Compose an essay that analyzes a literary text using a theory, concept, or definition that you have studied in this course. Support your interpretation of the meaning or significance of some aspect of the literary text.

Essay : Literary Interpretation

Overview

Compose an essay that analyzes a literary text using a theory, concept, or definition that you have studied in this course.

Support your interpretation of the meaning or significance of some aspect of the literary text.

Additional Information

You will select one of two themes of the American experience: racial equality or gender equality. You will write an analytical essay examining how racial justice or gender equality is developed through the experiences of one of the primary characters in A Raisin in the Sun. Use specific and relevant evidence from both the play and the historical context we have studied in the course to support your interpretation.

Refer to your notes on the historical context videos on racial and gender equity you viewed, your notes from class discussions and in-class work, your discussion boards, your graphic organizers (Week 14 Writing Assignment) and your annotations/notes in/about the play to generate ideas for your essay.

Consider these questions in your planning:

How do one’s race and/or gender influence an individual’s goals, ambitions, dreams, and aspirations?

How do stereotypes of one’s race and/or gender influence an individual’s goals or aspirations?

How do individuals determine or understand their place in society?

How does the character you have selected to write about from A Raisin in the Sun represent, embody, struggle with, defer to, and/or overcome racial or gender inequity in a small or large way?

Requirements

In addition to the requirements outlined above:

Your essay should be at least 1,250 words long, though well-developed essays may be longer.

Your essay should follow the procedures for summary and analysis that we have practiced in class.

Your essay should include at least three direct quotations from A Raisin in the Sun, properly formatted according to MLA guidelines.

Your essay should include a works cited entry for each source used, formatted according to MLA guidelines.

Last Completed Projects