You should choose a question that you find interesting and believe you can answer in an engaging manner and include this question at the top of your paper. You will want to support your response not only with good logic and explanations on your part but also with pertinent quotes from the primary texts that pertain to the question you have chosen.
Your response should be in the form of a typical essay (five paragraphs), with a short introduction, thesis statement, supporting paragraphs including direct textual evidence and analysis, and conclusion. Follow MLA format conventions.
The “meat” of your essay and the overall focus should be on the intriguing connections between the primary texts that you explore; focus less on any obvious differences.
Your essay should total at least 700 words (excluding the included wording of the question itself).
Ensure that your work is scrupulous in its citations. Please ask if you have any questions about citation. All words and ideas should be your own unless their source is clearly cited.
LIST OF QUESTIONS
Explain how “A Father” and “Yom Kippur 1984” express the difficulties of trying to assimilate into mainstream American culture because of one’s ethnic, race or gender identity. Be specific.
Compare and contrast the way violence is portrayed in the poems “Power” by Audre Lorde and “Yom Kippur 1984” by Adrienne Rich. In particular, how does each poem convey the psychological trauma to marginalized communities who must suffer through and live with hate crimes as a regular feature of their lives in America? Consider the specific choices each author made and their effects.
What do “George Washington’s Teeth” and the “Prologue” to There There have in common, and how and why do they differ in terms of (choose one): the stories we do and don’t tell; what we do and don’t learn; what we do and don’t remember; or the “icons” we depict from American history? Consider the specific choices each author made and their effects. Use well-chosen, pertinent quotes from your primary texts in each of your 3 body paragraphs. Make sure that you clearly indicate your quotes both in-text and in your Works Cited page (using parenthetical citations and quotation marks). Any words or ideas from outside sources should be cited using MLA format, and the vast majority of the paper should consist of your own original words and ideas.
