What does it mean to be a villain?

Final Paper Subject: “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”
Research Question: How does Edmund’s character change over the course of the story?

From the syllabus: For your end-of-semester writing, you will be tasked with
selecting one novel from the reading list and addressing the concept of the “villain”
in an analytical essay of 3-4 pages. For this project, you will learn research
processes, read literary criticism, and cite at least two academic sources to support
your claims. The goal of this assignment is to formulate a research question with
depth and vigor and use that question to articulate your own conclusions about
literary tropes. This paper must be formatted according to MLA standards and
include a works cited.

What does it mean to be a villain? What is a villain, anyway? These
are the questions we have been pondering all semester. Now, it’s up
to you to answer them.
For this final writing assignment, you will define the concept of the villain as you
understand it. There are no right or wrong answers here; your job is
to stake a claim and defend it using the tools we have reviewed this
semester: research, evidence integration and translation, citation,
and close and critical reading.
The prompt is intentionally open-ended—it is up to you to
decide what material, concepts, tropes, literary movements,
characters, and/or texts you wish to explore. A word of caution,
though: don’t try to tackle too much. Embark on this venture with a
clear research question and two or three theories that might work.
Remember, your research should guide your final conclusion; trying
to mold the research to the thesis is much more difficult than shaping
the thesis from the research. See the following page for some ideas.

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