The literary analysis project involves reading a book outside of class and then writing a paper which compares and contrast that book to a work or works we have dealt with in the course.  You may read a novel, a play, or a book of poems, written by a Britsh or American writer since 1945.

Your final paper should be 6-8 pages long (typed/ 1500-2000 words).  It should not be a simple book report or plot summary of your supplemental work, but instead should focus on thematic similarities and differences. The point here is not to be right so much as to display your thinking processes. There should be no need to use any critical sources; indeed, you will find that these themes and books are idiosyncratic enough that you would not be able to find anything that is specifically relevant to this assignment.

Below are a series of questions around which papers can be organized. Dealing mainly with works we have read or will read in class, each question focuses on a single major theme. What you have to do is think through the major themes in your supplemental work, and then reformulate one of these questions so that you can use it to structure your paper.

This list is not restrictive: it is meant to provide you with suggestions and guidance; you are perfectly free to twist, combine, and even invent your own topic. As an extra help, at the end of each question I have provided a parenthetical list of those supplemental texts which I think might work best for that particular theme.  You may read books not on my list;  however, if I have read and know the book well, it is much easier for me tohelp you write the paper.

Plagiarism of this paper will require me to fail you for the entire course-- it’s not worth it to even think about it.

I will be glad to be of help at all stages of writing this paper. Please feel free to come and talk to me during office hours about which book to read or, once you have read your book, what themes to think about. I can also help you organize your paper, develop an intro paragraph, and I will even go over a rought draft with you (preferably, however, not the day before it is due).

If you would like to do a web site about your book, you should consult with me.  Generally web sites post papers which are a little shorter than the usual assignment.  I want to be sure, though, that you do something that is responsible and unique with yor web site.  I have been getting too many notes lately from people who have found student web sites that simply repeat information found elsewhere.

Possible Paper Topics

1. Almost all the works we have read so far present an opposition between MATERIALISTIC/MECHANICAL images and images of more humane or spiritual values. Explore this dichotomy in at least 2 works, showing how materialism and mechanism are associated with discontinuity and describing the similarities and differences in the authors' attitudes towards the possibility of love helping to create and sustain different kinds of continuity. (End of the Road, A Clockwork Orange, Blade Runner, Catch 22, Being There, Death of a Salesman, 1984, Another Roadside Attraction, Cuckoo's Nest)
2. Using specific examples of cage of PRISON IMAGERY, compare and contrast what SH5, Ballad, Cat and/or Cuckoo's Nest have to say about the plight of man in the modern world. Is there any similarity among the works' explanations of why we are all alienated from one another? (I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Waiting for Godot, Clockwork Orange, Invisible Man, Cuckoo's Nest, Catch 22, The Bell Jar, Sophie's Choice)
3. Can Carson McCullers' definition of the NATURE OF LOVE be applied to the view of love in Goodbye Columbus, Cat,or "Marriage"? Do these works also see love in terms of the lover and the beloved? Do any of these works have a fundamentally different definition of the nature of love? (have to include comparison of Ballad to al least your supplemental work, but may do more) (The Magus, Sophie's Choice, The Color Purple, A Streetcar Named Desire, Who’s Afraid of Virginia)

4. In many of the works we have read so far we have seen characters who are SELF-DIVIDED or somehow crippled mentally or physically. Compare and contrast the nature, causes, and effects of this crippling in the characters of Billy Pilgrim, Brick, Roland Weary, Cousin Lymon, Miss Amelia. (Who’s Afraid of Virginia, Caged Bird, Surfacing, Floating Opera, End of the Road, Inivisible Man, Garp, Cuckoo's Nest, Being There, Violent Bear it Away, Bell Jar, Another Roadside Attraction, Sophie's Choice, The Glass Menagerie)
5. A number of the works we have read question the viability of the myth of the HEROIC AMERICAN MALE--macho man, the archetypal American jock--asking whether this image of how a man "should be" is really very healthy. Using specific incidents and quotations from several works compate and contrast how at least two authors feel about this myth. (Surfacing, End of the Road, Blade Runner, Deliverance, Death of a Salesman, Another Roadside Attraction, Streetcar, Electric Kool Aid, Virginia)
6. Many of the works we've read so far deal with the problem of FREE WILL. The question of whether man has free will and what he should do with it is particularly important in SH5. How does the issue of free will come into other works we've read? What do the various authors think about the possibility of free will? **NB be sure to distinguish carefully between what you think the author thinks and hat his characters seem to think. (End of the Road, Waiting for Godot, Clock-work Orange, The Stranger, Magus, Catch 22, Cuckoo's Nest, Being There, Violent Bear It Away, 1984, Another Roadside Attraction, Sophie's Choice, Sirens of Titan)
7. Compare and contrast the views of WOMANHOOD we've seen so far in our reading. What are the most prominent stereotypes these authors present about women? What are the good and bad kinds of women? (Caged Bird, Surfacing, Woman on Edge of Time, Magus, Garp, Cuckoo's Nest, Prisoner of Sex, Bell Jar, Roadside, Color Purple, Glass Menagerie, Streetcar, Virginia)
8. The old question of WHAT IS REALITY? is raised in several of the works we have read. SH5,Ballad, "Performance," Cat, and Cuckoo's Nest all question how real certain characters' perceptions of reality are. How true or false is these characters vision? Why do they see things the way they do? (Virginia, Floating Opera, Invisible Man, Being There, Cuckoo's Nest, Woman on Edge of Time, Violent Bear it Away, Wise Blood, 1984, Roadside)


Other Themes to think about:

9. CHRISTIANITY/RELIGION-- (Godot, Violent Bear it Away, Wise Blood, Roadside, Sirens of Titan, Cat's Cradle)
10. SCHIZOPHRENIA--(End of the Road, Cuckoo's Nest, Briefing, Violent Bear It Away, Wise Blood, Bell Jar, Roadside, Sophie's Choice)
11. SUICIDE-- (Sophie's Choice, Floating Opera, Godot, Stranger, Magus, Bell Jar)
12. ROLE OF TV, MOVIES, MEDIA-- (Being There)
13. THE FAMILY-- (Virginia, Caged Bird,Woman on Edge of Time, Garp, Death of a Salesman, Sophie's Choice, Color Purple, Glass Menagerie)
14. DRUGS/ ALCOHOL-- (Clockwork, Cuckoo's Nest, Electric Kool Aid Acid Test)
15. RACE-- (Caged Bird, End of the Road, Invisible Man, Color Purple, Black Boy, Woman on Edgeof Time, )
16. WAR/ THE MILITARY-- (Magus, Catch 22, Cuckoo's Nest, Sophie's Choice)
17. FRIENDSHIP-- (End of the Road, Godot, Clockwork, Deliverance, Catch 22, Kool Aid)
18. CHILDREN-- (Virginia, Caged Bird, End of the Road, Garp, Violent Bear it Away, Sophie's Choice)
19. POLITICAL SATIRE-- (Clockwork, Invisible Man, Catch 22, Cuckoo's Nest, Being There,