What are some topics I can use for my English paper?

You might try writing a comparative lit paper on two stories with something in common. I did Der Sandmann and the Yellow Wallpaper in college and with a good fit like that it’s pretty easy to knock out 5–6 pages of comparison and analysis.

Write about the Irish sociocultural archetype, the “Irish Batchelor”. I once read a great interview with Maeve Binchy about the reoccuring “Irish Batchelor Brother” character in her books. My former neighbor, who is from rural Ireland, said that described 5 of her 9 uncles, who are all pleasant guys, but never married.

This blog discusses it in an interesting manner.

What is the actual assignment?

If it is as straight forward as you put, you cannot go wrong with Edgar Allen Poe. Get this collection or one like it, and write about the symbolism he used. You can’t go wrong with any of the stories in it, but I loved The Tell-Tale Heart, The Black Cat, The Cask of Amontillado, and The Purloined Letter very much. Especially the Purloined Letter, which is the third of a series of detective stories he wrote. It’s truly awesome.

@Jeruba The actual assignment is exactly as I described it in the original question.

Read the story “Flowers” by Alice Walker. Its short, and you can quote a lot of specific sentences that focus on African American history. We just read this in one of my lit classes and the class had an hour long discussion about all it’s possibly meanings.

If you like detective stories you could write about Edgar Alan Poe’s short story The Murders in the Rue Morgue said to be the first such story. You can find themes in Poe’s work which are now standard in detective fiction.

@lbwhite89, the instructor said, “Write a literary analysis about something related to a fiction author/story”? That doesn’t make sense. “Something related to” meaning what?—a theme, topic, life event? You don’t write a literary analysis of something that isn’t literary. If the description you gave had made sense to me, I wouldn’t have asked.

Why not post the exact wording of the assignment just to see how others understand it? Many of us here have a lot of successful experience with essay writing and can help, but unless we begin with a clear assignment, we’re wasting our time.

Last fall my class in dramatic literature included two plays strongly related to your themes of interest: Fences, by August Wilson, and A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry. Those are both plays that a student can read and readily understand. A little background relating to social conditions affecting African-Americans in the 1950s is helpful but may not be necessary.

@Jeruba When I stated that possibilities for topics were “endless”, that’s exactly what I meant. He told us it was to be a literary analysis but gave us the freedom otherwise. The only thing we had to do was tie in a fiction writer and/or story. If he was more specific, I probably wouldn’t be having such a hard time finding something to write about.

That’s the reason I gave the examples I did. Those are the types of things he told us other students have written about in the past. We didn’t get an assignment sheet or anything that I could copy on here to be more specific. The last part of your response is basically the only thing I was asking for, so I don’t see what part didn’t make sense.

I, myself, have had a lot of successful experience with essay writing. I’m just looking for interesting fiction authors/stories that I can easily tie into a central theme, like the ones I listed.

All right, never mind. I was asking you for the exact wording of the instructor’s assignment: “You are to write an essay that . . .” If you can’t give it, you can’t give it. I, for one, would not attempt an assignment that I couldn’t state explicitly.

What doesn’t make sense is the idea of a literary analysis tied into a story or author. You can do a literary analysis OF a story and tie it into something else, but you can’t do a literary analysis of something else (i.e., not literature) and tie it into a story. That is sort of like saying “Write a recipe for some kind of theme and tie it into a food item.” No. You’d write a recipe for some kind of food item and tie it into a theme. Do you see?

However, I don’t have anything more to add on this subject.

I did offer suggestions that were in line with your stated interests.

@Jeruba Ok, so my wording was what made the entire question not make any sense whatsoever? Considering you actually answered my question AFTER telling me it made no sense, I think people can get the drift of what I’m asking. And believe it or not, I know when someone is being condescending for no reason.

If your advice is to not do the assignment and get a failing grade because he didn’t tell us exactly what we should be writing (ie. giving us the freedom to be creative), then I don’t think that’s advice I will take.

Hey, when it comes to English lit questions, you are not going to find anyone on here more knowledgeable and helpful than @Jeruba . Let’s play nice, I didn’t read her response at all like the way you took it.

@lbwhite89, I don’t think @Jeruba is telling you not to do the assignment, but rather to go back to the instructor and ask for better explanation of the assignment. What I’m reading into Jeruba’s comments is, that as college English instructor herself, the assignment as you explained it doesn’t seem clear as to the purpose. Not that I need to speak for Jeruba. But I didn’t interpret her comments the same way you did.

Well with an assignment like the one I mentioned, it’s kind of hard to believe that none of the 30 students asked for a more specific assignment, isn’t it? Multiple people asked for him to elaborate on what he wanted and this is what he left us with. While some were still left confused, and while it is extremely broad, I don’t think my QUESTION was nonsensical. I simply asked for fiction authors, stories, and the themes that could be associated with them.

And like @Jeruba, I have nothing more to add on the subject. I found what I’ll be writing about. I have little time to argue about if she was being condescending or not. Let’s just say I’ll take your word for it. It really isn’t that big of an issue.