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Narrative Essay Context: After the months we have spent reading and analyzing the text and characters in The Age of Innocence, we have finally finished the novel. Your next and final task relating to the book will be to compose a letter to one of the characters in the book. In this letter, you will discuss a specific theme relating to one of the quotes from the book below. You will then, through personal narrative, sensory details, and brilliantly crafted writing express to the character a story or stories and feelings from your own experience relating to the themes at hand. Purpose: The purpose of this assignment is to synthesize personal connections you have with the characters and situations in the novel into one cohesive essay. This narrative will allow you to better understand the book and themes within it by examining those themes in your own life and then writing about them. This essay will be worth 200 points and will end our unit on The Age of Innocence. Audience: Teacher and classmates and a character from the book Steps for completion: STEP 1: PICK YOUR PROMPT 1. Friendship: Understanding and closeness between two people "The persons of their world lived in an atmosphere of faint implications and pale delicacies, and the fact that he and she understood each other without a word seemed to the young man to bring them nearer than any explanation would have done." Chapter 2, pg. 14 Define what a friend is in your own words and in your own way. Which friend in your life has been the closest to you, meant the most to you and what experiences did you have together that brought you together. Have you ever had the kind of friendship or connection with someone that is expressed above? 2. Fate: Are all things in life a result of fate or coincidence? "The young man felt that his fate was sealed: for the rest of his life he would go up every evening between the cast‐iron railings of that greenish‐yellow doorstep, and pass through a Pompeian vestibule into a hall with a wainscoting of varnished yellow wood. But beyond that his imagination could not travel." Chapter 9, pg. 63 Describe your thoughts on fate. Have you had a moment or moments in your life where things happened by coincidence that particularly surprised you or changed your way of thinking about something? Have you had times in your life where you have felt like your life and future were completely out of your hands and relied on the choices or circumstances outside of yourself? Jenson, 2007 Do you feel like fate masters us or like we are masters of our own fate, or both? What experiences in your life led you to think this way? 3. Sacrifice Near the end of the book, Ellen Olenska chooses to sever all ties with Newland Archer so that he could remain the loyal husband and wife that he should be. She sacrifices and Newland subsequently sacrifices something they both want and end up doing what they believe “is right.” Is there a moment or are there moments in your life where you had to sacrifice or you have seen others sacrifice something. Was this a difficult thing to do? Was it worth the sacrifice? 4. Society full of hieroglyphs and hypocrisy? "In reality they all lived in a kind of hieroglyphic world, where the real thing was never said or done or even thought, but only represented by a set of arbitrary signs; as when Mrs Welland, who knew exactly why Archer had pressed her to announced her daughter's engagement at the Beaufort ball (and had indeed expected him to do no less), yet felt obliged to simulate reluctance, and the air of having her hand forced, quite as, in the books on Primitive Man that people of advanced culture were beginning to read, the savage bride is dragged with shrieks from her parents' tent." (Book One, Chapter 6, p. 38) Give some examples from your own experience where you have seen or felt the pressures or hypocrisies of society today? Do you feel like we have a similar society to that of Newland Archer, or are things completely different now? STEP 2: COMPOSE A NARRATIVE ESSAY. Use time in class and outside of class to compose a 3‐4 page narrative essay. Please look at the information below to see how you need to structure your essay and to understand what elements you need to include. Essay must be addressed to a specific character from the novel Essay must introduce the theme you are going to discuss and make a connection between the theme, the character you are writing to, and yourself. Ex. Newland, I understand how you must have felt when you sacrificed your relationship with Ellen so that you could stay with your wife and child. When I was 14 years old, I had to sacrifice…. Essay must relate a personal experience or several personal experiences relating to the topic that you chose. These experiences should illustrate why you feel the way you do about the topic. When you relate your personal experiences, consider the following: o It is okay to use your own voice. Keep your sentences and grammar flowing and correct, but be yourself in the narrative. o Use sensory details and imagery to help the reader feel like they are actually there, experiencing the things you are, along with you. o Remember your audience and direct your comments and experiences to them. Jenson, 2007 Bring your narrative to a close by sharing your personal thoughts on everything you have talked about, and by connecting your experiences and the topic back to the character you are writing to. STEP 4: PEER EDITING We will take a day in class to peer edit and annotate each other’s papers. STEP 5: REVISE AND COMPOSE A FINAL DRAFT Rubric/Assessment: Narrative Essay Score
Voice
Ideas and
Content
Organization
Sentence
Fluency
Word Choice
Conventions
Individual,
honest,
sincere. Write
cares about
topic and
takes risk.
Pleasant.
Writer seems
sincere, but
not fully
involved.
Clear,
focused,
creative,
unique.
Details are
relevant.
Creative
effort but flat
in places.
Ideas are
predictable.
Strong intro
and conclusion.
Ideas are
linked. Smooth
flow and
transitions.
Story line can
be followed.
Some details
confusing.
Easy flow.
Variety in
sentence
structure.
Sounds
natural.
Mechanical,
rather than
fluid. Little
variety.
6
Routine,
uninvolved.
Sounds like a
rewrite of
sample stories.
Details seem
out of place.
Sounds
familiar.
Weak
ending.
Weak intro/
conclusion.
Rambles at
times.
Haphazard
ideas.
Many
fragments
and run-on
sentences.
Difficult to
read aloud.
Fresh,
appealing.
Lively
descriptions.
Rich
language.
Writer
attempts
energetic
words. Not
always
successful.
Nothing new
or fresh.
Little attempt
at specific
language.
4
Flat, lifeless,
sounds like it
was written
by a machine.
No central
idea or
purpose.
Have I read
this before?
Bails out at
the end.
No ending or
conclusion. No
direction. Does
not make sense.
Choppy.
Incomplete.
Difficult to
understand.
Outstanding
mechanical
skills.
Correct
dialogue
punctuation.
Average
mechanical
skills. Few
errors in
dialogue
punctuation.
Below
average
mechanical
skills. Many
errors in
dialogue
punctuation.
Errors make
story
difficult to
read.
Pts.
Poss
.
10
8
Monotonous.
Dull, colorless
words.
Inappropriate
word choices.
__________ Your score
__________ Rough draft (with revisions)
150 points possible
50 points possible
__________ TOTAL SCORE
200 POINTS POSSIBLE
Jenson, 2007 Narrative Mode
Interesting lead.
Effective ending.
Reason for the
telling obvious.
Tells a story, but
ending somewhat
flat. Many nonrelevant details.
Weak story line.
More of a list.
Slight sense of
purpose.
Vague, unclear.
Random details.
Not much
happens. No story
line yet.