UNDERSTANDING MODERN JAPAN  THROUGH FICTION   
Using examples and illustrations provided by Natsume Soseki's Kokoro OR Nagatsuka Takashi's The Soil: A Portrait of Rural Life During Meiji Japan, explore insights into modern Japanese life gained as a result of having read these works of fiction.
 
The essay might focus, for example, on the nature of human relationships as revealed in the works; on female or male role expectations; on the manner in which adjustments are made to the influences of modernization and/or Westernization; on the impact in people's lives of the disruption of tradition by changes demanded for purposes of survival in the modern world.   
  
Limit your discussion to a set of related topics unified by an overarching thesis utilizing the novel as a source of illustration; avoid a superficial descriptive overview of the novel's contents or an evaluation of the work's literary value / impact / importance.  

ADDITIONAL SOURCES: Chie Nakane, Japanese Society; Takeo Doi, The Anatomy of Dependence; Robert J. Smith, Japanese Society: Tradition, Self and the Social Order.  

ESSAY TWO IS DUE TUESDAY, APRIL 7, 2009 (IF WRITING ON KOKORO) OR THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 2009 ( IF WRITING ON THE SOIL).  NOTE THE JOURNAL ASSIGNMENT WHICH NEEDS TO BE COMPLETED ON THE NOVEL NOT CHOSEN AS THE SUBJECT OF YOUR ESSAY (DUE ON THE SAME DAY AS THE ESSAY ON THAT TITLE)..

STUDENTS ARE URGED TO CONSULT THE INSTRUCTOR AT ANY TIME BEFORE THE DUE DATE FOR THE ESSAY IN QUESTION TO DISCUSS THE APPROPRIATENESS OF A CHOSEN TOPIC, TO REVIEW AN OUTLINE OF ESSAY CONTENTS, TO SEEK COMMENTS ON A DRAFT VERSION OF THE ESSAY OR TO DISCUSS THE WRITING PROCESS IN GENERAL.