English 1B, Introduction to Literature

Dale T. Jensen, Instructor

A Fully Accredited Online Course Offered By Barstow College

Drama Paper

Your second literary paper will be on a play. You may select any drama from the list in the weekly outline; the link is on the class homepage. It does not matter if we have read and discussed the drama already or if it appears in future lessons.

You need to say something intelligent about the play you select. PLEASE DO NOT JUST SUMMARIZE THE PLOT! You will analyze and interpret the play or you may focus on some literary element that the playwright uses. Here are some possible topics from the plays we have already covered:

1. Compare and contrast Biff and Happy from Death of a Salesman.

2.  Analyze the character of Willie Loman.

3.  Discuss the use of sight (eye, light, darkness) imagery in Oedipus Rex.

4. Discuss why it is essential for or Oedipus to leave Thebes at the end of the play.

5.  Defend Nora's decision to leave an empty marriage even if means abandoning her children.

6.  Analyze a secondary character from A Doll's House such as Krogstad.

7. Discuss how the characters in A Raisin in the Sun have individual plans for the insurance money.

8. Analyze how Hansberry uses racial issues of the 1950s in A Raisin in the Sun.

These are just a few topics that came to mind as I looked at the titles of the plays we've covered so far.  You may use one of the above topics or you may come up with one of your own. Don’t forget the other plays listed on the weekly outline.

It would be good to review those sections on drama in "Responding to Literature" and "Writing about Literature" at the beginning of the text.

Here are a few websites that have posted essays on plays that we have already covered:

Oedipus Rex

http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/Tidepool/8194/index13.html

 A Doll's House

http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Goldman/Writings/Drama/doll.html

Death of a Salesman

http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~media/hrc_dofs.html

These essays are just to give you ideas about writing your essay. DO NOT PLAGIARIZE! YOU WILL FAIL THIS CLASS IF YOU DO. I am aware what is available on the Internet and can easily do a search to determined if the your submission is copied.

Be sure to included the following in your paper when you type it up in your word processing program:

1. Create a title for your essay.

2. Write an introduction that gets the reader’s attention. State the title of the story and the author’s name. Write a thesis that argues for your interpretation and analysis. Don’t write an announcement ("I am writing about. . ." or "My essay is about. . .").

3. The multi-paragraph body must support your thesis. Here you can use short quotations to prove your points. Every idea in the body must support the thesis.

4. In the conclusion reword your thesis and summarize your main points. End with a clincher (a strong memorable statement).

5. The length should be between 500-700 words. Use your word processing to count the words. It is just as bad to overwrite as it is to underwrite. Writing errors will lower your score, so proofread carefully and do spell check.

6. When you are finished with your essay, put a few extra spaces between the paragraphs to prevent your paragraphs from being run together when I receive it.

7. You must use the feedback form to submit your paper. Your submission will automatically be labeled so it can easily be sorted. Just copy, paste, and submit.

Use your real name, not your username or password in the feedback form. If you do not type in your e-mail address correctly, you will not get your graded assignment returned. 

By submitting this assignment, you affirm  that you wrote it for this class and allow it to undergo a plagiarism search.  Plagiarism is punishable by failure in this course.

If you have any questions on this assignment, contact me by e-mail. Put HELP!!! in the subject line. Sometimes I get over 100 e-mails a day. I look at the HELP!!! messages first. Good luck!

Happy Reading and Writing!

Mr. Jensen