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English 11 Touchstone Essay

Prompt: Find a prevalent theme that connects all three texts: "Eleven," "The Rights to the Streets of Memphis,"and "Salvation." Use textual evidence from each text for support/provide proof of this common theme. In addition, analyze how each author uses literary strategies to create depth and make the texts/their characters more complex.

Thesis: Incorporate the title of the texts, what rhetorical strategies you are going to analyze, and the common theme.

Theme: Consider - How did the texts display the disparity of power between adults and children? Do the
adults believe they were doing the right thing? How does the idea of authority impact the relationships
between the adult and children relationships? How are the relationships and/or specific characters changed
by the end of the story? Consider how the author uses rhetorical strategies to develop these concepts.

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ANSWER

The texts I chose to analyze all have themes of authority in them. In "Eleven," the theme involves how children are treated. The adults in this text believe they are doing the right thing, even though it is not right but rather a form of censorship against them. They believe that they have been given power by the government to stop children from being able to enjoy socializing and participating in things that adults find undesirable. These same adults are also using intimidation by making sure that those who disobey them will be severely punished. Similarly, the idea of authority is used throughout "The Rights to the Streets of Memphis." This text also deals with how adults don't believe they rightfully have power over children and make them feel powerless against adult authority figures such as their parents. But as well as this theme about families, there is another theme that I want to analyze due to it being prominent in both texts: how do children respond when being threatened? How do they visualize their future if they were forced into adulthood at such a young age? In "Salvation", two themes involve how families interact within society and the experiences kids get from their elders. Teachers and other adults perceive those with different ideas or beliefs as weak and will punish them for fighting back against

POSSIBLE ANSWER

The theme of Three Rites of Passage All of these texts examine how children are affected by adult authority. The children in each story must obey adults because they do not want to get into trouble, or face negative consequences for rebelling. In "Eleven" and "Salvation," the child has a hard time dealing with the adults' power over them. For example, in Salvation when Rafe asks his mother if he can go out to play at the end of their conversation she says "No, you have chores don't forget them." And then adds "...no dinner before ten o'clock", instead of allowing him to eat dinner while he is waiting for her to approve this request. In Eleven when it is time for homework and his father tells him that he needs to start reading right away so that he can finish his work before dinner (33) and gives her some wood to make a door with but never returns until eleven o'clock which makes Randy feel uncomfortable seeing how late it is. In Salvation when Rafe goes out into the woods alone without asking permission from anybody which almost gets him caught by the police which gives us an idea about how impossible it was for him to rebel against his parents authority because they were very strict over

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