Write a well-organized and developed paper on one or more stories assigned. Develop and focus the paper on an overall, narrow central thesis so that you are making a clear argument, not presenting a list or general idea. In other words, avoid plot summary and have a clear point. Some possible options, though by no means the limit of possibilities:
Jamaica Kincaid, “Girl”
Eudora Welty, “A Visit of Charity”
Kate Chopin, “The Story of an Hour”
“The Story of Grandmother”
Charles Perrault, “Little Red Riding Hood”
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, “Little Red Cap” or read and listen
Angela Carter, “The Company of Wolves”
Neil Gaiman, “Chivalry”
Gabriel García Márquez, “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings: A Tale for Children”
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper”
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “Why I Wrote ‘The Yellow Wallpaper'”
Shirley Jackson, “The Lottery”
Ralph Ellison, “Battle Royal”
Use of one element of fiction (character, theme, symbolism, irony, point of view, etc.) in one or more of the stories.
Discuss “The Lottery” by considering Shirley Jackson’s explanation in the San Francisco Chronicle in July 1948: “I suppose, I hoped, by setting a particularly brutal ancient rite in the present and in my own village to shock the story’s readers with a graphic dramatization of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their own lives” (see https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-lottery-letters).
Examine the cultural contexts for “Battle Royal,” such as Booker T. Washington’s Atlanta Exposition Address, W. E. B. DuBois’ Of Mr. Booker T. Washington, and Gunnar Myrdal’s theories about social equality.
Examine how the target audience and cultural contexts shape changes in variations of Red Riding Hood.
Discuss the use of magical realism in Neil Gaiman’s “Chivalry” or Gabriel García Márquez’s “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings.”
Discuss the use of quest narrative in Neil Gaiman’s “Chivalry” or in Eudora Welty’s “A Visit of Charity.”
Discuss point of view and the unreliable first-person narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper.”
Discuss the confined narrator in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper.”
Develop with ample use of the text(s). Focus the paper on an overall, central, narrow thesis so that you are making a clear argument, not presenting a list or general idea. In other words, avoid plot summary and have a clear point. In this paper, I am looking to see evidence of your close reading skills, critical thinking, ability to develop an interesting central idea, understanding of elements of poetry, clarity of presentation.
Length: Minimum 2,000 words (there is no maximum word limit)
Format: Use the paper template provided to help meet these requirements
MLA documentation, including in-text citations and works cited page
MLA format, including one-inch margins, double spacing, page break before the list of works cited
Sans serif font, such as Calibri, the default font in Word, or the default font in Google docs