LIT 112: Essay #3 Guidelines
Comparing and Contrasting Chuck Palahniuk’s novel, Fight Club, with the film adaptation
Length: 3-5 pages, formatted in MLA
Due Date: Sunday, 12/12, by 11:59 p.m.
Assignment
Compare and contrast Chuck Palahniuk’s novel, Fight Club, with the film adaptation. In your paper, compare and
contrast the story/book with the film adaptation through Literary & Film analysis, also known as literary/film
criticism. This can be defined as a close reading/film study and interpretation of a literary text in relation to its film
counterpart. A literary analysis carefully examines the constituent elements of a literary text for both meaning and
significance. Generally speaking, these elements include setting, plot, style, tone, point of view(narrative
perspective), characterization, symbol, theme, and context (social, cultural, and historical). A film analysis works
in a similar manner including the elements above with the addition of: camera angles, lighting, set design, sound
elements, costume choices, editing, etc.
One of the ways in which your essay achieves these ends is through the articulation, support, and development of a
specific idea or claim. To put this in simple terms, your essay should contain a clearly stated thesis (claim), a
coherent structure, and an abundance of relevant evidence (textual and otherwise).
As the writer, you must decide on your own interpretation and angle of analysis for the essay.
Other Parameters:
● Essay must be argumentative (persuasive) in nature
● Essay must use a minimum of (4) textual examples–quotations followed by explanation and
interpretation–as argumentative support
● Essay must adhere to MLA standards and guidelines (see below)
● Your essay should contain a well-argued thesis statement (claim)
● The “body” of your essay should work to support your thesis statement
● Your essay should be free of grammatical and punctuation errors
Some Rules for Writing
● Include the title/author and the filmmaker/title that you are discussing in the first or second paragraph of
your paper
● Assume your reader has read the story and watched the film you are discussing but does not remember it
in detail. In other words, be sure to provide your readers with enough information (textual examples, etc.)
so he or she can follow your analysis
● When you directly quote something, make sure you incorporate the quote into your own analysis. Do not
simply stick the quote into the middle of your writing (more on this below)
● If you use a quote that is longer than four lines (when you type it out), indent the entire quotation and
remove the quotation marks
● Use quotation marks around the title of a story
● Don’t plagiarize. Plagiarism is grounds for failing the class and for possible dismissal from the college
MLA Standards and Guidelines
MLA Sample Paper
All final drafts of essays must adhere to the MLA standards and guidelines outlined below. In other words, given the
short page requirement, I would strongly urge you to write a five-paragraph essay. Your first paragraph, then, will
establish the context for your argument and end with your thesis statement. The body paragraphs will work to prove
that thesis statement through the use of examples. And the conclusion will restate the argument based on the
evidence presented in the body.
Essay Format
● Double-space everything
● Set document margins to 1″ on all sides
● Number all of the pages of your essay; page numbers should be inserted in the upper right-hand corner
of the page, one-half inch from the top
● Include your last name on all of the pages of your essay; your name should be inserted in the upper
right-hand corner of the page, one-half inch from the top
The First Page
● In the top left-hand corner, list the following information (in the following order): your name, my name,
course number and section, and date
● Center the title of your essay just below the above list of information
● Begin the essay just below your title; indent five spaces
Using Quotations
MLA in-text citations are made with a combination of signal phrases and parenthetical references. A signal phrase
indicates that something taken from a source (a quotation, summary, paraphrase, or fact) is about to be used; usually
the signal phrase includes the author’s name. The parenthetical reference, which comes after the cited material,
normally includes at least a page number.
Below is an example of how to properly integrate a quotation into your paper. Notice how this example introduces
the quotation, provides the page number for the quotation, and then goes on to explain how the quotation fits into the
essay as a whole:
For instance, Gray’s position on the Nixon-Kissinger secret bombings–in some senses the political focus of
the text–gets reduced to a cliched and mediated conception of American militarism: “But, as Roland
reminded me, we’re not living in democracy. Nixon kept saying ‘Bomb, bomb, bomb,’ and the bombs kept
falling” (19). To be sure, Gray’s adoption of a postmodern aesthetic in his presentation of historical fact is
symptomatic, an obvious and nearly hysterical manifestation of a culture addicted to images, stereotypes,
pseudo-events, and spectacles.
Book to Film Comparisons
Things to Consider
CHARACTERS:
How were they described in the book? Did they look the way you thought they were going to in the movie?
ADDITIONS:
What did they add to the movie that wasn’t in the book? What was in the book but wasn’t in the movie?
DELETIONS:
What was deleted from the movie? Was there anything in the movie that should have been in the book?
RELATIONSHIPS:
How did each text portray the relationships between the characters? Was the movie true to the book?
PLOT AND OTHER LITERARY ELEMENTS:
How did the author/director tell the story? In order? With flashbacks or prolepsis? When? Why?
THEME:
What themes were present in each? Which was portrayed the strongest?
Comparing and Contrasting Chuck Palahniuk’s novel, Fight Club, with the film adaptation
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