6 pagesDouble spaced3-4 sources (NOT including the story you are writing about)
Argumentative Essay on The Oval PortraitRequiring you to both thoroughly analyze one of the stories we have read, and to integrate diverse opinions in support of your thesis.
The short stories we have read this semester all uses a relatively brief narrative describing events, ranging from the mundane to the fantastical, to make broader claims about topics including: race, gender, culture and society, religious faith, and even questions of aging and death.
First, select a story you have not yet written about offer an interpretation of what it is “really” about; that is, what broader concern are the plot, characters, literary devices, etc. a vehicle for exploring?Next, defend this position. This will require you to go beyond a summary of the plot or simple study of the characters; rather, you should analyze the author’s choice of language to demonstrate how it connects the particular events of the story to a broader concern (for example, how does Toni Cade Bambara use two characters’ descriptions of the fancy paperweight to symbolize the problems of value and worth that her story, “the Lesson,” wrestles with?)YOU MUST INCLUDE A CLOSE READING OF A PASSAGE OF YOUR CHOOSING FROM YOUR STORY.
Finally, you should incorporate secondary scholarly sources into your argument, either as support of your interpretation, or as counterclaims that you can acknowledge and refute. As I’ve mentioned before, these sources can be: analyses or interpretations of the story itself, studies on the author and her style/concerns, or works of research that can offer relevant contextual information about elements of the story (for example, an article on jazz might help your analysis of “Sonny’s Blues.”
