Posted: February 7th, 2016

Write a character-analysis essay in which you analyze one major or minor character from any short story.

Write a character-analysis essay in which you analyze one major or minor character from any short story. What “type” of character are you analyzing?  How are language and the style/tone of the story used to formulate the character?  Is the story reflective of the character, or the character of the story? How would a reader from another country or culture potential draw different conclusions about the characters in these stories? Your response should be 4 pages.

For a successful paper:

• Have a strong thesis statement at the end of your introduction paragraph.
• Use a “hook” in the introduction paragraph to grab your readers’ attention.
• Use specific textual support from the short story in the body of your paper.
• Finish with a strong conclusion that summarizes your main points, restates the thesis in some way, and possibly returns to the initial “hook.”
• Proofread for errors in spelling, grammar, and writing mechanics. Vary sentence structure and sentence length to add interest.
• Follow APA guidelines with regard to font style, size, margins, and spacing.
• Use APA when citing the text; include a reference page citation at the end of the paper for the short story in the anthology.

the list:

Margaret Atwood, “Happy Endings.”

James Baldwin, “Sonny’s Blues.”

T. Coraghessan Boyle, “Greasy Lake.”

Junot Díaz, “No Face.”

James Franco, “Halloween.”

Ha Jin, “The Bane of the Internet.”

Franz Kafka, “A Hunger Artist.”

Lorrie Moore, “Referential.”

Joyce Carol Oates, “Heat.”

Flannery O’Connor, “Everything That Rises Must Converge.”

Edgar Allan Poe, “The Tell-Tale Heart.”

Katherine Anne Porter, “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall.”

John Steinbeck, “The Chrysanthemums.”

Amy Tan, “Two Kinds.”