WRITING A CRITICAL LENS ESSAY

CGHS Template11th Grade ELA Regents Exam

YOUR TASK:

Write a critical lens essay in which you discuss two works of literature you have read from the particular perspective of the statement that is provided for you in the Critical Lens.

In your essay, provide a valid interpretation of the statement, agree or disagree with the statement as you have interpreted it, and support your opinion using specific references to appropriate literary elements from the works.

LITERARY ELEMENTS

•CHARACTERIZATION : the physical and personality character traits an author uses to make a character seem lifelike

•CONFLICT: a fight or struggle between two or more opposing forces

Internal Conflict: a fight or struggle within the mind or body of a character (Person vs. Self)

External Conflict: a fight or struggle outside of the mind or body of a character.

(Person vs. Person, Person vs. Nature, Person vs. Society)

•FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE: descriptive language that appeals to the senses; ie simile ; metaphor ; alliteration ; personification ; hyperbole.

•FLASHBACK: a scene that interrupts the present action to describe some earlier event

LITERARY ELEMENTS

FORESHADOWING :an author’s use of hints or clues to suggest events that will occur later in a story

•IMAGERY: the use of descriptive language to describe a visual picture or represent a sensory experience/image

•IRONY : a contradiction between what is expected and what actually happens Situational Irony: irony involving a situation where actions have an effect that is opposite from what was intended. Verbal Irony: irony in which a person says or writes one thing and means another. Dramatic Irony: irony that is inherent in speeches or a situation of a drama and is understood by the audience but not grasped by the characters in the play.

•DENOUEMENT: a final part of a story or drama in which everything is made clear and no questions or guesses remain.

LITERARY ELEMENTS

•SYMBOLISM : when an inanimate object is used to represent something else.

ie. Floating dagger in Macbeth symbolizes Macbeth’s growing paranoia and guilt for killing King Duncan.

•THEME : the authors purpose or moral or lesson revealed within a work of literature.

•TONE : the writer’s attitude, or feeling toward his or her audience and characters that is revealed within a work of literature.

ie. The Tone in The Old Man and the Sea is extreme loneliness and pain while Santiago is fishing and struggling with the marlin.

CRITICAL LENS:

“To gain that which is worth having, it may be necessary to lose everything else.”

—Bernadette DevlinThe Price of My Soul, 1969

CRITICAL LENS STRUCTURE

•Introduction

•Body Paragraph 1–Literary Work 1–Literary Element 1

•Body Paragraph 2–Literary Work 2–Literary Element 2

•Conclusion

INTRODUCTION

FOUR STEPS:

1.Introduce/State Quote

2.Interpret Quote

3.Agree or Disagree with the Quote (No I, Me, My)

4.Thesis Statement

INTRODUCTION

STEP ONE:1. State Quote

Bernadette Devlin once stated, “To gain that which is worth having, it may be necessary to lose everything else.”

INTRODUCTION:

STEP TWO:

2. Interpret Quote

This quotation means that it is sometimes necessary to give up what we have in order to attain something even greater.

INTRODUCTION:

STEP THREE:

3.Agree or Disagree with the Quote

This interpretation is valid because the quote can be proven true in both life and literature.

INTRODUCTION

STEP FOUR:

4. Text Based Support

In The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway, and Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, the main characters both face obstacles and must make difficult decisions that will change their lives forever.

INTRODUCTION

5.Thesis Statement

Both The Old Man and the Sea, and Macbeth, support the idea that some things worth having cannot be gained without sacrifice.

COMPLETED INTRODUCTION

Bernadette Devlin once said, “To gain that which is worth having, it may be necessary to lose everything else.” This quotation can be interpreted as it is sometimes necessary to give up what we have in order to attain something greater. This interpretation is valid because the quote can be proven true in both life and literature. In The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway, and Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, the main characters both face obstacles and must make difficult decisions that will change their lives forever. Both The Old Man and the Sea, and Macbeth, support the idea that some things worth having cannot be gained without sacrifice.

BODY PARAGRAPH 1

FIVE STEPS:1. Topic Sentence–The novel ________ shows that ________.

2. Transition Statement/Literary Element–One way (author/work) proves this point is through (insert literary element)

3. Define Literary Element

4. Connect Lens and Literary Element

5. Concluding Sentence

BODY PARAGRAPH 2

FIVE STEPS:1. Topic Sentence–The novel ________ shows that ________.

2.Transition Statement/Literary Element–One way (author/work) proves this point is through (insert literary element)

3.Define Literary Element

4.Connect Lens and Literary Element

5.Concluding Sentence

CONCLUSION

FIVE STEPS:1. Introduce/Restate the Quote in your own words

2. Interpret Quote

3. Agree or Disagree with the Quote (No I, Me, My)

4. Restate your Thesis Statement–The novel _________ by ________ supports/does not support the idea that (reword the quote).

5. Concluding Sentence/Clincher Statement (that ties the main ideas of the paper back to the critical lens)