102 Spring 2017 Midterm Exam

The story you will analyze can be found by clicking this link:http://www.eclectica.org/v21n1/blacketter.html

Please contact your instructor with any questions.

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Midterm EN 102: Literary Analysis (15%)

In an in-class essay, support one of the six following theses about the short story “She’s Back to Sleeping” by Ryan Blacketter. The story was published in the Jan/Feb 2017 issue of Electra Magazine (Issue 21 No. 1). To the exam, you can bring a copy of the prompt (these instructions), the short story you printed out, and an outline you made based on the thesis you plan to argue. Your outline may only be an outline–no full sentences–written on a 3”X5” index card. You may annotated the story but, again, no full sentences.

You should cite specifics to support your argument. Your essay will need clear organization (with transitions) and support for the thesis. This support will come from the text, and you will need to explain how the examples from the text support the thesis.

Make sure that you are prioritizing analysis over summary. Beware of over-quoting and/or not integrating or discussing included quotations. Cite all quotations and paraphrases in MLA format. Include a works cited entry at the end of your essay.

At the conclusion of the exam, turn in your index card, the short story, scrap paper, this prompt if you printed it out, and your bluebook essay.

Choose one of the theses bolded below and write an essay that supports the thesis with strong, specific support from the text.

In Ryan Blacketter’s short story “She’s Back to Sleeping,” the vivid descriptions of the landscape mirror the outlooks and behaviors of a father and son who both seem to be “on the edge.”

In the short story “She’s Back to Sleeping,” Ryan Blacketter argues that helping others is less about providing real help and more about the helper feeling good about him/herself.

In the story, “She’s Back to Sleeping” by Ryan Blacketter, the church is no answer to the problems that can plague families.

By making Cory, the son, the central character of “She’s Back to Sleeping,” Ryan Blacketter focuses the attention on the parents as a struggling couple rather than on their individual flaws

Blacketter’s story shows readers how depression can shape a family dynamic in acknowledged and unspoken ways.

Blacketter’s use of dialog as the primary narrative mode in the story creates a distancing effect for readers that mirrors Cory’s attempt to decipher the adult world.