The narrative dialogues "Home Burial" and "The Death of the Hired Man" examine the conversations of two married couples. In "Home Burial," the father's acceptance of his infant son's death as an inevitable part of nature is contrasted to the mother's furious sorrow at the loss. The couple in "The Death of the Hired Man" speaks about home and debates its meaning, particularly as applied to the ill hired man who has come to stay with them.
In a carefully constructed paper of 1,500-1,750 words, compare and contrast the two poems. Develop a focused, narrow, and assertive thesis that explains how the poems might be seen as companion pieces. In the scope of your analysis you might consider how the couples are characterized or how Frost develops the narratives using sound, meter, rhythm, and rhyme. Another possible approach would be to analyze how the settings contribute to the themes of the poems. You will not have room to cover all of those suggested approaches. Any topic you choose should be sufficiently narrow so that you can fully develop the thesis.
All papers should contain a minimum of three-five credible, scholarly sources in addition to the assigned readings. Remember to use the GCU eLibrary to research source material. Do not use Wikipedia; it is not considered a scholarly source. The paper should contain abundant textual support for all subassertions and claims (direct quotations, paraphrases, or summaries). In-text citations should be correctly formatted according to the current MLA Style Guide.
Minimum Requirements – All papers should meet the minimum requirements for:
Length.
Specific, narrow, and assertive thesis.
Concrete, relevant, and substantive evidence from the texts.
Sophistication and complexity of argument.
Number of outside, scholarly sources.
Correct documentation style.
