English 1302, Paper 4: Research Paper and Analysis of Elements of Fiction
For the final paper you will write about Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street. You will use the primary sources (the novel) as well as literary criticism (through the ACC Library website) and author interviews (YouTube) to write your paper.
You must have at least FOUR external sources, TWO of which must be college-level reference sources located in the ACC Library databases.
Write your paper as per the guidelines suggested below.
View or listen to a filmed interview with the author and read the print interview of her in The Missouri Review, as she discusses the artistic, geographic, and thematic contexts of her novel and her craft. These interviews may be found in the Week 13 folder on our Blackboard course page, if you are in the 16-week session, or the Week Nine folder If you are in the 12-week session. You must use the print interview and at least one of the taped interviews to help support the academic argument(s) you make in your paper.
Write an introduction (mention the author and novel; give a brief summary, no more than 3-4 sentences). End the introductory paragraph with a thesis statement that indicates your interpretation of the theme of the novel. This is your central idea statement. Your central idea statement will be your interpretation of the story’s main theme. Your thesis statement may consist of several sentences.
Review the literary criticism you found through ACC’s library databases. Use the information from these articles and the following three elements of fiction, POINT OF VIEW, SETTING, AND SYMBOLISM, to analyze the novel. Describe the effects that these elements of fiction produce and how they shape or support the novel’s themes. You may and should use the literary criticism to support your analysis of the three elements of fiction.
Conclude by either discussing the themes of the novel to include an overall assessment of the novel supported by the literary criticism articles and/or the interviews.
Always support your insights and assertions with examples from the text of the stories, the literary criticism articles, and the author interviews.
Cite all primary and secondary material you use in your paper in a Works Cited section that immediately follows the end of the paper (no need to start it on a new page). This Works Cited page will cite your stories (primary texts), literary criticism, and author interviews. When you quote from, paraphrase, or summarize the story, article, or interview, use MLA in-text citations.
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER AS YOU THINK ABOUT THE ELEMENTS OF FICTION:
What person POV are the stories told from? Reliable and objective or not? Neutral? What does the POV reveal about the characters, their motives, emotions, personality traits, etc.? How limited are the narrator’s perceptions? What limits the narrator’s perceptions? Why does the narrator choose certain language, report the details that she/he does, reveal the characters in the manner that she/he does, offer or not offer interpretive comments, and/or tell the story in a certain order? Does the narrative voice create irony (dramatic, situational, verbal)?
Why did the author choose this particular setting for the story? How is physical setting described? Does the description shed light on any other elements (character, conflict, etc.)? Could the setting be symbolic of something else? How does setting influence plot or characters? Does the setting establish a mood or atmosphere? Setting includes time period, history, geographical location, milieu, the entire cultural environment in which the story is set. Setting has physical, social, and figurative aspects.
What dominant symbols do you notice in the story? What do they mean in the overall context of the plot, characterization, conflict, pov, or any of the other elements? Choose at least ONE significant symbol from each story and analyze what it signifies.
