Essay Assignment

You will write a 2-3 page literary response essay on theme. This essay should be double-spaced in 12-point type with one-inch margins. It should follow the format we've discussed in class. (Introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. Take special care in your body paragraphs to have a clear topic sentence, and examples from the text. Also make sure, your body paragraphs develop your arguments and that one of the paragraphs develops a counter-claim.

As we’ve discussed, The Scarlet Letter is a novel whose themes are often presented in the form of dichotomies. Choose one of the following paired concepts (dichotomies) and write your essay on the theme you develop:

1. society and the individual
2. individual freedom and societal law
3. guilt and innocence
4. holiness and sin

Remember, developing a theme from these topics requires you to really think about what the book says about the topic. This can't be a simple thought that could apply to any book on the subject; it needs to really reflect what Hawthorne is saying in The Scarlet Letter. For example, it won't be sufficient to say that society has rules that limit the individual. Or that the law and individual freedom are often in conflict. Instead, you need to get at how society and the individual are in conflict, according to Hawthorne; what kind of conflicts arise between freedom and law and how does this affect people’s lives, again, according to Hawthorne.

This paper is due on Monday, January 3. It must be uploaded to turnitin.com by that date and must be sent as an attachment to me in your engrade account. Attach the file as a Word document or, if you don't use Word, attach it as an .rtf file.