Essay 4 Literary Analysis
At least 500 words
Submit as a Microsoft Word, PDF, or RTF
Use standard MLA format
Follow the instructions carefully.
We learn to explore fictional characters and situations using the same skills that we use unconsciously to “read” real people and situations. Your first essay about literature will be your response to a story you’ve read; you’ll be reacting to the fictional characters as though they are people you’ve met. You won’t be looking at experts’ critiques of the stories or using a particular critical approach. However, just as you wouldn’t argue that your sister was a liar or your best friend an idiot without presenting some evidence from your life to support your argument, you will need to present evidence from the story you’ve read to support any point that you want to make about the character and plot that you are analyzing.This will be an informal essay in that you will use a minimum of literary jargon. However, it will be a formal essay in that you must support your points logically, avoid references to yourself, and correctly punctuate and document quoted evidence from the story.
Topic:
“Maria Concepcion,” Katherine Anne Porter (paragraphs 1-5)
What is suggested about the setting and situation of the story from the first few paragraphs?
What does the setting suggest about the main characters, including the protagonist?
What do you see in the opening that helps to predict the story’s outcome?
Things to think about: Consider everything in the section that you notice: for example, you may find out about the temperament or history of the main character; the social and religious character of the community; the attitudes of the characters OR the narrator’s attitude toward them; the psychological or physical stresses that the characters endure–to name just a few elements that come to mind.
Each story opens differently so that each beginning will focus on different things. Another way to think about the opening is to ask whether it sets up expectations in the reader and whether those expectations are satisfied.
For example, does it foreshadow events or conflicts?
Does it set up false expectations that it ultimately defies?
Does it raise questions that the story serves to answer?
Does it simply provide a background that the reader must know to understand the characters’ actions as the story continues?
It will not be adequate to summarize or paraphrase the action of the story in chronological order! In doing so, you would produce a synopsis or plot summary, not an analysis.
Don’t forget to use the three-point strategy for supporting your points that was described in this unit’s Writing Guide:
(1) make a point of your own
(2) support that point using quoted or paraphrased evidence from the literary work
(3) explain how the evidence supports your point, if necessary.
Readers expect plenty of quoted evidence in a literary essay. Make sure that you provide at least one quotation in every supporting paragraph!
You will not need a Works Cited page in this essay since everyone will be using material from the same editions of the stories.
You will need to integrate quotations properly, though, and provide page numbers for your quotations in parenthetical citations. (In this essay, you will not need to provide citations for paraphrased material.)
For help with parenthetical citations, see the Handbook (Sections 47a through 47b). Please note: A work of literature is a “primary source,” as described in the Handbook (check the Index in your edition for the relevant pages).
If you were to refer to another critic’s interpretation of the story in your essay, you would be referring to a “secondary source.”
In this paper and every other in Composition I, you should limit yourself to “primary sources.”
In other words, this essay is meant to be a description of your own interpretation of the story you’ve chosen, not a research paper that incorporates other people’s readings, no matter how expert they may be.
(In Composition II, you will be writing research papers, using secondary sources.)
If you feel that you absolutely must use one or more secondary sources in your essay, you must document those sources fully and list them on a Works Cited page. Failing to give credit to the writer or writers who provided you with the words–or even the ideas–that you borrowed, is plagiarism.