Critical Analysis “Sonny’s Blues” or “The Swimmer”

Description

Rubric for this critical analysis paper:

For this critical analysis paper assignment you may choose either John Cheever’s “The Swimmer” or James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues”. This paper must conform to MLA standard format (please see the example I am/have/will be posting in the section for the General Course Info page (essentially it is our English class landing pad for the class). You may always check in your Little Seagull Handbook to see an example of it at the end of the MLA section there.

You will have a thesis, supporting details and a point (an argument) pertaining to one of these short stories. You may use anything in the stories, to prove your thesis, there are multiple topics to use within each short story, but you are NOT allowed to use the examples that we had spoken about in class. You will also pick one kind of critical theory—either formalist or reader-response—to use on this short story you picked. In other words, one theory is going to be applied to one of these short stories only.

Introduce your author prior to using him (in this instance). Keep summary of the story to a minimum if you absolutely need to use it. Be precise and concise in your language. State what you mean; assertive writing skills are a must here. Write in complete sentences. Do NOT use slang or text speak (example: u for the word you). This is a formal (professional) paper. Do not use contractions: in other words, spell out each word (example: couldn’t is could not). And, for the last bit, try to have a little bit of fun with this.

If you need me, I will be home obviously, this weekend, but email both of my email addresses. I will respond from whichever one I happen to catch it at first.

DUE DATE: September 17th at 6 pm Eastern Standard Time.