You need to integrate your topic: immigrants in O Pioneers! You may have until 6p.m. to edit/revise. this semester will be to compose a researched essay on Willa Cather’s novel O Pioneers! which you w

Essay Guide:

An introductory paragraph (when writing about literature) must contain the following:

A general statement: This is a sentence or two used to grab the reader’s attention.

A plot summary (or general summary if literature lacks a plot, poetry etc.): This is one or two sentences which include author, title, genre, setting, conflict, character.

A central idea: This sentence states the main idea found in the literature you are discussing.

A thesis: This sentence shows HOW the central idea is present in the text.

A model is given below.

There was a time in America’s past when the words of the Pledge of Allegiance, “with liberty and justice for all,” were but a dream for many. Harper Lee’s culturally important novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, is the story of a southern girl’s coming of age as her lawyer-father seeks justice for an innocent black man accused of a heinous crime. The central idea of the novel is that all men are indeed created equal and as such are entitled to fair treatment on every level. This idea is shown throughout the novel but is prominent in the scene at Calpurnia’s church, at the trial of Tom Robinson, and in the conversation regarding Boo Radley’s innocence.

A sample outline would then follow the following format:

I Introduction

See above

II Body

1. Justice at Calpurnia’s church

Here you would bullet any supporting details.

1. Justice at the trial of Tom Robinson

Here you would bullet any supporting details

1. Justice in the conversation regarding Boo Radley’s innocence.

Here you would bullet any supporting details.

III Conclusion

A good conclusion restates the main ideas of the essay and introduces areas for further research based on ideas within the essay.

Sample background and topic sentences of first body paragraph:

Although Harper Lee is writing To Kill a Mockingbird in the sixties, she places her novel in an equally important era in the Civil Rights Movement that is the time toward the end of the Depression and the beginnings of WWII. One of the first important scenes of the novel in which the reader begins to understand the tension between the black and white community occurs when Calpurnia, the servant-nanny of the main character, Scout and her brother Jem, take the children to church with her one Sunday. The need for liberty and justice is clear as the children and Calpurnia at first face the scorn of the black community for bringing the white children to their place of worship.

You would continue to explore how the scene shows the presence of the main idea through quoted passages and explanations from the novel itself, from the critics perhaps and concluding with your own ideas.

Example of incorporating a passage from text into your sentences:

Charles Ryscamp in his article, “The New England Sources of The Scarlet Letter,” claims that the historical “factual” background of the novel has “been largely unnoticed” (191). It is because of this lack of awareness that the reader of The Scarlet Letter may not take Hawthorne’s invitation to “smile, but . . . not doubt [his] word” seriously at all (25). What is it therefore, that the reader needs in order to believe Hawthorne’s work is authentic if not entirely true?