1979 Captain Willard Eng2120 Discussion Board 3

This is two of four discussions for this class: on the last couple of readings were doing!

Forum Description Due to the COVID-19 all in-person classes are now done on-line. theses are extras added to the class.

Discussion Forum Due: April 19, 2020

200 words response to each question given by professor in-depth!

100-word response to two classmates

Thank You!

English-2120 Survey of English Literature II

This forum will be for the purpose of fulfilling the Participation portion of your final grade for the course. Keep in mind that, as stated in the course syllabus, Participation involves engaging in class discussion, and that is worth 40% of your final course grade (which is obviously a very significant chunk). Also, keep in mind that we have already completed over half of our classes in-person, so if you haven’t been participating in class discussion, then you have already lost about half of the possible points for Participation. However, over the remaining weeks of this course, this Discussion Board forum will provide a place for you to bring your Participation grade up from zero, and/or maintain and improve the grade for Participation that you have already been receiving.

I will provide questions for this forum, and you must answer each of those questions with your own response before you can see the responses from other students. Each student will not only need to provide a substantive response to each question (meaning, a response of at least 200 words that provides an in-depth answer to the question or questions), but also will need to provide a response to at least 2 other students (of at least 100 words each with a likewise in-depth engagement with those students’ responses). Again, these should be substantive responses, not evaluations of other responses (“that’s good” of “that’s bad” are not effective responses, and no cheerleading like “Nice job!” or “Way to go!”). Remember that classroom discussion is a conversation, so that’s what you will be graded on in relation to Participation. Please make sure that you’re using effective grammar and correct spelling (these are not text messages or social media posts!), and please also make sure that you are using your own words and ideas, other than quoted material (which would need to be properly quoted and cited, as always!). All posts for this assignment will need to be completed by 11:59pm on Sunday, April 19th.

Questions:

DB #3: Is Kurtz evil? Or was he more a product of his circumstances? Do we even have the right to label him evil or not? Is anyone capable of doing what Kurtz did if they are placed in a morally questionable environment, like the War in Vietnam or an angry or riotous mob? In a famous adaptation of Heart of Darkness, Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979), Captain Willard says, “Calling someone a murderer in Vietnam is like handing out speeding tickets at the Indy 500.” Is morality then just relative?