In our first essay for this course, the rhetorical analysis essay, we focused on bringing knowledge of the conventions of writing into a discussion of a particular piece. In the second essay, we practiced our own techniques of bringing personal opinions into the larger body of discourse about a particular topic. Now, in this essay, we will internalize a bit. The beginning step of this essay will be to have a strong reaction to a piece of literature, an essay, or a movie. This essay will then consist of an examination of why you had the reaction that you had. It will be an analysis of your own background. You can also choose to analyze a story or film we have read this semester. Or you can choose a text of your own. Do not choose the same piece that you used for your earlier essays, though if you have a particularly good reason for doing so, come talk to me.This essay asks you to respond as a reader to a particular text. However, you are not responding as a casual reader, but as an alert, informed, attentive reader. Also, this essay is not simply a transcription of your feelings as you read; rather, it is an analysis of who you are and, perhaps, who you should be. That is, the assumption of this essay is that the things we read matter very deeply. They affect who we are, and they make us consider what we want to be or should be. It is this process that I want you to capture on paper: a detailed analysis of yourself brought about by the text you read.Why is it when we read a text, we disagree about the meaning? For that matter, why do we disagree about anything? It is because of our personal contexts, our experiences, and our backgrounds. An American will read ‘Hamlet’ differently than a British person will. A New Yorker will get a different meaning from ‘Huckleberry Finn’, than, say, a Phoenician. Compared to a civilian, a person who has been in the army will have a different experience reading ‘Catch-22’. You get the idea; now, here’s the tricky part. All of these “cultural artifacts” have meanings and messages. They put forth a certain political stance. Many would argue that there is no such thing as text without a political position. In encountering these texts, it is your job to constantly re-evaluate yourself, tackling questions about morality, religion, relationships, etc. The way you respond to these “artifacts” has a great deal to do with who you are. For the third essay, it is your job to analyze your reaction to a text. What do these reactions say about you? Where do thesereactions come from? How does your personal context shape the way you read, and, since the world is one big text, how you “read” the world (i.e. how you live)?