Ethan Frome Essays
Writing Workshop
Period 2
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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Properly integrating quotes
Using third person (instead of first)
Formalizing diction
Solid introductory paragraphs
Solidly crafted sentences
Passive voice => Active voice
Properly Integrating Quotes
• Down the hill they went, prepared to die
together in the name of love. “It’s wanting for
us: it seems to know. But suddenly his wife’s
face, with twisted monstrous lineaments,
thrust itself between him and his goal, and he
made an instinctive movement to brush it
aside.” (pg. 1220).
Properly Integrating Quotes
• Down the hill they went, prepared to die
together in the name of love. But as Ethan
and Mattie approach the tree, a vision of
Zeena propels him to a moment of indecision:
“But suddenly his wife’s face, with twisted
monstrous lineaments, thrust itself between
him and his goal, and he made an instinctive
movement to brush it aside” (Wharton 120).
Properly Integrating Quotes
• Ethan yearns to escape Starkfield. When he
was younger , he hoped to leave his family
farm and work as an engineer in a large town.
• Can we find a quote (perhaps in chapter 4) to
support this?
• Then we can end the above independent
clause with a colon, and follow it with the
quote.
Using Third Person (instead of First)
• Considering Ethan represents her, Edith
Wharton wants us to feel sympathetic for
Ethan. I think it worked.
• As Ethan Frome represents Edith Wharton, the
author clearly strives for her readers to feel
sympathy for Ethan. She is successful in this
endeavor.
Using Third Person (Instead of First)
• The person in the story who I view as the
sympathetic one is Zeena.
• Ethan’s wife Zeena is the most sympathetic
character in the novel.
• OR…
• Ethan’s wife Zeena elicits the most sympathy
in the novel.
Formalizing Diction
• Edith Wharton is supposed to be Ethan in this
book.
• Wharton crafted Frome’s character to
represent herself – and her role in her own
dysfunctional marriage.
Solid Introductory Paragraph (1 of 2)
• Edith Wharton’s Modernist novella Ethan
Frome depicts a narcissistic and rather
unlikable character named Zeena. Zeena’s
story begins after she married Ethan Frome
and became severely sick. Zeena’s illness
throughout the story incapacitates her and
makes her completely dependent on her
husband Ethan and her cousin Mattie.
Solid Introductory Paragraph (2 of 2)
• In the end of the novella, when Zeena has to
care for Ethan and Mattie, her illness appears
to have vanished, leading the reader to
believe that her condition was nonexistent in
the first place. Although Zeena has redeeming
qualities, her illness is the focal point. The
way she handles – and possibly exaggerates –
her illness makes her appear petulant and, at
some points, rather loathsome.
Solidly Crafted Sentences
• Although a wintry mood grips Ethan Frome
from the beginning – even the name Starkfield
conjures images of northern winters – the
narrator appreciates the winter’s spare
loveliness at first. However, he eventually
realizes that Starkfield and its inhabitants
spend much of each year in what amounts to
a state of siege at the hands of the elements.
Solidly Crafted Sentences
• Edith Wharton’s Modernist novella, Ethan
Frome, is a tragic paradox about human
nature that forces the reader to think from
start to finish.
Passive voice => Active voice
• In the novel Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton,
the character of Zeena is portrayed as
attention-seeking and controlling.
• In the novel Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton
portrays Zeena’s character as attentionseeking and controlling.
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.