COMPARE AND CONTRAST ESSAY ASSIGNMENT
Using Trifles, “The Story of an Hour,” and “A Rose for Emily” choose two of the stories to write your three part compare and contrast essay.
1. The essay must be clearly organized.
2. Focus on
smooth transitions that help illuminate the relationships between the ideas in the paper.
3. I expect you to be capable of producing an
error-free essay.
4. As always, type your paper using
MLA format in Times New Roman 12 point font, double-spaced, with 1” margins. Use a
proper MLA heading and remove all extra spaces (set line spacing to zero, not auto).
5.
A minimum of
three full pages, 5 full pages. Not including works cited page.
Your task is to analyze two of the literary works by comparing/contrasting elements of the stories. Remember, the goal is not simply to compare two of the stories, but to find an element to analyze, and then use compare and contrast to find deeper meaning in the stories.
You may choose any element that is applicable, for example, you may choose to write about setting in “A Rose for Emily” and in
Trifles. This is an element that can be compared/contrasted to each other: In “A Rose for Emily” the setting is a southern town soon after the Civil War, where traditions are trying to hold on, yet time is moving forward. This is important to the story because it sets up how the townsfolk treat Emily as well as being a commentary on how difficult it may have been for southern towns to move forward after the Civil War (and Emily herself is symbolic of those traditions). Whereas, in
Trifles the setting is another small town, in the dead of winter, where the cold weather is a metaphor for a cold marriage. Setting is important to both of these stories, yet it is important in different ways. You can expand on the ways setting is important, and how it effects each story (thus, comparing and contrasting the setting in them both). Setting isn’t the only option – you could talk about the notion of love and being loved (Think about how in “The Story of an Hour” Mrs. Mallard does not lack love, her husband loves her, her family loves her, everyone seems to be very loving, yet she still feels trapped in her life. But, in “A Rose for Emily” Emily lacks love, and so she decides that she will find and keep the person that she loves, one way or another). You could discuss gender roles, the importance of social connections, death, symbolism (birdcages in
Trifles, the “rose” in “A Rose for Emily”)… the choice is yours. These are just suggestions, you are welcome to come up with your own as well.
Use the Compare and Contrast PowerPoint to guide you on how to formulate your paper: you may choose to do a side by side compare/contrast or a point by point, whichever suits your writing and your paper best.
image1
Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:
Turnitin Report
Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
