ESSAY 4 (PERSUASION) INSTRUCTIONS

PROMPT
In The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho takes us on a journey with Santiago, a young Spanish Shepherd in search of his Personal Legend. Throughout this journey, Santiago interacts with many interesting characters in diverse settings and through these interactions we are introduced to a variety of themes. For your forth essay, write a well-developed persuasive essay in MLA format (use MLA and include a Works Cited page) proving the ways in which the novel’s characters, settings, and themes convey to its readers the main message of the story. As with the previous essays, you will need to incorporate textual evidence to support each point of development. However, this essay will require some additional research, using the research methods we’ll cover in class. Although this essay relies on literary analysis techniques demonstrated in class, it is ultimately a persuasive essay, meaning you must present an original argument about the main message of the story and then use literary analysis and your research findings to prove the ways each element of fiction relate to that message. This argument should be clearly stated in the thesis and should be connected to each topic sentence.
STRUCTURE
Begin with an introductory paragraph that starts with an interesting hook, includes a summary of The Alchemist, and ends with your thesis statement.
• Your thesis should be the very last sentence of this paragraph and should include the name of the author of the novel, the name of the novel, the three elements of fiction being analyzed, and an original argument about what the author is trying to prove through these elements of fiction.
Then, move on to your body paragraphs.
• Explore the ways in which your analysis of the characters of the novel prove your argument about its main message.

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• Explore the ways in which your analysis of the settings of the novel prove your argument about its main message.

• Explore the ways in which your analysis of the themes of the novel prove your argument about its main message.
Finally, compose a concluding paragraph in which you first summarize (or restate your thesis in different words) then make one final unique point.