Essay

Length:

3-4 typed pages, double-spaced, 1” margins, 12 point standard font size. After reading Josefina López’s play Real Women Have Curves, (p. 255) or José Rivera’s Cloud Tectonics (p. 381) provide a formal and critical interpretation of it that is both original and insightful.

Criteria of Evaluation:

MLA format: include a creative title formatted correctly; number the pages on the upper right corner of each page. Ex.: Pittser 1; use correct rules for paraphrasing, quoting and summarizing; include a Works Cited page.

You don’t have to use outside sources, but if you do include outside material, please do not quote from sources that don’t have an argument but only summarize the plot. The source you choose can either be directly about the play or about ideas you will bring into your interpretation of the text.

Don’t quote from Wikipedia, standard dictionaries, purchased/prewritten essays, nor literature summary websites such as Shmoop, SparkNotes, Cliff’s Notes, About.com, Infoplease, GraderSaver, or generic study guides, etc.

Avoid overusing the first and second persons in order to maintain stronger objectivity.

Use the present tense to refer to events that happen during the timeframe of the text.

Development of a strong introduction that includes a clear thesis statement, opening arguments, and writer-based techniques such as a forecast or a framing device.

Crafting and organization of support/body paragraphs that include the components of Assertions, Examples, Explanations, and statements of Significance (AXES) to convey critical readings and interpretations of the texts with which you are working.

Don’t over quote nor end your paragraphs with a quotation. Always explain the quote’s significance, especially in relation to the thesis statement. For quotes of four lines or longer, use the “block format” and explain the details of this long quote and why it means.

Prove points using the texts.

A concluding paragraph that presents more than a recapitulation of the thesis and main points, but a “Big Picture” of the importance of your analysis.

Proper use of grammar and syntax will be important in conveying ideas lucidly.

Format:

Your essay should include a creative title that reflects your interpretation of the play.

Number the pages in the upper right-hand corner; let computer insert the numbers.

MLA format (parenthetical citations and works cited entries for each source) is required.

Potential Topics: (these are only suggestions, so feel free to write about what interests you)

The role of political justice, fate, or tragedy in the play

The desire for recognition and respect

Importance of work and success and how it defines characters throughout the play

The symbolic role that time plays throughout the narrative

How family is defined and reconfigured through the various scenes of the play

How traditional constructions of masculinity and femininity inform our understanding of particular characters and their actions

Character comparisons or contrasts within the play

How the role of place and space functions as a character that reflects and establishes identity.

How sorrow and suffering are instruments of transcendence in the play

The way bodies are articulated and transformed

The importance of duty and tradition and what this means for various characters

The blending of reality and fantasy in Cloud Tectonics

The different cultural values the main characters embody/represent

Quoting from a Play (dialogue versus monologue in Machado’s The Cook)

Dialogue:

ADRIA: If it wasn’t for the fact that you work for me, we could friends.

GLADYS: I feel we are.

ADRIA: My mother thinks it’s cruel to be friends with people that work for you.

(The Cook Act One) or (The Cook 15)

Monologue:

While Adria enjoys her life-long friendship with Gladys, Adria still recognizes that her own privileged position should keep her at a distance from the working class. She tells Gladys that her “mother thinks it’s cruel to be friends with people that work for you” since it gives the impression of equality (The Cook 15).

Good Luck!