Literary Analysis Assignment:
Fiction
ESSAY ASSIGNMENT: Introductory paragraph with thesis required for credit towards rough draft. Then, you must write a literary analysis of any story that we read during this course. In using literary sources to support your thesis, you must also be able to demonstrate an understanding of MLA research format .
Preparation: Study carefully your textbook’s section on “The Elements of the Essay” (p. 16 +) and “The Research Essay” (see textbook), which gives an explicit example of how to write about literature. In addition, see the section from your text that shows some sample literary analysis papers (see the Writing Samples guide in your textbook: Response papers, Analysis papers, and Research Papers) for models of writing.
You may write your essay on any assigned story and/or author.
You are expected to use:
- Your own ideas about the story
- Quotes and paraphrases from the story to support your ideas
- A strong, specific thesis in your introductory paragraph.
You are also expected to use quotes and paraphrases from other scholars to help shape your argument and support your ideas; however, you must document according to MLA format and include a Works Cited page when you do so. You must use at least TWO SCF approved sources in your paper, using parenthetical references also known as in text citation. ONE must be from the text itself (Your primary source). The other source must be a scholarly article.
The paper: Your job as a writer is to construct a clear thesis that brings the reader of your essay to a clearer understanding of some aspect of the story. To do that, you will need to:
Write an introduction that gives the title of the story (in italics), along with the author of that story. (See examples in your textbook). If you choose to write primarily about the author, then you will need to also indicate where the author is from, with some logistical dates regarding the author’s work. Then, tie the author’s work(s) to the author’s background to help the reader to understand the author’s perspective. Whatever your choice of topic, your introduction must lead logically to your specific position about the story(your thesis). Remember that if you have no thesis, you have no position statement to support in your paper. Your thesis should be a x,y, z thesis statement at the end of your introductory paragraph.
Your supporting paragraphs should then logically and coherently support, explain and elaborate on that thesis, using quotes and paraphrases for development and clarity. Each body paragraph must have a topic sentence. Topic sentences help show your readers what the paragraph will be about.
Make sure that you also provide a concluding paragraph that gives a sense of closure, usually by referring back to your thesis. (Review the principles of essay writing that you learned in ENC 1101).
The assignment: You have a variety of choices of which story to write about. For whatever story you choose, you may:
- Choose a storythat you liked from the reading schedule and write about an aspect of that engaged your interest, such as a literary element (irony, point of view, symbolism, characterization or setting, etc.) that was particularly effective in getting the author’s message across to the reader and/or drove the action of the play and made the story ‘work.’
- You may also take the choice of writing about the author primarily, if you wish; just be sure to tie your description and biography of the author back to one or more the author’s works and use the same persuasive purpose, with a thesis statement in your introductory paragraph. Be sure, whichever you choose, to write on a topic or author that truly interests you; if your topic does not engage your interest, then it will not impress your reader.
- Choose any one of the assigned stories and demonstrate how it follows the structure of the heroic quest(see the section on “Character” in your textbook). Consider the fact that in 20th century writing, the hero and the quest itself are often degraded, the hero showing few ‘heroic’ qualities and the quest often being fruitless. futile, foolish, sometimes even comic.
Remember to choose only one story, unless you are going to compare two very similar ones which deal with the same literary element, or two stories by the same author for comparison, which you are using to prove your thesis.
Style issues:
- Never use the words you, your, you’ll, or I.
- Try to avoid weak verbs: is, am, are, was, were, be, being, been. When possible, substitute strong, active verbs.
- When referring to events in the present moment of the story, use present tense verbs. This is called using the ‘literary present.’ For example, you would write: Sammy watches the girls, and as he does, he is wondering who they are and where they came from’, NOT: Sammy watched the girls, and as he did so, he was wondering who they were and where they came from.’
- Whenever quoting the author, a character, or another scholar’s analysis, be sure to identify who is speaking in the sentences itself. For example, write: “Harold Bloom argues that Gregor’s transformation is…” or “ “Sammy says, “In walks these three girls…”
- Your paper should aim for 800- 1200 words, approximately eight to ten paragraphs, plus a separate Works Cited page. We will work on your introductory paragraph, your thesis, and planning sheet in class before your paper is due to ensure that your work is effectively written. Please contact me as often as possible if you have questions or concerns regarding this assignment.
Choose one of the poems below and research and site
What Lips my Lips Have Kissed
After Making love we hear footsteps
To a daughter leaving home
Barren woman
Lady Lazarus
Where the Sidewalk Ends
Oh the places you’ll go
The Road Not taken
Those Winter Sundays
Harlem
Funeral Blues (Stop all the clocks)
Because I could not stop for death
The 23rd Psalm
Do not go gentle into that goodnight
Death Be not proud
