Oral
History
&
The Rwandan Genocide
ESSAY
ASSIGNMENT
(hw10)
Note:
(1)
assignments appear in the syllabus on the day assigned, not the day
due
(2)
You
must submit your written work by blackboard
(3)
BE SURE TO FOLLOW THE FILE-NAMING CONVENTIONS FOR THIS COURSE (5%
penalty if you do not).
All files should be saved on your computer
as: your last name, followed by an underscore ("_"),
followed by the first two letters of your first name, followed
by an underscore ("_"), followed by the
assignment number. So if a student named Saddam Hussein were to submit
assignment number 11, the file name would be:
hussein_sa_11.doc
THIS
IS ASSIGNMENT 11
In 1994 almost one million people were killed in a systematic genocide
in the central African country of Rwanda. 
This
assignment will compare two different interpretations of the genocide:
the first is found in a recent popular film, Hotel
Rwanda; the second is from a chapter in a recent book by Jared
Diamond
-- a
Pulitzer Prize-winning scholar -- entitled Collapse.
ESSAY
The film Hotel Rwanda and Collapse employ and provide
differing explanations as to why the genocide
in Rwanda occurred.
In this paper of 750 - 1000 words, you will compare their interpretations
by contrasting what each considers to be the ROOT
causes of the conflict.
(obviously,
the downing of the President's plane sparks the genocide -- but what
are the underlying causes?).
So,
here is the CENTRAL question you are to answer:
Using the information contained in the readings, including
the oral interviews from The Machete Season, as evidence,
which interpretation (Hotel Rwanda or Collapse &
Machete Season) more fully explains the evidence and-- more importantly--why?
A)
Be sure to use direct quotations of 10 words or fewer in your paper
- if you are unsure how to omit unnecessary
information from a quotation, see here.
(very useful)
B) be sure that you have at least 15 points of evidence, with at least
5 points coming from the film and 10 from the readings. You must have
at least 4 pieces of evidence from each reading.
BUT ABOVE ALL ELSE – DO NOT SIMPLY SUMMARIZE THE MOVIE’S
INTERPREATION AND THEN SUMMARIZE DIAMOND’S (if you do, you will
decidedly get less than a "C+" on the paper). RATHER,
ANALYTICALLY COMPARE THE TWO. HOW AND WHY DO THEY DIFFER?
Why is one interpretation more sound than the other?
Some Writing
Hints
1) Be sure to organize your paper around a thesis
that answers the “how” and “why” questions
we have discussed in class.
2) Be sure to identify your cl/ev/wa structures
3)Remember,
Machete Season does NOT explicitly offer an interpretation
as to the root causes of the genocide, NOR is it one of the two interpretations
you are comparing. You should employ the evidence from Machete
Season to help support your argument regarding why one interpretation
(Hotel Rwanda or Collapse) is more sound than the
other.
4) To write this paper, you must clearly understand
how both the film and Diamond interpret the root cause of
the genocide. Be sure you think carefully about this idea
before moving on to write the paper. In particular, Diamond's
interpretation -- as distinct from either the “popular accounts”
or “usual accounts”--will require some thinking to grasp.
.
5 ) It is very unlikely that you will be able to
get a "C+" or above on this paper if your essay (and thesis)
do not reflect a thorough understanding of issues B and C from the
reading hints above.
6) Be sure when asserting that interpretation
x locates the root cause of the genocide in cause y that
you provide evidence in the form of direct quotations from that interpretation
that clearly states such. In short, don't put words in the mouth of
either Diamond or Hotel Rwanda.
Here's
a sample outline and thesis you might use when writing this paper.
I. Intro
A. Background Information (no more than a few sentences)
B. Brief explanation of each of the two interpretations. No more
than a sentence for each interpretation.
C. Thesis: Interpretation X is more compelling than Interpretation
Y for Reasons A, B, and C
.
II. The two interpretations: spend no more than a
paragraph describing the two interpretations, but provide the best
two quotations from the film and the book that capture each interpretation
III Reason A
IV Reason B
V Reason C
VI Conclusion
FINALLY, you will notice
the question does NOT ask for the interpretation of the Machete
Season because, well, Machete Season doesn't offer one
explicitly. Rather, use the evidence from Machete Season
to help support your argument regarding the other two interpretations.