Trail the Lights Book Essay

ENH 208

Fall 2015

P. Conti

Paper—Due by 5:30 p.m. on December 14th, 2015 by email via word attachment.

If you choose option #1 you must send me a proposal by 5:30 p.m. on November 30th, 2015.

OPTION #1

Your only major paper, which will involve a comparative analysis of The Brief Wonderful Life of Oscar Wao and any other work (or works) assigned through the due date, is to be ten pages long (plus work cited page) and typewritten, using double-spacing, a standard (i.e., Times New Roman) 12-point font and standard 1-inch margins.  So follow the rules of MLA. Do not have any extra spaces between paragraphs.

Rather than selecting a specific prescribed topic to write about, you will be free to come up with your own topic, as long as that topic focuses in on a specific, singular theme.

Possible themes might involve, but are not limited to, the concepts of education, race,  gender, religion, self-responsibility, war and deception—or any of the following dichotomies:

• reality vs. illusion
• innocence vs. experience
• the material vs. the spiritual
• the individual vs. society

Note, however, that these are mere suggestions.  You are certainly free (indeed encouraged) to zero in on a theme and approach of your own choosing.

Regardless of the topic you wish to delve into, and the general approach you wish to take, your first step should involve identifying a specific thesis you wish to develop.  In simplest terms, this means that you should be able to articulate, within a single thesis statement, precisely what it is you wish to say concerning the issue you have chosen to explore.  You must set out to prove some point.  That point will then set the tone for your critical analysis of the works in question.  You will be sharing with your readers what you have discovered as a result of having compared and/or contrasted the works and/or characters you have chosen to discuss.  By thoroughly synthesizing your interpretations, you should be able to present a case study that directly supports your thesis.

Since your study will involve making a case of some sort, it is essential that you present specific evidence to support that case.  Such evidence should take the form of direct references to and/or quotations from the texts.  However, you must keep in mind that your readers (i.e., your classmates and I) are already reasonably familiar with the texts.  Therefore, you should be referring to and quoting from your texts only to the degree that doing so directly supports the point you are trying to make or the case you are trying to prove.  Any mention of parts of the texts beyond such parameters would have to be considered superfluous.  (You must nonetheless still take care to provide sufficient evidence for whatever point you are trying to establish.  Make sure that you have fully developed and supported all of your ideas.  Also make sure that you have provided a full context for those portions of the text you do choose to cite.)  Please remember that plot summary for the mere sake of plot summary has no place in a critical analysis.  (If you are going to cite a portion of the text, you must explain why you are citing it.)