Final answer:
A literary analysis of "Martha, Martha" examines how the characters Martha and Pam deal with emotional turmoil, with body paragraphs focusing on internal conflicts, external behaviors, and contrasting coping mechanisms.
Step-by-step explanation:
Writing a literary analysis requires a detailed examination of the various elements within a text to understand its deeper meaning. When analyzing Zadie Smith's short story "Martha, Martha," we can focus on the characters of Martha and Pam to explore the theme of coping with emotional turmoil.
Martha's character is complex and her ways of dealing with emotional challenges are depicted by Smith through her interactions and inner dialogues. The first body paragraph could start with a topic sentence like: "Zadie Smith uses Martha's internal conflicts and external behavior to showcase her struggle with emotional turmoil." For supporting details, one might quote a poignant moment from the text that highlights Martha's distress, with an MLA in-text citation. Subsequently, an explanation of this evidence would discuss how Smith uses specific actions or dialogues that reflect Martha's emotional state.
Pam serves as a counterpoint to Martha, and her own coping mechanisms can be analyzed similarly. A possible topic sentence for the second body paragraph is: "Pam’s pragmatic approach to life’s challenges offers a contrast to Martha’s emotional turmoil, a duality Zadie Smith illustrates using sharp dialogue and vivid imagery." Supporting details would include direct quotes from Pam’s conversations or descriptions of her actions in the story. The explanation would delve into how these elements reveal Pam’s character and her method of handling emotional distress.
Each body paragraph should conclude with a sentence that synthesizes the analysis and ties the evidence back to the overall theme of the text. For example, a concluding sentence for Martha's paragraph might be: "Through Martha, Smith demonstrates the exhaustive nature of internal emotional battles that often go unseen." Similarly, for Pam: "Pam represents the outward resilience in the face of adversity, embodying a coping mechanism that stands in stark contrast to Martha's internalization of conflict."