**Final Draft**
The Brief Overview: Choose an element (theme/motif/symbol) from “Recitatif” and argue Morrison’s purpose for including your chosen element using specific and narrow examples and quotes from the text.
Relevant Links:
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6n70S_8HQzE
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3wWA3GmxAQ
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Frccd.instructure.com%2Fcourses%2F86032%2Fpages%2Fliterary-analysis-overview-video&source_ve_path=Mjg2NjQsMTY0NTAz&feature=emb_share&v=wxpddxDZfMk
The Purpose: Demonstrate your ability to interpret a text and an author’s purpose in their text choices. By analyzing the text and synthesizing your understanding of the text for the reader, you demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the text provided. As the semester continues, you’ll hone this skill a be a better interpreter of an author’s purpose, and their intentions with a text or the circumstances and context surrounding their influence. Remember to embrace your confusion and uncertainty by testing new ideas and trying out responses. No essay is perfect on the first draft!
The Setup: Toni Morrison works in the literary form of “postmodernism”, defined as a departure from ideologies or understandings that are representative of the “whole” meaning. Often, these kinds of works focus on personal, intimate moments with characters and settings, and do not have a surface-level purpose or meaning. Morrison’s more famous novels, including Beloved, take an Afro-American centric focus on the development of race in America, but exist in a place between reality and fantasy, leaving readers doubting their initial notions of Morrison’s intent. In her sole short story “Recitatif”, Morrison focuses on the intricacies of race relations as they developed through the 1950s, ‘60s, and ‘70s, in tandem with the relationship of partially-orphaned childhood acquaintances Roberta and Twyla. Through specific moments in their lives, the reader is left to discover the function and identity of their relationship, and how the notion of “truth” and “trust” are not always intertwined.
The Prompt: For this essay, I would like you to analyze Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif” with a focus on literary analysis dissecting one-to-two literary elements (theme, symbols, characters, anything mentioned in the discussion post, etc.) AND/OR one larger key concept (political, social, economic, or historical readings of the story). Possibly consider the following questions to help frame your essay in a specific focus (Note: you are not required to answer all, if any, of these questions):
Not so much a question to start, but consider how you might take on a topic outside of a racial discussion (think back to the themes/ideas from the discussion post!)
How does the organization of the story, split into five meetings between Roberta and Twyla, demonstrate the characters’ relationship? (Note: attempt to structure and frame the essay differently than simply one paragraph for each meeting, as this often leads to over-summarizing and less analysis).
What is Morrison’s purpose with Maggie? In their words: “What the hell happened to Maggie?”
While the story’s driving force is race, it heavily utilizes social class markers. How is social class presented in connection to race?
What literary elements do you feel heighten the experience and understanding of the story?
Optionally, employ a maximum of two (2) outside secondary sources in your essay to identify the literary purpose of Morrison’s short story and how she develops her theme through the narrative. Be sure these secondary sources are academic (meaning you found them from an academic source via the Library page and not LitCharts or SparkNotes or any other non-academic site).
The Guidelines for Submission: This essay must be typed in MLA format (12-point font, double-spaced, 1-inch margins, black ink text); the rough draft requirement is 600 words minimum and the final draft requirement is 1200 words minimum. You will need to provide a word count at the end of your final draft, as well as appropriate in-text citations and a Works Cited page (with at least your primary source on it!). Any essays that do not meet the minimum word count requirement will be penalized.
The Peer Review requirement: for the rough draft, complete 600 words minimum. for the peer reviews, simply respond to the Peer Review form questions.
The Criteria: Your essay will be evaluated in rubric form on the basis of the following:
Content – Responding clearly to the prompt, providing supporting details, clearly articulating the primary focus/theme of the essay, and considering your audience in your academic writing.
Organization – Providing a clear and singular introduction paragraph that includes a clearly identifiable thesis claim, and framing this with a clear and singular conclusion paragraph at the end. These paragraphs should be even in scale (4-5 sentences for each). Body paragraphs should be logical and focused structurally (while I highly recommend the TAXES model, it is not required for the structure) with a clear and unique topic supporting your thesis claim, specific and focused examples, and clear explanations for each point.
Style – The essay follows the provided style (literary analysis, drama analysis, poetry analysis, etc.) and considers word choice in focusing on that style. Keywords related to the text are used in a specific and effective fashion, and the overall tone of the essay is appropriately academic for our class.
Format – The essay follows all MLA guidelines as provided to the class, including in-text citations throughout the draft and a properly formatted works cited page.
This assignment is worth 15% of your final grade; if you are dissatisfied with the final score, you have the option to revise one (1) essay to make up the points you missed. These are due by the last day of the semester (the due date of your final research paper).
