Task: to analyze, in a comparative manner, two (or three) stories, as to their use of a
single element of fiction. One of the stories must come from the following list (your story from paper 1 is off limits):
The Student’s Wife – Raymond Carver
A Wagner Matinee – Willa Cather
The Enormous Radio – John Cheever
We Didn’t – Stuart Dybek
Constant Pain in Tuscaloosa – Barry Hannah
In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried – Amy Hempel
Rules of the Game – Amy Tan
Everyday Use – Alice Walker
A Worn Path – Eudora Welty
The Man Who Was Almost a Man – Richard Wright
The other may come from any of the stories that were assigned during the semester. Feel free as well to use one of your blog assignments as a springboard to this paper, assuming you develop it significantly. After you have chosen your stories, read and re-read them closely, taking note of the elements in them that make them what they are, then choose one of the elements of fiction that were the basis for organizing our readings (Plot, Character, Point of View, Symbol, Form, Allegory, etc.) and analyze the stories’ use or lack of that element, taking into account how the fiction element you chose manifests itself in each of the stories as well as comparing the two.
Requirements:
o You must support your own assertions with specific details and explanations thereof.
o Do not spend long paragraphs only describing the texts’ elements, similarities, or differences. Try to begin each paragraph with an argument about the texts. In other words, always answer “so what.”
o Show your work. Saying something doesn’t make it so. Be sure you slow down and explain your reasoning, step by step.
o Explain the evidence and its relevance to your argument/idea–a reader may not be able to follow your thinking, so explain it to them. Quote the text extensively, but, remember not to rely only on the quotes (never leave a quote to explain itself) to do all of the work, as your reader may interpret the quote differently than you.
Essays should demonstrate clear analysis, sound organization, and evidence in the form of reasoning and close-reading.
Grades will be determined as follows:
Topic/Purpose Development 50%
Organization and Support 30%
Style and Mechanics 20%
When you have completed your essay blog post, and are ready for me to evaluate it, please submit a link to your blog in the space provided at the right of the assignment page. Also attach it as a Word Document on the assignment sheet as well: this is so I can make comments and return the document to you. If you have questions about this assignment, please feel free to contact me at jjoelthomas@netscape.net.
A recommended process:
1. Take extensive notes (on paper or in the margins) of the story
2. Reread the story again, noting dominant or important patterns that relate to the fiction element(s) you are focusing on.
3. Freewrite on the topic for 10-15 minutes, letting yourself write anything that relates. Some of these “gut” responses may translate to the final draft, or illuminate other ideas.
4. Look over your notes and review parts of the poems again, noting patterns and differences between the 2 texts.
5. Draft some body paragraphs in which you lay out evidence (examples of elements) and interpret them.
6. Let it sit for a day or so, if possible. Reread your draft to see what it is adding up to; find more/further evidence in the text you had yet to consider.
7. Revise and edit, making sure you have fully supported your ideas with evidence (quotes and reasoning) and explanations.
Form: The paper should be 5-7 FULL pages in length, and may use secondary sources—
but be sure to document your sources using MLA style. When you turn in your paper, post it on your blog AND submit a word attachment on web ct and/or to my email address. Any questions feel free to email me at jjoelthomas@netscape.net.
Due Dates:
Paper proposals due: April 21
Final Paper due: April 28
Grace Shi
Intro to Fiction
English 2305
April 28, 2008
Comparative Analysis
As everything in life is comprised of parts into a whole, a story also falls into this organizational structure. A well-written fictional story includes a few elements, such as plot, characters, settings, or conflicts, but one of the more important elements that one must absolutely recognize when reading a story is the point of view that the story is written in. Writing a story without a clear point of view can confuse the reader and in turn, the author defeats the purpose of sending out a message that the writer originally wanted to portray. Alice Walker’s Everyday Use and John Cheever’s The Enormous Radio are two excellent examples of how point of view can be portrayed within fictional short stories.
Written in the more popular and known point of view, Alice Walker’s Everyday Use portrays the view of a mother with two daughters and a look into the life of their arguments and opinions. This fiction piece introduces the mother speaking in First Person Point of View by having her begin the story with some insight that she is going to be meeting her older daughter up after an unknown amount of time from about ten to twelve years. The reader can infer from this piece of information that the older daughter with the original nickname of “Dee” has been gone for the same amount of time. The mother remains unnamed but presents her daughter’s names while describing their current home and a bit of their past. It is apparent to the audience that the family’s previous home was burned and destroyed, and thus are living at their current residence. The mother also gives the reader descriptions of her family, as well as her own, appearance. She allows the reader to see that her family is of African descent and that she is not as educated as her oldest daughter. The audience is also able to see that the mother notices that her oldest daughter is scornful towards her own family, and in particularly towards her younger sister, who goes by the name of Maggie. Dee seemed to only subside in this scornful manner after her mother and the church raise enough money for her to go off to what is apparently a very nice school. The mother allows the reader to understand the underlying meaning of the story by allowing the reader to view the dialog held between her daughters and herself during the main conflict of the story. The mother defends her younger daughter by allowing Maggie to finally get what she wants. It is portrayed through the mother’s eyes that Maggie is characterized by a meek and unpresumptuous personality and that she seems to be used to hearing the words “no” told to her. Not only does the reader continuously see the narrator use the words “I” and “me” in her descriptions of the story, but in her personal dialog as well. By being the narrator as well as the main character, this First Person point of view is more specifically labeled the First Person Protagonist point of view. By definition, the reader can recognize this First Person Protagonist point of view by the usage of the pronouns of “I” and “me” within the narrator’s words and dialog. Therefore, we can easily conclude that our assumption is correct.
On the other hand, in John Cheever’s The Enormous Radio, the fictional short story depicts a mid-aged married couple by the names of Jim and Irene Wescott with a particular radio that gives them all sorts of ordeals for them to manage and create a plot with. Written in Third Person point of view, Jim and Irene Wescott are introduced as a plain and average looking couple with a pretty stable marriage and two young kids who are barely mentioned in the text. The story begins with the couple having a familiar old radio that seems to barely work. After having it totally burn out one day, Jim decides to give his wife a fancy gift of a new radio. After having the initial reaction of being displeased with the ugliness of the radio and how it doesn’t match a thing in her perfectly coordinated living room, Irene settles with the justification that she can hide the radio from sight, just as long as she is still able to hear her favorite Classical music pieces play. Both Irene and Jim stumble over the same first reaction to actually operating the awkward and new machinery. The radio starts up softly then dangerously escalating to a loud blare where both the Wescotts rush to lower the volume. After a brief dysfunction with the radio and a handyman’s work to fix the radio, Irene makes a discovery of the radio’s secret of acting as a portal into every resident in their apartment building’s room keeps her occupied at days’ end listening in on everybody’s personal issues and situations. This causes Irene’s disposition to gradually change and occupy her thoughts with wondering who’s conversation goes with which person that she knows. She becomes ruder with her attitude and allows the radio to become an addiction to listen to every chance that she gets. Eventually, she concerns herself with other people’s issues and tries to have Jim go fix somebody else’s physically abusive relationship. Jim makes the dominating decision to fix the radio and end all of this “window-peeping” that his wife has been submerged in, but not after consoling his wife that they aren’t like the other’s with life’s miseries, issues, and problems, and that they really are happy and are in love. Upon fixing the radio, he addresses the real financial issues that the couple has, whereas Irene continuously brushes them off with excuses, as if she is trying to save face in front of an audience. The reader is presented with a concluding scene that Irene has begun to worry that her fixed radio is a portal where everybody else can hear her privacy now, and that the tables have turned on her end of the deal. Throughout the story, Third Person point of view is used widely, but more specifically Third Person Omniscient point of view is used. The reader knows that this method of point of view is used by the usage of an all-knowing narrator who is able to describe each character’s outside movements and also their inside emotions, motives, and feelings of a particular subject. The story is also equipped with the “he”, “she”, and “they” pronouns that are a further clue of the Third Person Omniscient point of view to the reader.
The two most dominant forms of Point of View methods are depicted in John Cheever’s The Enormous Radio and Alice Walker’s Everyday Use; both of which are excellently written and maintain an interesting approach of a fictional short story throughout the whole piece. The audience receives a clear description and automatic knowledge of what point of view the story is going to be in from the very beginning of each story, which allows the reader to gain a better and more clear idea of the message of each stories. By including the correct elements of fiction in each of these author’s stories, the main goal to get the author’s message across to the reader is fulfilled remarkably well.
Works Cited
Cheever, John. The Enormous Radio. 26 April 2008.
Walker, Alice. Everyday Use. 26 April 2008.
