1. For this assignment you may not use The Quest.
Using A Visit to Grandmother, write a paragraph in which you analyze Kelley’s use of one writing device presented in How to Read Literature Like a Professor.
For this assignment you may not use The Quest.
Writing Hints:
Thesis: Literature*, Author, literary device, and PURPOSE.
Wrong: In the story, the author uses geography.
Right: In the short story, A Visit to Grandmother, William Melvin Kelley uses geography to facilitate the reader’s understanding that the central character is emotionally wounded.
*If the literature has been identified PRIOR to the thesis, it does not have to be repeated in the thesis.

2. Evidence must be presented AND linked to the thesis.
Possible evidence:
Charles lives in the north where he is successful and respected (contrast; history as noted in the text)
Charles heads south unexpectedly (unplanned; irrational) to attend a college reunion
“in a far too offhand way suggests” they visit his mother
Show HOW each example supports your thesis.
Opinion statements that connect the examples to the thesis
Logic and reason must reign

3. Charles, a doctor, living with his family in New York, unexpectedly decides to attend his college reunion. While a seemingly innocent decision, it is one that forces Charles to head south, a location that is far from his established community life and one that suggests confusion and a personal encounter with one’s subconscious (Foster 171). This change in environment effectively focuses the reader Charles himself and removes any possible attention on the reunion. Going south is also noteworthy because it connects to a decision that Charles makes “suddenly” (Kelley 243). The quickness with which Charles chooses to leave New York and the direction to which he heads hints that Charles is not behaving in his normal manner. Rather, he is being irrational. When from the reunion Charles does not head north, but ventures even further south the reader is prepared for a tumultuous journey.

4. Conclude your work. Sample 1: Sample 2: Sample 3:
Kelley’s attention to location enables the reader to build sympathy for Charles and his struggle to come to terms with his past.
Sample 2:
Kelley’s attention to location emphasizes the challenges one might face in an effort to come to terms with a difficult past.
Sample 3:
Kelley’s attention to location enables the reader to build sympathy for Charles as he chooses to face his past and struggles to come to terms with it. Through this compassion, the reader comes to understand that some challenges in life never change; that the key to moving forward is acceptance.

5. In the short story, A Visit to Grandmother, William Melvin Kelley uses geography to facilitate the reader’s understanding that the central character is emotionally wounded. Charles, a doctor, living with his family in New York, unexpectedly decides to attend his college reunion. While a seemingly innocent decision, it is one that forces Charles to head south, a location that is far from his established community life and one that suggests confusion and a personal encounter with one’s subconscious (Foster 171). This change in environment effectively shifts the readers attention from the reunion to Charles himself. Going south is also noteworthy because it connects to a decision that Charles makes “suddenly” (Kelley 243). The quickness with which Charles chooses to leave New York and the direction to which he heads hints that Charles is not behaving in his normal manner. Rather, he is being irrational. When from the reunion, Charles does not head north, but ventures even further south the turmoil within Charles is confirmed. Kelley’s attention to location enables the reader to build sympathy for Charles as he chooses to face his past and struggles to come to terms with it. Through this compassion, the reader comes to understand that some challenges in life never change; that the key to moving forward is acceptance.