Choose ONE of the following topics and write a carefully-argued critical essay on that topic. Make sure your essay has a clear, sharply focused thesis: what is the main point to your reading of the text or texts on which you have chosen to write? How does the structure and style of a given text contribute to its meaning? Organize your essay logically and carefully. Do NOT simply summarize the plot(s) of the text(s) you interpret.

Please note that this is a open-book test. You are permitted to consult your textbooks while you are writing. You may also print this sheet and write notes on it, which you may bring with you to class and to which you may refer. You must compose the essay itself in the 50-minute class time.

1. Compare and contrast the opening paragraphs of two of the short stories we have discussed in class OR of one of the short stories and Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha. Why do the writers choose to begin their tales in this manner? Make sure that you analyze the language and style of the paragraphs, and show how form contributes to meaning.

2. Compare and contrast the closing paragraphs of two of the short stories we have discussed in class OR of one of the short stories and Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha. Do moments of realization or of revelation occur at the end of a tale? How and why? Make sure that you analyze the language and style of the paragraphs, and show how form contributes to meaning.

3. Choose two of the short stories we have examined in class OR one of the short stories and Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha. Discuss the character and the function of the narrator in your chosen text(s). What is the significance of how these stories are told, and of who is telling them?

4. Explain the function of violence OR of social and familial conflict in one of the short stories we have studied and in Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha.

5. Explore how the motif of the journey (or quest) shapes characters' experiences of self-discovery and world-discovery in Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha and one of the short stories we have studied in class.