One of the ways in which a literary analysis achieves these ends is through the articulation, support, and development of a specific idea or claim. To put this in simple terms, your essay should contain a clearly stated thesis (claim), a coherent structure, and an abundance of relevant evidence (textual and otherwise). For a more involved discussion of these terms, please see the section in our text entitled "The Elements of the Essay" (1849-1857). In addition, you may also find it helpful to read the section in our text entitled "The Writing Process" (1858-1869).

All of that being said, you have four (4) options for the first essay:

1.) A symbol is defined as "something that represents something else." As you might guess, symbols are used in literature for a variety of reasons. Regardless, the use of symbols in literature is both specific and deliberate; in addition, if a story is well written, symbols will help the reader better understand the characters, the setting, the situation, the context, and the theme(s) of a story. Focusing on either Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants" or Jhumpa Lahiri's "Interpreter of Maladies," write an essay in which you discuss how the symbols relate to and enhance various aspects of the story.

2.) Focusing on James Joyce's "Araby," write an essay in which you discuss how the notion of paralysis is central to the story.

3.) Focusing on James Joyce's "Eveline," write an essay in which you explain why Eveline stays in Ireland.

4.) Write an essay in which you discuss and develop an argument about the meaning and significance of the notion of contradiction in Sherman Alexie's "Flight Patterns."

The requirements for the essay are as follows:

• Essay must be exactly 2 pages in length (no more and no less)
• Essay must be argumentative (persuasive) in nature
• Essay must use a sufficient number of textual examples--quotations followed by explanation and interpretation--as argumentative support
• Essay must adhere to MLA standards and guidelines (see below)
• Essay must contain a "Works Cited" page(see below)

In addition, here are a few things you should keep in mind as you are writing your essay:

• Your essay should contain a well-argued thesis statement (claim)
• The "body" of your essay should work to support your thesis statement (claim)
• Your essay should be free of grammatical and punctuation errors

Some Rules for Writing

• Include the title and the author you are discussing in the first or second paragraph of your paper
• Assume your reader has read the story you are discussing but does not remember it in detail. In other words, be sure to provide your readers with enough information (textual examples, etc.) so he or she can follow your analysis
• When you directly quote something, make sure you incorporate the quote into your own analysis. Do not simply stick the quote into the middle of your writing (more on this below)
• If you use a quote that is longer than four lines (when you type it out), indent the entire quotation and remove the quotation marks
• Use quotation marks around the title of a story
• Don't plagiarize. Plagiarism is grounds for failing the class and for possible dismissal from the college

MLA Standards and Guidelines
All final drafts of essays must adhere to the MLA standards and guidelines outlined below. These standards and guidelines can be found in the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. In addition, I strongly encourage you to take a look at a sample literature essay written in MLA format by clicking HERE. Keep in mind that the sample essay analyzes a poem, as opposed to a short story, but the same general principles apply. In other words, given the short page requirement, I would strongly urge you to write a five-paragraph essay. Your first paragraph, then, will establish the context for your argument and end with your thesis statement. The body paragraphs will work to prove that thesis statement through the use of examples. And the conclusion will restate the argument based on the evidence presented in the body. Finally, keep in mind that the sample essay includes a copy of the text it analyzes; please do not do this when you turn in the final draft of your essay.

Essay Format

• Double-space everything
• Set document margins to 1" on all sides
• Number all of the pages of your essay; page numbers should be inserted in the upper right-hand corner of the page, one-half inch from the top
• Include your last name on all of the pages of your essay; your name should be inserted in the upper right-hand corner of the page, one-half inch from the top

The First Page

• In the top left-hand corner, list the following information (in the following order): your name, my name, course number and section, and date
• Center the title of your essay just below the above list of information
• Begin the essay just below your title; indent five spaces

Using Quotations
MLA in-text citations are made with a combination of signal phrases and parenthetical references. A signal phrase indicates that something taken from a source (a quotation, summary, paraphrase, or fact) is about to be used; usually the signal phrase includes the author's name. The parenthetical reference, which comes after the cited material, normally includes at least a page number.

Below is an example of how to properly integrate a quotation into your paper. Notice how this example introduces the quotation, provides the page number for the quotation, and then goes on to explain how the quotation fits into the essay as a whole:

For instance, Gray's position on the Nixon-Kissinger secret bombings--in some senses the political focus of the text--gets reduced to a cliched and mediated conception of American militarism: "But, as Roland reminded me, we're not living in democracy. Nixon kept saying 'Bomb, bomb, bomb,' and the bombs kept falling" (19). To be sure, Gray's adoption of a postmodern aesthetic in his presentation of historical fact is symptomatic, an obvious and nearly hysterical manifestation of a culture addicted to images, stereotypes, pseudoevents, and spectacles.

Works Cited
An alphabetized list of works cited, which appears at the end of your paper (on its own page), gives publication information for each of the sources you have cited in the paper. The following models illustrate the form that the Modern Language Association (MLA) recommends for works cited.

General Guidelines for Listing Authors
Alphabetize entries in the list of works cited by authors' last names (if a work has no author, alphabetize it by its title). The author's name is important because citations in the text of the paper refer to it and readers will be looking for it at the beginning of an entry in the alphabetized list. Also, be sure to note that any information that runs beyond the first line should be indented one tab (despite how the entries appear below).

Below is the format for a few common entries. Though not reflected in the formatting of the examples, be sure to note that a hanging indent should be used for all citations that run for more than one line. In other words, all lines other than the first for a single entry should be indented:

Basic Format for a Book
Tan, Amy. The Bonesetter's Daughter. Putnam, 2001.

Work in an Anthology
Hemingway, Ernest. "Hills Like White Elephants." The Norton Introduction to Literature, edited by Alison Booth, J. Paul Hunter, and Kelly J. Mays, Shorter 9th ed., Norton, 2005, pp. 128-132.

Work From a Subscription Service
Bagchi, Alaknanda. "Conflicting Nationalisms: The Voice of the Subaltern in Mahasweta Devi's Bashai Tudu." Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature, vol. 15, no. 1, 1996, pp. 41-50.