Ethan Frome Essays
Writing Workshop
Period 6
Monday, December 6, 2010
Examples
• Each slide features an example from a student
in this class.
• Let’s identify what we like about each
example.
• Let’s provide constructive criticism about what
can be improved in each example.
• Let’s check out my suggested revisions as we
prepare to make our own revisions.
Today’s Focus Areas
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Integrating quotes (within the flow of a sentence)
Integrating quotes (with an independent clause)
Integrating quotes (passive => active voice)
Verbs that show action (rather than state of being)
Some nice strong sentences
A nice strong introduction
Parallel construction
Finding places for quotes
Integrating Quotes
(within the flow of a sentence)
• For example after supper Ethan tried to find
ways to be close to Mattie, “the cat, who had
been a puzzled observer of these unusual
events, jumped up into Zeena’s chair, rolled
into a ball, and lay watching them with narrow
eyes” (Wharton 38).
Integrating Quotes
(within the flow of a sentence)
• As Ethan tries to find ways to be close to
Mattie after supper, “the cat, who had been a
puzzled observer of these unusual events,
jumped up into Zeena’s chair, rolled into a ball,
and lay watching them with narrow eyes”
(Wharton 38).
Integrating Quotes
(with an independent clause)
• Another quote is “They drew their seats up to
the table, and the cat, unbidden, jumped
between them into Zeena’s empty chair” (60).
• The cat does not only observe them, but also
actively positions itself to keep Ethan and
Mattie apart: “They drew their seats up to
the table, and the cat, unbidden, jumped
between them into Zeena’s empty chair” (60).
Integrating Quotes
(passive => active voice)
• First, in the beginning of the novel, outside of
the dance where Ethan waited for Mattie, she
is wearing a red scarf. It is said that, “she
looked so small and pinched, in her poor
dress, with the red scarf wound about her.”
(pg. 147)
Integrating Quotes
(passive => active voice)
• In the beginning of the novel, as Ethan waits
for Mattie outside of the dance, she wears a
red scarf: “she looked so small and pinched,
in her poor dress, with the red scarf wound
about her” (Wharton 147).
Verbs that show action
(rather than state of being)
• A reoccuring symbol that Wharton uses is the
Frome family’s cat.
• Wharton uses the recurrent symbol of the
Frome’s family cat to represent Ethan’s
nagging wife, Zeena.
Some nice strong sentences
• In Edith Wharton’s novel Ethan Frome, the
three main characters, Ethan Frome, his wife
Zeena, and their cousin Mattie, entangle
themselves in a love triangle.
• Her whole future is lost by her own naïveté
and he spontaneous decision to give up
everything for Ethan. (“give up” => “sacrifice”)
A Nice Strong Introduction
• In the Modernist novella Ethan Frome, Edith
Wharton uses symbolism to show the
relationship among the characters. A symbol is a
person, object, color or event that suggests more
than its literal meaning. Some of Wharton’s
metaphors include the Frome’s cat, Mattie’s
vibrant dress, and the pickle dish that Ethan and
Zeena received for a wedding present. The
setting itself is even an important symbol in the
work: the dreary nature of Starkfield, as decribed
in the prologue, sets a bleak tone for the entire
work.
Parallel Structure
• Throughout the novel Ethan plays between his
passion for Mattie often pondering her lips
and lashes and his loyalty to Zeena.
• Throughout the novel, Ethan vacillates
between his passion for Mattie and his loyalty
to Zeena: as Ethan ponders Mattie’s lips and
lashes, Zeena’s nagging presence haunts him.
Finding places for quotes
• The story begins and ends in Starkfield,
Massachusetts. The town itself is referred to
and described as a dark, gloomy, and cold
area, immediately setting the tone for the rest
of the story to follow.
• Can you end this independent clause in a
colon and find a great quote from the
prologue to SHOW your reader what you
mean?
Finding places for quotes
• For example, in the beginning there is a scene
in the book where Ethan is shaving. Then,
Zeena asks him why he is deciding all of a
sudden to shave every day.
• Can you find a quote from this scene to
illustrate what Zeena says to Ethan?
Peer Revision
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Essay Rubric
5 Stations
Goals
Quote Goal: one per paragraph!
Remember the quote sandwich!
This is probably the area where we most need
to work today.
• Don’t forget secondary source quotes.