Essay Overview: For this second major writing project, I am asking you to exercise your budding expertise in analytical/critical thinking to write a longer, move involved close-reading essay. This is your opportunity to illustrate your ability to think critically, to analyze a text or group of texts and write an essay that offers some interesting, intriguing conversation about early American literature. Your task here is very similar to what you did in the first close-reading essay. The only difference is that now you must put together several scenes to make your argument, rather than a single scene. For models, look at the sample essay on Blackboard.
Task: Pick any text(s) we have discussed in class - but not the one you chose for the first assignment. Hone in on several moments/scenes that you find particularly noteworthy. Once you find the moments you want to close-read, begin the work of performing your analysis. Remember that an analysis is when you examine the parts that make up the whole. Examine each scene on the minutest levels. Look at diction, syntax, sentence length, imagery, figurative language. Examine the placement of the scenes within the narrative arc of the story. What happens right before the scenes? What happens right after? After you examine the scenes closely, examine the scenes within the larger context of the story. What is the relationship between the scenes and the story's larger goals/themes/ideas? Do the scenes contradict the narrative's larger messages or are the scenes essential to that message? Do the scenes reveal a less obvious, often overlooked aspect of the narrative? After you make your observations, then you must synthesize (put together) those observations into a central argument/thesis.
Here is a sample structure based on two scenes:
I. Intro
a. General discussion of the text(s) and identification of scenes to be closely read
b. Statement of thesis, why the scenes matter
II. Scene One summary
a. Summary of what happens in the scene. Keep it short!!! And contextualize the scene; what comes before and after, how does it fit into the story as a whole?
III. Scene One analysis
a. Analysis of why the scene matters. Here is where you prove your thesis by highlighting all those observations you made during your initial close-reading.
IV. Scene Two summary
V. Scene Two analysis
VI. Conclude