FINAL ESSAY

Use 2 OUTSIDE SOURCES (NO OUTSIDE SOURCES=FAIL)

3 PAGES, DOUBLE SPACED, SIZE 12 TIMES NEW ROMAN

 

Pick ONE of the essay topics below for your paper.

 

Flannery O’Connor stories:

1.       The issue of whether The Misfit had grace or not was discussed in class this week. Pick a side of the argument and defend your thesis with outside sources and examples from the text.

2.       How did appearances play a part in “Good Country People”? Why did the characters trust the Bible salesman? Defend your thesis with outside sources and examples from the text.

A Raisin in the Sun

3.       Each of the characters in the Younger family has a particular individual dream. One wants to move to a bigger home, one wants to attend medical school, one wants to rise above his conditions though does not necessarily have a plan to do so. Write an essay in which you compare and contrast the functions of dreams in A Raisin in the Sun. Consider whether there was a way to make each individual dream compatible with others’ dreams. If so, explain why the characters did not identify this alternative.

4.       Oftentimes, seemingly minor characters can actually have great significance to either the meaning or the actions of the play. In A Raisin in the Sun there is a handful of minor characters, including Mr. Linder, Bobo, Willy, George and Joseph, who are significant to the play. Choose one or more of the minor characters in A Raisin in the Sun and write an essay in which you analyze the roles that they play in the development of the thematic content of A Raisin in the Sun. Assess whether the inclusion of these minor characters is necessary to develop the play’s message. Defend your thesis with outside sources and examples from the text.

5.       Compare the three women from play and explain where they differed and what separated them throughout the play.

Choice

6.       In The Hours Virginia and Laura are both, in a sense, prisoners of their eras and societies, and both long for freedom from this imprisonment. They, like the narrator from “The Yellow Wallpaper”, are limited in their choice for what to do with their lives. Using example FROM BOTH, explain how their choice is limited.

7.       Explain what the author of “The Story of My Life” was attempting to convey to readers in her short story. What did she hope to say about not only the character’s life but all women at the time?