English Essay Assignment
Analysis of Short Story Character
For this essay, you must choose ONE of the following short stories and write a piece of character analysis.
"A&P" by John Updike pp. 320-324
"A Good Man Is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor pp. 484-493 "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson pp. 139-144
"Two Kinds" by Amy Tan pp. 222-229
"A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner pp. 95-101
"Orientation" by Daniel Orozco pp. 284-287
"The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien pp. 101-111
"The Man to Send Rain Clouds" by Leslie Marmon Silko pp. 254-257 "Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne pp. 342-350
"Mericans" by Sandra Cisneros pp. 93-95
"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates pp. 145-154
"The Necklace" by Guy De Maupassant pp. 6-13
Take the short story apart according to narrator, characters, and conflicts. Look for symbolism. Is there a major theme you see running through the short story? If the ending seems ambiguous to you, what do you as the reader draw from the story?
Begin your paper with some biography of the writer. Then, provide your reader with a plot summary followed by your thesis statement. Your thesis statement should focus on a character or characters that you choose to analyze. Apply terms from the poetry unit as well as the list provided for this short story unit. Support your thesis statement with evidence from the short story and outside research. You will need 3-6 secondary sources in addition to the primary source.
Your final paper should be 4-6 typed pages using standard 12-point font, standard one-inch margins, and standard double spacing. Make sure you use correct MLA form to cite your sources and create your Works Cited list. Your essay should be well organized and free from errors.