For our final essay, your assignment is to write a character analysis of a majo
For our final essay, your assignment is to write a character analysis of a major character in one of the two short stories we will read in this unit (“A Good Man is Hard to Find” or “Hills like White Elephants”). Once you have chosen a character to analyze, choose three adjectives that describe that character. These adjectives, or character traits, will be the basis of your 3-4 page essay.
Requirements: Your thesis statement should be stated directly in your introduction and be proven throughout your body paragraphs. You must use at least one quotation from the story in each of the body paragraphs to support your ideas. These quotations must be correctly documented according to MLA guidelines… refer to “Format for Quotations” below.
The Thesis:
As you know, a thesis statement is a sentence or two that presents the reader with the essayist’s argument. Good thesis statements do not simply announce a topic; they make a claim about the topic, and they provide the organizational framework for your paper.
A thesis statement makes a promise to the reader about the scope, purpose, and direction of the paper. It summarizes the conclusion that the writer has reached about the topic.
Example One: Through Harry Potter’s compassion, devotion to his friends, and unwillingness to compromise his ideals, he is able to overcome the manifestation of his own rage and selfishness: Voldemort.
Example Two: Achilles’s rage, self-interest, and unmatched physical ability leads to his own destruction at the hand of the coward Paris, a symbol of Achilles’s inability to manage his own negative emotions.
Notice that the thesis tells what specific character the paper will analyze, three characteristics the person displays, but, most importantly, what conclusion the essayist reached about the nature of the character.
Format for Quotations: When doing a literary analysis, every good writer knows that every body paragraph requires textual evidence, and when incorporating textual evidence into a paragraph one must follow a few simple steps: intro, quote, cite, and explain. When you introduce a passage you are preparing your reader for it–giving them an idea of how to read it. You then drop in the direct quote (always best in a literature paper to use direct quotes over paraphrases) along with the parenthetical citation. Your explanation relates how that passage supports your thesis.
Example:
Anne Bradstreet uses symbolism to show how all people are like plants. They grow and bloom and die, sometimes before they have even blossomed. For example, “Farewell sweet babe, the pleasure of mine eye, / Farewell fair flower that for a space was lent, / Then ta’en away unto eternity” (Bradstreet 1126). Here, Bradstreet tells readers how death is inevitable. It is an inescapable occurrence that happens to every living thing.
Because every piece of textual evidence requires a writer to introduce and explain it, one should never begin or end paragraphs with quotes.
Here’s a helpful website: https://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/QuoLiterature.html
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