The Ox-Bow Incident Essay

THE FOLLOWING IS THE TEACHERS INSTRUCTIONS:
The Ox-Bow Incident Essay Prompt

For your five-paragraph essay on Clark’s novel, I am asking you to turn the central subject of the role of masculinity into a theme, that is, based on characters and events in the story, what is Clark trying to say about masculinity. Obviously, I am going to leave it to each of you to answer this important question, but what I do want to give you – IF YOU WANT TO USE THEM — are three areas of investigation your essay will explore. These will be three ASPECTS of the novel, each of which will have at least one MOMENT IN THE NOVEL that will serve as support to your CLAIM. This means the three ASPECTS will make up your three body paragraphs.
A. ASPECT ONE: Several characters are self-conscious about being seen as masculine
B. ASPECT TWO: Several characters’ reasonings about forming the posse are unconsciously shaped by their fears of being unmasculine
C. ASPECT THREE: Davies’s breakdown in Chapter Five exposes an irony about masculinity
Again, these are suggestion for your body paragraph, but, of course, you may not be comfortable with the way I’m shaping this particular argument. Remember, literary analysis is not a PROOF or HYPOTHESIS but is a THESIS, meaning you are making an ARGUABLE CLAIM that others might disagree with, so the evidence you put forward needs to be evidence you are most comfortable making arguments about!