compare and contrast the two stories below

LUST by Susan Minot: https://writingsci.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/lust1.pdf 

MIRRORBALL by Mary Gaitskill: https://knopfdoubleday.com/2009/04/22/featured-short-story-mirrorball-by-mary-gaitskill/ 

prompt 1: The stories MIRRORBALL by Mary Gaitskill and LUST by Susan Minot look at relationships between men and women.  Find interesting similarities and differences between these TWO stories, and explain how these similarities and differences illustrate similar and different concerns of the authors of the stories. please write around 800-900 words and include specific quotes from the short stories. 

TIPS: 

1. Find interesting, complex, nuanced points to make points that would not occur to a lazy reader of the stories.  For example, the lazy reader probably thinks that Lust and Mirrorball, both present women characters who care too much, who rely too much on men for validation.  That might be true, to an extent, but the characters in these stories also act in subtlety different ways that make them unique, and these differences point to the author’s different conceptions of women in relationships.  So, while you can START your analysis with the obvious, lazy-reader idea, you should quickly pivot away from that idea and into your own, more nuanced, more complex idea.  (and in some ways, of course, X and Y both feature women characters who rely too much on men for validation.  But what is interesting to note in these stories is that… our papers could start like that. Also, when you are looking at differences, remember to focus on subtle differences and not on obvious differences (for example that the stories take place in different cities and at different times).  The lazy reader knows what is obvious.  You have to be the teacher here, showing the lazy reader what is not so obvious, what they may have missed. THIS IS IMPORTANT PLEASE FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS AND POINT OUT MORE COMPLEX IDEAS THAT A LAZY READER MISSED. 

2., Do NOT summarize the stories.  Your reader has already read them.  Come up with interesting / subtle / nuanced / complex ideas, and then illustrate those ideas with examples or SHORT quotes from the stories (use only the best bits of quotes; never throw long quotes at a reader; it’s too much work for them).  Generally, your paragraphs should have 3 parts to them.  First, you tell the reader what your complex idea is.  Then you will give examples from the story / stories that illustrate that idea.  And then you will explain, in several sentences, how that idea is actually illustrated by the examples you just gave.  In other words, it is not enough to bring the reader to the examples in the text that illustrate your idea.  After you bring the reader to these examples, you have to explain them and how they prove / support your big / complex idea.  

3., Speak deliberately and clearly, so you are easily understandable.  I would suggest, after you finish your answers, that you read them to yourself, out loud, to make sure they make complete sense, that a general reader would understand them. 

Prompt 2: In YOUR HEALING IS KILLING ME, why does Virginia Grise talk about her eczema?  In other words, how does that condition help her to illustrate an idea she wants to talk about?  What is that idea and how is it communicated to the reader in the rest of the play? link to the story: https://docplayer.net/201699882-Your-healing-is-killing-me.html