Sept. 21, 2018. Class #4. Review of Daily Write #2 (on "The Red Convertible"); second essay assignment; Key facts to know about authors of any text we read; "The Story of an Hour" (Kate Chopin); "Hills Like White Elephants" (Ernest Hemingway)

1. Introduction to Literature
Prof. Michael Broder
BMCC | ENG 201.0905 | Fall 2018
Fridays 8–11:45 AM | 803 Fiterman
Sept. 21, 2018

2. Due Dates for Essays
• Essay 1: due Sept. 21
• Essay 2: due Oct. 12
• Essay 3: due Nov. 2
• Essay 4: due Nov. 23

3. We will go over the first second essay
assignment in detail today.

4. But first, let’s review last week’s Daily Write.

5. Daily Write #2
“I owned that car along with my brother Henry Junior,”
says Lyman Lamartine, the narrator of “The Red
Convertible,” by Louise Erdrich, when the story begins.
“We owned it together until his boots filled with water
on a windy night and he bought out my share.”
• What happens to Lyman at the end of the story?
• How does the ending of the story force you to change
your understanding of the first paragraph?
• Why do you think Erdrich chose to tell the story this
way?

6. What happens to Lyman at the end of the
story?

7. At the end of “The Red Convertible” by Louise
Erdrich, Lyman sees his brother drown and
then sinks the red convertible into the river.

8. How does the ending of the story force you to
change your understanding of the first
paragraph?

9. The ending of the story forces me to realize that
the phrase “he bought out my share” is a
metaphor for Henry’s death.
The beginning of the story is ironic, because the
reality (Henry’s death and Lyman’s sinking of the
car) is different from what we expected (that
Henry gave Lyman money to buy the car from
him).

10. Why do you think Erdrich chose to tell the
story this way?

11. I think Erdrich chose to tell the story this way
in order to create suspense, which makes the
story more engaging, and irony, which makes
the story more meaningful.

12. At the end of “The Red Convertible” by Louise Erdrich,
Lyman sees his brother drown and then sinks the red
convertible into the river. The ending of the story forces
me to realize that the phrase “he bought out my share”
is a metaphor for Henry’s death. The beginning of the
story is ironic, because the reality (Henry’s death and
Lyman’s sinking of the car) is different from what we
expected (that Henry gave Lyman money to buy the car
from him). I think Erdrich chose to tell the story this
way in order to create suspense, which makes the story
more engaging, and irony, which makes the story more
meaningful.

13. Essay #2 Assignment

14. The basics of the assignment
Write a thesis-driven argument and analysis
essay that responds to three (3) texts that we
have read for class
• 4–5 pages (1,000–1,200 words)
• TOPIC: Short fiction in cultural context

15. What do we mean by cultural context?
What are some examples of cultural context in
the stories we have read?

16. Writing about short fiction in
cultural context
• For your second writing assignment, analyze
three stories we have read for class, focusing
on how each exemplifies fiction in cultural
context.
• Like Essay #1, this is a response essay, meaning
that you are responding directly to the texts
without consulting any secondary sources.
• This is not a research essay. This is not a
documented essay. This is a response essay.

17. The key words in the assignment are thesis,
argument, and analysis.

18. Thesis

19. You need to develop a thesis
• Your thesis needs to connect the texts you
have chosen to write about to the topic of
short fiction in cultural context
• You need to argue your thesis by making
claims and citing evidence from the text

20. Argument

21. Arguing your thesis
• Arguing your thesis means explaining your
main idea (contention) in detail
• You argue your thesis by analyzing your
chosen texts in terms of how they relate to
the assigned topic: fiction in cultural context

22. Analysis

23. Arguing requires analysis
• This means you need to:
– Go beyond summary
– Write about how the formal elements of the
stories we have read (narration, character, setting,
situation, plot, and themes) relate to the topic of
cultural context

24. Structure of your essay
• Introductory paragraph
– Identify stories you are writing about by title and author
– State your thesis
• Body paragraphs
– Claim about one or more stories
– Evidence from the text or texts
– Three body paragraphs at a minimum
– As many body paragraphs as you need, but more is not necessarily better
– Give yourself the space you need to develop each body paragraph
• Concluding paragraph
– Reiterate which story or stories you have been discussing
– Restate your thesis
– Briefly summarize your claims and evidence
– Indicate why your discussion matters to the reader; how your analysis sheds
new light on your chosen stories that can enrich the reader’s experience

25. Works Cited Page
• Cite the stories discussed in your paper in
MLA citation style
• Since this is a response essay with no
secondary sources, your Works Cited page
will include only the three short stories you
are writing about

26. MLA style for citing texts on your
Works Cited page
General format
Author last name, Author first name. “Title of Story.” Title of Collection, edited
by Editor's Name(s), Publisher, Year, Page range of entry.
Specific format for citing stories from our textbook.
Erdrich, Louise. “The Red Convertible.” Literature: A Portable Anthology,
edited by Janet Gardner, Beverly Lawn, Jack Ridl, Peter Schakel, and Joanne
Diaz, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2017, (361–368).
NOTE: Titles of short stories are cited in quotation marks; for example,
“Girl,” “A Temporary Matter,” or “Hills Like White Elephants.”
(Notice that when you need to include a comma or period, it goes inside the
closing quotation mark.)

27. MLA style for in-text citations
“I owned that car along with my brother Henry Junior,”
says Lyman Lamartine, the narrator of “The Red
Convertible” (Erdrich 361). Later, Erdrich has the
narrator say, “I know he didn’t swim there but the
current took him” (368).
NOTE: If you do not include the author’s name in the
immediate context, you need to include it in the
parenthetical citation, as shown above; if, however, you
refer to the author in the immediate context, you include
only the page number in the parenthetical citation, also
as shown above.

28. Formatting Requirements
• Font/Spacing: Times New Roman, 12 point, double spaced
• Margins: 1 inch on top, bottom, left, and right
• Page numbers in the upper right-hand corner
• Leave only one space after periods or other punctuation marks
• Indent the first line of paragraphs one half-inch from the left margin,
using the tab key (that is, do not indent by pushing the space bar five
times)
• Heading located at the top left corner of the page should contain:
– Your full name
– Professor’s name
– Course number and section: ENG 102.0905
– The date submitted
• Papers should be submitted on Blackboard, but if you do submit a hard
copy, please make sure the pages are stapled together or fastened
together with a paper clip or binder clip

29. For each text we read, we are going
to start by identifying
• Title
• Genre (story, play, poem)
• Author’s name
• Pronouns (female or male)
• Dates of birth and death
• Nationality
• Race/ethnicity
• Other relevant aspects of identity (religion, sexual
orientation, noteworthy political beliefs, etc.)

30. “The Story of an Hour”

31. “Hills Like White Elephants”

32. “The Story of an Hour”
• Genre: Short story
• Author: Kate Chopin
• Pronouns: she, her
• Dates: 1850–1904
• Nationality: American
• Race/ethnicity: White
• Franco-American Catholic

33. “Hills Like White Elephants”
• Genre: Short story
• Author: Ernest Hemingway
• Pronouns: he, him
• Dates: 1899–1961
• Nationality: American
• Race/ethnicity: White
• Born a Protestant, later converted to
Catholicism, but was not observant

34. Introduction to Literature
Prof. Michael Broder
BMCC | ENG 201.0905 | Fall 2018
Fridays 8–11:45 AM | 803 Fiterman
Sept. 21, 2018