This essay of no more than 700 words requires you to choose two stories from given below. One of your challenges for the Assignment is to select two stories that are good matches for your chosen topic.
• “Royal Beatings” by Alice Munro
• “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin
• “Paul’s Case” by Willa Cather
• “Death by Landscape” by Margaret Atwood
• “To Room Nineteen” by Doris Lessing
• “Great Falls” by Richard Ford
• “Bartleby, the Scrivener” by Herman Melville
• “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver
• “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway
• “Barn Burning” by William Faulkner
• “The Horse Dealer’s Daughter” by D.H. Lawrence
Comparison and Contrast Essay Topics
NO SECONDARY SOURCES
Choose just one of the following topics:
1. Using two stories, compare and contrast the protagonists’ isolation from the world and the people around them.
2. Using two stories, compare and contrast the marital or romantic relationships presented.
3. Using two stories, compare and contrast the presentation of selfishness.
4. Using two stories, compare and contrast the parent/child relationship.
Instructions
Your essay should have three parts: an introductory paragraph, a body containing fully developed paragraphs, and a concluding paragraph. Following is a general guide for what to include in each section of your essay.
In your introductory paragraph:
• Introduce your chosen stories (with their full titles) and their authors.
• Identify clearly your essay topic—the subject of your comparison/contrast.
• Include a strong thesis statement on the comparison and contrast topic that indicates what a reader ultimately can learn from the comparison/contrast.
• Forecast the categories of the comparison and contrast that your essay will analyze in detail.
In your analysis in the body of your essay:
• Make effective use of topic sentences to identify the categories of comparison or contrast in your analysis.
• Support your comments with evidence (paraphrase and direct quotations) from your chosen stories.
• Explain the significance of each piece of evidence you present as it relates to your thesis.
• Contribute to your reader’ understanding of the two stories as a whole.
In your concluding paragraph:
• Summarize how your analysis of the categories of comparison/contrast supports your thesis.
• Restate in different words the purpose of your comparison/contrast.
Note
Quotations count toward the word length, but Works Cited items listed at the end do not.
