Proposal Assignment Final Paper
Prior to beginning work on this assignment, review Chapters 1 through 3 of Journey Into Literature.
In Week 5 of this course, you will submit a four- to five-page Literary Analysis in response to one of the topics from the approved List of Writing Prompts . This week, you will choose the topic you would like to explore, offer some information on what interests you about this topic, and supply a working thesis and key ideas you would like to develop. Though it might seem early to choose your topic, with only five weeks in the course, it is important to start early to best set yourself up for success. You are encouraged to utilize the RUN-QC method explained in Chapter 2 of the course textbook as you read your chosen story and formulate ideas for a literary analysis essay
After reviewing the List of Writing Prompts , choose one that you would like to explore. In addition, you should choose a literary work to discuss that relates to your topic of choice. The suggested literary works for each topic are listed beneath each prompt. Please review the Sample Literary Analysis Essay in the textbook to understand what you are working toward on this assignment and future assignments.
Once you have decided on a prompt and text, respond to the directives below using the Proposal for Final Paper Worksheet . Please make sure your document is double spaced. See the Sample Proposal for guidance.
In your worksheet,
• Identify the specific prompt and literary work you will write about.
• Explain the connection between the literary work and the prompt you chose.
• Explain the key components of the literary work (e.g. character and setting) using literary terms.
• Discuss a central conflict in the literary work and how it connects to your chosen prompt.
• Develop a working thesis that articulates an analytical claim about the literary work. (Keep in mind that “working thesis” means you can slightly modify your thesis for the draft and/or final essay.)
• For more help on how to write a thesis, please see the Ashford Writing Center’s Writing a Thesis Statement (Links to an external site.).)
PROMPT 1 Write an analysis of a key character in a literary work. Focus on the key actions and thoughts of that character. Discuss the character’s motivations and decisions in terms you can support with clear evidence from a critical reading of the text. Consider whether this character’s actions fit together or contradict each other. You may also want to consider whether or not any other characters in the story are aware of this conflict, and if so, how they influence the character you are writing about.
Literary Works (choose one):
“Piropo” (Leticia del Toro, 2011) [ch. 5] Guiding Questions
1. What types of conflicts are revealed between the narrator and the other workers? Between the narrator and their employers? (Cultural? Familial? Economic? Others?)
2. The first-person narrator comments on how a woman in the story dresses and acts. How does this relate to the conflicts in the story?
3. How could you address the narrator’s internal conflict (“individual v. self”) in terms of the political, familial, and social conflicts in the story?
PROMPT 2 In some stories, characters come into conflict with the culture in which they live. A character might feel alienated from his/her community or society due to race, gender, class, or ethnic background. The texts below contain an ‘outcast’ character, reflecting the surrounding society’s assumptions, morality, and values. As you critically read the text you have chosen, consider how this alienation is expressed in the text and why it is significant.Literary Works (choose one):
“Donald Duk and the White Monsters” (Frank Chin, 1991) [ch. 6] Guiding Questions:
1. The main character is Chinese-American. He identifies with white American cultural figures like Fred Astaire but is unhappy about being associated with a Disney character. How do his internal or cultural conflicts relate to his external conflicts with others?
2. How is the tension between the main character\’s different identities resolved (or not) in the story? Does the story suggest that he finds a comfortable hybrid cultural identity?
PROMPT 3 Consider the role of setting, or context, in one of the works. For example, a story that takes place in a wild and natural setting might include characters struggling against nature. Stories set in the city might feature diverse identities, which can also contribute to character conflict. As you critically read one of the texts below, consider how the protagonist’s relationship with the setting reveals his/her identity and development.
Literary Works (choose one from any of the lists below):
\”A Worn Path\” (Eudora Welty, 1941) [ch. 6] Guiding Questions:
1. Why is the Christmas season setting significant, considering the plot?
2. Phoenix has to cope with several physical obstacles along her journey. How do these episodes reveal her character?
3. How do Phoenix’s encounters with other people on her journey demonstrate social conflicts in the regional and/or historical contexts, in the story?
“PIROPO” The Final Paper
Out of the many prompts to choose from I have chosen to write about “Piropo” by Leticia Del Toro listed in prompt number one. Set in the Bay Area Piropo is about a woman Carolina an illegal immigrant, who transformed herself to look like a man in order to compete in the male dominant world of “the day laborer”, working in the world of construction along with her brother Vicente and her husband Joaquin.
Carolina, who is the narrator of this story, is like so many immigrant women in her situation must deal with many conflicts but none bigger then the conflict of Carolina verses Carolina. The fact that this type of internal conflict is common among Latin immigrants is supported by the article Beyond the Superwoman Syndrome: Work Satisfaction and Family Functioning among Working-Class, Mexican American Women February 1995 Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences written by Ruth S. Herrera & Robert L. Del Campo. The investigation examines the interaction of sex-role attitudes, the division of household and child-care responsibilities, role strain, work satisfaction, and family functioning among working-class Mexican American women in dual-earner families. As in the article it be argued that gender role expectations are the reason Hispanic women do report higher conflict levels (Herrera and Del Campo, 1995). Perhaps, for Hispanic women, this represents vestiges of the “superwoman” syndrome (Herrera and Del Campo, 1995) supports Carolina feeling in this short story.
To add more support validity to Carolina feelings and conflict in the short story “Piropo”. Is an article Sources of Conflict between Work and Family Roles. This article discusses the joint feeling that many Latin many women have entering the work force in an effort to help out the family. It’s a hart felt feeling among Mexican women here in the united states. Work-family conflict has been defined as “a type of inter-role conflict that occurs as a result of incompatible role pressures from the work and family domains” (Greenhausand Beutell, 1985, p. 77). Essentially, excessive demands from work (family) can make it more difficult to meet or comply with demands and expectations in the family(work) role. As such, it is simultaneous pressures arising from aspects of work and family roles that cause work-family conflict. This article discusses the joint feeling that many Latin many women have entering the work force in an effort to help out the family. It’s a hart felt feeling among Mexican women here in the united states. Work-family conflict has been defined as “a type of inter-role conflict that occurs as a result of incompatible role pressures from the work and family domains” (Greenhausand Beutell, 1985, p. 77).This conflict is illustrated several times and in many ways throughout this short story. First there is there is the obvious struggle of fitting into the man’s world of construction and competing with all the men for jobs every day as a day laborer. Supporting her son who is back in Mexico living with her sister whom she misses dearly as she states “I didn’t come all this way across so many states to take care of kids. That was a crime to me to leave my son behind then spend my love on other children.” (Del Toro 1986; Skwiot & Clugston 2019)
Then there is the conflict with her not much of a husband Joaquin whom eyes constantly strayed along with is inability to say to any kind of drugs, inyecciones, píldoras makes life with him difficult. On top of that Joaquin has no intimate desire for her makes this a painful conflict. There is the resolved conflict with other worker Carolina at first it was difficult however she proved herself and began to hold her own. In understanding Piropo I first had to look up its definition to make flirtatious compliment this is something that was lacking in Carolina life as stated in the story she has not been touch intimately Joaquin for a while now I believe this started before her transformation never the less she still yearns for a man’s touch. Enter the conflict of what a woman should look and act like is the depicted by Mrs. Dougherty’s manor and style of dress which seen to have pleased Joaquin. As the story moves forward we find Joaquin giving his attention to Mrs. Dougherty instead of Carolina. Then the is the conflict of the separation of class or in this case citizenship versus an illegal alien status the freedom to obtain a job versus the struggle to take anything that comes your way. In terms of addressing the narrator’s internal conflict with herself from the social political and Familial aspect. Carolina who is a very strong-willed woman seem to handle everything in stride.