Policy Claim:
Despite the common perception that most people share about the Modernist of the early 20th century, it was an inner yearning for spirituality and meaningful human connection that inspired many modernist works.
Definition Claim:
Although many Modernists' works are defined as being alienated from society due to the effects of World War I, many works from the Modernist period share similar themes of hope for heightened spirituality and meaningful human connection.
Comparison:
Although Modernism is closely associated with lower moral standards and excessive living, many
works that came out of the Victorian period also exhibit signs of decreased morality and lavish lifestyle.
Evaluation Claim:
While Modernism is closely associated with the poems of Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot, the novels and short stories by Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and JD Salinger provide the greatest insight into common themes of yearning for spirituality and meaningful human relationships.
Cause and Effect Claim:
While the juvenile tone and colorful language of JD Salinger's "The Catcher and the Rye" seems to create a tone of alienation and hopelessness, it instead reveals a disguised hope for meaning in human relationships and a yearning for faith and spirituality.
I really like your first and last. I am reading Catcher in the Rye right now and agree that though the kid seems like a godless mess, he, like society, is only searching for spiritual meaning and human connection. Let me know if you ever want to discuss examples from the book that show this.
ReplyDeleteI like your last the best. It is the most focused, picking a single work on which to build the theme you mentioned in the previous ones. You could work with the other ones if you want to, but I would suggest narrowing it to one or two examples if you do.
ReplyDeleteAlso, good job on picking something that most people wouldn't have thought to argue at first.
You seem to be circling around the same theme and finding different ways in. I think that the last one is most specific, most focused on that central theme, and less prone to getting lost in something too general. It's good that Hilary (and likely others) have read Salinger's book and can give you feedback. That said, if you still want to use Joyce, Eliot, or Pound I'm sure you still could.
ReplyDeleteYou are going to need to include some kind of overview or definition of Modernism as part of your argument, obviously.
I like #4 and #5. The thing that sets these apart to me is that they both have concrete literary examples to pull ideas from, which I think is going to be crucial to your argument. I like the thought of the contradiction between the ideas of the time and the actual works, and I think you could write a great paper on it.
ReplyDeleteI love your policy and evaluation claims. It'd be interesting to learn about how the modernist writers were thinking and feeling while writing. I think the evaluation claim could come pretty naturally, especially when you have specific works.
ReplyDeleteI like your cause and effect claim because I love The Catcher and the Rye and think this claim is the most specific because you are using a piece of literature as an example. I would try and pick the literature that you want to use in the other claims to try and get a better picture of which claim is the best.
ReplyDelete