English Argumentative Essay Assignment | Essay Help Services

The purpose of this essay is to incorporate outside source material into an argumentative literary analysis, or, in other words, to “situate yourself in the established scholarly discourse.” Choose a topic arising from your reading of any work(s) of literature assigned from the beginning of the term through Sherman Alexie’s “Crow Testament,” and compose an original paper of approximately 1400 words. The optimal way to arrive at your thesis is to think of a question you’d like to answer about the text/s (though that question should never materialize verbatim in your composition), and let your answer constitute your thesis statement. You must use quotations from the sources (at least three secondary works) which appear on your Works Cited page in order to contextualize and reinforce your own ideas about the literature.

If you’re having difficulty deciding on a particular thesis, conducting your research should help you to identify several different ways of approaching an analysis, and you could then select the one you find most appealing. I have always believed it to be more difficult (for this type of paper) to pick a topic first and then try to find criticism which addresses it. It might benefit you first to get a feel for the type of inquiries scholars are making, and then let your research guide you into selecting a topic. Often, the best essays issue from the feeling that a scholar has missed something, developed an interpretive framework for one work of literature which impacts your reception of another, or has provided a very different interpretation from the one you had in mind for a particular text, or some part thereof.

A good place to begin (and to locate the most recent scholarship) is the MLA International Bibliography of literary articles; you can link to that search engine through our own library webpage, and these days you can access most texts instantaneously through online databases. If you’re partial to books, try searching through the eBrary tab on the Daniel Library homepage. If you want to see some book or article that isn’t accessible by direct electronic link, however, you can use InterLibrary Loan or Pascal to obtain just about any material within a few days. Make sure to consult one of the Daniel librarians via email or live chat if you are having difficulty navigating the electronic resources; the staff is immensely helpful and very approachable. If you are having difficulty generating ideas about a topic, consider the following areas of inquiry:

~How do these works of literature illustrate conflicting attitudes about the essence of human nature and how it is shaped by or resistant to cultural expectations? For example, in Huckleberry Finn, is it ultimately good and pure, trusting and generous, as modeled by Mary Jane Wilks, or is it morally depraved and consumed with advancing self-interest at the expense of others, as modeled by pap or the king and the duke? How does the cynicism expressed by the narrator of “The Black Cat” differ, if it does at all, from that of the disillusioned bachelor J. Alfred Prufrock or the disenchanted social climber Dexter Green?

~One of the features that makes American literature distinctive is the spirit of defiance that emerges from the political legacy of revolution and agitation for independence. Trace the way in which this attitude emerges in these texts. How do characters or individuals express resistance to oppression, and how does this assertion of autonomy or repudiation of perceived tyranny become characterized as heroic?

~How is the human capacity for deception treated by the various authors? Is the practice of misleading others unilaterally condemned as a despicable vice, or is it selectively lauded as an instance of the ends justifying the means? Compare and contrast particular instances (for instance, Sam [from Uncle Tom’s Cabin], Huck Finn, Alcée Laballière and Calixta, Grace Ansley and Alida Slade) in order to analyze the various cultural responses to deliberate misrepresentation of the truth.

~How have marginalized/minoritized populations within America asserted their rights through literature and argued for equal treatment under the law? Other than the slave narratives and Native American texts, you might consider a comparative analysis of a text from the second unit with Murray’s “On the Equality of the Sexes.”

~How do different works of literature address and challenge presumptive suppositions about identity, particularly with respect to a normative American self? How do characters come to understand social expectations of what being American entails, and then conform to or repudiate such standards? Here, you might think of Dexter Green’s carefully cultivated persona, Mr. Ryder’s decision to honor his inner Sam Taylor, Miranda’s endeavor to refashion herself into the perfect mistress for Dev Mitra, or the way in which Twyla and Roberta conceal their institutionalized pasts, but find that the shared experiences haunt their psyches.

~Other possibilities: gender relations, marriage, discrete depictions of masculinity and femininity, slavery, the pursuit of happiness, friendship, freedom, upward mobility

Be sure that your essay is uniformly double-spaced with margins of no larger than 1 inch on all sides. Do not justify your right margin. Include a heading on your first page comprised of your full name, my name, this course number, and the correct date of submission. A header containing your last name and the page number should appear in the upper right hand corner of each succeeding page. Devise an original title for your essay, and center it on the first page in the same size and style font as the rest of your paper. Use parenthetical citations paired with a Works Cited page to document your sources in MLA style. Submit your paper electronically to turnitin.com. Kindly submit a paper or email me an acknowledgment that you have not yet done so by 2359 hours on 26 April. Late papers will be penalized according to the policy disclosed in the course syllabus.