English and Literature MLA

Things Fall Apart comparison of Black Boy

Write a 6-page paper in which you compare the families of two households in Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart and Richard Wrights Black Boy.  In the first work focus on Okonkwos evolving insight as he comes to recognize his waning influence as a father and tribal chieftain.  In Wrights memoir focus on the narrators increasing awareness of his familys tenuous hold on stability as he learns to grasp the full dimensions of a social system founded on hate.  How do the conflicts between blacks and whites in both works parallel or diverge from each other in terms of the effects they have on African and African-American families and communities?  What options do the protagonists of these works have in view of the animosity of the whites and the apparent resignation of the African communities depicted? 

You may emphasize one work over the other, but you must make some kind of comparison between them in your thesis.  You must also use at least two secondary sources in your essay and include them with your primary sources in a Works Cited list at the end.  Be sure to provide in-text documentation (MLA style) for any quotation, paraphrase or reference to these sources in your paper.