Letter to Friend or Family Member
► READ “Salvation” by Langston Hughes “228-230”, comparing and contrasting it with “The Jacket.” How are they alike? How are they different?
► WRITE a letter to someone not in this class, examining a thematic connection between “Salvation” and “The Jacket,” and your own personal connection to this concept.
Example:
Young Soto in “The Jacket” and young Hughes in “Salvation” both experience shame within
their community that affects their sense of identity. Has this ever happened to you?.
As you compose the letter, think about ways to use evidence to interest your reader in these connections: you
might, for instance, tell a story that will ground the idea in a common understanding. Think about what
evidence the reader will need to be told so that the connection will make sense. Establish sufficient context for
understanding.
► FORMAT: Your letter (or epistolary essay) should be two to three double-spaced pages long and typed in 12
point Times New Roman font, MLA format. You must make clear in the text of your letter what you are doing,
what articles you are writing about, what phrases, images, or ideas you borrowed. The recipent is not expecting
this letter and will have no idea why you are writing unless you somehow make it clear.
(Again, don’t tell your reader that you are satisfying a course requirement. Get into the letter some other way.)