For Week 5, we read and discussed several of the stories that are commonly used as Literary Analysis writing prompts for the English Composition exam.

The stories and poems briefly discussed below can all be found here on the web site, under Course Materials, General Education Courses, and English Composition.

I encourage students to practice writing essays on the common prompts that come from these stories, as listed below. Watch for Writing Challenges to be posted soon surrounding these stories!

The first story we read today was Araby by James Joyce.

Sample thesis statements…

1. The 1940’s Culture in Dublin, Ireland
a. Houses on Richmond Street (close together, brown, two-story, attached, no street lights, only one detached from its neighbors, horse-stalls, ashpits, poor?)
b. Neighborhood (kids playing, girl across the street, drunken uncle, bargaining women)
c. Hospitality (Mrs. Mercer still comes over to gossip)
2. Three Layers to the Story
a. The Love Story – He’s smitten with a girl.
b. Poor – Going to Bazaar but has no Money
c. Drunken Uncle – Where are the parents? Why did the uncle spend money on alcohol when they’re already poor?
3. Joyce’s Literary Style
a. Different language – Maybe he’s from a different culture/country.
b. Struggles of everyday life.
c. Imaginative and detailed – Makes you feel like you’re there. You can relate and picture the scene in your head.

The second story was Kate Chopin’s Story of an Hour

1. Culture of the 1890’s in America
a. The man is the provider and head of the house
b. Women are dependent upon men
c. She relies on the man to provide, but with him dead she has the money to take care of herself. “Free, body and soul”.
2. Multiple layers of the story
a. The friends shouldn’t have run right over to tell her the news without having all the facts.
b. She says she loved him and he loved her, but she’s going to enjoy being free.
c. Heart problems are a critical fact.
d. Culture – what was her life going to be like without a man?
i. New life without restrictions
ii. Make choices for herself
3. Chopin’s Literary Style
a. Satire – making fun of women who live their lives for men.
b. Everyday life, but talking about a woman
c. Big words – archaic language
d. Very detailed
e. Focuses her descriptions on the emotions

Prompts for Martin Luthor King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail
1. Discuss how the letter from Birmingham Jail impacted the Civil Rights Movement.
a. Non-violent protest
b. Million Man March
c. Awareness of Civil Rights
2. Discuss the impact of MLK’s call for non-violent protest in the letter.
a. Sit-ins
b. Rosa Parks bus incident
c. Integration in the Alabama school system – National Guard had to be brought in to defend students entering the white-only school
3. Analyze the purpose MLK may have had behind writing the letter.
a. Was his intention to start the Civil Rights movement?
b. In response to a letter from the church basically saying he stop the Civil Rights movement.
c. Did he mean for violent to occur as a result?
d. Did he want non-violent protest?

John Updike’s The A&P
1. The most common prompt asks you do decide who the hero of the story is.
a. Is it the manager for defending the decency of his customers by asking the girls to leave?
b. Is it the boy for defending freedom and the stopping discrimination?
c. Is it the girls for sticking to their guns?
d. Is it nobody really?

Poetry!

William Blake: Infant Joy vs Infant Sorrow
Compare and contrast the view points.
1. One is happy
a. Young parents
b. First child
c. Excited about the new family member
d. Maybe they have the money needed to raise the kid
2. One is sad
a. Second, third, etc. child
b. Know what to expect, not as exciting
c. Could have been unexpected, parents don’t have the money.
3. One was born to wealth, the other to poverty.

William Blake: The Tyger vs The Lamb
Compare and contrast the view points.
1. One is sweet and innocent – The Lamb
a. Representing gentleness, harmless, pure, innocent, good
2. One is dangerous – The Tyger
a. Predator, hunter, killer, scary, fearful
3. One is good, one is evil. One is God, one is the Devil.

e.e. cummings: anyone lived in a pretty how town

1. The continuous shift in the order of the seasons tell us the passage of time.
2. Sun, moon, stars, rain tell us something – time? Emotions? Time of day?
3. People – the story of life. (HINT: anyone and noone were people)
a. If anyone and noone were the main characters, then they fell in love, got married, had kids, the kids grew up and had their own lives, and forgot about anyone and noone. Anyone and noone both died, and their kids’ lives just went on.

e.e. cummings: in Just-

1. in Just (where is Just?)
2. It’s spring with puddles
3. Kids playing
4. the Goat-footed balloonman is a metaphor for Pan, the Greek God of Wine & Dancing.
5. Weird spacing – can be talked about if you are asked to discuss e.e. cumming’s style.
a. The extra spaces slow you down
b. The lack of spaces in the name make you speed up as if you were running or dancing.

Emily Dickinson: I Heard A Fly Buzz – When I Died
Analyze what is happening in this poem.
1. A girl is dying, preparing for her funeral.
2. She’s willed away all her estate items.
3. As she is dying, a fly shows up.
a. She focuses on the fly as the last thing she sees.
4. What does the fly represent?
a. Life! She’s watching life pass by as she dies.

Poetry:

A good general poetry essay will have the following:
Introductory Paragraph
Paragraph about the writing style of the poet
Paragraph about the basic plot line of the poem (what can we see happening?)
Paragraph about what you think it means
Conclusion: The author was trying to convey…..

OR

A good general poetry essay will have the following:
Introductory Paragraph
Paragraph about the basic plot line of the poem (what can we see happening?)
Paragraph about what you think it means
Paragraph about the writing style of the poet and how it affects the meaning
Conclusion: The author was trying to convey…..

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