ENGL227---essay 1----Write a 2-3 page essay.

ENGL 227

World Fiction

Essay #1

Choose one story and one bulleted item.  Write a 2-3 page essay.

1. 1.Aesop “The Fox and the Grapes”

• •How does Aesop develop the theme through details in the fable?

1. 2.Marie de France “Guigemar”

• •Most readers are familiar with Western storytelling traditions that depict a “damsel in distress” who must be rescued by a “gallant knight.”  In what way does this story follow this plot line and in what way does it depart from it?  What is the author’s point?

1. 3.Jakob and Wilhelm  Grimm “Godfather Death”

• •What is the broad life lesson in the story?  Identify characters and plot to support.

1. 4.Chuang Tzu “A Butterfly’s Dream”

• •What does this story reveal about the nature of perception and reality?

1. 5.“Geoffrey Chaucer “Wife of Bath’s Tale”

• •How does the old crone in the story convince the knight of her values as a wife?  Thesis will reflect the theme of the story.
• •What does Chaucer’s tale reveal about religion and morality?

1. 6.Nikolai Gogol  “The Overcoat”

• •What does Gogol’s overcoat imagery reveal about the relationship between class and power in Russian society?  Who has power in this society and how do they abuse it?

7.  Guy de Maupassant “The Necklace”

• •In the end, Mathilde seems fated to be in the class she was born into, and class mobility seems an impossibility.  Describe the protagonist’s behavior throughout the narrative.  What is the author’s point?
• •Compare this story to Gogol’s “The Overcoat.”  Both Stories revolve around a piece of apparel and in both stories the lives of the protagonists change after they attend a party and lose or relinquish their prized possessions.  How are the overall themes of the stories similar or different?  Compare and contrast.

8. Anton Chekov “The Lady with the Dog”

• •Describe the process through which Gurov’s opinion of women changes?  How is this related to his love for Anna? 

9. Nathaniel Hawthorne “Young Goodman Brown”

• •What does Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” say about the nature of society and morality?  You might want to consider the story in its historical context (Puritanism). 

1. 10.Kate Chopin “The Story of an Hour”

• •Mrs. Mallard feels free when she discovers that her husband has died.  What is she freed from?  What are the social and personal forces that have confined Mrs. Mallard?

1. 11.Charlotte Perkins Gilman “The Yellow Wall-Paper”

• •Relate the change in the narrator, as the story progresses, to the change in the wall-paper.  Thesis will reflect theme.

1. 12.Mark Twain “The War Prayer”

• •Analyze the two sermons on war and determine the theme of the story.