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Essay #3: Latinos in the U.S: COMPARISON PAPER/LITERARY ANALYSIS
In this assignment, you are asked to compare and contrast two of the short stories or poems from

this module. Please read the following instructions.

Choose two stories from the following list to compare and contrast:

•?“ Aria” by Richard Rodriguez
•?“The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros
•?“ Dreaming in Cuban” by Cristina Garcia
•?“ Silent Dancing” by Judith Ortiz-Cofer
•?“ Daughter of Invention” by Julia Alvarez
•?“ When I Was Puerto Rican” by Esmeralda Santiago
•?“Invierno” by Junot Diaz

You may also choose to compare the poems by Richard Blanco (“America”) or the Nuyorican poets to

complete this assignment, but if you do, please let me know.

When comparing and contrasting the works, consider the following questions. Please understand they

are only questions to get you thinking about your paper. By no means do you have to address every

question, nor do you have to address them in any order. They’re there to help you to brainstorm the

ways in which you might make some comparisons. What’s most important is having a main claim

(thesis) that you will be comparing–a main idea that is supported by analysis and discussion from

the stories.

1. What types of immigrant experiences, if any, are expressed in these works?
2. Are there similarities in terms of what the main characters experience? Are there differences?
3. In what context does each story take place? What effect, if any, does the context have on the
story? Compare these as well in terms of similarities and differences.
4. Are there different ages among the characters and does that have any effect on their

experiences?
5. What is the ethnicity of the author and how does this affect their work? Do these differences

lead
to differences in the stories in terms of what the characters experience?
6. Are there any other factors you consider important in influencing how the story plays out?
Submit a 450-500 word paper in MLA format: 12 pt. font using 1 inch margins on all sides. The paper
should also be double-spaced and include a title. Include an MLA formatted works cited page that

cites these short stories.

Remember, if you use ANY outside sources beyond the short stories provided, you MUST credit these

sources.

•?Upload your completed paper as an ATTACHMENT to the SafeAssignment drop-box: My
course tools>Assignments>Essay #3.
Due: Monday, 11/14 by 11:59 PM. **No late essays accepted***
Plagiarism will not be tolerated. Make sure to properly cite your sources whether you summarize,
paraphrase, or quote your sources. Those caught plagiarizing will receive an automatic “F” on the
assignment and will more than likely FAIL the course.

Some tips to consider when writing this essay:
1. Keep in mind that while this is a comparison essay, it is also a literary analysis since it

requires you to pull specific information from the stories AND think critically about them. With

that said, DO NOT just summarize the stories (what happens in the stories in order). Consider your

audience and keep in mind that your audience has already read the story, so you don’t need to tell

us what happened. WE KNOW!
2. These are short stories, so per MLA, their titles should be kept in quotation marks, not

italicized or underlined.
3. Include specific quotes from the stories to back up your points and include parenthetical
citations: author and page number in parentheses. Note, since most of these stories are online,
they do not have page numbers so all you have to include then, is the author’s last name in
parentheses, i.e. (Alvarez). Unless the page number is clear on the page, don’t make one up. If
you are citing lines from a poem, place the author’s last name and line numbers in parentheses,
i.e. (Laviera ln. 2-3).
4. You might find that writing a literary analysis is daunting, so if you have any reservations or
questions, I HIGHLY recommend you visit the following resources, which help explain how to
write about literature. PLEASE visit them. I want you to do well on this essay!

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/616/01/
https://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/QuoLiterature.html