Assignment Two
Literary Analysis

Objective

To identify the important issues in a work of literature and construct a persuasive argument addressing those issues in a paper.

Overview

In the first assignment, you considered very brief passages and examined them in minute detail. It is now time to apply those same skills to an overall literary work from the course syllabus. Attention to detail will still be important, but now it will also be important to select useful evidence from this longer text. Furthermore, you will need to situate the work itself within the context of related works.

In writing this paper, please avoid simply summarizing the work. You can presume that your audience has already read the text, so devote your energies to an analysis of it. Break it down for your reader and only refer to those parts of it that contribute to your argument. Along these lines, do not let the structure of the chosen work determine the structure of your own argument. Structure the argument according to your thesis statement and the subtopics that will allow you to prove this thesis. Do not hesitate to take quotations from the work out of order to substantiate your claims.

Topics

Choose from among the following topics or choose one of your own (please, talk with me about the topic before you start writing the paper if you are choosing your own topic). I have offered some sample thesis statements below with suggestions for possible wording:

The Individual against the Community—We often associate rebellion with youth and sometimes glamorize it. However, youthful rebellion can sometimes a cross a line into extreme, sociopathic alienation. On other occasions, dysfunctional communities tyrannize individuals within them. Choose a work that addresses concerns about the often-strained relationship between an individual and his or her community.

This literary work presents a conflict between _________ and her or his community and ultimately affirms the dominance of the [individual/community] over the [individual/community].

Choosing between Body and Soul (Or Refusing to Choose)—There has been a running argument for much of history about whether body and soul are at odds with each other or happily unified. In the grander scheme, this question relates to the connection between heaven and earth or the spiritual and the physical. Choose a work that somehow addresses this debate over our priorities and develop a thesis that explains how this work either takes sides or simply works through it.

This literary work prioritizes the [body/soul] over the [body/soul], and this makes the work [applicable/inapplicable] to the experiences of readers in the present day.

Drawing Our Attention to Something—Many of the works that we have read this semester have attempted to make readers reconsider their traditional understandings of day-to-day objects or commonplace ideas. Indeed, it is often the mark of a good work of literature that it makes readers pay attention to objects or ideas that they had previously overlooked, disregarded, or taken for granted. Choose one such work and focus on particular examples of objects in the work that we must see in a new light after reading about them.

The _________ in this work may at first seem unimportant, but it actually proves to be crucial to our understanding of the main idea of the work.

The author's use of ___________ in this work helps support the author's main point, but it also introduces _____________, which the author may never have intended to address. (Explain what these possibilities are.)

The meaning of the _________ in this work only makes sense when we study the historical context of the work. (Explain what we need to know about the past to have a useful understanding of the object.)

Arguing for Certain U. S. Policies—Some texts are personal and meditative, but others have undeniable political goals. From the author's point of view, what is wrong with the United States? What should its people do to solve these problems? What is the ideal society that the author has in mind when addressing these problems?

This author presents a strong argument, but he or she is wrong, because . . .

This author's argument for ________ was once controversial but now has wide acceptance because . . .

Procedure

1. Choose one of the above topics and one work from the syllabus that genuinely interests you and that will allow you to elaborate the most effectively on the chosen topic.

2. Read through the work again and take notes on the salient points as well as similarities and differences between related works.

3. Adapt one of the thesis statements that I have provided to your chosen works or come up with a thesis on your own.

4. Break the argument down into between two and four subtopics that are likewise arguable (three, of course, is the standard number of subtopics). Think about the most logical arrangement of subtopics for the structure of your argument.

5. Write a draft of your argument. Go back and reconsider your thesis statement. Revise it.

6. Bring the draft to class on December 2nd, 2015, for peer-editing. If you cannot attend class on that day, let me know. You can regain some of the points lost to an absence on peer-editing day if you can exchange papers with another classmate and edit it before turning in the final draft.

7. Be sure to include a Works Cited List on the last page of the paper.

8. Be sure the paper is at least five pages long. Five pages is the absolute minimum length, and papers under five pages will lose some points. That is, please write five full pages of text.

9. Revise and proofread the paper over the weekend and turn in the final draft along with the peer-edited working draft on December 9th, 2015.

Writing Tips

I have based many of these tips on my comments to you on your previous papers.

In most cases, your first thesis statement will not be arguable enough. Keep revising it until you have a statement that truly arguable and interesting. Do not hesitate to revise it after you have written a complete draft of the paper. The thesis statement should directly address your two chosen works.

Examples

FIRST TRY (TOO GENERAL): Nathaniel Hawthorne criticizes the Puritans in "Young Goodman Brown."

SECOND TRY—NOT THERE YET: "Young Goodman Brown" is about a devout young man who finds out that everyone around him is in a secret alliance with the devil.

A GOOD THESIS: In "Young Goodman Brown," Nathaniel Hawthorne argues that the only way to join a community is to learn to distrust its false claims of moral purity.

Notice the evolution from an overly general, though accurate, statement about the two works to a statement about the difference between the two works to a precise explanation of how these books compare.

1. Organize your argument around the thesis statement and be sure each part of your argument bears some clear relationship to the thesis statement. Do not leave it to your reader to figure out what each subtopic is doing in your paper. Consider the following outline for an argument supporting the above thesis:

   THESIS: In "Young Goodman Brown," Nathaniel Hawthorne tells a coming-of-age story that fails to integrate its main character into a typical but ethically flawed community.

   1. Young Goodman Brown's problem is that he believes the lies that his community tells about itself.

   2. Brown can only learn of his mistaken interpretation by confronting his community in a mysterious dream world.

   3. In Brown's failure to join his community, Hawthorne criticizes the rest of us who join communities by accepting their inconsistencies and failings.

   Turn each of these subtopics into a unified paragraph with supporting evidence in the form of quotations. If a paragraph gets too long, break it down into two paragraphs, but make careful use of transitional phrases to keep the logic clear to the reader.

2. Follow MLA format when using quotations or paraphrases to support the argument:

   1. Use blended quotations for quotations under four lines and block quotations for quotations over four lines. Remember the sometimes tricky punctuation rules for each type of quotation. If you have questions about this, ask me or look it up in a style manual such as the Online Writing Lab at "http://owl.english.purdue.edu/".

   2. Write a list of Works Cited at the end of the paper. The last name of the author comes first, then the title of the selection. Then, if applicable, the title of the book in which you found the work (i. e.: The Norton Anthology of American Literature). Notice that you should italicize the name of a book whenever you mention it.

      Examples:

      De Crèvecœur, J. Hector St. John. Letters from an American Farmer. 1782. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Vol. A. Eighth Edition. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: Norton, 2012. 605-625. Print.

      Stowe, Harriet Beecher. 1852. Uncle Tom's Cabin. New York: Random House, 2001. Print.

      Alphabetize works cited according to the author's last name. The year of original publication after the author's name in the above two examples is optional, but the year of publication after the publisher is required. There are many other rules for MLA format for peculiar instances that will come up, but the above two examples should serve as useful models for the vast majority of cases for this class. Do not hesitate to look these rules up.

3. Grammar points:

   1. Refer to events in a work of literature in the present tense. This may sound strange at first, but it is the convention for addressing literature. Notice that we tend to follow this rule in class discussion.

   2. Avoid the passive voice whenever possible.

      PASSIVE VOICE: Ichabod Crane is chased out of Sleepy Hollow.

      ACTIVE VOICE: The Headless Horseman chases Ichabod Crane out of Sleepy Hollow.

      Notice that the passive voice sentence does not tell us who chased Ichabod out. Leaving out the subject makes the sentence less interesting, and doing so repeatedly will bore your readers.

   3. Avoid contractions in academic writing. Contractions indicate a casual tone, and academic work tends to be more formal. The same rule applies to business letters. So, replace they're with they are and replace don't with do not (just two among many examples of contractions).

   4. A grammatically complete sentence has at least one subject and one verb. If it is missing a subject or a verb, it is a sentence fragment. Sentence fragments are sometimes acceptable, but only if you mean to use them.

   5. The word it's (with an apostrophe) is a contraction of it is. The word its (without an apostrophe) is the possessive of it.

   6. Comma rules can be complicated, so look them up in a style manual if you had trouble with them on the previous paper. A comma splice is what happens when you try to separate two grammatically complete sentences with only a comma. Avoid them.

      Example:

      WRONG: I hope it starts snowing soon, snow would make Duluth so much prettier.

      CORRECT: I hope it starts snowing soon because snow would make Duluth so much prettier.

      ALSO CORRECT: I hope it starts snowing soon. Snow would make Duluth so much prettier.

   7. 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)

      A Native American raiding party captures Mary Rowlandson in a violent raid on her homestead in Massachusetts. Subsequently, her child dies from a bullet wound.

      Frederick Douglass reaches his breaking point and has as serious fight with Mr. Covey in which he defeats him. Consequently, Mr. Covey never lays a hand in anger on Douglass again.

      Crèvecœur's second reference to a prospect is much less conclusive than his first such reference. Therefore, we must presume that his disenchantment with America is causing him to doubt all of his earlier certainties about what makes the land so rich.

      U-turn Signs (establishing a contrast between ideas)

      Whereas Emerson sits behind his desk to develop the theory of Transcendentalism, Thoreau goes out into the woods in order to practice Transcendentalism.

      William Bradford believes the American colonies are the most religiously pure in the world. However, he must still acknowledge the Devil's repeated incursions into this territory.

      Though Thomas Morton does not hesitate to erect a Maypole in Merry-mount, he also vigorously defends himself against charges of heresy coming from the Puritans.

      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. You undoubtedly hear and use dozens of these transitions per day. Integrate the appropriate ones into your writing.

      Keep in mind also that these transitions acquire the most importance 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.