Synthesize your understanding of one of the essays with your interpretation of the novel/film in order to construct an argument that you could not have made through close reading alone.

Using a critical lens informed by one secondary text (Jamaica Kincaid’s “Small Place” or George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant”), write a 1,000-1,200-word critical lens analysis of a primary text (Waiting for the Barbarians or The Quiet American).

For this essay, make an argument about how the selected primary text adds to, challenges, or complicates one of the two secondary texts.

Synthesize your understanding of one of the essays with your interpretation of the novel/film in order to construct an argument that you could not have made through close reading alone.

You should seek to inform your readers, to open up a literary text in new ways for them by exploring in what ways the novel or film complicates the ideas of Kincaid or Orwell, and/or vice versa.

Open with an engaging thesis statement that makes your motive clear. Create a dialogue between two texts. Don’t settle for a baseline reading of the points of connection between the primary text and the lens.

Rather, devise a thesis that identifies how (and how well) the selected secondary text as a lens explains the form and function in Waiting for the Barbarians or The Quiet American.

You will also want to identify a “twist,” a place where your case and the lens don’t match up. This is your opportunity to revise, refine, or even critique the lens—you need not agree with Kincaid or Orwell wholeheartedly, just remember to explain why you disagree and to examine the merits and faults of their argument logically.

Essentially, you are being asked to interpret the story of the primary text and reflect on your lens. As always, close readings of specific passages or film shots are required to support and/or complicate your argument.

Last Completed Projects