Okanagan College Themes and Meanings of David Chariandys Brother Essay follow the requirementdddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd

Okanagan College Themes and Meanings of David Chariandys Brother Essay follow the requirementddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd Assignment #3 – Brother literary essay
English 161-001 Spring 2020
DUE: June 16 by D2L drop box
For this assignment you will write a literary essay that explores the themes and meanings of David
Chariandy’s Brother.
This essay should be approximately (but no less than) 1500 words. It is worth 25% of your final mark.
Your essay must have a strong thesis statement that says something specific, exclusive and arguable
about your chosen theme. You should examine Chariandy’s unique use of language, narration and
setting to make your argument.
You will produce a polished piece of writing that includes no mechanical or expression errors (or very
few!). It should be double-spaced and follow MLA guidelines. Secondary sources are permitted, but not
required.
As always, quote directly from the work whenever possible and integrate the quotations seamlessly
into your argument.
You will be evaluated on the quality and precision of your writing, the level of insight and originality in
your observations, and the strength, clarity and force of your thesis statement and argument.
How to approach this essay:
1. About 30-40% of your time on this assignment should be spent reading the novel. Read as
much of it as you can more than once, looking for evidence of your chosen theme. Pay attention
to sentence structure, language use, repeating refrains, metaphor, narration, characterization,
setting and tone. Look for images, symbols, and motifs that could reflect your theme.
2. Follow your instincts! If you suspect the text is making a particular point or doing something
interesting, try to decipher how and why it is making you think that way. Brainstorm various
formal and stylistic techniques that could reflect or inflect your chosen theme.
3. Draft a working thesis that summarizes the texts’ similarities and notes the key differences.
4. Construct a detailed outline that lists your main points that support your thesis with examples
quoted from the text (another 15-20% of your time).
5. Write your first draft (20-25% of your time). Just write it! Writing is a process, not a product.
Not only will this draft not be perfect, it will be bad. “The first draft of anything is shit” —
Ernest Hemingway. Every great piece of writing is a bad piece of writing first.
6. Edit, rewrite and proofread (20-25%). This is where the rubber hits the road. You will finesse
your points, clarify your analysis and strengthen your thesis. You will give it to a friend for
feedback. Then you hand it in. Writing is never finished: it only runs into its deadline.
Some suggested topics:
1. “If you can’t memory right,” Francis tells Michael on the first page, “you lose.” What does
Brother tell us about memory? How do we remember place, family members and histories
“right” — especially if some of these memories, say Michael and Francis’s family history, are not
explicitly known to us? What is memory’s relationship to the past—and the present?
2. Michael speaks a few times about “complicated grief.” What does Brother tell us about grief?
What, precisely, is complicated about it? What are the various ways the characters – Jelly,
Francis, Mother, Aisha and Michael – deal with their grief? What are some strategies the novel
shows us about dealing with “complicated grief”?
3. The novel has an interesting structure—it uses repeating refrains throughout and flashes back
and forward between past and present—all of which contribute to a theme of performance.
Michael and his family seem cast in a role which they cannot escape. How does the structure
contribute to the novel’s this theme? What, specifically, do you notice in how Chariandy uses
language, repeating words, metaphor and image to reinforce this theme?
4. Michael repeatedly highlights the extraordinary diversity of his neighbours in “Scar-bro”, or The
Park: “They spoke different languages, they ate different foods, but they were all from one
colony or the other, and so had a shared vocabulary for describing feral children like us” (13).
Aisha, on the other hand, “was only herself.” What does this novel tell us about a postcolonial,
multicultural suburb like Scarborough? What are the challenges a community faces like this?
What are its strengths, specifically? And how does Chariandy represent those characteristics?
5. Francis is a victim of police violence. At one point, Michael and Francis’s mother implores them
to believe they’re safe in their community: “But I need you to believe me,” she pleads. What
does Brother say about racialized violence? How else is violence – police violence, gang violence,
linguistic violence – figured in this novel?
6. Propose a topic of your choosing, but please get it approved by me first. Good luck!

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