Essay Assignment Three

Due Date: See syllabus
Peer Review: See syllabus

Assignment Goal: The goal of this assignment is for students to argue how the novel It Can't Happen Here defines fascism. Using examples and characters from the text, students will argue about how fascism works by emphasizing how Lewis narrates it in the United States.

Assignment Description: More than any other text, the novel It Can't Happen Here defines a particular kind of violence in the United States - we see a merging between social movements and government power, with violence and violent language melded into one big story of rights, power, and blood.

To complete this assignment students will have to first read the novel. They will not be able to achieve success without making the required time to study the characters and events. It doesn't matter if they understand all the references made in the text; what matters is that they follow the events, who's involved and why, and create original arguments how the novel imagines fascism - in both form and origin.

Different students may want to focus on different aspects of fascism - their argument will turn on what they believe is most vital to their own definitions, and what they see working in the novel.

In the critical thinking section of the essay, more points will be awarded to students who make connections to other texts from our course.

In the conclusion of the essay, more points will be awarded to students that can make connections - of whatever form and kind, but in the form of argumentation - to the museum trip(s) we took.