The purpose of a writing class is to develop a meaningful thesis, direct or implied, that will generate a compelling essay. Most importantly, a meaningful thesis will have a strong emotional connection between you and the material. In fact, if you don’t have a “fire in your belly” to write the paper, your essay will be nothing more than a limp document, a perfunctory exercise in futility. A successful thesis will also be intellectually challenging and afford a complexity worthy of college-level writing. Thirdly, the successful thesis will be demonstrable, which means it can be supported by examples and illustrations in a recognizable organizational design.
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Using at least two stories from Tobias Wolff's Back in the World, explain the book's title in your thesis. Successful papers will use personal experience to illustrate your major points.
Paragraph 1: Introduction
Paragraph 2: Thesis with 4 or 5 mapping components
Paragraphs 3-9: Support your mapping components
Paragraph 10. Restate your thesis
Last page: Works Cited with 2 to 4 sources
Part Two: Lexicon
1. Sloth posing as a Christian 19
2. Jerry the mountebank
3. Mendacity, the art of lying
4. Duplicity, the art of being two-faced
5. Obsequiousness, the art of butt-kissing
6. Sobriquet, nickname, “Slim” 31
7. Jerry’s B.S. is intoxicating and contagious 32, 33
8. Certain lies are indomitable juggernauts 35 and 49 (can’t put the genie back in the bottle)
9. Sagacity; Leo’s thoughts show wisdom on page 43.
10. Serendipitous
Why irony is an important part of going back into the world
Irony is a quality that requires maturity and wisdom. It's the ability to have insight and go past the common and superficial assumptions most people have when they respond to certain situations.
Irony is the ability to the see the complexity of an occurrence and thus not overreact to it as "good" or "bad."
A person who has a "sense of irony" has wisdom and tends to be more even keeled, avoiding emotional ups and downs. Additionally, a person with a sense of irony has a wry sense of humor, which is neither cynical or overly optimistic, but a strange mix of both.
Irony is, specifically, being able to see certain contradictions when others cannot see these contradictions.
Leo goes on a journey in which the more he sees his life contradictions, the more he matures and emerges from his false self to his real self. The missing person is no more.
Part Three: Types of Irony
1. Plot Irony: A reversal that results in the opposite of our expectations like a car death after wearing seatbelt. This is one of the most common forms of irony.
A vegetarian becomes a world-famous butcher.
In all romantic comedies, the potential lovers hate each other at the beginning of the film.
In 10cc's famous song, "I'm Not in Love," the persona tries to convince himself, and the woman, that he is not in love but the more he says this mantra the more he reveals that he is helplessly in love.
A man hates academia and education and he becomes a professor.
A woman grows up hating dogs, then falls in love with them only to discover that she has developed a dog allergy.
2. Serendipitous Irony: The more we deviate from our original plan, the better the outcome. A botched play on the athletic field becomes a huge score.
3. Faustian Irony: The more we think we’re rising and succeeding in life, the more we are actually falling as we become crushed under the weight of our own vanity, which blinds us and leaves us vulnerable to failure.
4. Idle Irony: The better our life becomes the more we are compelled by boredom to sabotage our happiness. In other words people often cause problems that don’t really exist. And soon they create very real problems out of nothing.
5. Pathological Irony: Man shoots foot off to get rid of a wart.
6. Sarcastic Irony: Saying one thing and meaning an other.
7. Satanic Irony: A greedy man enjoys a long, healthy life while his innocent victims die cruel deaths and their lives are short. This type of irony refutes notions of justice.
8. Narcissistic Irony: searchers for the self lose their selves while people who don’t think about their selves find their selves. Someone goes into therapy and becomes even crazier. Or the example of Stalingrad in which the selfish die and the helpful live.
9. Jungian Irony: The more extreme we develop a facet of our personality the more extreme we develop its opposite. The macho man is also becoming more and more of a baby.
10. Materialistic Irony: You buy an expensive fur coat but the weather is forever hot so you can’t wear it like the old lady in Buenos Aires.
You fight tooth and claw to get rich, your business partner murders you, and your wife and children are left without the provider whose millions are hidden in bank accounts, which the wife cannot access.
11. Short-sighted irony: You workout to impress a girl but she’s turned off by big muscles. You were looking at what you want, not at what she wants. A woman overdressed and wears too much make-up and men are terrified of her.
12. Ironic Irony: You try to be ironic because you think it’s cool but you come across as a fake and as a poser.
13. Corruptive Irony: The more we get our hands dirty in the mess of life, the more pure we become; the more we stay away from the filth, the more contaminated we become by our lack of involvement, which is a form of narcissism. This is the major theme of the story “The Missing Person.” Leo finds love and redemption while working as a hustler in Las Vegas. “It’s all right. I’m here.” These are the final words and show that he’s not the missing person anymore.
Irony in "The Missing Person"
Leo joins a religious order to find love and he finds scorn and hate.
Leo develops a reputation as a killer and earns the respect from the nuns who formerly hated him.
Leo goes to Vegas and finds love.
Leo joins a religious order, not to find God or his soul, but run away from responsibilities.
Leo joins a religious order to find an easy job and instead finds drudgery and disrespect.
Leo becomes corrupt and in doing so he finds purification and evolution.
Sample Introduction, Transition, and Thesis
After decades of vowed silence, Mother finally told me my IQ, which is about 125. That puts me in the 92 percentile ballpark. To be smarter than 92% of the human race is very smart, to be sure, but it’s not exceptional. I know a few people in the 98 percentile and that 6 point differential between them and me seems like an infinite chasm.
One thing I notice about 98s is that they don’t like 92s. They find us annoying because we’re smart enough to want to hang out with the 98s, but we bore them. We want to feed off their energy, we want to snap, crackle and pop with their wit and alacrity, but we’re duds, flaccid wannabes.
Sometimes 92s get lucky and SOUND like 98s but after a while 98s figure out we’re just aspiring to be 98s and we are, much to our self-loathing, incurable 92s.
Another feature about 92s: We don’t like hanging around fellow 92s because they remind us of our essential 92ness.
Of course we don’t hang out with 90s, 85s, or less because they bore and annoy us the same way we bore and annoy 98s.
Some people reading this may accuse me of being a 98 posing as a 92 so that I can use this blog to mock my inferiors. My response to this charge is this: If you are a 98 making this accusation, then my answer is yes I am a 98 posing as a 92. But if you are a 92 or lower and think I’m a 98 posing as a 92, my answer is this: I don’t need your flattery, chump. Who gives a crap what I am?
There are some idiots out there who will say 98s suffer the same torment as 92s do, that in fact, they’re not happy being 98s and would rather hang out with 99s who in turn reject them in the same way that 98s reject 92s.
That’s complete bull, man. There are so few 99s in this world that most likely 98s will never meet 99s and thus 98s roam around Planet Earth thinking they’re The Shit.
That really chafes my hide, the egotism of those people.
Would I be as pompous and annoying as the 98s if I had their IQ? You bet I would.
The writer who hates himself for having an inadequate IQ suffers from the fallacy of greed: always wanting more than he deserves in life. Like Peter from "The Rich Brother" and Leo from "The Missing Person," what the writer above really needs is to know who he is underneath all his layers of B.S. In other words, he needs a back in the world moment, which as Tobias Wolff's stories show, is the result of __________________, ____________________, ___________________, and _____________________.
Why were so many Americans insulted, even spurred to threaten violence, by the story when it was first published?
1. Its depiction is true and truth strikes a nerve, telling us something demonic about human nature.
2. That we’re not as civilized as we think, for people are driven more by irrational and traditional forces than they are by logic and reason.
3. In spite our façade of being civilized, we’re consumed by bloodlust and the need for violence.
4. We’re too cowardly to admit our murderous violence, so we veil it within sanctimonious rituals.
5. We have a backward primitive notion of God, who we see as a tribal deity thirsty for blood sacrifice. In fact, this so-called God is a projection of our own murderous unconscious.
6. We corrupt our children’s innocence by forcing them to participate in our murderous ways.
7. The glue that keeps our society cohesive and unified is often violence and the arbitrary killing of an innocent party.
8. We reject the progress of science and reason so that we can uphold a primitive notion of appeasing a violent god.
9. We commit violence against others with piety and middle-class morality in order to appease our conscience and to maintain our sense of moral superiority.
10. We commit violence as a group, rather than as individuals, because it’s easier to say we we’re simply following orders rather than taking personal responsibility. In other words, we’re cowards.
Conditions for the Banality of Evil in “The Lottery”
1. For the evil perpetrators, the end justifies the means; usually the “end” is to “purge,” “cleanse,” or “purify” some human “contaminant.”
2. Violence is not spectacular but part of the numbing, commonplace everyday activity.
3. The perpetrators of evil are not conspicuously evil but mediocre, innocuous, conforming.
4. The perpetrators of evil are not bold decision makers but placid followers, eager to please authority figures.
5. For the evil perpetrators, there is no human dimension to cruelty and violence; rather, murder and/or torture are done in a cold, detached bureaucratic fashion.
6. The evil perpetrators have an absence of imagination to see the human and moral dimensions of their actions.
7. There is complicity between evil political agenda and the followers’ lack of empathy.
8. The evil perpetrators are automatons who obey superficial “decency” and “manners” and outward appearances in order to hide their brutality to others and to themselves.
9. The evil perpetrators assiduously exercise an adherence to convention and empty political clichés in order to enable their violent actions.
10. Evil perpetrators focus on the letter of the law, no the spirit.
Major Theme in "The Ones Who Walked Away from Omelas"
Scapegoating: Sacrificing a usually innocent party for the greater good of the majority or for an elite group.
Examples:
An Arizona politician wants to create an extra tax for fat people. Since most fat people come from a poor economic background, the tax will punish the poor to fund the needs of people with higher incomes.
Slave labor overseas and even in our borders (think chicken farms) keeps prices down so we can buy more crap we don't need.
Poor people agree to be subjects in medical experiments so that procedures and drugs can be approved for general use. This is also called being a "guinea pig."
We conduct hideous experiments on animals to make sure medical procedures and cosmetics are safe for humans.
Today's Essay Option
In a 5-page essay, compare the tribe’s influence on nihilism, the misguided desire for a provisional existence, and the soul’s forfeiture of meaning in “The Lottery” and “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.” Your Works Cited page should refer to the two stories, Frankl’s book, my blog, and one other source for a total of 5 sources.
Introducing Your Essay with Transition and Thesis
Recently while hiking up the Palos Verdes Trail, I saw two unleashed dogs, one a black pit-bull mix, the other a tan German Shepherd mix, descending upon me. Hundreds of gallons of adrenaline and cortisol stress hormone flooded my body as I told my friend Rafael, “We’ve got loose dogs. Don’t know if they’re hostiles or friendlies.”
Instead of hiking the steep trail as was my original plan, I deviated left to get away from the two dogs, but they chased me. Now standing still with my back turned, I heard Rafael say, “One of them is right behind you.”
Moments later, I felt the black dog’s bated breath on my butt and did my best not to cower in fear in front of the other hikers.
Wondering if a chunk of flesh would be torn from a butt cheek, or worse, if I was in the blink of an eye to be castrated, I then heard a faint woman’s voice: “Don’t worry. The dogs are friendly.”
Seconds later, a mousey woman in her late thirties with adult acne descended the trail. She said she was sorry and then repeated that her dogs were friendly before disappearing with her canine companions down one of the trails.
After pumping all that adrenaline and cortisol through my system and on the verge of cowering in front of strangers, I expected more than a meek apology. All those panic-induced hormone secretions must have cut at least a few weeks from my life. But in her mind we were even. In her mind terrorizing people with her loose dogs is a peccadillo that can be erased with a curt “I’m sorry.” And with clear conscience she probably sleeps in bed at night like a baby.
I shouldn’t demonize her. I should demonize us all since she behaves like most of us, operating on a Bare Minimum Decency model, asserting just enough decency to create a façade to others, and ourselves, that we’re good so we can go through the world with a positive self-image when in fact that self-image is grossly inaccurate.
This gross disparity between tribes of people who feel good about themselves but who are in fact truly evil is rendered in the two stories, "The Lottery" and "The Ones Who Walked Away from Omelas." Both stories show the conditions that make this evil possible, including ________________, _________________, ___________________, and _____________________.
Lesson on Using Sources (adapted from The Arlington Reader, fourth edition)
We use sources to establish credibility and to provide evidence for our claim. Because we want to establish credibility, the sources have to be credible as well.
To be credible, the sources must be
Current or up to date: to verify that the material is still relevant and has all the latest and possibly revised research and statistical data.
Authoritative: to insure that your sources represent experts in the field of study. Their studies are peer-reviewed and represent the gold standard, meaning they are the sources of record that will be referred to in academic debate and conversation.
Depth: The source should be detailed to give a comprehensive grasp of the subject.
Objectivity: The study is relatively free of agenda and bias or the writer is upfront about his or her agenda so that there are no hidden objectives. If you’re consulting a Web site that is larded with ads or a sponsor, then there may be commercial interests that compromise the objectivity.
Integrating Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism
Summarizing Sources
“A summary restates the main idea of a passage in concise terms” (314).
A typical summary is one or two sentences.
A summary does not contain your opinions or analysis.
Paraphrasing Sources
A paraphrase, which is longer than a summary, contains more details and examples. Sometimes you need to be more specific than a summary to make sure your reader understands you.
A paraphrase does not include your opinions or analysis.
Quoting Sources
Quoting sources means you are quoting exactly what you are referring to in the text with no modifications, which might twist the author’s meaning.
You should avoid long quotations as much as possible.
Quote only when necessary. Rely on summary and paraphrase before resorting to direct quotes.
A good time to use a specific quote is when it’s an opposing point that you want to refute.
Using Signal Phrases or Identifying Tag to Introduce Summary, Paraphrase, and Quoted Material
According to Jeff McMahon, the grading rubric in English classes is used in such a way by instructors that soon there will be no such thing as an “easy” or “hard” professor. They’ll all be the same.
Jeff McMahon notes that the grading rubric in English classes is used in such a way by instructors that soon there will be no such thing as an “easy” or “hard” professor. They’ll all be the same.
The grading rubric in English classes is used in such a way by instructors, Jeff McMahon observes, that soon there will be no such thing as an “easy” or “hard” professor.
The grading rubric in English classes is used in such a way by instructors that soon there will be no such thing as an “easy” or “hard” professor, Jeff McMahon points out.
To read a collection of Wolff's work that spans the years is to realize that he is obsessed with the act of lying. Asked in an interview why so many of his characters lie, Wolff replied, "The world is not enough, maybe? … To lie is to say the thing that is not, so there's obviously an unhappiness with what is, a discontent." A recent outbreak of faked memoirs has set off a storm of outraged pontification about why people pass off false histories as their own, so it's satisfying to read about liars who lie for interesting reasons rather than the usual despicable ones. Wolff is, in fact, a genius at locating the truths revealed by lies—the ancient and holy tongues, you might say, the otherwise inexpressible inner realities that lies give voice to.
In a 5-page paper, typed and double-spaced, develop a thesis that analyzes the characters' need to lie in Tobias Wolff's collection Back in the World. Address at least 4 stories in your essay. For your Works Cited, use Wolff's collection, my blog, and a book review.
Option 2
In one of his darker moods, our instructor McMahon said this about the human race:
"We are a lost and sorry lot, hopelessly imprisoned by self-deception: false narratives we rely on to define our identities; tantalizing chimeras that assuage the boredom of our banal existence, and willed ignorance that prevents us from seeing the grotesqueries roiling just underneath the facade that we present to the world and to ourselves. As a result, we are crazed and deformed creatures forever lost in a world of solipsism."
In a 5-page essay, analyze McMahon's remarks in the context of no fewer than 4 stories from Tobias Wolff's collection Back in the World.
For your Works Cited, use Wolff's collection, my blog, and a book review.
Option 3
One camp of readers argue that Wolff's fiction is redemptive in that its characters are delivered from their delusions through life-changing epiphanies that propel them back into the world of reality and personal accountability. Another camp of readers say the epiphanies come too little too late and only serve to speak to the characters' lives, which can be defined by endless cycles of futility and as such Wolff's stories are not redemptive but nihilistic.
What camp are you in? Develop an argumentative thesis that defends your position in a 5-page essay. For your Works Cited, use Wolff's collection, my blog, and a book review.
By "lies" in Tobias Wolff's fiction, what do we mean?
direct lies
creating a parallel universe (what does that mean?)
delusions
narrative and counternarrative (the story people have about us and the story we tell ourselves)
chimera (the mirage that becomes our obsession)
All of the above are forms of escape.
What are the characters escaping?
learned helplessness
feeling beaten down
feeling threatened by the narratives people tell about ourselves and then we want to control the narrative
monotony and boredom with life: the existential vacuum
social conformity feels like a prison and we need escape
What patterns do we see in the characters?
Escape is alternated by a crash landing to reality.
Look at centrifugal and centripetal character development for the last essay option.
Review of Irony
McMahon's definition:
Irony is a reversal of expectations that penetrate through our typical superficial grasp of reality so that we can comprehend life's often grotesque contradictions, which defy tragedy, comedy, pathos, laughter, tears, etc.
Irony creates a sort of mystical detachment, a Third Eye, looking wryly at life's bitter-sweet paradoxes.
Pete is not rich at all. He is impoverished and emaciated by an ongoing sibling rivalry with his brother that has evolved into a symbiosis, a mutual dependence, rendering both brothers morally bankrupt.
Pete is also poor in another regard: He cannot change. He is a centripetal character (circle goes inward) as opposed to a centrifugal character (circle goes outward).
Irony in the Story
Pete is rich but he's poor in many ways.
Pete hates his brother Donald for stealing Mom's attention and ends up having to be Donald's mother.
Pete thinks he hates Donald's dependence on him, but in reality Pete is dependent on Donald's dependence on him. He is so poor that he has little else to fill his void. We can call this symbiotic irony.
Donald hates Pete for being strong than him but Donald makes himself weaker to be dependent on Pete and Donald knows this dependence torments Pete. In other words, Donald bites his nose to spite his face.
Donald sees himself as a generous person but in reality he only "shares" his brother's money.
Irony in "The Missing Person": Corruptive irony, plot irony, narcissistic irony.
Irony in "Say Yes": Jungian irony: the more the wife becomes submissive to the husband, the more she takes control over him; Marital irony: the longer the married couple lives together, the less they know each other until they are strangers.
Sample Thesis
"Say Yes," "The Missing Person," and "The Rich Brother" explore ironies that reveal the deepest and darkest secrets of the character's souls. These ironies include Jungian, marital, symbiotic, corruptive, and narcissistic versions, all of which give us merciless, unscathing character studies.
Part Two. Lexicon
1. Decrepitude (weakened, broken down, the condition of both brothers)
2. hubris "Grow up. Buy a Mercedes."
3. braggadocio
4. culpability
5. symbiosis: two people who have developed a sick mutual dependence on the other until they become emotional cripples.
6. passive-aggressive: showing your anger in cowardly, back-handed, insidious ways.
7. scapegoat
8. sibling rivalry
9. stagnation
10. status quo
11. spite—an impulse for revenge that hurts you more than the person you hate.
12. Insanity— doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. (Albert Einstein)
13. centrifugal
14. centripetal
Part Three. Pete’s 6 Moral Flaws
1. He worships money, seeing it as a solution for everything.
2. He suffers from a brand of obnoxious smug pride rooted in his wealth. (“Grow up and get a Mercedes.”) In fact, Pete is not rich at all as evidenced by the story’s ironic title “The Rich Brother.” Pete in fact is anything but “rich.” He is impoverished by his condition of helplessness and moral decrepitude. Pete covers his flaws with a pose of hubris and braggadocio.
3. He sees things only at face value without digging deeper because he is afraid of what he will find.
4. He is afraid to confront his culpability for the past, namely, his role in hating on his brother Donald through his rivalry and blind ambition.
5. Pete is a liar to his brother and to himself. For example on page 197 he lies about his dreams, claiming he only dreams about sex and money when in fact he is haunted by guilt for the sins he once committed against Donald. On 199 and 200 we find that Pete tried to kill his brother after an operation because he was jealous of the way his mother doted on Donald. Ironically, now it’s Pete who dotes on Donald and in doing so he assures that he keeps Donald crippled, which is to his advantage, or so he seeks.
6. He is afraid to confront his current role as Donald’s “mother,” which is ironic since he in a way attempted to steal Donald’s mother from him. In other words, Pete is dependent on Donald being dependent on him. What we have here, then, are two brothers trapped in a snake grip of hatred from which they can never let go. In psychology this is called “symbiosis.”
Part Four. Donald’s 6 Moral Flaws.
1. Driven by spite and cowardice, Donald sabotages his own life in order to make Pete bail him out again and again and again. This is Donald’s cowardly and passive-aggressive way of punishing Pete for what he did to him during childhood. Donald embodies the saying, “Bite my nose to spite your face.”
2. He uses religion to judge others while ignoring his own egregious flaws. In other words, Donald is a pompous ass.
3. Donald is stuck in a life of stagnation though he deludes himself with clichés that he is “breaking his pattern” (192)
4. Donald is stuck on a sense of lugubrious identity known as “victimization.” He is both overcome by spite and self-pity. As a result of seeing himself as a victim, he has reached a point of no return in which he is both undateable and unemployable.
5. As long as Donald can scapegoat Pete for all his problems, he never has to grow up and take accountability for his own actions.
6. Donald is big on generosity but only with his brother’s money, not his own.
Part Five. The 7 Qualities of Symbiosis
1. Two weak people merge to hide and reinforce their flaws.
2. Two people become mutually dependent on the other in order to stop changing, growing, maturing, and fulfilling their potential.
3. Two people use each other as a crutch and an excuse for their stagnation in life.
4. One person gets stronger and stronger or so he thinks while the other gets weaker and weaker. In truth, both get weaker and weaker because bother are more and more dependent on the other.
5. Two people stay together, not because of love, but because of weakness, hatred, and fear.
6. In a symbiosis, both people are blind or fail to admit how dependent they are on the other. On page 201 we see that Pete has a dream about Donald in which Pete is blind.
7. To use a psychological cliché, both parties of the symbiosis are called “enablers,” that is they perpetuate each other’s dysfunctions.
Defining Irony for Your Thesis
"The Missing Person" and "The Rich Brother" affirm that irony is ______________ evidenced by __________, _____________, ______________, and ___________________.
inverted forms of self-discovery
symbiotic stagnation to fill the void
impoverishment through substitution
law of spite
Irony is part of the Third Eye that explains the title “Back in the World”: Irony brings us back into the world from our intoxicating illusions.
To go "back in the world" means to leave one's delusions and re-connect with reality, often a shocking experience.
Often a crisis makes us go back in the world. Sometimes the back in the world is sudden like an epiphany or a brilliant vision. Other times, it is gradual.
We see a photo of ourselves and realize we've gained weight.
Our wife tape-records our sleeping and we realize we have a lethal case of snoring.
Our credit card is taken from a merchant and we realize we have self-destructive spending habits.
Large men with scary dogs show up at our house demanding money and we realize we have a gambling problem.
You see a video of a news report of you,a skeletal girl, being taken on a stretcher to a hospital and you realize you have an eating disorder.
Women no longer return your calls and you realize your life as a Pompous Ass Playboy have caught up with you.
You see your wife having animated and engaging conversation with other people, both men and women, and this conversation has far more depth and energy than exists when you talk to her and you realize you need to get stop watching ESPN and start paying attention to your wife.
You make a hyped-up production about leaving Cleveland to play basketball for the Miami Heat and now most everyone in the world wants to see you fail. You overplayed your popularity card and it backfired.
Out of sibling rivalry and jealousy, you tried to kill your brother when he was little and even though your whole life is committed to hiding your guilt and sense of failure by being filthy rich, you realize your are forever responsible for the damage you've done to him and you must forever share his burdens.
Seeing the irony behind a situation is another way of going back into the world.
Part One: 3 Traps of Life As They Are Embodied in the Story's Characters
Trap One: Hopeless Despair: The doctor who wouldn't let go of his divorce pain and walked around an empty house.
In a similar trap, Charlie feels like a nonentity, a cipher, a nobody. He is looking for a sense of place, purpose, distinction, and belonging. He is looking for hope yet he feels like an outsider, a young man whose writing aspirations evidence a life of futility and vanity. As a result, he is overcome by the paralysis of self-pity. His hope lies in his passion and hunger for literature and writing in general. By the story's end, he identifies with the ship moving through the fog, an act of faith and desire kept alive.
Trap Two: Vainglorious Pride: A woman died because she wouldn't take off her body-length mink coat in Buenos Aries, an an outdoor bazaar.
Hipsters say "we're educated, hip, cosmopolitans, not like those close-minded provincial tribalists," and in doing so these hipsters become the very tribalists they claim to despise.
Pride always results in blindness.
Audrey and George, the two illicit lovers embody pride and vanity. They feel morally and spiritually superior to the man they’ve betrayed, Truman. They are in fact blinded by their vanity, which is ironic in the context of Miguel whose passions make him blind.
Audrey and George think they're better educated than most; they think they're special; as a result, they are blind to their vanity.
Trap Three: Self-Satisfied Mediocrity and Complacency: The couple in Torrance who have separate TVs and pills and fast-food refuse on their porch.
Truman is a man who evidences a lack of curiosity regarding anything beyond his small circle of interest; he shows a certain philistinism (disdain for arts) and is so lax and self-satisfied with his current station in life that he is blind to the fact that his wife Audrey his having an affair with his “friend” George.
Part Two. Thematic Elements
Fog is pervasive in the story. Fog appears to represent blindness, a struggle to see.
All the characters are blind in some fashion or other and this blindess brings them to one of Life's 3 Traps. Like a typical college student, Charlie is blind to his identity, his niche, his sense of belonging; Audrey and George are blind to their vanity that makes them repulsive and obnoxious; Truman is blind to his complacency that stagnates him and makes him fail to see his wife is venturing into adulterous waters; Miguel is blinded by fanatical love.
Irony
Story’s irony is that in the midst of all this blindness and fog there is hope: All the characters are starting their lives over. A new start suggests rebirth and the possibility of seeing things again.
Jahiliyya, this is the Arabic term for a long, protracted period of ignorance, the dark ages, if you will. Every character is stuck in the Jahiliyya, as we all are at one period in our lives.
Charlie is blind to his own life but he becomes the Third Eye of the love triangle, witnessing in an almost voyeuristic fashion the sad truth that Truman is about to confront.
Final paragraph shows a lobster flailing its pincers, perhaps a sign of desire. Perhaps our “salvation” is staying hungry, keeping our passion, as a sort of antidote from complacency and vanity and despair.
Part Three. Class Activity for Reviewing Irony in the Stories and Developing Your Thesis
Explain specific, distinguishing characteristics for irony for the following stories and then develop a thesis that allows you to put ALL the distinguishing characteristics for your research paper:
"Rich Brother" (example: The more assured Pete is in his identity as the "rich brother" the more he remains blind to his essential weakness: He is an emotional cripple, incapable of change, incapable of maturity and humility, and incapable of freeing himself from his sick addiction to playing the role of Mother to his brother Donald.)
"The Missing Person"
"Say Yes"
"Desert Breakdown, 1968"
"Our Story Begins"
Review of Essay Assignment
In a 6-page research paper, use no fewer than 3 stories from the book to write an extended definition of the word irony. You must chronicle an ironic experience you had in a personal narrative for the first 2 pages.
Some thesis statements to avoid:
Wolff's stories are rich in irony.
Irony really hits the characters with a wallop.
I really like all the irony in Wolff's stories.
We learned that irony is part of seeing the world in a new way and that once you see irony, really see it, you can't go back to your pre-ironic existence.
I feel better about myself now that I learned the definition of irony and have decided to change my major.
Understanding irony in Wolff's stories really opens your eyes to life's deeper truths and now that I've read this book I'm a better person. Thank you, McMahon.
Understanding irony makes me feel special, like I'm a member of an elite club, but the downside is now I feel lonely because so few people understand life the way I do. McMahon, you ruined my life.
I've studied irony in McMahon's class and read all the stories but now I'm more confused about irony more than ever and will probably drop McMahon's class and take 1A from another instructor.
Irony is not really that big of a deal. I see it everywhere. I don't see why McMahon has to make a big production of it. Frankly, I'm bored with the subject of irony and am ready to give up on McMahon.
Studying irony makes you a better person so spend a lot of time studying it and you'll see how much better your life is.
I don't believe in irony. It doesn't exist. It's just a cynical attitude McMahon has about life and he's trying to infect us with his cynical attitude. I resent him and I resent the class. At the end of the semester I'm filing a complaint.
McMahon Grammar Exercise: Essential and Nonessential Clauses
Circle the relative clause and indicate if it’s essential with a capital E or nonessential with a capital N. Then use commas where necessary.
One. I’m looking for a sugar substitute that doesn’t have dangerous side effects.
Two. Sugar substitutes which often contain additives can wreak havoc on the digestive and nervous system.
Three. The man who trains in the gym every day for five hours is setting himself up for a serious muscle injury.
Four. Cars that operate on small turbo engines don’t last as long as non-turbo automobiles.
Five. Tuna which contains high amounts of mercury should only be eaten once or twice a week.
Six. The store manager who took your order has been arrested for fraud.
Seven. The store manager Ron Cousins who is now seventy-five years old is contemplating retirement.
Eight. Magnus Mills’ Restraint of Beasts which is my favorite novel was runner up for the Booker Prize.
Nine. Parenthood which is a sort of priesthood for which there is no pay or appreciation raises stress and cortisol levels.
Ten. I need to find a college that specializes in my actuarial math major.
Eleven. UCLA which has a strong actuarial math program is my first choice.
Twelve. My first choice of car is the Lexus which was awarded top overall quality honors from Consumer Reports.
Thirteen. Mangoes which sometimes cause a rash on my lips and chin area are my favorite fruit.
Fourteen. A strange man whom I’ve never known came up to me and offered to give me his brand new Mercedes.
Fifteen. My girlfriend who was showing off her brand new red dress arrived two hours late to the birthday party.
Sixteen. Students who meticulously follow the MLA format rules have a greater chance at success.
Seventeen. The student who tormented himself with the thesis lesson for six hours found himself more confused than before he started.
Eighteen. There are several distinctions between an analytical and argumentative thesis which we need to familiarize ourselves with before we embark on the essay assignment.
Nineteen. The peach that has a worm burrowing through its rotted skin should probably be tossed in the garbage.
Twenty. Peaches, which I love to eat by the bucketful are on sale at the farmer’s market.
Twenty-one. Baseball which used to be America’s pastime is declining in popularity.
In 600 words, compare how obedience to authority results in evil in the stories "The Lottery" and "The Ones Who Walked Away from Omelas." Your quiz must have a thesis with 3 or 4 mapping components.
In 600 words, analyze the causes behind Leo's emotional development. For this quiz, you must have a thesis with 4 mapping components, which you support throughout your exposition.
Study the extended definition example below of the term "meta-fighting" and imitate the style to write an extended definition of the word "chimera" in the context of the story "The Overcoat."
Your definition should have a single-sentence definition, distinguishing characteristics, and examples from Gogol's short story. Be sure to include an effective title for your quiz. Don't simply title it "Quiz 3"
Your quiz should be between 450-500 words.
Due Date: Thursday, July 14, in the classroom before lecture.
Because time constraints force us to lecture on Thursday in the classroom, your quiz will be due at the beginning of the class before lecture. We do not meet in PE4 on Thursday.
An extended definition has a single-sentence definition, which also contains distinguishing characteristics.
Example:
Marriage is a legally-binding contract, which requires loyalty, hard work, compromise, and humilty.
The above sentence has characteristics that you flesh out in the body of your paragraph.
A chimera is a _____________________, which is fueled by ___________, ________________, _____________, and ___________________.
Example of an Extended Defintition Paragraph
Are You Meta-Fighting with Your Partner? If So, Stop It Immediately
If you’re simply fighting with your girlfriend or wife, you don’t know what real fighting is. The type of fight when you are focused on the original source of your argument is a lightweight argument, one which can be resolved with relative ease. But when you and your partner elevate the fighting to a new level, in which the original subject of the argument deviates into newer, more toxic, more hostile territories, it’s called meta-fighting.
Meta-fighting is when you begin to argue about how you are arguing about the argument. You are bickering about style, tone, and methodology. And this argument, this meta-fight, about how you deliver your argument also spawns an argument about how you are scrutinizing and judging the analysis of the style of the argument over a topic that you most likely have forgotten, the original topic being obscured by layers and layers of analysis about the analysis about the analysis about the methodology of your arguing. By this time, the subject behind the original argument is beside the point. It’s as if the original controversy or hot-button was simply a springboard to vent deeper issues about your relationship.
Perhaps the next point is obvious: When you recognize that you are in the middle of a meta-fight, it’s important to stop it as soon as possible because the damage to your relationship can be beyond your understanding and control. So let us be clear. When you catch yourself in the middle of a meta-fight, you need to go into Damage Control Mode. Here’s what you do:
Abruptly stop arguing, clear your throat, and say you don’t feel well. Then disappear into the bathroom for at least a half hour and be resolved not to bring up the fight upon exiting your “cool-off cubicle.” Apologize for “getting carried away” and start cooking a meal, preferably comfort food. Start chopping onions, dicing carrots, peeling potatoes, and in general keep busy and pretend to be absorbed by your new task so that you don’t get sucked back into the meta-fight.
If you do not know how to cook, take on a outdoor or indoor project you’ve been putting off. Wash windows, clean the garage, vacuum, anything to distract both of you from the meta-argument.
Be adamant about not getting sucked back into the meta-argument. Remember this: A meta-argument is a black hole, a bottomless pit of pain, hurt, and suffering from which sometimes there is no return. So be warned. If you must fight with you’re partner, that is fine. But no meta-fighting, not ever.
Study the extended definition example below of the term "meta-fighting" and imitate the style to write an extended definition of the term "intellectual pride" in the context of the stories "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" and "Good Country People."
Your definition should have a single-sentence definition, distinguishing characteristics, and examples from the two stories. Be sure to include an effective title for your quiz. Don't simply title it "Quiz 3"
Your quiz should be between 450-500 words.
Due Date: Thursday, July 14, in the classroom before lecture.
Because time constraints force us to lecture on Thursday in the classroom, your quiz will be due at the beginning of the class before lecture. We do not meet in PE4 on Thursday.
Are You Meta-Fighting with Your Partner? If So, Stop It Immediately
If you’re simply fighting with your girlfriend or wife, you don’t know what real fighting is. The type of fight when you are focused on the original source of your argument is a lightweight argument, one which can be resolved with relative ease. But when you and your partner elevate the fighting to a new level, in which the original subject of the argument deviates into newer, more toxic, more hostile territories, it’s called meta-fighting.
Meta-fighting is when you begin to argue about how you are arguing about the argument. You are bickering about style, tone, and methodology. And this argument, this meta-fight, about how you deliver your argument also spawns an argument about how you are scrutinizing and judging the analysis of the style of the argument over a topic that you most likely have forgotten, the original topic being obscured by layers and layers of analysis about the analysis about the analysis about the methodology of your arguing. By this time, the subject behind the original argument is beside the point. It’s as if the original controversy or hot-button was simply a springboard to vent deeper issues about your relationship.
Perhaps the next point is obvious: When you recognize that you are in the middle of a meta-fight, it’s important to stop it as soon as possible because the damage to your relationship can be beyond your understanding and control. So let us be clear. When you catch yourself in the middle of a meta-fight, you need to go into Damage Control Mode. Here’s what you do:
Abruptly stop arguing, clear your throat, and say you don’t feel well. Then disappear into the bathroom for at least a half hour and be resolved not to bring up the fight upon exiting your “cool-off cubicle.” Apologize for “getting carried away” and start cooking a meal, preferably comfort food. Start chopping onions, dicing carrots, peeling potatoes, and in general keep busy and pretend to be absorbed by your new task so that you don’t get sucked back into the meta-fight.
If you do not know how to cook, take on a outdoor or indoor project you’ve been putting off. Wash windows, clean the garage, vacuum, anything to distract both of you from the meta-argument.
Be adamant about not getting sucked back into the meta-argument. Remember this: A meta-argument is a black hole, a bottomless pit of pain, hurt, and suffering from which sometimes there is no return. So be warned. If you must fight with you’re partner, that is fine. But no meta-fighting, not ever.
There’s no one-size-fits-all way to teach. You must find a teaching method that is compatible with your own personality.
Students are smart. They can smell B.S. a mile away. Be authentic and have a real passion for what you do. Your students can smell not only B.S. but boredom, lethargy, and complacency and if they detect this in you, they will eat you alive.
Follow Oscar Wilde’s edict: “The first duty in life is to assume a pose.” By this, he does not mean be a phony. Find an identity, a larger-than-life character, for your students to hang on to. If you don’t, they will project their own image of you and what they project is never as effective as the identity you create. Always be in control of the message.
Related to Principle #3, leave your pedestrian personality at home. In class, be your most exaggerated self, one filled with huge passions and a gargantuan appetite for your subject, so that your enthusiasm with be contagious.
Know your students don’t want to sit in class and hear you talk about composition. Therefore, you must impose your will on them and find a way to persuade them to believe that what you’re talking about is the most compelling point of their attention. This requires immense energy and preparation. Not all are cut out to go muster the sheer will that can dominate their students’ attention and imagination.
Related to Principle #6, always assume your students are bored with your subject and their minds are on other things: food, relationships, job, whatever. To win their attention, always use a grotesque, hyperbolic anecdote (painting yourself as a hero or an innocent victim) and find a way to transition the story to your lesson plan.
Always assume your students know nothing. Just because they’re in freshman composition, for example, doesn’t mean they know how to write a paragraph or distinguish a clause from a phrase.
Always remember that your vocabulary of 200,000 words is bigger than the average American’s, which is about 20,000 words. Write down or explain any “vocabulary” word you might use.
Whenever possible, make them fearful of their ignorance, for example telling them that a composition with as many as 3 comma splices or fragment sentences will be discarded at the university level and that these errors are considered so egregious that students guilty of these errors will be escorted off campus by the college police.
Never accept late essays. Tolerating late essays always encourages other, more grievous irresponsible behavior, which will contribute to classroom chaos.