Essay Assignment 1: Documented Literary Analysis

Your literary analysis essay will be on the novel Sula by Toni Morrison. You can

choose from any of the topics listed below (recommended) or explore further topics

in the chapter on Sula, pp. X to Y in the book How to Write about Toni Morrison (linked

here for your convenience).

Your literary analysis should be between 2 ½ and 3 pages (600 to 750 words), not

including the Works Cited page, should be double spaced in Times New Roman 12-

point font and must include:

• A clearly articulated thesis that states, somewhere in your introduction, the

assertion (position, interpretation) that your paper will prove

• An introduction, a minimum of 3 body paragraphs, and a conclusion

• At least two quotes from the novel itself that are integrated into your

discussion

• At least two citations of outside sources (such as literary criticism on the novel,

preferably from articles from the MDC databases)

• Topic sentences that focus the discussion in the body paragraphs

• Examples, details, explanations in the body paragraphs that clearly support

your thesis

• Clear connections between ideas from paragraph to paragraph and within

paragraphs

• Proper MLA style format in the heading, in the in-text citations, and in the

Works Cited page (see the template for the heading and margins in this lesson)

• Works Cited page includes articles from two sources and from the novel for a

minimum of three total listed sources

• Standard usage, grammar, and mechanics

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

? You will submit your final draft through the Turn-it-in drop box designated for

this purpose in the course. Please be aware, that although Turn-it-in does allow

for similarities for quotations up to 24% of your paper, any similarity above

24% is considered too high for an original paper and will be flagged as

plagiarism.

? You can get help with your paper at any of the campus writing centers (see the

link in the course with this information), and you can also receive online help

via SmartThinking, the online tutoring service provided by the College. This

service is available by clicking on SmartThinking in the left-hand menu bar of

the course under Tools & Resources.

Choose from the following topics:

1. Analyze the ending of the novel. What are the “circles of sorrow” that Nel

experiences? Is the ending pessimistic, optimistic, or something else altogether?

2. Nel and Sula’s friendship is central in the novel. What role does this friendship

play in Nel and Sula’s lives and what point is Morrison making about the role

of life-long friendships in the formation of identity?

3. How do people who are intensely individualistic fare in the novel? Is it possible

to break away from the values of the community and to be one’s own person?

Answer the question with reference to at least two of the novel’s characters.

4. How and by whom is love expressed in the novel? In what ways is the love in

the novel a ease the suffering of the characters? How is love not enough to

appease the characters in light of their suffering?

5. In what ways are the various characters in the novel alienated from the

community? How do they cope with their loneliness, their preoccupations, and

other after effects of feeling abandoned?

6. Compare and contrast the journey of self-discovery for two characters in the

book. Remember to take a position in your thesis that establishes the

significance of the comparison and contrast.

7. Contrast Nel’s relationship to her mother and Sula’s interaction with her

mother. Remember to take a position in your thesis that establishes the

significance of the contrast.

8. Trace the use of three symbols in the novel and explain their connection to a

theme in the novel.

9. What does Shadrack’s character teach us about the after effects of war and the

ways mentally ill people can be ostracized from a community?

10. Although no one has ever joined Shadrack on National Suicide Day, in the

chapter titled 1941, much of the town marches toward the tunnel where they

have not been able to get work and in their rage, the try to “kill, as best they

could, the tunnel they were forbidden to build” (160). What is the significance

of the event at the tunnel and the resulting deaths there?