race/racism, culture identity
Suggested Themes to Explore: the individual and community, race/racism, gender, culture/identity.
Introduction and Thesis (one paragraph)-Your paper should begin by stating the general topic and themes you’ll write about, stating your text (full title and author’s full name), a brief summary of the narrative or essay, and some context (when it was written and any relevant historical background). Your thesis should be stated at the end of the Introduction paragraph, and should make an assertion about the way you think the text(s) should be read and what you think they mean overall. It should be argumentative and analytical, not merely observational.
Body paragraphs-Here is where you support the way you think the text(s) by closely examining specific characters, scenes and examples from the primary text(s) — that is, the literature, not the background reading about the literature. Give your paragraphs clear topic sentences/points of focus. Focus on aspects that you find most interesting, subtle, clever or skillful – you should NOT go through summarizing or paraphrasing the surface meaning of the text(s).
Each body paragraph should contain at least one (two is probably safer) direct quotations from your primary text(s). Read this to learn about how to use quotations well: https://writingcommons.org/avoid-dropped-quotations
Conclusion-Here, bring your discussion to a close thoughtfully, rather than by mechanically repeating what you’ve already said. It can be helpful to emphasize your main points with a small bit of repetition, but add some reflection on such topics as the value of analyzing the text(s) this way for contemporary readers, or the ways that your analysis helps readers understand the social contexts of the periods they were written in. In other words, it should answer the question: “So What?
