Question Description

Help me study for my Literature class. I’m stuck and don’t understand.

Choose two of the three texts you analyzed last week (the third will be a suggestion for further reading) and write literature review paragraphs for each text. Each body paragraph should be at least eight sentences long. Follow steps A-C for each text separately.

Texts:

– “A&P” by John Updike

– “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara

– “Bloodchild” by Octavia Estelle Butler

  1. Topic Sentence: Note the text title, author, time period, and genre of the text that you will review.
  2. Claim: Identify a mode (also known as a pattern or theme, though different from the definition of theme that is one of your literary terms) you found in the text that relates to your research question.
    1. Comparison and Contrast (Does the text focus on two or more things to compare and contrast?)
    2. Cause and Effect (Does the text discuss how one or some things led to another?)
    3. Problem and Solution (Does the text identify an issue and remedy?)
    4. Process (Does the text explain how something is done or came to be?)
    5. Description (Does the text describe a person, place, or thing/experience?)
    6. Illustration/Exemplification (Does the text provide illustrations of a topic, typically explaining something that is unknown?)
    7. Classification (Does the text designate shared as well as distinct qualities or characteristics?)
    8. Narrative (Does the text have compelling plot points?)
    9. Definition (Does the text define complex theories or ideas?)
  3. Evidence: Elaborate on the themes/patterns by objectively sharing what moments from the text demonstrate the claim mode you chose. In other words, what’s there/what’s happening in the text objectively that relates to your research question? You must share more than one example of that theme/pattern/mode.
    1. Comparison and Contrast (ex: The lives of two sisters on very different paths are depicted over a decade.)
    2. Cause and Effect (The main character’s choice to run away from home resulted in a number of challenging experiences.)
    3. Problem and Solution (The twins knew their father should not marry the evil stepmother, so they recreated the father and birth mother’s first date to help them fall back in love again and remarry.)
    4. Process (The queen showed her people how to rule benevolently by making sure the townspeople had a democratic voice in all the politics.)
    5. Description (Each of the four seasons were depicted by what the environment looked like and how people conducted themselves in each season.)
    6. Illustration/Exemplification (The text illustrated what it was like to return to being a civilian after being at war and having post-traumatic stress disorder.)
    7. Classification and Division (Each of the characters were discussed in relation to what family they were part of but further identified by their individual qualities that sometimes strained their relationship with family members.)
    8. Narrative (The climax was heightened by some characters not knowing that tragedy was headed their way.)
    9. Definition (A practical approach to reparations was framed by considering what has already been done and what is possible within the financial constraints of the U.S. government.)
  4. Discussion: Subjectively assert your own theories about the text that relate to your research question.
    1. Debates: What in the text do you not agree with or do you find problematic and why?
    2. Gaps: What do you think is missing from the text that would help address your research question, and what questions might the text have left unanswered?

      With the third text you analyzed (the text youdidn’t write a literature review for), write 2-3 sentences that suggest why thetext might be good for further study by your audience in answering yourresearch question (and any relevant limitations they might want to considerwhen examining the text)? In 2-3, post your research question and one or twoways you think the genre addresses it?
      My research question was: What does “class” mean in Marxist theory?