Write an essay analyzing August Wilsons Fences that discusses why and how dialogue, plot, setting (time/place), and/or specific characters are used to depict one or two of the themes from Unit 1 in a particular way. For the play itself, some important contexts to consider are:
- The time period in which the play was written
- The playwrights biography and his/her other writing
- Contemporaneous works of theater (plays written or produced by other artists at roughly the same time)
- The language of the play
- The Setting
- The Plot
- The Characters
Your essay should incorporate details and quotes from the play (using parenthetical documentation with the playwrights name), and you should use your own words to elaborate on the meanings of the details and quotes you use as evidence. Review your feedback from the Unit 4 Discussion on Analyzing a Drama, as well as the posts and feedback of your classmates. Follow these steps:
- You will closely read/view Fences considering its themes, characters, organization, dialogue, and other literary elements.
- Read and reread the play by paying attention to the varied features. Your awareness of these literary elements and how these elements build the story’s meaning will grow.
- See the as an example of how to approach your analysis.
- Following your close reading of Fences, you will compose a literary analysis of the play. See the for guidelines on how to proceed.
- Be sure to maintain an appropriate academic tone (no slang, second-person [“you,” “we”], contractions, etc.)
- Please refer to the Purdue Online Writing Lab for.
- Leave time to submit your draft to for review. Your tutor can help with thesis and content development, organization, grammar, and mechanics. Utilize this free service to write the best draft possible on this major assignment.
- Don’t forget that you can submit your draft to multiple times during the revision process.
- Submit your final paper in Turnitin, OR in the assignment dropbox, according to your instructor’s preference. Should you use Turnitin, make sure to take a screenshot of the confirmation screen once you upload your paper.
When writing your essay, the goal is to demonstrate what spin the play has on a particular theme. Be specific about the ways the theme is used and how the plays use of time period, character, dialogue, and setting develop a deeper meaning to the theme. Provide details, including cited direct quotes from the play. Don’t forget that you must comment on the quotes you use to explain why they are significant.
File submissions: Please submit your file as a Word doc or PDF file.
Criteria on Which You Will be Graded:
- The specificity and development of your thesis
- Your supporting claims, logic, and organization
- The quality of your writing, to include paragraph development and organization: topic sentences, conclusions, transitions, etc. See
- Your engagement with the text (how you explain your examples, your choice of supporting quotations)
- Format: You are required to use MLA style for all writing assignments. Proper MLA citation and a correctly formatted Works Cited page (12-point font, Times New Roman, double spacing, Last name and page number on each page, etc.). Please refer to the Purdue Online Writing Lab for
- Academic Honesty (all sources must be cited)
- Length Requirement: 750-1000 words
