In what ways does your culture express a struggle with mortality?

Select a piece of art, music, literature, philosophical text, sacred text, poetry, or architecture from the Sayre materials we have been exploring together and explore each of the following five steps in a single cohesive work:
i.What is the piece you have selected? Give me a detailed overview of the piece you have selected. Demonstrate to me that you have read / listened to / or examined the work you have selected and absorbed it. If you have selected a text you must include at least three quotes from that text which you find to be particularly important. If you have selected art or music, please describe both the piece and the biography of the artist to me in great detail. For works of art and music you must also include three citations pertaining either to the piece or to the biography of its creator. For works of art, please include a printed copy of the work of art after your works cited. For pieces of music, please include a link to a site like youtube where I can listen to the piece in your works cited.
ii.What was happening in the wider cultural context of the piece you selected? In particular, how does this piece fit in to the rest of the chapter in which it appears in Sayre? A helpful way to answer this question is to ask yourself: What might the thesis of the chapter in Sayre in which this work appears be? How does the work you have selected reflect / engage this wider cultural context? Be specific. You must include at least three citations from the primary text in this section of your essay.
iii.Identify and argue for a motivation for the creation of this piece: Why, in your opinion, was this piece created? What do you believe was the artists strongest motivation? Draw from your work in steps one and two to develop and support your argument.
iv.When and in what ways do YOU encounter the particular motivation which you identified and argued for in step three? For example, if you argue that The Epic of Gilgamesh is about the struggle of human beings with their own mortality: In what ways do you encounter and express your own struggle with the issue of mortality? In what ways does your culture express a struggle with mortality? Does your culture even acknowledge this struggle?
v.In what ways does your experience with a particular issue compare with the experience of an ancient on this same issue? In what ways does your experience with a particular issue differ/contrast from the experience of an ancient with this issue?
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Added on 30.04.2016 20:04
Select a piece of art, music, literature, philosophical text, sacred text, poetry, or architecture from the Sayre materials we have been exploring together and explore each of the following five steps in a single cohesive work:
i.What is the piece you have selected? Give me a detailed overview of the piece you have selected. Demonstrate to me that you have read / listened to / or examined the work you have selected and absorbed it. If you have selected a text you must include at least three quotes from that text which you find to be particularly important. If you have selected art or music, please describe both the piece and the biography of the artist to me in great detail. For works of art and music you must also include three citations pertaining either to the piece or to the biography of its creator. For works of art, please include a printed copy of the work of art after your works cited. For pieces of music, please include a link to a site like youtube where I can listen to the piece in your works cited.
ii.What was happening in the wider cultural context of the piece you selected? In particular, how does this piece fit in to the rest of the chapter in which it appears in Sayre? A helpful way to answer this question is to ask yourself: What might the thesis of the chapter in Sayre in which this work appears be? How does the work you have selected reflect / engage this wider cultural context? Be specific. You must include at least three citations from the primary text in this section of your essay.
iii.Identify and argue for a motivation for the creation of this piece: Why, in your opinion, was this piece created? What do you believe was the artists strongest motivation? Draw from your work in steps one and two to develop and support your argument.
iv.When and in what ways do YOU encounter the particular motivation which you identified and argued for in step three? For example, if you argue that The Epic of Gilgamesh is about the struggle of human beings with their own mortality: In what ways do you encounter and express your own struggle with the issue of mortality? In what ways does your culture express a struggle with mortality? Does your culture even acknowledge this struggle?
v.In what ways does your experience with a particular issue compare with the experience of an ancient on this same issue? In what ways does your experience with a particular issue differ/contrast from the experience of an ancient with this issue?