Literary Analysis Essay

While writing an essay may seem intimidating, you already have critical thinking skills that will help you write one. You also likely have experience with charting a course. Think of an essay as a path you make from where your thoughts started about something in the text to the conclusions you made. Along the way, from your initial impressions to your inferences, you “picked up clues” that helped you not only know where to go, but how to get there. If you look at this image, you’ll also see a magnifying glass. When you start to find evidence to support your point, think like a detective and find your evidence.

Think about all of the things that you know and understand about Fences already. For this essay, choose the element that interests you most: the influence of the social and political background; the motifs of the fence and/or home; the metaphor of baseball; and the importance of family relationships. Then, picture how that element affects a major conflict in the text (*there are many -- person v. person; person v. self; person versus society; person versus fate*). THIS should help you make some decisions to narrow down what you want to write about.

Your assignment: Write an analysis that answers this question: Which of those elements is the most important to the resolution of one of the play’s conflicts or to the entire play itself? You can find more details HERE.

*Remember -- you have already learned a lot about all of these things and have already collected evidence. Your goal is to chart the path from where your ideas began to where you made inferences and conclusions! Imagine that you are leading your reader on a path. Doing so may also help you know what transitions you want to use.

RUBRIC