Use of language and framework in “Girl child” by Jamaica Kincaid
Follow essay organization guidelines to effectively produce this piece, which involves the utilization of an introduction, thesis statement, body, and conclusion. Make sure to use correct format, heading information, grammar/spelling, sentence structure, etc. Be sure to include a title, and word count at the end of the piece. This essay should be written in the third person. Continue to use the same format used in your reading responses, including font, spacing, heading information, margins, etc.
Read the following directions carefully:
For this essay, you should only use the short story you’ve chosen and your own interpretation/imagination. You are not required to consult secondary sources for ideas, theories, or support. However, you may do so if you choose. If you decide to include secondary sources, please consult with me beforehand to ensure proper use when composing your analysis. Additionally, you would be responsible for citing any secondary sources used.
Choose one of the following stories for your analysis:
“Cathedral,” by Raymond Carver
“Harrison Bergeron,” by Kurt Vonnegut
“The Chrysanthemums,” by John Steinbeck
“Girl,” by Jamaica Kincaid
You should read your selection several times to ensure understanding and to guide your analysis.
Drawing on readings/lessons, your reading responses, and class discussion about the importance of finding meaning in literature, write a specific, thesis-driven essay on the story you choose, focusing on one (or more) of the elements that we discussed in class, such as plot techniques, point of view, setting, characters, theme, symbols, etc.
This essay is intended to present an argument you’ve developed, based on your reading and interpretation of the text. Create a thesis that conveys a unique, interesting, or unusual idea about the work, and then prove your thesis by using evidence from the piece.
This means that your thesis should a) indicate your focus/present your argument, b) relate that focus/argument to the story as a whole and draw a deeper conclusion, and c) be something that you can argue.
Find evidence in the text to support your thesis, and organize the rest of your essay around the quotations/examples you choose from the text. Additionally, you want to make sure to include an appropriate amount of quoted material from the story that supports your argument; your essay should primarily be your own thoughts and words.
Conclude your essay by summing up your argument so that readers can see that your evidence does support your thesis.
Here are some important things to remember:
While this essay is based on your interpretation and argument, you do need to prove/support your piece with evidence from the story. If you cannot find examples from the text to support your piece, then you may need to rethink what you are arguing. Your thesis must be debatable.
Be specific. Vague generalizations do not work for literary analysis.
Focus on analysis, not summary. You may, however, use elements of summary to illuminate your analysis, but this is not a book report. You need to engage with the text and show that engagement through your interpretation.
Short story titles should be in quotation marks.
Follow direct quotations from the text with parenthetical citations: put the author’s name and page number where the quote is found in parenthesis. Close the quotation marks before the citation; put the end punctuation after it. For example, “Paul Owen has called me Marcus four times…Anyway, no has corrected Owen and it’s unlikely that anyone will” (Ellis 143).
You do not need to include a Works Cited Page if you rely on the short story alone. You do need to utilize parenthetical citations, however. Use the page number on the tops of the Backpack Literature pages for this.
This essay should be at least 750 words in length. Include your word count at the end of the piece. You will also need to include a works cited page if you decide to utilize secondary sources.
You will compose your Final Draft and submit via SafeAssign on Blackboard by the assigned due date. Please refer to the syllabus for information regarding late work.
If, at any point, you have questions or technological issues, you need to let me know immediately.
Further consideration—Thesis Statements for Literary Analysis
When you write your essay, ask yourself the following question: is this something that anyone who reads the story would already know?
Additionally, make sure your thesis is based on your interpretation, stated as an arguable point that you intend to make. You thesis should not summarize the plot.
Examples:Bad thesis: The Great Gatsby is a novel about the struggles of rich and poor people in New York in the 1920s.
Good thesis: Through Jay Gatsby’s inability to marry the woman he loves, The Great Gatsby shows that the ‘American Dream’ is unattainable.
Bad thesis: Romeo and Juliet is love story that ends in death.
Good thesis: Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo and Juliet reveals that fate and familial tradition are inescapable.
Bad thesis: The movie Insidious is about a possessed little boy in a coma.
Good thesis: The suspense-riddled horror film Insidious forces viewers to consider how elements of the past continue to haunt the present through paternal genetics.
Bad thesis: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn tells a story about unlikely friendship.
Good thesis: In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain uses the river journey to illustrate Huck’s increasing awareness of the moral hypocrisy in the “civilized” South.Bad thesis: Moby-Dick tells the story of a ship crew and a big, white whale.Good thesis: The use of “whiteness” in Moby-Dick illustrates the uncertainty about the meaning of life that Ishmael expresses throughout the novel.
………………..Answer Preview……………..
Use of language and framework in “Girl child” by Jamaica Kincaid
Introduction
Literary analysis can be described as the study, interpretation and evaluation of literature. It entails studying various aspects of the literature such as themes, goals and use of language. In this essay, various aspects of language that Kincaid has used in the story, “Girl Child” in order to pass her message. This is based on the fact that in order to pass the message effectively in literature, the author has to use very effective and efficient language structure. The sentences have to be precise in order to enable the readers to easily understand the author’s…………………..
APA
911 Words
