Comparative English essay

Essay #2 Due March 19 (3000 words) English 2033E, Fall/Winter 2025-26 For this essay, you have two options: Compare THREE works from the course*. OR Compare TWO works from the course* and incorporate research into your paper, making reference to secondary criticism on the works you have chosen and/or incorporating relevant sources from other disciplines (such as psychology, sociology, history, etc.). If you choose this option, its up to you how many sources to include; the key is to use these sources in a way that enriches your essay by providing a vocabulary, context, or opposing point of view that serves to enhance and clarify your own argument. The purpose of the research is to shed light on the texts; the main point of your essay should still be to prove a thesis about what the texts have to say about an issue, supported by ample textual evidence from the primary texts. With this option, its important to use reputable academic sources; you can use the Western Libraries website to search for online materials that will fulfill this requirement. In either case, you may choose any texts on the syllabus* except for the one you wrote your first essay on, so if you wrote about fairy tales (traditional or revisionist) for Essay #1, you may not use any fairy tales (even new ones) for this essay, and if you wrote on Alices Adventures in Wonderland for Essay #1, you may not write on Through the Looking Glass for this essay. If you include fairy tales in this essay (traditional or revisionist), they count as ONE text, and must be compared to one or two other texts. As with Essay #1, you are expected to develop a specific thesis, along with several supporting arguments. Because this is a comparative essay, you should use these supporting arguments as opportunities to compare the novels youve chosen in relation to a series of topics related to your thesis. Do not discuss each book in turn; instead develop supporting arguments that allow you to compare the texts side by side. Your thesis may focus on an idea common to the texts you have chosen (a similarity thesis). Alternatively, you may wish to focus on a point of conflict or disagreement (this may require you to create a 2:1 opposition, with two texts sharing a common ideology and the third expressing an opposed view). Both types of thesis can work for an essay of this kind the key is to develop an idea that would strike a reader as surprising, controversial, or new. In any case, your primary task is not to indicate how alike or different the texts are but rather to assess whether they agree or disagree with one another in what they have to say about an issue. TOPICS (Choose ONE): 1) Houses: Houses are an important setting in several texts on this course. Consider the significance of the size, layout, and/or location of the houses where the characters live in the texts you have chosen. You may wish to consider houses as confining domestic spaces, sites of mystery and exploration, and/or indicators of wealth and status. 2) Sibling Relationships: You may wish to consider what factors make sibling relationships tense or harmonious and/or how birth order influences personality. You might also focus on the effects of being an only child. 3) Self-Interest: You may wish to examine this topic in terms of economic behaviour, ethics, gender norms, or relationships, considering whether self-interest is represented in the texts as dangerous, inevitable, unhealthy, and/or unfeminine. You may also wish to examine this topic in terms of childhood development, examining the extent to which children are represented as egocentric and how/whether they overcome that trait. 4) Food: In several of the novels on this course, food is central to the plot: characters eat forbidden foods, seek to control their food intake, or cope with adversaries who limit their access to food. Examine the representation of food, considering its political, social, and/or psychological significance. *You should select your texts from the ones listed in the syllabus by author and title. The picture books discussed in class during the week of February 10-12 are not eligible for inclusion in the essay. – Do not write about Little Women – Can do 3 texts – When developing the thesis, see if texts are agreeing or disagreeing each other – There can be a foundation of agreement between books that are very different What is the text agreeing on Writing a comparative essay: – Hold off on writing a thesis as you might make it too simple Step one: Find a common ground between the books youve chosen (find many shared elements Step two: Pose an open-ended question Step three: Gather evidence Reread the texts Look for quotations (create a document) Support both sides Step four: Develop a thesis Step five: Develop 3-4 supporting arguments – 3000 words and 9-11 paragraphs Formats: Introductory paragraph (title of the book, what you’re looking at, leading up to your thesis – thesis sandwich (state it, summarize your supporting points, come back to it)) Opening sentence compares all three of the novels with a shared topic Explicit statement that helps the reader understand what is going to be talked about For each section; opening sentence and then talking about the 3 arguments to that point (ex; book one PR, then LYR, and then wildthings)