Analysis of a Film's Social Critique

For your first essay, your assignment is to analyze and craft an argument around one of the texts we've watched/read so far: Jordan Peele's Get Out or Nia DaCosta's Candyman (2021). DON'T USE OR CONSULT OUTSIDE SOURCES: resist the temptation to do a web search for other people's opinions/ analysis of your chosen film.

What you choose to argue is wholly up to you, but the crucial component of this assignment is you find both a specific Focus—the parts: one (or more than one if clearly related) defined aspect of the text—and a genuinely Arguable Assertion—the whole: something which 1) can be supported by evidence and 2) isn't obvious or factual and that can be clearly disagreed with—around which you structure the entire paper. As we've been discussing in class, your argument should center around meaning: what this film is arguing about our culture, our country, ourselves (your argument should focus on the US rather than humanity in general).

While trying to come up with an idea for something to write about, don't immediately decide upon your Assertion, but instead spend some time being guided by the evidence. Find an element in the work that intrigues or even bugs you, use that to develop your Focus, and then finally use your Focus to develop your Arguable Assertion. My suggestion is to be as specific as possible with your focus. Rather than tackling everything about the text, you should try to isolate a seemingly small element which repeats itself in order to find your Arguable Assertion. Looking very close is often the surest path to surprising yourself and, then, surprising the reader with your insights: this is the ultimate goal for your argument.

Like with the essays you may have had experience with previously, this essay must be structured as an academic essay: containing an introduction, body, conclusion, and, most importantly, a strong thesis which appears as the last line of the first paragraph. Like with these previous papers, you are making an argument, and in order to make any successful argument, you’ve got to provide evidence for your assertions. With analysis, this means your evidence is specific examples from the text. The easiest way to provide these examples is to give us quotations which you directly analyze; effective quotations might simply be a line or even a few words. So, these quotations don’t need to be long or extensive (in fact, you need to be careful to not overload your paper with quotes that overwhelm your own voice), but they absolutely have to be included. For films, specific examples include both quotations of dialogue and descriptions of visuals (shots) from the text. Through quotes, descriptions of visuals, and very brief summary of scenes, you should describe and discuss specific moments from the text throughout your paper.

If you think it would strengthen your argument about the film, you are permitted to quote or refer to any of the readings we have done so far ( Du Bois, hooks, or McDougall Jones), but this is not required.

Note: For reasons I will cover in class, I suggest choosing Candyman rather than Get Out as your essay subject, but it is your choice.

Don't use sources: As mentioned at the beginning, please resist consulting any outside sources for this essay. The strength of a textual analysis paper is in finding fresh and surprising takes on the text. Sources will lead you in exactly the opposite direction: towards the stale and familiar.