Prompt: Write a 3-5 page paper on ONE of the following texts:
-"Aria: Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood" Richard Rodriguez
-"How to Tame a Wild Tongue" Gloria Anzaldua
-"Girl/Thing" Anna Vodicka (in packet)
-"Shock and Awe" Paul Crenshaw (in packet)
-"A Fable for Tomorrow" Rachel Carson (in packet) "Memo Re: Beach Glass" Lia Purpura (in packet)
-"Two Bodies" Jean Burnet (handout in class)
-"Clearances" Seamus Heaney (in packet)
-"Flounder" Natasha Trethewey (in packet)
-"Birth" Fady Joudah (in packet)
-"Facing It" Yusef Komunyakaa (in packet)
-"Parsley" Rita Dove (in packet)
-"The Ugly Tourist" Jamaica Kincaid
-"13, 1997, 21" Jonathan Lethem
In this essay, you will form a thesis that communicates an original idea or interpretation you have about one of these pieces of writing. You can analyze any aspect of the writing and make any claim about it, so long as you have sufficient evidence from the text. In order to successfully write this paper, you need to be familiar with your text! Here is a list of some aspects of texts that you can analyze in your paper: title, audience, structure, theme, tone, imagery, figurative language, symbolism, characterization, irony, allusions (there are many, many more ways to analyze, so be creative). In addition to examining some of these characteristics of a piece, keep in mind the exercise of overt message and hidden message that we've talked about in class. What is the obvious message of the piece? What do you think the author is really trying to say? What evidence in the text supports your idea?