World Literature 2

[LancerGirl]

Heya. Well, I'm doing my World Literature 2 (comparison) essay on “The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea” by Yukio Mishima, and “The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka. We can also do "The Outsider/The Stranger" for our essay, but I want to save that for my commentary (because that book rocks). I'm having quite a bit of trouble (as often is the case when I post on here) with detirmining if my thesis and ideas for a comparison are good enough for this kind of essay. A "working copy" of our essay is due at the end of the school year (June 16), and I'm passing in the outline tomorrow. The good copy is due the first day back after summer.
Well, anyway, if you don't mind, could you take a look through and give me feedback? I'm worried that my points are too obvious, the opener is too wordy, and my overall thesis is too, well, broad. There really isn't much to compare between these novels... plus I really didn't want to do ANOTHER comparison of the negative portrayal of femininity or deviance...

I will so take any tips on what should be included in a good comparison essay, if you're willing to give some.

As always, any help is greatly appriciated!


Brainstorm question: What is the reasoning of the third-person omniscient “self-characterization” within “The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea” by Yukio Mishima, and “The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka? How goes this characterization technique compare between the two? In particular, with Ryuji and Gregor.

Thesis
The main characters of “The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea” by Yukio Mishima, and “The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka, are all directly characterised by the third-person narration of their own thoughts, actions, and speech. The authors effectively used this “narrated self-characterization” technique to add depth to their characters and to also deepen the themes directly connected to these characters.

•Meet characters initially through them (first impression we get of them is from them)
•Characters basically describe themselves through their thoughts and actions
•Third person allows for some less biased interpretation

Bodies
•Makes their development more bold
•Allows for less bias in character interpretation (i.e. false information learned through other characters)
•Allows for more intimate knowledge (and thus more in-depth analysis) of the characters

Edited June 4, 2008 by LancerGirl

[Guest Lily Bean]

[quote name='LancerGirl' post='17837' date='Jun 4 2008, 03:29 AM']•Meet characters initially through them (first impression we get of them is from them)
•Characters basically describe themselves through their thoughts and actions[/quote]
I find this a bit misleading since it would fit more in an argument about a third person limited POV. But maybe it will work in your essay, I'm not sure. but as a point on its own, it doesn't seem to fit the omniscient POV.

[quote name='LancerGirl' post='17837' date='Jun 4 2008, 03:29 AM']•Third person allows for some less biased interpretation[/quote]
Third person limited would be biased as well. I guess here you would mean third person omniscient

[quote name='LancerGirl' post='17837' date='Jun 4 2008, 03:29 AM']Well, anyway, if you don't mind, could you take a look through and give me feedback? I'm worried that my points are too obvious, the opener is too wordy, and my overall thesis is too, well, broad. There really isn't much to compare between these novels... plus I really didn't want to do ANOTHER comparison of the negative portrayal of femininity or deviance... [/quote]
I think though, overall, your thesis is focused enough, if you can get yourself to focus on the characterisation of the 2 main characters and not go off track about other characters. As for whether it's obvious...well part of your job isn't just making the points but also providing examples so as long as the examples/quotes/supporting evidence from the text isn't obvious then I think you should be ok.