How To Choose Good Compare And Contrast Literary Essay Topics For Fifth Grade Students

Writing compare and contrast literary essays is an interesting but not an easy task. You should demonstrate your abilities as a thoughtful and attentive reader who can not only read the text, but understands the author`s ideas, his attitude to life and people. Comparing and contrasting objects and ideas demand your critical thinking and analyzing skills. You should keep in mind that writing any literary essay you will inevitably reveal your own attitude to the world around you.

Therefore, having been assigned to write a compare and contrast literary essay, recollect as much as possible about literary works you have read up to this time; the books, characters and events that have made great impression on you. If you are given a free hand as to the topic of your future work the most challenging task will be to choose what to write about. It is quite possible that one book will not be enough to write such a paper, in case you would like to compare and contrast some of the aspects of two narrations. To write a successful compare and contrast literary essay you should select the subjects that are logically comparable and the topic that is really interesting to you.

Here are some examples of the topics of compare and contrast literary essays that can be chosen by the students of the fifth grade (aged 10-11).

• - The history and fate of two families of immigrants in the book “Angel Island: Gateway to Gold Mountain” by R. Freedman.
• - These are two quite different worlds. “I am the Ice Worm” by Mary A. Easley.
• - We and they: our life and the life of the characters of “On the Wings of Heroes” by R. Peck.
• - The life in the palace and in the slums in “The Prince and the Pauper” by M. Twain.
• - The magic garden: how it changed itself and two boys. “The Secret Garden” by F. Burnett.
• - What is different and what is similar in the way of overcoming loneliness by the characters of the books “Because of Winn Dixie” and “Spaghetti” by C. Rylant.
• - What are the ways of changing your lives. How the characters of “In Those Shoes” by M. Boelts and “Stray” by C. Rylant attained their goals.
• - How the writer`s personality is reflected in his characters: “The Adventures of Mark Twain by Huckleberry Finn” by R. Burleigh.
• - Teenage heroes in “The Last Inch” by J. Aldridge and “Banner in the Sky” by R. Ullman.
• - Harry Porter – on the page and on the screen.