Begin with a summary of the keyword in the Oxford English Dictionary. If you quote directly, remember to place all quotations in quotation marks. For example, the term hipster is defined in the O.E.D. to refer both to a garment worn on the hips and a person during the prohibition era who carries a flask of alcohol on their hip. These early usages have given way to a third denotative meaning that we come to associate the term with today. According to the O.E.D., hipster is now often used to refer to “A person who is, or purports to be, hip; one who is aware, well informed, or in the know, especially with regard to jazz music and culture; a hepcat” (“hipster”). This paper will focus primarily on the third definition as it pertains to characterization.
Quote the passage you have chosen from the text here. Remember to reproduce it here as accurately as possible and place the quoted material between quotation marks. If there is dialogue within the passage, then place this dialogue within single quotes, i.e. ‘dialogue here’, to distinguish it from the larger chunk of text quoted. Remember to include the author’s surname and page number at the end of the passage like this: (Fitzgerald 42).
Open your paragraph with a main claim, a thesis statement, that communicates how you plan to apply the keyword to read the passage and what larger theme is at stake (review lecture material on thesis statements). Then proceed to analyse smaller quotes within the passage that you have chosen. Quote smaller sections the passage you have chosen often. Read it carefully. Remember to place all quoted material inside quotation marks. Do not quote outside of the one passage you have indicated above. Remember, your goal is to account for one passage in detail and not to summarize the entire story. Why has the author chosen certain words in this passage? What pattern are you tracking in your discussion? Imagery? Characterization? Metaphor? Irony? Satire? How does this reading the patterns of representation in this passage—i.e. word choice—provide insights necessary to understand one larger theme in the story? Write between 300-350 words. Include a Works Cited list on the next page (see below).