As of lately in English we have been studying thesis statements. I know that would be an obvious statement but I can never come up with a good first sentence. Three of the outside reading books I have read are The Sniper, Hills like White Elephants, and The Return. In these stories I think that my best bet for making a good thesis would be on the story Hills like White Elephants for no reason in particular. I just feel as if I could connect better to the story as a whole. The only good thesis statement I could possibly come up with for The Sniper is just something really stupid like determining if the sniper had wanted his brother dead or not. In my opinion I think that that is horrible so that's why I'm going with Hills like White Elephants.Things I have noticed in this story that stand out from other stories is there are no nouns or a direct conflict. The whole book is written out using pronouns like he and she and they never necessarily say what is actually going on. According to Dr.D the conflict was something about the girl being pregnant however I think that that could be wrong. During my first read through of this book I came up with the conclusion that they must of been crossing their countries border to go to freedom which would be a much more supported conflict due to the amount of alcohol being consumed which is horrible if you're having a baby. It also explains why they were packing their bags and heading on train and how most of the drinks they had were of Spanish descent.
I just had come up with a new statement involving both of the conflicts listed. Maybe the girl could of been pregnant but was coming to another country to have a baby just for having citizenship. She could obviously care less for a baby if she was simply using it to gain citizenship which gave her an excuse to drink alcohol and would explain why it was only two people because they were the parents. The two of the main characters could be drinking as a way of saying farewell to their homeland simply trying to enjoy the very few seconds they would have left. More evidence can be backed up from a small argument between the two. The girl being the mother was saying they could start a happy new life but the boy being nervous and hopeless about being a father was on denial that their life would change and it would get worse. However considering they are in Barcelona I also believe this may be during a war as well but that is just a side thought and probably has no relevance to everything else I am saying.
Well Nick, what an interesting piece you have here. I didn't read Hills Like White Elephants, but I imagine that you're right about a civil war in Barcelona. Good luck coming up with a thesis.
ReplyDeleteYou make some interesting statements in this post. You could definitely expand on some of the things you say.
ReplyDeleteThe last two paragraphs here are on the speculation side of the arguability continuum we talked about in class. I do like what you noticed about how the story uses so many pronouns and says so little directly - maybe you could expand on that?
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