Stories and Essays

• Esther
• "Ali Baba and the Forty Robbers"
• Edgar Allen Poe, "The Masque of the Red Death" (1842)
• Hilaire Belloc, "The Mowing of a Field" (1906)
• G. K. Chesterton, "A Piece of Chalk" (1909)
• "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Sample Essay Prompts

• #1 Compare the characterization (focus on the detectives) and atmosphere of "The Eternity Ring" (Foyle's War) and either "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" or "The Blue Cross." 
  #2 Coming-of-age: Compare a coming-of-age experience of your own with that of any single protagonist in our recent reading.  You must include at least one other key term from our story unit as you compare the experiences (irony, plot, atmosphere).  

• Irony: make sure you treat this in detail in at least one paragraph of your essay (consider a structure that moves from innocence to experience to wisdom)
• Plot: make sure you treat the key points of a plot line (exposition, inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, conclusion)  

• #3 Compare-Contrast: Compare and contrast two of the recent coming-of-age stories you've read, focusing on at least one of the literary elements from our story unit: plot and its elements, irony, atmosphere and tone, or symbolism.