Present and support what the argument of the text is.

Writing Assignment 1
Arguing About Literature
Choose, from the list below, one story, picture, poem, movie, song, or political cartoon you wish to write about for this first assignment.
For this assignment, you must first decide what point the text is trying to get across to its readers. Not everyone will have the same interpretation, so you have to prove that your interpretation is correct by using support from the piece and explaining how your interpretation matches what the text says. After you’ve identified that point, you have 3 options for the essay:
Present and support what the argument of the text is.
Present the argument of the text and refute that argument with your own argument.
Present the argument of the text and support that argument with your own argument.
**None of these options is easier or harder than the other two. If you feel that you have a unique interpretation of the piece or that the argument of the piece may be difficult for some readers to understand, you may want to stick to just option A and try to convince the reader that the text really is about ___. If the argument of the text you chose makes you react positively or negatively, then you might want to choose option B or option C so that you can share your reaction by supporting or refuting the texts’ arguments.  This is not a research paper; therefore, you are not required to use other sources. However, if you choose to do so you must cite them.
***Remember to stay focused on this idea: The text is making a statement, be it social, historical, psychological, economical, political, or otherwise. You must decide for yourself what statement the text is making and be able to synthesize and analyze that statement by explaining to someone how the text makes that statement.
Length Requirement: Minimum of 2 pages Maximum of 5 pages
Point deductions will occur if the minimum/maximum length requirement is not met. Remember that the heading and title do not count towards the page length.
Use MLA format. There is an example of it in D2L.
Text Choices for WA1:
Stories:
Shirley Jackson “The Lottery”
Frank & John Schaeffer “My Son the Marine?”
Jamaica Kincaid “Girl”
William Shakespeare “Sonnet 130”
Martin Espada “Frederico’s Ghost”
Edgar Allen Poe “The Cask of Amontillado”
Plato “Crito”
Poems:
Pablo Neruda “Muchos Somos”
Thomas Hardy “The Man He Killed”
William Blake “London”
Robert Phillips “Running on Empty”
Gwendolyn Brooks “The Boy Died in My Alley”
Pictures:
Pieter Brueghel the Elder “Two Chained Monkeys”
Movies:
V for Vendetta (2006)
American Psycho (2000)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
Children of Men (2007)
Princess Mononoke (1997) *anime
Dogma (1999)
Final Fantasy: Spirits Within (2001)
Mona Lisa Smile (2003)
Dungeons and Dragons (2000) *child friendly
Songs:
Rasputina “Our Lies”
Regina Spektor “Hotel Song”
Assemblage 23 “Drive”
ATB “Long Way Home”
Hatebreed “Live for This”
Johnny Cash “Ring of Fire”
Political Cartoons:
Your choice from Politicalcartoons.com