Quick Write

Why did Cisneros write this story from the perspective of an adultress? What is the value in that?

“Never Marry a Mexican”

“Never Marry a Mexican” short story by Sandra Cisneros. Let’s break it down.

  • Who are the characters?
  • What themes do you notice?
  • What point of view did the author use?
  • What are some key scenes that stick out to you?

Scene Analysis

Pick a scene that you think is particularly memorable or important. You can pick one from whichever story you will be writing about.

Draw a comic of the scene. Make sure to add text, or dialogue to the scene like a comic book.

Now, describe the scene you drew in words. A picture is worth a thousand words. Explain the significance of the scene to your thesis or the story.

Analysis Introduction

In a literary analysis, the introduction is important because it needs to do some work. It needs to set up your argument, position, and prepare the reader for the work you are doing. Here are two examples from previous semester that do this well.

How Clemencia’s Mother Ruined Her Love Life

Look at how the author sets up their analysis. They don’t begin with I. They set up the topic, leading to their argument and thesis. Everything you need to know about the paper is in the introduction.

Never Marry a Mexican: The Hidden Complexities of Clemencia

This intro has a lot of work to do to set up the more complex argument that the author is making. They spend more time explaining so that the reader can follow along with the argument. It includes their position.

Use any one of these as models to structure your introduction. Make sure to introduce your topic, explain your position, and provide a clear thesis.

Never Marry a Mexican, The Movie

We have discussed the story Never Marry a Mexican in class. Now, imagine that we are tasked with casting the movie version of the short story. Who would you pick to play the parts of the story? Make sure to explain why.

The Cast:

  • Clemencia
  • Drew
  • Megan
  • Drew’s Son
  • Ximena
  • Clemencia’s Mom
  • Clemencia’s Dad

Come up with a cast for the movie. Pay special attention to Clemencia and Drew. Who would be perfect for the part? Why?

intermission

Intro to Research

Scholarly research is research that is published by people with specialized knowledge on what they are researching. It is peer reviewed, reviewed by other researchers and specialist in the field, and is generally trustworthy. Blogs, Newspapers, Magazines are not Scholarly but are popular sources.

academic_research

ProCon.org No subscription needed. Good place to look at the main issues around a topic.

Occupational Outlook Handbook The OOH can help you find career information on duties, education and training, pay, and outlook for hundreds of occupations.

Google Scholar Google academic database search. Great place to start.

Crafton Library Databases Academic Search Complete is a great resources to begin with. Credo reference is great for background information to understand your topic.

Do not use Wikipedia.

Smart Searching

Keywords are the words you use to search for information about a topic.

Effective keywords produce good search results.

Find a Scholarly Article

Locate an article to email to yourself that you can use for your literary analysis.

Use your keywords to search for articles in the Crafton Library databases or Google scholar.

Homework

  • SANDRA CISNEROS “There was a Man, There was a Woman” (133)