Author’s Background and Viewpoint

At this point you are halfway through your literary nonfiction book.  Some of you are reading memoirs or autobiographies, books written by someone about their own life and experiences.  Others are reading biographies, books written by someone else about another’s experience.   Every author brings to their writing a certain bias based on their experiences, whether they’re writing about themselves or someone else.  Remember that you’re only getting a small snapshot of someone’s life, a snapshot that they choose.

In this assignment, we’ll try to get a bigger picture and consider how your author’s life might have impacted some of the core ideas or themes in the book you’re reading (whether the author is writing about himself or someone else).

First, complete a little Google search for information about the author of your book.  Find at least one excellent resource about their life.  As you read, think about why your author might have chosen to write about the topics in the book. What events might have influenced the writing and the core messages?

Then, in a couple of well-developed PEA-style paragraph(s) of at least 7-10 sentences each, explain your discoveries.  Consider these questions:

• What did you find out about your author’s life?
• How might those events have influenced the writing and core message in the book you’re reading?
• What specific events in the text prove your point?  (Quotes are great!)
• What other aspects of the text revealed the author's viewpoint or bias?
  

Your paragraphs will be worth 40 points.  Please submit it on the next page.