select ONE of the following four boldfaced prompts for your final paper:

Learning Goal: I’m working on a literature writing question and need a sample draft to help me learn.

Fall 2022 — LIT 2010 — PAPER TWO PROMPT OPTIONS, GUIDELINES, & DEADLINES

PAPER OPTIONS

Please select ONE of the following four boldfaced prompts for your final paper:

George Saunders’ “Brad Carrigan, American”: Argue what this story communicates about American culture and its values.

Stronger paper responses to this prompt will logically incorporate these considerations as informed by the story:

What is the significance of the story’s style as TV show sitcom and the positioning of the readers as TV audience? The presence of other TV shows on the sitcom and TVs in general? Where is there humor in the story? What is being satirized? What does Old Rex represent to Brad? How are we told Doris’ character has changed, and from what into what? What kind of lessons do Doris and Chief Wayne preach at the start of the story? Do they heed these? What is the significance of the violence, dumbing-down, and hypersexualizing of Brad’s show? The reason(s) for Brad’s show’s changes? What does the morphing of the backyard and living room seem to signify? When does it tend to occur, and how is it dependent on the protagonist (Brad, at first) of the TV show? What is the difference in Brad’s attitude and the rest of the Americans’ attitudes? What does Brad focus on versus what they focus on? What are we meant to make of the presence of international suffering people and their treatment by the story’s American characters? What are Brad’s strengths, values, and flaws juxtaposed to both the other American characters? The international characters? Why the existence of the gray space? What do Brad’s final words signify? Is Brad meant to act sooner than he does?

OR

Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried”: Argue what this story communicates about the experience of war.

Stronger paper responses to this prompt will logically incorporate these considerations as informed by the story: What is the effect of the tone and structure of the story, including its use of listing/organizing and its ordering and repeating of events, and how this could relate to an attempt to comprehend the soldiers’ experiences? What is signified with Ted Lavender’s death as the central event in the story? How do Jimmy Cross and also his platoon soldiers view Lavender’s death? What is the significance of Jimmy Cross’ infatuation with Martha back home? What is the significance of the idea of existing “separate-but-together” throughout the story? What role does the setting of the story play, particularly the Vietnam War and its general American reception? Is there a question of (a)morality and general violence in the story’s portrayal of wartime? What is said about the notion of purpose and direction or guidance in the story’s war? What is the significance of the items the soldiers carry concretely and abstractly? Of the motif of weight, both heaviness/lightness? Where do we see the soldiers’ coping mechanisms and acts of distancing through language and behavior, in their minds and with each other? Where do we see the power of words within the story? A sense of depersonalization in the story? A sense of loss and grief in the story? The presence of humor? What can we make of the comparison of wartime living to a script in the story? Where do we see the ideas of survival and comradery in the story, and how are these juxtaposed to traditionally expectations for acts of bravery and nationalism in wartime?

OR

Aimee Bender’s “The Girl in the Flammable Skirt”: Argue what this story communicates about the relationship between environmental influences and the process of discovering or forming identity.

Stronger paper responses to this prompt will logically incorporate these considerations as informed by the story: As the narrator is the protagonist, what effect does the sectioning of this story have on its expression of character? What do we learn about the protagonist in this story? What is her age? Her behaviors? Her strengths and flaws? Her typical thoughts? What is her interaction with her father like? Why is her father often on his deathbed, and how does this affect the narrator? What of the multiple mentions of illness in the story? What is the role of the stone backpack or the tissue? The rats? Paul? Humor? The girl with skirt aflame? Where do we see compassion or sensitivity in the story? Where do we see passion? How else might we define passion? What is the narrator’s character arc? Is this a coming-of-age story? What seem to be the narrator’s desires? What does the story suggest about self-driven identity versus external identification?

OR

Amy Hempel’s “In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried”: Argue what this story communicates about why we tell stories, including their connection to performance.

Stronger paper responses to this prompt will logically incorporate these considerations as informed by the story:

How is this story in a minimalist style? How does the distance employed in this style affect its narration? Characterize its narrator? What kind of roles do the characters play, and do they have names/labels/titles/nicknames? What does this suggest about their identities? Their relationships to each other? How might this speak to the performance motif in the story and elements of the setting, specifically the “Hollywood” hospital, Al Jolson, the hospital room camera, the bed curtain, the masks? What do these represent? How does this story especially speak to our performances in life and in the stories we tell? What is the purpose of the stories the narrator tells her dying friend? What do they do for the friend? How does their humorous tone play a role? The narrator? Is the narrator avoidant? Of what? Are there situations or

circumstances she cannot avoid? What is important about the narrator’s fears? Why does the narrator leave her friend alone to die? Why does she feel the need to tell us this story about her failure to be there for her friend? What doesn’t the narrator tell the dying friend while she tells her the stories she does? What is left out? What is the significance of the full chimpanzee story, specifically the references to “the language of grief” (10)? What do we make of the narrator’s confession to us and admission that she could lie—though seemingly has not—about her experience? What is the power or purpose(s) of storytelling for the narrator? What does this performance allow her to do? Not to do?

ADDITIONAL PROMPT GUIDANCE (for all prompts):

· Change the word “communicates” in the prompt to one more appropriate to your specific argument as needed; to communicate is a very broad term. Example substitutes: warns, informs, proposes, questions, challenges, etc.

· Capture the appropriate scope for your argument within your thesis statement. Think of your thesis as an umbrella under which all your assertions must be broadly covered—the umbrella cannot be vague, or you have left extra space, i.e. potential assertions alluded to but undeveloped in your paper; the umbrella cannot be too narrow, or you haven’t covered all the assertions your paper argues. Create a thesis that is both broad (expressing the appropriate scope to cover or encompass your assertions) and specific (detailed in a way that categorizes your assertions, encapsulating their relationship/connection to each other within the thesis statement without listing them directly).

· All responses to any of these prompts should attempt to use the elements of fiction as evidence for your assertions (NOT within your assertions/argument—remember A/E/C structure). It is easy to stick to offering plot and character evidence alone, but consider plot structure, language (in the story and in the title), voice, style, setting, POV, and any other significant elements of fiction (juxtaposition, symbolism, allegory, color imagery, tone, etc.) that supports your argument when you are presenting evidence.

· Your paper should provide the story’s full context, (generally, briefly, and when appropriate) so the reader knows what happens in the story from start to end without having read the actual story. Your paper should use the entire scope of the story to prove its argument. This is not to say you must discuss every event or small circumstance in the story. This is to say you must provide enough varied context and evidence that the reader finishes your paper and knows what generally happens in the story. They should know the most significant parts of the story and how they prove your argument about what the story is communicating.

· If you must use a definition as evidence or context to support an assertion, use the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) Online available through FAU’s Library databases. Use EZ-Proxy to log on when off campus. Do not use other dictionaries.

GUIDELINES & DEADLINES

IMPORTANT NOTES FOR EACH PAPER ASSIGNMENT:

· Include the prompt option you have chosen in the fifth line of your heading for each of these paper assignments below Write the assignment abbreviated as follows: Paper 2 Outline – Bender.

· The work cited entries for each of the PDF stories are located in the document “Canvas PDF Story Work Cited Entries” in the Week 1 module. The entry for the story from our anthology The Story and Its Writer can be constructed by reviewing the “LIT 2010 – PP – MLA, Paper Expectations, and Plagiarism” document also in the Week 1 module—there is a slide that reviews the structure for a selection within an anthology.REQUIREMENTS: Falling short of these requirements will incur assignment deductions

· This document must adhere to MLA style standards. This includes a work cited page as your final page (after the final page of the paper itself).

· Length: 4-5 pp. (very bottom of 4th p. or onto a 5th p.)

· You should revise your rough draft to create a stronger, more developed final draft. This includes your argument and evidence used. Please read both your peers’ feedback AND my class global comments on the outlines and rough drafts while revising.

· You must include direct quotations from the story option you chose within this draft in order to complete this assignment. It is expected that there will be at least 1-2 quotations in each body paragraph. Only use the short story for evidence/support. NO research is permitted in this paper. That is because this is a close-reading paper.

· See “LIT 2010 – PP – MLA, Paper Expectations, and Plagiarism” PowerPoint presentation in the Week 1 module for more guidance on paper expectations (their structure and content).