17 Aug The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
Prompt One: Compare one of the Week 3 readings to another reading from Week 3 (a different author and an author you aren’t writing on for another wk 3 prompt) or a prior week. Stress the connections OR significant differences between the two texts. Then, uses a close reading of both texts (including cited quotes) as support. For instance, you could compare the modernist elements of “The Love Song…” and “Babylon Revisited” or the role of women in Chopin and Glaspell or the role of masculinity in two texts by authors like Hemingway and Fitzgerald or any other aspect that you thinks ties together two works and shows some insight. Try to show insight, and don’t pick 2 texts that don’t have an interesting connection. Have fun with this!Prompt Two: Choose an assigned poem by Frost and perform a close reading using at least 3 separate quotes from the poem as support. His poems are like onions with a variety of layers to peel back, so look at the superficial meaning (the poem is about X), the deeper meaning (the symbols in the poem are Y) and the even deeper meaning (the overall moral of this poem is Z). Keep in mind, Frost’s poetry isn’t as simplistic as it may seem upon a first reading! Each time you read, you’ll understand new meanings. Each line digs us a little deeper. Be sure to think through what EACH line means and how the poem twists and turns. Don’t regurgitate your high school understanding of the poem or a web site’s explanation.For instance, in “After Apple-Picking” why does the narrator refer repeatedly to sleep? How does the word change throughout the poem? What is the tone of this poem? Or, in the “Mending Wall,” how does the poem reveal the theme of overturning tradition? What are the literal and figurative meanings of ‘barriers’ in the poem? In “The Road Not Taken” what’s up with the “sigh” when he tells the story? What point is he making in the “knowing how way leads on to way” line?Prompt Three: Pick a theme of your choosing that stands out as significant in one of the asigned week 3 readings you aren’t writing about for another post or journal. Perform a close reading of the primary text to illustrate the significance of this theme.You should incorporate at least 3 separate cited quotes from the primary text. USE YOUR OWN IDEAS! Do NOT use outside sources. Examples: personification in Sandburg’s poem “Chicago,” the theme of the “American dream” and identity in any poem by Langston Hughes, the use of irony in Susan Glaspell’s play “Trifles,” etc.
Submit a 250 word (min.) analysis of a literary work assigned this week. To do this:First, pick a literary element or device that you think is important to the story/poem/play from the Literary Terms and Movements handout.Create a thesis analyzing the importance of the term to the literary work (identify the term and text in the thesis). Ex: Literary movement X is important to writer Y’s story because…Analyze (rather than summarize) the text. Don’t just restate what happens; instead, make an argument about how the term is relevant to the text.Use cited quotes from the text as support to substantiate your analysis (required).Use APA format. No research is required unless you need to look up the term from the Lliterary Terms & Movements handout. If you do use an outside source, include a full reference entry and citation and do not rely on sources that analyze the primary text for you. Emphasize your own thoughts on the literary device or element in the work; do not rely on a source to tell you how the device is important to the text.Options for Week 3 Journals:Analyze a central symbol in “Trifles” or “Barn Burning”Analyze how “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” a poem by Sandburg or Williams, or “Babylon Revisited” is an example of literary Modernism (using our week 3 live session as a guide).*If you’d like to go in a different direction, let me know before you start writing.
