I’m working on a english writing question and need support to help me learn.Final Research Essay Requirements:A minimum 7-8 page long essay that analyzes a text from our course (the 7-page minimum does not include the works cited page—you should have at least 7 pages of your own analysis/writing.)
Literary/film analysis of ONE fictional text from our class—you cannot focus on multiple novels, films, short stories, etc. in the essay.
Do not write your essay on any non-fictional text or Booster Era advertisements. Acceptable texts include: all assigned films, short stories, musical albums, novels, cookbooks, memoirs, poetry collections, and tv shows.
An original title
An original thesis statement that must include a major theme and motif. Please review the lectures that define the meaning of theme and motif and how to pen a thesis statement.Hint for your thesis statement: if you don’t refer to a literary/film term in your thesis statement—imagery, setting, metaphor, symbol, genre, etc.—then you are not making an argument and do not have a thesis statement.
Each week, I have assigned a text: memoir, cookbook, film, poetry collection, novel, etc. In academic terms, a text is anything that conveys a set of meanings to the person who examines it. You might have thought that texts were limited to written materials, such as books, magazines, newspapers, etc. Those items are indeed texts—but so are movies, paintings, television shows, songs, political cartoons, online materials, advertisements, maps, works of art, and more. If we can look at something, explore it, find layers of meaning in it, and draw information and conclusions from it, we’re looking at a text.
At least 3 different peer-reviewed, scholarly, secondary sources
Hint for secondary sources: it is impossible to not find secondary sources for a text. Secondary sources cover historical context, cultural context, interpretations of the text, commentary on the literary/aesthetic movement, etc. These topics are all relevant secondary sources for a primary source ( the novel, film, short story, etc.). Here’s another example: if you decide to focus on a genre in your essay, such as “the Gothic,” you must define the conventions of the genre and cite that information with a secondary source. If you are interested in talking about Kate Chopin’s representation of women, you should summarize women’s rights during the era. Both scenarios require a secondary source.
MLA 8 format with a works cited page
Excellent form and organization, such as strong topic sentences
You may revise and extend your short essay into your Long Essay
You may use the secondary source that you cited in your short essay as also a source in your Long Essay.
Submit your essay online as a single PDF or Microsoft word (no hard copy)
Essay prompts are below, but your thesis statement must contain a theme and motif.
You must also reference one key term from our Introduction to Popular Culture textbook somewhere in your essay.
I welcome any and all topics appropriate to the novels, whether that be investigations of setting, character, class, race/ethnicity, gender/sexuality, unique literary tropes, rhetoric, etC
ESSAY PROMPTS: CHOOSE ANY OF THESE
1) Setting is an important component of any story. Choose one particular detail of the setting–a geographic place (the beach, for example), a built structure (a house), a force of the weather, a color that dominates the story setting–and analyze its integral role in the narrative. How is this detail of the setting integral to the story? Does the protagonist conflict with the setting or have particular interactions with the setting? How does the protagonist’s relationship with the setting connect with his/her development as a character? How does the setting give structure to (or bolster) a theme?
2) In many stories, characters come into conflict with the culture in which they live. Often, a character feels alienated in his/her community or society due to bias against race, gender, class, or ethnic background. How does the author–using rhetoric, symbols, motifs, actions and dialogue–represent a character as alienated from community in the story? And likewise, how does the author represent the character responding to society? What does that character’s alienation say about the surrounding society’s assumptions, morality and values? In what way(s)do literary elements reflect how that society defines race, gender, class and/or ethnicity? How does this create conflict for the character?
3) A character’s nostalgia for the past (or attempt to recapture the past) is a recurring device in plays, novels, short stories, and poems. Choose a character who views the past with such feelings as reverence, bitterness, or longing in one of our course texts. Show with clear evidence from the text–using quotes, symbols, objects, etc–to show how the character’s view of the past or nostalgia for a past event is a motif used to develop a theme.
4) The meaning of literary works is often enhanced by sustained allusion to myths, the Bible, or other works of literature. (Intertextuality is the shaping of a text’s meaning by another text.) Select a literary work that makes use of such a sustained reference. Then write a well-organized essay in which you explain the allusion that predominates in the work and analyze how the allusions function as a motif that gives structure to a particular theme.
5) In literature, no scene of violence exists for its own sake. Choose one of the course texts that confronts the reader with repeated scenes of violence and explain how the violence is a motif that constructs a particular theme unique to the story. In a well-organized essay, explain how the particular scenes of violence contribute to the meaning ofthe overall work. Avoid plot summary.
6) Some works of literature use the element of time in a distinct way. The chronological sequence of events may be altered or time may be suspended or accelerated in the tale. Choose a novel, short story, etc. and show how the author’s manipulation of time throughout the story contributes to and bolsters a theme. Do not merely summarize the plot.
7) Choose a course text that depicts a conflict between a parent (or a parental figure) and a son or daughter. Write an essay in which you analyze the representation of the parent-child relationship and its conflicts through the author’s choice of dialogue, actions, symbols, etc. Explain how the parent-child conflict propels the plot and bolsters a particular theme of the story. Avoid plot summary.
8) Many plays and novels use contrasting places (for example, two countries, two cities or towns, two houses, or the land and the sea) to represent opposing forces or ideas that are central to the meaning of the work. Choose a course text that contrasts two such places. Write an essay explaining how the places differ, what each place represents in the story, and how their contrast functions as a motif that bolsters a particular theme of the text.
9) In some works of literature, a character who appears briefly, or does not appear at all, is a significant presence. Choose a course text and write an essay in which you show how such a character functions in the work, using direct quotes, symbols, and more from the text. Also, discuss how this kind of character’s presence affects the action, theme, or the development of other characters. Avoid plot summary.
10) Novels and plays often include scenes of weddings, funerals, parties, and other important social occasions. Such significant events reveal the values of the characters and the society in which they live. Select a course text that includes two of such a scene and, in a focused essay,discuss how the scenes give structure to a theme of the text.
11) Novels and plays often depict characters caught between colliding cultures — national, regional, ethnic, religious,institutional. Such collisions can call a character’s sense of identity into question. Select a course text in which a character responds to such a cultural collision. Then write a well-organized essay in which you describe how the author depicts colliding cultures and the character’s response through the use of symbols, dialogue, setting, etc.
12) In many works of literature, a physical journey – the literal movement from one place to another or even casual walking – plays a central role. Choose a course text in which a physical journey or even movement (such as walking, driving, etc.) is an important element and discuss how the journey gives structure to a unique theme of the work. Avoid plot summary.
Requirements: 7-8 PAGES
