Ethan Frome Final Essay:
It’s All Downhill From Here!
Your task: Demonstrate your understanding of interpretation, literary analysis, and expository
writing.
The Prompt:
Is Ethan’s story a personal tragedy born of his indecision and personal failures, a social
tragedy forecast by the oppressive New England setting, or both?
The Product:
A 3-5 page formal analysis essay
The Process:
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Determine which side of the argument has the strongest body of textual
evidence: personal tragedy vs. social tragedy, or a combination of the two, and
pick your side
Focus on HOW Wharton accomplishes characterization, conflict, symbolism,
motifs, themes, and so on, and more importantly what they add up to.
Study the text.
Craft your thesis.
Guidelines:
Thesis formula
Sentence 1:
Ethan Frome is a story of (personal tragedy born of Frome’s indecision and personal
failures/social tragedy forecast by the oppressive New England setting/both personal
and social tragedy…), and…
Sentence/Clause 2:
Wharton’s use of (x, y, and z) create [describe] drama of the story and contribute to the
[downfall/demise/ruination/etc.] of Ethan Frome’s life.
Tips & Tricks
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Use language of prompt and include writer’s first and last name
Begin strong – Consider pattern III sentences (Ethan Frome is…Zeena is…Mattie
is…Starkfield is…Edith Wharton’s novella is…)
Mimic Wharton’s style – Repetition of death imagery, subtlty, driven by setting and
character
Be clear & rhetorically effective – Use sentence length and variation to create tight
sentences that lead into thesis
Funnel down to thesis – Plug your thesis into the end of your intro paragraph
Body:
Structure1
Assertion/Topic (first point of thesis statement and how it functions in
story/supports your claim)
Explicit/implicit text evidence 1
Commentary 1 (interpretation of text; explanation/justification of how the
text evidence supports and proves your claim)
Explicit/implicit text evidence 2
Commentary 2
Example: (from the “Birthday Party” timed writing)
Brush’s use of antithesis demonstrates the unhappy yin and yang of the married
couple at the restaurant. The man and wife sit at the banquette table, one on one side, one on
the other, with a small and happy birthday cake between the two of them, and the orchestra
plays, and the “general attention” of the restaurant focuses their attention on them. The wife
“beam[s] with shy pride” while the man is “hotly embarrassed and indignant.” There is no
harmony between the man and wife, but the language demonstrates two parts of a whole. The
husband says something “quick and curt and unkind” to his wife which results in her “crying
quietly and heartbrokenly and hopelessly, all to herself, under the big gay brim of her best hat.”
In the absence of the wife’s surprise Occasion, there is only dinner. In the absence of the
husband’s brash and unkind and resentful behavior, there is only a woman in a big hat. And
without hopefulness and expectation, there is no disappointment. The man and wife complete
the circle of an unhappy marriage.
Tips & Tricks:
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Be conversational but don’t have a conversation – Clarity and precision rule
Include both implicit and explicit text evidence
Embed quotes
Remember the formula A-E-C: assertion, evidence, commentary
DO
DON’T
Create a thesis that WILL EXPLORE & SUPPORT your
argument
Let your essay become a list
Use formal, academic mode of writing
Use “I” or include “personal connections”
Borrow from Wharton’s style to introduce your
Try to “sound smart” for the sake of sounding smart
Be PRECISE
Get lost in hedgers, gushers, and absolutes
Say what you mean
Waste time and energy beating around the bush and filling
space
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Structure may vary, but these parts are essential