Below are some suggested themes for the fiction essay. Alternatively, you may develop your own topic, though you may use only texts we have read in this course. If you do so, make sure that you have the topic approved by your professor before you begin to write.
1. In Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use,” two sisters have a different notion of what heritage means. Who has it “right”? Do they both have an argument? Explain and support your answer with specific references to the text.
2. While many see Abner Snopes as a villain in William Faulkner’s “Barn Burning,” others see him as waging class warfare on a system that marginalizes him. At one point, Sarty says “maybe” his father “couldn’t help but be” what he is. Is that the case? Why does Abner keep setting fires?
3. Ernest Hemingway employed what he called “the iceberg theory” when he wrote “Hills Like White Elephants.” What is the iceberg theory and how is it employed here?
