Graciela Limons ” Erased Faces”

CHS 115: Progression One Essay

In the last couple of weeks, we’ve developed topics and themes in Erased Faces. We’ve additionally summarized material to familiarize ourselves with plot, character development, environment of the narrative, as well as context. We’ve also written an insightful letter to the author in which we asked questions about unfamiliar concepts or scenes in the text, and examined the larger implications these themes have. There is no wrong reading of the text, but there is a lack of critical reading.

For your first essay, respond to one idea and the larger socio-political and cultural implications. For instance, are their current ramifications resulting from the political, religious, and/or racial order as exemplified in the text? Select an idea you’ve already began to explore, and develop this into an essay. Your essay will by a minimum of 5 pages, and will require additional researched material with at least 5 sources (one book, academic article, and website), 12 Point, double spaced, and in Times New Roman. Please follow MLA guidelines, so a Works Cited page and in-text parenthetical documentation is required.

Part 1:

Introduction: Develop your introduction. Briefly summarize the text in a few sentences. What is the text? Who is the author? Provide a general statement about the plot, characters, and location. Then, start to narrow your point of view; for example, what character are you focusing on? Why is this character important to the narrative? How does this character relate to the other characters? Finally, why are you choosing this character? This will help you develop a tentative thesis statement and organize your essay according to topics related to your theme/idea.

Part 2:

Evidence: You can’t discuss the entire narrative, so select scenes from various chapters that best illustrate your character’s development as it relates to your idea/theme.

Describe the scene.

Provide citation from text.
Interpret the meaning and larger implications/significance.

Part 3:

Research: You must include at least 4 sources. Your sources can further focus on what’s been discussed on the text. What have other scholars said about this particular novel? Do they consider your idea/them? How? You can examine articles relating to your theme. For example, if your focus is on the armed conflict and Zapatista resistance movement, you can examine the scholarship and ask yourself: How does this relate to the text, plot, character, and idea I’ve chosen? Your research should shed more light on the social context of the novel.

Part 4:

Annotated Bibliography:

An annotated bibliography is not an extra assignment, but an organizational strategy that will further help you develop your essay. Similarly to locating evidence in your primary text, you will do the same for each source you’ll cite in your essay.