Comparative Writing Samples for the Use of Evidence

Partial Draft A

I am going to discuss The Island of Dr. Moreau by H. G. Wells.  This book is about, among other things, colonialism.  Moreau is a colonizer who is clearly presented as a bad person for not recognizing and accepting the nature of his “subjects.” “‘I will conquer yet,’” he says (p. 120).  Prendick, the narrator, tells us how Moreau got to his island: “He was simply howled out of the country [by] his fellow investigators … his desertion by the great body of scientific workers was a shameful thing” (pp. 52-53) [91 words]

Partial Draft B

Moreau, in Wells's novel, has clear colonial ambitions: "'I will conquer yet,'" he says (p. 120), meaning that he will not only rule the island but remake its "subjects." But Prendick, too, changed by exposure to Moreau, returns debilitated to Europe so that "in hope and solitude [his] story ends" (p. 206).  Yet we know the hope alone is useless and solitude is a rejection of humanity.  In short, the novel suggests that colonials (the Beast People), the colonists (Moreau), and even colonial nations (the English at home) suffer from colonialism.  [91 words]

Copyright © 2002 Eric S. Rabkin