Literary Essay

Literary Essay

Students will be working on a literary essay. 7/8th Period students will have a choice of stories. Students in 5th period will be working on "The Diamond Necklace"

8th Grade Literary Essay

You will be writing a literary essay on one of the following short stories:

"The Most Dangerous Game"

"The Diamond Necklace"

Your essay will be concentrating on one of the main characters from the stories. These are the two choices you have:

	In "The Most Dangerous Game" explain how General Zaroff is both civilized and evil. Then explain how in the end evil does not win out.
	In "The Diamond Necklace" explain how Mme. Loisel's character flaws cause her ruin, yet she does learn from her misfortune.

Your essay needs to begin with an introduction that states the title of the story, the author, and your thesis statement (main idea of the essay). See the above. Think of an interesting way to begin your introduction.

The body of the essay should be divided into paragraphs depending of the topic you chose.

The one on General Zaroff should have three main paragraphs.

One that shows General Zaroff’s proper, civilized side.

One that shows General Zaroff’s evil, insane side.

One that shows how in the end evil does not prevail (win).

The one on Madame Loisel could be divided into three main body paragraphs:

	One that shows her character flaws.
	One that shows how she suffers because of her character flaws.
	One that shows how she learns from her mistakes.

The body paragraphs should be written as follows:

Begin with a topic sentence

Use specific details from the story to support your topic sentence

Be sure to use your own ideas to introduce the examples

Use quotes when appropriate.

All quoted material needs to have   quotation marks around it and a page number from the text in ( ) You do not            use any abbreviations for page.

Quotes should be used to further your argument, not just stuck in for the           sake of adding a quote.

Use at least two quotes in each       body paragraph.

Finally, you will end your essay with a conclusion where you restate in different words your ideas presented in the introduction. This is a good place to put the conclusions you, as a reader, have come to after reading the story. Be sure, however, not to use personal pronouns even when giving your personal opinion.

REMEMBER THE FOLLOWING IMPORTANT RULES FOR WRITING A LITERARY ESSAY:

Do not use personal pronouns              (I, me, we, and you) when writing a literary essay.

Use the third person objective          point of view.

Write your essay using present       tense verbs.