Spring 2019

 This paper assignment asks you to consider several works by an author or several authors as the subject of analysis. Consider connections or patterns or themes that you believe are evident in a selection of works you choose. This paper should be in the 4 - 5 page range and must include some research information (at least two outside sources). Thus, you will need to be sure to document and include a Works Cited page with your final paper.

To get you started, here are some suggestions:

Many of our stories and poems have treated love and relationships in many different ways. Decide for yourself what perspective on love at least two or three authors and/or poets made in their works, and analyze what you think is evident in the works of these authors to support your interpretation.

While we have read a variety of material from both men and women writers, do you think both genders treat their women characters similarly? What qualities are there about certain women characters we have encountered that stand out? Can you develop a common thread about their qualities and characteristics? Is there such a thing as a feminist perspective in some of our selections, and if so, what does that perspective look like?

Discuss the traditional definition of a story--where rising action leads to a climax followed by a denouement--in two stories from our anthology. Pick one story that seems to follow the traditional pattern and pick another that doesn’t and compare and contrast these two, showing how each accomplishes its purpose.

Ernest Hemingway came to represent the "macho man" type in American culture: the man who can endure pain, who loves a good drink and cigar, who can remain quiet when all around is chaos, who, in general demonstrates "grace under pressure." Examine how a selection of authors views the masculine gender, using evidence from such works as the short story "Hills Like White Elephants" and plays like Fences and A Doll House. Analyze how you think writers demonstrate the idea of the male animal, and, by extension, how that compares with women.

Select a single author you happen to like and discuss something you believe is evident in several works. For example, loneliness in Robert Frost or religious devotion in Gerard Manley Hopkins or the natural world in William Wordsworth or the ineffable in Emily Dickinson. This doesn't have to be limited to poetry but if you choose a non-poet, be sure to consider at least two selections.

An English writer from the 1940s once wrote: "The truth is that our civilization is not Christian; it is a tragic compound of great ideal and fearful practice, of high assurance and desperate anxiety, of loving charity and fearful clutching of possessions." In what stories, poems, plays, or even our novel we have read do we see a split between high ideals and narrow self-interest? What writers have captured the spirit of what this writer suggests? Do you think what this writer says applies to present-day America? If so, how? If not, how have things changed? It may be useful to bring Flannery O’Connor in on this discussion as well.

One Shakespearean critic has said: "King Lear is in every way the most interesting play ever written." Write a paper that shows the ways (at least three) in which this may be true, or conversely at least three ways this may not be true.

Writers sometimes can’t help writing about their own craft. They may call it "exploring the creative impulse" or "self-discovery" but inevitably, it seems, they write about a struggle to express what is their "ultimate concern." King Lear represents one example; W.B. Yeats' poetry or Raymond Carver's story "Cathedral," could be another. Even poems such as Arnold’s "Dover Beach" and Keats’ odes show that need to create (almost as if to create will fend off mortality itself). Explore at least two examples and discuss how the works may have satisfied that need or struggle.

We have seen nature addressed in a number of interesting ways, from Shelley’s "Ode to the West Wind" and Keats' "To Autumn" to the nature that must be overcome (Hawthorne’s short stories) to even the nature that portends good (Willa Cather's My Antonia) and evil (King Lear). Write a paper discussing how nature functions in at least three works--showing either similarities or differences--that we have read.

America has always wrestled with what one historian called our "Original Sin": slavery, What works might be used to analyze the nature of race in America? What light might each shed on race? (Think Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues" or Morrison's "Recitatif" or Wilson's Fences or poems by Gwendolyn Brooks or Langston Hughes or--even though we didn't read it as a class, the play Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry.)

A common twentieth and twenty-first century theme in literature is alienation. Where once community provided security, a sense of belonging, and a certain peace (even though it usually came at the cost of some freedom), now we treasure freedom and must reckon with the consequences of loneliness. Describe that alienation and loneliness, using any number of selections and explain its symptoms and maybe its antidotes.

Religious doubt takes many forms. Perhaps consider a selection of works that show religious faith at various stages and trace a theme about devotion through them. Among others, such works as "Batter My Heart" by John Donne or "Church Going" by Philip Larkin or "Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold show challenges to faith while the poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins show a more resilient faith. Compare and contrast.

Other topics are available, of course, if you have some ideas you'd like to explore. I will ask that if you are tackling something you may need help with or are unsure about, please consult with me to both inform me of your plans and so that I might guide you in planning and researching. This is an assignment where you don't want to guess and get it wrong!

To ensure that your final draft is done completely and on time, follow this timetable for completing your work.

These are dates to use to guide you along the way. Follow them to complete your assignment and the process should feel reasonable. Any paper submitted without a turnitin.com submission will be penalized five points as I must manually check sources. Please ask if you have any questions.