To Suzanne and anyone else who is interested:
I ended up assigning The Lottery. I wanted to keep the assignment simple and yet one that forces the student to think deeply about the story in terms of its literary elements. My students have a very basic grasp of how fiction works. Hopefully this assignment will help them understand. It was amusing to hear their reactions to the story. They were clearly shocked by the story and most of them didn't get it at all.
Here's how I assigned the essay:
Assignment 2 - Literary Analysis
Write an academic essay of 3–5 pages (850–1400 words) that analyzes and interprets one or more elements of Shirley Jackson’s short story, The Lottery.
To help develop your interpretation, you should include research from at least one but no more than three reliable resources. These sources may provide information on story elements—plot, point of view, character, setting, and symbols—as well as interpretations of the text, or the social or cultural moment in which the text was created. You may also incorporate a critical work, such as a scholarly essay, or a review.
A successful essay will have a strong thesis, logical organization, and a clear discussion that explores deeply a limited number of points that interpret Jackson’s story. The discussion should include quotations, summary, and paraphrasing from the short story. In addition, the essay should have an introduction, conclusion, appropriate point of view and tone, as well as be largely free of surface errors. Please note: A successful essay will not rely largely on plot summary nor will it be simply a review of the text. As with the other assignments in this course, the GS 120 Competency Rubric will act as the grading instrument for this essay.
Dates:
Prewriting is due in class July 27.
The first draft is due in class on July 29. Bring at least 3 copies for members of your group.
Second draft is due in class on Aug. 3.
Final draft is due in class on Aug. 5.
Suggestions:
Literary analysis is a way of deepening your understanding and appreciation of literature. The process of literary analysis is no different from any other kind of analysis: you divide the whole into parts. Once the parts are separated and considered singly, you will find it easier to study them. An analysis of literature is often broken down into a discussion of one or more of the following elements: plot, point of view, character, setting, symbols, irony, and style.
For more information on literary analysis see this web site:
http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/literature.html
This academic essay should be written in the third person.
AUDIENCE: Your reader is someone who has already read the piece. Do NOT use the literary analysis to tell the reader what happens in the story. Use what happens in the story to support your analysis. So, don't give the reader a summary - they've already read the piece.
PURPOSE: Your purpose in this composition is to convince your reader that your analysis is an accurate one. You are to analyze objectively, supporting all your general statements with direct references or direct quotes from the piece.
THESIS STATEMENT: Your thesis statement will be what you plan to prove through your analysis and must include the element of literature that you have chosen.
INTRODUCTION: Mention both the name of the title and the name of its author in your introduction. The title should be in italics. Be sure the thesis statement will compel the reader to read on and is the last sentence in your introduction.
CONCLUSION: Mention both the title and the author’s name in your conclusion. Restate your thesis and mention the element discussed in the paper.
QUOTATION: DO quote directly from the work. You are required to use a minimum of 3 quotes from the work itself. However, don’t overuse direct quotes. Make sure to look at APA examples so you can properly implement this practice.
More on thesis:
A formula for the most basic analysis thesis could look something like this:
In (title of poem/novel/play), (author's name) uses (1st literary device), (2nd literary device), and (3rd literary device) to (show/criticize/explain/etc.) (some aspect of human nature).
Notice that the second part of such a thesis (beginning with "to") identifies the theme of the passage, which will be the focus of the analysis. An example of this type of simple thesis is:
In "If you Were Coming in the Fall," Emily Dickinson uses simile, diction, and syntax to describe how people wait, hoping to fall in love.
If all you do in one body paragraph is give a few examples of irony from the text and simply identify them as irony, then you haven't analyzed anything. The analysis part involves explaining how those examples are irony and how they help to communicate the theme of the passage. But to be sophisticated in your analysis, you must have ideas that are "in-depth"—not just the superficial facts of what you see on the page. You must interpret what the author has given you to work with and show that you understand the theme and show how it ties in with your thesis.