YOU WILL WRITE A 4-6 PAGE ESSAY, ANSWERING ONE OF THE FOLLOWING PROMPTS.

YOU WILL WRITE A 4-6 PAGE ESSAY, ANSWERING ONE OF THE FOLLOWING PROMPTS.
Compare two class readings from two different genres (fiction/drama/poetry). In considering your two texts, you might ask yourself what they have in common – Do they share similar topics/themes? Are the authors’ style or strategies the same? Are they equally effective in transmitting a particular message? Are the political or social circumstances similar? Were they written during a similar time period? Likewise, consider how the two readings are different and why might that matter – Are they writing 200 years apart but deal with a similar topic? Or are they writing at the same time but in different genres (one in poetry and one in drama)? The big question you are answering is: How can we better understand both texts by reading them side by side? By the end of your paper, you should also indicate why these connections matter? What is the larger significance?
*Sample thesis statement: While Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Tell Tale Heart”(1843) and Robert Browning’s poem “Porphyrias’s Lover” (1836) are different genres and were written an ocean apart (America and England), they both portray an obsessed speaker whose desire for control leads to murder. Both authors reveal their narrator’s denial and mental illness through their first-person perspective, word choice, and tone.

*Larger Significance: These similarities matter because it shows that writers in both America and England in the 19th century were interested in madness, or what we would call severe mental health disorders today. The fictional, dramatized versions represented by this story and poem are meant to entertain, but they also speak to problems we are still dealing with in the modern world – untreated mental health issues and violence committed by romantic partners.

Write an essay exploring how the content of this course might affect your future/your career/your place in the world. Use at least two readings from class to explore how they changed or expanded your thinking or understanding about yourself, humanity, or the larger world. While this prompt encourages a more personal approach (and you should use first-person “I”), please ensure your essay is grounded in the readings of the class.
*Sample thesis statement: In reading Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll’s House (1879) and June Jordan’s poem “A Poem About My Rights” (1978), I realized both how privileged I am as a white cisgender woman living in America in 2023 but also how much society still reflects ideas from 150 and 50 years ago. Progress still needs to be made to really make this world a place where all people can be safe and powerful, regardless of their gender or race.

While some of the above prompts might seem to require big answers, remember that an essay that goes into more detail and depth will be much stronger than one that tries to cover too much ground. In addition, your primary texts need to be ones that we’ve read for this class.

You will need to have a clear argument/thesis with plenty of supporting examples from the class text(s). Your thesis should be clear, specific, relevant, debatable, and original. Everything in your essay should relate back to this central argument or thesis. Remember that an argument refers to a writer’s attempt to establish the validity of a given position. Because you will be spending a significant amount of time writing this essay, you should choose something that interests you. You are welcome to use one of your short papers or discussion posts as a starting point for your essay.

Besides your primary texts, you should have at least 2 secondary sources to support your argument. This means that with the two works of literature from class, you will have at least four entries on your works cited page. Just remember to make sure they are credible, which you can guarantee by getting them through the library databases or asking me. You can use articles that have a point you want to explore further (whether you agree or disagree with it), articles that provide historical or biographical context to the primary text or author, or articles that are more theoretical where you use a similar approach. Be sure to include in-text citations as well as a Works Cited page, listing the sources you use (whether it is specific quotes or even ideas). Please use MLA unless you get permission from me to use another style.

Two readings from class below with website.

William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night (link here). https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/…

Excerpt from Casablanca – Read from page 143 to the end. http://mckeestory.com/wp-content/uploads/Digital-C…