Organizing Evidence for a Literary Analysis Essay

Organizing Evidence for a Literary Analysis Essay

The following pieces of evidence from the text of “Do Not Go Gentle” relate to the theme of transformation. Organize relevant evidence into the outline below.  If a piece of evidence does not fit into any of the subtopic, leave it out!

1. Narrator’s baby boy died and was brought back to life three times. (96)
2. Narrator refers to his child as “our little blue baby Jesus” (96).
3. Wife disguised herself in purple bandana, work clothes and beat up Mr. Grief (97).
4. Grief can turn you into “a pain-delivering robot.” “If you get addicted to the pain-causing, then you start hurting people who don’t need hurting” (97).
5. “I swear I saw Mr. Grief hiding behind her [my wife’s] eyes” (97)
6. “Mr. Grief is a wizard who puts sleep spells on you” (97).
7. Narrator falls “into a waking sleep in a hospital bathroom” (97).
8. Two men talk bad about how a sad mother of a sick child had changed by letting herself “get ugly on the outside” (98).
9. Narrator is transformed: “That whole bathroom crazy-scene gave me some energy…. I felt like a good woman and I wanted to be a good mother-man” (99).
10. Narrator transforms Chocolate Thunder into a sacred, possibly magical object (100).
11. Parents of sick children and medical staff transformed from helpless bystanders into shamans (100).
12. Sick children transformed by wife’s song: “Every sick and dying and alive and dead kid heard it, and they were happy and good in their hearts” (100).
13. “We all like to think each person, place, or thing is only itself. A vibrator is a vibrator is a vibrator, right? But that’s not true at all. Everything is stuffed to the brim with ideas and love and hope and magic and dreams.” (101)
14. Sickness transformed into health: Narrator’s baby wakes up (101).
15. Baby is named Abraham (101).

Subtopic 1:      Grief transforms characters in “Do Not Go Gentle” in a negative way.

Subtopic 2:      Anger transforms some characters in the story by energizing them to take action.

Subtopic 3:      In “Do Not Go Gentle,” taking positive action transforms the person performing the action, as well as those who witness the action.

Write a thesis statement for this literary analysis. Remember to include (1) the title of the work, (2) the genre of the work, (3) the author, and (4) your point of view or interpretation on a specific topic.

Are there pieces of evidence that do not fit into any of the subtopics that you would want to use in your introduction or conclusion?