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Suggested grade level: 10th to 12th grade
Suggested high school credit: 1 full semester
Fee: $165 for all 11 classes
Duration: 1 hour
Course description: What is the capacity for good and for evil in the human heart? Are some people more prone to evil than others? This course is not for the faint of heart but for the sincerely curious, openly inquisitive, and eagerly industrious. In this class we will read works which plummet the depths of the human heart and from our discussions we will think carefully about the capacity of the virtue and vice within it. We will look at what some of the best literature has discovered in terms of free will and its difficulties. We will begin with the catechism and some short readings by Aristotle and Augustine to look toward a definition of evil and then work our way through Iago in Othello, Kurtz from Heart of Darkness, Mr. Hyde, Ralph and Jack in Lord of the Flies, and some of O'Connor's humorous but wicked villains in order to explore the twisted sinews of the heart, but also to contrast the hopeful characters which arise in all these works as antidotes to the villain. How does evil come about in a person? What choices give way to it? How is it endured? How is it avoided? These questions will be explored through study question activities, weekly lectures and small written responses (one 12 sentence paragraph-which will be taught throughout the course) as well as three papers devoted to a particular theme within these works. Though the paragraphs will be given some feedback, the three major papers will be used as their major grades for the course.
Course outline (subject to minor changes -- will confirm two weeks before the first class):
Week One: Readings from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Aristotle, and Augustine
Week Two: Shakespeare’s Othello
Week Thee: Conrad's The Heart of Darkness
Week Four: Conrad's The Heart of Darkness
Week Five: Conrad's The Heart of Darkness
Week Six: Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Week Seven: Golding's Lord of the Flies
Week Eight: Golding's Lord of the Flies
Week Nine: C.S. Lewis, Peter Kreeft
Week Ten: Faulkner short stories
Week Eleven: O’Connor short stories
Course materials: Shakespeare's Othello, Conrad's The Heart of Darkness, Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Golding's Lord of the Flies, variety of short stories by Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor, readings by Aristotle, Augustine, C.S. Lewis, and Peter Kreeft.
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