Select one of the stories that we have read so far in the class for your paper.

Kate Chopin “The Story of an Hour” and “The Storm”

Jack London “To Build a Fire” and Ernest Hemingway “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”

John Updike “A&P” and Sherman Alexie “This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona”

Flannery O’Connor “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and Edgar Allan Poe “The Tell-Tale Heart”

Before you begin writing, I suggest that you review the readings in your text on writing about literature. You may also find this section from the Purdue OWL helpful: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/618/01/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Your paper is an explication and analysis of the story, not a simple summary of the events in the text.

First, develop a thesis that clearly states your interpretation of the story you have chosen. Then provide a thoroughexplication that illuminates how the evidence in the text supports that thesis.

As part of your explication, select one aspect of a story from our text, and write an analysis of how that element of the story works to convey meaning, support the understanding of a character, or emphasize theme. You might consider a literary element or technique such as setting, characterization, or symbolism in the stories we’ve read so far.

You may choose any story that we have read in the first part of the course. However, you should not merely parrot a discussion we have already had during a class session. The intent of this assignment is to get you to think carefully and independently about a very specific aspect of how stories work – and then convey that thinking and understanding to your reader.

Remember to create a clear thesis. Remember to focus narrowly on one aspect or element of the story in your analysis. Remember to explain yourself fully and to illustrate with quotes and references from the story. This is an explication and analysis only, so focus on the text itself rather than outside research.

Remember also that your purpose is not to summarize the story.

Length: At least 3 full pages.

Format: MLA. You should include proper citation to our text at the end of the paper.

Also, please note that I can only accept your assignment submitted in the dropbox as a Microsoft Word compatible file attachment.