Select a text from the short story (Hills Like White Elephants) and develop a thesis that establishes how this text responds to or reflects upon a specific social, cultural, or economic concern, literary trend, or event relevant to the time period of the text. Once you have developed your thesis statement, you will then write an 800-word essay that develops and supports this thesis by providing in depth close readings (explanations) of the text you have chosen and supporting evidence from 2-3 resources. Make sure the essay and the close readings stay focused on what the text you have chosen conveys to readers and that the 2-3 resources are only there to support what you have to say about the text.
Of these 2-3 resources, 1 should be a scholarly peer reviewed source (article, book chapter, book). The other resource may be academic, scholarly, or general audience source (article, book chapter, book, website, documentary, podcast, etc.), but it must be a reliable source. For instance, Wikipedia is not a reliable source nor is a student blog because one is open to editing by anyone and the other is created by someone who is not an authority on their subject. These resources can be criticism on the text itself or they can be on the cultural/economic concern, literary trend, or event that you will connect to the text.
