Literary Analysis Essay Assignment Description English 232 For this assignment, you will select a single work from the readings we have done for this semester (or a comparison of 2no more) and compose an essay of at least 1000 words demonstrating your ability to argue an interpretation of a literary text. The thesis is up to you, but it must be cleared by me before you begin your essay! Some places to begin might be analyzing the uses of literary elements (character analysis, themes, symbols, conflicts, etc.). You may choose to analyze a single element from one work and discuss how that element works to create a significant meaning. You may also chose to look two of the pieces we have discussed and write a comparison and/or contrast of the element you have selected from the stories (again, character, theme, symbols, conflicts, etc). There are many possibilities! Please select one that is meaningful and interesting for you! You MUST select and quote from at least two outside, scholarly sources in MLA format for this essay. This could be literary analysis or something like scholarly texts from history or psychology to set up background information for the characters. For more details, please see the next page. The absolutes: 1000 words written in MLA format with at least two outside sources quoted in the story and cited on the Works Cited page. your name, the class title, the date on the upper left-hand side of the first page your name and page number in the upper right-hand corner in the header after page one And it should be a complete critical analysis of 1000 words, typed, double spaced, 12 point, Times New Roman font. 1. Make sure you conform to all MLA formatting conventions and quote from both of your sources in the essay. 2. Make sure you use the word narrator or speaker to denote the person telling the story. The voice in which the story is told does not necessarily represent the author him or herself. 3. Give your essay an appropriate title. Do not underline or put quotation marks around this title, but do capitalize first letters of all important words: Mothers and Daughters. If you include the title of the fiction in your title you do want to indicate that is a title by putting quotation marks around it: Mothers and Daughters in Everyday Use” 4. Dont say I believe or I think or in my opinion in your essay. Readers should be aware that literary analysis deals with forming opinions that are then supported, so it is redundant to say these are your opinions. 5. The first time you mention it, formally introduce the authors whole name and the story title. Thereafter, refer to the author by his or her last name. Beginning: In Flannery OConnors Good Country People, Later: OConnor reveals Hulgas state of mind by…. Also, put quotation marks around titles of short stories, poems and lyrics, such as Good Country People and Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been. 6. State your thesis early (a common place is the end of the introduction, but the introduction can take more than one paragraph to form). Provide an introductory paragraph or more; body paragraphs where you make claims and provide evidence (quotes, paraphrases, facts), explanation and reasoning to support the thesis; and a conclusion. 7. Use the present tense to describe events in the story unless you must distinguish the past from the present. Connie feels trapped by the oppressive expectations of her family. Hulga convinces herself that she is the sophisticated one in all of her relationships. 8. Do not ignore the ending of the story, because thats where the meaning really takes shape. An analysis of what the ending finally does to the meaning of the story as a whole is essential even if you analyze it only briefly. 9. Organization: Avoid summarizing the story. You don’t have to tell readers everything that happens in the story and often the best evidence you have to support your claims will come late in the text, so do your best to hunt evidence and organize around supporting your thesis with that evidence. Start body paragraphs with claims such as “The main character’s behavior shows that she is selfish” or signal phrases that remind us you are about to introduce another piece of evidence. “More evidence that she is selfish can be found in the scene where her husband tries to talk her into moving to a less expensive apartment.” If your body paragraphs begin with summary statements such as “First the couple wakes up in the middle of the night to the sound of the faucet dripping” that’s a sign you may be summarizing instead of analyzing where you make claims and then back them up with evidence. Look at opening sentences of your body paragraphs to check if you are analyzing properly and really writing an essay. A note about introductions. Your introduction should include your thesis, but sometimes you want to work up to that. A good place for it is often late in the introductory paragraph, perhaps even the last sentence of the introduction, because once you have stated it, the reader wants to start hearing why you interpret the story as you do. So what do you write before the thesis? It makes sense to introduce the author and title somewhere in the introduction. If you are going to use any important terms that need defining, make sure that you do that when needed. But besides those essentials here are 3 different suggestions of ways to introduce a literary analysis: 1) Explain a way or ways the story has already been analyzed by other critics, to show how your reading is fresh and different. 2) Begin by introducing the author and his or her background (this is especially effective if you will be using biography as part of your argument). 3) Introduce an issue or theme you will focus on in your essay, historical roles of women or men, for example, or the nature of religious faith in general or a quote from another text that is relevant to what occurs in the story. Also, look at other pieces of criticism from other models in the online library database. See what kinds of introduction you prefer and use that style in your own essay if appropriate. Also: A very nice technique is to use a pertinent quote as an epigraph to focus the attention of your readers on the relevant theme of your essay. The quote can be from another work entirely or from the story itself. Integrate it with the following format: The Creeps Much madness is divinest sense To a discerning eye; –Emily Dickinson Connies perception of sanity changes radically in Joyce Carol Oates short story Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been. If viewed by the protagonist, Connnie, at the beginning of the story, she would deem her own actions just a day later as total madness. But in the end, her madness makes quite a bit of sense… A note about conclusions. Your readers may have different needs depending on how you have proceeded in your paper. A Big Picture or So What Now conclusion is often effective. Dont make new claims about the text that need supporting, but do analyze why what youve revealed in your essay is interesting or important, perhaps to the meaning of the story. Circling is also very effective. If you come back to something you said much earlier, it will give readers a very clear feeling that you have completed your task. For example: When Emily Dickinson claims Much madness is divinest sense she describes perfectly the irony that what looks like madness, like the behavior of Connie in Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been, is clearly both logical and sane… This would be a circling technique if it came as the ending for an essay that began as in the last example listed above, the example with the Dickinson quote. Langston Hughes
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