ENG 151
SPRING 2010
ASSIGNMENT: ESSAY #1: AN ANALYSIS OF THEME
(NO OUTSIDE SOURCES ARE REQUIRED)
LENGTH: 2–3 PAGES
For this essay, you will analyze one of the short stories on our syllabus in order to illustrate how a
Specific Theme is developed in that short story. Together with your final draft, you will submit an
annotated copy of your chosen story, an outline of your essay, a rough draft, and a self-evaluation of
the writing process (the latter you will write in class). No outside sources are required for this
assignment, although you may consult critical interpretations of your short story. If you do so, you
must cite all sources and include the article(s) on your Works Cited page.
You will discover your interpretation of your chosen story’s theme by analyzing the story’s dominant
literary elements. In presenting evidence for your interpretation, you will focus on the three most
relevant literary elements. Incorporate quotations from and paraphrases of the short story to support
your ideas, citing all literary evidence with parenthetical in-text citations in MLA style.
Please remember that theme is NOT plot; NEITHER is it the topic or subject of the story. Your task
is to arrive at an understanding of the author’s message by analyzing the story’s literary elements.
Your thesis will then assert that message, and your body paragraphs will provide evidence for your
understanding of how the message is revealed to the reader by the author. Think about the following:
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What is the dominant conflict, issue or question this story presents?
What adage, moral, or cliché (such as “appearances can be deceiving”) does the story illustrate?
How do certain passages point toward the theme?
How do literary elements such as title, dialogue, names, characters, actions, setting, description,
tone, point of view, symbols, etc., direct the reader to the author’s message?
How do repetitious words and/or images point toward the theme? In other words, how does the
author deliver his/her message? How have you, the reader, been able to determine the theme?
To review what is expected of you: Your introduction should introduce the story, its author and the
importance of its theme in a manner that grabs the attention of your reader. Your thesis should be a
finely crafted sentence asserting the theme of your story and incorporating in some way the “roadmap”
for your body paragraphs. Your body paragraphs should each begin with a carefully crafted topic
sentence and must contain specific supporting evidence for the theme you have chosen to illustrate.
Each body paragraph should focus on the importance of a particularly dominant literary element and
its connection to the theme you are illustrating. Evidence in your body paragraphs should consist of
quotations from the short story, each documented using MLA style. Your conclusion should explore
the ways in which the author’s message, your chosen theme, reinforces or challenges your observations
of life around you. This final paragraph must address the significance of the theme you have
illustrated and why it matters to a twenty-first century reader.
Cite short stories by page number, for example: (Greenberg 33). Your Works Cited page will contain
a single entry for the story you have analyzed, unless you have used outside source material. If so,
there should be an entry for each source you quoted or paraphrased in the writing of this essay.
The following is a list of possible thematic categories (subjects or topics) for your consideration.
This is not an exhaustive list, but merely a starting place. Remember that it is possible for each
of these general categories to embrace scores of themes:
Love
Self-actualization/Self-realization
Chaos/Disorder
Loyalty/Honesty/Integrity
Light vs. Darkness
Fate/Chance/Destiny
Parent/Child or Sibling Relationships
Marital Relationships
Revenge
Grief
Victimization
Appearance vs. Reality
Dilemmas of Conscience or Morality
The Supernatural
Public vs. Private Realms
Alienation
Some details of this assignment have been adapted from commentary in the Norton Introduction to
Literature: Instructor’s Guide for the Regular and Shorter Editions
The following are the Preliminary Research Exercises required for this assignment; due dates are as
noted in your Course Schedule:
Essay #1 Preliminary Research/Writing Exercises:
Annotated Copy of Short Story
5 Points
Topic Sentence Outline
10 Points
Preliminary Draft(s) of Essay # 1
10 Points
TOTAL POINTS
25