The main title is short and catchy. 
Use the largest font on the page. 
The sub-title is more detailed and includes specific topic covered in the essay. 
When writing about fiction, this means including the author and the title of the story. 
Use a font that is smaller than the main title and larger than the text below it. 

Below are suggested tactics to use in creating catchy main titles.

Alliteration   (words with a repetition of initial letters)

Have a Heart
The Tin Man Portrayed Emotional Dedication in
King Vidor's Classic Film The Wizard of Oz

Turn in the Tux
Why James Bond Producers Should Call it Quits

From Dowdy to Daring
Bilbo Baggins Learns to Handle the Larger World beyond
his Comfortable Home in JRR Tolkien's novel The Hobbit

The Terrible Treatment for Treason
Edmund Learns the Awful Cost of his Careless Actions in 
C.S. Lewis's Novel The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe

Interrogative words

Which Way Out?
The Difficulties of Withdrawing from Foreign Wars

Repetition

Learning Priorities, Learning Survival
Learning to Order His Priorities Keeps Brian Alive in Gary Paulsen's Novel Hatchet

Prepositional phrases

Under the Gun
The Dangers of Neglecting to Enforce Gun-Control Laws on the Inner Cities

Above the Nasty
Cinderella Keeps her High-Quality Character When Surrounded By
Cruelty And Malice In Walt Disney's Film Cinderella

From Dowdy to Daring
Bilbo Baggins Learns to Handle the Larger World beyond his
Comfortable Home in JRR Tolkien's novel The Hobbit

Quotations (from famous sources, from the subject of the paper)

"Don't Ask, Don't Tell"
The Failure of Homosexual Integration in the American Military

"Mary was Always Good"
Laura Ingalls Wilder Idealizes her older Sister Mary in
her Autobiography Little House on the Big Woods

"There is More in You than This."
Jo March Learned that Her Own Experiences were Superior to Fantasy in
the film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's Novel Little Women

Eye-catching Oddness

LOL
How America's New Computer-Age is Changing our Language

Other Examples

Finding Courage
Marlin Overcomes his Past Emotional Scars in Unkrich's Film Finding Nemo

Superlatives (the highest, the fastest, the lowest, the swiftest, the most)


The Highest Calling
Why Action in Afghanistan and Iraq Hasn't Slackened Volunteer Enlistment