Second Paper Assignment

Due in section on Friday, April 27th

Answers must be:

§ Between 1250-1750 words (5-7 pages)

§ Typed in 12pt, double-spaced, Times New Roman font, and in paragraph form.

§ No generalizations about the novel in the first paragraph (as in, “The novel was a literary work that had an enormous impact on people.”)

§ A minimum of 2 close readings are required.

Choose one of the following topics for your essay. Answer most, but not all, questions posed in the topic. You will need to take an argumentative stance and close read at least two passage as supporting evidence for your view. Although you may apply what you have learned from section and from lectures, do NOT choose a phrase, passage, or image that Prof. Schaub or I have addressed extensively:

1. Using Native Son, A Raisin in the Sun, Goodbye, Columbus, or House Made of Dawn choose a pairing or pattern of interesting details and make a case for its importance, in terms of the text. Why is this pairing or pattern significant? Beyond being cool or notable, how does it help us understand the underlying meanings of the text? To answer these questions – and to complete your analysis – you should explore what ideas the author conveys through this particular pairing or pattern. What argument seems to lie behind it? What point does the author use it to make? You cannot address any of the imagery from the midterm exam or Prof. Schaub’s lectures.

2. “It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his twoness,--an American, a Negro; two warring souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.”-W.E.B. DuBois The Souls of Black Folk (1903)

   Discuss DuBois’s theory of double-consciousness (as articulated in this quote. No outside research is necessary) in relation to either Bigger from Native Son or a character of your choice from A Raisin in the Sun. Your paper should include close readings of both the above quote and scenes from your chosen text.
3. Choose a relationship among two or more characters within the same novel and discuss how their relationship provides significance to the themes of the home, class consciousness, gender difference, or personal development (choose only one of these themes). Write an analysis of this theme and its differences, changes and/or developments in A Raisin in the Sun, Goodbye, Columbus, or House Made of Dawn (choose only one of these texts).