Essay 2: Critical Literary Analysis, 925 words, double spaced
For this assignment, you will need to be familiar with the literary terms (see LO: 9-13) and the in-class PowerPoint (see
online syllabus, try the 3 Eyed Monster rather than the Disney one). You will have to delve further into the piece than
your Reader Responses.
Prompt: In her 1964 essay, “Against Interpretation,” Susan Sontag writes: “Real art has the capacity to make us nervous.”
Of the authors we have read, choose a short story (or two with a common literary element like a theme). How does the
author use the other elements to demonstrate the theme they are exploring? Then, think about what might make a
reader nervous? Think about writers who succeed in telling stories that are likely to unsettle readers, to shake them from
their preconceived notions, to uncover an experience that they might not otherwise see. Please write a formal essay in
which you compare and contrast the way the two writers you chose from the text or syllabus use narrative forms to shape
their stories and develop their themes or ideas and their characters. Feel free to choose any combination of stories we
discussed. At least one story must be from the ones we read or will read, and the other story may be one we have not, so
long as it is in the textbook. You can get a copy of the textbook at the reference desk in the library!
(See list below with a few extra unread ones)
Be sure to focus your argument with a strong, clear thesis, and support your claim with ample evidence from the fiction.
It will be impossible to get an “A” without using quotes from the primary sources (i.e. the stories) to support your point
and claims. You will also need to use at least one secondary source and put it in MLA format.
In this essay you will combine your skills in observation and analysis in order to support a clear and argumentative thesis
about the connections within a work of literature that you have chosen to discuss (you may choose two works of
literature around a common literary element if you feel you cannot meet the word count!). As with any analysis, this
requires you to break the subject down into its component parts (try annotating while you are reading). Examining the
different elements of a piece of literature is not an end in itself but rather a process to help you better appreciate and
understand the work of literature as a whole. Analyzing short stories might include identifying a particular theme (like the
difficulty of making the transition from adolescence to adulthood) and showing how the writer suggests that theme
through the point of view from which the story is told, or maybe you might explain how the main character’s attitude
toward women is revealed through his dialogue and/or
actions.
The purpose of this paper is not simply to tell your reader how the styles and concerns of the writer are the same or
different from your own. Instead, your synthesis will explain and illuminate the literary text by almost talking to and
responding to the texts. Think about the writer’s purpose, the imagery, characters, settings, themes, tone and writing
styles as you evaluate. Consider what one can learn from looking at this text. How have the characters changed and
developed, if at all? How was the plot developed and resolved from the story’s conflict(s)? What effects do this
character’s actions have on the lives of other characters? Use passages and quotations from both texts to support your
assertions. What causes this character to change?
HOW TO WRITE A LITERARY ANALYSIS ESSAY
PLEASE NOTE: THE BEST PLACE TO PUT YOUR THESIS STATEMENT IS AT THE END OF YOUR INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH.
Stay in present tense.
The Introduction
The introduction to your literary analysis essay should try to arouse interest in your reader. To bring immediate focus to
your subject, you may want to use a quotation, a provocative question, a personal anecdote, a startling statement, or a
combination of these. You may also want to include background information relevant to your thesis and necessary for the
reader to understand the position you are taking.
In addition, you need to include the title of the work of literature and name of the author. The following are satisfactory
introductory paragraphs which include appropriate thesis statements:
A. What would you expect to be the personality of a man who has his wife sent away to a convent (or perhaps has had
her murdered) because she took too much pleasure in the sunset and in a compliment paid to her by another man? It is
just such a man – a Renaissance duke -- that Robert Browning portrays in his poem “My Last Duchess.”
Through what he says about himself, through his actions, and through his interpretation of earlier incidents, the Duke
reveals the arrogance, jealousy, and materialism that are his most conspicuous traits.
B. The first paragraph of Alberto Alvaro Rios’s short story “The Secret Lion” presents a twelve-year-old boy’s view of
growing up -- everything changes. As the narrator tells us, when the magician pulls a tablecloth out from under a pile of
dishes, children are amazed at the “stay-the-same part,” while adults focus only on the tablecloth itself (42). Adults have
the benefit of experience and know the trick will work as long as the technique is correct. When we “grow up” we gain
this experience and knowledge, but we lose our innocence and sense of wonder. In other words, the price we pay for
growing up is a permanent sense of loss. This tradeoff is central to “The Secret Lion.” The key symbols in the story
reinforce its main theme: change is inevitable and always accompanied by a sense of loss.
C. The setting of John Updike’s story “A & P” is crucial to our understanding of Sammy’s decision to quit his job. Even
though Sammy knows that his quitting will make life more difficult for him, he instinctively insists upon rejecting what the
A & P represents in the story. When he rings up a “No Sale” and “saunter[s]” out of the store, Sammy leaves behind not
only a job but the rigid state of mind associated with the A & P. Although Sammy is the central character in the story and
we learn much about him, Updike seems to invest as much effort in describing the setting as he does Sammy. The title,
after all, is not “Youthful Rebellion” or “Sammy Quits” but “A & P.” In fact, the setting is the antagonist of the story and
plays a role that is as important as Sammy’s.
The Conclusion
Your literary analysis essay should have a concluding paragraph that gives your essay a sense of completeness and lets
your readers know that they have come to the end of your paper. Your concluding paragraph might restate the thesis in
different words, summarize the main points you have made, or make a relevant comment about the literary work you are
analyzing, but from a different perspective. Do not introduce a new topic in your conclusion. Below is the concluding
paragraph from the essay already quoted above (A) about Browning's poem "My Last Duchess":
If the Duke has any redeeming qualities, they fail to appear in the poem. Browning's emphasis on the Duke's traits of
arrogance, jealousy, and materialism make it apparent that anyone who might have known the Duke personally would
have based his opinion of him on these three personality "flaws." Ultimately, our opinion of the Duke is not a favorable
one, and it is clear that Browning meant us to feel this way.
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Story List: (note—you may not use any stories you used previously in 1101! Also, it is superbly easy to find papers on
these stories on the Web, so don’t risk expulsion by using them in whole or in part not that I think anyone really will…)
Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro
Tim O’Brien (you can choose any
of the three within the textbook)
John Updike, Clarke, Chekhov
Lahiri, Bram Stoker, Bell
Lisa Goldstein, Ron Carlson
Alice Walker
P. K. Dick, Dahl, Jack London
Barthelme, Czyniejewski
Toni Cade Bambara
Ray Bradbury “The Veldt”
F. Scott Fitzgerald “Curious Case
of Benjamin Button”
Bierce “An Occurrence at Owl
Creek Bridge”