TO COMPLETE THIS ASSIGNMENT YOU MUST HAVE READ THE JADE PEONY BY WAYSON CHOY OR MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS BY AGATHA CHRISTIE
Learning Objectives
This research assignment allows you to accomplish the following:
· Demonstrate your understanding of the principles of literary analysis
· Exercise your research skills and practice MLA documentation of sources
· Apply your critical thinking, reading, and writing skills to the explication of a text(s)
Choosing one of the topics listed below, compose a 1,250-1,500 word (or 5-6 page) literary analysis in response. Support your assertions with quotations and paraphrases taken from your primary source—Wayson Choy’s The Jade Peony or Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express—along with research compiled from 6 scholarly sources. Document all quotes and paraphrases MLA style, including a Works Cited page to list your primary and secondary sources.
1. 1930s and 1940s Chinatown is almost like the fourth narrator in Choy’s The Jade Peony, as it too comes of age like Liang, Jung, and Sekky. How faithfully has Choy recreated the Chinatown experience of 1930s and 1940s Vancouver, with World War II as the backdrop? Is his portrait of the city historically accurate? (Optional field study: As part of your research on Vancouver’s Chinatown, you can go on a self-guided tour of the Chinese Canadian Museum; physically distant appointments are required.)
2. Wayson Choy’s award-winning novel, The Jade Peony, has such a broad appeal, arguably because it combines a classic theme (coming of age) with a trio of contemporary social issues (sexism, homophobia, and racism). Explore how Choy successfully balances these two streams to convey the overall theme of “love has no rules” to his readers.
3. Considering the old adage that “art imitates life,” is Wayson Choy’s The Jade Peony an autobiographical, semi-autobiographical, or fictional work? Does it seem like the author has done this intentionally or unintentionally? You will use Choy’s memoir, Paper Shadows, as one of your sources if you choose this topic Morally grey characters, such as Poh-Poh from The Jade Peony and Mrs. Hubbard from Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, can sometimes become the antiheroes the reader grow to appreciate: agree or disagree.
4. Given that his focus is on Chinese Canadians for two thirds of his novel, why does Choy divide the reader’s attention and introduce another immigrant group, the Japanese Canadians, in Part Three of The Jade Peony? Consider what happens to Kazuo and Meiying post-Pearl Harbour, and the effects upon Sekky, in the analysis (this will require research on the dispossession and internment of Japanese Canadians).
5. Why does Choy give Poh Poh such a central role in the novel, having her character appear in all three of the innocent eye narratives? What message is he sending to his readers regarding the role of women in Asian families? Analyze to what extent his matriarchal focus reflects Chinese (or Chinese Canadian) culture.
6. What role do traditional Chinese beliefs, superstitions, and tales play in Choy’s novel? Focusing on two of the young narrators, analyze how their adherence to or rebellion against this old-country belief system shapes their personalities and their character arcs.
7. How vital is a novel’s setting, both time and place, to the telling of its story? Focusing on The Jade Peony and Murder on the Orient Express, discuss whether their narratives could take place in another time period and geographic location, or if this would compromise the story.
8. Identifying 5 symbols in Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, analyze how they help M. Hercule Poirot solve the homicide on board the train. Remember to classify each symbol you select as either public or private in your analysis.
9. Hercule Poirot enjoys bragging about the power of his “little grey cells” as a detective. Focusing on how he solves the murder mystery in Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, investigate whether his intellect is as impressive as he claims it to be.
Last Completed Projects
| topic title | academic level | Writer | delivered |
|---|