So far this semester we have read a number of short stories: James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues,” Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral,” and Jhumpa Lahiri’s “Interpreter of Maladies.” Now it is time to apply our critical thinking skills to a written analysis, in the form of a comparison and contrast essay, of two stories we are now reading, John Updike’s “A & P” and William Faulkner’s “Barn Burning.”
“Barn Burning,” a classic story by William Faulkner, is set in the post Civil War South. It engages us in family conflict, primarily the conflict of a young boy with the authoritarian and possibly amoral behavior of his father—a father he will have to confront. “A & P,” also now a classic by John Updike, is set in a grocery store near Boston on a Thursday afternoon in 1960. The narrator is a young man who finds himself needing to confront the ways and values of his parents and boss at the store.
Your first y assignment is to write a 1250-1500-word (5-6 pages) comparison and contrast essay about these two stories, comparing and contrasting the protagonists in each story—the conflict and challenge each faces, the decision each makes, and the consequences for each. Are either or both of these characters heroic? If so, what makes them heroic?
Comparison and contrast means that you should use the similarities to explore the differences. Choose two or three points of comparison, for example, ages of the protagonists, parental expectations, or what leads to the decision of each. The purpose of your comparison will be mutual illumination of each story. Ultimately you want to answer what it takes for each character to grow in a significant way through conflict with their parents and a decision to go it on their own.
Please make sure that your essay has a thesis—a main point about the two stories you will be analyzing. After you write a draft, thoroughly revise and edit your essay to make sure that your final version is complete, coherent, and thorough, that it has good organization and support for its clear, compelling thesis, and that it uses relevant supporting examples and details from both stories. Be sure to proofread and edit your essay so that it has absolutely minimal errors in grammar, sentence structure, and usage.
The final completed draft of your analytical comparison and contrast of these two Faulkner and Updike stories is due Thursday, September 16th. Please submit it in either MS Word or PDF format. A Google Docs document should be converted to PDF.
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