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Write an essay of 4-5 pages (1,000-1300 words) that uses one or more literary theories to compare two different works of literature we have read this far. I advise you follow these steps to get started:

1. Glance back at all we have read so far in this class, from Jamaica Kincaid’s story “Girl” through Pardlo’s book we read last week. I know you remember Another Country—that book just about took over the class. Do you also remember the other poems we had, from the Poetry Foundation website?
2. Choose two pieces that strike you as sharing a similar theme—racial reconciliation, the toils of love, coming of age, loss of innocence, whatever. You choose the theme. You also choose two short stories, or two poems, or one short story and one poem. Maybe you want to compare the two books we read, Digestand Another Country. Maybe you want to choose a short piece and a long piece. It doesn’t matter. Just choose two.
3. Now look at the OWL Purdue site to remind yourself of the literary theories, or theoretical “lenses” we have used this semester so far: Moral Criticism and Dramatic Construction, Feminist Criticism, Gender Studies and Queer Theory, Formalist Criticism, and Reader Response Criticism.
4. Choose the theoretical “lens” with which you can most fruitfully compare the two works of literature you’ve chosen.
5. Write a thesis statement. This statement must refer to the two works of literature and the theoretical lens that you’ve chosen, and it must make some comparative claim (“more than,” “less than,” “different from,” etc.). Let me give three examples:

Seen through a Formalist lens, the “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” and Gregory Pardlo’s “Alienation Effects” are both numbered lists to divide evenly the drama and the ambiguity that the poems depict.

When you look at it from a Gender Studies point of view, both Another Country by James Baldwin and “I Sing the Body Electric” by Walt Whitman depict homosexuality, but they do so very differently. Baldwin’s novel is pessimistic, where Whitman’s poem is optimistic.

Feminist Criticism shows how Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” is more prescriptive, but less effective, than Julia Alvarez’s “New Clothes” in discussing how to be a well-respected woman.

Unlike your first major essay (discussing Another Country in its historical/cultural context), your paragraph-by-paragraph structure is up to you. I won’t tell you what each paragraph should discuss. Once you have written your thesis statement, you then provide evidence from the text to support your claim, and organize your thoughts into paragraphs accordingly. Remember that if you use the OWL Purdue site, make sure the webpage is on your Works Cited page. Also, your paper must be in MLA format!