Format: MLA, Times New Roman, double-space, 12 point font, 1″ margins, NO extra space between paragraphs, all paragraphs signaled by indenting the first
sentence. See the following link: http://www2.sandhills.edu/academic-departments/english/wordguide/mlaformat-word2007.html for formatting examples.
Include a Works Cited page (see below).
The purpose of this essay will be to contrast two different things to each other. Do one of the options below:
Read Ron Carlson’s story “Keith” and write a contrast paper discussing the difference as love interests between the characters Keith and Brian. You might
consider which character seems more invested in Barbara’s growth and empowerment as a separate person with her own agency. Which character helps her
break out of her “comfort zone,” a mere shallow acceptance of who she is “supposed” to be versus who she really is? I would recommend finding three or four
points of contrast and focusing on each on in a different body paragraph.
OR
Contrast both versions of the poem “Let Me Begin Again” according to the time periods they were written. Philip Levine’s poem “Let Me Begin Again” was
written in 1978. Major Jackson’s poem “Let me Begin Again,” written in response to Levine’s poem, was written in 2021, 43 years after Levine’s poem. It might
help to know that Major Jackson is African American and often writes about issues of racism. I would recommend finding three or four points of contrast
between the poems and writing about each one in a body paragraph. Your thesis should bring up the differences as stemming from when the poems were
written. I know that poets are not just merely a product of their environment and most of their poems’ content comes from their own creative choices, but
still, this assignment asks you to consider the poems as also cultural artifacts revealing beliefs that were in the culture. One head’s up. I’ve always considered
the phrase “let me begin again” to be asking to be reborn again in the style of reincarnation. Neither poet is explicitly a Buddhist, so it seems that they are
asking to be reborn again as a type of metaphor, but you are free to argue what you would like as long as you can support it.