1. Review Guidelines for Essay #1 at end of Coursepak;
2. Choose a story that speaks to you, intrigues you;
3. Choose a specific focus: setting, symbolism, character or theme;
4. Make a list of moments in the story or symbols or scenes that would work;
5. Create a thesis--a claim you are making and will support with these examples.
Note: it is ok if your essay embraces more than one category in item 3 above!
In this blog, tell your classmates what story you are going to work on, state your thesis and list the examples that will support your thesis or claim. Please try to use words, phrases, from the text to make this an interesting blog that your classmates can help you develop into an essay.
Suggested Questions that Could Lead to a Claim:
1. How do descriptive details (setting and physical characteristics of characters) foreshadow (anticipate) the tragedy to come for Desiree in "Desiree's Baby"?
2. How does Chopin establish the contrasts between the character of Armand and the character of Desiree, and how are their contrasting natures connected to the outcome in "Desiree's Baby"?
3. How are the various symbols in Trifles connected to the character of Minnie Wright? What qualities in her do they suggest, reveal?
4. How is setting used to define the domains of men and women, their proper gender spaces and roles, in "Boys and Girls"?
5. What symbols in "Boys and Girls" help define gender codes?
6. How does Joyce Carol Oates create an atmosphere of increasing danger in her characterization of Arnold Friend? What does he represent? What does Connie represent?
7. How does Louise Erdrich depict vulnerability and loss of identity in "The World's Greatest Fisherman"? What moments, images, symbols does she use to help us understand the experience of June?
8. What symbols in "The Yellow Wallpaper" speak to the theme of female imprisonment? How does the main character use these symbols to confront and even "escape" this imprisonment?
"Boys and Girls" by Alice Munro is the story I have chosen to write about. My essay will be based on character. As stated in the guidelines character is revealed by speech, action, and perception. The characters in the story are the parents, Laird(son) , Bailey(worker),and the nameless girl. My thesis will be somewhere along the lines of does someone create their character or is their character determined prior to birth. The main character is a little girl who goes against traditional ways. As a girl she is suppose to enjoy helping her mother with chores and seeing her mother as an inspiration of the future but she disagreed with these traditions. "I hated the hot dark kitchen"[44] this girl dreaded helping her mother in any way. Her mother will constantly do anything in her power to turn her tom boy of a daughter into the young lady she is "suppose to be". Laird the son didn't help out as much as a young boy in a farm usually does his demeanor changes after riding along with is father and Bailey to kill the horse. His character that was once innocent and young changes to be more masculine . Laird becomes a man when the horse is killed and the girl becomes feminine during the exact scene. What once didn't bother her changed her character at the end of the story.
ReplyDeleteHi Myrelis--your thesis doesn't fit what you have here or the story--there is nothing about character prior to birth--the story as you indicate is about someone fighting gender codes that society (not genetics) assigns to her. It seems you are interested in the ending--the reversal where she accepts what she has rejected--so you could have a thesis (a claim not a question) in which you argue how and or why she fights and then submits--if you think she does! Laird is a minor character except for the ending so not sure if you want to include him.
DeleteI love the idea of talking about fighting gender roles. I think Laird is less minor than perceived. In the Scottish gentry, a Laird is the head of an estate - often a wealthy land owner. It's interesting that we have a son given such a powerful name, and a daughter who is key to the story, that remains nameless.
DeleteThe story that I have chosen to write about is "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates. I decided to focus my essay on the topic of "Character". Character as stated in the guidelines is known through their speech, action, and perception. The characters of this story would be the main character "Connie", the older sister "June" the parents and of course "Arnold Friend" whom plays a major role in this story. My thesis would mainly focus on, does your actions make up your character? The main character Connie is portrayed as your typical teenage girl that tells her parents one thing, and does the complete opposite. Connie of course sneaks out at night to meet boys and dresses in a certain way to seek attention from them. Now with this kind of behavior and wardrobe, Connie didn't really realize the consequences until it was to late, and at her door. "I know my Connie, he said, wagging his finger. Now she remembered him even better, back at the restaurant, and her cheeks warmed at the thought of how she sucked in her breath just at the moment she passed him-- how she must have looked to him. And he had remembered her." [126]. This just shows the dangers of her actions, she had went out for one night trying to meet guys and get noticed and ended up in a larger more dangerous situation. Connie due to her young age and non awareness of the dangers this leads too, with all the sweet talking and threats that Arnold later began to make, Connie finally realizes her actions are only leading to her disadvantage.
ReplyDeleteHi Hanane--I think our question is too broad and doesn't quite fit rest of what you have here--you seem to be arguing (and a thesis is not a question but an answer to a question) that Connie goes through a reversal as she discovers that her flirtatiousness is dangerous (more than a "disadvantage). As we discussed in class today she is moving from innocence to experience, discovering that the world is not a safe place--this is the essence of the plot...I am wondering what interests you about Connie's character? Is she typical in her innocence and rebellion? Are most teenagers like this? What is Oates trying to communicate about adolescence?
DeleteThe story I chose to write about is "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins. My essay will mainly focus on female oppression. This oppression led the main character to various behavior changes, and all because of the way she was being treated. I believe the characters of this story are oblivious to what they're making of her, by oppressing her right to express herself, even in something as innocent as a journal. My main focuses are: The subordination of women in marriages, how women were seen as second-class citizens, and the importance of self-expression. One example I would like to use for the theme of self-expression and/or subordination of women is when she tells her husband, John that she is sick, but he does not believe her and she says, "You see he does not believe I am sick! And what can one do?" As if she does not know what's going on in her own mind, and she doesn’t dare question him. All throughout the story, John, is a questionable character, because no matter how many times she expresses her feelings to him, he puts them off because to him, she is not capable expressing herself well. This shows one of the many sides of repression throughout this story.
ReplyDeleteHi Lizzie--Charlotte Perkins Gilman! Actually I think the character does know what is going on in her mind and that she does question John, subtley, even from the beginning--in this blog you have a big idea about subordination of women which could be your thesis: how John represses his wife--ignoring her pleas, medicating her, imprisoning her--at end above you suggest he is a "questionable" character. What do you mean by that? You could show how he represses her and conclude that this story is a portrait of the power of men to control women at that time. The idea that the woman can't express herself (at end) may be true but I find it suspect--I think she expresses herself rather well!
DeleteThe story I have chose to write about is " where are you going , where have you been" by Joyce Carol Oates. My essay will primarily focus on the characters symbolism and the theme of the story.The story first starts off with the description of Connie being the daughter that the mother does not like the best.(123) resulting from this Connie dislikes her older sister. The story also states "Connie wishes her mother being dead and she herself being dead and it will all be over"(123). It is during the end of this story that Connie realizes that she should be careful what she wishes for. The story also states that Connie knows she is pretty ans that all that counts.(123) Another symbol in the story when Arnold friend tells Connie hes gonna come and get her and she pays no mind to it.Joyce Carol Oates creates a atmosphere of danger when Arnold friend arrives at her door and she doesn't know whats coming for her until he starts telling information that he should not know about her family. Connie then realizes that everything that she thought was fun and innocence wasn't what it seemed.Arnold friends represents this evil and almost fake character and Connie represent a misunderstood girl whose innocence had gotten taken away from her similar to eve and the apple Arnold friend is satin.My thesis is Connie wanted the attention and fun from guys but when she finally received it she realizes that it is not what is seem.
ReplyDeleteHi Dominique--your thesis right now is more or less a summary of what happens--more interesting is the way Arnold represents evil and (I would say) Connie represents innocence--that keeps you focused on symbolism. But the quotes you have here (be sure to quote exactly from text in essay) ARE ABOUT SOMETHING ELSE--Connie's frustration with her family and the possibly the reason she rebels--that is a different but also doable topic!
DeleteThe story I plan on doing my essay about is "Trifles" by Susan Glaspell. My focus of my paper is on the female characters. I prefer to rather not talk about just one of the female character but instead all of them, Mrs. Hale, Mrs. Peters, and Mrs. Wright. I want to talk about how women in the early 20th century were judged/ perceived by men. A quote I really want to use is when the County Attorney went to wash his hands in the kitchen and says, “’Dirty towels! (Kicks his foot against the pans under the sink.) Not much of a housekeeper, would you say, ladies?’” (898). This quote shows that women had a role and were expected to do certain things such as the basic house hold chores. I would discuss how the men were the ones with jobs while the women were the ones who stayed home in isolation, always having to be obedient to their husbands'. I would also bring up the quilt and how Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters figured out the “wildly stitched block” had to do with the crime of Mrs. Wright murdering her husband. Quilting is also a pass-time of women in the early 20th century because it was shown in the story that the ladies knew exactly how a quilt was properly made and it was something the men did not think much of. My thesis would be, Glaspell’s play of Trifles expresses how women in the earlier twentieth century had roles they were expected to fulfill and no business doing a man’s job.
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ReplyDeleteThe story I have chosen is "The yellow Wallpaper" by charlotte perkins gilman. This was actually my fourth time reading this story and I've noticed new things I didn't when I first read the story. For example it's evident the girl in the wallpaper represent the female character. She feels trapped. However I found numerous examples in the text that can hint towards the "Girl" she's seeing in the wallpaper as being her own shadow. This would explain why she only see's her certain times of the day or night (when there is light to create a shadow) and there are couple of other examples that can point to the girl being her shadow. The story is also autobiographical so I would include information about Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the similarities between the character in the yellow wallpaper. My focus of the essay would be the Jane's desire to accept the expected roles and behaviors of women imposed her on by society during her time is what causes her to lose her sanity, When she no longer wants to conform to these expectations and she breaks free thats when she regains her sanity. I will prove this by providing examples from the early text where she wants to obedient to John and be a good mother to later parts of the text when she doesn't John anymore and her increases her acts of defiance.
ReplyDelete-Marjon Rahyab
The story I have chosen is "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. I have actually read this story several more times and I quite really enjoy it. I didn't notice some of the symbols that I now know from the first few times I read this story. The girl that is trapped in the wallpaper could possibly represent the main character, it could be a figment of her imagination, or it could be viewed as her sanity and rational thinking being sucked out of her body and imprisoned inside the wall. Another symbolic example could be that the character wanted to be imprisoned inside the wall, in order to escape her husband, who she views as the cause of this. In that particular example, the wallpaper serves as a safe haven for the character. And the ending, where her husband falls to the floor, it could be interpreted that she killed him, therefore making her a Femme Fatale. These are just a few of the symbols I have unearthed from this story. My essay will focus on the various symbols found throughout the story and the different meanings that they convey, including my own interpretation. All the examples I will use in my essay can certainly be used for some open discussions.
ReplyDeleteAmong all the stories that we read so far, "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charolette Gilman, is the most intriguing to me. I decided to write about the character of this story, un unnamed woman who suffers from depression.
ReplyDeleteShe is an extraordinary imaginative and quite intelligent, yet her suffering interferes with her daily functioning. Throughout the story, the woman becomes very frustated at her own husband, for his inability to understand her illness, saying, "John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him" (140). The woman tries many times to tell her husband how she feels, and what she wants, but he neglects her wishes, believing that he knows what is best for her. The inability to do what she wishes makes the woman feel like prisoned. She wants to free herself from the terrible feelings that is gradualy pluged inside of her soul. Her vivid imagination lets her to imagine that there is a woman being stuck in the wallpaper. She tries to free the woman from the wallpaper, which reveals her deep wish to be free herself, from the feeling that the house and her husband imposed on her. She tears the wallpaper out of her despair, to let her imaginary woman out, and to get her husband's attention and to make him understand that her pain is serious.
For my essay, I have chosen to write about the play "Trifles" by Susan Glaspell. The focus of my paper will be how the objects in the setting of the house and the house itself, symbolizes Minnie's unhappy life as an early 20th century house wife. My thesis will be along the lines of how Susan Glaspell uses symbolism to convey how Minnie's life as an oppressed house wife has led her to liberate herself from her old life by murdering her husband. One of my supporting details will be the atmosphere of the house and environment that Minnie and her husband have lived in before he was murdered, which Mrs. Hale described to Mrs. Peters as lonesome and not cheerful at all when she states “I could’ve come. I stayed away because it weren’t cheerful—and that’s why I ought to have come. I—I’ve never liked this place. Maybe because it's down in a hollow and you don't see the road. I dunno what it is, but it’s a lonesome place and always was” (22). The house and surrounding environment is a symbol of the unhappy, isolated, and cold atmosphere of her marriage and overall life. Another one of my supporting details is the dead bird and the empty cage that symbolizes Minnie herself as an unhappy creature who once sang out of happiness, but was suddenly trapped and then killed metaphorically by the restraints of the limited amount of freedom and voice that she had in marriage as a woman.
ReplyDeleteI have chosen to write about the story "Where are you going, where have you been?" by Joyce Carol Oates. For this essay, I am choosing to focus on character, and I will use this to support my overall thesis, which will be how someone's character/personality can change drastically depending on the situation given. Connie is a 15 year old adolescent girl who seems to struggle alot with her inner self. Throughout the story as well as the movie that we watched in class, it was very clear to me that she held an outside persona as well as one she kept hidden to herself. I feel that Connie tries to be independent when it comes to going out with friends and seeking boys out at the mall, movies, etc. But at the same time, she truly depends on people as well, such as her parents, specifically her mother. She depends on her mother to drive her to and from different places, and she also depends on her mother's support and love, which she does not get too often. "'Stop gawking at yourself, who are you? You think you're so pretty?' she would say. Connie would raise her eyebrows at these familiar complaints and look right through her mother, into a shadowy vision of herself...." (123) Connie is very self-conscious most of the time, which is why she is constantly looking at herself in the mirror. One great example of Connie's character changing is her interaction with Arnold Friend. She's very flattered at first and even flirts with him a bit outside of her parents house, but slowly recedes behind the screen door once Arnold's tone changes from sweet to a bit demanding and aggressive, especially when she threatens to call the police. "Soon as you touch the phone I don't need to keep my promise and can come inside. You won't want that." (128) Connie at one point even silently calls out for her mother out of fear, which shows that she is young and still very dependent on the safety that her family unit provides.
ReplyDeleteIn this essay I will focus on Desirees Baby and argue that Desirees inability to find a home is an allegory for the dislocation black woman experiences in the world. Desiree is an orphan child with no name adopted by a white mother in need of an child. A fill in for her affection Desiree is then swept off her feet without any choice or say to a man who has a temper she lives in fear of. When it is found that she is Black he casts her out with the scarred child to no longer be seen again. The twist lies in Armonds own secret: he to is a Black, yet he does not make a morbid exit while assuming the role of Plantation owner.
ReplyDeleteI want to support my claims with the following
discussion of Desiree's name
Her origin story
relationship to armond
relationship to past life
In my essay, I would like to write my topic around the article “Desiree's baby”. Even if it is a short story, but it deeply expresses the theme related to racial discrimination and gender discrimination. The author writes the story by using ironic through the whole story, which attracts readers’ interests and complements. The outcome of the story is most exciting part of it, which is the high point of the whole story. “Irony” writing skill becomes the most significant method to compare the values between the main actress and the main actor. “Irony” is used into three parts of the whole story. Firstly, the main character’s name “Desiree” is a France word means desirable, but her life is not desirable, even her baby’s life is a tragedy. Secondly, the difference between the beginning and the end from the main actor’s love to her has a huge contrast, which presents a ridiculous taunt. Thirdly, the outcome declares Armand’s real identity, which becomes the most dramatic irony in the whole story. In the story, the conversation between Desiree and Armand, “look at my hand; whiter than yours, Armand, (34)”, which demonstrates the fourth irony that is Desiree might already know Armand’s blood relationship, but she keeps silence. She would go away from the untrue love rather than tell Armand the truth. Here also is like a foreshadowing to predict the outcome of the story.
ReplyDeleteI have chosen to write about "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. I'd like to focus around the symbols used to represent the female and male characteristics. In the story, John is described as an extremely practical person who "has no patience with faith, an intense horror of superstition, and be scoffs openly at any things not to be felt and seen." These traits are what caused his dismissive and patronizing demeanor towards his wife. While John is portrayed as the epitome of the left-sided thinker, his wife is the complete opposite. As a writer, her life's work relied solely on her creative, right-sided thinking. She is portrayed as being so irrational, she has become enslaved by it. But in reality, it is the husband's attempts at suppressing and stifling her imagination (female energy) that becomes the cage (or wallpaper) she must break out of.
ReplyDeleteI have chosen to write about the story "Where are you going, where have you been"? Joyce Carol Oates. The focus on my paper will be about the main character Connie. Connie's mother does not get along with her very well so they end up arguing. Connie is a 15 year old teenager that just wants to have fun with her friends. Connie and her friends tell their parents that they are going to the movies but they actually go to the mall to look for boys. She is also so worried about being "pretty" she thinks being pretty is everything that she needs in her life. She laters meets a guy name arnold friend. An example of Connie's character changing throughout the story is when she meets Arnold. Connie is the type of person that is very insecure about herself. But Connie's character changes once she meets Arnold. Arnold is giving her many compliments to her and she starts to like that a guy is finally paying attention to her until Arnold later becomes very aggressive and demands her to leave with him. All Connie ever wanted was for a guy to like her. Well she finally did get that from a guy but does not like it later on. She is nervous and scared and does not know what to do but at the end she gives up and goes with him in his car.
ReplyDeleteI will be writing about Joyce Carol Oates' "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been". I will be focusing my essay primarily on character but also on setting and symbolism as well. I think they're intrinsically tied together in this story and I intend to show that.
ReplyDeleteParts of the story I'll be using are the descriptions we get of both Connie, her home & friends, and Arnold Friend. I believe the characters and their attributes are all symbols, as is the setting – both time and place. I enjoy the writing style of Joyce Carol Oates and think her presentation of the people and surroundings in the story are important. Her descriptions of Arnold Friend (his long hair, clothing, stuffed shoes) and Connie (young, prettier, etc) are clear symbols of the pure and impure, good and evil, innocent and corrupt.
Potential thesis: While Joyce Carol Oates' short story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been" presents us with a setting that speaks to a time often associated with a greater sense of security, her complex characters and unique descriptions are telling symbols of the present risks.
Tillie Olsen's "I Stand Here Ironing" is the work that I'm going to focus on for my first essay; it is a story that resonates with anyone that is able to understand the struggles and guilt that comes with motherhood even if the understanding is just through empathy.
ReplyDeleteOlsen develops the mother character through the use of a stream of consciousness and that informs the character of Emily as we begin to view her through her mother's lens. Setting is also essential to the story, Olsen sets her work during the Great Depression and during the Second World War, with Olsen's character being of lower class, gender and class intersect and are vital to the meaning of the story. The mother must leave her child to caretakers who do not look upon Emily with the same love and amazement that she does and Emily's lack of a father figure aids in depriving her of a loving and nurturing household. As a result of the effects of poverty (more children, constant work, lack of resources) Emily grows up sickly but her hidden talent of comedy allows her a chance to go beyond what seemed destined to be her life. Emily's mother feels guilt that she never noticed and realized that a part of Emily has lived "beyond me". However, the mother's final thoughts are hopeful as she wants Emily to live unlike her. It is through her writing that Olsen creates a human being that is complex and three dimensional that allows the reader to understand the multitude of feelings and turmoil that comes with being a mother.
I chose "Boys and Girls" by Alice Munro for my essay focus. The ending really touched me. I'm probably going to focus on the theme of gender roles in the story as well as the female narrator's character. I will most likely be focusing on how the roles reverse between Laird and his sister after they shoot one of the horses along with the main characters amount of submissiveness and defiance.
ReplyDeleteA few scenes im probably going to touch on, is the scene where her grandmother always tells her to close her legs, (im guilty of this) how she slams the doors, her preference to outdoors. - how she was once able to over power her brother but that changes. -the scene where Laird goes in the car to hunt down Flora and shoot her while she stays behind. *I'd also mention how pivotal I think this moment is* -basically how gender roles have been assigned to the two. how the characters don't fit into those roles and then this changes again.
I'm going to write about the effects of low self esteem and relationship on teenage girl shown through "Green". To support this I will use the main characters Maureen and Sabina and how their treatment of each other has effected their self esteem. Sabina being excluded throughout high school and abused by Maureen leading to an eating disorder but survived, and later Sabinas treatment of Maureen that if was taken in a different direction instead of ignoring her might've prevented her young death.
ReplyDeletei Maggie--glad you found "Green" engaging. Low self-esteem is a broad category--it's true that the story suggests that each of these girls tortured and was tortured--it also suggests (subtly?) that the Maureen hated the narrator because she was actually beautiful--and she used ethnic slurs to try and destroy her. The eating disorders may be enhanced by social abuse but they are also constructed by a society that privileges an impossible model of beauty. There is a lot to talk about here!~ Thursday everyone is bringing a draft of essay to class for discussion and critique. Write up what you have and we will dedicate some time to "Green."
DeleteIt's a very easy on the eyes which makes it much more enjoyable for me to come here and visit more often. Did you hire out a designer to create your theme? Fantastic work!
ReplyDeleteMojari For Women