Your essay for this book will be a minimum of 8 pages (Times New Roman, 12 point font, 1 inch margins, double-spaced) - or about 2000 words. You may want to get into the practice of using word counts - many colleges do it.
You will select a type of essay from the list of potential ways to talk about a novel - a list I shared with you in your second library writing:
- Analytic essay
- We can analyze specific parts of the novel to help deepen our understanding of it.
- We can analyze ideas across multiple chapters of the novel to see how they are developing / changing.
- Intertextual essay
- We can make connections between the novel and other texts, in terms of similarities and / or differences - this can include books, films, television shows, graphic novels, plays, current events, music lyrics, or just about any other “text.”
- This would need to include extensive use of a second text, balanced with a look at Life of Pi and organized in a way that explores similarities and differences across a range of ideas.
- Personal / Hybrid essay
- We can explore ideas raised by the novel in terms of our own questions and philosophical beliefs about them.
- We can make connections between the novel and our own experiences, in terms of similarities and / or differences.
- Either of these would need to include extensive use of a personal story or example, in addition to a critical eye to the beliefs and ideas stemming from it. The essay would be organized in a way that explores similarities and differences across a range of ideas.
Your essay needs a thesis / focal point, followed by a number of sub-points. These are the topics for your paragraphs. You will need to make extensive use of textual evidence, including analysis of it in terms of both it meaning and relevance to your claim.
- To help you with this, you will submit an outline for your essay by the end of class on Thursday. I will explain that in detail tomorrow, but it essentially asks for your thesis, topics, and a general sense of your evidence.
I've spent an extensive amount of time reading websites devoted to interpretation and ideas about the novel. This includes both free and paid sites. I'll remind you about the policy for academic honesty - a violation of it will result in a zero for this essay. Since there are only two grades for this quarter, it guarantees you will fail for third quarter and will need to take the semester final exam. I hope that's the last I even have to say about it.
More importantly, we've discussed a wide range of exciting and insightful ideas during our weeks with the novel and I'm very excited about reading what you will have to say about it!
