Choosing an IOP topic

[smaandy]

Hello! I know that that the hardest part of this theoretically is the topic choosing. The texts we've read are Anna Karenina by Leo Toldtoy, The Man Who Lived Underground by Richard Wright, and Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. I really want to use the Man Who Lived Underground as the book for my topic but I don't know what to choose as my actual topic. I had the idea of doing something on the symbolism of red or even the use of imagery within the story  

Are there any ways for me to get ideas? Would the two ideas I had been remotely acceptable? Thank you!

[aTeddy]

I never studied that particular text, but generally, good advice is pick something quite specific and niche, so I therefore like the idea of the symbolism of red better.
My topic for IOP was about the uses of juxtaposition to create political commentary in Orwell's "Shooting an Elephant" essays. I was told that its a good idea if you talk about a language technique to hone in on a specific effect and wholesomely analyse the technique and effect of that in your IOP. So perhaps if you were going to talk about the symbolism of red in your text, a stock title could be -  "How does X utilise the symbolism of red to create Y".

I wish I could offer more help, but I think your topic sounds good, although perhaps analysing an effect of the symbolism specifically could help.