Topics for Essay 1

Due Friday, February 1
 

This essay is to be a discussion of at least 500 words.  Depending on the topic, it doesn't have to be a conventional five-paragraph essay.  Still, there should be an apparent rationale behind the orginization.  The essay, whatever the topic, should have unity, order, and coherence.  Brief as it is, there still should be sufficient textual evidence to support your general assertions.  (Cite page numbers in parentheses.)  Of course, you can write a conventional essay--especially for that kind of essay this little "checklist" (though prepared for an elementary course) might be helpful.  I discourage you from consulting secondary sources for this assignment.  If you do consult them, you should follow MLA guidelines for documentation. 

 
Do a close reading, an interpretive analysis, of "Bells for John Whiteside's Daughter," "Dead Boy," "Piazza Piece," or "Winter Remembered."

Discuss the conflict in "Necrological," the psychological conflict between the contemplative friar and the bloody men of action.

 
Analyze Janie's relationship with one of the three men in her life: Logan Killocks, Joe Starks, Tea Cake Woods.  In your conclusion briefly set that relationship within the larger context of Janie's search for self.

Trace and analyze the motif of Janie's hair.

Discuss the novel as an exploration of black/white relations.

Argue that Their Eyes Were Watching God is a feminist novel.

Write in Janie's own voice her self-defence at her trial.

 
Identify and explore the conflict in The Ponder Heart.  Granted Edna Earle is the protagonist, who is the antagonist?  Uncle Daniel?  Bonnie Dee Peacock?

Use Edna Earle's assertion, "I'm the go-between, that's what I am, between my family and the world" (120), as a point of departure for an analysis of her as a character.

Discuss the theme of cultural decay.

Examine divisions of social class in the novel.

There is an anxious, erotic subtext in this novel.  After all, its narrator is a middle-aged, unmarried woman whose uncle marries a 17 year-old girl, whom he tickles to death during an electrical storm.  Tease out this subtext; examine it, and offer some intepretive conclusion about its function.