- respond to this prompt with
- a more precise thesis about the author's attitude toward one sibling
- as distinguished from the attitude toward the other sibling.
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Thesis practice
After conferring with your colleagues and reviewing the tone vocabulary lists to select more precise descriptors for your observations,
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The "Rich Brother", by Tobias Wolff, implements apologetic and condescending word choice to show the moral battle that Pete had when he cares for Donald, as well as the guilt Donald feels for always disappointing Pete.
ReplyDeleteIn "The Rich Brother", Tobias Wolff uses accusatory, selfish dialogue to show how much Pete seems to resent his oversensitive brother, Donny
ReplyDeleteWolff uses hurtful dialog from Pete and compassionate dialog from Donald to reveal that pete does everything out of guilt and Donald is the character that Wolff feels is the rich brother.
ReplyDeleteThrough pitying words which evoke a sympathetic emotion from the reader towards Maggie, Alice Walker conveys the troubled relationship between Maggie and her sister, Dee.
ReplyDeleteAlice Walker's conflicting attitudes toward Dee and Maggie are shown through her use of pity on Maggie and her depiction of Dee as an ignorant know-it-all.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Walker doesn't use many adjectives to describe Dee, she demonstrates Dee's superficiality through her hostile attitude, which is highlighted because of the contrast to her sister Maggie, who Walker shows pity and a sense of protectiveness.
ReplyDeleteAlice Walker uses inferior language to describe Maggie to show that Dee is the preferred sibling, and while they may share the same blood, they do not act like family.
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ReplyDeleteIn "Everyday Use", Walker uses strong verbs such as force and degrading adjectives such as lame and limp to show how jealousy and a struggle to be the superior child can cause Dee and Maggie's relationship to suffer.
ReplyDeleteThrough his uptight, greedy, and narrowly focused details regarding Pete and his appreciative, compassionate, and generous details about Donald, Tobias Wolff has readers question if the materiallistically wealthy brother is really the "rich" brother.
ReplyDeleteThe conflict between brothers Peter and Donald in Tobias Wolff's The Rich Brother is highlighted by the critical words the author uses to describe the two; the agitated dialogue between the brothers expresses the other's flaws, and Wolff's use of blunt, honest diction shows that while Peter may be wealthy, he is perhaps not the "rich" brother.
ReplyDeleteAlthough primarily told through the baised lense of the mother, Walker in "Everyday Use" identifies a separation and jealosy between Dee who she portrays as forcefull and condescending and Maggie who she portrays as submissive, but not inferior.
ReplyDeleteIn "Everyday Use," Alice Walker uses concrete word choice to portray a well-off older sister as confident and ambitious, as well as hopeful for her younger sister who is introverted, nervous, and often a second thought in the family.
ReplyDeleteWalker uses harsh dialogue in Dee's comments to her mother about Maggie, and contrasts that dialogue with attentive yet soft-spoken word choice when describing Maggie in order to show Dee's arrogance and her jealousy towards the attention Maggie gets from her mother.
ReplyDeleteThe object of a thesis is to show that you understand the prompt or task, and that your response will draw on specific instances in the text as quantitative evidence that your claim is defensible (not necessarily true or correct).
ReplyDeleteThe three part thesis we have been working on is one way to do it, but as I read the much improved thesis statements (bravo!), I can see another way to get at a three part thesis:
Part one: The author accomplishes "x"
Part two: by using "y" word choice
Part three: in contrast with "z" word choice...
Does that make sense to you as an option?
Your thesis has to have as many parts as the prompt requires you to demonstrate. This usually results in a five paragraph essay on an exam, but any number of paragraphs in a paper, depending on the number of points you need to make.
Each part of your thesis has to connect to an observable act of the author'schoice(s) in the text--some word, phrase, technique, strategy quantified by a specific text reference.
In "Everyday Use", Alice Walker shows how Dee's jealousy of Maggie puts distance between not only Dee and Maggie but also between Dee and her mother through Dee's angry and insulting dialogue and selective diction.
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