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Guidelines for Literary Analysis Essay
Format: MLA
Length: 1000 words minimum, 1500 words maximum
Submission Instructions: To submit: Save essay as a Word or PDF file. Next to attach file, click on Browse my computer. Find essay and click on Open. Then click Submit.
Guidelines: Write an analysis exploring some aspect of one (or more) of the short stories, films, and/or the theme(s) from Weeks Two or Three. Choose some aspect to focus on and to explore further, such as symbols, characters, themes, or setting. I recommend using the discussion guide questions to help you come up with a topic. You may want to take one of the questions and turn the answer into your essay’s thesis or main idea. Then you would need to elaborate upon your idea further in order to turn your answer into an essay-length response. You may also choose from one of the following essay prompts:
“The Yellow Wallpaper”
Discuss the various factors that lead to the narrator’s descent into madness by the end of the story.
Analyze the ways in which the descriptions of the wallpaper mirror the narrator’s deteriorating state of mental health.
Read the Greek myth of Cassandra (in Blackboard), and discuss how the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a Cassandra figure.
“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”
Discuss what you think the character Arnold Friend is or what he represents (you can explore more than one idea here.)
Compare this story to either the myth of Persephone and Hades or the fairy tale “Little Red Riding Hood.” (See links in Blackboard)
“The Tell-Tale Heart”
Discuss the deeper meaning of some of the symbols in this story, such as the old man’s eye and/or the sound of the heartbeat
Compare and contrast the song “Furnace Room Lullaby” by Neko Case to “The Tell-Tale Heart”
Dystopian Narratives:
Why do you think there have been so many dystopian and/or post-apocalyptic narratives in our culture in the past few years? Feel free to use either the examples from this unit and/or other narrative examples to support your ideas, such as The Hunger Games, The Handmaid’s Tale, The Walking Dead, or Bird Box.
Discuss the idea of “the butterfly effect,” also known as chaos theory, as it is presented in “A Sound of Thunder”. You may also include any other narratives in your analysis that address this particular sci-fi phenomenon, such as the films Looper, Donnie Darko, or Back to the Future
Write an essay exploring any one prompt (or combination of prompts) for your chosen film on the Essay Topic Ideas handout (The Hunger Games Part I, Looper, Moon, Never Let Me Go, or WALL-E).
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