The Literary Analysis essay 15%, 950 words, 4 sources, double spaced
 Show how authors are using the literary elements to reveal something.

Focus on how the authors are doing something and why.

Your purpose in writing such an essay will be informational not judgmental . Use third person to explain what is happening and what the authors are illustrating. No room for opinions!
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Follow M.E.A.L. or 3-I plan!
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Briefly summarize the two plots in paragraph after intro.
 Don’t forget a hook, background info, and a thesis that is not vague and previews the paper!
As in other essays, your thesis statement should tell your readers what to expect in your essay and your purpose.
Think of a thesis as a small outline that tells the reader what is coming up, like a preview at the movies, except this is outlining the upcoming topic sentences. It should mention not only the subjects (i.e. the authors and essay or story names) but also the point the essay is making
YOU PICK AN ELEMENT OF FICTION TO WRITE ABOUT on TWO STORIES from these topics
Pick two stories for your literary analysis and center it on one or more literary elements.
1.
How do Truman Capote in “A Christmas Memory” and Mayes (first chapter of Under the Tuscan Sun ) or Amy Tan in “Heart” use vivid sensory details (style) to strengthen their story? What are Mayes and Capote and Tan trying to show about their character’s feelings and state of mind through their use of metaphor and style?
2.
Explain and examine the theme in both Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” to Amy Tan’s stories, like “Young Girl’s
Wish”.
3.
Explain and examine Didion’s theme with Capote’s. These two writers are part of a group of writers who established themselves as being different from the rest. Can you see how their style makes them stand out
4.
Explain and examine the theme of power in two of the following stories: “A&P” (Updike), or “House Goes Up”
(Carlson), or “A Good Man is Hard to Find” (O’Connor).
5.
Explain and examine the theme of vulnerability and how it is portrayed by the authors in two of the following stories: Amy Tan (“Young Gir’s Wish” or “Heart”), Sandra Cisneros (“Eleven” or “Bread”), or Tim O’Brien (“On
Rainy River” or “Man I Killed”).
6.
Explain and examine the theme of mortality or the theme of guilt found in the following stories: Orwell’s “The
Hanging”, or O’Brien’s “On Rainy River”, or Poe’s “Tell-tale Heart”.
7.
Explain and examine the setting of rural life in “Everyday Use” with that of Zora Neale Hurston’s “The
Gilded Six-Bits.”
8.
Explain and examine the themes of love, betrayal, and forgiveness in Lahiri’s “Temporary Matter” with
Hurston’s “The Gilded Six-Bits”.
9.
Explain and examine the use of epiphany in two of the following stories: the main character in Updike’s
“A&P”, Louise Mallard in “The Story of an Hour”, the narrator in Carver’s “Cathedral”, or the

grandmother in “A Good Man is hard to Find”. {If you really need more to write on, focus on what this says/shows about these characters – use the six clues to characterization.}
10.
Explain and examine the gothic elements of style and setting in O’Connor’s ”A Good Man is Hard to
Find” with one of the three Poe stories or the story by Joyce Carol Oates.
11.
Explain and examine the character of Connie from “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” with other young woman who seem discontented (theme and character) like Dee in Walker’s “Everyday
Use.”
12.
Explain and examine the theme of communication (or lack of) in Butler’s “In Jealous Husband Returns in
Form of Parrot” to Lahiri’s “A Temporary Matter”.
13.
Explain and examine the marriage and the characters in two of the following stories: Mr. and Mrs. Das in
Lahiri’s “Interpreter of Maladies”, the marriages depicted in Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”, or the marriage shown “A Temporary Matter”, or the marriage revealed in Gilman’s “Yellow Wallpaper.”
14.
Explain and examine the use of symbolism and what it reveals about the theme or about the characters in a story of your choosing from the Story Page.
Dirty Secret
I let you in on a dirty little secret about how professors grade papers : we usually know by the end of the first page or so what the grade is going to be. Yeah, occasionally we're surprised and the initial grade goes up or down depending on the rest of the paper — but I can usually guess, to within half a grade, what a paper is going to earn by the time I've turned from page one to page two. This means your opening has to work hard to convince me to give you a good grade. If you waste your opening on generalities and inanities, I'm predisposed to grade you harshly, and you have to work twice as hard to convince me you deserve better. So make those opening paragraphs do real work—this is why we did the hard definition essay first! The first paragraph (ie opening) tells me all I need to know about what the grade will be, and yes, I have a rubric to keep me ‘honest’, but I am only seldom wrong about this. Why? Think about how many papers I have read on these topics after a decade of assigning these topics!? So polish the beginning and make your essay different from the numerous others, and try to resist taking the slippery slope of temptation that begins with cheating!
The heart of a good English paper is its thesis , the main argument it makes. If yours is weak, you won't get an A — that simple.
Bad thesis examples: http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/EngPaper/badthesis.html
5 Looks at a thesis: http://www.math.grinnell.edu/~simpsone/Teaching/fiveways.html
Sample Introductions: http://www.english.upenn.edu/Grad/Teachweb/kmthesis.html
Ugh, the Dreaded Research
This essay requires secondary research: you should use GALILEO to find two scholarly sources to include in your discussion. You will want to use the MLA database. To get there, go to Gordon's web page. Then, follow this trail:
My Gordon > Library Online Resources > GALILEO > Databases A-Z > M > MLA International Bibliography.
Please do not limit your research to what is available in full text, for the Hightower library has many resources available both in print and on microfilm.

A subject search in the GIL catalog under the author's name will also produce results. From the Hightower Library site, follow this trail: GIL Catalog > Exact Search > Subject Heading. Type in the author's name in this format: Last
Name, First Name. Look at the list for "Criticism and Interpretation" to find books our library holds.
DO NOT USE THE INTERNET TO FIND SCHOLARLY SOURCES . (GALILEO is an online database that leads to scholarly journal articles.)
The works cited page should, therefore, have four entries: the two stories and the two scholarly sources. Why?
Because you need approx. 2 primary sources directly from the stories AND you also need approx. 2 secondary sources for a total of 4 min. in order to successfully pass this essay assignment and a work cited
(see sample at end of this document)!
How To Really F@#% This Up
Here is how to really blow this semester to smithereens: turn your essay in late and lose easy points, forget about the literary element and lose easy points, forget about the secondary sources and lose easy points, do less than the min word requirement and lose easy points, buy an essay or turn in plagiarized work and lose a ton of easy points, and finally, start at the last possible minute and turn in something barely worthy of t.p. status!
Two Structure Types for Paper
After you have formulated your thesis statement, established your basis of comparison, and selected your points for discussion, you are ready to organize your paper. Like other types of essay writing, there is an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Within the body paragraphs, however, there are two basic patterns you can follow:
Type 1: Subject-by-Subject or “Block” (all apples in one section or paragraph and all oranges in the next section or paragraph— longer paragraphs)
When you organize by subject-by-subject, you are discussing each subject separately, but in each case, you use the same basis of comparison to select your points, and you arrange these points in the same order. Usually you present points in order of increasing significance to hold your readers' interest. This is often used for short papers.
In longer papers, where many points are made about each subject, this organizational pattern can put too many demands upon your readers, requiring them to remember all your points throughout your paper. In addition, because of the size of each section, your paper may sound like two separate essays weakly connected by a transitional phrase.
Type 2: Point-by-Point (both apples and oranges in each paragraph, organized by the points or characteristics— shorter paragraphs)
When you use point-by-point, your paper is organized differently. Paragraph by paragraph, you first make a point about one subject, and then follow it with a comparable point about the other. This alternating pattern continues throughout the body of your essay. Point-by-point works best for long papers because your readers can follow more easily as they go along. However, it is sometimes easy to fall into a pattern of monotonous, back-andforth sentences when writing point-by-point. To avoid this, try to vary the length and structure (see Xerox with woman pointing her finger and transitions (RG 143) as you move from point to point.
Sample Introductions
Here is a sample introduction from Andie Howard, a nursing student, who wrote an essay based on Cisneros’
“Bread”, but note the poor hook:
What can a reader say about Sandra Cisneros’ short story “Bread”? the story is extremely short, under twenty sentences, and many of those are fragments. The plot can be summarized as a man and a woman ride through a city eating bread. The point of view is first person, the woman’s perspective. Despite the story’s brevity,

it is powerful, and it is made even more meaningful because of the bread. For some readers, the bread is a narrative detail that adds to the setting. Such a reading is certainly valid: the bread imagery is so vivid that readers can almost smell and taste it. Perhaps there is even more significance to the bread. Cisneros did choose the word to be her title.
In this very short, short story, the bread represents the nature of the extramarital relationship between the man and woman, one which seems to fill a unger but is ultimately unsatisfying.
Here is a better sample introduction with part of paragraph two (the summary of the plots) from S. C. Vital Speed, a student at another university, who wrote about the theme of Didion and compared it to White:
Amid the beautiful but complex path toward self-realization and acceptance that we call life , there comes a certain time in which people find themselves accosted by an internal conflict, whether it may be an external plight or simply mid-life crisis. As people age, they start dwelling on their past and become uneasy with themselves with the realization that their familiar and comfortable past is not their present. Some cope with this by facing reality and coming to terms with the present and accepting it, while others cling to the past and let it consume their lives until their cycle is over. This is the theme that unifies the two short stories of “On going home” by Joan Didion, and
“Once More to the Lake” by E.B. White.
On Going Home” expresses strong value towards her past childhood family life and her presently new family life, and tries to unite the two. She begins the story by saying what "home" means to her, and states that her home is not the “ house in Los Angeles where my husband and I and the baby live, but the place where my family is, in Central Valley of California” (1419). In opening the story this way, Joan is hinting to the reader that she is uneasy with the difference between them both. She continues on to describe her husband and how he is troubled to be with her family in her “home” because she turns into a different person around her family. It becomes obvious her husband was raised differently and doesn’t like it when his wife falls into the ways of her family, “which are difficult, deliberately inarticulate” (1419).
Sample Outline:
I Intro a.
mention author, two stories or essays, and literary element
II BRIEF summary of plots a.
write about literature in present tense as if it is still alive b.
hit only the highlights, the main points c.
be brief and to the point
III, IV, V Points of comparison (Point by Point Method and if subject by subject method then you will have either two big paragraph blocks or maybe four) a.
include quotes from primary sources (stories or essays) b.
include quotes from secondary sources (articles about stories and essays and authors) c.
Remember MEAL plan (see below) d.
connect points together, support by examples and quotations
Conclusion a.
Remember the different conclusion types! b.
Purpose in picking these stories c.
your opinion on them d.
would you recommend them?
MEAL Plan review
Paragraphs are unified by following the MEAL plan and exhibiting sentence continuity.
Unified paragraphs must contain four elements.


M ain point (stated somewhere in the first three sentences of your paragraph, sometimes in a topic sentence)

E vidence (this is a statement of what you need to prove your point, such as a reference to a secondary
 source or an example from your primary text)

A nalysis (this is where you elaborate on your evidence by using textual evidence such as quotes or paraphrases, specific examples of your evidence, etc. )
L ink (Use the closing sentence of your paragraph to “wrap things up” by linking your analysis back to either the main point of your paragraph or the thesis of your paper.)
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Paragraphs are unified through sentence continuity
(i.e., the proper “flow” of ideas from one sentence to the next).
Sample Works Cited


Davis, Carol. In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard UP, 1982. Print.

Friedman, Thomas and Harry T. Logan. Downtown: Researching America’s Cities. Boston: Little Brown,
1993. Print.
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Gardner, Howard. Life in the Military. New York: Pendant Publishing, 1990. Print.

---. The Quest for the Military Warrior. Boston: Harvard UP, 1992. Print.
 Hamilton, Calvin J. “Components of Comets.” Space Art. 13 Dec. 1999. Web. 23 May 2006.
 Lever, Janet. “Sex Differences in the Games Children Play.” Social Problems 23.1 (1976): 478-87. Print.

Lopez, Robert S., et al. Civilizations: Western and World. Boston: Little Brown, 1975. Print.

Melville, Edith. “The Connection--Guns and Crime.” Controversial Topics: Gun Control. Ed. Roy B.
Plaser. New York: Random House, 1988. 130-137. Print.
 Parrish, Sarah. “Living with AIDS.” Newsweek 11 Oct. 1998: 101-104. Print.
 “The Right to Die.” Time 7 July 1994: 23-25. Print.
 Wise, Kenneth. “Free-Press Disputes.” The CQ Researcher Online. Web. 13 April 2005.
 Ziegler, Terry. “The Future of America’s Stockmarket.” Chicago Tribune Online. 15 Oct. 1996. 29 Oct.
1996 <http://www.chicagotribune.com>.
 Zinman, Sarah. “The Debate over School Prayer.” Educational Journal 35.4 (2004). Academic Search
Premier. Web. 12 April 2005.

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Works Cited Cheat Sheet
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Centered horizontally ; Initial caps only ; No bold, underline, italics, or quotation marks
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Book (one author) ( see Davis)
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Last name, First name. Title of the Book (initial caps only). City: Company, year. Print.
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Two authors ( see Friedman and Logan)
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Last name, First name, and First name Last name. ( and continue entry as usual )
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No author(s) ( see “The Right to Die”)
 Skip author’s name and begin entry with title (also alphabetize according to title)
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Selection from a Book (edited text or anthology) ( see Melville)
 Last name, First name (Article author’s name). “Title of Article.” Title of the Book (initial caps
 only). Ed. First Last (editor’s name). City: Company, year. pages. Print.
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Selection from a Popular (Newstand) Journal ( see Parrish)
 Last name, First name (Article author’s name). “Title of Article.” Title of the Journal (initial caps
 only) Date: pages. Print.
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Selection from a Scholarly or Professional Journal ( see Lever)
 Last name, First name (Article author’s name). “Title of Article.” Title of the Journal (initial caps
 only) Volume.issue (year): pages. Print.
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Personal or Professional Website ( see Hamilton)
Last name, First name (Article author’s name). “Title of Article.” Title of the Website (or sponsor, or organization) (initial caps only). Date posted (or updated, or edited) (if available).
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Web. Date accessed. <Complete URL is optional>.
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Online Database of previously published material (i.e., Ebsco) ( see Zinman)
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Complete original publication information. Online publication information. That is:
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 Last name, First name (Article author’s name). “Title of Article.” Title of the Journal (initial caps only). Volume.issue (year): pages. Database Name. Web. Date accessed.
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Online Database or Scholarly/Professional Journal (i.e., CQ Researcher Online) ( see Wise)
 Last name, First name (Article author’s name). “Title of Article.” Title of the Online

Database/Journal (initial caps only). Volume.issue (year). Web. Date accessed.

Online Popular (newsstand) Journal (i.e., Chicago Tribune Online) ( see Ziegler)
 Last name, First name (Article author’s name). “Title of Article.” Title of the Online Journal (initial caps only). Date posted. Web. Date accessed.