RESEARCH & RELEVANCE

How can fictional literature inform our understanding of how current social, economic, and/or political issues impact individuals? Write a well-developed essay in which you synthesize your literature circle novel with 3 non-fiction sources to analyze how fiction can provide insight or guidance on a single real-world issue. 

This is a synthesis paper, which means you are weaving together different types of evidence to form a cohesive argument. You will synthesize the "human" perspective of your literature circle novel with the "factual" perspectives of three non-fiction sources.

In this essay, your novel serves as a representative of the individual experience, while your non-fiction sources provide the systemic context (the social, economic, or political reality).

Your essay must have a works cited page at the end of the essay, in proper MLA format.

How to Build Your Argument:

• Use your novel to illustrate the impact of an issue. For example: "In 'The Nickel Boys', Colson Whitehead demonstrates how systemic corruption in the juvenile justice system destroys an individual's sense of hope."

• Use your articles, studies, or essays to provide the facts or theories that explain the fiction.

• Your job is to show how the fiction provides insight that a graph or news report might miss.

To help you draft, consider how these different sources interact:

• Identify the Author’s Argument: Treat your novelist as an expert on the human condition (you did this last unit)

  • Example: "In The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck argues that economic displacement doesn't just result in poverty; it results in a loss of human dignity."

• Connect to the Real World: Use non-fiction sources to ground that fictional experience in reality.

  • Example: "While Steinbeck portrays the Joad family’s struggle, Smith’s 2023 report on modern housing insecurity shows that the same 'cycle of displacement' exists today due to rising inflation."

• Analyze the Intersection: Talk about how the fiction helps us understand the non-fiction.

  • Example: "Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics tells us the percentage of people living below the poverty line, but Steinbeck’s narrative provides the psychological insight into why those individuals might resist government assistance. The fiction reveals the pride and trauma that raw data ignores."