Primary Essay Assignment 2: Literary Analysis Essay

Dr. Gian Pagnucci

Writing Literary Analysis Papers

My primary goal for this class has been to help you enjoy reading literature. For some of you, that was an easy goal to achieve. For others, I know you doubted you would ever enjoy reading. But all kids love to read, as I said, so that means you once did too! School might have beaten that love of reading out of you or maybe T. V., video games, the Internet and dating overpowered that love, but somewhere inside each of you is a literary spirit. I hope you've found flashes of that spirit, even if it's still mostly buried. If nothing else, think of your life as a reader as a kind of alter ego, like a superhero's secret identity. Under the right circumstances, it might just be useful to pull bring out that big red reading cape.

Even if I failed to get you excited about reading, I hope I at least got you thinking some of the time and that I helped you have a little fun this semester. I tried to throw a lot of different literary "genres" (that means various types of literature) at you this semester. Hopefully one or two of those got you thinking about something different from your regular life for awhile. And I even took you to a Billy Collins poetry reading (sort of, anyway).

But, as they say (and, when you think about it, it's a very literary type of saying), all good things must come to an end. Every book has a final chapter. If you got sick of this class, well, at least we're near the end of the semester and you can go onto something new (although, since I've already been through college, I have to warn you: if you didn't like this class, well, give it some time and we'll see what you think later . . . .) I hope I've given you all a memorable Humanities Literature experience and that, for the majority of you, those will be pleasant memories.

For the day of the Final Exam, I am saving some really cool stuff. So stay tuned . . . .

Meantime, I'm afraid the days of fun are coming to an end, and I have to think ahead to your continued intellectual development. So, although I know it's going to be a bit hard, I want to take one more chance to teach you something important: I want to help you learn how to develop and support a literary argument. If you can learn to successfully write this basic type of essay, you ought to be able to tackle many other writing assignments you'll face in college, at least if you tinker a bit with this basic essay structure. So, here we go. (Ok, ok, I know some of you are groaning, "Enough already, just tell us what the blasted assignment is!")

Literary Analysis Essay Assignment

For this assignment you are going to write an essay about the novel you chose to read individually.

1. Before you start writing, make sure you finish reading your novel.

2. Next, select a topic to write your essay about. Almost any topic will work, but focus on (a.) something you can argue about based on the book (b.) something that is not entirely obvious to the average reader, and (c.) something for which you can find quotes in the book that back up your statements. In you paper's introductory paragraph, discuss this topic and why it is important. Give a brief summary of your book. And then explain what your main argument is. We'll discuss picking an essay topic in class.

3. Break your topic into 3 parts. Let's say you are writing about Identity Crisis on the topic "What are the most important characteristics of a superhero?" Divide that topic into 3 parts: good deeds, loyalty, and super powers. Each of these could be a characteristic of what makes a super hero. So in your paper, your thesis would be this:

In the graphic novel Identity Crisis, Brad Meltzer shows that the three most important characteristic of a superhero are loyalty, super powers, and good deeds.

List your 3 parts (these are called sub-points) in the order you will discuss them in your paper.

4. Now, after your introductory paragraph, write at least one paragraph where you discuss each of your 3 parts. As you discuss each part, explain how this sub-point is related back to your main thesis. To prove each sub-point, discuss one or two quotes from the book that help illustrate each point. For example,

Performing good deeds is vital to being a superhero. When the JLA brainwashes Dr. Light, they are clearly committing an evil act. This act begins to tear the team apart, allowing the heroes to be attacked and nearly beaten. In part 2 of the story, we see this when Atom says, "We were just doing our best, Wally," and Flash replies, "And that was your best? A magic lobotomy? You might as well have put the full icepick in while you were at it." The quote shows tension over the heroes' decision and foreshadows the problems to come. This helps illustrate how Meltzer's story is arguing superheroes must do good deeds or suffer bad consequences.

5. In your concluding paragraph, summarize your main argument. Then explain further why this topic is worth thinking about. Give your reader something to ponder or learn from as they finish your paper.

6. When the essay's done, read it through once or twice. Then give the paper a title that helps summarize your argument. Do NOT title your paper "Literary Analysis" or "Identity Crisis." Come up with an interesting title that tells the reader something.

7. Turn in your essay on time (and stapled!!!!).

One small word of caution: People usually do a poor job on this essay assignment if they try to write about a book they haven't actually read; that's doubly true if they write about a book that they didn't read but which Dr. Pagnucci did read (and he reads a lot of novels, usually 2 a month). So before you start writing, finish reading your book (plus, that's the fun part and it's a good excuse to procrastinate.)

Literary Analysis Essay Requirements

Your Literary Analysis Essay should meet all these basic requirements:

• in the upper right-hand corner, write the words "Literary Analysis Essay"
• also in the upper-right hand corner list the author and title of the book you are analyzing (remember that this book must be different from the book you wrote about for the Book Club Response Paper)
• also in the upper-right hand corner print the date, your full name, and your email addresses
• use an 11 or 12 point font
• double space your Literary Analysis Essay
• staple all pages together
• write 2-4 full pages for your essay
• you are required to write this essay individually

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