1. Literary character is built on dramatic need. In other words, what a character wants reveals a lot about that character. Use this idea to form an essay about one character from a story on our reading list. Think about exactly what it is the character needs. Think about why that character needs what he or she needs. Think about what is getting in the way of the character getting what he or she desires so much.
2. From a short story on your reading list, choose a character (not necessarily the protagonist) whose mind is pulled in conflicting directions by two compelling desires, ambitions, or obligations. Then, in a well-organized essay, identify each of the two conflicting forces and explain why the conflict exists and how it is resolved. Conclude your essay by showing how this conflict illuminates the meaning of the short story as a whole.
3 . Deceit is something that all humans take part in. From your list of short stories, choose one in which a character intentionally deceives in order to advance a specific agenda. Then, in a well-organized essay, discuss the nature of the trickery or misrepresentation and how it contributes to the development of that character (or group) or the theme of the work. Questions you might consider analyzing in your essay: why does the character deceive others? How is that deception achieved? Does the deception work for the character?
Should be about 550 words. Here is the list of stories:
“Everyday Use” by Alice Walker
“Two Kinds” by Amy Tan
“The Men We Carry in Our Minds” by Scoot Sanders
“The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brian
Orientation” by Daniel Orozco
“Spanish Roulette” by Ed Vega
“War” by Luigi Pirandello
“The Foundations of the Earth” by Randall Kenan
“Much Madness is Divinest Sense,” “Civil Disobedience” by Henry David Thoreau
“Blue Winds Dancing” by Tom Whitecloud
“Araby” by James Joyce
“The Ruined Maid,”
“The Storm” by Kate Chopin
“The Sleepover Question” Amy Schalet
“Break it Down” by Lydia Davis
“The Lay of Thyrm,” by Kevin-Crossley-Holland
“Young Goodman Brown,” Nathaniel Hawthorne
“The Cask of Amontillado,” Edgar Allen Poe
“Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother”, Amy Chua