What impact does the practice have on its participants, and how can you tell?

You may choose from among the fiction selections that you have read: Charles Chesnutt’s “The Wife of His Youth,” William Wells Brown’s Clotel: Or, The President’s Daughter, Zora Neale Hurston’s “Sweat,” Sula by Toni Morrison, or Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun. Your goal in this essay is to focus on one of the selections of your choice and to decide upon an interpretation of that text. That is, you must have a thesis that involves some of the terms and devices of literature (plot, theme, character, setting, and so forth), and defend that thesis with elements from the reading. Some possibilities are as follow:In Charles Chesnutt’s short story, “The Wife of His Youth,” the author examines thetheme of racial passing. What observations does he make of passing in this narrative?What impact does the practice have on its participants, and how can you tell? Does theauthor dramatize passing through dialog? Setting? Characterization?Describe the nature of Delia’s and Syke’s marriage in Zora Neale Hurston’s “Sweat.” Isthis a happy marriage? Why or why not? What has led to the state of this marriage? Somethings to focus on here might be the way Hurston paints the character of Sykes: is he thevillain or the hero? How do we get to know him as readers—through dialog or perhapsthrough description? Why do you think Hurston would have portrayed him this way?In what ways does William Wells Brown borrow from folktale and the vernaculartradition in his novel, Clotel: Or, The President’s Daughter? I’m pointing to the characterof Pompey, of course. Is he a trickster? How does he enact the function of the trickstercharacter as you understand it? You might also place him in a historical context andanalyze his character from that angle. Why is he the way he is?The novel Sula by Toni Morrison presents us with a number of themes: Friendship,marriage, love, community, loneliness, exile, pain. Choose a theme to examine. Forinstance, what conflict does Sula face? How does this conflict impact her character—andwhat can we learn from this conflict?In Lorraine Hansberry’s play, she presents us with the Younger family. The Youngerslive together in a cramped, two-bedroom apartment in Chicago. The characters we meetin this play hold traditional gender roles, but Hansberry offers us characters who resist‘conventional’ gender expectations. For instance, consider Beneatha, who wants to be adoctor. Walter…is he the head of the family—or is his mother? A study of one of thesecharacters and how they challenge conventional roles (especially in the 1960s) would bea very promising topic. The most important thing for you to keep in mind is that you raise a question and answer it with material from the selection. The above prompts are designed to help you get started. You mayfollow them to the letter, or you can improvise by choosing a different character to analyze—or draw your own conclusions about what the auction scene in Clotel means to you. As before, you should have an introduction that makes a general, lead-in observation or “icebreaker,” just as you would make to begin any conversation.