2.

Ernest Hemingway, “Hills Like White Elephants”

(https://genius.com/Ernest-hemingway-hills-like-white-elephants-annotated)

Format Overview

Essays should make clear, specific analytical point/points, based on close study of the work under
discussion; they should be well organized, developed in detail (interpreting/commenting on specific
details of settings, symbol, character interactions and dialogue, plot events, scenes, passages, images,
lines, etc.), and grammatically competent. Unless notified otherwise, these entries should follow a set
format: The first paragraph should contain a brief summary of one (or more, in the case of comparative
studies) of the works read that week, including the author’s name and title of story; this paragraph
should conclude with a statement of theme(s) and the analytical point you will pursue in the second
paragraph (i.e., you may decide to focus closely on one passage, scene, image, symbol, or a group of
images, etc., that expresses the theme, or a particular aspect of the theme). The second paragraph
should be a detailed analysis of your analytical point(s), indicating how the story’s details (details of a
setting, symbol, character interaction and dialogue, plot event, scene, passage, image, word sound,
language rhythm, etc.) express the overall theme/meaning of the story and/or your particular analytical
point. You must quote from the work and comment on particular lines, images, and other details (if you
think a story communicates a particular feeling or idea, for example, you should be able to point out
how several details of above listed elements express this idea or feeling). You may also include a
“personal connection” to the work in this paragraph, or in an additional one, indicating the story’s
relevance to your life (things that have happened to you, your family, others you know), observations
you’ve made (about yourself, the world at large), its relation to something else you’ve read, films you’ve
seen, etc., or any combination of these things. The third paragraph (or fourth, if you decide to split the
discussion of paragraph 2 into two parts, as suggested above) should review and evaluate on one or
more secondary sources; quote from one or more of the secondary sources you’ve found online, or in
the library, and apply what the critics say to details of the stories that you’ve observed; you may find
that the work’s details either support or challenge the critics’ points—i.e., do you agree or disagree with
their findings, or a combination of the two? Why or why not, based on your own observations? Make
sure that you carefully consider what these critics are saying before you provide your own opinion, and
make sure to base your evaluation on the facts of the work. You may select quotes from professional
critical articles written about the particular story or the author’s work in general, which you then apply
to the story (again, these “secondary” sources are found primarily online, through the KBCC library
electronic databases, and should be clearly documented). You may, optionally, integrate secondary
sources into your second paragraph analysis; in either case, you should introduce the secondary source
(noting author, title, and source of article or articles), quote from the article(s), then follow up the quote
with a comment relating the secondary source(s) to specific aspects of the story. DO NOT simply toss in
a quote without making connections to the rest of your discussion. Following the same format, you may
also compare/contrast 2 stories. I may also assign exercises (usually requiring a one or two paragraph
response), which should be submitted separately but may also be incorporated into the journal/essays.
(Following the same format, you may also compare/contrast 2 stories). Be sure to indentify the
secondary source—author, title of article, title of book or online source, and date. Note: You must
activate your student ID at the library circulation desk to access these databases from off campus. If
check out a book from the library, your ID is automatically activated; otherwise, the librarians at the
circulation desk will activate it for you.

All essay entries should be submitted to TII (be sure to save copies of your files), and should be
formatted as follows: standard (not more than one-inch) margins on both sides of the page; the first
page should contain your name, your class and section, and the date/wk. number (according to your
syllabus) in the upper right hand corner; the title (i.e., “analysis of x’s story, ‘ [title of story]’”, or another
suitable title that indicates the content of your entry) should appear on the first line of the page;
paragraph divisions should be clear.