Essay 2 Instructions and Topics The Basics: LENGTH: Approximately 1000 words. FO

Essay 2 Instructions and Topics
The Basics:
LENGTH: Approximately 1000 words.
FORMAT: Use MLA format (see MLA information & samples in the Essay 1 Folder.
TITLE: Come up with an original, relevant, interesting title (not “Essay 2”).
PRIMARY SOURCE: You will be writing on Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried.” I am also allowing students to include Tim O’Brien’s “The Lives of the Dead” (pp. 63-76).
SECONDARY SOURCES: Minimum 2, maximum 5 secondary sources. These MUST include 1 of the article excerpt from our book (listed below) and 1 journal article accessed through one of our library databases (preferably JSTOR or Academic Search Complete). Beyond the minimum 2, up to 3 more sources can be used, including the article excerpts, additional journal articles, or any other reliable sources.
Article Excerpts:
Steve Kaplan, “From the Undying Uncertainty of the Narrator in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried” (623-627)
Lorrie N. Smith, “From ‘The Things Men Do’: The Gendered Subtext in Tim O’Brien’s Esquire Stories” (628-637)
Susan Farrell, “From Tim O’Brien and Gender: A Defense of The Things They Carried” (638-642)
(NOTE: These are just the authors and titles and are NOT the complete bibliographic entries to be used on the Works Cited.)
WARNING: All sources must be properly cited both in the exact places they are used in the paper AND with a Works Cited. At minimum, any essay that has sources that are not clearly cited will receive a zero. See syllabus for further possible penalties.
Other Requirements:
POINT OF VIEW: Avoid using first person “I”. And, eliminate any use of second person “you.”
QUOTES FROM THE STORY: You DO need to use brief, relevant quotes from O’Brien’s story to help make your points clear.
QUOTES FROM SECONDARY SOURCES: You should quote at least twice each from your two selected secondary sources.
INTRODUCTION: Should include the authors and titles of the works being discussed.
THESIS: Should be the last sentence(s) of the introduction. This should be the point/argument you are going to prove in the essay.
WORKS CITED: You need a complete Works Cited listing all secondary sources as well as the primary sources (the story or stories if you use both). See the Module Notes and the handouts and links in the Essay 2 Folder for Works Cited instructions and samples.
Grading Issues:
When I grade this paper, I will look for:
An introduction that establishes the central issue(s) of the paper and that includes the authors and titles of the works being discussed (the story or stories).
A strong, clear thesis at the end of the introduction.
Interesting, original points made about the literature.
Logical paragraphing. Each paragraph should present a distinct point that helps prove the thesis.
Good use of relevant quotes from the story to help make the points.
Good selection and incorporation of the required secondary sources.
A clean, error-free Works Cited. (The Works Cited is worth 10 points of the essay grade.)
Proper MLA format throughout.
The Topics:
Select one of the numbered items below. While each of these prompts does have a central issue, you do not necessarily need to answer/respond to all of the questions within a prompt. The key is to use the prompt to come up with a workable thesis.
1. Discuss how “The Things They Carried” differs from a “traditional” story. Do these things help or hinder O’Brien’s work? You might consider the elements of plot, point of view, self-awareness (meta-fiction), character development, symbolism, or any other devices. Though the story reads more like a memoir, how is that we can still call it “fiction”? (Or, can we?)
2. To some degree, each of the critics in this chapter comment on the idea that the stories in the novel The Things They Carried are metafictional—that is, they in various ways draw attention to the fact that they are stories and thus also become about stories, storytelling, and about the relationship between fiction and reality, stories and truth. The novel’s title story and opening chapter—“The Things They Carried”—is, however, the least metafictional story in the book. Analyze what, if anything, seems metafictional in and about the story and why and how exactly that might matter. Do the story’s metafictional aspects make it seem less or more “true” or emotionally engaging, and if so, in what ways?
3. Identify the central argument of one of the three articles in this chapter and write a response. Use the story itself—“The Things They Carried”—to extend, refute, or complicate (take in a different direction) one of these authors’ interpretations. You may include in your discussion comments on the way in which the author uses secondary sources.
4. Lt. Cross carries a pebble from Martha with him. Martha describes her reasoning for picking up the pebble, which she found along the beach where “things came together but also separated.” This seems to bring out a central theme of the story, this idea of “separate-but-together.” Discuss this theme as seen not only specifically with Jimmy and Martha, but in other aspects of the story. How does Lt. Cross feel about this concept? How does it work to describe the way the soldiers were in Vietnam? And, on the idea of fiction (or metafiction), can it be applied to the idea of storytelling—the teller and the audience?
5. Death is clearly a central theme of “The Things They Carried.” The soldiers in the story handle death differently throughout the text. Some carry ghosts, while others seem not to be impacted at all by the deaths of their fellow soldiers (or their enemy). Discuss how two or more of the characters deal with / are impacted by death. What does the manner in which O’Brien includes the story of Ted Lavender’s death—multiple times, repeating information, returning to it in odd places—say about death and this death in particular?
6. “The Things They Carried” is written in third person, oscillating between sections that (like the title) refer to the entire platoon, as if seen from a distance, and sections that instead home in on a single focal character or consciousness. Usually, that consciousness is Jimmy Cross’s. but not always. Explore how point of view (and/or other aspects of narration) shape the story’s effects and meaning. Why and how might it matter, for example, that in one section we “overhear” a conversation—between Bowker and Kiowa—that Jimmy Cross isn’t privy to, and even spend one paragraph inside Kiowa’s thoughts?
7. You may also select one of the Module 6 Response Topics and use it for this essay assignment. The only rule is that you may NOT use the same prompt you used to write your Module 6 Response.
8. (The toughest one). So far this semester, there has been special emphasis on asking questions as a means to “get into” analyzing texts—a means of responding and arguing about literature. So, for “The Things They Carried,” come up with a question of your own, or a series of related questions, about the story, one of the articles, or both. Your “answer” to your question(s) will likely end up being your thesis. Whichever your focus is (the story or an article), be sure to include both the story and source(s) in your essay.
NOTE: If you go with topic 8, you are REQUIRED to send me your planned topic question(s) for approval no later than 1 week (7 days) before the final due date for the essay. Papers using option 8 without topic approval may be penalized or possibly not accepted.
Textbook: The Norton Introduction to Literature is attached as a PDF File
JSTOR: https://www.jstor.org/
TIM O’BRIEN The Things They Carried on (p.609)