English 101

Toni Morrison /Beloved essay
Plagarism checker will be used scan papers.

The purpose of this essay is to give you additonal pratice with close textual analysis. You will be more successful if you focus on passages who meaning is not self –evident. As with the first. You may need to work with “several” passages (thinking about each in some depth) before you discover and select two that will work well together as focus your paper. You may include additonal passages in the course of explaining the significance of your two main passages, but your analysis should be ancohored in detailed observation of you main two passages.
Let you argument emerge from careful and extensive thinking about two passages, both separtely and in comparison with each other. In other words, do not pre-suppose an argument and go looking for evidence to fit you pre-determined argument. Once you have discovered what you want to argue about you passages, do state this argument in the firs t paragraphof you essay.
Sample below:
Your argument should sound like this: “The passage on page____ in which x,y,z occours together with the passage on page___ in which blah a, b, or c occurs, provide insight ino the theme of xxx or the character of yyy in the novel Beloved. Whe we learn from looking closely at these passages is that __________. This is important because it helps us think about or understand some important aspect of the novel thus far.
Please do not copy the exact language of the
paragraph above!

I provided it only to demonstrate te different things your thesis should do: 1. Make clear what passage your essay will focus on; 2. Make a claim that they provide a particular insight (explain what this insight is) and explain why this insight is important.

Suggested writing process:
Before writing your essay, and even before “deciding” what your argument will be, take detailed notes about everything that might be significant in 4 or 5 passages you consider rich with meaning. Think about Morrison’s word and imagery; the length, rhythm and sounds of a particular sentences; the order of ideas within the passage; the purpose(s) of this passage in relation to what comes before and after it, and so on.
Then reflect upon how different sets of two passages relate to each other. The second passage should deepen, enrich, or complicate our understanding of the character (or theme) that the first passage illuminates. If you find that your second passage does not add to, deepen, or complicate your first passage you should find different passages to work with.