Compare and contrast the protagonists’ isolation from the world and the people around them from two stories.

The requirement of the assignment is to post in the discussions area an essay of no more than 700 words and a 150–250 word response to a posted student assignment.

The process is as follows:

1) Prepare an essay following the instructions below.

Choose two stories from among those covered so far in Modules 1 to 5 and the two stories assigned in the next module. You are limited to the stories that you haven’t already written about in your last two essays. One of your challenges for Assignment 3 is to select two stories that are good matches for your chosen topic.

Here is the list of stories; strike out the two you chose for your previous essays.

“Royal Beatings” by Alice Munro
“The Yellow Wallpaper ” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
“Sonny’s Blues ” by James Baldwin
“Rules of the Game” by Amy Tan
“Paul’s Case” by Willa Cather
“Death by Landscape ” by Margaret Atwood
“To Room Nineteen” by Doris Lessing
“Great Falls” by Richard Ford
“Bartleby, the Scrivener” by Herman Melville
“Cathedral” by Raymond Carver
“Hills Like White Elephants ” by Ernest Hemingway
“Barn Burning” by William Faulkner
“The Horse Dealer’s Daughter” by D.H. Lawrence

Choose just one of the topics below:

Compare and contrast the protagonists’ isolation from the world and the people around them from two stories.
Compare and contrast the marital or romantic relationships in two stories.
Compare and contrast the use of point of view in two stories.
Compare and contrast the presentation of selfishness in two stories.

Instructions

Although you’re not required to follow the suggested schedule in the manual, it’s a good idea to post Assignment 3 by the end of Module 6 or roughly at the end of week eight of the course.
Note:

You’re not required to do any research for Assignment 3. However, if you feel confident about including secondary sources, feel free to do so.

Your essay should have three parts: an introductory paragraph, a body containing fully developed paragraphs, and a concluding paragraph. Below is a general guide for what to include in each section of your essay.

Your introductory paragraph should:
Introduce your chosen stories (with their full titles) and their authors.
Identify clearly your essay topic, that is, the subject of your comparison/contrast.
Include a strong thesis statement on the comparison and contrast topic that indicates what we ultimately learn from the comparison/contrast.
Forecast the categories of the comparison and contrast that your essay will analyze in detail.

Your analysis in the body of your essay should:
Make effective use of topic sentences to identify the categories of comparison or contrast in your analysis.
Support your comments with evidence (paraphrase and direct quotations) from your chosen stories.
Explain the significance of each piece of evidence you present as it relates to your thesis.
Contribute to our understanding of the two stories as a whole.

Your concluding paragraph should:
Summarize how your analysis of the categories of comparison/contrast support your thesis.
Restate in different words the purpose of your comparison/contrast.

2) Post the essay on the Discussions area in order to allow students to offer helpful suggestions. You must leave the assignment posted for a minimum of 10 calendar days.

3) Post a 150–250 word response to one of the posted student assignments. You may wish to comment on the ideas, organization, grammar or any other aspect of the assignment that would be a help to your fellow student.

BELOW IS THE STUDENT ASSIGNMENT THAT YOU MUST ALSO RESPOND TO (THIS IS SEPERATE FROM THE ESSAY YOU MUST WRITE AND MUST BE 150-250 WORDS)

Comparing the love-lives of ‘Susan’ in Doris Lessing’s “To Room Nineteen” with the ‘girl’ in Ernest Hemmingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” will examine the women’s attempts to rationalize and ignore issues arising in the relationships. These two women feel it necessary to make compromises to please and maintain the affection of their man. The ladies live completely different lives, Susan gives up the life of ‘having it all’ preferring death, while the young girl weighs the gamble of keeping her baby or pleasing her man.
Susan tries to be “sensible” following her husband’s affair, tries to put it behind her. This becomes the downfall of Susan who feels “as if life had become a desert, and that nothing mattered” anymore. The affair tears at the fabric of the life she and her husband created, a tiny hole of infidelity that continues to rip their life apart until there is nothing left of it at all. Hemmingway’s ‘girl’ also tries to believe the assurances of her lover; “It’s really not an operation at all” he says. He assures her that they “will be just like we were before” and that they will be happy together again after the procedure. She prefers not to talk about it, begging the man to stop talking, even threatening “’I’ll scream”.
These women fall into the role of ‘pleaser’ in their relationships. Clearly this doesn’t work, “resentment. It was poisoning” Susan, and its stealthy fingers were already working its way into the heart of the ‘girl’ as she replied sarcastically that she knows people who have done it (abortion) “and afterwards they were all so happy.” She knows it is not a guarantee. In fact, even the idea of it (the abortion) is evidence that the relationship is going nowhere. The American lives fancy-free, he is not interested in changing his lifestyle of traveling, sleeping in a different hotel each night, and having a girl to keep him company. A baby does not figure into that at all, and that is not love.
By contrast, the women are different in means and age. Susan who marries as a mature adult, having had a satisfying career and experienced her independence before settling down. She felt that all of her life was logically planned and exacted, safe-guarded from the mistakes of other couples. To an outsider, Susan appears to ‘have it all’; the big gardened house, four beautiful children, a successful and good looking husband. Still she is stabbed with insecurity.
The ‘girl’, seems less worldly than her lover, an American man, who speaks the language and knows the culture of Spain. She is faced with the same feelings of insecurity, both in the setting (she is reliant on him to order even her drink) and for the future. Will everything really be all right after the procedure? What of regret? Will she choose to keep the baby and risk losing her man and face social disgrace (1920’s)?
Susan essentially writes herself out of the ‘story’ by hiring an au pair, that the children come to adore, having a housekeeper and gardener. Then her husband admits another longstanding affair, a failure she can’t accept. After witnessing a heartbreaking scene through the kitchen window, she feels completely replaced in her roles, and returns to ‘room nineteen’ to commit suicide.
The ‘girl’ leaves us to imagine how her story will go; she doesn’t make up her mind. She “smiles brightly” saying “there’s nothing wrong with me. I feel fine.”
Attempting to rationalize and ignore issues is a common trait of these two women who are faced with problems in their romantic relationships. Susan tries to move past infidelity, but fails. The ‘girl’ wants desperately to ignore the problem of an unplanned pregnancy, preferring to talk about the scenery than to decide on having an abortion. Ideally, both partners need to be committed in a relationship, mentally not just physically, or materially (with a ring, etc), have more concern for the others well-being than their own and have a level of respect and esteem for their partner that would never allow the transgressions in these stories to take place.

Please note that quotations count toward the word length; Works Cited items listed at the end do not count toward the word length

ORDER THIS ESSAY HERE NOW AND GET A DISCOUNT !!!