Relationships: Alexie is very open about the complicated dynamics of his relationships with both of his parents. Compare the dynamic he has with his mother to that with his father, and analyze two or three specific issues that you think underlie these rel

 Overview Literary analyses are essays that closely examine literary texts to understand their messages, interpret their meanings, and explore the writer’s techniques. In this type of essay, you may identify a pattern or theme in the work and unpack its meaning for your reader. When writing a literary analysis, you must go beyond simply explaining what happened in the story—which is more of a summary—to instead explore why you think certain plot events or characters are significant. You can assume that your reader is familiar with the text, so you will not need to fully summarize plot events or details (though a minimal amount of summary may be helpful at times, particularly in the introduction). Instead, your essay will offer more of an interpretation of the text, with your essay taking a position on how you read and understand the text’s meaning. In this type of essay, you are making an argument of interpretation and are using all of the evidence you present from the book to support your point of view. Assignment In this assignment, you will write a literary analysis essay about Sherman Alexie’s memoir, You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me. Your essay will be four pages in length, with an additional Works Cited page. You should not consult any outside sources or websites as you draft this analytical essay; the only source for the assignment should be the texts we have read in class and your own analysis of key themes or ideas. You may, however, use any of the articles that we have read in class; just be sure to include those on your Works Cited page should you choose to reference them. Writing the Analysis To achieve your purpose in this assignment, be sure to do the following: 1. Introduce the book in the beginning of your essay; include the author’s name and the book’s title within the first few sentences, as well as some context. 2. Present a fully-developed introduction, which concludes with a thesis statement that states your argument. 3. Present support for your argument in body paragraphs that follow the structure of: topic sentence, support, explanation, and concluding sentence. 4. Provide sufficient support from the text to support your interpretation. 5. Integrate quoted material smoothly into your writing. 6. Include in-text citations for any specific passages that you paraphrase or quote directly. 7. Include a corresponding Works Cited page at the end. 8. Use an objective tone and a mix of paraphrased and quoted source material (though more paraphrased than quoted information).