We’ve read three classic, American short stories so far this semester (“Rip Van Winkle,” “Young Goodman Brown,” “The Fall of the House of Usher”) and we’ve talked about a movie, “The Witch” (2015). In each case, we’ve discussed and compared the structure and dynamics of fictional narrative. Now is the time to show me what you’ve learned.
Your goal in this assignment is to compare the stories we’ve read in class to a narrative from outside of class and to explain the continuities – – thematic and structural – – among these narratives. To do this, you’ll need to:
1) find a narrative that might resemble one of our three stories. This narrative can be a print narrative (short fiction, non-fiction) or a media narrative (music video, movie, comics, etc.).
2) Before you start writing anything:
- analyze your short story. We’ve discussed several ways of getting at the narrative structure of the journey-type narrative. Start with dividing your story up into a tripartite structure (the A – B – A’ of setting or character). Then, start thinking about the significance of these structural elements: how are the different settings related to each other by likeness or difference (i.e. village/home vs. woods in our stories)? how does the starting situation of your narrative (setting or character) differ from the concluding situation? who or what has changed? what kind(s) of action occurred in the middle of the narrative to account for or explain the changes between start and conclusion? As you do this work, try to find very particular textual elements and details that signify these changes. (Think of the way the forest is described in “Young Goodman Brown” or represented in The Witch, or how “petticoat government” is defined in “Rip.”)
- interpret your short story. Analysis helps to lay bare your the ways your narrative organizes meaning but interpretation is about what your narrative means. Some questions to help you interpret your story (recalling our class discussions):
what does the contrast between initial setting and the space of transformation (A-B) tell us about the conflict in the story? (Recall the “pious” vs. “heathen” in “Young Goodman Brown,” or “farm women” vs. witches in The Witch, reality vs. perception in “The Fall of the House of Usher,” or duty versus leisure in “Rip.”);
to what extent is your story’s space of transformation similar to and/or different from the classic versions of “nature” in each of our three stories?;
do you see any examples of “pollution” – – the confusion and mixing of things that should be separate – – in your story?
what kind of development or change does the difference between beginning and end of the story (A – A’) represent?
Interpretation is where you give a more general significance to your analysis, e.g. “Young Goodman Brown” is really about maturity and immaturity; or, “Rip Van Winkle” associates civilization with feminine authority.
3) When you write your essay – – argue for your “reading” of the stories. Now that you’ve analyzed and interpreted the stories – – you’ve probably noticed some interesting similarities and differences between your story and those we read in class. Which of these interpretations seems the most interesting? You won’t have time or space to explain all of the similarities and differences that you’ve discovered – – so you’ll need to focus on the most interesting. Use your essay to explain why and how these similarities and differences are interesting and use details from the text, especially via quotation.
Your essay should be no more than two, double-spaced pages. Be sure to include the authors and titles of the narratives that you examine. Don’t worry about page citations or bibliography/works cited. Be sure to double check for typos, spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors. I will stop reading your essay after the first error.
Your essay is due: February 27 at the beginning of our class.
Remember: the goal of the essay is to show me what you’ve learned about narrative structure and meaning.