Dear 1A students, the bad news is the book store can't get Back in the World by Tobias Wolff for another week. The good news is you can use the following Tobias Wolff stories for your Essay 1:
July 8: "Say Yes"(short enough to read in class)
July 9: "Bullet in the Brain"
July 10: "Firelight" and "Powder"
If you already purchased Back in the World, of course you can use the assigned readings. Either way is fine.
Also because the pool of available stories is smaller, you need only address two, not four, stories for your essay. Of course, you're free to address four stories if you want to.
Bullet in the Brain, Say Yes, and Powder on PDF.
Lesson on Critical Reading (adapted from The Arlington Reader, Fourth Edition)
What Is Critical Reading?
One. Identify the main idea, claim, or thesis in a piece of writing.
Two. Identify the form and structure. Essays use a variety of expository modes: contrast, comparison, argumentation, description, narrative, cause and effect analysis, extended definition, to name several.
Three. What problem is the writer trying to define?
Four. What bias, if any, does the writer bring to the topic?
Five. Notice the shifts from specificity to generality (induction) or generality to specificity (deduction).
Six. Notice the transitions used to establish a number of reasons (additionally), contrast (however, on the other hand, to the contrary), and comparison (similarly).
Seven. Use annotations, writing key ideas in the margins and underlining key words and phrases. Annotating increases your memory and reading comprehension. Using a pen is better than a highlighter because you can write your own specific response to what you’re reading whereas a highlighter is too fat to make comments. Another advantage of using a pen is that you might come up with ideas for your essay response, even a thesis, and you don’t want to forget that material.
Eight. Look up unfamiliar words to build your vocabulary and increase your understanding of the piece.
Nine. Identify the writer’s style and tone (voice). The voice could be conversational, supercilious (arrogant), morally outraged, friendly, condescending, ironic, etc.
Ten. Notice if the writer is being implicit, using implication or suggestion, rather than being direct and explicit in the expression of the main idea.
Eleven. Ask if the writer considered opposing views fairly before coming to his or her conclusion.
Twelve. What political point of view, if any, informs the piece?
Thirteen. How strong is the evidence in the piece that is used to support the writer’s claim?
Fourteen. What is the intended readership? Educated adults? Experts? Children?
Find the main idea in this short piece about consumer shopping habits.
Essay 1: Back in the World by Tobias Wolff, 150 points
Option One
We read in Judith Shulvit's Slate book review of Our Story Begins the following:
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.
Your Works Cited page and manuscript must conform to MLA format. Be sure to make your own catchy, creative title.
If you want to use another structure, that is fine. The above is merely a suggestion. For example, look at Choice B:
Back in the World, the title, refers to leaving our lies and delusions.
Define the "back in the world" experience to explain the book's title by comparing at least two stories in which characters awaken from their Jahiliyyah (prolonged period of ignorance and darkness) and go "back into the world."
In your first page, you might write a personal narrative of such a "back in the world" experience, followed by a transition to your thesis explaining what such an experience entails. The body paragraphs would compare two or more stories.
Why irony is an important part of going back into the world or escaping the lies that define our life? Because irony is about insight.
Irony is a quality that requires maturity and wisdom and is so complicated it requires a guide. 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.
There is no single definition of irony, but here is one that is applicable to Wolff's short story collection:
Irony is a reversal of expectations born from hidden contradictions in a person's character.
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.
Types of Irony
1. The Great Reversal or 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.
14. Bureacratic Irony: A chef wears hair net but has long beard with dried filth in it. We pay attention to rules but forget common sense.
15. Relationship Irony: The "weaker" person is only playing the role of being weak but actually is in control of the relationship like the wife in "Say Yes."
The Lie of Living in a Symbiotic Relationship in "Say Yes"
Why Do People Lie?
To feel good about a hopeless situation that would otherwise crush us with despair
To have a heroic self-image that buffers us from the brutal truth of who we are
To hope for a better world that medicates us from the despair of our current dilemma or life trap
To be in denial about a horrible situation that we don't know how to address
To make others believe in our lies in order to gain their alliance
To repeat a lie over and over so that it becomes our truth
As you read "Say Yes," try to answer these questions:
In "Say Yes" what is the disparity between the husband's self-image and the personality he shows us, the reader?
How does the marriage in "Say Yes" evidence an unhealthy symbiotic relationship?
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.
McMahon Grammar Exercise: Identifying Phrases, Independent Clauses, and Dependent Clauses
Identify the group of words in bold type as phrase, independent clause, or dependent clause.
One. Toward the monster’s palace, we see a white marble fountain jettisoning chocolate fudge all over the other giants.
Two. Before going to school, Gerard likes to make sure he’s packed his chocolate chip cookies and bagels.
Three. Because Jack’s love of eating pizza every night cannot be stopped, he finds his cardio workouts to be rather worthless.
Four. Maria finds the Lexus preferable to the BMW because of the Lexus’ lower repair costs.
Five. Greg does not drive at night because he suffers from poor nocturnal eyesight.
Six. Whenever Greg drives past HomeTown Buffet, he is overcome with depression and nausea.
Seven. People who eat at Cinnabon, according to Louis C.K., always look miserable over their poor life decisions.
Eight. After eating at Cinnabon and HomeTown Buffet, Gary has to eat a bottle of antacids.
Nine. Towards the end of the date, Gary decided to ask Maria if she’d care for another visit to HomeTown Buffet.
Ten. Whenever Maria is in the presence of a gluttonous gentleman, she withdraws into her shell.
Eleven. Greg watched Maria recoil into her shell while biting her nails.
Twelve. Greg watched Maria recoil into her private universe while she bit her nails.
Thirteen. Eating at all-you-can-eat buffets will expand the circumference of your waistline.
Fourteen. Larding your essay with grammatical errors will result in a low grade.
Fifteen. My favorite pastime is larding my essay with grammatical errors.
Sixteen. Larding my body with chocolate chunk peanut butter cookies followed by several gallons of milk, I wondered if I should skip dinner that evening.
Seventeen. After contemplating the benefits of going on a variation of the Paleo diet, I decided I was at peace being a fat man with a strong resemblance to the Pillsbury Dough Boy.
Eighteen. In the 1970s few people would consider eating bugs as their main source of protein although today world-wide food shortages have compelled a far greater percentage of the human race to entertain this unpleasant possibility.
Nineteen. Because of increased shortages in worldwide animal protein, more and more people are looking to crickets, grasshoppers, and grubs as possible complete protein amino acid alternatives.
Twenty. The percentage of people getting married in recent years has significantly declined as an economic malaise has deflated confidence in the viability of sustaining a long-term marriage.
Twenty-one. Before you decide to marry someone, consider two things: your temperament and your economic prospects.
Twenty-two. To understand the pitfalls of getting married prematurely is to embark on the road to greater wisdom.
Twenty-three. To know me is to love me.
Twenty-four. To languish in the malignant juices of self-pity after breaking up with your girlfriend is to fall down the rabbit hole of moral dissolution and narcissism.
Twenty-five. Having considered the inevitable disappointment of being rich, I decided not to rob a bank.
Twenty-six. Watching TV on a sticky vinyl sofa all day, I noticed I was developing bedsores.
Twenty-seven. While I watched TV for twenty consecutive hours, I began to wonder if life was passing me by.
Twenty-eight. Under the bridge where a swarm of mosquitos gathered, the giant belched.
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