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THE ROAD
Details:
So far this semester you have put in an incredible amount of work breaking down metaphors (in poetry, fiction, and drama) and using your imaginations to find inferred meaning behind the purposeful juxtaposition of seemingly unrelated things, whether concrete or abstract. Additionally, you also encountered the concept of “constructive ambiguity,” a particular tactic some authors use to paradoxically create more meaning while providing fewer details. For this last essay, you will be using all of the skills you’ve learned so far in order to analyze a novel, The Road. You’ll soon find that The Road is full of metaphors that elucidate the deepest implications about human nature, especially in light of how the main characters are faced with such an extreme post-apocalyptic environment. For this last essay for the semester, you will analyze one of the central themes of the book through the lens of one of its most dominant symbols or metaphors.
The boy demonstrates over and over again that it is fundamentally important he and his father remain “good guys” and that they continue “carrying the fire.” Indeed, the “bad guys” are quite terrifying, engaging in the enslaving of others, cannibalism, or even the harvesting of women for their babies. Yeah, pretty ugly stuff. However, there are several times when the otherwise clear boundary between good guys and bad guys seems blurred, but the boy is always there to re-establish that boundary. How is the boy essentially acting as the father’s moral compass? The dialogue on page 259 between the father and son is critical for your analysis, “You’re not the one who has to worry about everything.” What window into the boy’s burden do we learn here? How does it change what we know about the relationship between the father and son and their goals?
Your piece should have an introduction that presents your argument (thesis) and provides context for your discussion of the essay topic. You should introduce what central theme you’re going to discuss in your essay.
This is very important… it should be extremely obvious what essay prompt you are answering after reading through your intro.
Keep in mind, too, that you should NOT simply announce which prompt you are answering, as in “For this essay I am discussing prompt #4.” Instead, it must be implied strongly enough for the reader.)
Your body paragraphs should develop smoothly from one paragraph to the next (and may vary in structure).
I highly recommend using topic sentences, which help indicate to the reader not only what the paragraph is more or less about, but it also introduces your overall opinion for that paragraph
It’s required to use the Evidence-Analysis pattern. You’ve already been doing this in your double-entry journals so you’ve had a ton of practice.
In general, your analysis should more or less be equal in length to your evidence or quotes.
Your essay should correctly quote and analyze at least two metaphors from the novel. Remember that the novel’s metaphors are direct windows into the its central themes. For this reason it’s absolutely essential for you to be able to discuss a couple of them at length.
Your piece should have a conclusion that clarifies and discusses the significance of your overall argument and does not simply restate or summarize what you have previous written. What is some final remark you’d like to give to your reader? How can you relate to the stories? How can you relate to having a lack of information?
Your piece should be at least 5-7 pages long (between 1700-2400 words) and formatted in MLA style.
All Work/Labor and writing needs to meet the following conditions (quoted from our Grading Contract):
Complete and On Time. You agree to turn in on time and in the appropriate manner complete essays, writing, or other labor assigned that meet all of our agreed upon expectations. (See Late/Incomplete Work for details on late assignments). This means you’ll be honest about completing labor that asks particular time commitments of you (for example, “write for 20 minutes,” etc.).
Copy Editing. When the job is for the final publication of a draft, your work must be well copy edited—that is, you must spend significant time in your labor process to look just at spelling and grammar. It’s fine to get help in copy editing. (Copy editing doesn’t count on drafts before the portfolios or first drafts).
Be organized: The paper contains a clear hypothesis and accurate supporting evidence, has a logical flow, includes transitional phrases or transitions, and provides clear topic sentences.
Shows originality: The paper is neither formulaic nor perfunctory. It displays some creativity, offers an interesting angle on the question, takes some risks in content or structure, and/or offers new insights.
Demonstrates control of language and style: The grammar and vocabulary is appropriate for college writing, the language is descriptive and precise, the sentences are varied in structure, the paper has few errors that interfere with readability, etc. Note: even though I require a high level of expressive language that can communicate nuanced arguments, please feel free to use whatever “language” or “dialect” or “voice” you feel you can best express your ideas.
Uses a variety of sentence combining strategies, including the use of coordinators, subordinators, noun-phrase appositives, and relative clauses.
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