final paper
Details: DIRECTIONS:
Choose one topic from the list below as the basis for writing a literary analysis essay of at least 800 words. Read the topic and all associated questions carefully and be sure to address the entire topic.
Write your essay on a word processor such as Microsoft Word or Google Docs.
Save the file as Microsoft Word doc, Docx, or RTF.
Upload the doc/docx file to Blackboard Discussion Board under Final Assessment Essay and also copy and paste the entire text into the message box.
CONSIDERATIONS/GUIDELINES:
Your essay should demonstrate not only what you have learned in this course but also what you learned about writing college essays in ENG101. I will expect a clear thesis statement and at least four paragraphs: an introductory paragraph, two or (preferably) more body paragraphs, and a concluding paragraph.
Draw evidence for your analysis from both primary and secondary sources.
Primary sources are the actual literary texts (the short stories) that are your focus.
Secondary sources are essays, websites, books, and other written materials that help you support and develop your analysis of the primary sources. Relevant secondary sources might include a literary scholar’s essay about the same story that you are analyzing, a biography of the story’s author, or relevant material from other disciplines. An example of the latter might be an article from psychology on whatever mental disorder you think Paul in “Paul’s Case,” the unnamed narrator of “A Yellow Wallpaper,” or the Misfit in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” suffers from. You might alternatively look to historical studies to help you deepen your analysis, for example if you are analyzing “Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” you might find historical research on the Civil War to be pertinent.
Your essay should include material from at least two different secondary sources. I will expect high-quality sources, which are generally articles or books written by recognized experts, rather than random websites found through a hasty Google search. Searching the WCC Library databases is usually a good starting point: http://www.sunywcc.edu/student-services/library/
Use lots of quoted and paraphrased evidence to support your analysis, but keep quotes relatively brief. Most of the writing should be your own words. Always distinguish between quoted passages (the exact words copied from your source) and paraphrased passages (described in your own words).
Follow the MLA format by providing parenthetical page number references within the text of your essay and a Works Cited list at the end. You may find the website easybib.com useful for generating citations for other sources. Select the MLA8 format from the different choices.
Grammar, spelling, and punctuation count, so be sure to proofread and edit your work carefully.
The minimum length requirement is 800 words, and the minimum number of paragraphs is four. As always, longer, better-developed essays with more high-quality sources earn higher grades.
You should have read Ann Charters’ Appendix Two, “The Elements of Fiction” (1048-1063), which focuses on six main areas: Plot, Character, Setting, Point of View, Style, and Theme. Besides carefully rereading the story or stories in the topic, you should reread the appropriate section of Appendix Two for general guidance and appropriate literary terminology. If you are uncertain about the meaning of certain technical terms (e.g. climax, dialogue, epiphany, exposition, figurative language, imagery, irony, metaphor, narrator, omniscience, protagonist, symbol), you will also find Charters’ Appendix Six: “Glossary of Literary Terms” (1105-1114) useful.
You should have also read Charters’ Appendix Four, “Writing About Short Stories.” Pay special attention to her discussion of Types of Literary Papers (explication, analysis, and comparison/contrast) on pages 1078 – 1084. The two student essays in those pages are excellent models for you to fo
below. Notice such features as:
Original title
Clear and appropriately narrowed thesis
Clear organization of the entire essay
Use of both brief quotes and paraphrased textual evidence to support the analysis
Quotes smoothly integrated into paragraphs and followed by parenthetical page numbers
Complete Works Cited list at end of essay
TOPICS (Choose One):
2. Compare and contrast the married women portrayed in two of the following stories: Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “Yellow Wallpaper,” Raymond Carver’s “What We Talk about When We Talk about Love,” and Jhumpa Lahiri’s “Interpreter of Maladies.” Besides specific differences and similarities between these characters, what generalizations about marriage across different cultures or between different historical periods might be supported by these stories. Base your analysis primarily on your own reading of these stories, supplemented by material from at least two secondary sources.
TOPICS (Choose One):
1. Often our understanding of the protagonist only becomes complete during the climax of a story. Identify the climax in Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” and Jhumpa Lahiri’s “Interpreter of Maladies.” What occurs in these climaxes that leads us to more complete understanding of the grandmother and Mr. Kapasi? How have the authors (O’Connor and Lahiri) deepened or changed the characterization of the grandmother and Mr. Kapasi at the turning point of these stories? Are we more sympathetic towards them before or after the climax? Base your analysis primarily on your own reading of these stories, supplemented by material from at least two secondary sources.
2. Compare and contrast the married women portrayed in two of the following stories: Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “Yellow Wallpaper,” Raymond Carver’s “What We Talk about When We Talk about Love,” and Jhumpa Lahiri’s “Interpreter of Maladies.” Besides specific differences and similarities between these characters, what generalizations about marriage across different cultures or between different historical periods might be supported by these stories. Base your analysis primarily on your own reading of these stories, supplemented by material from at least two secondary sources.
3. Analyze Willa Cather’s use of the word “case” in the title of her story “Paul’s Case.” What kind of “case” do the details of the story suggest that she had in mind? Could it be a psychological case study, conducted too late to help Cather’s protagonist? Or could “case” be interpreted in a legal sense, as an argument or a defense for Paul, who committed major crimes? Consider these and other possible interpretations of the word and argue in support of one particular interpretation. Base your analysis primarily on your own reading of these stories, supplemented by material from at least two secondary sources.
4. Both Dave in Richard Wright’s “The Man Who Was Almost a Man” and Sylvia in Sarah Orne Jewett’s “A White Heron” are young people coming of age in a rural setting. Analyze the particular details and facts of each character’s setting. How does each experience life in “the country”? How does each value it? What events threaten to change the life that each character is accustomed to? How does he/she resolve the conflict? Base your analysis primarily on your own reading of these stories, supplemented by material from at least two secondary sources.
5. Willa Cather’s “Paul’s Case” is organized spatially as well as chronologically. Paul’s character unfolds as we watch him in different settings. Compare and contrast Paul’s behavior and his mannerisms in the various locations in which Cather places him, beginning with his high school. How does Cather use the element of setting to present and develop the character of Paul in all his complexity? Base your analysis primarily on your own reading of this story, supplemented by material from at least two secondary sources.
6. In discussing First-Person Narration, Ann Charters explains the concept of reliable and unreliable narrators (1057). Review the ten stories assigned for Posts 2 – 11 and identify at least one unreliable narrator. What specific evidence in the text leads you to conclude that this first-person narrator is unreliable? Does this narrator intentionally or unintentionally withhold information about the characters, including him- or herself? How would this missing information have helped you understand the characters more fully? Base your analysis primarily on your own reading of this story or stories, supplemented by material from at least two secondary sources.
7. Writers often make symbolic use of color to represent abstract qualities. With this observation in mind, reread Willa Cather’s “Paul’s Case,” paying close attention to her use of the color red. Carefully identify ALL the passages in which the color red is mentioned. What do you notice? How would you interpret Cather’s strategic use of color symbolism? Base your analysis primarily on your own reading of these stories, supplemented by material from at least two secondary sources.
8. Analyze how the imagery of light and darkness operates symbolically in Raymond Carver’s “What We Talk about When We Talk about Love.” To engage this topic, you will need to carefully identify all the passages that refer to either light or darkness and explain their individual and cumulative significance. In particular, explore the end of the story in relation to the imagery of light and darkness. Does it end the story on an optimistic or pessimistic note (or something else)? Base your analysis primarily on your own reading of these stories, supplemented by material from at least two secondary sources.
9. Fictional journeys often have symbolic associations and tap into narrative patterns with long histories. The trips that characters take in stories, even modern stories, often relate to the quests undertaken by medieval heroes, such as King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Literary critic Thomas C. Foster breaks it down this way: “The quest consists of five things: (a) a quester, (b) a place to go, (c) a stated reason to go there, (d) challenges and trials en route, and (e) a real reason to go there.”
Choose two of the assigned stories in which the protagonist goes on a trip of some sort and analyze his/her journey using Foster’s five-part pattern. Turn each part into a question, e.g. Who is the quester? Where does he/she go? Etc. After that, consider the big questions: Can you make a case that this protagonist goes on a symbolic quest? What does it symbolize? Base your analysis primarily on your own reading of these stories, supplemented by material from at least two secondary sources.
10. Analyze the ways in which Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Grace Paley’s “Conversation With My Father” are stories about writing. What do they tell us about the birth or development of a writer? What do they say about the importance of writing to the individual? What do they suggest about the different functions, goals, or values of writing in general? Base your analysis primarily on your own reading of these stories, supplemented by material from at least two secondary sources.
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