Description
Essay Assignment #1: Short Stories
Your first essay assignment is based upon your readings of the short stories to be read. Write a well-developed essay as you respond analytically to the story. Include in your discussion all the points asked to be addressed. DO NOT NARRATE. Explain its critical significance and quote generously from the story to support your ideas. Be structured and focus on a controlling thesis. If you must use research, please document appropriately using MLA format. Length: 4 pages (not 3 1/2)
Choose ONE of the following topics:
- Men and women living in society often must choose between the dictates of their conscience and what is expected of them as members of a community. Using Chopins The Story of an Hour and Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown, discuss the way or ways in which the author dramatizes the characters struggles to live her/his lifestyle. How significant is this in relation to others either in or outside their community? Does the author make this important? How? Are their any similarities or differences in Louise and Miss Emilys plight as a woman that creates their conflict in society?
- In the two stories, Araby by James Joyce and The Red Convertible by Louise Erdrich, both main characters are trapped. Whether trapped by social roles, by circumstance, or by their own limitations, they are unable to escape their destinies. In a well-developed essay, explain what factors imprison each character (show what, how, and why); then consider whether and howeach escaped. Discuss how characterization in The Red Convertible and the function of setting in Araby affect the characters situation.
3. The Cask of Amontillado is considered one of Edgar Allan Poes best short stories, and with good reason: it combines tension, horror, and surprise together masterfully. Discuss two or three major themes of The Cask of Amontillado to demonstrate how he brings together three elements. Be clear in identifying the themes and support well using the text.
