Analytical Essay
Essay #2
500 Words – Written in Class on the week of April 4th (with extra time to finish at home)
Due Date: April 10th, 2022 (by midnight)
Submission: Typed & Uploaded to Moodle OR Handwritten
Identify a theme related to one of the texts covered in class so far and develop an analytical essay exploring how your chosen theme is represented in the text and its significance (why is it important/meaningful to the story). You can choose any text other than the one you used for Essay #1.
- “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe
- “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson
- “Autofac” by Philip K. Dick
- “The Boys Who Became the Hummingbirds” by Daniel Heath Justice
- Seconds by Bryan Lee O’Malley
- “The Bells” by Edgar Allen Poe
- “Sea Peach” by Catherine Kidd
Remember: your theme should be phrased as a full sentence, rather than just a keyword. For example: If the main idea of a story is power, a possible theme could be, “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
To support your argument about how the author successfully conveys the theme you’ve identified, choose 3 literary devices to discuss and analyze in your body paragraphs. You should focus on one device per paragraph. Each device is chosen because you can connect it back to your theme.
For this essay, you are not required to use any secondary sources. The main goal is for you to use your own analytical skills to discuss the use and meaning of your chosen elements of proof (literary devices) in relation to the theme. However, you are still required to use MLA style in-text citations and include a Work Cited page containing the bibliographical information of your chosen story.
Work Cited entries for the texts read so far:
Dick, Philip K. “Autofac.” Galaxy Science Fiction. Galaxy Publishing Corp., 1955.
Jackson, Shirley. “The Possibility of Evil.” Just An Ordinary Day. Bantam Books, 1998.
Justice, Daniel Heath. “The Boys Who Became the Hummingbirds.” Moonshot Vol. 2.
Alternate History Comics, 2020.
O’Malley, Bryan Lee. Seconds. Random House Canada, 2014.
Poe, Edgar Allen. “The Tell-Tale Heart.” Tales of Mystery and Imagination. Alfred A.
Knopf, 2017.
Poe, Edgar Allen. “The Bells.” The Works of the Late Edgar Allen Poe Vol 2.
Redfield,1857, pp. 23-26.
Kidd, Catherine. “Sea Peach.” Sea Peach: halocynthia auranthium. Conundrum
Press, 2002, pp. 66-73.
