ESSAY OUTLINE

TITLE: Character Change Essay

SUBJECT: Lily or June or Zach or May

DIRECTION OR FOCUS:Choose a character in Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees. Then in a five-paragraph essay, explain how that character has changed through the course of the book, and what caused this change.

I. INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH:

General Statement or Hook: ______

Transition: ______

Thesis Sentence:______

Major Divisions of Essay:

A: ______

B: ______

C: ______

II. BODY PARAGRAPH 1: Topic A

Transition: Let me begin

Topic Sentence: when we meet [character name]. He/she is [Adjectives]

Supporting Details: (these are details from the novel that support your adjectives] – support may come from these places in the novel: Barn scene (page #) or May’s back-story (pages 96-98) or Lily (before running away up to “Lilly Melissa Owens your jar is open” 60/running away-) June (L & R arrive at pink house-69) Rosaleen (opening chapters-32 pouring snuff )

Detail 1:

Detail 2: ______

Detail 3: ______

Conclusion/Transition:______

III. BODY PARAGRAPH 2: Topic B

Transition: Now that you know______, let me tell you...

Topic Sentence: about the event that (or began to change) changed this character (jail) or with May – what she was like when Lily and Rosaleen arrived at the Pink House (95) Sprinklers

Supporting Details:

Detail 1: ______

Detail 2: ______

Detail 3: ______

Conclusion/Transition:______

IV. BODY PARAGRAPH 3: Topic C

Transition: And lastly,

Topic Sentence: by the end of The Secret Life of Bees [character] is [adjectives]. This is apparent…

Supporting Details: (after May’s suicide chpt 11, after May’s suicide note is read 210, May-when she learned Zach had gone to jail and that information had been kept from her 186 )

Detail 1: ______

Detail 2: ______

Detail 3: ______

Conclusion/Transition:______

V. CONCLUDING PARAGRAPH

Restatement/Reinforcement of Thesis______

Closing Device-paragraph essay, explain how that character has changed through the course of the book, and what caused this change.

  1. Introduction – one fully developed five-sentence paragraph.
A.Get the reader's attention (humor, anecdote, common ground, shock, suspense – you may choose to open with a line about change, growth…)

______

B.Clearly state thesis or purpose (restate your prompt)

____________

C.Preview the structure (what are you going to tell us and in what order-how the character was when we meet them, how they change, what caused the change or how the character was when we meet him/her, what caused him/her to change and how he/she changed).

______

II. Body of essay – three fully developed main points (in the order stated in preview)
  1. Main Point 1 (character when we meet them, provide context-where/when…)

Let me begin with ______

______

B. Main Point 2

Now that you know______, let me show you... ______

C. Main Point 3
And lastly, ______

______

III. Conclusion –
A.Review the structure (what you told us – order should match preview/body)
______

______

B.Restate the thesis or purpose

______

C.Clincher Statement (memorable line, should tie to attention getter)

______

Are all of your sources cited within the body of your paper? (page number or chapter number in SLoB, author of quotation)

Are your transitions clear? (first, let me begin with, secondly, moving on to, lastly...) If you have answered “no” to any of these questions, you need to go back and review and rewrite/edit your paper.

Here are some quotations you might use in your introduction – one may provide a framework for your body.

I'm not going to change the way I look or the way I feel to conform to anything. I've always been a freak. So I've been a freak all my life and I have to live with that, you know. I'm one of those people.
John Lennon

All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.
Anatole France

Never believe that a few caring people can't change the world. For, indeed, that's all who ever have.
Margaret Mead

Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts.
Arnold Bennett

When we are no longer able to change a situation - we are challenged to change ourselves.
Viktor E. Frankl

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.
Leo Tolstoy

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.
C. S. Lewis

If we don't change, we don't grow. If we don't grow, we aren't really living.
Gail Sheehy

If there is no struggle, there is no progress.
Frederick Douglass

If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.
Wayne Dyer

Things do not change; we change.
Henry David Thoreau

Marla Payant

Mrs. Payant

English 9

29 January 2013

Character Change Essay

In this world it is too easy to get stuck in a rut. Whether it is with regard to entertainment, work or even food, trying new things can feel risky. What if it isn’t fun? What if I fail? What if it doesn’t taste good? Marcel Proust once said, “The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.” Sometimes it takes a special person to open our eyes to new and exciting possibilities. Such is the case in Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham; the story of a person who in the beginning refuses a new taste only to discover it wasn’t what he thought.

In the beginning of Green Eggs and Hamwe meet our antagonist, a grumpy fellow busy reading a newspaper. This gentlemen’s reading is interrupted by the enthusiastic Sam-I-am. Sam eagerly asks our news lover “Do you like green eggs and ham?” (10) while offering a tasty plate of the delectable delight. Sam’s query is answered by the retort “I do not like them, Sam-I-am. I do not like green eggs and ham” (12).

Our Sam though is not deterred by this shocking revelation. Instead, Sam takes up the challenge to convince our stately green food hater that green eggs and ham is a dish worth trying. Sam urgently asks whether he would consider eating them “here or there…in a house…or with a mouse…in a box…or with a fox…in a car…or in a tree?” (14-31). Despite Sam’s jubilation, his repeated questions are rebuffed with strong feelings “I do not like them in a box…[or] with a fox…in a house [or] …with a mouse…I do not like them here or there. I do not like them anywhere….Not on a train! Not in a tree! Not in a car! Sam let me be!” (34). Believing to his core that persistence wears down resistance, Sam continues his quest, until finally worn out, the gentleman relents saying “Sam! If you will let me be, I will try them, you will see” (54).

A simple taste of the delectable verdant dish produces dramatic change in the one stalwart green eggs and ham denier. Dr. Seuss’s classic tale ends with a joyous discovery and subsequent exclamation “I do so like green eggs and ham! Thank you! Thank you, Sam-I-am!” (62).

Sophocles wisely stated, “One learns by doing a thing; for though you think you know it, you have no certainty until you try.” Most certainly, the newspaper-reading gentleman experienced profound joy due to Sam’s determined belief that his new friend was missing out because he would not try an innovative dish. By giving the green eggs and ham a try the fellow gained a new perspective, which forever changed his dietary landscape. When asked to try something new, something that might positively open you to an exciting panorama of experience, give it shot. The worst than can happen is that you’d be right - confirming what you thought you knew. The best that could happen would be having a whole new world open up before you.

Works Cited

Geisel, Theodor S. Green Eggs and Ham. New York. Beginner Books. 1960.