Essay on "Ethan Frome the Book"

Quoted Instructions for "Ethan Frome the Book" Assignment:

Write a four to seven *****"page*****" essay on Ethan Frome (800+ words). Your essay must be based on TWO significant passages or events in the novel and written according to Chapter Nine in WA, specifically the *****"Six Steps for Making a Thesis Evolve*****" on pages 144 and 145 and repeated on page 158.

Here are the basic steps for writing the essay on Ethan Frome:

1) Review Chapter Nine and especially pages 139-145 which lay out the essential steps.The basis of this essay will be presenting a thesis about the novel, developing that thesis with evidence that confirms your thesis, and then introducing evidence that forces you to reconsider/re-evaluate your thesis in light of this different passage. You conclude by explaining and resolving your views through analysis of additional information/evidence.Be certain to understand this logic before you begin the essay.

2) Find two passages and take notes on them using all relevant techniques from WA, including *****"the Method,*****" making the implicit explicit, the 10 on 1, etc. (Chapter Three reviews most of them). These notes will create the basic material you will use to develop your body paragraphs.

In order to develop your subject you will need to find two passages of some length, typically with some description as well as action. What you are looking for are NOT merely key parts of the plot. You should choose passages ( in length from a long paragraph to a few pages) that you feel are very significant, analysis of which can sustain three or so pages of your essay. You can use passages already discussed in the forums. The best passages are those that do not simply advance the plot and feature action, but seem to represent patterns of repetitions, strands, binaries, symbols, etc., that help us understand a theme or issue in the the entire novel.

The key to choosing your passages is to choose those that need to be analyzed, that need to be explained in order for the novel to make sense. This may or may not be passages that move the plot along, but they definitely should be passages that expose the characters in the novel, that reveal deeper meanings about them. So don*****'t pick passages to write about that are obvious, that mean only one thing. And be certain to write about the specific details in the passage--the dialogue, the descriptions, the diction, etc. All these things have meanings beyond themselves. The best passages to choose will be those that are significantly symbolic or metaphoric--that is, they Â"seem to be about x but are really about a, b, c, etc.They are more important for what they stand for than what for what they are literally about.

After you have chosen your passage, summarize it briefly but completely and write down EVERY idea you can think of that has to do with the passage regardless if these ideas all relate to each other. The more you can come up with about these passages in this stage of the essay process the better, more complete and powerful will be your final draft.

3) Decide what your subject and thesis are. Do this explicitly with Chapter 9 of WA in mind. Your thesis should be an idea of yours about the entire novel, an idea broad enough to deal with what you believe to be the most important subject in the book, a subject dealt with in your chosen passages. Remember that you do not have to write about the whole book, all the characters and scenes, etc.

Your thesis, however, must be an statement that is still open to thinking about, not a closed case. For example, *****"Ethan is a failure as a man, husband and friend and deserves his fate;*****" that would make for a a bad thesis for this assignment, because all you can do is *****"prove*****" it by putting down the evidence.

[Caution: do not in any way use the 5 paragraph essay approach for this assignment.]

Here is my favorite piece of advice: use your WA-driven analysis of the passages you have chosen to derive your subject and thesis, what you want to write about (subject) and the main point you want to make about it (thesis).

What do you think are the potential subjects--the themes or issues--that have to do with your passage? What is the most general way to put that subject? the most specific?

You are writing your way to a preliminary thesis here so it does not need to be complete. This thesis will change a good deal throughout this process and will ultimately be more than one sentence.

4) Write an introductory first paragraph incorporating your thesis and presenting the overall direction for the essay.

Here is where you start to assemble the true first draft of the essay. You take your preliminary subject and thesis and rewrite/rethink them into a short introduction. The introduction should provide a brief overview of the novel from your point of view. Emphasize what you believe is important and what you will be exploring in the passage. You don*****'t need to specifically describe the passages you are focusing on here. Your task is to state your views on the larger issues that your essay will develop. Imagine your reader is someone who may have read the novel, but who doesn*****'t know it as well as you.

5) Make your second paragraph the paraphrase/summary of the first passage you*****'ve chosen to focus on.

Write a brief, but complete summary of the scene/passage in question as the first body paragraph, making sure to explain where this passage comes in the plot. This sets up for your reader exactly what your analysis is going to be about. You can assume that your reader has read the book but forgotten the details, so set the scene up for him/her--don*****'t use quotations here if you can help it! Always keep in mind that this summary (plus the introduction) should be sufficient for your reader to be able to completely *****"get*****" what you are doing----even for someone who has not read the book!

6) Turn your notes on the first passage into one to three body paragraphs that develop your thesis and say everything you think is important about the scene you have chosen relative to your thesis.

Each body paragraph should develop one main point about the passage, a point that connects to and directly explains your thesis. Present evidence from your passage through specific mention of key details. Remember that evidence cannot speak for itself--you have to explain what it means with analysis. This analysis of details from the passage should *****"comprise both observations and interpretive leaps that you make about the*****" passage. Remember your analysis should make use of the WA techniques. All your analysis should confirm how this evidence develops your thesis.

7) Here is where you show that you understand and can employ the concept of the evolving thesis. At this point in your essay you need to introduce complicating evidence.

Your second passage should present evidence that complicates your thesis, evidence that may represent another side or view. This must be something that causes you to take another look at your thesis, to rethink it. Do not give in to the temptation to choose a passage here that simply repeats the ideas of your thesis or the first passage--that is 5 paragraph thinking and is not allowed here.

Present your second passage as you did with the first one. Summarize the passage briefly, and then analyze it. Do all the same steps with the second passage you did with the first. Be alert to how this passage relates to the first one and your thesis. Take one to three paragraphs to do this.

8) Restate your thesis in light of the second passage and your analysis of it. This will be one or two paragraphs. Explain your thinking here and how you resolve this new complicating evidence.

9) Write a conclusion that completes your analysis of the two passages and resolves your evolution of your thesis. *****