write a literary analysis essay about two texts of your choice
Descriiption
For your first essay, you will write a literary analysis essay about two texts of your choice from the assigned poems and short stories (two texts only–no more). You will develop a theory about both texts: you can compare the motivations or personalities of two characters, apply a shared theme or idea, explore gender roles or economic issues, or something else.
The following are suggestions for approaches to take. You can follow one exactly, use one as a jumping off point (that is, you don’t have to answer each part of the question if you don’t want to), change one, combine two, or make up your own.
Apply a theme or idea of your choice to two texts by performing a close reading of them. In close reading, we focus very tightly on the language the author uses—what meaning we can extract from the language: word choice and placement, details included or not mentioned by the author, the structure of the text ,and any patterns that arise. In close reading, we want to stick as closely to the words on the page as possible, drawing whatever meaning we can from them alone. Form a theory about what the texts mean, compare how each text relates to the theme or idea, and support it using evidence from the text.
Some of the poems—“Corner,” “Suicide Note,” “12 hour night”—and the stories—focus on a conflict between the individual and society. Form a theory about what one or more of these texts suggest happens when the desires / ethics / perspectives of one person are different from those of society as a whole. What sort of pressure does society use when an individual goes against its norms?
“Suicide Note,” “Bitch,” and “The Bridegroom” all deal with the position of women in modern life. These may be comments about, defenses of, or reactions to gender norms and/or patriarchy (the power system of male rule). form a theory about the status / condition / of women as the author(s) see it. How are men shown to act and how does society want them to act?
Form a theory about how punishment and rehabilitation figure into “Bartleby” and “The Bridegroom.” What is the stated purpose of the prison system for the characters Bartleby and Baowen? What is the actual effect on these two men—are they “corrected” by them? What might the authors be saying about human nature and our efforts to change it? What do they seem to think about the ability of prisons and hospitals to change “bad” behavior?
Perform a character analysis on two characters of your choice from two different texts of your choice. Look closely at their actions, words, appearance, and relationships with others to form a theory about this character’s inner qualities. You should choose two characters that share something in common so you can compare/contrast them in your essay. You may want to focus on a few important scenes and explain how these shed light on the characters’ essence. What explains their motivations?
Form a theory about what “Bartleby,” “The Bridegroom,” and “12 hour night” (choose two) are telling us about the workplace and what it does to individuals. Each one explores the obligations that employees have to their employers and vice versa. What does work do to these characters? You may want to explore what the authors are saying about capitalism and its values.
Investigate ideas about suicide in two of the texts. In Western culture, suicide is often shameful, considered to be “giving up,” “taking the easy way out,” or a cruel act towards one’s family and friends. Do the characters and authors seem to be supporting this view or treating suicide in a different way?
Choose a topic of your own. You must run it by me before you write on it, however. Email me to get my approval before you start writing.
Guidelines
Make sure you have a bold, clear, arguable thesis statement about the meaning of the texts. A reasonable reader should be able to disagree with your thesis or else you don’t have enough to prove in your essay.
When making claims about the meaning, always support them with evidence from the text: direct quotes and summaries of important scenes and actions. Do not go on and on summarizing the plot of the story. Tell us what the plot points show us about the meaning.
Ask yourself constantly—“am I analyzing the text, or just describing/summarizing it?” You should do both, but at least half of the essay should be explaining the meaning (analyzing).
Make sure to follow the 2106 MLA format. That means use in-text citations when quoting and summarizing (last name of author page # if there is one). You also much include a Works Cited page, even if you only use the assigned texts. (See Instructions below for resources on using MLA format.) You are encouraged not to use outside articles about the texts you choose, but if you do, be especially careful about citing the author. If you use words or ideas that are not your own but do not cite them, you will get a zero.
Minimum length is four full pages—maximum is five. If your essay is shorter than the end of page four, your grade will be penalized depending on how short it is.
Instructions
Two hours before your final draft is due, you need to submit a complete Final Draft Checklist. I will not grade your essay until you do this. It will have you use this MLA Format Template: MLA Template – Google Doc (Links to an external site.)
You may upload your assignment as a Word document or a PDF. If using Google Docs, you cannot share the file with Canvas–you have to download it as a .docx to your machine and then upload it. If uploading is not working, you can copy and paste the text into the box below.
The Canvas Student Guide provides instructions for submitting an online AssignmentLinks to an external site..
MLA resources:
Here’s a video about why and how to cite use MLA format to cite sources:
Google Docs has a feature for citing sources and creating a Works Cited page. There are instructions in the top module in Canvas.
Assignment Rubric
The rubric below will be applied when your assignment is graded. If you’re reviewing this assignment using the Canvas mobile app, the rubric is included in the Grade tab.
Rubric
Eng 1B Rubric (1) (1)
Eng 1B Rubric (1) (1)
Criteria Ratings
This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeAnalysis
How well does the writer go beyond describing and summarizing the text to explain the meaning? The writer should do this often, especially in the thesis statement, in topic sentences in the body paragraphs, and after quotes and summaries . How interesting is the theory the writer is applying to the texts? How often do they return to it in the body?
Excellent
Good Enough
Not passing
This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeSupporting evidence
How well did the writer select quotes and summaries to prove their theory about the meaning? Is there enough proof? Are the quotes and summaries concise–only long enough to prove the theory?
Excellent
Good enough
Not passing
This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeOrganization
Did the writer follow a clear and logical order of ideas? Does the writer use topic sentences to refer back to the thesis enough? Are there distraction side points that do not fit the theory?
Excellent
Good enough
Not passing
This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeStyle, grammar, and citation
Were the sentences clear and easy to understand? Were there distracting grammatical issues? Was the style of writing pleasurable to read, with a good flow, variety of sentence structure, and well-chosen words? Were the quotes and summaries cited with the author’s name and a page number? Did the Works Cited page follow MLA format?
Excellent
Good enough
Not passing
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Essay checklist
Final Draft Checklist to Improve Your Grade
I used the MLA template that I downloaded from the essay assignment page to correctly format my essay (with no extra spaces between the paragraphs or before/after the title). My Works Cited page totally meets 2016 MLA format as shown in the template. I have a title.
My thesis statement directly answers the question I chose. It mentions something about the text in it (the author, character(s), or a scene). It is an arguable insight about the meaning of the text—something a reasonable reader could disagree with—and not a fact about the text, like a summary of the plot.
I have quoted or directly summarized moments in the texts to prove my insights. The summaries are as short as possible to show the point I am making, and I do not needlessly retell the plot. When citing these, I need this at the end of the sentence: (Shakespeare 13). If there’s no page number because you used an online version, not the Course Reader, just use the name.
I have discussed the meaning of those quotes and summaries for a few sentences after I gave them. In other words, I didn’t drop in quotes and then run off to another topic.
If I have used the ideas or words of any outside sources (direct quotes or summaries),. I have cited the author when I did. If there was no author, I cited the title of the article, like this: (“Bartleby the Question Mark”). I also listed the relevant information in the Works Cited page. If I use the words or ideas of another author and fail to cite him/her, I am plagiarizing, the penalty for which is a zero for the essay.
My topic sentences give an insight about meaning to prove in the paragraph, not a fact about the plot. These insights connect to my thesis idea. The rest of my paragraph supports this insight, not going off on tangents.
I avoided using the second person pronoun (“you know how you expect your daughter to be…”, “imagine you are standing on the corner…”). Academic writing almost never uses it—first person pronouns are acceptable if not distracting from the topic of the essay.
I have proofread at least three times and fixed grammar errors. (Try Grammarly.com too!) I am absolutely sure the first sentence of my essay is free of errors. I have been as concise as possible, taking out all unneeded words, sentences, paragraphs, and sections.
I put each publication title (newspaper, website) I mention in italics, for example: New York Times. I put each poem or short story title in “quotation marks,” like this: “Corner.”
I have at least one paragraph before the conclusion where I step back from individual quotes and scenes to look at the texts as a whole, investigating what I think the authors’ messages are about the topic I chose.
For all quotes longer than forty words, I have made them into a block quote:
I have indented them ten spaces (two tabs from the left margin, keeping the right margin the same. I have double spaced this, like the rest of my essay. I have not used quotation marks, and I put the citation outside the final period, like this. (Keast)
