Your ENGL 112 paper is not a reaction paper — don’t use it to express your pers

Your ENGL 112 paper is not a reaction paper — don’t use it to express your personal opinion about a reading, to criticize or praise it. Instead, it should demonstrate your understanding of the reading on its own terms, in that century’s context — the message the author was trying to convey to its original audience i.e. issues friendship,  responses to the plague, selfishness,  etc. (Whether or not you agree with the author is irrelevant to this assignment.).
2) Your ENGL 112 paper is also not a research paper. DO NOT CITE ANY SECONDARY SOURCES. You can — and should — mention background information that is relevant to your argument, but there is no need to provide documentation for information presented in lectures or class materials. The only citations in your essay should be quotations from the literary work(s) you are analyzing.
3) Your ENGL 112 paper is an EXERCISE designed to access your analytic writing skills. It is not the place to try to dazzle me with something new and original. It’s hard enough (and perfectly legitimate) simply to demonstrate your grasp of an interpretation presented in class. Concentrate on constructing a strong logical argument based upon close reading (analysis of specific passages in the text). Your paper should demonstrate your ability to
understand the work of your choice in its own context, on its own terms
construct a logical argument (i.e. paragraph order should be carefully thought out)
support that argument with well-chosen textual passages
write clear, correct prose which conforms to good Standard English
Be sure that the essay includes a title is in MLA format and a clearly written thesis statement