Choose Out of Pieces of Literature

Write a Choose out of Four Pieces of Literature Research Paper in the present tense on one of the following topics:

1. Nathaniel Hawthorne, "Young Goodman Brown": analyze the significance of the story's two settings, the village and the forest, in terms of Puritan culture. Using details from the text, show how Hawthorne manipulates imagery to examine the consequences of a young man's self-isolation and alienation from human contact.

Pieces of Literature

2. Herman Melville, "Bartleby the Scrivener": the lonely scrivener is perhaps the most isolated character in nineteenth-century American literature. Show how Melville's Wall Street setting and the characters he places in it each illustrate in some way the stultifying nature of demeaning labor and the results of corporate unrest.

3. Willa Cather, "Paul's Case": the two central settings of Cather's tale, Pittsburgh and New York, represent the tension Paul experiences in his struggle with the reality of Cordelia Street and his belief that money can transform his identity. Another approach to this text could be an analysis of the "dark thing in the corner" and what it represents in terms of Paul's sexual orientation.

The Literature of Fitzgerald

4. F. Scott Fitzgerald, "Babylon Revisited": the two main settings of Fitzgerald's tale, set in Paris, are the Ritz bar and the Peters's hearth. What does each of these settings represent in the world Charlie Wales is trying to build for himself? What prevents Charlie from having them both? That is, can Charlie shed his past and retrieve Honoria? Why or why not?

The paper should be tightly written and use language in a lively manner, with emphasis placed on the strength of the opening and closing paragraphs.

The story itself is the only needed source, but any additional sources can be used if needed.