Page minimum: 3 ½ pp; MLA formatting
Reminders:
- Please remember to write not just “for the teacher,” but for a general audience of educated readers who have not necessarily read the text you are analyzing. Provide useful background on the setting and plot / characters in your introduction. Provide solid groundwork and context for your thesis.
- Make sure that your thesis makes a specific interpretive claim (something worth defending). Avoid vague statements of purpose.
- Be sure that each of your body paragraphs opens with a strong topic sentence stating the main idea that the paragraph will prove or illustrate. Do not begin paragraphs with quotes or with plain statements of fact.
- Don’t forget to give your essay a thematic title, and to number your pages properly. Eliminate extra spacing between body paragraphs by going into the “Paragraph” menu and making sure that the “After” setting is at 0. Double-space everything throughout your essay. Do not add extra spacing above or below the title.
- Please select just one of the topics below.
- Be sure that in the body paragraphs of your essay(s) you use quotations (brief) to support key points. On average, this would mean 2-3 quotes per body paragraph.
1. Flannery O’Connor’s “Good Country People” features a protagonist, Joy Hopewell, whose self-esteem is propped up by the belief that she is superior (intellectually) to everyone around her. She believes that, unlike others, she sees beneath the surface of things and has no illusions. This self image is severely tested when she arranges an encounter with a young, seemingly naïve Bible salesman, Manley Pointer. The central question (and thesis prompt) is the following: How does Manley Pointer manage to gain power over Joy and to reveal the falsity of her self image? What truth is reveale