For this assignment, you have a choice, as always. Your focus can be on one of the following options:

1. Focus solely on the novel, I, Robot.
2. You could show the relationship (comparison-contrast) with the movie and the book.
3. You could examine the novel in relation to the pantheon of science fiction writing (show its influence on other writers, for example, or why/how Asimov developed his perspective on robots).
4. You could examine the novel in relation to the author's life or his other writings (he was very prolific, and this novel was the first in a lengthy series of robot novels).
5. You could examine the relationship between the novel, the movie, and the screenplay (by Harlan Ellison, which was never made into a movie).

Literary Analysis

1. Is generally focused on one topic
   1. A theme or symbol(s) or development, and so on.
2. For our purposes, it will be interpretive in nature (This is NOT a book review. Instead, you will examine an aspect of the text and support your analysis/interpretation of it.)
3. Is supported by:
   1. textual examples
   2. explanations
   3. outside sources (cited, of course)
4. It examines the text, although for some analyses, you may also examine the author or the culture/time period of the author.
5. It may consider any/all of the following:
   1. structure, plot
   2. setting(s)
   3. character(s)
   4. style, tone, language
   5. symbols, allegories, allusions
   6. theme(s)
6. If there is a summary of the text, it is extremely brief (perhaps a sentence or two, certainly no more than a paragraph).
7. Remember that the narrator is not the same as the author.
8. Literature is crafted, so examine the craft
9. Consider the context of the literature:
   1. What forces shaped it?
   2. How was it received?

Remember that this type of essay is different from the previous one. In a exemplification essay, we have an emphasis on evidence (along with explanations of that evidence). In a literary analysis essay, the emphasis is reversed. You certainly have textual evidence, but the emphasis is on your analysis — your thoughts, insights, perceptions. You need to give judgment and show not only what you think but why you think that. You might want to include outside sources (other expert opinions), but those other opinions should not dominate nor overshadow your text — your own well-supported interpretations.

You essay must be :

1. Written in third-person narrative perspective
2. Use multiple (at least three) sources that are
   1. Explained
   2. Cited
3. Clearly organized
4. Have 2 Drafts
5. Follows MLA style and format
6. Five or more pages in length, plus a Works Cited page

If you plan to examine the book, then you'll want to try to focus on just one aspect that runs through most, if not all, of the stories. It may be a character or characters such as Susan Calvin or Powell and Donovan. It may be the development and increased sophistication of the robots as the stories progress. It may be the Three Laws of Robotics and how they play out in the various stories. It may be the changing, dynamic relationships between robots and humans. I'm sure there are other ideas as well (such as robotic self-awareness). Whatever you choose, please try to find something that threads its way throughout the majority of the nine short stories in our text.

If you plan to examine the relationship between the book and the movie, then you'll want to examine the movie's ideas (characters, plot, settings, themes, and so on) and determine what the movie's creators borrowed from the book. We know that there is not a one-to-one relationship between the book and the movie. The movie takes bits and pieces from various stories in the book. What are those bits and pieces? Why do you think the movie authors took those particular pieces? What was important about those borrowed items? What types of things were left out? Did the movie end on a different thematic idea than the book, or was it similar? It is important to not only recognize what was borrowed but to examine and make educated guesses as to why and what was important.

If you plan to examine other texts or the things influencing the author, you'll need to do a bit of research, of course.

I hope you enjoy writing this literary analysis on I, Robot.