For your first essay, you will write a comparative analysis of two texts we have read thus far in class. Essays will be 2.5-3 pages, double spaced (see below for full details). Considering the short length, you will likely want to focus your attention on a key scene or two from each text, and compare and contrast the ways in which the authors present their themes in differing manners. In addition, you will want to consider the social, historical, and political climate in which these texts were written. You might consider and include ideas we discussed in class, information garnered from the textbook’s author biographies, or your own research. Most importantly, all essays should quote the texts you’re writing about and offer thorough analysis in your own words. While you may write about any topic and texts you would, here are a few sample prompts that you may use, or amend to your own preferences.
Using two of the following authors, analyze the ways in which Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Edith Wharton, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, and Kate Chopin present women’s roles at the turn of the twentieth century. How does each author’s story criticize and comment upon social structures?
Successful essays will do the following:
Introduce the texts they’re discussing in a clear manner
Provide detailed analysis of specific scenes, and quote appropriately
Avoid too much summary; assume that your audience has knowledge of the texts in question, and instead focus on analyzing the scenes you’ve selected
Cite specific descriptions and lines of dialogue from the text. Use the following method: “quote from text” (Author last name, page number). So, for example, “I am not quite sure of the exact place or exact date of my birth, but at any rate I suspect I must have been born somewhere and at some time” (Washington, 675).
Focus on the why you’ve chosen to talk about these texts, rather than just summarize various scenes from each
Guidelines
Essay should be double-spaced throughout, with 1 inch margins. (NOTE: the Microsoft Word default is 1.25 inches. You will need to change this). Use 12-point font (Times New Roman or something reasonable. Comic sans results in instantaneous failure).
Please adhere to the page limit; your essay should fall within the specified parameters. Essays that fall short of or go drastically over the limit will be marked down. This essay is, in part, an exercise in concision.
Your essay needs a title that relates to the subject matter (so, not “Essay 1” or something as plain as “Booker T. Washington and W.E.B Du Bois”
On the first page of your essay, you will need a single-spaced header in the upper left-hand corner of the essay with your name, the prompt (if you chose one), and date
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wall-Paper,” “Why I Wrote the Yellow Wall-paper” C, 844-856
Edith Wharton, “The Other Two,” C 859-872
Kate Chopin, “The Story of an Hour,” C 542-544
Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, “A New England Nun,” C 640-649
