Primary Text: "How to Watch your Brother Die" by Micheal Lassell
Secondary Text: "Wally's Girl" from Leave it to Beaver
Theme: Homosexuality and the way it is perceived by society
Intro:
- historical context of both texts (year, mentality of the time regarding homosexuality, etc)
- what the "moral" of each text is, what it is trying to say about homosexuals
- thesis, something like: As the clip "Wally's Girl" only hints at homosexuality (no direct relationship is made), "How to wath your Brother Die" openly speaks of homosexuals, which allows us to observe the evolution of society's perception of homosexuals over time.
First Paragraph:
- Wally's girl
- Hints made toward homosexuality (very feminine looking boy who claims to have a girlfriend to conceal his true affiliations)
- The boy is not proud to be a homosexual, tries to hide it and makes himself look ridiculous
- The fact that he ridiculizes himself implies that homosexuals are the same
- Related to silly matter (trying to get a girlfriend), not very emotionally profound, only meant to entertain audience
Second Paragraph:
- How to watch your Brother Die
- Homosexual character openly speaks of it
- Doesn't try to conceal homosexuality (more open and proud of it)
- Emotionally profound, tries to convey a real message of distress to the audience
- Shows how society is slowly beginning to accept homosexuality, but how there still are "sticks in the mud" who do not accept it (like the character's wife who doesn't want to have anything to do with the brother's homosexual life").
ETC...
(These paragraphs can probably be broken down even more and made into more specific paragraphs...I will see how I need to adjust while writing the essay. These are just guidelines that can be expanded into more paragraphs!)
I think you have a good basis for your essay but you might need to make a clearer and slightly more arguable thesis based on the information you have to make your essay stronger and making more of a point. I also think that you could try and incorporate your primary source a little mpre strongly than your secondary so you can kind of see the clear distinction between the two. Overall really good start and ideas
ReplyDeleteHi Laura!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ricci's comment. I actually think it's quite an argument to say try and argue that Wally is homosexual. I also think you could find an interesting argument about Lassel's poem. However, as of right now, just saying that our society's perceptions of homosexuality have changed over time is not really a strong argument (in other words, I don't know that many people would argue with you about that). Maybe go the Wally is gay route, and then compare him to someone like Kurt in Glee to prove it? Or talk about how it took a really emotional event for the narrator in Lassel's poem to realize he needed to overcome his fears about homosexuality, and then question - does he really truly overcome those fears? Or is he perhaps as homophobic as some of the characters in Leave it to Beaver?
Hope this helps :)
I think the two forms of text you chose to analyze are really good because they deal with similar issues but very different tie periods. I think that you could also talk about how the poem is very more forward with the topic of homosexuality while the 50's sitcom is much more subliminal with the image. You could talk about how what is considered ok to talk about changes through the decades. I think you have a really good base for what your going to write.
ReplyDeletei agree with the comments above; you should narrow your thesis. however, i understand that it's only a rough draft with basic guidelines. i like jenna's idea about using glee as a secondary text. you can compare the 2 by saying something on the lines of wally being ashamed of his sexuality, whereas kurt is completely open about his. maybe you can even go into society's view on homosexuality: wally is scared of what everyone is going to say or think about him so he hides it and kurt, who everyone knows is gay, gets tormented at school for it. just some ideas. :)
ReplyDeleteI really like the idea of your pargraph one; analyzing how he could seem to be homosexual. I would not of thought about this theme which puts it into a different perspective for me. I believe it will be a great arguement because I know for a fact that the majority of us will be writing about how homosexuality is portrayed in the various clips but yours is different because you are analyzing how Wally might seem to gay. By watching the clip at first you think that he doesn't want to hurt his friend, but never did it go through my head that he might be confused with his own sexuality. I am interested to see how your paper comes out! good luck!
ReplyDelete