This compare and contrast essay should meaningfully analyze similarities and differences among several elements of fiction in two short stories that we have read for this course. Your essay should explore how the elements relate to one another, not simply that they are similar or different. For example, in both "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" and "An Act of Vengeance", each main character is dealing with the consequence of wrath - but so what?
Why is that interesting? What can be gained through contrasting one character's decision with that of the other? What do we learn about the nature of wrath and vengeance by looking at this spectrum of responses?
One of the dangers in this assignment is that you'll cover so much that your argument might get lost; another is that you'll focus so narrowly that your argument is not useful to the reader.