English 102 Second Short Essay Paper
Due Date: April 10th MW, April 11th TTH
Format: 4-6 pages 12pt font, Times New Roman, Double Spaced, and one inch margins with a proper Works Cited page.
Assignment: Choose one of the following: “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” “The Death of Ivan Illych,” “The Chrysanthemums,” “The Metamorphosis,” “Parker’s Back,” “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” “Dead Man’s Path,” or “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Nothing outside the text will be allowed for this essay. Think of this story as a way of having a conversation with the person who composed it. Stephen Greenblatt once said, “I began with the desire to speak with the dead” and so it began that he engaged in conversation with William Shakespeare. We can have conversations with the poet by analyzing their work in the historical context in which it was produced. We can engage in research that will allow us to understand what was happening at the historical moment and furthermore, this allows us to analyze the mobility and contemporary significance of the work.
Your task is to: 1. Select a story, 2. research the historical time in which the story was written and be able to relay in your writing who and/or what the author was writing to, and 3. discuss the contemporary significance. Has the significance of this story changed over time?
Source information: You must use credible sources. You may use once source that I have presented in class. You must utilize three (no more than five) outside sources. Your story does NOT count in your source count. Thus, an MLA Works Cited page is required. Make sure you properly cite in-text and correctly format the WC page. Failure to do so will result in a 20% deduction in overall grade for the paper. DO NOT USE WIKI, SHMOOP, SPARKNOTES, or CLIFFNOTES.