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Short Essay #2
DUE DATE
Friday, November 17th by 11:59pm
REQUIREMENTS
750-1000 words
Double spaced, 12 point font, standard margins
MLA formatting (See next page for more info)
Complete sentences
Polished, aim for zero errors
Discuss all parts of your chosen question
***Must be your own work, not generated by AI. Aside from the quotes you use from the text,
everything else should be your words!
PROMPTS
Choose one of the following:
Comparative Essay:
• Compare and contrast one contemporary work from class (The Road, Parable of the
Sower, or one of the stories by Carmen Maria Machado) with one of the older texts
(R.U.R, War of the Worlds, The Machine Stops). Make a clear, strong claim about what
you notice as the similarities or differences, and focus MORE on the contemporary work
than the older work. Use at least four quotes (two from each text) to support your claim.
Traditional Literary Analysis Essay:
• Choose one contemporary work (Parable of the Sower, The Road, or one of the Carmen
Maria Machado short stories) and discuss a theme or idea you notice within it. Craft a
clear, strong thesis including a claim about how that theme or idea is working in the story.
Use at least three quotes from the text to support your claim.
*Please note: if you want to discuss another topic, you’re welcome to. The main thing I want is
for you to engage with the contemporary texts (The Road, Parable of the Sower, or one of the
stories by Carmen Maria Machado). Just back up your claim with evidence!
MLA FORMATTING
Heading:
[Your name]
Hayley Graffunder
ENGL 215: Post-Apocalyptic Literature
17 November 2023
Title and page number:
Title should be centered. Do not bold or underline it or write it in all caps
Page number in upper righthand corner (include your last name)
ex. Graffunder 1, Graffunder 2 etc
In-text citations
For the first time you use a source in the essay, you use the author’s name and page number. Any
subsequent time, you just use the page number.
Ex. (Capek 32).
Here’s how your quotes should look when cited correctly:
In R.U.R., Nana describes the dog’s fear of the robots when she says that “He won’t take a scrap
of meat out of their hands” (Capek 23).
•
Notice where the quotation marks, parentheses, and period are.
The narrator says that he “did not know it, but that was the last civilised dinner [he] was to eat
for very many strange and terrible days” (Wells 23).
•
Use brackets for any words you alter within the quote for agreement purposes.
“The Machine Stops” begins by saying “Imagine, if you can, a small room, hexagonal in shape,
like the cell of a bee. […] An armchair is in the centre, by its side a reading-desk — that is all the
furniture. And in the armchair there sits a swaddled lump of flesh — a woman, about five feet
high, with a face as white as a fungus” (Forster 1).
•
If you take a chunk from the middle of a quote out, use […] to show that something was
removed from this spot.
When Helena receives the necklace from Domin, she exclaims, “Oh! Pearls! A necklace! Harry,
is this for me?” (24).
•
If the quote ends with a question mark or exclamation mark, it goes INSIDE the
quotation mark. The whole sentence is still closed with a period.
Works Cited Page
This is a separate page at the end of your essay (same document).
Please list the text you’re referencing from class, as well as any outside sources you use (if you
chose to. No outside sources are required for this essay).
Correct citations for our texts:
Butler, Octavia E. Parable of the Sower. Four Walls Eight Windows, 1993.
Čapek, Karel. R.U.R (Rossum’s Universal Robots). Doubleday, 1923.
Forster, E.M. “The Machine Stops.” The Oxford and Cambridge Review, Nov. 1909.
Machado, Carmen Maria. “Inventory.” Her Body and Other Parties, Graywolf Press,
Minneapolis, MN, 2017, pp. 33–44.
Machado, Carmen Maria. “Real Women Have Bodies.” Her Body and Other Parties, Graywolf
Press, Minneapolis, MN, 2017, pp. 125–148.
McCarthy, Cormac. The Road. Knopf, 2006.
Wells, H.G. The War of the Worlds. Harper & Bros, 1898.
A
B
C
D or F
The introduction
clearly introduces the
particular theme or
topic of the paper and
contains a thesis
The introduction
introduces the theme or
topic and contains a
thesis
The introduction
attempts to introduce a
theme or topic and
contains an attempt at a
thesis
The introduction is
vague or unclear, does
not introduce the theme
or topic, and/or does
not contain a thesis
The thesis/claim is
clear, makes an
argument, and previews
the main points of the
essay
The thesis/claim is
The thesis/claim is
mostly clear, makes an
mostly clear, makes an
argument, but does not
argument, and previews
preview the main
the main points
points
The thesis/claim is
unclear or vague, does
not make an argument,
and/or does not
preview the main
points
Includes three or more
quotes with correct intext citations
Includes three or more
quotes, with some
errors in the in-text
citations
Includes 2-3 quotes,
0-1 quotes are used,
and/or some errors with and/or no citations
the citations
attempted
Discusses all quotes
with excellent detail
AND explains how
they support the
thesis/claim
Discusses all quotes
with sufficient detail
AND explains how
they support the
thesis/claim
Discusses 2-3 quotes,
AND makes an effort
to explain how it
supports the
thesis/claim
0-1 quotes are
discussed, and/or no
attempts are made to
explain how they
support the thesis/claim
Conclusion summarizes
the main points of the
essay and does not
introduce new
information
Conclusion mostly
summarizes the essay
and does not introduce
new information
Conclusion attempts to
summarize the essay,
and/or introduces new
information
A conclusion is not
included, or it does not
at all summarize the
essay, or it contains
only new information
Does not include
unnecessary summary
Includes a small
amount of unnecessary
summary
Includes some
unnecessary summary,
but most of the paper is
still discussion and
analysis of the topic
Includes a lot of
unnecessary summary
and/or most of the
paper is summary
rather than discussion
or analysis
Essay is clearly and
well organized
The essay is mostly
well organized
The essay is slightly
disorganized but can
still be followed
The essay is
disorganized and
cannot be followed
Free of punctuation,
grammar, and
formatting errors (may
have 1-2 typos)
Mostly free of
punctuation, grammar,
and formatting errors
Some punctuation,
grammar, and/or
formatting errors, but
still readable
Errors are so pervasive
that the meaning of the
paper cannot be
discerned
Alhisan 1
Naif Alhisan
Hayley Graffunder
ENGL 215: Post-Apocalyptic Literature
4 December 2023
Portrayal of Poverty in the Parable of the Sower
Octavia, in her literary work “the Parable of the Sower,” aims to show how poverty has
inflicted so many people in different ways. The problems highlighted in the book are the same
problems that the people is going through in day’s modern world although in varying degrees.
Currently, there are over 10 million homeless people in the US. This is indicative of the
underlying issues that have continued to create many challenges for people. For instance, in
aftermath of pandemic, most people were pushed toward the ledge and they lost the balance.
Since then, they were not able to recover and lead proper lives. The paper will aim to correlate
the poverty in the book and the one its day’s world. Through this mirroring clear issues will be
highlighted and thereafter resolved.
Many people have lost their jobs. People need work to meet their needs. Without any stable
source of income, it becomes challenging to lead a productive life. Therefore, work is a key to a
glorious future. As per the book, over 95% of the people lost their jobs. Due this, people start to
scavenge. A society where few people have income and the majority do not, a huge gap is going
to emerge creating all sorts of problems. It is noted that “a lot of the house were trashed, burned,
vandalized, infested with drunks or druggies or squatted in by the homeless families (Butler 10).”
This is a demonstration that poverty will push people towards creating problems such as
increased cases of burglary. Most homeless people in the USA have turned to drugs as a way to
Alhisan 2
cope with their problems. Instead of these drugs to solve their problems, they have ended up
accentuating them to high levels.
People are turned into criminals by poverty as demonstrated in the book. Walls are supposed to
protect people from the cold, excessive heat, animals, and other things. However, it also marks
boundaries between the rich and the poor. People with wall have managed to lead a proper life.
Those on the other side as noted in the book, find it “crazy to live without a wall to protect
(Butler 10).” Generally, the author is substantiating on claims that the gap between the rich and
the poor will continue to widen and in process create many challenges in the world (Govan 239).
There are so many ghettos in the world today where many dark things mushrooms and flourish
without any problem. The government struggle to deal with these challenges because of the
complexity of the network. The thugs from the ghettos will organize to robber the affluent
communities and illegal enrich themselves.
In such a world, as the one depicted by the author, is nearly impossible to have peace. People are
always fighting trying to fit in and survive. There is endless competition of the scarce resources
to meet recurring needs. There is no telling the end of the story because the poor will continue to
suffer while the rich continue to get richer. It is argued, in many cases, that the government has
always created policies that directly or indirectly benefit the rich at the expense of the poor
(Mirza, Ahmad, and Babar 105). However, it can also be argued that the rich have mastered the
art of deciphering the codes and determining ways to avoid adhering to the set conditions.
Generally, although the law is always clear on what should be done to have a just and fair
society. Nonetheless, there are many loopholes that have continued to benefit the billionaires at
the expense of the low echelon’s members of society. For instance, through identifying the
exiting taxation loopholes, they have failed to pay billions in taxes. The weight weighs heavily
Alhisan 3
on the poor. This is because they are taxed based on the rules that the rich evade successfully. In
such a society, it becomes nearly impossible to guarantee equitability and accountability. This is
clearly demonstrated in the book. The author shows how the world changes and degrade because
of lack of sustainable measures to protect the vulnerable in the society. A vicious cycle emerges
as the poor fail to break their habits and focus on rebuilding their lives. Sometimes people need
to push beyond the ideas espoused by the masses and aim to enrich their lives. Although this is
maybe considered individualistic, it is the underlying principle of capitalism has for many years
driven the US economy.
In conclusion, the book is a key reminder that change is possible regardless of countless
challenges that stand on the way. People must be prepared to fight to improve their lives without
getting tired. Poverty can be fought and defeated through sheer effort. People must embrace
change and continue to improve step by step and avoid retrogressive practices that are likely to
weaken the society’s fabric.
Alhisan 4
Works Cited:
Butler, Octavia E. Parable of the Sower. Four Walls Eight Windows, 1993.
Govan, Sandra. “The Parable of the Sower as Rendered by Octavia Butler: Lessons for Our
Changing Times.” Femspec, vol. 4, no. 2, 2003, p. 239.
Mirza, Kanza Fatima, Rehan Ahmad, and Zartash Babar. “Gender, Capitalism, and
Environmental Degradation: A Material Ecofeminist Analysis of Octavia Butler’s Parable of the
Sower.” Panacea Journal of Linguistics & Literature, vol. 2, no. 2, 2023, pp. 104-117.
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