pp. 225 In Hecto Tobars’ The Tattooed Soldier, the main male characters, Antonio Bernal and Guillermo Longoria, come from two different economic backgrounds. While Antonio was middle class and attended college, Longoria was a peasant farmer who was forced into military service. Arguably, each of these men were shaped by their class experiences, which shaped their views and actions. In your critical opinion, can Tobar’s novel be seen as a critique of classism, capitalism, imperialism, and/or colonialism? Or, if not, does the novel reinforce classist, capitalist, imperialist, and/or colonialist values? For this essay, you are required to take a position, offer a claim, and provide evidence from your close reading and analysis of The Tattooed Soldier. You are also expected to employ at least one concept from either the chapter of Post-Colonialism and/or Marxist criticism found in Lois Tyson’s Critical Theory Today. Lastly, you are NOT required to conduct outside research for this essay, but you can use any other informative, non-literary, texts you have read thus far this semester to help you develop your argument. To help you answer the questions above, you might reflect on the ways The Tattooed Soldier reflect on how the novel reveals the socioeconomic conditions of the time in which it was written and/or the time in which it is set, and what those conditions reveal about the history of class struggle. You should also consider if the novel criticizes or invites readers to criticize oppressive socioeconomic forces. Lastly, consider how the novel might function as a critique of organized religion that keeps a character or characters from realizing and resisting socioeconomic oppression. While the goals outlined above might seem lofty, keep in mind that your essay only needs to be five to seven pages long. As such, your employment of Tyson’s chapters of literary criticism does not need to be exhaustive and should only serve to help you develop your response to the essay assignment prompt. If it has not been clear thus far, remember that this essay should include direct quotes from the various sources to help you develop and explain your thesis statement. Make sure your essay is written in proper MLA format. You can refer to the English Skills Handbook .pdf now linked on our Canvas class home page for help. Email me if you have any questions about this assignment or if you want to run any ideas you are thinking about by me for help. Save the file type as a pdf, Docx or doc file.