Midterm Paper

Using your reading, class notes, and journals, compose a 1250-1500 word analysis addressing the prompt of
your choice. Longer quotations should not be included in the word count. Please come see me during office
hours at any time if you have questions, or simply if you are having trouble starting the paper.

Assignment Goals Assignment Requirements

 Utilize textual evidence to make an
interpretation of a work
 Demonstrate ability to conduct a close
reading of short segments of a text
 Use close readings as support for an
argument about the broader meaning of a
work
 Show ability to think and write creatively
about literature
 Make connections between literature and
contemporary cultural issues
 Deepen understanding of both historical
and contemporary contexts for the work
 Times New Roman 12 pt. font, 1”
margins all around
 MLA format (work titles should be
italicized, quotations should have page
attributions, etc.)
 Addresses a prompt for a work you did not
use for Response #1
 Clear, arguable thesis statement
 Considers two to three scenes in the work
 Outside research—you must cite at least
two sources aside from the text (including,
but not limited to: historical accounts,
literary analyses, interviews with authors,
contemporary issues, etc.)

No Country for Old Men

 Examine the role of the War on Drugs in the novel. Consider how the history of the drug war, along
with the history of the national border between Mexico and America, affect the characters in the
work. How might Chigurh’s (or Bell’s or Moss’s) situation be “fated” to occur within this historical
context?
 Consider how masculinity functions in the context of the novel. None of the characters represent an
“ideal” performance of masculinity, but each considers how their role as men affects their choices
and actions. What might McCarthy be saying about the changing nature of masculinity in America?
 McCarthy frequently uses the technique of “mirroring,” showing two characters linked through
similar actions or two moments in which similar things occur. Focusing on one instance of this
mirroring, explain how we are meant to conceive of the different ways in which the scenes play out.
 Address how the hyperviolence in the novel might connect to a particular historical event or political
issue in the period between 2000-2005. Bell uses examples of serial killers, the death penalty, and
WWII, while Moss was a Vietnam veteran, a hunter, and crosses borders frequently. Chigurh,
however, is completely ahistorical. How might one of these character’s monologues or histories
connect to an event in the real world?

Comparative Analysis of No Country for Old Men in Text and Film

 Space, the landscape, and maps play a significant role in both the novel and the film. Using a passage
that depicts space, the use of a map, or some other type of navigation, alongside of a scene that
depicts this usage, make an interpretation of how the film and the novel demonstrate a different
relationship between the characters and place.
 Both the film and the novel frequently use the technique of “mirroring,” showing two characters
linked through similar actions or two moments in which similar things occur. Focusing on one
instance of this mirroring in the novel and the film, explain how we are meant to conceive of the
different ways in which the scenes play out.
  Choose one major plot difference between the novel and the film, and explain how it affects the
overall meaning of the narratives. Scenes like Carla Jean’s death and Moss’s meeting with the
hitchhiker are very different in the film. How do these affect meaning?

Bayou
 Using McCloud’s concept of closure as well as our own discussion of point-of-view, explain how
Bayou either encourages or inhibits identification with the characters. Choose scenes that show how
characters’ points-of-view are used to emphasize our distance, or our proximity, to the violence that
takes place in the text.
 Examine the “fantastic” elements in Bayou, and use scenes depicting these elements to argue an
interpretation about the purpose of fantasy in a historical drama. Consider which elements and/or
characters play symbolic roles, and how those roles relate to the “real world” in the text.
 Analyze the relationship between Lee and Lily using both pictorial and textual elements of their
dialogue. What role does sympathy play in examining each character? How do we account for Lily’s
behavior? What might be significant about their behavior towards one another as it relates to
relationships between whites and African Americans today?
 Consider the ways in which historical trauma is depicted in Bayou, and make an argument for how
two scenes demonstrate something about the African American experience of historical trauma.
You may want to consider both visual and textual references to history in order to explain what the
text says about a traumatic inheritance.

Redeployment

Make an argument for an interpretation of one short story in Redeployment using journals, class notes,
historical context, discussions, interviews with authors, and your own close reading of short sections.

You may want to consider one of the following areas:

 What “Redeployment,” “Prayer in a Furnace,” or “Psychological Operations” is saying about our
relationships with people (and animals) at home and abroad, and what the narrator’s interactions say
about our attitudes towards war. You may also want to consider how the narrator deals with the
psychological effects of returning home.
 What “After Action Report,” “Psychological Operations,” or “War Stories” can tell us about what it
means to “own” a story, and what it means to tell a story. What is tellable? What is hearable? What is
recounted in dialogue? What is left out and why?
 How “Bodies,” “Prayer in a Furnace,” or “Unless it’s a Sucking Chest Wound” comment on the
network of support staff who are generally overlooked when we think of service, particularly in
terms of identity. What is the narrator’s job, and what is his relationship to that work? How does it
affect how he interacts with others, both soldiers and civilians?
 How “Money as a Weapons System” highlights concerns about infrastructure and relationships with
Iraqi civilians. Choose one or two plot points to use as the basis for an argument about how this
short story influences our understanding of the broader implications of war.

Pride of Baghdad

Make an argument for an interpretation of Pride of Baghdad using journals, class notes, historical context,
discussions, McCloud, and your own close reading of panels and/or scenes of the graphic novel.

You may want to consider one of the following areas:

  How the representation of each lions’ understanding of what constitutes freedom relates to our
understanding(s) of freedom as Americans, particularly as “freedom” relates to historical contexts
like 9/11 and the war in Iraq.
 What the graphic novel says about the broader consequences of war. Remember that Vaughn and
Henrichon are (mostly) careful to include multiple perspectives, so your task will be to highlight a
particular political stake in the text and use textual examples to support that argument.
 Examine the relationship between humans and animals (or the relationship between humans of
differing cultures), and what insight Pride of Baghdad can offer us about that relationship. Consider
carefully how the anthropomorphized animals interact with one another, how they think about and
interact with humans, and what that may say about our interactions with either animals or with
people in other cultures.
 Examine one of the scenes that portrays a minor character (the dying lion, the bear, the tortoise, the
monkeys, etc.) and make an argument about what that scene means in the overarching discussion
about war and its effects.

The Buddha in the Attic

Make an argument for an interpretation of The Buddha in the Attic using journals, class notes, historical
context, discussions, and your own close reading of panels and/or scenes of the novel.

You may want to consider one of the following areas:

 Make a claim about the effect of the first-person plural narrator(s). How does the collective affect
how we understand the experiences of the narrator(s)? Of how we understand identity?
 Examine how Otsuka includes a wide range of experiences, and make an argument about what two
or three key moments mean in relation to identity.
 There are several different “theys.” Focusing on one of the “theys,” construct an argument about
how identities are set in opposition and how Otsuka seeks to trouble that.

General Advice on Writing Literary Analyses

Write on your topic for at least 15 minutes before actually starting your paper. How you do this pre-writing
is up to you, but never simply sit down and start your paper. If you do, the first page or two will consist of
you searching for ideas and your topic, and the remainder will be disorganized. Pre-writing helps you get
your ideas out so you can organize later, as you’re composing the paper.

Method
 Your introduction should include a short summary of the work, including only relevant plot points.
You should pose questions about the text, and show why your questions are significant. Finally, it
should have a clear, arguable thesis that lays out an interpretation of the text and makes a claim
about its meaning.
 Body paragraphs need a general topic sentence that connects to the thesis. Then, provide evidence
from the text (usually a quote), then explain its meaning. See the model below.
 Your conclusion should instead take the evidence/interpretations from your essay, and use your
thesis to make a broader point about the value of the text for understanding a particular issue.
 Rule of thumb: any time you quote, you should spend twice as long explaining and interpreting that
quote.
 You need a Works Cited page.
 You should have at least two other people look over your paper prior to submission. You may want
to use the Writing Center as one of these, and you may want to get your workshop partners’ e-mail
addresses to confer on the paper after they give you initial comments during class.
 Body Paragraph Model

Each lion approaches the question of freedom from an angle that highlights how important it is to define
abstract qualities like “freedom.” Noor, while still inside of the zoo, thinks primarily of the physical bars on
the cages as limitations on her freedom. She asks “What kind of life is this?!” (9), illustrating how she defines
“living” as being able to make choices about where she is. For her, liberty is freedom of movement. Safa, in
contrast, does not see freedom in the same terms. Liberty for Safa is defined by safety from outside threat.
She sees the cages as protection, and a regular feeding schedule as safety.