In this essay, the goal is for you to choose a character or pair of characters and develop a paper arguing what the character represents in the text.
Once you have chosen your character/s, you will need to develop a thesis arguing what they represent. There are three steps to this: Deciding what theme/idea they represent, deciding what Morrison is trying to say about that theme, and then deciding what their eventual fate in the novel means for that message. If the character does not seem to change in the novel then that also is worth exploring. What function does that character have? How does he or she affect the characters around them? If you decide to work with Milkman you will need to further focus your topic, usualy by choosing one other character and focusing on their relationship.
Here are some things you will definite ly need to look at: why does the characters have the name he or she does? What physical parts of their body are commented on and why (synecdoches)? What figurative language is used to describe them (metaphors)? What physical objects are associated with them (metonymies)? Often, especially with characters that change in the novel, it is good to look at them somewhat chronologically…what does the character represent at the beginning (themes)? What happens to the character and how does that comment on the theme? What is the character like at the end and how does that comment on the original theme? An important thing to do in terms of theme is to always tie your themes back to the dominant overarching social issues, like racism, African american history, economics, and patriarchy, which are so obviously the foundation of this novel.
It is very important that you resist the temptation to psychologize the character. That is, you must talk about what ideas the character represents; the point of the paper is NOT to analyze the character as if he or she were a real person. It is fine, for instance, to scrutinize their motives, but you must step backward and then consider what that means in light of the theme, and you must limit yourself to the text. You can’t speculate, for instance, about their childhood if the text doesn’t discuss that childhood.
Papers will be scored according to the originality, sophistication and focus of the thesis, the quality of the support (including use of poetic tools), and strength of organization, including logical order and strong transitions. You will be expected to write in clear, grammatically/mechanically clean English with strong paragraph focus. Quotes from the novel should be documented using MLA style documentation, with in-text citations and a Works Cited list.
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