How do Human Experiences challenge assumptions? (1 Viewer)

[alussovsky]

Our school is having an assessment task focusing on "how depictions of human experiences challenge assumptions or ignite new ideas" for any chosen text and honestly, I'm really stuck. I can't think of any kind of thesis and frankly, I don't understand how human experiences DO challenge assumptions or ignite new ideas...

 

[KingTings]

When the audience reads about another perspective that they have never encountered it ignites a new idea, and encourages them to reflect on previous experiences that would have been different if they had that difference perspective. Example, if you were going through HSC thinking that ATAR defines you, you will stress. Though if you read an article that explains how ATAR is not so important, you will go through HSC differently than you would have before, with a little less stress.
The same thing can be said for larger problems such as racial assumptions (the poor are illiterate, African-americans are all criminals). Reading a book about the harsh experiences of a poor person/African-american can change or challenge these assumptions, portraying how they may not be so different to the rest of society.

 

[alussovsky]

Ohh, I think I get the challenging assumptions through human experiences bit now, thank you! I kind of still have a question though: for a thesis statement and essay set-out, would you do something like, for example "throughout TEXT, AUTHOR's depiction of human hardships challenge social assumptions by provoking individuals to reflect no their perceptions and develop new ideas," or would you have to go more in-depth to state how human experiences challenge assumptions in the thesis, like through making them empathise with the characters or something like that? And for the body paragraphs, would each one focus on a different example of an assumption that was challenged, or would it be on a different way in which the assumption was challenged?