Objectives:

Write an arguable thesis, one that does not merely summarize the novel.
Pay special attention to the language of the text, focusing on specific words, images, metaphors. What do these words mean?
Note clear patterns or themes throughout the novel.
Make a clear implication or judgment of the text using evidence from the novel.
Why Write a Literary Analysis?

Analysis writing is a fundamental component of college writing. You may be asked to analyze candidates speeches in a political science course or to analyze the imager in a poem for a literature course. In a statistics course, you might analyze a set of data a numerical text to find the stander deviation from the mean (98). Beyond the college classroom, it will be important for you to analyze the texts in the world around you. You will analyze the advertisements, speeches, and other political contributions of future candidates for president, mayor, etc. You will analyze different reviews to select the best products for you. You will even analyze the social media accounts of future friends and acquaintances to determine whether they might be someone you want to be associated with. The analysis is fundamental to understanding the world around you.

Pre-Writing Activity:

Please take 10 minutes to reflect on the reading so far in Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. Hopefully, you have already read through chapter 24. How would you describe the text so far (are there any specific moments in the novel that you want to focus on? What context do you have for this novel (what do you know about the time period it was written, the author who wrote it, the setting it takes place in, how it fits into certain genres)? What interpretations or judgments have you made about the text? You might focus on the writing style, or a specific theme, or gender, race, or class relationships in the novel. Ask yourself, what stands out to me as particularly effective, odd, unsettling, humorous, exciting?

Assignment Description:

Our most recent class readings have focused on Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. Additionally, we have read Matthew Millers Frosts Broken Roads and Liz Moores Abuse of an Unnamed Wife: Is She Familiar? Millers work focuses on misinterpretations of Robert Frosts The Road Not Taken and Moores analysis focuses on domestic violence in Gilmans Yellow Wallpaper. Both examples use textual evidence to make unique arguments about Miller and Moores specific interpretations of the texts they read. These examples ask us to consider how literature represents us, informs our lives, and situates us to associate with these literary works in different ways.

For this writing project, consider what patterns you see in Murakamis Hard-Boiled Wonderland. You will need to select at least 3 specific moments, scenes, inferences from the text that support your overall claim. The purpose of this essay is to analyze a very common kind of argument in our culture: a literary argument; to make claims about patterns you see in this literary work or challenges to social expectations that you are aware of and want to highlight or critique; and to come up with your own ideas or implications for the role of the novel in relation to the social world. You should use the techniques we have been practicing in class and your class notes about this novel to help you youre your analysis.

This is not an argument paper in the traditional sense; that is, you dont necessarily have to take a stand in your thesis. Instead, you should describe a pattern you see in the novel, discuss why this pattern matters using sources to support you, and then consider the implications of this pattern for your audience. Your thesis should not merely critique the work (it is a good novel because or it is a bad novel because), but your thesis should instead present a clear interpretation of the novel.

Assignment Components:

Include an introduction that establishes your clear interpretation of the novel. What theme/pattern do you plan to discuss? What method of analyzing the text will you use? Are you focused on the text itself? Your own response as a reader? Context around the novel?

Use the body paragraphs to highlight your main points. Use topic sentences to establish the connection between your main point and your thesis. How does this body paragraph expand on your thesis? In these body paragraphs, include careful attention to the language of the text and specific examples that support your main claims.

In your conclusion, you might readdress your main points, look to future readers of the novel, or establish some clear gaps in your thinking or Murakamis writing.

Read, understand, and integrate the outside text(s) in your body paragraphs. How does the novel support your main claims? Use signal phrases to introduce the primary source and any secondary sources that you plan on using.

Present a finished writing product, that is proofread, sources cited, and free of errors.

Understand and follow through with the directions of the assignment.
Format:
4-5 pages (1200-1500 words), double-spaced, 12-point font, works cited (not included in the 1200 word minimum). Include 3 sources total, 1 of which is the novel, plus 2 additional outside sources.

Please remember to cite ALL sources using MLA formatting. These citations must include proper in-text citations and an entry in your works cited page. Proper in-text citations, in our classroom, means introducing every author by first and last name, providing credentials, summarizing the body of text that you are citing, providing the full name of the text, and including paraphrases or direct quotations where needed with page numbers. You are welcome to include MORE than three sources.