Poe Literary Analysis Essay Paper.
Description Your final paper will be an analysis essay on a piece of short fiction. Since we are focusing on Edgar Allan Poe, choose one of his works to write about, but not one read for class. You may choose from the list below. In 4-6 well-developed pages, analyze one of Poe’s stories based on its textual literary elements. Your thesis will make a claim of some substance for a theme and significance of the short story, and you should use discussion of the story’s literary elements to support the claim. These elements can include (though not always in these exact terms): Plot Structure, Character, Setting, Tone, Language, Point of View, Dialogue/Dialect, and Symbolism. Be willing, though, to go beyond the basic scope of how these elements work in the story, but even more so how the author uses them to create a work of literature which illuminates a strong connection with the human experience and theme. Though you will bring in some outside ideas from a secondary source, the basis of the analysis should be your ideas only and your reading of the work. Do not use websites such as Sparknotes, Shmoop, etc. to build your theme and argument. This should be your reading and understanding of the work. Within this, you will also need to incorporate one credible secondary source (academic journal, historical text, etc.) in addition to the short story in order to support your claims. You will include a Works Cited page in MLA format including citations for both the primary and secondary sources. As a formal paper, the essay needs to be typed, in MLA format, 12 point Times New Roman font, 1” margins, with proper MLA heading. Stories to choose from: 1. “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” 2. “The Purloined Letter” 3. “The Black Cat” 4. “The Masque of the Red Death” 5. “The Tell-Tale Heart” 6. “Ligeia” 7. “The Oval Portrait”
