Background: When talking about this short story anthology, author Danielle Evans says,I think readers will notice how present the pastis in the book, says Evans. Again and again, characters find that they can never fully escape their histories.

Write a 4-5 page essay in which you show how Evans uses character, plot, diction, OR metaphor to communicates the theme of people not being able to escape their histories (that history could be personal, familial , cultural or a combination) in one or more of herstories.

You must choose ONE of the elements–character OR plot OR diction OR metaphor.  Re-read the chapter on fiction in our course textbook.  If you choose more than one story to analyze, make sure there is a reason you chose to talk about them together (example:  they seem very different but have a similar theme or the characters are very different but the outcome of the stories are similar).

Audience: Write for an educated audience interested in literary analysis.  They have already read these stories and know what character, plot, etc. are.  Make points about the stories that are not obvious on a first read and support your points with quotations and analysis (Think PIE paragraphs) and not just summary of the stories.

MLA format:  Make sure that you cite any quotations or paraphrases from the stories with page numbers, like this (9).  Once you have named the stories and the authors name, you do not need to keep repeating the authors name in in-text citations.  If you are discussing multiple stories and its not clear which one you are quoting, cite the title and page number, like this(Virgins, 34).  How do you know when to do that? Ask yourself if it would make sense to someone reading your essay.