The Sophomore Essay

As a member of the Honors Program at Susquehanna, I must fulfill certain requirements. For instance, I must take certain classes. This semester my honors class is Thought & Civilization. The section in which I'm enrolled is based on the concept of Romantic Novels and exploring why we read them and what they can tell us about civilization. I'm loving this class--except for the fact that we're on Wuthering Heights right now, and I hate it with every fiber of my being. The first book we tackled, Emma by Jane Austen, was much more enjoyable. I will also be required to complete a sophomore essay.    

Recently, everybody I know has been looking forward to next year, mostly in the flurry of determining who’s living with who and where, but this has also made me reflect on the matter of my sophomore essay.

Each Honors student enrolls in a 2 credit class where he or she works on the sophomore essay, which is a research-based project of their choice.  I must decide whether to take it in the fall or spring.  I also must decide on my topic.

I would really like to look at representations of faith in young adult novels.  I think the topic would keep my interest and be very reflective of my own curiosities.  In case it hasn’t been mentioned enough on this blog, I’m a Creative Writing major.  I love writing, and I love books, and I really do love the genre of YA.  My faith is also very important to me, and I hope to declare a Religion minor either before the end of this year or at the beginning of next year.  This research would combine all these different aspects of who I am.

Also, I am very interested in writing a YA novel that has a complex, respectful, real, and maybe even inspiring portrayal of the Christian faith. Whether that novel ends up in the Christian genre or is “mainstream” enough for secular shelves, I want to write about a character whose faith is important to him or her because, as someone who finds that’s the case in her own life, I don’t see that nearly enough in books.  Doing this research could definitely inspire me in this creative aspect.

One difficulty is that the essay has to be a “position paper”—something one can argue, and I don’t know exactly what angle I would take on that front.  Perhaps that the downplaying of faith in YA novels is a minimization of the actual role it—or at least questions about it—play in the lives of teenagers.  Maybe the argument will formulate when I’m in the throes of my research.  I’m also not sure who I’d get my faculty sponsor to be! 

Hopefully, these things will be clear in time, but I am very excited by the inkling of an idea I have right now.