Write a 3 page (no less than 750 words) typed, double-spaced essay

on any topic related to any work we have read so far. Use specific
examples to support your assertions; in other words, quote from the
works that we have read or mention specific characters, incidents, or
images from the works to support your ideas.

Reminders
1. Make sure that you have a thesis statement that is supported adequately.
2. Give your essay a meaningful title.
3. Do not retell the story in your essay. Support your thesis with reasons and
examples.
4. Your essay grade will be based on thesis, support, organization, grammar,
and punctuation.
5. See the Guidelines for Literature Essays handout for more information.
6. To learn more about MLA doumentation watch the lecture and review the
sample below.

MLA Documentation Lecture

MLA Documentation

2. For a refresher on the structure of an essay review the video What is an

Essay.
3. For more information review the video about
composing Analytical or Comparison and Contrast essays.

Essay Structure
Analytical
Intro Paragraph: ends with Thesis
o

Which answers the question What are you trying to prove?

Body Paragraphs (3 or more): explain reasons that we should

believe your thesis.

Concluding Paragraph: sums up main ideas.

Comparison - Contrast Essay

Intro Paragraph: ends with Thesis,
o

Which answers the question What are you trying to prove?

Paragraph(s) examining similarities between 2 subjects.

Paragraph(s) examining differences between 2 subjects.

Concluding Paragraph: sums up main ideas.

Essay 1
Possible Topics

Here are some possible topics, though you are not limited to them:
o

Allegories: Young Goodman Brown and The Open Boat

Coming of age: the young men in Araby and Barn Burning

Compare and contrast any two characters or works

Compare and contrast Howards End the novel and Howards

End the film

Heroic heroines: Edna Pontellier, Margaret Schelegel, Phoenix
Jackson

Is Edna Pontellier a tragic heroine?

Inadequate males in Howards End

Journeys: Young Goodman Brown and A Worn Path

Men and women in love: The Lady with the Dog, The

o
o

Awakening, Howards End, The Horse Dealers Daughter

The human condition and The Open Boat
The importance of money in Howards End

The influence and the influenced: Maupassant and Chopin

The uses of Gothic: Hawthorne, Poe, Gilman, Faulkner

Violence in The Cask of Amontillado and Barn Burning

Whats going on in Hills Like White Elephants?

Womens plight: The Yellow Wallpaper, The Awakening, Howards

End, The Chrysanthemums