Very important: to use library work cited to find good sources. Use the databases available through the library, such as MLA, JSTOR, and Literature Resource Center. There are also excellent reference books in CCM’s library filled with good critical articles about the texts we’ll be reading, such as Short Stories for Students, Poems for Students, and Drama for Students. The reference librarians will help you to locate these. Remember that I asked for credible sources, so be sure that your source is a respected critic. Also, the essays must be literary criticisms on a literary text, not history papers or biographical papers. Finally, please consider communicating with me during your writing process to help you improve your research paper. This means, of course, getting the paper done early. Step One: Identify which story/poem/drama you will analyze Step Two: Figure out your thesis (what is the theme of the story/poem/drama?) Step Three: Do your research, using databases and reference material available through the library to find five critical sources Step Four: Organize your thoughts by constructing an outline if you wish Step Five: Write the essay, producing a literary criticism based on your thesis idea (the theme), and incorporating quotes from the story and the five critical sources to support your points Step Six: Revise the essay a bunch of times You may consult with me during any of these steps! Work Cited O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried : A Work of Fiction. First Mariner books ed., Mariner Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009. Annotation – In this book, O’Brien explains soldiers carrying various items into combat. Farrell, Susan. “Tim O’Brien and Gender: A Defense of ‘The Things They Carried.’” CEA Critic, vol. 66, no. 1, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003, pp. 1–21, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44377572. Annotation – In this article, Farrell explains The Remasculinization of America: Gender and the Vietnam war (1989) explores popular film and narrative representations of the war. VERNON, ALEX. “Salvation, Storytelling, and Pilgrimage in Tim O’Brien’s ‘The Things They Carried.’” Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal, vol. 36, no. 4, University of Manitoba, 2003, pp. 171–88, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44030002. Annotation – In this article, Vernon explains The Pilgrim’s Progress as a mechanism for questioning the possibility of spiritual gain through waging modern war. Wesley, Marilyn. “Truth and Fiction in Tim O’Brien’s ‘If I Die in a Combat Zone’ and ‘The Things They Carried.’” College Literature, vol. 29, no. 2, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002, pp. 1–18, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25112634. Annotation – In this article, Wesley explains to tell the truth of a war story in the Vietnam experience. Chen, Tina. “‘Unraveling the Deeper Meaning’: Exile and the Embodied Poetics of Displacement in Tim O’Brien’s ‘The Things They Carried.’” Contemporary Literature, vol. 39, no. 1, [Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System, University of Wisconsin Press], 1998, pp. 77–98, https://doi.org/10.2307/1208922. Annotation – In this article, Chen explains Tim O’Brien‘s presence in the American literary and cultural imagination as Vietnam did more than redefine the mythos of war. THESIS: Tim O’brien’s, “The Things They Carried” Illustrates the Physical and emotional objects each soldier carried into combat in the Vietnam War.
