Of Mice and Men
9th Grade Language Arts
Mrs. Douthit
Name: __________________________
Day & Period: ___________________
DUE: Wednesday, January 7th
Literary Analysis Essay
Directions: Please write a formal, academic, literary analysis essay answering one of the prompts
below. This essay is a final assessment or unit test designed to provide you with an opportunity to
demonstrate your mastery of the learning goals for this novel unit:
1. I am developing my reading comprehension skills by practicing active reading strategies
when we read.
2. I can identify and explain characterization and how it helps communicate a theme.
3. I can use “quote sandwiches” and correctly cited textual evidence to support inferences
about characterization.
4. I can write a formal, clearly organized, well supported, compare/contrast essay.
Tier A (Honors)
Write a formal, academic essay
comparing (and contrasting)
two personality traits between
two characters in an Honors
novel (Animal Farm, Bean Trees,
or the Good Earth) and Of Mice
and Men and analyze how that
helps communicate theme.
Tier B
Write a formal, academic essay
comparing (and contrasting)
two personality traits between
two characters in Of Mice and
Men and analyze how that
helps communicate theme.
Tier C
Write a formal, expository or
literary essay about two
personality traits of a character
in Of Mice and Men and analyze
how that helps communicate
theme.
Please include the following when turning in the final draft of this essay:
______ 1. Brainstorming Sheet – Venn diagram for compare/contrast
______ 2. Outline – proof of planning before writing
______ 3. Prewrite – complete “quote sandwich” & body paragraphs worksheets
______ 4. Rough Draft – should include Introduction and Conclusion Paragraphs and must be
proofread by someone else.
______ 5. Final Draft – should be written in formal voice, be 2 - 4 pages in length, typed, doublespaced, and formatted according to MLA style guidelines.