Research paper based on Flannery O’Connor short stories
I’m working on a English question and need guidance to help me study.
Prompt: Along with Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” select another one of her “traveling stories” in which one or more characters are traveling somewhere (or have in the past). Assuming that her traveling stories are symbolic of the wandering believer, compare and contrast three leading literary devices that O’Connor uses in the two stories to reveal this journey to redemption and grace.
Common Literary Devices: conflict, allegory, imagery, symbolism, metaphor, theme, irony, symbolism, hyperbole, foreshadowing, characterization, plot pattern, setting, point-of-view…etc.
Keep your analysis between 1,500 to 2,100 words, not including the Works Cited page.
Remember your intended audience: college-level literary scholars.
You must refute or rebut to one of your secondary sources.
- Use of the present tense when analyzing any body of work.
- Concentration on the comparative/contrast method of development
- Two (2) Flannery O’Connor short stories must be used as primary sources, one of which must be “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”
- Use of six (6) secondary sources: literary criticisms, abstracts, overview, dissertations, graduate theses, biographies, forewords, introductions….etc.
- One secondary source must be rebutted to/refuted and counter-argued
- Use of only the Gale Virtual Reference Library, Literature Resource Center, and/or Academic Search Premier for the six secondary sources
- A properly formulated Works Cited page with at least seven (7) entries for your eight sources (one for your O’Connor stories and six for your secondary sources
- Use at least two (2) relevant quotes and/or paraphrased passages for each literary device per story (i.e. three literary devices per story equals to 6+borrowed passages from the short stories: the primary sources)
