provide a close reading of four to five lines from any of the following peices of work

by

Humanities

“The Metamorphosis” by Kafka, in Volume 2.

“The Guest” by Camus, in Volume 2.

“Requiem” by Akhmatova, in Volume 2.

“Faust” by Goethe, in Volume 2.

“Diary of a Madman” by Lu Xun, in Volume 2.

“Sealed Off” by Zhang Ailing, in Volume 2.

“Man of La Mancha” by Chu T’Ien-Hsin, in Volume 2.

Choose one of he following short stories.

Details:

In three full pages, provide a close reading of four to five lines from any works listed above3. This selection must demonstrate an exploration of how metaphor presents a theme from the culture you have selected. Make a clearly argumentative claim about the passage you have chosen (your passage should contain at least one metaphor); this claim will be your thesis.

Back up your claim with analysis of details within the passage and at least one comparison with another author who uses metaphor for a different purpose. Include textual evidence from the other selected work to support your rationale.

The close reading should provide clear discussion of how the literary convention of metaphor illustrates a cultural theme, and then clear analysis of the passage’s significance. Provide an effective introduction that introduces the literary work and its author, as well as a clear thesis that is fully supported by the rest of your paper.

This paper is not a research paper and should not rely on outside sources.

Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the MLA Style Guide

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

Tips for Success:

Pay attention to any detail in the four- to five-line passage you selected in order to gather as much information as you can about the passage:

    1. What is happening in the passage? What is it describing or analyzing?
    2. Who is the speaker? (protagonist, different characters, narrator)
    3. What is the tone (sarcastic, excited, sad, ironic, confused, etc.)
    4. What has come before the passage, what comes after?
    5. Key issue: does it repeat a theme that has come up earlier, or does it foreshadow something to come? How does it repeat a phrase, image, or theme that occurs elsewhere in the text? How is the use of that phrase, image, or theme, similar and different from its appearance elsewhere in the text, and what does that difference suggest about how the story has changed or how the narrator’s perception or mood has changed?
    6. How do the details in the passage give information about the metaphor?

Use your answers to these questions to help develop your argument about the passage you have chosen.

Select key words from the passage and make notes on what these words mean and why they are important to the passage.

This assignment benchmarks the following competencies:

5.3 and 1.2: Analyze global literature to interpret how authors express human diversity in literary works.

1.3: Practice close textual analysis to identify key ideas, themes, and elements within a literary work.

1.4: Analyze a text using the major stylistic conventions of its genre.