Paper 2 Outline

Prompt: Pride can lead to failure and self-destruction or to accomplishment and self-fulfilment. Discuss the presentation of pride and its consequences in at least two of the works you have studied. 

Thesis statement: The Thief and the Dogs by Naguib Mahfouz portrays a marxist ideology through the protagonist, Said Mahran who is characterized of having excessive pride using the tragic hero archetype that leads to his self-destruction. In Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe exhibits the dangers of inflexibility in a post-colonial world where change his inevitable through the characterization of the protagonist’s hubris, resulting into his suicide. Both authors communicate the necessity of flexibility and adaptation in a constantly changing world. 

Topic sentence 1 (character): Both authors of TATD and TFA utilizes the tragic hero archetype on its respective protagonist, Said and Okonkwo, by characterizing them of having excessive pride in order to demonstrate the dangers of inflexibility and rigidness in a changing political landscape, as seen in the inevitable self-destruction of both characters where Said is assassinated by the police and Okonkwo commits suicide. 

Topic sentence 2 (conflict): In TATD and TFA, the hubris of both protagonists intensifies both their internal and external conflict, where their principals face opposition, such as the British colonization of Umuofia in TFA and the post revolution society of Cairo in TATD.  

Topic sentence 3 (theme): As a result of their hubris, Said’s aim of seeking revenge against the people who have betrayed him unravels the theme of betrayal in TATD, whereas in TFA, Achebe uses the theme of change to communicate the role of revolutionary in the struggle for Nigerian independence, as Okonkwo’s struggle of resisting the British hegemony.



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