The Alchemist


 Length
 Your
paper
must
be
five
(complete)
typed
pages
or
1,800
words
long,
excluding
the
Works
Cited
 page.
 
 Subject
and
Scope
 You
will
analyze
the
short
story
you
selected
for
your
previous
assignment:
Edgar
Allan
Poe's
 "The
Cask
of
Amontillado,"
Kate
Chopin's
"The
Story
of
an
Hour,"
Stephen
Crane's
"The
Open
 Boat,"
Ernest
Hemingway's
"Hills
Like
White
Elephants,"
Raymond
Carver's
"Cathedral,"
or
Joyce
 Carol
Oates'
"Where
Are
You
Going,
Where
Have
You
Been?".

This
essay
will
require
an
 analytical
focus,
such
as
tracing
one
or
more
elements
of
fiction
(point
of
view,
setting,
irony,
 foreshadowing,
and
symbolism,
for
example)
or
themes.

Feel
free
to
use
or
modify
any
of
the
 sample
topics
at
the
end
of
this
handout,
or
you
may
formulate
your
own
topic.

Your
paper
must
 also
incorporate
information
from
a
minimum
of
four
secondary
sources.

In
researching
your
 topic,
you
will
examine
what
other
writers
have
to
say
about
the
story
and
author
and
use
 examples
from
their
works
to
back
up
your
assertions.

You
might
also
consider
the
historical,
 social,
or
psychological
context
of
the
story.

The
emphasis
of
this
paper,
however,
should
be
on
 establishing
and
proving
analytical
claims.

You
will
not
merely
compile
the
background
and
 comments
of
other
writers
in
one
section
of
your
paper;
rather,
you
will
integrate
information
 from
secondary
sources
as
it
applies
to
related
points
you
make
in
your
paper.

Material
from
 secondary
sources
should
account
for
no
more
than
one‐fourth
of
your
essay.


 
 Paragraphing
 As
you
did
with
your
first
two
essays,
name
the
author
and
title
of
your
primary
source
(the
 latter
should
be
in
quotation
marks)
in
the
opening
paragraph,
but
do
so
in
a
sentence
that
 makes
an
assertion;
do
not
simply
announce,
for
example,
that
Kate
Chopin
wrote
"The
Story
of
 an
Hour."

Also,
briefly
discuss
what
the
story
is
about,
and
end
the
paragraph
with
a
thesis
...