The World From Another Point of View

One scholar has suggested that “Mandeville is deliberately setting up more or less differing mirror societies as a commentary on Christian practices and failings.” Your fourth writing assignment is to analyze The Travels of Sir John Mandeville and write a 3-4 page essay in response to the following question: “To what extent and in what ways does Mandeville use the non-Christian societies he describes to critique his own culture?”

Your first step should be to do some prewriting. In your previous writing assignments for this class, we’ve focused on writing lists, but for this assignment, you may choose your prewriting technique: make lists, ask and answer questions that your reading suggests to you – whatever technique works best. Whatever you choose, however, your prewriting is a graded part of the assignment and must be handed in along with the paper.