helping us better understand writers ’ intentions W r i t i n g

I have all the comments from the instructor to revise an essay. I will also include the pictures of comments on the essay 

Teacher’s notes:  – you make some excellent points in this essay, especially in your final body paragraph. However, I think your essay would benefit from more evidence to support your points. To begin, consider revising your thesis to include the points you make in your final body paragraph. Emily is sympathetic because we see that her actions are a direct result of her desperate need for companionship. She’s lonely and isolated, but this isn’t due to her arrogance. She wants to love and be loved, and so she whatever she can to keep companions by her side. To make that argument stronger, you may also want to quote more from the reading. Provide evidence to show why Emily is sympathetic. Overall, I think this essay has a great deal of potential. I would focus less on Emily’s arrogance or bizarre behavior, and more on trying to explain and understand it based on the clues we are given in the text. See my marginal and rubric comments for more detailed feedback, and overall, good work! 

THIS WAS THE ESSAY INSTRUCTIONS :Essay #1: Character Analysis

In both “A Tale-Tell Heart” and “A Rose for Emily,” we are introduced to protagonists who have a distorted view of reality. In a “Tell-Tell Heart,” the narrator promises us that “he isn’t mad,” but we know better. In “A Rose for Emily,” though we never personally meet Emily, based on what the townspeople say about her, we gain a fairly strong understanding of her lack of sanity. While both characters clearly have a distorted view of reality, they are the protagonists, and therefore, we often find ourselves rooting for them.

Write an essay in which you provide a character analysis of either Emily from “A Rose for Emily,” OR the narrator from “A Tell-Tale Heart,” and examine how the character development deepens our understanding of the protagonist’s distorted reality. Be sure to identify what character aspects (if any) allow us to sympathize with them. Can we really sympathize with someone who is so far removed from reality?

Purpose: To begin our study of literature, particularly short fiction, it is crucial to practice close reading. This includes scrutinizing and evaluating important words, phrases, and passages from the text in order to have a better understanding of the story’s point of view, characters, setting, tone and style, themes, and symbols. This assignment will focus on studying characters, which are what add life to stories. They also help use better understand the themes, motifs, symbolism and more in stories. They do so by helping us better understand writers’ intentions and sometimes even motivations, which are not always literally revealed on the page. Sometimes we must read between the lines and offer our own opinions and interpretations in order to analyze successfully. This is what you will be asked to do in our first essay assignment.

Tips: 

– When (if) providing a character analysis, consider answering some of these questions in your analysis: does he/she undergo important changes, what are the facets of his/her personality or behavior, what is his/her relationship with other characters, what important actions does he/she take that helps us understand his/her character, what important conflicts does he/she encounter and how does he/she address or resolve those conflicts, and so on?

– Throughout this quarter, you are expected to work from the details of the text and employ “close reading” of short passages. A close reading is an examination of a passage in detail—line by line, sentence by sentence, thought by thought. On the basis of what you find, you should present a unified thesis or reading of the text. Be sure to find detailed passages from the text to help strengthen your analysis. Use a combination of quotes and paraphrases. 

-Remember to always work towards internalizing the text, moving beyond a superficial reading of the words to a deeper understanding of the meaning of and motivation behind the words.