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Essay Writing. The purpose of a literary essay is to present an argument based on evidence about the meaning, power, or structure of the work. .
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The purpose of a literary essay is to present an argument based on evidence about the meaning, power, or structure of the work.
Look for meaning in your work.The “stronger” the work, the more you have to write about. Well-gathered evidence.A compelling and convincing argument.
The value of what you have to say about your topic depends on your evidence.So, BEFORE you write a thesis or topic brainstorm subjects you find in the book.
The Audience Power of Hope Power & Control Hunger Games Role of Women Social Satire The Media
“What must it be like, I wonder, to live in a world where food appears at the press of a button? How would I spend the hours I now commit to combing the woods for sustenance if it were so easy to come by? What do they do all day, these people in the Capitol, besides decorating their bodies and waiting around for a new shipment of tributes to rill in and die for their entertainment?” Social Satire “I can't win. Prim must know that in her heart. The competition will be far beyond my abilities. Kids from wealthier districts, where winning is a huge honor, who've been trained their whole lives for this. Boys who are two to three times my size. Girls who know twenty different ways to kill you with a knife. Oh, there'll be people like me, too. People to weed out before the real fun begins.” “They do surgery in the Capitol, to make people appear younger and thinner. In District 12, looking old is something of an achievement since so many people die early. You see an elder person, you want to congratulate them on their longevity, ask the secret of survival. A plump person is envied because they aren't scraping by like the majority of us. But here it is different. Wrinkles aren't desirable. A round belly isn't a sign of success.”
Inductive Reasoning Analyze evidence to come to a conclusion. So, what do these quotes tell us?
“What must it be like, I wonder, to live in a world where food appears at the press of a button? How would I spend the hours I now commit to combing the woods for sustenance if it were so easy to come by? What do they do all day, these people in the Capitol, besides decorating their bodies and waiting around for a new shipment of tributes to rill in and die for their entertainment?” The Capitol is self-centered, entitled, ignorant, eager for entertainment, apoplectic and lacks substance
“I can't win. Prim must know that in her heart. The competition will be far beyond my abilities. Kids from wealthier districts, where winning is a huge honor, who've been trained their whole lives for this. Boys who are two to three times my size. Girls who know twenty different ways to kill you with a knife. Oh, there'll be people like me, too. People to weed out before the real fun begins.” Two distinct classes. Upper classes are taught to win. The others are merely canon fodder for entertainment.
“They do surgery in the Capitol, to make people appear younger and thinner. In District 12, looking old is something of an achievement since so many people die early. You see an elder person, you want to congratulate them on their longevity, ask the secret of survival. A plump person is envied because they aren't scraping by like the majority of us. But here it is different. Wrinkles aren't desirable. A round belly isn't a sign of success.” The wealthier citizens of Panem are fake.
Thesis… The upper class society of Panem reflects issues of inequality, inauthenticity and the lack of substance that is evident in our own modern day society. As such the Hunger Games acts as a social satire in that the reader should see these similarities in our own society.
Review thesis… Before leaving your thesis, review it. Does it state your topic? Does it offer answers to the basic questions we ask about literature? Does it move inductively from the particular to the general? Are the statements logically connected?
The upper class society of Panem reflects issues of inequality, inauthenticity and the lack of substance that is evident in our own modern day society. As such the Hunger Games acts as a social satire in that the reader should see these similarities in our own society. Directional statement: At least paragraph 2, 3 & 4 THE MEAT! This is where your essay flourishes!
Analysis- This is where things go wrong Suzanne Collins creates a world of inequalities through which we the society should see our own social shortcomings. Katniss, as a young girl from District 12, has never experienced the opulent lifestyle that surrounds the Capitol. While there Katniss wonders “What must it be like…to live in a world where food appears at the press of a button? How would I spend the hours I now commit to combing the woods for sustenance if it were so easy to come by? What do they do all day, these people in the Capitol, besides decorating their bodies and waiting around for a new shipment of tributes to rill in and die for their entertainment?”(54). The most obvious connection to our modern society is the accessibility of food. Katniss seems unable to comprehend the lavish lifestyle that allows food to be served at the press of a button. She then tries to understand not only how she could spend her days in this type of society, but how the citizens of the Capitol spend their days. She comes to the assessment that “these people” decorate their bodies and wait for mere entertainment in the form of a violent game at the expense of the poor. Collin’s first person narrative allows the reader to see (through Katniss) the inequality that is so rife in Panem. In doing so, the audience should make similar assessments of our own society. But, perhaps Collins in lamenting the décor of “these people” is attempting to show us how pathetic the reader’s society has become?
Once you have made several paragraphs analyzing the quotes you can then start to open the essay up to the bigger idea…other ideas add to your depth. In a piece for the New Yorker Laura Miller argues that the novel shows a society in which a “brutal social hierarchy prevails, with the rich…lording their advantages over everyone else. To survive you have to be totally fake”(New Yorker 2). She furthermore states that the teen audience understands this social satire perhaps better than anyone. Much like any number of teen films from the 1950’s to modern day, themes of alienation, class and disillusionment are rampant in The Hunger Games. In showing us a society like Panem, with its luxuriant lifestyle and its poor margins, Collins is able to display the true scope of our modern inequalities. Whether it is the “procedures” done to ensure that they remain young, or the food had at the “push of a button” it becomes painstakingly clear that The Hunger Games attempts to hold a mirror up to our own self-centered society.
Things to avoid Plot Summary Don’t begin your essay with a sweeping statement about literature &/or human life. ANALYZE – ANALYZE – ANALYZE Don’t count paragraphs.
Let’s try it together… “I can't win. Prim must know that in her heart. The competition will be far beyond my abilities. Kids from wealthier districts, where winning is a huge honor, who've been trained their whole lives for this. Boys who are two to three times my size. Girls who know twenty different ways to kill you with a knife. Oh, there'll be people like me, too. People to weed out before the real fun begins.”
If you are still not sure of a thesis, think about ways in which a text can be read and analyzed. • Marxism • exploitation of an entire class of society by another… economic subjectification • Feminism • Focus on the role of powerful women, or the subjectification of women. Ways of Reading
Post-Colonialism • “other” or “othering” individuals or groups. • the creation of a post-colonial identity of a colonized people • Queer Theory • Imprinting of heterosexual norms manufactures heterosexuality as the dominant sexual format.
Evidence from text can be presented in two different ways: Quotation: • When you quote from the text, you copy the words exactly as they appear in the original, and you put quotation marks around the words you take from the text. • Quotation marks tell readers that what they see in your essay is exactly what they would see in the original text. Use proper MLA format! Paraphrase: • When you paraphrase, you put into your own words an idea that the writer conveys in the text. • The paraphrase should not convey any interpretation of the writer's ideas; instead, the paraphrase should be your own way of stating the exact idea that the writer conveys. • You use about the same number of words to convey the idea that the writer uses in the text. • You should not put quotation marks around words you paraphrase, but you should make sure that you are conveying the same meaning that the writer conveys and that you really are using your own words to convey the idea. Presenting Evidence
Analysis Reason Evidence – This is your quotes, or paraphrasing of the novel. Explanation – Bring together your claim/reason and your evidence. Demonstrate to readers how and why the evidence logically supports the claim. Connection – You have connected your idea to your topic/theme…but now you need to tear apart the quote. DO NOT just choose a quote that tells us what happens. Examine all elements. All aspects of the text—the structure, the methods, the reasons and evidence, the conclusions, and, especially, the logical connections between all of these—should be considered. Slowly develop your paragraphs. There is NO NEED to rush your analysis.
