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Essay Two Assignment Oct 2024

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12 views3 pages

Essay Two Assignment Oct 2024

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joe.salas84
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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LIT 100 Introduction to Literature October 2024

Essay Two Assignment

Write an essay of 750-1000 words in response to one of the topics below. (If you would like to
create a topic of your own, check with me first.) Your essay should have a clearly stated thesis
and should refer to specific passages from the text (and incorporate them in the form of
quotations) as evidence to support your claims. Consider your audience for the paper to be
other students in the class—in other words, people who have read the texts but may not have
thought about it as carefully as you have.

Because your reader has recently read the poems or play, you don’t need to summarize them.
Where necessary, you should quote passages, but try to keep your quotations as brief as
possible, quoting only those words necessary to your argument. You should use quotes only
when the exact wording is important to your argument or to remind the reader of a detail
he/she might not remember. Don’t overquote to pad the paper.

You’re welcome to use outside sources if they help your argument, but it’s not required or even
necessarily recommended. I’m most concerned to see that you can use carefully chosen textual
evidence to make a coherent and interesting interpretation of the text(s).

Note that, while you’re not revising earlier material, I will be looking for—and will reward—
improvement in this paper compared to the first one. This could include improvement based
on my feedback on the first essay.

Option 1: Write an essay in which you analyze either Shelley’s “Ode to the West Wind” (964-
966) or Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan” (packet) in detail. Don’t feel that you have to explicate the
poem in its entirety. Rather, I suggest you focus on a handful (maybe three or four) key poetic
features and how they contribute to the meaning of the poem. For example, you may want to
discuss key images, metaphors, word choices, imagery, or the structure of the poem. (There are
certainty other possibilities.) Also, note that these are both Romantic poems, and you may
want to discuss how they reflect Romantic ideas. (See the introduction to Romanticism videos
in Week Three and feel free to consult outside sources.)

Option 2: Read all the poems in our textbook by Shakespeare, W.B. Yeats, Emily Dickinson, Pat
Mora, OR Adriene Rich. Write an essay in which you discuss common themes in the poems by
one of these authors and how the author conveys those themes in different poems. Don’t feel
that you necessarily have to discuss every poem by the author, but you should discuss at least
three or four. [Note: this topic requires you to read poems not on the syllabus. Check the
“Index of Authors” on page A45 near the end of the book to find all poems by an author; they
aren’t always together.]

Option 3: Read all the Harlem Renaissance poems on pages 1094-1102. Write an essay in which
you discuss common themes in the poems and how the authors convey those themes in
different poems. Don’t feel that you necessarily have to discuss every poem, but you should
discuss at least three or four. You may want to read and perhaps refer to the contextual
material on pages 1089-1094, the “Contextual Excerpts” on pages 1102-1119, or both. [Note
that this topic requires you to read poems not on the syllabus.]

Option 4: A Raisin in the Sun takes its title from Langston Hughes’s poem “Harlem,” which
begins with the question: “What happens to a dream deferred?” Write an essay in which you
discuss the “dreams” of various charters (such as Walter, Mama, Beneatha, Asagai). How do
these dreams come into conflict? Does Hansberry seem to approve of any of these dreams
more than others? Does the play answering Hughes’s question? If so, how? It might be worth
looking at the rest of the poem to help you answer this question. (The poem is quoted in full at
the beginning of the play on 1555.)

Option 5: Write an essay exploring the psychological and emotional effects of racism and
discrimination as shown in A Raisin in the Sun. You will need to discuss how multiple
characters—and perhaps their relationships—are affected.

Option 6: Write an essay in which you discuss the role of gender in A Raisin in the Sun. Be sure
to discuss the relationship between Ruth and Walter and the one between Beneatha and
Asagai, though Mama’s role as head of the family might also be worth analyzing in this context.
The piece by Weaver in your textbook (1636-1640) contains some material that might be
relevant to this discussion.

Writing About Literature


The essays you write in literature courses attempt to answer interesting questions about works
of literature. These questions are interesting for at least two reasons: a) their answers are not
obvious, and b) their answers (or at least the attempt to answer them) can enrich other
readers’ understanding and experience of those works of literature. In short, you should strive
to make your essays interesting to a reader who is familiar with the stories by making non-
obvious points and offering insights can enrich the reader’s understanding of the story.

Note that your textbook provides a very useful and detailed discussion of writing about
literature starting on page 1994.

Additional Information and Expectations


• For this assignment, I want to see your own interpretations of the stories. You can use
secondary sources if they’re helpful, but it’s not required.
• Remember that your interpretations must be supported with evidence from the text in
the form of specific details, paraphrase, or quotations.
• Make sure to integrate quoted and paraphrased material effectively; see a writing
handbook or the Purdue OWL website for help.
• Format your paper according to MLA conventions; include in-text parenthetical citations
to show where your quotations and other evidence come from. Include a works cited
list, though it will likely only include the story or stories you discuss.
• Your first paragraph should end with a clear, analytical (rather than descriptive) thesis.
In other words, you need to make an insightful, non-obvious point about the text(s).
• Your writing should be clear, direct, and free of errors. Proofread carefully. Make sure
your paragraphs are unified and coherent and have clear topic sentences.
• Don’t pad your paper in any way. Make sure everything you write is essential to your
argument about the text and write as clearly and concisely as possible.

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