Response-to-Literature Essays

1. Response-to-LiteratureEssays Prepared By Mrs. Terry Do

2. Responding to Literature in Everyday Life • You probably respond to literature in everyday life more often than you realize. You may have told a friend that a book is funny, boring, scary, etc. You may also have silently identified yourself with a character, or shared your views about a book with your teachers or friends.

3. Responses to literature also appear in written form in everyday life. For example, your morning newspaper may contain a review of a new novel or collection of poetry. On-line, Web sites may be devoted to sharing readers’ responses to a particular author’s works or to a genre of literature. • You, however, have to write responses to the books you read for your teachers.

4. What is response to literature? • A response to literature is a reader’s reaction to any aspect of a literary work. • When you analyze the effectiveness of an advertisement, the persuasiveness of a speech, the realism of a movie script, or the clarity of another type of writing, you are responding to literature.

5. What is a Response-to-literature Essay? • A response-to-literature essay is an essay that discusses what is of value in a book, short story, essay, article, or poem. • A response might retell the plot of an exciting story, explain why a poem is beautiful, or show disappointment with a writer’s latest play. • In a response-to-literature essay, you express the what, how, and why behind a piece of literature’s effect on you as a reader.

6. What should an effective response-to-literature essay do? • It should analyze the content of a literary work, its related ideas, or the work’s effect on the reader. • It should demonstrate a comprehensive grasp of the significant ideas of literary works. • It should focus on a single aspect of the work or gives an overall view of it.

7. What should an effective response-to-literature essay do? • It should rely on evidence from the literary works to support you opinions or viewpoint. • It should demonstrate your awareness of the author’s use of stylistic devices and an appreciation of the effects created. • It should identify and assess the impact of perceived ambiguities, nuances, and complexities within the text. • It should use a logical organization to convey ideas clearly.

8. Effective responses to literature • show that you understand the important ideas of the literary works you read; • support your ideas with accurate and detailed references to literary works; • acknowledge the effects the author achieves with stylistic devices; • and critique the works’ ambiguities, nuance, and complexities.

9. Example: from “Hamlet” by T.S. Eliot • “Hamlet, like the sonnets, is full of some stuff that the writer could not drag to light, contemplate, or manipulate into art. And when we search for this feeling, we find it, as in the sonnets, very difficult to localize.”

10. The characteristics of a response-to-literature essay • A strong, interesting focus on the significant ideas in a poem, story, essay, or other piece of literature • Accurate, detailed references to the text or other works for each main idea

11. The characteristics of a response to literature essay • References to personal and literary allusions, quotations, and other examples • An effective and logical organization that groups related details • A conclusion or an evaluation that sums up your response

12. Types of Responses to Literature • Literary interpretations show how literary elements combine to create a general effect in a work of literature.

13. Types of Responses to Literature • Critical reviews present an evaluation of a piece of writing, citing evidence in the work to support the reviewer’s opinions. • For example: the sample book review on Austin’s Pride and Prejudice (handout).

14. Types of Responses to Literature • Character studies analyze the actions, beliefs, behaviors, or motivations of one character in a literary work. • Example: Austen’s Sense and Sensibility

15. Example on character analysis • On Sense and Sensibility by H. Hitchings • “The ‘sense’ and ‘sensibility’ of the title are of course represented by the two Dashwood sisters. Marianne is the embodiment of sensibility, Elinor of sense. … Marianne’s highly evolved sensibility is reflected in the attention she pays to that most British of concerns, the weather. …By contrast, the practical Elinor finds this ‘passion for dead leaves’ bizarre.”

16. Types of Responses to Literature • Comparisons of works of literature compare two or more works of literature. • There are a few ways of comparisons of works of literature:

17. Comparisons of works of literature • These may discuss two works by one author, such as Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, or Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations and David Copperfield),

18. Comparisons of works of literature • Or it may compare the works of two writers, such as the Bronté sisters.

19. Comparisons of works of literature • Or examine one literary element in several pieces of literature, such as poverty, romance, French Revolution, guilty conscience (by Chris Howell), etc.

20. On Charles Dickens byD. Pinching • “As such, Great Expectations had expectations of its own when it appeared between December 1860 and August 1861. With its tale of an orphaned boy it harked back to former success such as Oliver Twist and David Copperfield. …”

21. Let’s go to p. 916 (P.H. Platinum) • We are starting our writing workshop by • Choosing a topic • prewriting your thesis statement • Finding details to support your thesis

22. Prewriting - Choosing Your Topic • Respond to the selected books from 10th grade reading list and focus on the character(s), the plot, the descriptive writing, or issues raised.

23. Prewriting - Choosing Your Topic • Write down the names of characters in the book about whom you have the most to say. • Review your list, and choose as your topic a character that you find most intriguing.

24. Now let’s practice • Read Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Tell-Tale Heart” on p. 45-47 in World Literature.

25. Prewriting - Narrowing Your Topic • To present an effective response that is clear to your readers, narrow your focus by finding a single point to address. • Make sure you have enough details to fuel your writing.

26. Now let’s practice • You are to respond to Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” by writing a 3-paragraph essay. • Your introduction and conclusion paragraphs should contain 3-5 sentences each, and the body paragraph should have 5-8 sentences. • Please follow the given rubric.

27. Prewriting - Considering Your Purpose • Whether you are responding to the work of a well-known writer, providing an interpretation of a piece of literature that you have discovered, or writing for credit at school, include language and details that support your purpose.

28. Prewriting - Considering Your Purpose • To praise: include concrete details to back up your enthusiasm for the work. • To analyze: support your interpretation with evidence from the text. • To show a personal response: make the connection between your ideas, opinions, or experience and the writing you are addressing.

29. Prewriting - Gathering Details • Find Details to Support Your Position • Gather details from the literature, such as examples, excerpts, and direct quotations. • Identify the main ideas you want to convey, and then return to the literature with a research goal: to find the proof. • Prepare a series of index cards with each main point written across the top. Underneath, put your notes on the details you gathered to support the point.

30. Louise Cowan on how to read a classic • “one should read a classic with pencil in hand. Such a work is so dense and complex as to require its readers to participate in the unfolding of its thought. The very act of underlining and annotating serves to engage the reader in a conversation with the text. And afterwards, when the linear experience of reading is complete, one can easily scan back over the marked pages – and thereby fix their pertinent ideas firmly in the mind. This retrospection, in fact, is a necessity if one is to grasp these writings in any depth. …”

31. Gathering details about literary elements • Character • When you analyze a character, find evidence that shows the character’s actions, beliefs, and motivations. • Note other details, including the ways other characters respond to the character you discuss and any change you see. • For example: the young murderer’s character and his motivation for murder. • Let’s see another example

32. Example on character analysis • On Sense and Sensibility by H. Hitchings • “The ‘sense’ and ‘sensibility’ of the title are of course represented by the two Dashwood sisters. Marianne is the embodiment of sensibility, Elinor of sense. … Marianne’s highly evolved sensibility is reflected in the attention she pays to that most British of concerns, the weather. …By contrast, the practical Elinor finds this ‘passion for dead leaves’ bizarre.”

33. Gathering details about literary elements • Setting • To provide an interpretation of the setting, find words that describe time and place and note the mood or atmosphere the setting generates. • Let’s see the following example:

34. A Tale of Two CitiesbyC. Dickens • It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing

35. A Tale of Two CitiesbyC. Dickens • before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way … It was the year of Our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five.

36. Gathering details about literary elements • Diction • Locate examples of word choice by considering the vocabulary level and formality of the language. • Also, evaluate the connotation or emotional meanings of the writer’s words. • Read the following example.

37. Great ExpectationbyDickens • “To five little stone lozenges, each about a foot and a half long, which were arranged in a neat row beside their grave, and were sacred to the memory of five little brothers of mine – who gave up trying to get a living exceedingly early in that universal struggle – I am indebted for a belief I religiously entertained that they had all been born on their backs with their hands in their trousers-pockets, and had never taken them out in this state of existence.” (Chapter 1)

38. Great ExpectationbyDickens • “My sister, Mrs. Joe Gargery, was more than twenty years older than I, and had established a great reputation with herself and the neighbours because she had brought me up ‘by hand.’ Having at that time to find out for myself what the expression meant, and knowing her to have a hard and heavy hand, and to be much in the habit of laying it upon her husband as well as upon me, I supposed that Joe Gargery and I were both brought up by hand.” (Chapter 2)

39. Gathering details about literary elements • Sound Devices • When analyzing poetry, address rhyme, rhythm, and repetition. Note examples of figurative language – such as simile or metaphor – that create meaning. • For example …

40. Sound Devices examples • Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” (using symbols) • Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “The Deserted House” (using metaphor ) and “The Oak” (using simile) • Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Bell” (employing sounds) • Robert Browning’s “The Pied Piper of Hamelin” (rhyme and rhythm).

41. Let’s look at some samples • Please read the student models given to you (Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar). • Review the characteristics of an insightful response to literature. • The quotation from the play helps to illustrate the character’s personality. • The student follows a consistent point-by-point organization. • The student restated his thesis as well as provided a new insight.

42. Your written assignment: • Write a response to literature essay on the book you have been reading: • It can be a critical book review as shown on p. 287 in your grammar book. • It can be a character analysis as shown in the given Student Model.

43. Your written assignment: • Your essay must have five paragraphs logically arranged in the three sections: • Introduction: with thesis statement • Body: three body paragraphs to support thesis, lead by the topic sentences. • Conclusion: restate thesis

44. Your written assignment: • Essay must be typed. • Follow all MLA requirements. • The due date for this essay is Sept. 13, 2006 • No late work is going to be accepted.

45. Drafting – Developing a Thesis Statement • Your draft should have a clear statement of the main idea, or thesis, you intend to develop.

46. What Is a Thesis Statement? • A thesis statement is a one-sentence long statement in which the writer addresses the major points of his/her paper, in the order in which he/she will address them. • A thesis statement includes the writer’s opinion regarding the subject, as well as clearly outlines for the reader what the paper will be about. • A thesis statement never mentions the paper itself (for example, “this paper will discuss…”). • A thesis statement never mentions the writer (for example, “in this paper I will talk about…”). • A thesis statement never talks to the reader (for example, “you can see by this example…”).

47. Drafting – Developing a Thesis Statement • Review your prewriting notes, looking for a single idea that brings together the ideas you’ve generated and the support you’ve gathered.

48. Draft a Thesis Statement • The thesis statement is the main message of your essay, which you will support with various kinds of details. • To come up with a thesis statement, review your notes, and answer the following: • Out of all that I have learned, the most important point I would like to make about the book I read is ______________.

49. Drafting – Developing a Thesis Statement • Write this as a single sentence. Use this sentence, your thesis statement, to direct the writing of your response to literature.

50. Sample Thesis Statements • Daphne du Maurier’s “The Birds” presents a grippingseries of events to illustrate the unpredictability of nature. • In “One Ordinary Day, With Peanuts,” by Shirley Jackson, the main character is motivated by a wish to be kind to strangers.