Model Introductions (And Some Body Paragraphs)

Mr. Gillespie Model Introductions (and some body paragraphs)

 An introduction should attract the reader's attention.  An introduction should tell the reader explicitly what the thesis (the point of the paper) is.  Provide a bit of context, necessary background information. Do not simply summarize the story or retell the plot. Choose what is most important to your topic.  Mention the characters by full name.  An introduction should not be too long.  Don't start your introduction with a dictionary definition or a random, unconnected quote that you find with Google.

Rebecca Muth Road Rebellion: Women, Music, and Misdeeds in Kerouac’s On the Road

Jack Kerouac's On the Road portrays the spirit of rebellion amongst the young people of America following World War II. For Sal Paradise, an escape from the norm is an escape from the only life he has known-a scholarly life among the literary men of New England. Upon meeting Dean Moriarty, a young firecracker from the West, the two embark on a seemingly endless journey, crisscrossing the country in search of anything and everything out of the ordinary, a desire for revolt expressed in the two's fascination with women, music, and misconduct. For them, "the road is life" (Kerouac 212). Paradise and Moriarty begin their expedition into life without a concrete plan in mind; even if they have a concrete plan of where to go, they have no idea of what to do there or how to survive. The adventure itself becomes the embodiment of rebellion, as Paradise, later looking back on his exploits, realizes. From the first fateful day, during which he comes to find himself stranded on the side of a deserted highway in the pouring rain, Paradise mulls over the question posed by an passerby, "You boys going to get somewhere, or just going?" (20). At the time, he admits, "we didn't understand his question, and it was a damned good question" (20). As the days, weeks, and months pass, Paradise, still new to life on the road, feels as if his alone was the only noble mission, wondering at other youngsters passing by him, "Who...they think they [are], yaahing at somebody on the road just because they [are] little high-school punks and their parents carved the road beef on Sunday afternoons" (89). Family life, the life he had given up upon the outset of his first journey, is too normal, too structured, and too reliable; he is out to create a life of his own, not bound by the rules of society. He is inspired by Moriarty, a tormented free spirit not truly free at all. "[T]he only heroism, the only saintliness visible in Moriarty," states Freeman Champney, "is his frenzy of activity... He steals and cheats and lies. His one saleable talent is as 'the most fantastic parking lot attendant in the world'" (2). Together, "their favorite word is 'mad,' and it is a word of highest praise" (Redman 1)… Sanjay Misra Examining Absurdity and the Value of Life in The Stranger

Numerous people struggle throughout their lives to find a redemptive meaning to existence in the face of inevitable death. French Algerian author Albert Camus wrote several works promoting a philosophy known as absurdism, which states that "the work of each individual gives meaning inside a world otherwise meaningless" (Heims 21), indicating his belief that humanity cannot find greater meaning in the universe but can still create value in life. In Camus's novel, The Stranger, the amoral protagonist, Meursault, faces and resolves this dilemma of accepting the absurd nature of life as he awaits his execution for murder. Meursault begins his story shortly after his mother's death by narrating several events in his life that depict him as a young man who is indifferent toward life and the world around him. One Sunday, while visiting a friend's beach house, Meursault shoots an Arab man he encounters for no apparent reason. During his trial for homicide, the jury sentences Meursault to death by guillotine not for his action of murder, but for his attitude of apathy towards his mother's death. Approaching his punishment, Meursault accepts the indifference of society and the certainty of death, yet he manages to reevaluate the significance of human life. By delineating Meursault's transformation from an apathetic man with only physical sensations into a conscious individual with real emotions, Camus reveals his absurdist perspective that humans should seek, and can find, value in life despite the lack of a "higher meaning" in society and the universe.

Anna W.

Matriarchs and Lost Loves: The Role of Women in One Hundred Years of Solitude

Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, the saga of the rise and fall of the Buendia family and the mythical town of Macando, is a story primarily driven by character. While the male members of the family all eventually fall into a never ending cycle of isolation, the female characters hold the family together and experience the cycle of solitude in their own unique way. Ursula Buendia and Pilar Ternera, the matriarchs of the Buendia family care for their family with extreme devotion and courage and also represent the passage of time, but in drastically different ways, while Amarata and Rebecca Buendia, Ursula's daughters, represent both different reactions to the passion of love and different manifestations of the Buendias' fated solitude. Together, these four characters represent some of the strongest personalities of the Buendia family; they hold the other characters together and personify the themes of time and solitude in the novel. Ursula is the ultimate matriarch of the Buendia family. A "woman of unbreakable nerves" (Marquez 9), she "unyieldingly fights to keep her family together" (Pelayo 99), showing remarkable strength and courage. When her son is in prison, Ursula draws on this maternal strength and tells the sentries guarding his cell that she is “going in in any case” (Marquez 123). Her deep connection to her children is clear: when her son Aureliano retreats into his solitude, she is the "only human being capable of penetrating his misery" (173), and when the same son shoot himself, Ursula sees signs that foretell what she thinks at the time is his death. Her strength as a uniting force holds the Buendias back from the brink of collapse, such as when Ursula continues to care for her insane husband, when she starts a business of making candy animals to help support the family, or when she realizes that her children "would be obliged to scatter for lack of space" (54) and undertakes a renovation of her house in order to keep the ever-growing family together. Where the male characters fail, "[i]t is Ursula who [finds] the way to the outside world" (Zavala 118); her maternal strength and courage help her both hold her family together and to prevail where others cannot when needed. In her effort to remain strong and in control of her ever growing family, Ursula fights old age to the end. At "an age where she had a right to rest...she was nonetheless more and more active" (Marquez 53), resisting the natural decay of life over time. Even when "she had lost count of her age...no one discovered that she was blind" (246); Ursula shows no weakness to her family, memorizing everyone's routines in order to function without her sight. Truly, with her blindness "her intuition allowed her to see with greater clarity" (250) enabling her to recognize Meme's hangover when Meme's mother cannot, though Ursula does refuse to admit the truth of the situation to herself. Despite resisting aging to the very end, eventually Ursula does reach senility, becoming the "most amusing plaything" (327) of her smallest descendants. Ursula's determination to fight her deteriorating mind shows her love for her family and desire to care for them, but n the end Ursula loses her battle against time and no longer remains in charge of the Buendia family.