When you choose your topic, be sure to answer the question immediately. The best college essays will answer the question posed in the first paragraph (Usually in your first sentence and then they will develop that answer into your thesis statement). After the thesis paragraph, offer subsequent paragraphs with details, explanations, and quotations that support your answer. Finally, end with a clear restatement of your answer to the question.

CHOOSE ONLY ONE OF THE FOLLOWING TOPICS AND WRITE A 400-600 WORD RESPONSE ESSAY THAT QUOTES FROM BOTH STORIES MENTIONED IN THE PROMPT:

Essay 1.  How might William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” and Flannery O’Connor’s”A Good Man is Hard to Find” both be about people unable to live in the present?

Essay 2: How are James Joyce’s “Araby” and John Updike’s “A&P” both stories about entering the adult world?

Essay 3: How are James Baldwin’s  “Sonny’s Blues” and Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ “A Very Old Man with enormous Wings” both about learning to see someone for whom they really are?

Essay 4:  Both Guy in Edwidge Danticat’s “A Wall of Fire Rising” and  Sammy in “A&P” do a wild act that they cannot take back.  How are these gestures similar and what do these actions say about each of these main characters?

Essay 5: Are children monsters or does their behavior come from how they are raised?  USe Ray Bradbury’s “The Veldt” and Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” in your answer.