Literary Analysis Essay, To Kill a Mockingbird, read what I have so far?
This essay is about Appearance vs. Reality, I was wondering if you could read my first 2 paragraphs and help me make corrections that I don't see? I want to make sure this flows nicely. Be harsh if you need to just please help. This is for my AP American History summer class.
The idea of appearance vs. reality is seen in everyday life; including relationships, religion, and school studies. Harper Lee’s “To kill a Mocking Bird” has a wide variety of themes and messages. She introduces themes like loneliness, prejudice and shows a lot of character growth, To Kill a Mockingbird takes place during the 1930s in a small Alabama, sleepy town where everyone knows each other. It is from a child’s eye perspective telling us about the interesting journeys she went through. She learns a lot of important messages from prejudice, racism, loneliness and appearance vs. reality. In To Kill a Mocking Bird, the author shows how a child may see the world one way, while adults see them in another.
In the eyes of Jem Radley, Mrs. Dubose is a ratty, mean, old lady. She makes racial slurs and scares all the kids that run past her home because she is upfront and never holds back what is on her mind. One day she started going on about how Atticus Finch was a “*****-lover” and that didn’t set right with Jem. Out of anger he goes on a rage, cutting off all the tops of Mrs. Dubose’s camellias. Jem’s punishment is to read to Mrs. Dubose every day of the month. Jem doesn’t like this because she rudely corrects him when he mispronounces a word. It's not until after she dies that Scout and Jem get a sense of what's going on behind the drool and bad mouthing they find out Mrs. Dubose is a morphine addict who had vowed to go clean before she died, and that’s why she made Jem read to every day, to make her not think about the pain as much. This was so she could keep herself off the stuff for longer and longer periods of time. Atticus tells the kids the lesson he hopes they've learned from her. "I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do. Mrs. Dubose won, all ninety-eight pounds of her. According to her views, she died beholden to nothing and nobody. She was the bravest person I ever knew. (149)”
Update:smile, dollface- you are totally correct, im a terrible writer. I don't know why I put Radley I've read the book several times. Thanks for being honest & harsh.
Answers & Comments
Verified answer
Okay, okay.... I'm so sorry if what I'm about to write is harsh, but it is necessary.
You sound a bit bad at write and understanding literature. I would high suggest you go to AP Literature or AP Language.
First off, Jem's last name is NOT Radley. The Radley's are Arthur Radley and Boo Radley. Atticus and Jem and Scout's last name is Finch.
Second, when writing an essay, especially one about a book, and one that was assigned, you DO NOT write an analysis of the book. You don't need to put the time, the era, the place, the setting. And when adding in anecdotes about the story you never put a full outline of this anecdote: you simply put an overall sentence of what happened.
Third, when writing an introduction, you NEVER start off with your thesis. Your last sentence of your introduction should state your thesis. You want your introduction to grab the readers attention. In this essay I would have put the quote "Never judge a book by it's cover." and then explained how the book in reality might be a good book, but one would not know because it is judged upon what it's appearance. [See what I did there? I used the words "reality" and "appearance" to further connect this analogy to the theme of the paper.]
Fourth, you would want to include transition sentences/statements. The ending of your first paragraph does not correlate nor transition into the second paragraph nicely. You want these throughout your entire essay.
Fifth, you want any quotes that you do use to be less than three lines. This is standard MLA format, quotes must be short, sweet, and simple. After using a quote, explain why the quote is used in the essay and how it relates to your thesis.
Sixth, a paragraph should include a main point that is in your thesis statement. Your thesis statement (which is indeed missing in your first paragraph) should include three main ideas/topics that you'll discuss later in your essay that all correlates to your theme of the paper (in this case, appearance vs reality).In the paragraph, which is all on one point made in your thesis, you need a minimum of THREE details. Three points made from the book, or three quotes, what have you. In your second paragraph you only really made one quote/point. You need three.
Seventh, when using the title, it is properly done "To Kill A Mockingbird".
Eighth, you want to point out how the author (Lee) uses appearance vs reality in the novel to make certain points. Don't be afraid to include figurative language as one of these points.
Ninth, when quoting things, you want to put the author's last name. So in this case, (Lee, 149). This is standard MLA format.
Oh, and if you do use that first sentence, it's not a semi-colon (;) but a colon instead (:).