Michel de Montaigne: Of Smells

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This activity contains 3 questions.

Trace closely the arc of this brief essay, exploring the sequence of thoughts from beginning to end. Do you find a coherent pattern here? If so, explain the pattern you find. If not, how does this fact affect your reading of the essay?

To create paragraphs in your essay response, type at the beginning of the paragraph, and at the end.

Write an essay of your own titled “Of Smells.” Focus on your personal responses to the odors you encounter at home, in public, and in man-made and natural settings, as well as on how our culture seems to define good and bad smells. Don’t be afraid to be whimsical.

To create paragraphs in your essay response, type at the beginning of the paragraph, and at the end.

Using Montaigne as a model, write an impressionistic essay on a topic that is common to everyone’s experience but that would not normally be thought of as the subject of an essay: hands or feet, say, or tears, or refrigerators, or dust. Use your imagination. Incorporate quotations as you may find them.

To create paragraphs in your essay response, type at the beginning of the paragraph, and at the end.

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