SF Midterm Essays   Spring 1997   Your name___________________________

     You may research these topics, think about them, discuss them, for as long as you like.  You
may even outline the material before you take the exam.  Your limit is to write for no more than
two hours.( We will vote on this constraint in class.  You may recopy or type/word process/VAX
your opuscule after the two hours if you like: typed copy will be gratefully appreciated but is not
required.)  Please write with black ink.  Cite both title and author in any reference.  Movies and
novels are underlined; short story titles go in quotation marks.  Do not offend the Great God
Harbrace.
     Do not turn in essays on frilly spiral papers.  Remember that kitty litter promotes grouchy
responses.
     Remember that as a class your major weakness is supporting your contentions with concrete
details, illustrations, examples.  Please show signs of intelligent life.

Discuss two of the following four essays (50 points for each essay; 300+ words per essay).

A.   How is science used in Frankenstein, Dune, and Brave New World? How is it relevant, in
each case, to our present society?

B.   Discuss the treatment of the outsider in Frankenstein, Stranger, War of the Worlds, and
Brave New World.  How does the outsider help us see our world differently?  How can we
determine where the author's consciousness/moral position resides in these four works?

C.   Discuss the treatment of women in Frankenstein, Stranger, and Aliens.  To what extent does
their world free or limit them?  Do they operate differently from their male peers?  Do they have
a different standard of values?

D.   Discuss the place of religion in Frankenstein, Stranger, and Dune.  How is it used?  How
does it relate to our world today?