For your final paper in this class you should write an analysis of one of the five short stories found on the course site

For your final paper in this class you should write an analysis of one of the five short stories found on the course site

For your final paper in this class, you should write an analysis of one of the five short stories found on the course site. The easiest way to get started on a literary analysis is to read the story carefully, find some point in the story which seems intentional.

For your final paper in this class, you should write an analysis of one of the five short stories found on the course site.

The easiest way to get started on a literary analysis is to read the story carefully, find some point in the story which seems interesting, and think about how that point relates to the theme of the story. Thus, you might read Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” and find some interest in the setting of the story.

You might think about how the setting (both time and place) relates to the theme of the story, or what the author is trying to say. In this case you might write a paper arguing that “The setting of the story mirrors Louise’s own feelings, first of isolation, and then of freedom”. Your next step is to find evidence to support your claim in the story, so you should reread the story carefully, looking for any details which seem to reinforce your idea. These details, once you find them, will serve as your evidence. The point of the paper, then, is to demonstrate some critical thinking about the story and to construct a solid and compelling analysis.

Try to stay away from evaluating the story at all; whether you think the story is any good isn’t very relevant to a study of the use of setting (for example).Also, make sure your paper is not merely a summary or retelling of the story–in fact, you should write the paper to an audience that is already familiar with the basic plot of the story. So rather that telling the audience what the story is “about,” you must make a claim of some kind about the way the story works and support it.

One requirement of this assignment is the use of outside sources. I’ll introduce some research sources in the coming classes. You should use your research to support your own ideas or to fill in biographical or historical information as necessary for your analysis.