“A Fierce Silence”

Essay One Peer Review Worksheet DUE no later than FRIDAY, 4 September, 5:00 p.m.  (Remember, our class does not meet on Fridays, either) Submit Draft to Dropbox and peer review partner (email partner using Classlist).     Write a three-to five-page essay on the question below (that’s a minimum of three full pages, exclusive of Works Cited page, if applicable).  Your essay must have a thesis—a debatable argument—and that thesis must be stated clearly and succinctly at the end of the first paragraph.  Be sure to refer to specific passages in the stories in order to support your assertions; when doing so, use MLA methods of citation and documentation as explained in Chapters 12-14 of THE LITTLE PENGUIN HANDBOOK.  Consult the format guidelines for essay writing on pages four and five of your syllabus (item #2, “Formal Written Assignments”).     Question:   Much like essay writers write essays to state an argument or prove a point, frequently, authors advance arguments in their fiction, often without intending to do so.  For example, an author might the fictional marriage her story to express an idea about marriage in real life, something she thinks is true about marriage in general.   With this in mind, consider some contemporary fiction that addresses the subject of marriage:  Yiyun Li’s “A Flawless Silence,” available at the link below:   https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/23/a-flawless-silence    Li’s story has joined an ongoing literary conversation about marriage.  Your task is to write an essay in which you evaluate make a case for what point about “real life” marriage do you think Li uses her fictional marriage to express.  Be sure to support your argument with analysis of evidence from the text, not personal experience or bias.  You may find it useful to conduct research regarding cultural and historical contexts in which the story is