Objective

To analyze a work of literature and to make a persuasive case for your interpretation of its meaning and significance.

Overview

Having practiced close reading on a poem in Assignment One, you must now apply those skills to a larger work. To complete this assignment, it will be necessary to formulate a thesis about an important issue in the chosen work and to select quotations from the work that best support that thesis statement. Furthermore, it will be necessary to consider details in those quotations such as imagery and word choice, just as you did in the poetry analysis. Finally, do not forget to remind readers of the importance of the chosen work and your interpretation of it.

In writing this paper, it is important to keep in mind the difference between summary and analysis. A summary will merely restate events in the story in your own words without adding anything to it. An analysis will interpret individual parts of the story in order to support your argument about the work's meaning. You can presume that your audience for this paper has already read the book in question, so keep summary to a minimum and focus your energies on developing your argument about the work's meaning and significance.

Possible Topics

1. Herman Melville's "Billy Budd, Sailor"

   It is clear that Billy Budd has to die to maintain order on board the Bellipotent. What makes Billy Budd's death necessary on the more symbolic level of this story? How does Captain Vere's decision to have Billy Budd killed result from his own awareness of the symbolic implications of these events?

2. Alice Walker's The Color Purple

   The Color Purple is about Celie's emergence as a strong, independent, thinking character. Why, then, does Walker include the story of Nettie's experiences in Africa as a significant part of this story?

3. David H. Hwang's M. Butterfly

   One has to wonder how Gallimard could fail to notice Song's gender during their long, intimate relationship. How does Gallimard explain his mistake? What does Gallimard's explanation suggest more generally about relations between Eastern and Western cultures?

4. Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine

   Different characters in Love Medicine tend either toward European American or toward Native American customs. Consider how these two tendencies come into conflict in the story, and choose one example of such a conflict. How does this conflict turn out? What does this conflict tell us about Native American culture as Erdrich regards it?

Procedure

1. Take another look at the book you will be writing about for this assignment. Look back over your notes and reread important sections of the book.

2. Develop a thesis statement that addresses the questions in the above prompt for your book (or choose a different topic after discussing it with me). Of course, this thesis will be subject to revision once you have written an argument.

3. Write a draft of your argument in support of your thesis. Refer directly to specific words and phrases in the chosen poem in supporting your argument. At some point, write an outline of your argument, so that you can make its structure as clear as possible to your readers.

4. Bring a word-processed, properly formatted draft to class on November 27 for peer editing.

5. Revise your draft after that class. Consider the feedback you have received from your classmate as well as your ideas as you rework your argument.

6. Having completed your revisions, proofread your paper. Watch out for typos, incorrect punctuation and other problems. Do not hesitate to consult a style manual if you have questions (Keys for Writers is one style manual that is easy to find on the UMD campus, but there are numerous others that will work just as well.)

7. If you wish, sign up to consult with me about this draft in a student conference.

8. Turn in the completed final draft and peer-edited working draft on December 4 in class.

Writing Tips

I have based the following writing tips on common difficulties that students encounter when writing papers for this class.

1. Develop an arguable and interesting thesis statement that applies directly to the work in question.

   Examples:

   ARGUABLE THESIS (but not for this assignment): In Love Medicine, Louise Erdrich's depiction of rebellious jail-breaker Gerry Nanapush challenges stereotypes of Native Americans but avoids replacing them with positive generalizations about the "noble savage."

   NOT AN ARGUABLE THESIS: In Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich, Lipsha Morrissey regards Gerry Nanapush as a positive role model.

   Most readers of Love Medicine would agree that Lipsha does regard Gerry as a positive role model, so this is not an arguable thesis. Readers of your papers want to find out something new about the book. They do not want to read about what they already know. Taking a stand on an arguable issue will make your reader more interested in what you have to day.

   The arguable thesis statement above claims that Erdrich has figured out a solution to a complicated problem about how to depict Native Americans in literature. People could very easily disagree about whether Erdrich deals with this problem successfully or not, so the paper that argues this should be more interesting to readers whether they agree with this argument or not.

2. Organize your argument around this thesis statement. Think of between two and four sub-points and structure your argument around them.

   Sample Outline (for the above thesis):

   1. It would be easy to regard Gerry Nanapush as a criminal and therefore reduce him to the stereotype of outlaw Indian.
   2. Erdrich tells Gerry's side of the story from Lipsha Morrissey's sympathetic point of view.
   3. The resulting complex image of Gerry challenges stereotypes and makes an important point about the factors that place many in the Native American community outside of the law.

3. Some grammatical tips:

   1. Remember the pointers that I gave you with Assignment One:

      • Avoid using the passive voice.
      • Avoid contractions.
      • Use italics (or underlines) for book titles and any terms that you use out of context. (There is an example of this in the next sentence.)
      • It's is a contraction of it is. Its is the possessive form of it.
      • Avoid sentence fragments.
      • Remember comma rules (i.e. avoid comma splices)

   2. More about commas. When using a conjunction (and, or, but, because, yet, etc.) you must often put a comma before the conjunction. It depends on whether or not there is a second subject-verb pair after the conjunction. If there is, then you need to put a comma before the conjunction. If there is only a second verb, but for the same subject as before, then you should not put a comma before the conjunction.

      Examples:

      NO COMMA: Erica went to Cloquet and ate a nice meal.

      COMMA: Erica went to Cloquet, and Fred stayed home.
      COMMA: Erica went to Cloquet, and she ate a nice meal.

      NO COMMA: Fred stayed home because of his sore back.
      

      COMMA: Fred stayed home, because he had work to do.

   3. Type a hyphen (-) to produce a dash (--). In Microsoft Word® a double hyphen will become a dash automatically, if you—trust me on this one—set it to do so in "Autoformat as you type" under the "Autoformat..." menu. However, it is a good idea to avoid using too many dashes in a paper. Commas often accomplish the same thing more gracefully.

   4. Transitions. These are words that serve as signposts pointing out the direction of your argument to your readers. Some of these transitions are like "One Way" signs leading your reader on to the next point. Others are like "U Turn" signs indicating a reversal of direction. There are other more subtle transitions that alter the tone or indicate approval or disapproval of what you are discussing.

      Examples:

      One Way Signs (leading from before to after or from cause to effect)

      Billy Budd arrives on the Bellipotent brimming over with optimism about the goodness of humanity. Subsequently, he learns a difficult lesson about the nature of evil.

      Mr. ________ hides all of Nettie's letters from Celie. Consequently, Celie expresses a strong desire to kill him.

      Gallimard continues to refer to Song as his butterfly. Therefore, we must presume he still has not gotten over his infatuation with that alluring Oriental ideal.

      U-turn Signs (establishing a contrast between ideas)

      Whereas Claggart is a schemer, Billy Budd is a believer in complete honesty throughout the narrative.

      Captain Vere believes strongly in Billy Budd's virtue as a hero. However, Naval law requires him to put Billy to death.

      Though Lipsha has trouble obtaining the heart of a goose, he nonetheless satisfies the demands of the ritual by buying turkey hearts at the grocery store.

      Other types of transitions

      Unfortunately, many Native Americans have had to endure negative stereotypes like this for generations.

      Strangely enough, Captain Vere insists on Billy's execution in spite of his overwhelming fondness for the sailor.

      These are just a few examples of the numerous transitions out there that can help you arrange your ideas. Most style manuals will give you a more exhaustive list of options and fuller explanations of how to use them. Your best resource, however, is your own experience with written and spoken language.

      Keep in mind also that these transitions are often the most important as you move from one subtopic in your paper to the next. Very frequently, the first sentence in a new paragraph needs to provide the reader a clear transition between ideas in the previous paragraph and ideas in the new one.

   5. Verb tense. Though it may seem peculiar at first, it is customary to refer to events in a story in the present tense. In discussions of the literature in class, you will notice that we tend to follow this rule as well. Keep to the present tense in your papers.

      Sometimes, this is hard to do, especially when discussing the author's life: "She was born in Eatonton, Georgia and wrote The Color Purple in 1982." It makes sense to refer to author's life in the past tense in this case, but return to the present tense when addressing events in the story: "The Color Purple tells the story of a young African American woman in the South. In it, the main character Celie must learn to overcome a system that aims to keep women submissive to their husbands."

      Every once in a while, it is necessary to refer to past event in the story that you are discussing in the present tense. The present perfect tense is perfect for this problem: "Billy Budd looks to the Captain for support without realizing that the Captain has already condemned him to death."

Grading Standards

In grading this assignment, I will use the following criteria. Late papers will lose points according to how late they are. Papers under five (5) pages long will lose points as well.