Major
ASP essay
You
my chose one of the topics below
Archetypes (3)
Motifs (3)
Setting (3)
Symbols (3)
Allegory (Symbolic
characters 3)
Or you may write
about a motif, a symbol, and a setting or a character, a setting, and a motif
or….
However,
no matter what you choose, you must connect each to a THEME.
You must tell how each supports a theme, illustrates a theme.
This
is a two-fold prompt. Five
paragraph. Rough draft due Friday.
Use
transitions, explain each topic sentence, use elaboration
strategies,
quotes, page numbers in ( ).
Remember
that I is not a four letter word but YOU is close.
Introduction:
follow ANT for the introduction.
Ø
Attention-getter.
The attention-getter should be general and interesting. It should draw the
reader in. It should also connect thematically to the thesis.
Ø
Necessary
information:
o
Author’s
name
o
Title
of work
o
Very
Brief plot summary that builds up to your thesis. (Do not summarize entire
story.
Ø
Summarize only information that will be
needed for the rest of the paper.)
Ø
Thesis:
o
Your
thesis should make the statement that the author uses Whatever you have chosen
to enhance, illustrate, support the theme or themse.
In your paragraphs, you must state what the theme(s) is/are.
In your
thesis statement
(MAIN IDEA OF ENTIRE PAPER), State which element you are analyzing and why it
was significant to the play.
o
Develop
or support your focus in the body, or main part, of the character analysis.
To make sure that you effectively explain each point in your analysis use
the ACE strategy.
A: State each main point so that it clearly relates to the focus of your
character analysis. TOPIC SENTENCE.
C: Cite evidence to support each main point with specific details or
direct quotations form the text.
E: Explain how each of these specific details helps prove your
point. Why is this quality significant to the play?
Special Note: Try to organize your writing so that each new paragraph
deals with a separate main point.
In
the last paragraph, tie all of the important details together and make a final
statement about the main focus of your analysis. (Give your readers something to
think about long after they’ve put your analysis down).
Develop
or support your focus in the body, or main part, of the character analysis.
To make sure that you effectively explain each point in your analysis use
the ACE strategy (or the ACECEC)
A: State each main point so that it clearly relates to the focus of your analysis.
TOPIC SENTENCE.
C: Cite evidence to support
each main point with specific details or direct quotations form the text.
E: Explain how each of these specific details helps prove your
point. Why is this quality significant to the play?
Special Note: Try to organize your writing so that each new paragraph
deals with a separate main point.
In
the last paragraph, tie all of the important details together and make a final
statement about the main focus of your analysis. (Give your readers something to
think about long after they’ve put your analysis down).
Basic Tips for
Writing a Literary Analysis
1. Write in the present tense.
EXAMPLE: In Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily," the
townspeople visit Emily Grierson's house because it smells bad.
NOT: In Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily," the
townspeople visited Emily Grierson's house because it smelled bad.
2. Normally, keep yourself out of your analysis; in other words, use the
third person (no I or you). Some instructors may require or allow
the first or second person in an informal analysis if the usage is consistent,
however, so check with your instructor.
FIRST PERSON: I believe that the narrator
in "Sonny's Blues" is a dynamic character because I read many
details about the changes in his attitude toward and relationship with Sonny.
THIRD PERSON: The narrator in
"Sonny's Blues" is a dynamic character who changes his attitude
toward and relationship with Sonny as the story progresses.
SECOND PERSON: At the end of
"Everyday Use," Mama realizes that Maggie is like her but has not
received the attention you should give your daughter to help her
attain self-esteem.
THIRD PERSON: At the end of "Everyday Use," Mama
realizes that Maggie is like her but has not received enough attention to build
self-esteem.
3. Avoid summarizing the plot (i.e., retelling the story literally).
Instead analyze (form a thesis about and explain) the story in literary
terms.
PLOT SUMMARY: In Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale
Heart," the mad narrator explains in detail how he kills the old man, who
screams as he dies. After being alerted by a neighbor, the police arrive, and
the madman gives them a tour through the house, finally halting in the old man's
bedroom, where he has buried the man beneath the floor planks under the bed. As
he is talking, the narrator hears what he thinks is the old man's heart beating
loudly, and he is driven to confess the murder.
ANALYSIS: Though the narrator claims he is not mad, the reader
realizes that the narrator in "The Telltale Heart" is unreliable and
lies about his sanity. For example, the mad narrator says he can hear "all
things in the heaven and in the earth." Sane people cannot. He also lies to
the police when he tells them that the shriek they hear occurs in his dream.
Though sane people do lie, most do not meticulously plan murders, lie to the
police, and then confess without prompting. Finally, the madman is so plagued
with guilt that he hears his own conscience in the form of the old man's heart
beating loudly. Dead hearts do not beat, nor do sane people confuse their
consciences with the sounds of external objects.
4. Include a clear thesis statement that addresses something meaningful
about the literature, often about the theme.
Imagine you need to argue a point about the novel, and make that your
thesis. You will have a list of
topics to choose from.
5. Use literary terms to discuss your points (i.e., character, theme,
setting, rhyme, point of view, alliteration, symbols,
imagery, figurative language, protagonist, and so forth).
NONLITERARY TERMS: To show that women are
important, Adrienne Rich writes about Aunt Jennifer and the tigers that she
creates in her needlework.
LITERARY TERMS: The poem "Aunt
Jennifer's Tigers" contains vivid images and symbols that
reveal a feminist perspective.
6. Do not confuse characters' (in fiction or drama) or speakers' (in
poetry) viewpoints with authors' viewpoints.
AUTHOR: As a black woman, Eudora Welty faces racism
in "A Worn Path." (Eudora Welty, the author, was not black.)
CHARACTER: As a black woman, Old Phoenix faces racism in
"A Worn Path." (Old Phoenix, a character, is black.)
POET: In "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,"
Robert Frost is tempted to drift into his subconscious dream world, yet
he knows he has other obligations to fulfill when he states, "But I have
promises to keep, / And miles to go before I sleep." (The pronoun
"I" refers to the speaker of the poem, not to Robert Frost, the poet.)
SPEAKER: In "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,"
the speaker is tempted to drift into his subconscious dream world, yet he knows
he has other obligations to fulfill when he states, "But I have promises to
keep, / And miles to go before I sleep." (Here the "I" correctly
refers to the speaker of the poem.)
7. Support your points with many quotations and paraphrases, but write
the majority of your paper in your own words with your own ideas.
8. Cite prose, poetry, drama, critics, and any other sources used
according to specialized MLA standards. (See the current edition of the MLA
Handbook for Writers of Research Papers.)