English Composition Drafting Worksheet1. Which topic from the a

English Composition: Drafting Worksheet
1. Which topic from the assignment sheet have you chosen?
Describe the topic and your general take on it. What do you
think of the topic and what do you think you might do with it?
2. Considering the topic you are planning to write about, what
elements of the text do you plan to talk about? Think of this
question as asking for the content topic of body paragraphs.
What will these content topics demonstrate about the essay
topic? Think of at least three.
3. In one or two sentences, summarize the premise of the
primary source. Include the name of the title (italicized in
MLA) and the author.

4. Explain how the topic you’ve chosen is manifested in the
text. What question(s) or problem(s) related to this topic are
posed by the film?
5. Thesis part one: How does an element(s) of the text explore
your topic?
6. Thesis part two: As a result, what defined meaning or
reflection upon the world does this exploration produce?
Question 2 could lead to paragraph topics. Questions 3 to 6 can
build and introductory paragraph (with modifications for style
and logic between sentences).

1
Professor Cynthia Brannvall
Art 4
20 May 2020
Stop and Think: An Essay on Street Artist Banksy
In the 1980’s street art began to explode with popularity in the
art world. Street Art is
defined as any art on public or private property for public
display, whether it be sanctioned or
not. Artists such as Keith Haring and Jean Michel Basquiat
sparked the public’s interest by
decorating New York subway stations and brick walls
throughout the city. The legality of these
pieces on public spaces is questionable, but that is part of the
mystique this type of art possesses.
Artists use their work to make social and political commentary
for the public to see. Many of
Haring’s pieces focussed on the current events of his time; with
subjects such as the AIDS
epidemic or the assasination of John Lennon. As time
progresses, the legacy that artists like
Haring and Basquiat left can be seen heavily in today’s street
art. Their legacy’s influence is

most apparent in the artist who has dominated street art since
first coming on the scene in the
early 1990’s-- Banksy. The artist known as “Banksy” operates
under the alias in order to keep
his true identity a secret. He has done pieces around the world
with a variety of different topics,
all while preserving his identity from the public. Traces of
Banksy’s predecessor’s style can be
seen in each one of his pieces.. Although his influences are
apparent, Banksy is still undoubtedly
unique in what he does. He has produced some of the most
recognizable art of the 21st century,
and has art pertaining to almost all major political and social
events in the last 20 years. His
stencil work is uncanny and extraordinarily unique. In the
following pages, I will dive deeper
2
into the art that has influenced Banksy, Banksy’s most uniquely
outspoken art, and how he-- as
an artist-- stays relevant. In other words, we will answer the
question: How has a masked graffiti
artist taken over the street art world in an ever-evolving 21st

century?
Street art has a unique effect on the public. Street art gives an
artist the ability to leave a
piece of art for the public to interpret for themselves. In his
book Banging Your Head Against a
Brick Wall, Banksy describes the importance of street art
stating, “Bus stops are far more
interesting and useful places to have art than in museums.
Graffiti has more chance of meaning
something or changing stuff than anything indoors. Graffiti has
been used to start revolutions,
stop wars, and generally is the voice of people who aren't
listened to. Graffiti is one of those few
tools you have if you have almost nothing. And even if you
don't come up with a picture to cure
world poverty you can make somebody smile while they're
having a piss” (Banksy). This is a
very similar approach that Keith Haring took with his art.
Haring would leave untitled artwork
throughout subway stations in order to spark the public’s
imagination with his work. Although
some of his artwork had definitive meanings behind them, he
did not always intend for those
meanings to be the only thing that someone could appreciate

about the art. He meant for the art
to be interpreted in all ways and most importantly, appreciated.
Many people suspect that this is
why he kept lots of his pieces untitled (Arnason, Manfield). A
good representation of a piece of
art that is very politically outspoken, yet subtle enough to laugh
at is Banksy’s untitled piece
from 2004 that can be found in London’s Marble Arch.
3
Banksy, Untitled, 2004, spray paint with stencil.
At first glance, this piece really could provide a viewer with a
good giggle. However,
considering its location in England-- one of the most heavily
surveillanced developed nations--
the political statement behind it is far greater. As recently as
2018 British Government has gotten
in trouble for excessive surveillance on their citizens. Given
this context, the piece carries much
more weight than previously thought. This is an influence that
Banksy has taken directly from
Haring. By making his art air on the dark humor, Banksy
expands the audience that it will appeal

to.
Another distinct influence that can be seen in this piece is that
of Jean Michel Basquiat.
Basquiat became well known for the way that he used words in
his street art to convey meaning.
Basquiat and his art partner Al Diaz, under the pseudonym
SAMO, used words written in spray
paint and marker throughout subway stations to write short,
witty, and thought provoking stories.
In a very similar way, Banksy uses words to articulate his own
meaning. He uses short phrases
repeatedly in his art to cause the viewer to stop and think about
what the piece is saying. During
a protest against the war in Iraq in London 2003, Banksy handed
out around thirty picket signs
4
on cardboard that he had put one of three different stencils on.
The three different stencils were
Bomb Hugger Girl, Happy Choppers, and Grin Reaper. All of
which had the words “WRONG
WAR” or “NO” stencilled underneath the image. The stenciled
images spoke volumes.

However, the words “WRONG WAR” posed a question for the
viewer: Is there a right war? If
so, what is it? Is there a more important war, on the homefront,
that needs to be handled? And
what could “NO” be referring to exactly? All of these are valid
questions regarding the picket
signs. In this instance, we can see Banksy using the influence of
both Haring and Basquiat. The
words are so similar to the things that Basquiat did in the
subways, but the ambiguity of the
words themselves and the thought provoking narrative they
create is so similar to what Haring
did. In many senses Banksy is a good blend of his predecessor's
style with the addition of a style
that is uniquely his own.
Banksy has stood out from the crowd in one very particular
way. As James Gaddy puts in
in his 2004 article about the artist, “Banksy was everywhere--
and nowhere.” Banksy has
somehow managed to decorate the entire world with his art, yet
stay anonymous. There have
been many people interested in finding out his true identity; so
much so that a group of authors

from Queen Mary University of London used the same
“Geographic Profiling” system that law
enforcement agencies use to find suspects, in order to try and
discover the true identity of
Banksy (Hauge et al.) I found this comical that a group of
researchers is using a tool designed to
find murders to discover who the arguably most praised
criminal in the world is. The group
released their findings, but since Banksy did not confirm his
identity to be Robert Cunningham--
as the research suggested-- the public did not pay too much
attention to it. The neglect for this
information is caused by the brilliant mystique that Banksy’s art
has caused. By never releasing
5
his real name or even a picture of his full face, the identity of
Banksy has become his art itself.
His identity lies with his outspoken, dark humor filled, satirical,
street art. His personality is
within the mischievous pranks he pulls and the art he creates.
The art gives us as viewers an ever
changing idea of who this man is. Sometimes, he is the face of
political satire, other times he

becomes the little rats he stencils on walls throughout different
cities.
Albeit the case that Banksy is an ever changing mystery, there
is one piece that stands out
in my mind as his most defining piece. That is the canvas
entitled Love is in the Bin, 2018. This
piece stems from his most identifiable piece called Balloon
Girl, which first appeared on a wall
in London in 2002 (BBC News). To give context as to how well
regarded Balloon Girl is;
according to a survey done by BBC news in 2017, Balloon Girl
had become Great Britain's most
beloved piece of art. That being the case, it was no surprise that
when an original canvas copy of
Balloon Girl was put up for auction in 2018, it sold for just
about $1.4 million (Brenner). This
was a record at the time for a Banksy piece. However, moments
after the sale was final, a
beeping began to come from the frame. Then a paper shredder,
built into the frame that was
holding the famous Balloon Girl, began to shred the million
dollar canvas. Panic ensued in the
auction hall and luckily, the piece was not shredded completely,
but only half way. How did a

shredder get into the frame without anyone knowing? Well,
that's Banksy for you. He had built
the shredder into the frame just in case it ever went up for
auction, in which case the art would
self destruct. Banksy has been known for putting many of his
canvas pieces in large antique
looking gold frames. He does so in order to mock the aesthetics
of so called fine art. By doing
this, he has bridged the gap between fine art and street art, and
created what Lex Brenner from
Harvard National Review calls the “Banksy Effect.” After the
shredder failed to shred the entire
6
canvas, it was all of the sudden a new piece of art. Moreover,
according to Brenner “The move
not only fed into his ever-growing fanbase, but the shredded art
actually became worth more than
the original.” This new piece was then given the title Love is in
the Bin. Below is the original
Balloon Girl on the left and on the right is the modified Love is
in the Bin.
The meaning behind the original Balloon Girl can be

interpreted many ways. I see a
young child metaphorically reaching for her goals, dreams, and
aspirations as they slowly float
away from her. Moreover, looking closer at the girls figure, it
almost appears that the stencil
outlines her skeleton in white. Here, I think banksy is getting at
the core of what makes humani ty
different, and that is our desire for more. With the little girl
slowly losing her balloon, it speaks
to Banksy belief about the nature of desire. So why would he
shred this work?
Banksy is very much of the avant garde for his time and Love is
in the Bin is the absolute
epitome of this new and daring art. To create a piece of art by
destroying your most well known
art is something no one has ever done before. It was a huge risk
and it paid off tremendously.
7
Since creating Love is in the Bin, he has continued to rise in
popularity. In 2019, he broke
another personal record by selling his Devolved Parliament for
over $12 million. He posted a

comment on Instagram about the sale of Devolved Parliament
stating “Record price for a Banksy
painting set at auction tonight… Shame I didn’t still own it.”
This comment was made to
criticize how artists are excluded in the sale of their work.
Some have also speculated that this is
why he shredded Balloon Girl immediately upon resale.
Although the prices people pay for his work are a good tool to
judge how relevant he
currently is, an even better indicator is the topics Banksy is
making art about. His most recent art
was released only weeks ago on 6 May, 2020. Banksy has
always been known for tackling
mainstream issues. There is nothing more relevant today than
the COVID-19 pandemic. In a very
similar way to the picket signs of 2003, Banksy just dropped his
newest piece off at
Southampton General Hospital in Great Britain.
Banksy, Untitled, 2020, pencil on canvas
In this piece we can see that Banksy is commenting on the
severity of the COVID-19
pandemic and how normal life for all of us has been changed.
The little boy is playing with the

8
nurse while Batman and Spiderman are left in the bin. Given the
current crisis, Banksy is saying
that it is time to put down the superheroes that we are all used
to and appreciate the true heroes
fighting against this virus. COVID-19 has caused a very unique
and unprecedented time for all of
humanity. Banksy shows how this affects all of us by using a
child to shed light on the greater
impact the pandemic has made. Moreover, he is actually
contributing to the treatment of the
pandemic in a serious way. The hospital he snuck the art into is
planning to auction off the work
and donate all the proceeds to COVID-19 research (Hagen). Not
only is Banksy documenting a
time in history, he is also essentially contributing to the fight
against the virus. When he does
things like this, he maintains he relevance in the art world.
We live in an ever changing world that I expect to keep
evolving. As this evolution
progresses, art will hold an important place for social and
political critique. I presume that

Banksy will continue to have some sort of dark humor, satirical,
or bold statement to make about
world politics and society. His art will continue to evolve and
spark new questions. He will
continue to have us stop and think about how our society deals
with our toughest situations.
Truthfully, this is a good thing, the purpose of street art is to
pull our attention to what we may
need to do differently as a society. This kind of art helps us
question our values and better
understand the challenges we face.
When discussing Banksy, it is important to situate his art in the
context of street art and
history. It is apparent where the influence for his art came from,
with obvious inspiration from
two greats in Keith Haring and Jean Michel Basquiat. As
Banksy continues to increase in
popularity, he will likely influence the next generation of great
street artists. Early 21st century
art will undoubtedly be remembered by the art of Banksy
scattered throughout major cities all
9

over the world. With his incredibly unique style, people will
continue to collect his art and pay
astronomically high prices for it. However, the true value of a
Banksy is the thought that it
evokes when we look at it and the social change that it may
inspire. We do not know who he is,
but we know what he stands for.
10
Works Cited
Arnason, H. H., Mansfield, Elizabeth. History of Modern Art:
Painting, Sculpture, Architecture,
Photography. 8th ed., Pearson, 2013.
Banksy. Banging Your Head against a Brick Wall. 2001.
“Banksy's Balloon Girl Chosen as Nation's Favourite Artwork.”
BBC News, BBC, 26 July 2017,
www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-40717821.
Brenner, Lexa. “THE BANSKY EFFECT: REVOLUTIONIZING
HUMANITARIAN
PROTEST ART.” Harvard International Review, vol. 40, no. 2,
May 2019, pp. 34–37.
Academic Search Complete.

Gaddy, James. “NOWHERE MAN.” Print, vol. 61, no. 1, Jan.
2007, pp. 68–73. Academic
Search Complete.
Hagen, Isobel van. “'Superhero' Health Workers Hailed in New
Banksy Painting.”
NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 7 May 2020,
www.nbcnews.com/news/world/superhero-health-workers-
hailed-new-banksy-painting-n
1201816.
Hauge, Michelle V, et al. “Tagging Banksy: Using Geographic
Profiling to Investigate a Modern
Art Mystery.” Journal of Spatial Science, vol. 61, no. 1, Mar.
2016, pp. 185–190.
Academic Search Complete.
11
Mancoff, Debra N. “Banksy.” Encyclopædia Britannica,
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 26 Dec.
2019, www.britannica.com/biography/Banksy.

Isola 1
Claire Isola
Professor Cynthia Brannvall
Art 3
May 20, 2020
The Impressionist Female Gaze: Berthe Morisot and Mary
Cassatt
In April 1874, a group of artists including Claude Monet,
Camille Pissaro, and Pierre-
Auguste Renoir, in an act of rebellion against the state-run
Salon, showed their works at an
independent exhibition, dismantling the centuries-old standards
and traditions of the French
Academy of Art. Their soft, hazy depictions of upper middle
class leisure created a new visual
language for modern life: Impressionism. Like most artistic
movements in western history, the
Impressionists were dominated by men. However, the
unconventional nature of the movement
gave a select few female painters the opportunity to find
success in artistic careers at a time when
women’s lives were severely limited by societal constraints.

The Impressionists’ emphasis on
subjectivity and rejection of Academy training unintentionally
made the movement more
accessible to bourgeois women by validating the style of
painting taught as a part of their
education as well as the depiction of their limited surroundings.
Two female artists in particular,
Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt, gained recognition in the
Impressionist exhibitions for
paintings that provide unique insight into upper middle class
life from a distinctly female
perspective.
Berthe Morisot was born into an upper middle class family in
Passy, the French
countryside outside of Paris, where she lived her entire li fe.
Drawing and painting were a
standard part of a bourgeois woman’s education, so it was not
unusual that Morisot and her sister
Edma studied art from a young age; what differed was Morisot’s
dedication to her work. By her
Isola 2
early twenties, she had resolved “to make of my daily torment,

work, my perpetual pleasure,”
willing to give up on the prospect of marriage, the expected
ideal of a woman of her class, if it
allowed her to pursue a career in painting (Higonnet, 36). She
did eventually marry Eugene
Manet, brother of realist painter Edouard Manet, but she
continued to paint with her husband’s
support, managing to maintain both a career and a family, a
privilege afforded to her by her
wealth and social status. Despite her public showings and
recognition, Morisot led a fairly
typical upper middle class female life, insulated from the world
outside her home and the seaside
trips her family took in the summer. Fortunately, the subject
matter of her surroundings
exemplified the scenes of middle class leisure typical of
Impressionist art, so when Edgar Degas
invited her to show at the first Impressionist exhibition, her
paintings of contemporary
womanhood contained elements of lived-in experience that set
her apart from the male artists.
Fig. 1. Berthe Morisot, The Cradle, 1872.
Morisot’s 1872 painting The Cradle (fig. 1) is a modern

portrayal of the classic mother-
and-child trope. It depicts her sister Edma sitting at her infant
daughter’s cradle. She looks down
Isola 3
at the child with a gentle, contemplative expression, her hand
resting on her cheek. Unlike most
classical western mother-and-child paintings, which are largely
influenced by imagery of Jesus
and the Virgin Mary, there is distance between the mother and
baby; they are not even touching.
The composition is divided by a strong diagonal line formed by
the curtain over the cradle, so the
viewer can see the mother and child separately, as two
independent individuals. Edma’s serious,
pensive expression conveys the weight of responsibility
motherhood carries. Becoming a wife
and a mother was seen as a bourgeois woman’s destiny, forcing
women to “renounce, for periods
of time at least, the sanctioned joys art gives. Sanctioned, that
is, when such art is not too
absorbing, when it does not take precedence over the sacred
obligations of a woman” (Higonnet,

78). A woman’s education only required painting as an
amateurish hobby with which to
entertain, not a gateway to a career. When Edma married, she
gave up painting to devote herself
to her husband and family, causing Morisot to feel “lost and
unhappy over a fate about which we
can do nothing” (Ibid, 49). Despite her initial hesitation, she did
eventually marry and have a
daughter Julie, with whom she was very close and featured
heavily in her paintings, without
having to make the major sacrifices expected of women at the
time. The Cradle reflects
Morisot’s understanding of the complex emotions accompanying
middle-class motherhood,
injecting a popular theme with a contemporary female
perspective.
Isola 4
Fig. 2, Berthe Morisot, The Psyche Mirror, 1876.
In her 1876 painting The Psyche Mirror (fig. 2), Morisot
depicts a young woman at a
mirror thoughtfully considering her reflection. Loose

brushstrokes give the painting a hazy
atmosphere, conveying the woman’s shifting sense of identity.
Morisot was one of Edouard
Manet’s most frequent models, appearing in eleven of his
works, “her image variously
manipulated, masked, and veiled,” in a variety of poses and
costumes (Kesler, 475). She became
familiar with the strange experience of seeing herself portrayed
through a male lens, often
communicating seduction or mysterious intrigue. In a society
where women were defined by
their relationships with men, it was impossible for a woman to
consider herself without
considering the way men saw her. Most art historical paintings
by male artists portray women
looking in mirrors as doing so admiringly, conveying vanity, or
in a way that connotes seduction,
in the act of preparing to fulfill a male fantasy. The woman in
The Psyche Mirror does neither;
her simple white dress draws attention toward her modest pose
and contemplative expression.
Isola 5

Morisot draws upon her personal experiences under the male
gaze to depict a woman preparing
for its scrutiny, but taking a moment to assess her own sense of
identity.
Unlike Morisot, Mary Cassatt remained unmarried and
childless for her entire life. Born
in Pennsylvania, she benefited from certain opportunities open
to well-off American women that
were unavailable to French women. At sixteen, she studied at
the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine
Art, where she both met female artists and defended women’s
art to her predominantly male
colleagues. Her family’s wealth and connections allowed her to
study abroad in Europe and
move to Paris, where she would spend much of her life. She was
outspokenly critical of
corruption within the Salon system, so she gladly accepted
Degas’s invitation to show in the
Impressionists’ 1879 exhibition. Her portrayals of upper
middle-class women and children imbue
largely domestic subjects with realism and a sense of agency.
Fig. 3. Mary Cassatt, In the Loge, 1878.

Cassatt’s 1878 painting In the Loge (fig. 3) is an exploration
into the concept of looking.
Its central figure is a woman in an opera box gazing across the
theater (not down at the stage)
through binoculars, while in the background, a man in another
opera box gazes similarly at her.
Isola 6
Cassatt frequently attended the opera, not so much for the
performances, but because she enjoyed
its social element. In the nineteenth-century, the opera was
considered a social event for the
upper middle-class and one of the few public spaces where
women were openly accepted.
Despite experiencing considerably more freedom than Morisot,
Cassatt still did not have
unlimited access to male society, notably Paris’s cafe-concerts
frequented by many of the
Impressionist painters, due to concerns for her safety and social
respectability. She “admired the
power of sensuality and realism” in Degas’s moody depictions
of the dark side of urban life, but
was unable to have these experiences herself, instead w aiting
outside venues for reports back

from her male friends or catching up on the latest discussions at
dinner parties (often hosted by
Berthe Morisot) (Mathews, 124). Never content with the
prospect of a domestic existence,
Cassatt took full advantage of the experiences available to her.
The opera was a rare opportunity
for bourgeois women to see and be seen, as attested to by the
eagerness and engagement of the
woman In the Loge. She leans forward, focusing intently on the
people in the balcony across the
way, appearing markedly more active and intentional than most
depictions of women at the time.
However, the man in the background reminds the viewer that
despite her assertion of
subjectivity, the woman still falls prey to the gaze of others
(including the viewer’s). With In the
Loge, Cassatt responds to the prevalence of the male gaze by
depicting a woman with a gaze of
her own, taking in as much of the world as she can before
returning to her sheltered existence.
Another way in which Cassatt differed from Morisot was her
active involvement in
causes that promoted advancements for women. She was a
strong supporter of the American

women’s suffrage movement, bitter about the anti-suffrage
views within her own family, going
so far as to sell off the paintings she had intended for her anti -
suffrage heirs. “She took the
family’s anti-suffrage position as a personal affront, believing
that if they had no respect for the
Isola 7
advancement of women, they had no respect for her, and
therefore should not be allowed to have
her art” (Mathews, 310). In 1893, she was commissioned to
paint a mural for the Women’s
Building, an exhibition at the World’s Columbian Exposition in
Chicago celebrating the
achievements of women. The exhibition’s ultimate message was
unclear and the subject of
constant debate. Some viewed it as evidence that women were
just as competent as men and
deserving of complete gender equality, while others took a
separate essentialist viewpoint and
saw it as proof that women are competent within the domestic
(feminine) sphere and deserve to
be valued at the same level as men, but within the confines of

their prescribed gender roles.
There was also an issue of inclusion; white middle-class women
were heralded as a feminine
ideal, while African-American women’s demands for
representation were denied. These debates
continue to have relevance in feminism today, but in the case of
the Women’s Building, they
created an inconsistent tone of empowering women without
actually challenging the status quo.
The project was generally well-received by the public, but
Cassatt’s mural Modern Woman was
unpopular and panned by critics, who described it as “garish”
and “crude,” and even accused
Cassatt of “seem[ing] to indicate an aggressive personality with
which compromise and
cooperation would be impossible” (Hutton, 44). Part of the issue
was that Cassatt was not a
muralist, so her Impressionistic style clashed with the
building’s more classical, decorative
murals, but the painting reflected modernity in its content as
well as its style, making a striking
statement about women and their potential.
Fig. 4. Mary Cassatt, Modern Woman, 1893.

The central image of Modern Woman (fig. 4) is a pastoral
scene of several women,
including children, harvesting fruit from trees. They work
together, picking the fruit, passing the
fruit along, and carrying away the filled baskets. Each woman
has a full, realistic figure and
Isola 8
wears a loose-fitting dress in a contemporary style. The image
of women picking fruit is
evocative of the Biblical story of Eve and the Fall of Man,
which was often used as evidence of
women’s inherent subordination to men. However, a common
feminist interpretation of the time
asserted that Eve ate the forbidden fruit not because she was
enticed by sinful pleasures, but by
her desire for knowledge, making her independent and heroic.
Within this context, Modern
Woman reads as a community of self-sufficient women seeking
knowledge and passing it down
to future generations. The notable absence of men among active
women insinuates that women

are not only capable of intellectual pursuits, but that they can
do so completely independently of
men. This was a radical statement for the time and likely made
most people uneasy. This
discomfort paired with the mural’s disconcerting style was
ultimately responsible for the work’s
poor reception. Cassatt’s portrayal of modern women in their
daily life as an allegory for a
subversion of a classical theme was ahead of its time in its
assertion of female empowerment, but
was unfortunately lost when the Women’s Building was
dismantled after its exhibition.
Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt found success as artists, not
in spite of their gender, but
in many ways because of it. The stability and opportunities
afforded by their privileged
backgrounds along with the Impressionist movement’s break
from classical traditions that
excluded women allowed them to elevate images of modern
middle class female life out of the
domestic sphere and into the world of high art. By giving
importance to female concerns, they
paved the way for other women to express themselves through
art and pursue artistic careers,

eventually leading to more diverse perspectives and expressions
of the female experience.
Unfortunately, the issue of female artists not receiving the
recognition they deserve continues to
this day, so it is imperative that we evaluate their strengths, not
solely through comparison to
Isola 9
men, but through the lens of social context, so the art world can
become more inclusive and
representative of artists of all genders.
Isola 10
Works Cited
Cassatt, Mary. In the Loge. 1878. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,
collections.mfa.org/objects/31365/in-the-loge?ctx=e4e0e757-
ded0-4542-8a84-557e6fb06
034&idx=41.
Cassatt, Mary. Modern Woman. 1893. Harper’s New Monthly
Magazine, v. 86 (1892-1893),
edited by Herman Melville and Henry Mills Alden, New York:
Harper & Bros, p. 839,
hdl.handle.net/2027/njp.32101064076134.

Higonnet, Anne. Berthe Morisot. E-book, Berkeley: University
of California Press, 1995.
Hutton, John. "Picking Fruit: Mary Cassatt's Modern Woman
and the Women's Building of
1893." Feminist Studies, vol. 20, issue 2, 1994, pp. 319-350.
Kesler, Marni R. “Unmasking Manet’s Morisot.” Art Bulletin,
vol. 81, issue 3, Sep. 1999, pp.
473-489.
Mathews, Nancy Mowll. Mary Cassatt: A Life. E-book, New
Haven: Yale University Press,
1998.
Morisot, Berthe. The Cradle. 1872. Musee d’Orsay,
musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/index-of-works/resultat-
collection.html?no_cache=1&zoo
m=1&tx_damzoom_pi1%5Bzoom%5D=0&tx_damzoom_pi1%5B
xmlId%5D=001132&t
x_damzoom_pi1%5Bback%5D=en%2Fcollections%2Findex-of-
works%2Fresultat-
collec
tion.html%3Fno_cache%3D1%26zsz%3D9.
Morisot, Berthe. The Psyche Mirror. 1876. Museo Nacional
Thyssen-Bornemisza,
museothyssen.org/en/collection/artists/morisot-berthe/psyche-

mirror.
Isola 11
Bibliography
Cruea, Susan M. “Changing Ideals of Womanhood During the
Nineteenth-Century Woman
Movement.” ATQ, vol. 19, issue 3, Sep. 2005, pp. 187-204.
Dixon, Kathryn. Mary Cassatt. E-book, Cary, N.C.: TAJ Books
International, 2013.
Foley, Susan. “Becoming a Woman: Self-Fashioning and
Emotion in a Nineteenth-Century
Family Correspondence.” Women’s History Review, vol. 24,
issue 2, Apr. 2015, pp.
215-233.
Harris, Beth, and Steven Zucker. “Cassatt, In the Loge.”
YouTube, uploaded by Smarthistory, 2
Apr. 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVuyK_vIMfc.
Higonnet, Anne. Berthe Morisot. E-book, Berkeley: University
of California Press, 1995.
Hutton, John. "Picking Fruit: Mary Cassatt's Modern Woman
and the Women's Building of
1893." Feminist Studies, vol. 20, issue 2, 1994, pp. 319-350.

Kesler, Marni R. “Unmasking Manet’s Morisot.” Art Bulletin,
vol. 81, issue 3, Sep. 1999, pp.
473-489.
Kinney, Leila W. “Morisot.” Art Journal, vol. 47, issue 3, Sep.
1988, pp. 236-241.
Mathews, Nancy Mowll. Mary Cassatt: A Life. E-book, New
Haven: Yale University Press,
1998.
Stokstad, Marilyn, and Michael W. Cothren. Art History, vol. 2,
6th ed. Pearson Education, Inc.,
2018.
Zucker, Steven, and Beth Harris. “Morisot, The Cradle.”
YouTube, uploaded by Smarthistory, 29
Apr. 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=na05-xCZR8s.
English 102: Proctor
Analytical Essay Guidelines
Assignment: For our next assignment, you are to write a 4-page
analytical essay on Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird (2017); this thesis
driven essay should answer an interpretive question regarding
the film. Generate a thesis that addresses this prompt. Please
include a title, heading, margins, and page numbers in proper
MLA format. The paper should be double-spaced in 12-point
Times New Roman font. The essay is due on Canvas by the
posted due date.

***Secondary Source Requirement: You must use multiple
direct quotations from the secondary source material supplied
by the instructor: “The Parent of Virtues” by Molly Brigid
McGrath. DO NOT use outside research. The best use of
quotations is to develop your analysis through supporting
claims in the body of the essay. Use of a secondary source is
required. Use proper MLA citation format.***
Approach:
· You may explore the role of a single feature of the film; you
should not attempt to explain the whole film.
· You will want to explore how the feature (or set of features)
shapes the nature of an idea; more than identifying a theme,
how does the text define a concept or promote a viewpoint?
· That is, how does the film reflect upon our world?
Potential topics:
· The final words of the film are “thank you.” In her article,
McGrath makes the case that a notion of gratitude is the central
theme of the film. How does the film explore the concept of
gratitude and how does it more particularly define the concept?
· The development of the protagonist often betrays a
foundational concept of a narrative. How does Lady Bird (or
Christine) change from the beginning to the end of the story?
How does she stay the same? What are we to learn about our
world from her evolution and/or lack thereof?
· As the film progresses, Gerwig’s story adds new dimensions to
characters. Often we find that our initial understandings of
characters are incomplete (even if not wholly inaccurate). How
does character development manifest in the film? How do our
thoughts and feelings about characters change throughout the
film? What does the film seem to communicate about our world
via this deepening of character?
· Much of the comedy in the film results from poking fun at
Lady Bird’s self-centeredness. As is natural to adolescence, her
own personal development (and the associated pain) blinds her

to the inner lives of other people. In her defense, characters
often seek to hide their pain from others: there is a social
stigma against revealing our inner workings. As such, the film
becomes concerned with the power of empathy and compassion.
How are notions of empathy and/or compassion manifested in
this film? What does Gerwig seem to want to say about those
ideas and/or their relationship to self-centeredness? You will
want to explore the moments that characters open up (or fail to
open up) to one and other.
· A topic of your own development…
Introduction and Thesis: That said, bottom line: the essay
MUST have a thesis. A thesis is a statement that comes as the
last sentence of the introductory paragraph. It is not a question;
it is not a statement of fact: the thesis is a claim that you will
support with the body of the essay.
· So, “In Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Ferris is able to outwit all of
the adults” is not a thesis.
· “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is about rebelling against authority”
is not a very good thesis.
· Here’s what we are going for: “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off uses
an idealized teen hero to model what a meaningful,
productive—rather than merely lazy—rebellion against flawed
authority should look like: young people may justifiably rebel
against authority so long as they make the most of the lives they
take back.” This sentence makes a clear claim that a feature of
the primary source works to produce a defined message
applicable to our world.
Form: This multi-paragraph essay should begin with an
introduction culminating in a thesisstatement, present a series
of body paragraphs that begin with topicsentences, and end with
a conclusion. You must support claims with specific evidence
from the text: this means that you will have to specifically
describe formal elements of the film and use quotations.
Imagine that your reader has seen the film a year or so ago; you

will have to describe evidence to give your reader a vivid
mental picture of the evidence.
A Word on Style: Style is a complex concern, but as the most
basic level we want to employ formal collegiate prose. Analyze
using the present tense; avoid slang or casual phrasing; use the
third-person and do not use personal pronouns (I, you, me);
choose active verb constructions whenever possible.
Feel free to visit my office hours for help developing a topic or
evidence, or even just to run an idea by me. The ACE and
NetTutor also available for assistance; be sure to take this
assignment sheet to any ACE or NetTutor appointment.
Essay Grading Rubric: Proctor Student Name:
Criterion
Submission: Was a copy of the essay properly submitted? Is the
essay double-spaced in 12-point Times New Roman font? Does
the essay include an MLA heading, title, staple, and page
numbers? Is the essay properly formatted? Is it proper length?
Introduction and Thesis: Does the essay begin with an effective
introduction? Does the introduction begin by establishing the
essay’s topic broadly? Does the introduction narrow by further
defining the essay’s topics and preparing the reader for the
thesis statement?
Does the intro conclude with a statement of thesis (a point)? Is
the thesis arguable interpretation that is not a question or a
statement of fact? In other words, the thesis must accomplish
two goals: first, it must identify a feature of set of features

through which is expresses meaning; second, it must make a
claim as to how those features create a meaning that reflects
upon our world.
Organization: Do topic sentences clearly define a topic for the
paragraph? Do paragraphs relate the topic to the thesis and
introduction? Are topics ordered in a logic aimed at proving the
thesis? That is, each paragraph should build upon the analysis
of preceding paragraphs.
· Writers should avoid artificial transitions such as “the first
reason” or “another symbol.” These transitions often result from
a lack of organizational logic.
· Does the essay avoid organizing with narrative chronology?
That is, when the body begins with “at the beginning of the
story,” the essay often becomes summary rather than analysis.
· Do paragraphs stay on topic and avoid topic shifts? Are
relationships between sentences clear and logical?

Claims, Evidence, and Explanations (Development): Does the
body meaningfully engage source material to support a stated
thesis? Do body paragraphs make claims, support claims with
evidence, and explain the evidence? Do paragraphs support the
thesis through examples, explanation, and analysis? Does the
essay rely on relevant detail?
No paragraphs should be very short since each topic requires a
full analytical process. Are required sources used? Does the
essay avoid summary?
Style: Does the essay use an academic tone and avoid casual
phrasing? Does the essay argue and analyze in the present tense
and reserve the past tense only for actual history? Does the
prose use a variety of active sentence structures, avoiding
reliance on “to be” verb forms? Does the essay set up use of
quotations? Does the essay avoid use of personal pronouns (“I,”
“you”) and imprecise terms (“things,” “stuff”)?
Correctness: Is the essay nearly free of typographical errors?
Does the essay contain fewer than 3 major grammatical errors?
Does the essay use words correctly? Does the essay correctly
use underlining, quotation marks, italics, and other forms of
punctuation and emphasis? Does the essay incorporate quoted

material grammatically? Does the essay correctly employ MLA
format and citation? Does the essay contain factual errors?
Synthesis: Does the author combine competency in the above
criteria to generate an effective essay? Is one or more of the
above criteria prohibitive to the overall effectiveness of the
essay? Does the essay fulfill assigned requirements? Does the
essay avoid “filler”?

English Composition Drafting Worksheet1. Which topic from the a

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Similar to English Composition Drafting Worksheet1. Which topic from the a

Similar to English Composition Drafting Worksheet1. Which topic from the a (20)

More from TanaMaeskm

More from TanaMaeskm (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

English Composition Drafting Worksheet1. Which topic from the a