Essay #2 Guidelines

In a 4-5 page, double-spaced essay, please answer one of the following prompts:

1) The Stepford Wives is a satirical novel from 1970 that explores the ways in which gender roles and societal expectations dehumanize / objectify women. While the novel is somewhat retro and we have made inroads as a society since it was first published, what are some ways in which the restrictive gender roles and expectations for women in the novel still apply today? (You may also choose to discuss some of the ways in which women have taken on new expectations or burdens since this novel was published).

*Please note that you are required to connect each of your ideas to specific examples from the book throughout your entire essay.

2) What are the oppressive mechanisms or rules that the handmaids must obey in The Handmaid’s Tale (such as wearing the white blinders, only going about in pairs, etc.), and how do these mechanisms or rules ultimately reinforce the patriarchal, totalitarian system of Gilead? 

*Please note that for this essay prompt you may not simply list these rules and give a simplistic analysis of them, but you need to discuss in detail how these rules enforce the totalitarian patriarchy. 

For example, the women going about in pairs creates a climate where they “watch one another” and police one another. They will not act out because they are afraid that their companion will tattle on them. In this way the women are turned against one another, so they cannot band together and fight back against those in power. They are constantly surveilled and cannot run away or even speak freely.

3) Discuss the ways in which gender roles in both The Handmaid’s Tale and The Stepford Wives create psychological, emotional, economic, and other types of distances between the men and women in the societies of these novels.

*You will be required to use specific examples from both novels throughout the entirety of your essay. 

• Present your paper using times New Roman or Cambria 12 font; use 1" margins on all four sides of the page.  You will need to re-set your margins if using MS Word, for the Word default is 1.25" margins. You also need to use "format paragraph "to eliminate the extra space that Word automatically puts after each paragraph.  Put your name, the course, my name, and the date of submission in the upper left hand corner of page one.  Do not use a title page; instead, simply center your title on page one a few spaces above your initial paragraph.  Of course, paper titles capitalize the first letter of each word [except for prepositions]; your title should NOT be underlined or put in quotation marks.

• Introduce the story title, author, and year of publication in your opening sentence or two. In other words, include a sentence beginning "Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale (1986)..." early in your essay. Provide a brief plot overview keyed to the specific issues that you will discuss.  Your opening paragraph (or at the very least second paragraph) should end with a specific thesis statement that explains or identifies the purpose of the essay, what will be proved, and how it will be proved through identification of topics to be discussed.

• Begin body paragraphs with topic statements, statements of opinions about story facts (interpretations), and NOT with the next item in the story sequence or with a wordy delay phrase like "Another way that the concept that I am discussing is shown in the way that the story was written is..."

• Italicize the titles of novels and place quotation marks around the titles of stories.

• When you summarize plot, use present tense.

• Introduce your quotations, establishing the speaker and context, and document properly using the MLA format: 

An early indication of the importance of the belly as an image of both illness and healing occurs just before Tayo plunges a broken bottle into Emo’s gut and Tayo realizes that “the space to carry hate was located deep inside, below his lungs and behind his belly; but it was empty” (63). 

Additional examples of MLA documentation can be found in any undergraduate guide to writing papers, such as the OWL AT PURDUE website.  Of course, the majority of your writing should be your own analysis and language, but you do need to support your argument by presenting and discussing key passages in the novel. You should do this throughout the essay, by including paraphrases and quotations in each body paragraph.  If the quote itself is a question, the end punctuation remains inside the quotation mark. Periods, however, are placed after the parentheses.

• After presenting a quotation, be sure to discuss its significance or to explain how the quotation furthers your argument, unless the quote is simply illustrating a point made in the material immediately preceding the quote.

• Never end a paragraph or an essay with a block quote, or any undiscussed quotation. 

• Avoid the following wordy delay structures:  In my opinion, I think, I feel, I believe. .Do not open sentences with wordy phrasings like "Another way that..." or "One of the reasons that" or any similar structures.  Make subjects act through verbs in the beginning of your sentences.  Instead of "There are many ways that Gillis affects the colony's chances for survival."  write, "Gillis affects the colony's chances for survival by consuming 20% of their stored food during his 32 years alone on the Alabama."  Note that the second version of the sentence includes specific details of Gillis's actions, while the "There are" opening tends to lead into vague references to his actions--"many ways."  List or name the ways instead of writing general references. 

• Make sure that your paper is, at minimum, four FULL pages. That means you go all the way to the bottom of that fourth page. I mark down significantly for short papers; this class has a certain page count requirement by law for accreditation, but beyond that, the questions that are posed in the prompt require ample analysis, and evidence from the book (support). In other words, the questions the prompt asks should require the full page count to answer fully and deeply. Always think of how you might go deeper into a question, how you might make your connections more complete and complex.

•  You will need to include at least three outside, scholarly library-based sources in your paper, beyond simply including the novels themselves. Depending on which prompt you choose, these might be scholarly writing on the novel, or factual research into relevant fields such as sociology, women's studies, gender studies, economics, etc. Make sure your research fits with your topics and the main idea of your paper, but don't expect your research to be on your thesis precisely. Give yourself enough time to find good research via the library's databases; don't try and cram something into your essay at the last minute.

Make sure to include a Works Cited page with your sources. This includes the novel(s) and your 3 library sources. The Works Cited page, while its own page entirely (do not include it as part of your other pages) does not count toward the 4-5 page minimum page requirement.