Essay. (50 points) Pick one topic and write a well-developed brief essay addressing the questions. (A brief essay should be at least 400 words.) Make sure to use clear thesis statements and topic sentences. Include specific references to the texts (preferably direct quotes) to support your major points. The essay is designed to test how well you can apply the concepts you’ve been studying across a variety of works and make connections among the works. 1. In The Awakening, Edna Pontellier is closely associated with two other women who represent opposite extremes of acceptable behavior for women of her social class: Madame Ratignolle and Mademoiselle Reisz. Discuss how EITHER woman serves as a foil for Edna and illustrates how poorly suited Edna is for her position or her aspirations. 2. How do Jim in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Grandision in “The Passing of Grandison” refute the beliefs about non-whites that many nineteenth-century American whites held? 3. Edna Pontellier in The Awakening and Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley in “Roman Fever” are all somehow trapped by their social class. Discuss how the expectations for their class have confined, warped, or harmed at least three of these characters. 4. Explain why EITHER Maggie: A Girl of the Streets or “To Build a Fire” should be considered a Naturalist work.
A 400 words essay on any one of the above stories.