DONE! The PARCC test is first thing Monday morning. This test will be LITERARY ANALYSIS. I made a powerpoint presentation to help you understand literary analysis better. Please take the time to view this presentation.
If you have not finished the online PARCC practice test, it would be to your advantage to finish it. The key is online, so you can check your answers.
This is an example of how to answer the essay based on Boy's Life and "Emancipation: A Life Fable."
Question: You have read the passage from Boy’s Life and “Emancipation: A Life Fable.” Write an essay
that identifies a similar theme in each text and compares and contrasts the approaches each
text uses to develop this theme. Be sure to support your response with evidence from both
texts.
Essay Example
The purpose of this essay is to identify a similar theme between Boy’s Life and “Emancipation: A Life
Fable,” and to determine the approach each author used to develop this theme.
A similar theme in Boy’s Life and “Emancipation: A Life Fable” is, “Happiness can be found in having
liberty.” In the Boy’s Life text, Cory is anxious to gain his freedom and get out of school on the last
day. When Mrs. Neville finally released him, Cory stated that he “ran out along the corridor, my arms
unencumbered by books, my mind unencumbered by facts and figures, quotations and dates.” In
the same way, the animal in “Emancipation: A Life Fable” discovers its freedom “So does he live,
seeking, finding, joying and suffering.”
The comparison of each author’s approach between the two texts is alike because both authors use
a story (narrative) approach to the theme, and both authors build suspense by delaying the freedom.
For example, Cory must wait on his teacher to dismiss him, and then she calls him up to her desk to
delay him even longer. In the same way, the animal must make the decision whether or not to leave
the cage.
However there are several contrasts in the two authors’ approach to the theme. First, is point of
view. The first author chose to write the story from a first person perspective while the second author
wrote in third person. Second, the genres are different. The first story is realistic fiction or perhaps
biography while the second story is written as a fable. Third, the plot is developed differently with
Cory excited about the summer and freedom to come while the animal is fearful of what may be out
there.
In conclusion, both stories approach the theme of freedom in a narrative, but the authors’
approaches are somewhat different.
that identifies a similar theme in each text and compares and contrasts the approaches each
text uses to develop this theme. Be sure to support your response with evidence from both
texts.
Essay Example
The purpose of this essay is to identify a similar theme between Boy’s Life and “Emancipation: A Life
Fable,” and to determine the approach each author used to develop this theme.
A similar theme in Boy’s Life and “Emancipation: A Life Fable” is, “Happiness can be found in having
liberty.” In the Boy’s Life text, Cory is anxious to gain his freedom and get out of school on the last
day. When Mrs. Neville finally released him, Cory stated that he “ran out along the corridor, my arms
unencumbered by books, my mind unencumbered by facts and figures, quotations and dates.” In
the same way, the animal in “Emancipation: A Life Fable” discovers its freedom “So does he live,
seeking, finding, joying and suffering.”
The comparison of each author’s approach between the two texts is alike because both authors use
a story (narrative) approach to the theme, and both authors build suspense by delaying the freedom.
For example, Cory must wait on his teacher to dismiss him, and then she calls him up to her desk to
delay him even longer. In the same way, the animal must make the decision whether or not to leave
the cage.
However there are several contrasts in the two authors’ approach to the theme. First, is point of
view. The first author chose to write the story from a first person perspective while the second author
wrote in third person. Second, the genres are different. The first story is realistic fiction or perhaps
biography while the second story is written as a fable. Third, the plot is developed differently with
Cory excited about the summer and freedom to come while the animal is fearful of what may be out
there.
In conclusion, both stories approach the theme of freedom in a narrative, but the authors’
approaches are somewhat different.
