ANALYTICAL ESSAY ON HISTORICAL NOVELS Custom Essay

Your writing assignment for this course, worth 30 points (30% of the course grade), is a typed
(double-spaced) analytical essay of approximately seven pages that uses evidence and examples
from the historical novels by Bell and Yezierska to explore the questions below in order to
demonstrate that you have mastered the following Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs):

After successfully completing the course, students will be able to:

1) describe how identities (i.e. religious, gender, ethnic, racial, class, sexual orientation,
disability, and/or age) are shaped by cultural and societal influences within contexts of equality
and inequality, and
4) recognize and appreciate constructive interactions between people from different cultural,
racial, and ethnic groups within the US.

Develop a thesis that provides either a clear perspective or interpretation, draws conclusions, or
makes an argument. Ensure that your essay is analytical. Avoid a narrative style–a simple
summary of what is conveyed in the books. Criteria by which your work will be evaluated
include: analytical rigor, use of specific examples/evidence from both of the novels, clarity, and
use of appropriate academic style. Late papers will be severely penalized (at least one full letter
grade per day). I reserve the right to refuse late papers after three days.

Direct quotations, paraphrased ideas/conclusions, or statistics taken from course reading
materials should be followed by a footnote or endnote using the University of Chicago/Turabian
style favored by historians. If you prefer to use another citation format associated with your
major, you must receive my approval prior to submitting your essay. If you use material from
any other source, be sure to provide a complete citation in a footnote/endnote as well. Use
gender-neutral language unless it is your intention to exclude all members of a specific group
and it is historically appropriate to do so.

The Questions:

What role(s) should historically-based fiction play in our study of the past? Historians
generally describe their task as the study of both change and continuity over time. Does
historically-based fiction—novels in this case—help or hinder in this process?

Examples should be drawn from the following:

Bell, Thomas. Out of this Furnace: A Novel of Immigrant Labor in America. Pittsburgh:
University of Pittsburgh Press, 1976.