Approaches to literature week seventeen

Writing about Literature

Final paper

First paragraph

your choice

why become your choice

hypothesis: explain in your own words

Last paragraph can’t be too long

Format：

第一頁左上角 (i.e. timeèMay 1, 1965)

第一頁不要寫頁碼

Work Cited 也要頁碼

標題前後空一行

第二到五頁頁碼置中下(或右上)

Title:

Response Paper on­ _______’s “     ”

若要分成兩行，下面要比上面長

The elements of the essay

Tone (and Audience)

Remember that the purpose of your essay is to persuade readers to see the text your way. That process begins with persuading them that you deserve their attention and respect. The tone of your paper should be serious and straightforward, respectful toward your readers and the literary work. But its approach and vocabulary, while formal enough for academic writing, should be lively enough to interest someone like you.

Thesis

A thesis is to an essay what a theme is to a short story, play, or poem: it’s the governing idea, proposition, claim, or point. Good theses come in many shapes and sizes. A thesis cannot always be conveyed in one sentence, nor will it always appear in the same place in every essay. But you will risk both appearing confused and confusing the reader if you can’t state the thesis in one to three sentences or if the thesis doesn’t appear somewhere in your introduction, usually near its end.

Structure

an essay needs to have a beginning (or introduction), a middle (or body), and an ending (or conclusion). Each of these parts has a distinct function

Beginning: The Introduction

Middle: The Body

Ending: The Conclusion

Death of a salesman

a 1949 play written by American playwright Arthur Miller. It was the recipient of the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Award for Best Play. The play premiered on Broadway in February 1949, running for 742 performances, and has been revived on Broadway four times, winning three Tony Awards for Best Revival. It is widely considered to be one of the greatest plays of the 20th century.

Themes

The American Dream

Willy believes wholeheartedly in what he considers the promise of the American Dream—that a “well liked” and “personally attractive” man in business will indubitably and deservedly acquire the material comforts offered by modern American life. Oddly, his fixation with the superficial qualities of attractiveness and likeability is at odds with a more gritty, more rewarding understanding of the American Dream that identifies hard work without complaint as the key to success. Willy’s interpretation of likeability is superficial—he childishly dislikes Bernard because he considers Bernard a nerd. Willy’s blind faith in his stunted version of the American Dream leads to his rapid psychological decline when he is unable to accept the disparity between the Dream and his own life.

Symbols

Seeds

Seeds represent for Willy the opportunity to prove the worth of his labor, both as a salesman and a father. His desperate, nocturnal attempt to grow vegetables signifies his shame about barely being able to put food on the table and having nothing to leave his children when he passes. Willy feels that he has worked hard but fears that he will not be able to help his offspring any more than his own abandoning father helped him. The seeds also symbolize Willy’s sense of failure with Biff. Despite the American Dream’s formula for success, which Willy considers infallible, Willy’s efforts to cultivate and nurture Biff went awry. Realizing that his all-American football star has turned into a lazy bum, Willy takes Biff’s failure and lack of ambition as a reflection of his abilities as a father.

Additional Supplement

college degree: is the state of recognized completion of studies at a school or university. A diploma is generally issued in recognition of having satisfactorily completed the prescribed course of study. The most common degree awarded today is a Bachelor's degree.

tuition: tuition payments are charged by educational institutions in some countries to assist with funding of staff and faculty, course offerings, lab equipment, computer systems, libraries, facility upkeep and to provide a comfortable student learning experience. In most countries, especially non-English-speaking countries, there are no or only nominal tuition fees for all forms of education, including university and other higher education.

I’ve got tuition waver.

assistantships: are an arrangement in which financial support is given to a graduate student who engages in teaching and/or research in furtherance of the university’s academic mission, as well as his or her graduate education.

cliff notes

are a series of student study guides available primarily in the United States. The guides present and explain literary and other works in pamphlet form or online. Detractors of the study guides claim they let students bypass reading the assigned literature. The company claims to promote the reading of the original work, and does not view the study guides as a substitute for that reading.

Speech by Christopher Walken: two little mice

Catch me if you can

The true story of Frank Abagnale Jr. who, before his 19th birthday, successfully conned millions of dollars' worth of checks as a Pan Am pilot, doctor, and legal prosecutor.

Three websites to learn

Beowulf

gradesaver beowulf study guide

sparknote

Suzanne Collins

is an American television writer and novelist, best known as the author of The New York Times best selling series The Underland Chronicles and The Hunger Games trilogy (which consists of The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay).

Veronica Roth

s an American novelist and short story writer known for her debut New York Times bestselling Divergent trilogy, consisting of Divergent, Insurgent, and Allegiant; and Four: A Divergent Collection. Divergent was the recipient of the Goodreads Favorite Book of 2011 and the 2012 winner for Best Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction.

Honest Trailers

Rip Van Winkle

is a short story by American author Washington Irving published in 1819. Written while Irving was living in Birmingham, England, it was part of a collection entitled The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. Although the story is set in New York's Catskill Mountains, Irving later admitted, "When I wrote the story, I had never been on the Catskills." The story's protagonist, also called Rip Van Winkle, is a Dutch-American villager living around the time of the American Revolutionary War.