For the final essay, you’ll write a literary research paper on a topic that interests you. For this paper,
you will need to include at least four outside academic sources within your paper. The sources should
come from the academic databases at the Goddard Library, and they need to be incorporated
meaningfully to support and develop your ideas.
For this final essay, you can select from the following prompts:
1. Read three or four short stories or poems by an author whose work you admire. Concentrating
on a single element treated similarly in all of these works, write an analysis of the author’s
work as exemplified by your chosen selections.
2. Research Dystopian fiction and its popularity. Use The Handmaid’s Tale in your discussion.
However, you can also use other examples of Dystopian fiction.
3. Using the works we have read to frame your discussion, explore how the realities of women
have been addressed in literature.
4. Research theories of tragedy and the tragic hero. Incorporate August Wilson’s portrayal of
Troy Maxson in your paper.
5. Select one of the topics/themes (Crime & Punishment, Gender, Home/Family/Childhood,
Literature & Other Arts, Race/Class, etc.) listed in the table of contents in our text, and explore
how those themes are explored in literature. Bring works from at least three of the four units
into your discussion.
6. Does literature reflect or shape culture? Explore this question using examples from at least
three things you read this course to support your position.
Chapters 20 and 21 in our text may be helpful for you as you draft this paper.
