For this paper, you are to compare two pieces that we have discussed together as a class; you are required to pick pieces from two different genres, thus you might choose a short story that you compare to a novel or a poem, or a novel that you compare to a short story. Be sure that your thesis is argumentative, meaning that another reasonable person might have a different opinion.
The short story texts that you may choose from include: London’s “To Build a Fire,” Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Bradbury’s “August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains,” Godwin’s “The Cold Equations,” Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” Vonnegut’s “Bergeron,” Jackson’s “The Lottery,” Fitzgerald’s “Babylon Revisited,” Hemingway’s “Soldier’s Home.” The novels you may discuss include Wells’ The War of the Worlds, Lowry’s The Giver, and Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist. And the poetry we have discussed includes poems from William Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, and William Carlos Williams.
Your paper should be an argument based on common themes, settings, motifs, characterizations, or really anything that strikes you as linking the two pieces. This paper is essentially a textual analysis and as such should be mostly comprised of quotations from your chosen pieces, your interpretation of those quotes, and how that relates back to support your larger argument. Avoid summary. You must include some discussion of how your chosen texts utilize genre conventions to create the narrative. Your argument should be original and use NO outside (secondary) sources.
Your paper must be 3-5 pages in length and formatted according to MLA or APA guidelines.
