The short story is by Kate Chopin called ” The Story of an Hour” I will attach the short story along with another attachment to help guide you in the writing. I need it to be at least 600-700 words, no more than 2 pages in MLA Format. the_story_of_an_hour.docxliteray_analysis.docx”The Story of An Hour”
Kate Chopin (1894)
Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to
break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death.
It was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken sentences; veiled hints that revealed
in half concealing. Her husband’s friend Richards was there, too, near her. It was he
who had been in the newspaper office when intelligence of the railroad disaster was
received, with Brently Mallard’s name leading the list of “killed.” He had only taken the
time to assure himself of its truth by a second telegram, and had hastened to forestall
any less careful, less tender friend in bearing the sad message.
She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed
inability to accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in
her sister’s arms. When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room
alone. She would have no one follow her.
There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she
sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to
reach into her soul.
She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all
aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street
below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which some one was
singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves.
There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had
met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window.
She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair, quite motionless,
except when a sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who has cried
itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams.
She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a
certain strength. But now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed
away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of reflection,
but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought.
There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it?
She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out of
the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the
air.
Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously. She was beginning to recognize this thing
that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will-as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been. When she abandoned
herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and
over under hte breath: “free, free, free!” The vacant stare and the look of terror that
had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat fast,
and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.
She did not stop to ask if it were or were not a monstrous joy that held her. A clear and
exalted perception enabled her to dismiss the suggestion as trivial. She knew that she
would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that
had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead. But she saw
beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her
absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome.
There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself.
There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men
and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature. A
kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked
upon it in that brief moment of illumination.
And yet she had loved him–sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What
could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of selfassertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!
“Free! Body and soul free!” she kept whispering.
Josephine was kneeling before the closed door with her lips to the keyhold, imploring
for admission. “Louise, open the door! I beg; open the door–you will make yourself ill.
What are you doing, Louise? For heaven’s sake open the door.”
“Go away. I am not making myself ill.” No; she was drinking in a very elixir of life
through that open window.
Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her. Spring days, and summer
days, and all sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a quick prayer that life
might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be
long.
She arose at length and opened the door to her sister’s importunities. There was a
feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of
Victory. She clasped her sister’s waist, and together they descended the stairs.
Richards stood waiting for them at the bottom.
Some one was opening the front door with a latchkey. It was Brently Mallard who
entered, a little travel-stained, composedly carrying his grip-sack and umbrella. He had
been far from the scene of the accident, and did not even know there had been one. He
stood amazed at Josephine’s piercing cry; at Richards’ quick motion to screen him from
the view of his wife.
When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease–of the joy that kills.
HOW TO WRITE A LITERARY ANALYSIS ESSAY
The purpose of a literary analysis essay is to carefully examine and sometimes evaluate a work of
literature or an aspect of a work of literature. As with any analysis, this requires you to break the
subject down into its component parts. Examining the different elements of a piece of literature is
not an end in itself but rather a process to help you better appreciate and understand the work of
literature as a whole. For instance, an analysis of a poem might deal with the different types of
images in a poem or with the relationship between the form and content of the work. If you were to
analyze (discuss and explain) a play, you might analyze the relationship between a subplot and the
main plot, or you might analyze the character flaw of the tragic hero by tracing how it is revealed
through the acts of the play. Analyzing a short story might include identifying a particular theme (like
the difficulty of making the transition from adolescence to adulthood) and showing how the writer
suggests that theme through the point of view from which the story is told; or you might also explain
how the main character’s attitude toward women is revealed through his dialogue and/or actions.
REMEMBER: Writing is the sharpened, focused expression of thought and study. As you develop
your writing skills, you will also improve your perceptions and increase your critical abilities. Writing
ultimately boils down to the development of an idea. Your objective in writing a literary analysis
essay is to convince the person reading your essay that you have supported the idea you are
developing. Unlike ordinary conversation and classroom discussion, writing must stick with
great determination to the specific point of development. This kind of writing demands tight
organization and control. Therefore, your essay must have a central idea (thesis), it must have
several paragraphs that grow systematically out of the central idea, and everything in it must be
directly related to the central idea and must contribute to the reader’s understanding of that
central idea. These three principles are listed again below:
1.
2.
3.
Your essay must cover the topic you are writing about.
Your essay must have a central idea (stated in your thesis) that governs its
development.
Your essay must be organized so that every part contributes something to the
reader’s understanding of the central idea.
THE ELEMENTS OF A GOOD ESSAY
The Thesis Statement
The thesis statement tells your reader what to expect: it is a restricted, precisely worded declarative
sentence that states the purpose of your essay — the point you are trying to make. Without a
carefully conceived thesis, an essay has no chance of success. The following are thesis
statements which would work for a 500-750 word literary analysis essay:
Gwendolyn Brooks’s 1960 poem “The Ballad of Rudolph Reed” demonstrates how
the poet uses the conventional poetic form of the ballad to treat the unconventional
poetic subject of racial intolerance.
The fate of the main characters in Antigone illustrates the danger of excessive pride.
The imagery in Dylan Thomas’s poem “Fern Hill” reveals the ambiguity of our
relationship with nature.
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PLEASE NOTE: THE BEST PLACE TO PUT YOUR THESIS STATEMENT IS AT THE END OF
YOUR INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH.
The Introduction
The introduction to your literary analysis essay should try to arouse interest in your reader. To bring
immediate focus to your subject, you may want to use a quotation, a provocative question, a personal
anecdote, a startling statement, or a combination of these. You may also want to include background
information relevant to your thesis and necessary for the reader to understand the position you are
taking.
In addition, you need to include the title of the work of literature and name of the author.
The following are satisfactory introductory paragraphs which include appropriate thesis statements:
A.
What would you expect to be the personality of a man who has his wife sent away to a convent
(or perhaps has had her murdered) because she took too much pleasure in the sunset and in
a compliment paid to her by another man? It is just such a man — a Renaissance duke — that
Robert Browning portrays in his poem “My Last Duchess.” Through what he says about
himself, through his actions, and through his interpretation of earlier incidents, the Duke
reveals the arrogance, jealousy, and materialism that are his most conspicuous traits.
B.
The first paragraph of Alberto Alvaro Rios’s short story “The Secret Lion” presents a twelveyear-old boy’s view of growing up — everything changes. As the narrator tells us, when the
magician pulls a tablecloth out from under a pile of dishes, children are amazed at the “staythe-same part,” while adults focus only on the tablecloth itself (42). Adults have the benefit of
experience and know the trick will work as long as the technique is correct. When we “grow
up” we gain this experience and knowledge, but we lose our innocence and sense of wonder.
In other words, the price we pay for growing up is a permanent sense of loss. This tradeoff
is central to “The Secret Lion.” The key symbols in the story reinforce its main theme: change
is inevitable and always accompanied by a sense of loss.
C.
The setting of John Updike’s story “A & P” is crucial to our understanding of Sammy’s decision
to quit his job. Even though Sammy knows that his quitting will make life more difficult for
him, he instinctively insists upon rejecting what the A & P represents in the story. When he
rings up a “No Sale” and “saunter[s]” out of the store, Sammy leaves behind not only a job
but the rigid state of mind associated with the A & P. Although Sammy is the central character
in the story and we learn much about him, Updike seems to invest as much effort in describing
the setting as he does Sammy. The title, after all, is not “Youthful Rebellion” or “Sammy Quits”
3
but “A & P.” In fact, the setting is the antagonist of the story and plays a role that is as important
as Sammy’s.
The Body of the Essay and the Importance of Topic Sentences
The term regularly used for the development of the central idea of a literary analysis essay is the
body. In this section you present the paragraphs (at least 3 paragraphs for a 500-750 word essay)
that support your thesis statement. Good literary analysis essays contain an explanation of your
ideas and evidence from the text (short story, poem, play) that supports those ideas. Textual
evidence consists of summary, paraphrase, specific details, and direct quotations.
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Each of the paragraphs of your essay should contain a topic sentence (usually the first sentence
of the paragraph) which states one of the topics associated with your thesis, combined with some
assertion about how the topic will support the central idea. The purpose of the topic sentence is
twofold:
1. To tie the details of the paragraph to your thesis statement.
2. To tie the details of the paragraph together.
The substance of each of your developmental paragraphs (the body of your essay) will be the
explanations, summaries, paraphrases, specific details, and direct quotations you need to support
and develop the more general statement you have made in your topic sentence. The following is
the first developmental paragraph after one of the introductory paragraphs (C) above:
TOPIC SENTENCE
Sammy’s descriptions of the A & P present a
setting that is ugly, monotonous, and rigidly
regulated. We can identify with the uniformity
Sammy describes because we have all been in
chain stores. The fluorescent light is as blandly
EXPLANATIONS AND
cool as the “checkerboard green-and-cream
TEXTUAL EVIDENCE
rubber tile floor” (486). The “usual traffic in the
store moves in one direction (except for the swim
suited girls, who move against it), and everything
is neatly organized and categorized in tidy aisles.
The dehumanizing routine of this environment is
suggested by Sammy’s offhand references to the
typical shoppers as “sheep,” “house slaves,” and
“pigs.” These regular customers seem to walk
through the store in a stupor; as Sammy tells us,
not even dynamite could move them out of their
routine (485).
This paragraph is a strong one because it is developed through the use of quotations, summary,
details, and explanation to support the topic sentence. Notice how it relates back to the thesis
statement.
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The Conclusion
Your literary analysis essay should have a concluding paragraph that gives your essay a sense of
completeness and lets your readers know that they have come to the end of your paper. Your
concluding paragraph might restate the thesis in different words, summarize the main points you
have made, or make a relevant comment about the literary work you are analyzing, but from a
different perspective. Do not introduce a new topic in your conclusion. Below is the concluding
paragraph from the essay already quoted above (A) about Browning’s poem “My Last Duchess”:
If the Duke has any redeeming qualities, they fail to appear in the poem. Browning’s emphasis on
the Duke’s traits of arrogance, jealousy, and materialism make it apparent that anyone who
might have known the Duke personally would have based his opinion of him on these three
personality “flaws.” Ultimately, our opinion of the Duke is not a favorable one, and it is clear
that Browning meant us to feel this way.
5
The Title of Your Essay
It is essential that you give your essay a title which is descriptive of the approach you are taking in
your paper. Just as you did in your introductory paragraph, try to get the reader’s attention. Using
only the title of the literary work you are examining is unsatisfactory. The titles that follow are
appropriate for the papers (A, B, C) discussed above:
Robert Browning’s Duke: So What’s to Like?
The A & P as a State of Mind
“The Secret Lion”: It’s Hard to Grow Up
Audience
Consider the reader for whom you are writing your essay. Imagine you are writing for other students
in your class who have about as much education as you do. They have read the assigned work
just as you have, but perhaps they have not thought about it in exactly the same way as you. In
other words, it is not necessary to “retell” the work of literature in any way. Rather it is your
role to be the explainer or interpreter of the work — to tell what certain elements of the work mean
in relation to your central idea (thesis). When you make references to the text of the short story,
poem, or play, you are doing so in order to remind your audience of something they already know.
The principle emphasis of your essay is to draw conclusions and develop arguments.
USING TEXTUAL EVIDENCE
The skillful use of textual evidence — summary, paraphrase, specific detail, and direct
quotations — can illustrate and support the ideas you are developing in your essay. However,
textual evidence should be used judiciously and only when it directly relates to your topic. The
correct and effective use of textual evidence is vital to the successful literary analysis essay.
Summary
If a key event or series of events in the literary work support a point you are trying to make, you
may want to include a brief summary, making sure that you show the relevance of the event or
events by explicitly connecting your summary to your point. Below is an effective summary (with
its relevance clearly pointed out) from the essay already quoted above on “The Secret Lion” (B):
The boys find the grinding ball, but later attempt to bury it (SUMMARY). Burying it is
attempt to make time stand still and to preserve perfection (RELEVANCE).
Paraphrase
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their futile
6
You can make use of paraphrase when you need the details of the original, but not necessarily the
words of the original: paraphrase to put someone else’s words into your own words. Below is an
example (also from the paper on “The Secret Lion”) of how to “translate” original material into part
of your own paper:
Original:
“I was twelve and in junior high school and something happened
that we didn’t have a name for, but it was nonetheless like a lion, and roaring,
roaring that way the biggest things do.”
Paraphrase: Early in the story, the narrator tells us that when he turned twelve
and started junior high school, life changed in a significant way that he and his
friends couldn’t quite find a name for.
Specific Detail
Various types of details from the text lend concrete support to the development of the central idea
of your literary analysis essay. These details add credibility to the point you are developing. Below
is a list of some of the details which could have been used in the developmental paragraph from
the paper on John Updike’s short story “A & P” (see the paragraph again for which details were
used and how they were used).
“usual traffic”
“fluorescent lights”
“checkerboard green-and-cream rubber-tile floor”
“electric eye”
shoppers like “sheep,” “houseslaves,” and “pigs”
neatly stacked food
dynamite
Using Direct Quotations
Quotations can illuminate and support the ideas you are trying to develop. A judicious use of quoted
material will make your points clearer and more convincing. As with all the textual evidence you
use, make sure you explain how the evidence is relevant — let the reader know what you
make of the quotations you cite. Below are guidelines and examples that should help you use
quotations effectively:
1.
Brief quotations (four lines or fewer of prose and three lines or fewer of poetry) should be
carefully introduced and integrated into the text of your paper. Put quotation marks around
all briefly quoted material.
Prose example:
As the “manager” of the A & P, Lengel is both the guardian and enforcer of “policy.” When
he gives the girls “that sad Sunday-school-superintendent stare,” we know we are in the
presence of the A & P’s version of a dreary bureaucrat who “doesn’t miss much” (487).
Make sure you give page numbers when necessary. Notice that in this example the
page numbers are in parenthesis after the quotation marks but before the period.
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7
Poetry example:
From the beginning, the Duke in Browning’s poem gives the reader a sense of how possessive he
really is: “That’s my last Duchess on the wall, / Looking as if she were alive”
(1-2). We can’t help notice how, even though the Duke is talking about her portrait, his main
concern is that she belongs to him. Notice that line # 1 is separated from line # 2 by a
slash. Make sure you give the line numbers when necessary.
2.
Lengthy quotations should be separated from the text of your paper. More than four lines
of prose should be double spaced and indented ten spaces from the left margin, with the
right margin the same as the rest of your paper. More than three lines of poetry should
be double spaced and centered on the page. Note: do not use quotation marks to set
off these longer passages because the indentation itself indicates that the material
is quoted.
Prose example:
The first paragraph of “The Secret Lion” introduces the narrator as someone who has just
entered adolescence and isn’t quite sure what to make of it:
I was twelve and in junior high school and something happened that we didn’t have a name for,
but it was there nonetheless like a lion, and roaring, roaring that way the biggest things
do. Everything changed. Just that. Like the rug, the one that gets pulled — or better,
like the tablecloth those magicians pull where the stuff on the table stays the same
but the gasp! from the audience makes the staying-the-same part not matter. Like
that. (41-42) Make sure you give page numbers when necessary. Notice in this
example that the page numbers are in parenthesis after the period of the last
sentence.
Poetry example:
The Duke seems to object to the fact that his “last Duchess” is not discriminating enough
about bestowing her affection. In the following lines from the middle of the poem, the Duke
lists examples of this “fault”:
Sir, ’twas all one! My favor at her breast,
The drooping of the daylight in the west,
The bough of cherries some officious fool
Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule
She rode with round the terrace — all and each
Would draw from her alike the approving speech. (25-30)
Make sure you give line numbers when necessary.
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8
3.
If any words are added to a quotation in order to explain who or what the quotation refers to,
you must use brackets to distinguish your addition from the original source.
Example:
The literary critic John Strauss asserts that “he [Young Goodman Brown] is portrayed as
self-righteous and disillusioned.” Brackets are used here because there is no way of
knowing who “he” is unless you add that information.
Brackets are also used to change the grammatical structure of a quotation so that it fits into
your sentence.
Example:
Strauss also argues that Hawthorne “present[s] Young Goodman Brown in an ambivalent
light.” Brackets are used here to add the “s” to the verb “present” because otherwise
the sentence would not be grammatically correct.
4.
You must use ellipsis if you omit any words from the original source you are quoting.
Ellipsis can be used at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of the quotation, depending
on where the missing words were originally. Ellipsis is formed by either three or four
periods with a space between each period.
Original: “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”
Example (omission from beginning):
This behavior “. . . makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” Ellipsis formed by three dots
after the quotation marks.
Example (omission from middle):
This maxim claims that “Early to bed . . . makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” Ellipsis
formed by three dots used in place of the words “and early to rise.”
Example (omission from end):
He said, “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy . . . .” Ellipsis is formed by
four dots before the quotation marks — the fourth dot is really a period which ends
the sentence.
5.
Use a single line of spaced periods to indicate the omission of an entire line of poetry.
Example:
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9
The Duke seems to object to the fact that his “last Duchess” is not discriminating enough
about bestowing her affection:
……………………………
The drooping of the daylight in the West,
The bough of cherries some officious fool
Broke in the orchard for her, while the white mule
She rode around the terrace — like and each
Would draw from her alike the approving speech. (26-30)
Punctuating Direct Quotations
You will be able to punctuate quoted materials accurately if you observe the following conventions
used in writing about literature:
1.
When the quoted material is part of your own sentence, place periods and commas
inside the quotation marks.
Example:
The narrator of “The Secret Lion” says that the change was “like a lion.” The period
is inside the quotation marks.
2.
When the quoted material is part of your own sentence, but you need to include a
parenthetical reference to page or line numbers, place the periods and commas after
the reference.
Example:
The narrator of “The Secret Lion” says that the change was “like a lion” (41).
The period is outside the quotation marks, after the parenthetical reference.
3.
When the quoted material is part of your own sentence, punctuation marks other than
periods and commas, such as question marks, are placed outside the quotation marks,
unless they are part of the quoted material.
Example (not part of original):
Why does the narrator of “The Secret Lion” say that the change was “like a lion”? The
question mark is placed after the quotation marks because it does not appear
in the original — it ends a question being asked about the story.
Example (part of original):
The Duke shows his indignation that the Duchess could like everyone and everything
when he says, “Sir, ’twas all one!” The exclamation point is placed inside the
quotation marks because it appears in the original.
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10
4.
When the original material you are quoting already has quotations marks (for instance,
dialog from a short story), you must use single quotation marks within the double
quotation marks.
Example:
Lengel tries to stop Sammy from quitting by saying, ” ‘Sammy, you don’t want to do
this to your Mom and Dad’. ”
THREE CONVENTIONS TO REMEMBER WHEN WRITING A LITERARY ANALYSIS
ESSAY
1.
You must give a clear, full reference to the work and author you are writing about
somewhere in your introductory paragraph (see the example introductory
paragraphs A,
B, and C above).
2.
Use the correct format for referring to the work you are discussing. The titles of short
stories, poems, and essays should be placed in quotation marks; the titles of novels,
plays, films, and TV shows should be either underlined or italicized:
“My Last Duchess”
(poem)
“The Secret Lion” (short story)
Pride and Prejudice
(novel)
3.
Antigone
Forest Gump
Roseanne
(play)
(movie)
(TV show)
Use the present tense when you are discussing and writing about literature — literary works
are considered to exist in the present (see all the example paragraphs throughout).
CHECKLIST
1.
Is the topic you have chosen to write about manageable for the length of the paper you are
writing?
Is it too narrow or too broad?
2.
Is your title engaging? Does it suggest the approach you are taking in your paper?
3.
Does your first paragraph introduce your topic, name the writer and the work, and end with
your thesis statement? Will it get the reader’s attention?
4.
Is your thesis clear? Does it state the central idea of your paper?
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11
5.
Is your paper organized in a way that your reader will be able to follow?
6.
Are your developmental paragraphs unified (everything in the paragraph relates to the topic
of the paragraph) and coherent (everything in the paragraph is arranged in a logical order)?
7.
Have you used transitional words where necessary within each paragraph?
transitions linking all the paragraphs of your essay?
8.
Does your concluding paragraph provide a sense of closure?
9.
Have you used technical terms correctly?
10.
Have you used brief summary, paraphrase, specific details, and direct quotations? Have you
explained why you are using them and how they support your central idea?
11.
If you have used information from sources outside the actual work of literature (for example,
books of criticism), have you documented this information properly?
To provide
documentation for literary papers, you need to use MLA documentation style, which can
found in most English handbooks and in books on how to write research papers.
12.
Have you proofread your final draft?
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