Here is a sample essay to give you an idea of how to approach writing about film and literature. This essay differs from the one you are about to write in that it is a comparison between two works, while you will be writng an essay on one work. In this essay, a summary of both works is included in the introduction. The thesis statement is the last sentence of the first paragraph. .
Groundhog Day , starring Bill Murray, is a film about a television weatherman named Phil who relives the same day, 2 March, over and over again. A & P is a short story by John Updike in which a cashier, Sammy, has his routine day disrupted when three girls wearing swimming suits stroll into the grocery store where he works and are confronted by the manager. Though their storylines vary greatly, in both works the main character in each is a self-centered, condescending male who eventually realises the flaws in his character. This realisation is, in part, brought out by supernatural forces in Groundhog Day and by a manager's harsh words in A & P . However, in each work, the female protagonist, Rita in Groundhog Day and the character nicknamed 'Queenie' in A & P , acts as a catalyst, inspiring and motivating the main character to change.
At the beginning of each work, the main character is self-centered, unempathetic and condescending. Phil shows this in his treatment of others: his snide remarks to his cameraman (Larry), his mockery of Rita's groundhog impersonation, his rude dismissal of his admittedly obnoxious former schoolmate and his contempt for the small town of Punxsatawney and its citizens. In Groundhog Day , Sammy refers to his customers as "pigs" and "sheep". He calls the elderly "bums" and describes housewives as being "houseslaves". He describes his manager, Lengel as being "dreary" and wonders whether girls even have minds. Both characters seem to look down on everyone around them. .
Into the lives of these two self-centered men enter the female protagonists Rita and Queenie, who represent everything the men are not.
