Essay 1- Formal Interpretive Analysis
2-4 pages (600+ words)
Select one of the stories assigned in our readings. Write an essay of at least TWO complete pages that argues for an interpretation of the story’s meaning based on
your analysis of one of the Formal Elements of the text.
Formal Elements:
Plot
Character
Point of View/Narrator
Setting
Options (Pick ONLY 1):
How does the structure of the plot affect the meaning of the story?
Select one or more characters in the story and explain how understanding the character(s) is essential for understanding the meaning of the story.
How does the narrator create meaning in the story?
How does the setting create meaning in the story?
1. Select your formal element
2. Go through the story and analyze it carefully through an understanding of that element.
Make a list of possible quotes that relate to the element
Make a list of any quotes or issues that contradict the others
3. Be sure to state the meaning of the story in one sentence.
Remember, the meaning is not the same thing as the theme or topic. The meaning is an argument about the theme or topic.
Your essay must include:
A clear, argumentative thesis that explains the story’s or poem’s meaning
Focused, unified paragraphs that contain no more than 1 idea and are controlled by strong topic sentences.
A logical organizational structure that leads the reader through the argument you are making.
Direct quotes from the text itself to support your claims.
Quotes or citations from other sources to support claims that are not common knowledge (history, criticism, author biography). All evidence must come from PGCC
resources.
Your essay should not:
Spend unnecessary time on summary. Assume that your reader has read the story.
Use Wikipedia, Sparknotes, or any other Internet source to come up with or craft your argument. All outside sources must be library based unless you receive
written permission.
Use words or ideas that belong to others without citing them in correct MLA format.
Final Essay Due by the date listed on the Blackboard website.
Essays must be in a MS Word file. Due on 2/25/17
10
What did you know about the Vietnam War before you read “The Things They Carried”? How did the plot structure affect your reading of the story? What did you learn by
reading the story, or how did your experience reading the story help you to better understand the experience of soldiers during that particular war? (due on 2/22/17)
For question 2
It is like a discussion board and It has to be 350 words and above
I will send what my friend posted on the discussion board and you have to comment at least 100 words for different 4 people (due on 2/24/2017)
Question 3 it will be question on.
Questions “The Things They Carried” it is 1-9 question
This is likely question but not the same story.
1. How would you summarize the plot of the story. Does anything about the story make it difficult to summarize the plot?
2.Who is the most sympathetic character in the story and why? What kind of information do we learn about the emotional life of that character? What don’t we know?
3What point of view does the story use? What effect does this type of narrator have on the story’s effect?
4.Describe the setting of the story in detail. Where is it set? What is the time period? What don’t we know about the setting
5.What is the style of the story? Is the prose formal or informal? Melodramatic? Minimalistic? Describe the overall tone and give evidence for your answers.
6.Do you see any reoccurring images or patterns in the story? Are there any symbols?
7.Why is the narrator so focused on the girl’s sexuality? What argument is the story making about this subject?
8.Discuss the implications of the line, “this is how to make a good medicine to throw away a child before it even becomes a child.” What do you think of the mother
offering this advice to her daughter? How does this line relate to the story’s theme?
9.Of all the things the mother warns against the girl doing and, therefore, becoming a slut, which are actually sexual in nature? What might this tell you about the
ways that female sexuality is defined and constrained in the text?
