A few notes for writing the “Cry Pretty” essay:
These are the correct punctuation for these title. Why?
“Cry Pretty”
“The Man of Adamant”
“The Black Cat”
“The Yellow Wallpaper”
Wieland, or the Transformation
Do not use any of the following in your formal writing. Why?
Don’t
Can’t
Wouldn’t
Didn’t
It’s
Stevie Smith is a WOMAN! Use SHE, not he!
When you quote from one of the authors, put his or her last name in parenthesis. If you
are quoting from one of the short stories, write a page number. For the poem, just put
Smith,
(Brown 12)
(Gilman 94)
(Smith)
If you are quoting from Smith’s poem, and you quote more than one line, lines of poetry
should be broken up with /.
For example: “Why is the world pretty so underrated? / In November the leaf is pretty
when it falls” (Smith).
Here are some sample thesis statements. Which ones seem to be working? Why?
Through examining Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Black Cat” and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The
Man of Adamant,” the authors demonstrate the idea that human nature is inescapable as
well as challenge Smith’s notion that it is truly “pretty.”
Although there are some differences between “Cry Pretty” and the short stories, the
works are all connected by the ideas that it is human nature to be aggressive predators
and that some people go through ife as one of those predators while others go through it
as pretty.
“Cry Pretty” is similar to “The Black Cat” and “The Man of Adamant” because they all
have a negative view of nature.
While “Cry Pretty” invokes themes of both negative and positive aspects of life, creating
a sense of balance, “The Black Cat” and “They Yellow Wall Paper” focus on the negative
aspects, revealing how humans can be dictated by individual morals. (thanks Wesley!)
Remember, YOU MUST INTEGRATE YOUR QUOTES. Which of these seem to be
working?
There is an example of this in the second stanza, “He stalks his pretty, and this is pretty
too” (Smith).
Wieland is told by God to kill his wife; he loves her with all his body and he actually tries
to restrain himself for his “heart was infirm and his “resolves mutable” (Brown 17).
The prey get hunted, “The pretty escapes with an underwater flash. But not for long, the
great has him now” (Smith).
Remember our JUMBO body paragraph? Good! Use it in writing this essay!
TOPIC SENTENCE: Write a general idea about human nature that is shown in both the
poem and the short story.
INTEGRATED QUOTE #1: set up a quote from the poem. Set it in context. Have your
evidence be one of the images or ideas from the poem such as the pike stalking or the
water rat that is torn between two worlds.
COMMENTARY #1: The reason why your evidence should be more than just a few
words from the poem is because you need to be able to say something about this
example. If you’re talking about the pike, how does the action of the pike inevitably
getting its pretty help to make your point? Write a couple of sentences that comment on
the specific example and make a larger point about human nature/theme.
INTEGRATED QUOTE #2: Set up a quote from the short story. Transition to explain
the title and author of the story you will be quoting from. Lead into the quote with a
short explanation of how that quote fits into the story.
COMMENTARY #2: Explain how this incident from the story shows a similar point
about human nature. Start by first commenting more directly on the example, and then
talking more generally about human nature.
CLINCHER: Sum up the overall point of the paragraph – your insight about human
nature that is shown in both the poem and the story.