Detailed Prep Sheet for Exam
1
Part 2: Topic Options
for the Out-of-Class Essay
The Exam 1 is worth 150 points. It consists of 3 obligatory sections. Section A is a take-home essay (worth 50 points) that you will bring to class with you for the exam session and submit when you hand in the rest of the exam, which you will take in-class. Sections B and C will be administered as an in-class closed-book exam. Altogether, you will write 2 short essays (worth 25 points apiece) and a series of briefer answers (worth 50 points). Each question you write upon in Sections A, B, and C must be upon a different story. There will also be a brief optional extra-credit section, Section D, which you will write (if you choose to do so) at the end of the in-class exam session.
The following information concerns only Section A, the out-of-class essay portion of the exam. (You should also consult the General Prep Sheet for Exam 1 and the Detailed Prep Sheet for the In-Class Portion of Exam 1.)
Your paper must focus on one of the stories we have read up to now. (Remember: you will not be allowed to write upon this story on the in-class portion of the mid-term exam.) These are:
Write on one of the following topics, making sure that it is appropriate for the particular story you examine it in the light of. (Consider, for example: not every story exploits a foil relationship, so it would not be a wise choice to force that topic upon, say, Ellison's story.)
Option 1. Using the scheme explained in our Glossary of Critical Terms, classify the plot of one of the stories we've read in terms of the characterization of the protagonist. (Along the way you might ask whether or not the story you are focusing on is an initiation story.) Be sure to explain the facts of the story that make the plot an instance of the particular sort you conclude it is. Conclude by explaining how the story exploits the plot-type it embodies in the service of what you infer to be its particular thematic ends.Option 2. A key point to take to heart is that, in short stories, character may be more fundamental than plot. Kennedy & Gioia put the point this way: "The action of a story usually grows out of the personality of its protagonist and the situation he or she faces. As critic Phyllis Bottome observed, 'If a writer is true to his characters they will give him his plot.'" For the story you choose, demonstrate some of the important ways in which the character of the protagonist creates action, in the story you choose to focus on, and explain how what this causes us to notice is important to the story's overall reason for being.
Option 3. Unpack in detail some important foil relationship the story develops. Conclude by showing this systematic contrast serves the overall thematic ends of the story as a whole.
For an example of how you should customize this question in a specific case, see the Writing Assignment on Walker's "Everyday Use". (In this case, remember that you have at your disposal two study guides to this story: 1 and 2.)
Option 4. For the story you select, write an essay of around 500 words in which you explain how the story leads the reader to see the protagonist's action and/or experience as importantly determined by factors of which he or she is unconscious. You'll need to commit yourself to some explicit account of
Your essay should be at least 500 words long. (Of course, it should not achieve this length by mere repetition, but by depth of analysis.)
Before you commit yourself to a final draft, be sure to get clear upon the criteria by which they will be evaluated. The explanation of these criteria is available in both a succinct and a detailed version.