try to find meaning in their lives, searching for the
books that will vindicate their existence, and falling into despair and even killing themselves
when they fail. The image of the mirror, which repeats things perfectly and forever, expresses the
librarians’ hope that the universe is also perfect. However, the same image brings in
contradictions, as shown in the second quote. In this way, the author uses the image of the
mirror, as a symbol of infinity, to demonstrate how people struggle between faith and doubt.
