Essay 2 Options

Essay Two: Rough Draft Due October 24th Final Draft Due November 1st. 3-5 pages.


Here is a list of “literary analysis” essay options for your second essay.

1. How does the following definition apply to GoW?

a. In his introduction to Agrarianism in American Literature, M. Thomas Inge defines "agrarianism" by the following basic tenets:

• Cultivation of the soil "has within it a positive spiritual good" and from it the cultivator acquires the virtues of "honor, manliness, self-reliance, courage, moral integrity, and hospitality." These result from a direct contact with nature, and through nature a closer relationship to God. The agrarian is blessed in that he follows the example of God in creating order out of chaos.

• The farmer has a solid, stable position in the world order. He "has a sense of identity, a sense of historical and religious tradition, a feeling of belonging to a concrete family, place, and region, which are psychologically and culturally beneficial." The harmony of his life checks the encroachments of a fragmented, alienated modern society.

• Urban life, capitalism, and technology destroy independence and dignity while fostering vice and weakness.

• The agricultural community, with its fellowship of labor and cooperation is the model society.



2. The critic Lee Burress states, “In fact the four major characters, Ma, Tom, Casy and Rose of Sharon represent Steinbeck’s efforts to dramatize Biblical and Christian values in a realistic way.”



Choose one (or several) of these characters to show how Steinbeck attempted to “dramatize(s)… Christian values.”

3. Explain how The Grapes of Wrath illustrates this “Redneck Secret”:

“Nobody is claiming certain Rednecks are gorgeous about their ways of resolving the pain of their frustrations. Some of them will indeed get drunk in honktonks and raise hell and harass young men with long hair and golden earring. These are the bad Rednecks.

Why bad? Because they are betraying themselves. Out-of-power groups keep fighting each other instead of what they really resent: power itself. A redneck pounding a hippie in a dark barroom is embarrassing because we see the cowardice. What he wants to hit is a banker in broad daylight.”

–William Kittredge “Redneck Secrets”

4. Explain which quotes best summarize the philosophy of The Grapes of Wrath

An army of principles can penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot.

Thomas Paine

I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.

Thomas Paine

The World is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.

Thomas Paine

If we do not hang together, we shall surely hang separately.

Thomas Paine

My mind is my own church.

Thomas Paine

The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection.

Thomas Paine

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Already they have raised up a monied aristocracy that has set the government at defiance. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs.

Thomas Jefferson

Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains.

Thomas Jefferson

No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden.

Thomas Jefferson

Capitalist production, therefore, develops technology, and the combining together of various processes into a social whole, only by sapping the original sources of all wealth - the soil and the labourer.

Karl Marx





Narrative Option for essay two

Essay 2: Departure, Journey and Arrival

Follow a third-person narrator’s migration from the departure, through the journey, to the arrival.

Your story should convey a theme, or main idea, to the reader.

The details of the story, events as well as descriptions, will support this main idea.

Your primary sources for the ideas and details will be experience, observation and imagination.

Like a traditional thesis, your theme will be clear to the reader upon completion of the story.

Unlike a traditional thesis, your main point, or theme, may be either implied or stated directly.

Your organization using the following “Chapter” titles:

• Departure: Why leave? What is the motivation? What do you take? What is left behind?

• The Journey: What challenges are overcome? What skills are acquired? What dragons faced? What is the low point?

• Arrival: How does the trip change the way you see things? What lessons are learned? How do you bring the lessons to your new place? Are you accepted in the new place?



We also want to work on Setting, Characterization, Conflict, Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, Resolution.

Sources for this story in order of preference:

1. Experience.

2. Observation.

3. Imagination.



Tips: Limit number of characters; limit time period; limit settings. I’d suggest AT MOST one setting for each section, anywhere from an hour to a day for the time period and 2-5 characters TOTAL for the essay. Any more and we’ll get lost.



Also, focus on TELLING DETAILS. The more specific the better. Instead of blue car, try 1971 midnight blue Plymouth Valiant he inherited from his grandmother.



Finally, there are the facts and then there’s the truth.