Explain what Sammy in “A & P” is rejecting when he says “I quit.” Think about what the store and Lengel stand for from Sammy’s point of view and what his new relationship to the “hard” world will be.

You are to write your essay about only one of the topics below related to one story which you were assigned to read during this essay cycle. Choose only one of the following topics, NOT one about each story (1000 words minimum essay length):
“A & P”

1. Explain what Sammy in “A & P” is rejecting when he says “I quit.” Think about what the store and Lengel stand for from Sammy’s point of view and what his new relationship to the “hard” world will be.
or
2. What is Sammy’s attitude toward women? He quits his job, he says, because he wants to look like a hero in Queenie’s eyes. Is he egalitarian, defending the young women’s right to dress as they please, or is he sexist?
or
3. Write a paper in which you argue for how the setting of the grocery store sets the stage to examine conventional social norms and roles along with the challenges being faced in breaking apart from the status quo.
OR
“The Birthmark”
1) Analyze Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark” with a focus on the theme of “the search for knowledge or perfection.” I want you to provide both a detailed analysis of the story and how it relates to the theme, but I also want you to situate the implications of the theme within the larger context of American culture, past and present. Hint: Consider that Hawthorne might be making a statement about the possible conflict between nature and science. Is that possible? Is nature NOT science–in the Romantic view? How does this theme fit with the characteristics of Romanticism?
OR
“The Open Boat”
1) Write an essay that makes a cogent argument, using textual evidence from “The Open Boat,” that “A secondary theme of comradeship among the characters in the Crane’s short story informs readers that all four men qualify for the title of hero.” Be sure to also address Nature as the antagonist in this story, and contrast Nature with the “collective” of the men in the boat. Do they represent a microcosm of society? What point is Crane making?

P.S The source has to come from The Little Seagull Handbook since that is where the stories are in.

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