Short Story Analysis

WEEK 7 ESSAY:

For this essay, you will choose one of the short stories (you cant use the same short story but use a different one) weve read so far and analyze it through one specific critical approach. Your analysis should focus on how the story fits within the chosen critical perspective and what insights this lens provides into the text. Use specific examples and quotations from the story to support your argument.

Instructions

1. Choose a Short Story:

Pick one of the following short stories from our readings:

o The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

2. Select a Critical Approach:

Choose one critical approach from the list below to analyze the story:

o Formalism/New Criticism: Focus on the text itself, its structure, symbolism, and language.

o Psychological Criticism: Analyze the characters’ psychological motivations, unconscious desires, or emotional conflicts.

o Feminist Criticism: Explore the roles of gender and sexuality in the text, particularly the representation of women.

o Marxist Criticism: Examine social class, economic conditions, and power relations in the story.

o Cultural Criticism: Consider the cultural and historical context in which the story was written, focusing on societal norms and values.

o Post-Colonial Criticism: Investigate themes of identity, race, and colonialism in the story, if applicable.

3. Analyze the Story:

Your analysis should include the following elements:

o A brief summary of the storys plot and key characters.

o An explanation of the critical approach you’ve chosen, detailing the main concepts and how they apply to your story.

o A close reading of key passages from the story to demonstrate how they reflect the critical approach.

o A discussion of the insights or new understanding that this approach provides about the storys meaning, themes, or characters.

4. Use Quotations:

Be sure to integrate at least 5 direct quotations from the story to support your analysis. Include in-text citations and provide a complete References page in APA format.

5. Structure:

o Introduction: Include a brief overview of the story and introduce the critical approach you will use. A thesis statement with an argument.

o Body: Discuss the story through the lens of your chosen critical approach. Provide evidence from the text to support your interpretation. You must use a direct quote, or in-text citation. You must follow the essay structure to have a minimum of three or more body paragraphs.

o Conclusion: Summarize your findings and reflect on how the critical approach enhances your understanding of the story. Restate the thesis.

• You must indent all your paragraphs, the instructor will not read essays with block paragraphs (no indentations).

Length: 9 pages, double-spaced, in APA format (including title page and references page would be two pages total. So the essay part needs to be seven pages, which is a total of 9 pages)

At Teachers discretion: You must provide citations and a reference page for the essay. (Sources must match up in the paper and the citations sources must match up on the reference page. Sources cant be listed which means you dont cite the sources in the paper or you use sources in the paper that dont match up in the references page or not cited in there at all). No citations in the paper and no reference page is an automatic zero and will be asked to resubmit the paper