More Detail on Comparison/Contrast Short Story Essay

On Tuesday May 28 your annotated Bibliography is due:

1.  biographical info on one or two writers depending on your choices--find one interview or website for each
2.  an article that is relevant to your theme/topic for each story
WRITE A ONE SENTENCE SUMMARY OF THE IDEA FROM THE ARTICLE OR BIO AND ONE SENTENCE ABOUT HOW YOU WILL USE IT IN YOUR ESSAY

Essay is due May 30--Thursday: here are some other reminders:

Be sure you have a thesis in your opening paragraph--the thesis should contain:
1. basic similarities between the two texts that you will be focusing on
2. specific differences in theme that you will elucidate through close reading of the two texts

For example: the two female characters in Story of an Hour and Desiree's Baby--both somewhat passive, oppressed; unable to communicate true feelings to partner; both suffer; one submits to patriarchy and goes off to die!  the other finds a space for a moment of self realization!

Using research:  these feelings about women's oppression, women's struggle for self expression are central to Chopin's life and her own path shows bravery that reminds us of her characters!

DRAFTS WILL BE RETURNED JUNE 4; REVISIONS DUE JUNE 11.

General Guidelines:

Every essay should have:

1.  a heading: Your name, course title and section, Dr. Van Slyck, Spring 2013, Final Reflective Essay
2.  a title that reflects your focus, theme
3.  double spaced, 12 pt font, 600-800 words
4. correct Works Cited page--alpha listing--parenthetical documentation should be author or title.

Remember: titles of stories in quotations; titles of journals, books, websites in italics!

Here is your Final Reflective Essay Assignment--Due June 5! Absolutely no Exceptions :)

English 102.0858

Writing Through Literature

Spring 2013

Dr. Van Slyck

Final Reflective Essay

PLEASE REVIEW “HOW TO READ A POEM”: COURSEPAK PP. 102-103

For this essay you will choose two poems from our course-pak (or two poems of your choice with my approval) that share a theme.  You will write a comparison contrast essay examining the form of the poem, the speaker’s tone or attitude toward the subject, use of imagery, symbolism and other devices and the subject or argument of the poem.  Begin by explaining what the poems have in common; then  explain how they differ in approaching theme.  In some cases you may wish to consider differences in the times or cultures in which the poems were written.

Suggested comparisons:

1.     Poems of seduction: Andrew Marvell, “To His Coy Mistress”; John Donne, “The Flea”

2.     Poems of love: William Butler Yeats, “When You Are Old”; Li Po, “The River Merchant’s Wife: A Letter”

3.     Poems about civilization: Matthew Arnold, “Dover Beach”; William Butler Yeats, “The Second Coming”; William Blake, “The Tyger,” Sandburg, “Chicago”

4.     Poems about mortality: Gerard Manley Hopkins, “Margaret, Are Your grieving”; Dylan Thomas, “Fern Hill” of “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night”

5.     Poems about race, culture, identity: Jean Toomer, “Portrait in Georgia” or “Face”; Jimmy Santiago Baca, “Portate Bien”; Maya Angelou, “Still I Rise”; Langston Hughes, “Theme for English B” or “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”; Julia Alvarez, “Bilingual Sestina.”

Your essay should be 600 to 800 words.  It should be typed, double-spaced, using 12pt font, Times New Roman.  It should have a title of your own that reflects your argument.  You should quote from each poem 2-3 times.  Be sure to integrate the quotations carefully, comment fully on each and use line numbers in parentheses.  Do not use overly long quotations.  Use an ellipsis (. . .) if you are leaving out some of the words and be sure to mark line breaks and capitals for the beginnings of each line: “You may write me down in history/With your bitter, twisted lies. . .”

The voice in the poem is the “speaker”; be sure to use stanza and line numbers when quoting.  Use slashes between lines; each new line begins with capital.

Please remember to put a heading in the upper left corner of your essay with the course, section number and your name as well as mine!  This is the only essay you may not revise and it must be returned to me.  Due Date: June 5.   You may review this essay at our final class meeting and celebration on Tuesday, June 11.

Thesis Statement

Females in the 1800's lack the ability to have a voice in their marriages.  In the "Story of an hour", "Desiree baby" and "The necklace", the female demonstrate their voice in 3 different way stages.

P.S. I'm having major writer's block ! :(

Research Topic...

After suffering from considerable writer's block and going back and forth with what angle to go with on this paper, I decided to write about the symbolism of female oppression in The Youngest Doll and Desiree's Baby.  (And if I could figure out how to start it, that would be thoroughly good.)

Both Rosario Ferre and Kate Chopin depict the way societal roles for women are extremely belittling and oppressive, as well as using powerful symbolism to describe the crippling of women by men. It also shows the way women retaliate against their situations. In The Youngest Doll, more than anything else, the symbol of oppression is the prawn. It enters her body and cripples her from within, reducing her to nothing more than a shadow of the vibrant woman she was when the story began. There is another symbol of oppression in this story; the United States and the way they colonized Puerto Rico and crippled their infrastructure. Kate Chopin's story uses racism and neglect as a symbol of oppression. The prawn and the issue of race can be compared in the way that the prawn bites the aunt in Ferre's story much the same way that the issue of race bites into Desiree's situation.

This are my thoughts so far. I need help with this, cause for reasons unknown, I cant seem to find a way to put my thoughts in order to write this. :(

Short Story Comparison

The Gothic nature of both Poe's A Tell-Tale Heart and Faulkner's A Rose for Emily resides in the author's ability to take a very common human emotion and exaggerate the emotion to irrational levels. In A Tell-Tale Heart the narrator is stricken with animosity towards the old man. While dislike of another person is a common human emotion the narrator takes it a step further and kills the object of his hate. This ability to force a familiarity between the character and the reader makes the character's fall into madness seem somewhat rational. However, the fact remains that the reader can still see the wrongness in the character while still connecting with him on a personal level. The character's ability to rationalize his irrational behavior causes a conflict in the reader. The actions, the motive, the extent of the emotions may seem exaggerated but the connection has already been made. For the reader that connection makes is seem as though the character is correct in his actions and thoughts.

--Still Under Construction

Research topic

I chose to write about Kate Chopin and the theme of "marriage" that she explores heavily in Desiree's Baby and The Story of An Hour. These two stories allow Chopin to express her feelings on marriage and what it does to the characters in both short stories. Desiree's Baby shows that even though marriage has its great deal of unity between two people, there are is controversy that can arise from unknown origins in a person that can greatly effect the marriage of two lovers. The Story of An Hour tells a woeful story of a woman who is informed of her husbands death and now examines how she may be able to live for herself now that she is free from the chains of a married lifestyle. Chopin excellently places the reader in the woman's point of view for both stories to get a feel of how it was to be a married woman during that time period.  

The Youngest Doll Reflection

In the “Youngest Doll,” the aunt struggles to have a life of independence or freedom. Her only opportunity to leave her family would have been to get married, and that was taken from her when she was injured by the prawn. Not only that, but marrying at that time would not have been a path to freedom because of the very male dominated and patriarchal society she lived in. When her doctor, who’s treated her for years, exclaims to his son, “ I just wanted you to come and see the prawn that has been paying for your education these twenty years,” (Ferre 247) it is very telling of the woman’s role in her society. The doctor never had any intention of healing her, and thus kept her in a weekend state for twenty years, using her illness to make money. Furthermore, there is nothing she can do to change things, she is at the mercy of his selfish acts. The only act of independence that the aunt shows throughout the story is her creative talent and drive to make dolls. The dolls are powerful in that they symbolize freedom, innocence, youth, and identity that was taken away from her when she was bitten by the prawn. She perfected her doll-making craft to a place where they were incredibly life-like, almost an exact replica of her nieces. She used glass eyeballs that had been, “submerged at the botom of the stream for a few days, so that they could learn to recognize the slightest stirring of the prawn’s antennae” (Ferre 246). This process of creating the dolls empowered her, and was used to instill a wisdom in her nieces which she acquired only after it was too late. The “stirring of the prawn’s antennae” is symbolic of men’s untiring grasp on women and she wanted others to understand this concept. This wisdom is important for young women to carry into their lives in a male dominated world, and to be wary of cruelty and dominance of men.

It was difficult for me to understand the purpose of the dolls in this story until I realized that it was tool for female empowerment. As the article describes, “Instead of the women being dolls manipulated by men...Ferre’s dolls are made and ultimately controlled by women” (Sneva 541). This is portrayed in the aunt’s obsession with the dolls, and by creating them and then idolizing them she is experiencing an innocence that was taken away from her by the prawn. She utilizes the dolls to teach her nieces lessons, and gives them a very special doll when they are married. Keeping this doll with her in her marriage, the youngest niece can never forget the plight of her aunt, and the oppression she felt because of men. It was difficult for me to see the female empowerment in this story until I understand the background of the culture and the time it was written. In the end of the story, the man ultimately loses out, and the doll wins. The doll is fighting back, and it’s Ferre’s way of showing that woman can fight back, and if women are weakened, the men will be negatively affected as a result.