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Response Paper #2

Using your reading, class notes, and journals, compose a 750-1000 word analysis addressing the prompt of your
choice. Longer quotations should not be included in the word count. You may use earlier works, too. Please come
see me during office hours at any time if you have questions, or simply if you are having trouble starting the paper.
Assignment Goals

Utilize textual evidence to make an


interpretation of a work
Demonstrate ability to conduct a close
reading of short segments of a text
Use close readings as support for an argument
about the broader meaning of a work
Show ability to think and write creatively
about literature
Make connections between literature and
contemporary cultural issues
Deepen understanding of both historical and
contemporary contexts for the work

Assignment Requirements
Times New Roman 12 pt. font, 1 margins all
around
MLA format (work titles should be italicized,
quotations should have page attributions, etc.)
Addresses a prompt for a work you did not use
for Response #1 or Midterm Paper
Clear, arguable thesis statement
Considers two to three scenes in the work
Uses textual evidence to advance an
interpretation
Explains connection of interpretation to real
world issues in conclusion

Redeployment
Make an argument for an interpretation of one short story in Redeployment using journals, class notes, historical
context, discussions, interviews with authors, and your own close reading of short sections.
You may want to consider one of the following areas:
What Redeployment, Prayer in a Furnace, or Psychological Operations is saying about our
relationships with people (and animals) at home and abroad, and what the narrators interactions say about
our attitudes towards war. You may also want to consider how the narrator deals with the psychological
effects of returning home.
What After Action Report, Psychological Operations, or War Stories can tell us about what it means
to own a story, and what it means to tell a story. What is tellable? What is hearable? What is recounted in
dialogue? What is left out and why?
How Bodies, Prayer in a Furnace, or Unless its a Sucking Chest Wound comment on the network of
support staff who are generally overlooked when we think of service, particularly in terms of identity. What
is the narrators job, and what is his relationship to that work? How does it affect how he interacts with
others, both soldiers and civilians?
How Money as a Weapons System highlights concerns about infrastructure and relationships with Iraqi
civilians. Choose one or two plot points to use as the basis for an argument about how this short story
influences our understanding of the broader implications of war.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao


Make an argument for an interpretation of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao using journals, class notes, historical
context, discussions, interviews with Daz, and your own close reading of short sections of the novel. As one of the
most complex novels of this term, you should be particularly aware of remaining focused if you choose to approach
this text, especially with such a short essay.

You may want to consider one of the following areas:


Examine feminine gender roles by looking at one characters performance of femininity and assess how
expectations about how women act are policed by society, and how this can have detrimental effects for the
individual.
Examine masculine gender roles by looking at one characters performance of masculinity, and assess the
way in which society polices the performance of masculinity, and how this can have detrimental effects for
the individual.
Consider one character in detail to explain what type of social experience they represent, and what this says
about social issues. You may choose one of the broad thematic rubrics, including the effect of national
borders or history on identity, historical trauma, the effect of who controls bodies on how individuals
behave, or on how cultural myths tie to real experience.
The connection between historical trauma and individual experience. How are individuals affected by their
family and cultural histories? Examine how the incorporation of historical details alongside of everyday
lives gestures at the connections between history and present-day experiences.
The relationship between sexuality and violence, sexuality and power, and sexuality and identity. You may
choose to make a broad argument, or you may want to focus on one individual characters experience. What
is the significance of a single characters choices about whom to love? About when those choices are made
for them?
Address the incorporation of supernatural elements alongside of actual historical events. Make an argument
for what a single supernatural element symbolizes about history and about the family. What do these
elements suggest about the nature of historical narratives? About what historical narratives create?

The Dew Breaker


Make an argument for an interpretation of The Dew Breaker using journals, class notes, historical context,
discussions, interviews with Danticat, and your own close reading of short sections of the collection.
You may want to consider one of the following areas:
Focus on a single short story, either The Book of the Dead, The Book of Miracles, or The Dew
Breaker, and explain how it elaborates an understanding of the central family from a particular point-ofview. What is the significance of this point-of-view?
Consider the effects of violence in the home country on how the victim behaves in America. You may
choose to use The Bridal Seamstress, The Dew Breaker, The Book of Miracles, or Night Talkers.
For this prompt, you will want to select one characters story. How does violence, and the memory thereof,
move across national borders, and how are those borders implicated in that violence?
Examine the experience of the perpetrator. Using textual examples from The Dew Breaker, investigate
how inflicting violence affects personal character, and what the novel is attempting to communicate about
guilt, regret, forgiveness, and/or memory.
The representation of trauma in those who have been victims of violence. How is the memory of violence
represented? How do characters deal with their own memories, and trauma, and what does this say about
the cultural effects of trauma? You may choose to use The Bridal Seamstress, The Dew Breaker, The
Book of Miracles, or Night Talkers.
How is the home country (Haiti) represented differently from America? How can you contrast how those
living in America think of their country or origin with what is found by those who return? You may choose
to focus on Seven, Water Child, or Monkey Tails.

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