Lord of the Flies



Lord of the Flies

Advanced Eng. 10

Final Essay

One of your core requirements for 10th grade English is a literary analysis essay. Lord of the Flies works especially well for this assignment, therefore, we will be spending time in class constructing this essay over the next two weeks.

Final essay requirements:

* Header in the top left (single-space)

* Title (appropriate for your essay)

* Double-spaced, typed essay, 12-pt. font, Times New Roman

* Third person objective (NO second person!) AND literary present tense

* Minimum of a five-paragraph essay with:

▪ ATTENTION-GRABBING INTRODUCTION, including a thoughtful THESIS

▪ AT LEAST THREE PROPERLY-CONSTRUCTED BODY PARAGRAPHS

▪ QUOTATIONS from the TEXT in each BODY PARAGRAPH

▪ WELL-CRAFTED CONCLUSION

| |

|Your job for the final essay in this unit is to compose a paper exploring one of the following topics in relation to William Golding’s Lord of|

|the Flies. |

| |

| |

|Lord of the Flies has been called “a fable in which the characters are symbols for abstract ideas.” What do different characters in Lord of |

|the Flies represent? Use specific examples to support your claim. |

| |

|How does Golding use symbols to make much larger claims about humanity through his novel? Use specific examples from the text to support your|

|thesis. |

| |

|The characters in The Lord of the Flies are all at different stages of maturity, and some even mature as the book progresses. Using Kohlberg’s|

|level(s) and stages, explain the level of moral development of any one of the main characters in The Lord of the Files. Use specific events or|

|examples from the novel to support your answer. |

| |

|In his Ted Talk on the nature of man, Philip Zimbardo claims that evil is a natural consequence of power. Using specific events or examples |

|from Lord of the Flies, craft an essay exploring this claim. |

| |

|Make a claim about how Lord of the Flies employs universal themes by exploring a theme that is shared by both Lord of the Flies and another |

|text from popular culture. Use specific events or examples from both the novel and the other text you select to support your answer. (Note: |

|you will not be able to use retellings of Lord of the Flies [like “The Simpson’s” episode Das Bus] for this essay) |

| |

|Your own unique claim. Please run it by Mrs. Rand or Mrs. Kaye first. |

Quoting passages from a text

Part of any good essay is using evidence from the text you are analyzing to prove your argument. In a literary analysis, this evidence typically comes in the form of a quotation from the text you are analyzing. A quotation DOES NOT NEED to be something said out loud by a character—this is a common misunderstanding. Any passage from the text can be used as evidence for your analysis.

Incorporating and citing quotations using MLA documentation style

MLA in-text citations are made with a combination of signal phrases and parenthetical references.

A signal phrase is a natural part of your written text that indicates that a quotation is coming. Following your quotation, you should naturally move into your analysis, avoiding phrases such as “this quote says.”

Use the following example to help guide you.

Part of the mastery of Lord of the Flies is the way in which Golding

makes use of literary devices, among them, foreshadowing, to contrast

man’s eternal battle between good and evil. Early in the novel, the boys

come across the rocks on the mountaintop for the first time and play at pushing it over the edge, “[t]he great rock loitered, poised on one toe….fell, struck, turned over, lept droning through the air and smashed a deep hole in the canopy” (30). The falling, striking, turning through-the-air, smashing of this rock at a moment when the boys are still essentially good foreshadows a later falling, striking, smashing rock that kills Piggy after the boys have given into the bad in their nature.

NOTE:

• if you leave out any words in the quotation, you replace them with …

• the page number of the passage being quoted goes OUTSIDE the quotes

and is followed by a period.

• you NEVER begin or end a paragraph with a quotation. You must use

a signal phrase to lead-in to the passage and follow every quotation

with your analysis

Review: the structure of an essay

Introductory Paragraph:

* Opens with a lead-in, hook, or a grabber to introduce the subject and invite the reader’s attention. Your attention getter should be related to the matter that you are

going to be discussing.

* Identifies the work of literature to be discussed. Lists the tile and author.

Remember to underline or italicize the tile of a book or play; quotations go

around titles of short stories, poems, and essays.

* Narrows the focus of this paragraph to a specific thesis statement that will

serve as the backbone of your paper: The THESIS (a claim or idea that

you have about the literary work that is being analyzed). The thesis

statement helps to organize your essay, and it also gives your reader a

clear idea of your purpose.

Body paragraphs:

* These paragraphs make up the body of your essay by supporting and

explaining your thesis with evidence from the text and analysis of

this evidence.

* Each paragraph has a topic sentence (often, but not always, the first sentence) that presents one main point that “proves” your thesis and

reflects what will be discussed in that paragraph.

* When beginning to use this structure, you can rely on the 3-step process

or the Toulmin (Claim, Data, Warrant) Process. This method helps you to

support your paragraphs with evidence and explain how the evidence

supports your thesis (or your claim).

Concluding Paragraph:

* Brings your paper to a close.

* Summarizes, brings essay full circle by referring to the thesis, can appeal

to the reader’s emotions, and generally draws a conclusion based on the

details in the essay’s body.

* Do NOT begin your concluding paragraph by saying “in conclusion.”

Also, be careful to avoid the trap of simply restating your thesis as your

concluding paragraph. There needs to be more depth to your closing.

3-step process or Toulmin Argument Process

How to Support Your Assertions in your body paragraphs

When we write an analysis, we need to support our assertions by using direct evidence from the text. This support helps to provide validity to your ideas. Beyond the data itself, you want to make it very clear to the reader what your purpose or interpretation is of that piece of text. Many times as writers we assume that the meaning is inherent within its documentation. By using this clear method, a writer can both utilize text and also explain his/her point or interpretation. The three basic steps of an effective argument (claim, data, and warrant) were identified in 1958 by Stephen Toulmin:

Claim: the idea or point you are trying to convey or prove (topic)

Data: the evidence or support drawn directly from the text

Warrant: the explanation of why the data or evidence justifies the claim or point you are making.

This process focuses on the structure of each body paragraph within your literary analysis. Please use the model below to assist you in creating the body paragraphs for your analysis.

Step 1: Introduction to Data with a Topic Sentence/s (Claim)

This sentence or two provides a segue to the evidence. It often establishes the context of the data by indicating the location where the action takes place and the characters involved. Often transitions are included with this step.

Step 2: Specific Reference (Data)

This is the evidence or data that you found from the text that supports your point. It includes relevant direct quotations that specifically support your point. You will also want to parenthetically cite this information using the page number from which you extracted the data.

Step 3: Explanation and Interpretation of Reference (Warrant)

This step is the interpretation and explanation of precisely how your evidence supports your main point. This part of the paragraph should be the longest. It is the most important part, for it explains to your reader how you made the connection between the specific data, your claim, and your thesis statement.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download