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1984

Length:   4-6 pages, typed, double-spaced, 10 or 12 pt. font, with one-inch margins.

Required sources: None (except the ones you're writing about, of course).   The idea here is to use your own abilities to interpret a work of fiction, a movie or a poem,   in this case, one of the works we have read in the first part of the course: the novel 1984..   You may use supportive sources if you wish, but they are not necessary, and if you do use them, you must cite them.

Purpose: To show your ability to carefully read and understand a fictional work. To identify the use of literary devices   such as metaphors, similes, symbolism, setting, etc.   and to explain how those devices create meaning in the work. To write an essay that uses quotes from the novel as support and which you have discussed in a way that clearly explains how they make their meaning.   To write a coherent, well-structured, and well-supported essay that observes the dictates of good essay writing.

Approach:   See this site for an excellent break-down of the process:   http://www.ccsn.nevada.edu/english/lab/ENG102.htm
and Griffith, chapters 3, 7, 8 and 9

Glossary of Literary Elements:   Use this as a brief guide to literary elements.   Griffith covers them in more detail.

Some ideas for this essay:

(One of these topics should be narrowed down and focused enough to be appropriate for the length of this paper.)

1.   How does the setting (time, place, situation) play a particular role in 1984?

2.   How does characterization (what a character says, does, thinks, looks like that helps to create that character) show the effects of the repressive environment in which Winston and Julia live?

3.   Discuss how symbolism creates a particular meaning in this novel.   As we discussed in class, identify a particular symbol of family of symbols and go from there.

4.   How is irony used to make meaning in 1984?   Read the sections on irony in Griffith before beginning.

Remember that these are just...