 Compare the role of feeling in the Confessions to the role of reason in Candide. Use several specific examples from each text to support your ideas. Try to come to some general conclusion about the differences between the two. |
| Compare the role of nature in the Confessions to the role of the garden in Candide. How are they similar? How different? What about the work ethic in Candide's garden? Is there anything like it in the Confessions? Use several specific examples from each text to support your ideas. Try to come to some general conclusion about the differences between the two. |
| Compare the central importance of the individual self in the Confessions with the central importance of a community of friends in Candide. Why is this difference important? Be sure to use specific examples from each text to support your ideas. |
| After reading
the selections of the Confessions, make a list of ideas and examples in it that you think are especially indicative of romanticism. Now, consider life today. What examples of this romanticism can you see around you now? Be specific and explain how you think that the romantic elements you find today relate to the ideas or feelings expressed by Rousseau. |
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Write a "Confession of your feelings and experiences during a short, intense period of your life. Now, compare your confession to Rousseau's. What similarities do you see? What differences? Why? Refer to specific events/attitudes in Rousseau's Confessions for your comparisons. Are you a romantic? Why or why not? If you prefer, you may send this directly to your instructor, rather than posting it to the public forum. |
 Compare Rousseau's ideas about natural goodness in the Confessions to Voltaire's ideas about good and evil in Candide. Which seems more true to you? Why? Be sure to support your ideas with specific ideas from each text. |
| Look at the form of the Confessions--intimate autobiography--and compare it to the form of Candide--third person satire. How does the form of each suit the message or content? Which do you find more pleasing? Why? Support your ideas with specific examples from each text. |
| Rousseau describes himself as living a life more based in his imagination than in what actually happens to him from day to day. Voltaire describes Candide as living a life which starts with a philosophical education, but is modified as he learns by experience. Look at the two texts for specific examples of these two ways of living. Do you think Rousseau matured during his lifetime? What about Candide? Who was the more able to learn and grow? |
| Look up and define Romanticism and Enlightenment and note some of the main ideas of each as found in the texts of Candide and the Confessions. Be sure to use specific examples to support your ideas. |
| Can you explain what Voltaire thought would make human life happy? What did Rousseau think would make human life happy? Support your ideas with specific examples from the two texts. |
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Double
Credit: Consider Monkey and Rousseau as
examples of community behavior versus radical
individualism. At the start, Monkey is a self-involved
character who does not pay attention to the needs of
those around him. The same seems to be true of Rousseau.
Monkey eventually learns through his trials and journey
with friends to consider others; does Rousseau? What
different underlying social values can you see in these
two? You need to support your ideas with plenty of
specific examples from each text. This Activity has
potential for double credit if you do a very thorough
job. If you want to do this, I suggest researching the
ideas of community versus individualism and be sure to
cite your sources.
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|
Double
Credit: Read
The Devil's Pool, a charming rustic
short novel by George Sand (a 19th century French woman
author). It is the story of a ploughman falling in love
with a shephardess and full of the charm of the rural
life and ancient customs in France before the modern
world changed everything. Compare this loving
representation of country life with what you find in
Rousseau's Confessions. What kinds of
similarities do you find? What interesting differences?
And, of course, so what? This Activity has potential for
double credit if you do a very thorough job. |
