Comparative Analysis Essay (5-7pp)
Due 4/23
For this essay, you will compare two texts we’ve read together in class. (You can’t
write about the text you wrote about for Essay 1 but other than that, anything goes,
including something you wrote about in a response paper).
The comparison needs to do two main things: it needs to have a thesis (an
argument) and it needs to prove that thesis by doing careful analysis and closereading of the texts.
Some things to consider:
You will compare the two texts on the basis of something they share (otherwise why
would they be in the same essay?) but you should also make sure that they have
enough that’s different, enough that you can sink your teeth into.
So, choosing what two things you’re going to compare is the trickiest part in some
ways. If you choose things that are too similar, you’ll get stuck with not enough to
say about what’s interesting about the comparison. If you choose things that are too
different, it might be hard to show why they belong in the same essay.
Keep in mind: the argument will work best if you’re pointing out something that’s
unexpected, hard to notice at first, or that requires closer looking. So, often
doing/saying something unexpected (bringing together two very different texts, or
showing a similarity between characters that seem very different on the surface,
etc.) creates some nice tension that you can build a thesis out of.
For example (taking two different things and comparing them): Although Bart
Simpson and Barack Obama couldn’t be more different – one is a fictional character,
one is a real person; one is a young boy who rejects authority figures, the other is
the President of the United States of America – they are also surprisingly quite
similar in that they both xyz.
Or for example: Woman A and Woman B, in the books A and B, are both depicted as
weak and passive, but whereas Woman A is depicted as a tragic character, Woman B
is a laughable character, mocked by the narrator and by the other characters, and
from this it is clear that feminism, while important to the author of Book A, is not at
all important to the author of Book B.
Using the handout I gave you early in the semester on How to Read Literature will
help you here, not just with coming up with things you can compare, but also in
thinking of ways to describe the comparison.
A few words about what makes a good thesis:
A thesis has to make a claim that is arguable. “Summer in New York is hot” is not a
thesis, it is simply a statement of fact.
The thesis for a comparison paper has to incorporate both texts. The argument
needs to be about the way these two texts exist in tension/relation to one another.
The thesis cannot just be about one of the texts.
The thesis for a comparison paper should make an argument precisely about what is
interesting about drawing these two texts into dialogue. By the end of your paper,
the reader should not be asking, “so what?”
Strategies for getting started:
*Brainstorm. What texts did you enjoy most? Why? Writing style? Themes? Topics?
*Think about the style/theme/topic that interested you. Where else do you see it in
other texts?
*Start drawing up lists of comparisons/contrasts. Start drawing diagrams on
how/why they relate.
*Go back and read the texts again. Do not skip this step.
Dos and Don’ts
*Avoid comparing plots. If the thing that is similar is that both stories involve a
person walking for long distances, that’s not enough.
*Avoid plot summary. A quick sentence can do the job of setting up your context.
There is never any need for more.
*Avoid author biography or too much external research on history, custom, etc. Like
paper 1, this should primarily be about analysis and close-reading of text.
*Avoid overly long quotations. Choose the most important parts and then analyze
them fully.
*Do title your essay. Do this as a final (or almost final) step once you have a sense of
what your essay is about. Think of a title that encapsulates the whole paper. What is
your paper about? Titling your paper (or finding that you can’t) might make you
realize you don’t know what the paper is about. If this is the case, revise!
*Do underline or italicize names of longer texts, and put poems or short story titles
in quotation marks.
*Do use the present tense when talking about a text. This is called the historical
present (or the narrative present). It is custom to describe the action in a poem or
story or play as if it is happening now. (It’s always happening now because it never
actually happened, and also because for whoever is reading it, it is happening now.)